Off to a good start.
There’s also video on the Meidastouch YouTube channel.
kii said:
Off to a good start.
:))))
kii said:
Off to a good start.There’s also video on the Meidastouch YouTube channel.
Ha!
ruby said:
kii said:
Off to a good start.
:))))
Also the attack in New Orleans early on New Year’s day.
10 dead. Might be a terrorist out of Texas.
kii said:
ruby said:
kii said:
Off to a good start.
:))))
Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.
Oh.
That’s not good.
kii said:
Also the attack in New Orleans early on New Year’s day.
10 dead. Might be a terrorist out of Texas.
That’s not good.
Michael V said:
kii said:
ruby said::))))
Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.
Oh.
That’s not good.
No. :((((
Michael V said:
kii said:
ruby said::))))
Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.
Oh.
That’s not good.
There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.
Oh.
That’s not good.
There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0
More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Oh.
That’s not good.
There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0
More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1
insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0
More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1
insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side
https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329
Bogsnorkler said:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329
Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.
good plan, always knew that Super Bowl attendees were more valuable than general new year festives
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329
Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.
good plan, always knew that Super Bowl attendees were more valuable than general new year festives
oh and also what do you gun control communists have to say now eh
Police Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. The truck used in the attack appeared to be a F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle.
you insisted that guns were the problem, you wanted to ban them and infringe our 1234567890sd amendments, well now you see how dangerous electric vehicles are you should ban those immediately, nobody ever did this with a coal powered carriage now did they
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0
More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1
insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side
It’s the insidious deevs
dv said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1
insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side
It’s the insidious deevs
:)
kii said:
:)
kii said:
Indeed.
kii said:
Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?
Lol…no.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?
Lol…no.
It could be sped up and have Benny Hill as the background music.
Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.
Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?
Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.
Two Bit da Vinci.
kii said:
Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.
What’s he going to do?
Make a present of a cybertruck to each of them?
kii said:
Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.
This does not surprise me one iota.
Spiny Norman said:
Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.
Two Bit da Vinci.
I’m still curious as to how the primary explosion seems to come out of underneath the car, and through the front window before it comes out the top. Maybe the actual explosive was laid on the rear passenger floor. I dunno, I guess we might find out eventually.
Kingy said:
Spiny Norman said:
Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.
Two Bit da Vinci.
I’m still curious as to how the primary explosion seems to come out of underneath the car, and through the front window before it comes out the top. Maybe the actual explosive was laid on the rear passenger floor. I dunno, I guess we might find out eventually.
Yep. The battery seems to be otherwise fine though, so that’s good.
Perhaps there’s an under-floor compartment in the tray that had some kind of explosive sitting in it, and that burst through the bottom … ?
Michael V said:
kii said:
Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.
This does not surprise me one iota.
The good news is that he will have a direct line to the Department of Justice now, he can basically get them on the bloz and list the indictments he needs.
She seems nice.
Trump has successfully sued the ABC (US) for defamation, with ABC agreeing to settle with a $16 million payment. This is in relation to George Stephanopoulos saying in an interview that Trump had been found liable for rape by injury. This was not quite correct: the jury found him liable for sexual abuse for forcing his fingers into her vagina without consent, and the judge in the case separately described it as being “rape” in common language.
dv said:
Trump has successfully sued the ABC (US) for defamation, with ABC agreeing to settle with a $16 million payment. This is in relation to George Stephanopoulos saying in an interview that Trump had been found liable for rape by injury. This was not quite correct: the jury found him liable for sexual abuse for forcing his fingers into her vagina without consent, and the judge in the case separately described it as being “rape” in common language.
Sweet hey
A reward for semantics really
Now to reap the whirlwind…
AussieDJ said:
Now to reap the whirlwind…
On 21 January, all their wishes will come true.
To nobody’s great surprise, it seems to Las Vegas Tesla bomber was a MAGA loyalist with a military background (in fact a still serving soldier). I am sure the choice of venue and vehicle is a political statement about the Trump movement being hijacked by the oligarchy. Only it didn’t do nearly as much booms as he was hoping. Authorities believe he killed himself in the car.
party_pants said:
To nobody’s great surprise, it seems to Las Vegas Tesla bomber was a MAGA loyalist with a military background (in fact a still serving soldier). I am sure the choice of venue and vehicle is a political statement about the Trump movement being hijacked by the oligarchy. Only it didn’t do nearly as much booms as he was hoping. Authorities believe he killed himself in the car.
The MAGA loyalists are really like Nazi brown shirts, perhaps less psychotic
AussieDJ said:
Now to reap the whirlwind…
Nods.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 2, 2025 (Thursday)
This evening, President Joe Biden awarded twenty Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Biden chose these particular individuals because he “believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others” and that “he country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”
Those twenty included civil rights leaders who fought to end racial segregation, promote Black voting, restore rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, legalize same-sex marriage, and defend women’s rights to equality, and reformers who advanced tax reform and the reform of financial markets, moved forward childcare policies, advanced common-sense gun-safety regulations, and promoted women’s health.
They included military personnel who perfected trauma care, ensured that female service members received the recognition they deserve, and worked to repair the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam; a war correspondent who recorded the experience of battle; a photographer and philanthropist who has advanced teacher training and micro-enterprise in developing countries, and an educator who has guided students toward the arts.
The recipients included both Democrats and Republicans, with Biden honoring Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) for example, for supporting abortion rights. “he stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone,” he said, “and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.”
And the recipients included the chair and vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, informally known as the January 6th Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). Biden praised Thompson for “defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” He praised Cheney for raising her voice and reaching across the aisle “to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” He added: “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”
Biden also offered a public message today in response to the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and wounding 30 others.
Before today’s Sugar Bowl playoff between Georgia and Notre Dame in New Orleans, Biden addressed the nation: “Today all America stands with the people of New Orleans. We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday’s attack. We are grateful… for the brave first responders who raced to save lives. We’re glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”
While Biden focuses on protecting civil rights and making progress together in a unified America, Trump and Elon Musk are doubling down on dividing Americans. Over the holiday, the fight between the original MAGA and the new tech billionaires taking over the Trump White House continued, and Trump and Musk appear to be trying to heal that rift by returning to culture war themes.
The fight began over immigration, which MAGA opposes and Musk champions for skilled workers, but spread as the Musk faction attacked the American culture MAGA celebrates. After rising to prominence by attacking immigrants, Trump sided with the Musk faction.
On New Year’s Eve, as President-elect Trump set out for a party at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked him why he had changed his mind on the H-1B visas that enable employers to bring skilled workers to the U.S. “I didn’t change my mind,” Trump answered. “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”
This is a dramatic change from Trump’s previous positions. On March 4, 2016, for example, Trump’s social media account posted: “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay…. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first…. No exceptions.” It is this stand on immigration that Trump’s MAGA base supports.
For his part, last Friday Musk told those opposed to H-1B visas to “ake a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face.” He said: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” But MAGA news sites Breitbart and Newsmax didn’t back down, reporting a story by Fred Lambert of Electrek, a site that follows the changeover from fossil-fuel to green vehicles, pointing out that Musk’s Tesla is a major user of H-1B visa workers and that it requested more than 2,400 such workers at the same time it was laying off U.S. workers early in 2024.
On New Year’s Eve, Musk changed his name on X to the name of a meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on an online meme, and changed his avatar to one using symbols favored by the far right. Some of his supporters saw the changes as a signal of his true beliefs, especially as he is strongly supporting the right-wing AfD party in Germany.
Trump also seemed to swing back to his MAGA base when he returned to his attacks on immigrants by echoing a mistaken report by the Fox News Channel. Trump falsely linked the New Orleans attack to “criminals coming in” from other countries and claimed that the U.S. has “open borders,” although in fact, encounters at the border have fallen to a four-year low, lower now than when Trump left office.
The abrupt elevation of culture wars echoes the formula Republicans have used for the past forty years to distract from the reality that between 1981 and 2021 their embrace of so-called supply-side economics moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Distracting voters with outrage over “welfare queens,” “Libtards,” and so on, kept the country focused on cultural issues rather than economic ones.
As Musk and Trump appear to be making up for their defense of immigration by courting the far right again, Anthony Adragna of Politico reported today that incoming House Republicans are also relying on culture wars to hold their coalition together. Adragna reports they are planning to make trans rights their “marquee fight” of 2025.
That focus is likely intended to distract Republican voters from the reality that Trump has promised to swing the country away from Biden’s investment in rebuilding the middle class. Biden’s focus on employment meant that unemployment dropped dramatically during his term, more people got access to affordable health care, labor unions showed historic growth, and real wages went up so much that according to economist David Doney, workers now have the highest real hourly wages since the 1960s.
Good news for workers was good news for everyone: the country’s economic growth was more than double that of any other country in the Group of 7 (G7) economically advanced democracies.
But Trump has been very clear that he rejects this system and intends to take the country back to supply-side economics, in which the government encourages the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy. Those who embrace this theory argue that wealthy investors will use their money more efficiently than they could under government regulation.
Trump has promised to fill his cabinet with billionaires, and top donors have been donating as much as $2 million to his inauguration fund (those at that level can get up to six tickets to events of the inaugural weekend). According to Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson of the New York Times, Trump’s promise to back Wall Street investors and corporate boardrooms has given them high hopes for the Trump administration.
And, of course, Musk, the world’s richest man, has eclipsed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance and sometimes even Trump himself as the face of the incoming administration.
Trump’s very public embrace of billionaires comes just weeks after the December 4, 2024, shooting of United Healthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson revealed a large American population that is desperately angry at wealthy and powerful executives. Across social media, posts have been defending and even praising Thompson’s alleged murderer since the shooting. Even those who avoided championing the shooter took exception to the fact that those defending Thompson’s industry and deploring his murder had little to say about those people who died after insurance companies denied their claims.
For decades now, Republicans have been able to keep class tensions at bay by hammering constantly on culture wars, and they appear to be trying that again to smooth over the fight between MAGA and the billionaires. But it is possible that the rumbling anger that flashed to the surface over the killing of an insurance CEO will reinforce the MAGA wing and keep class, rather than culture, uppermost.
If Trump does not bring down prices, as he promised and now has downplayed, if he imposes tariffs that will force poorer and middle-class Americans to pay for the tax cuts he has promised to the wealthy and corporations, if Republicans cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to balance the budget; all while Musk continues to pull down billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the rhetorical formula that worked for so long might finally break.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 2, 2025 (Thursday)This evening, President Joe Biden awarded twenty Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Biden chose these particular individuals because he “believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others” and that “he country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”
Those twenty included civil rights leaders who fought to end racial segregation, promote Black voting, restore rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, legalize same-sex marriage, and defend women’s rights to equality, and reformers who advanced tax reform and the reform of financial markets, moved forward childcare policies, advanced common-sense gun-safety regulations, and promoted women’s health.
They included military personnel who perfected trauma care, ensured that female service members received the recognition they deserve, and worked to repair the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam; a war correspondent who recorded the experience of battle; a photographer and philanthropist who has advanced teacher training and micro-enterprise in developing countries, and an educator who has guided students toward the arts.
The recipients included both Democrats and Republicans, with Biden honoring Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) for example, for supporting abortion rights. “he stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone,” he said, “and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.”
And the recipients included the chair and vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, informally known as the January 6th Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). Biden praised Thompson for “defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” He praised Cheney for raising her voice and reaching across the aisle “to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” He added: “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”
Biden also offered a public message today in response to the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and wounding 30 others.
Before today’s Sugar Bowl playoff between Georgia and Notre Dame in New Orleans, Biden addressed the nation: “Today all America stands with the people of New Orleans. We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday’s attack. We are grateful… for the brave first responders who raced to save lives. We’re glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”
While Biden focuses on protecting civil rights and making progress together in a unified America, Trump and Elon Musk are doubling down on dividing Americans. Over the holiday, the fight between the original MAGA and the new tech billionaires taking over the Trump White House continued, and Trump and Musk appear to be trying to heal that rift by returning to culture war themes.
The fight began over immigration, which MAGA opposes and Musk champions for skilled workers, but spread as the Musk faction attacked the American culture MAGA celebrates. After rising to prominence by attacking immigrants, Trump sided with the Musk faction.
On New Year’s Eve, as President-elect Trump set out for a party at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked him why he had changed his mind on the H-1B visas that enable employers to bring skilled workers to the U.S. “I didn’t change my mind,” Trump answered. “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”
This is a dramatic change from Trump’s previous positions. On March 4, 2016, for example, Trump’s social media account posted: “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay…. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first…. No exceptions.” It is this stand on immigration that Trump’s MAGA base supports.
For his part, last Friday Musk told those opposed to H-1B visas to “ake a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face.” He said: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” But MAGA news sites Breitbart and Newsmax didn’t back down, reporting a story by Fred Lambert of Electrek, a site that follows the changeover from fossil-fuel to green vehicles, pointing out that Musk’s Tesla is a major user of H-1B visa workers and that it requested more than 2,400 such workers at the same time it was laying off U.S. workers early in 2024.
On New Year’s Eve, Musk changed his name on X to the name of a meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on an online meme, and changed his avatar to one using symbols favored by the far right. Some of his supporters saw the changes as a signal of his true beliefs, especially as he is strongly supporting the right-wing AfD party in Germany.
Trump also seemed to swing back to his MAGA base when he returned to his attacks on immigrants by echoing a mistaken report by the Fox News Channel. Trump falsely linked the New Orleans attack to “criminals coming in” from other countries and claimed that the U.S. has “open borders,” although in fact, encounters at the border have fallen to a four-year low, lower now than when Trump left office.
The abrupt elevation of culture wars echoes the formula Republicans have used for the past forty years to distract from the reality that between 1981 and 2021 their embrace of so-called supply-side economics moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Distracting voters with outrage over “welfare queens,” “Libtards,” and so on, kept the country focused on cultural issues rather than economic ones.
As Musk and Trump appear to be making up for their defense of immigration by courting the far right again, Anthony Adragna of Politico reported today that incoming House Republicans are also relying on culture wars to hold their coalition together. Adragna reports they are planning to make trans rights their “marquee fight” of 2025.
That focus is likely intended to distract Republican voters from the reality that Trump has promised to swing the country away from Biden’s investment in rebuilding the middle class. Biden’s focus on employment meant that unemployment dropped dramatically during his term, more people got access to affordable health care, labor unions showed historic growth, and real wages went up so much that according to economist David Doney, workers now have the highest real hourly wages since the 1960s.
Good news for workers was good news for everyone: the country’s economic growth was more than double that of any other country in the Group of 7 (G7) economically advanced democracies.
But Trump has been very clear that he rejects this system and intends to take the country back to supply-side economics, in which the government encourages the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy. Those who embrace this theory argue that wealthy investors will use their money more efficiently than they could under government regulation.
Trump has promised to fill his cabinet with billionaires, and top donors have been donating as much as $2 million to his inauguration fund (those at that level can get up to six tickets to events of the inaugural weekend). According to Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson of the New York Times, Trump’s promise to back Wall Street investors and corporate boardrooms has given them high hopes for the Trump administration.And, of course, Musk, the world’s richest man, has eclipsed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance and sometimes even Trump himself as the face of the incoming administration.
Trump’s very public embrace of billionaires comes just weeks after the December 4, 2024, shooting of United Healthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson revealed a large American population that is desperately angry at wealthy and powerful executives. Across social media, posts have been defending and even praising Thompson’s alleged murderer since the shooting. Even those who avoided championing the shooter took exception to the fact that those defending Thompson’s industry and deploring his murder had little to say about those people who died after insurance companies denied their claims.
For decades now, Republicans have been able to keep class tensions at bay by hammering constantly on culture wars, and they appear to be trying that again to smooth over the fight between MAGA and the billionaires. But it is possible that the rumbling anger that flashed to the surface over the killing of an insurance CEO will reinforce the MAGA wing and keep class, rather than culture, uppermost.
If Trump does not bring down prices, as he promised and now has downplayed, if he imposes tariffs that will force poorer and middle-class Americans to pay for the tax cuts he has promised to the wealthy and corporations, if Republicans cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to balance the budget; all while Musk continues to pull down billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the rhetorical formula that worked for so long might finally break.
Ta. Looks bleak.
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
An oil well?
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
An oil well?
A wishing well.
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
An oil well?
A wishing well.
“I wish that these Yanquis would go home.”
Bogsnorkler said:
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true
The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
How does this all tie in with his war-ending mantra?
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
An oil well?
A wishing well.
an unwell
So typical of America.
Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.
Judge rules president-elect Donald Trump must be sentenced in ‘hush money’ trial.
“https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-04/judge-rules-trump-must-be-sentenced-for-hush-money-trial/104784094”:
kii said:
So typical of America.
Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.
exactly which just proves that USSA is a kind and forgiving nation
kii said:
So typical of America.
Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.
FMD!
Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?
Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.
Spiny Norman said:
Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.
That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:
Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?
I think the answer to that is likely no.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.
That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:
Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?
I think the answer to that is likely no.
I agree. But it they did, I think it’s unlikely they’ll get a 2/4’s majority to allow Trump to continue.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Peak Warming Man said:
If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.
Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true
The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Bogsnorkler said:Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true
The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..
long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.
sarahs mum said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..
long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.
R. Sole.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Tau.Neutrino said:long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.
R. Sole.
yeah. but some of his word play was amusing.
sarahs mum said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..
long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.
LOL
Heather Cox Richardson
2m ·
January 3, 2025 (Friday)
Today a new Congress, the 119th, came into session. As Annie Karni of the New York Times noted, Americans had a rare view into the floor action of the House because the party in control sets the rules for what parts of the House floor viewers can see. Without a speaker, there is no party in charge to set the rules, so the C-SPAN cameras recording the day could move as their operators wished.
Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. All eyes were on the House, where Republicans will hold 219 seats. Initially, though, that number will be 218: The seat to which Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was elected will be empty since he resigned from the previous Congress and, after the House Ethics Committee released a report saying there was “substantial evidence” that Gaetz had broken state and federal laws, apparently decided to focus on his new media show rather than return to the House. When the clerk announced that Gaetz would not take a seat in the 119th Congress, applause broke out.
The Democrats hold 215 seats, and everyone showed up to opening day, including Dwight Evans (D-PA), who has been absent since suffering a stroke last May, and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who fell and broke her hip on a congressional trip to Luxembourg in mid-December. Scott MacFarlane reported that Pelosi, who received a hip replacement at the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, entered the chamber smiling. C-SPAN reported that she had replaced her trademark high heels with flats.
Notably, there are fewer women in the 119th Congress than in the previous one, and there will be no women chairing committees in the Republican-dominated House.
The first problem for the Republicans to solve was the election of a House speaker. It took 15 ballots to elect Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) when the Republicans took control of the House in 2023, and McCarthy had made so many concessions to the far right that they were able to remove him from office just ten months later, the first time in history that a party removed its own speaker in the middle of a session. Then they cycled through four candidates and four votes before settling on backbencher Mike Johnson (R-LA) for speaker. But while Johnson’s evangelical Christianity and support for Trump’s Big Lie about having won the 2020 presidential election indicated he was an extremist, Johnson immediately infuriated the far-right wing of the Republican Party by agreeing to fund the government without incorporating their extreme demands.
Far-right members want to use the need to fund government operations as leverage to get what they want. In a memo before today’s vote, they claimed that Trump and the Republicans hold a “historic mandate,” although in fact Trump won less than 50% of the vote in one of the smallest margins in U.S. history. They have said publicly they would not vote for Johnson as speaker again, likely to extract concessions that give them more power, but Johnson vowed not to make any concessions to them.
Trump was mad at Johnson for backing the passage just before Christmas of a continuing resolution to fund the government without getting rid of the debt ceiling as Trump demanded. But, likely recognizing that the House needs to be organized before it can count the electoral votes that will make him president, Trump endorsed Johnson on social media and worked the phones to support him before today’s vote.
In the first ballot today, all 215 Democrats voted for Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), with him and former House speaker Pelosi sharing a hug when she voted for him. A number of Republicans declined to vote initially, then 216 voted for Johnson while three others voted for someone else, leaving Johnson two votes short of the 218 he needed to be elected.
It was a dramatic rejection not only of Johnson, but also of Trump, who had posted that “ win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!!—A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!” But his candidate still could not get the votes he needed from within his own party to run the House.
Scenes like this explain why I remain astonished by the persistence of the narrative that the Democrats are divided while the Republicans are in lockstep.
After the initial vote but before it was gaveled to a close, Johnson went into his office with eight members of the far-right Freedom Caucus, while Trump and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles called the holdouts. When they emerged, two of the members who had voted for people other than Johnson switched their vote to him, giving him the votes he needed to become the speaker of the 119th Congress. One of the holdouts, Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the man who urged Trump to declare “Marshall Law” on January 17, 2021, to keep President-elect Joe Biden from taking over the presidency.
As soon as they had voted for Johnson, eleven far-right representatives sent a letter to their colleagues saying they had voted for Johnson because they wanted to make sure they didn’t mess up the January 6 counting of Trump’s electoral votes. But they warned that if Johnson didn’t reduce the deficit by enacting “real” spending cuts, stop working with Democrats, and only entertain measures supported by a majority of Republicans, they would challenge his speakership.
For his part, Democratic leader Jeffries said to the House: “Our position is that it is not acceptable to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut veterans’ benefits, or cut nutritional assistance from children and families in order to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations.”
So Johnson is speaker again, but he’s already caught between the MAGAs demanding significant budget cuts and the Democrats’ promise to call attention to every one of those cuts. And popular anger at billionaires seems to be increasing daily: today Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post after her editor killed a cartoon criticizing the tech and media leaders who have been currying favor with Trump. “ditorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate,” she wrote, and after watching colleagues overseas “risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to…hold their countries’ leaders accountable,” she chose to leave so she could continue to speak truth to power.
This afternoon, Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to report in person or virtually for sentencing in the election interference case in which a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies related to payments he made to film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public with the story of their sexual encounter before the 2016 election. Trump had tried to get the case dismissed because he had been elected president. His spokesperson called the sentencing order a “witch hunt.”
Merchan indicated he would not sentence Trump to serve time in jail.
Meanwhile, at the White House today, President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to five Korean War veterans who may have been denied the nation’s highest award for military valor because of their race or ethnicity, and upgraded awards of the Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor for two veterans of the Vietnam War. Specialist Fourth Class Kenneth J. David was the only one of the men who could receive the honor personally. Biden also awarded fourteen individuals with the National Medal of Science and nine people and two organizations with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He also awarded the Medal of Valor to eight public safety officers for acting above and beyond the call of duty. The awards went to officers who ran toward gunfire to save children during the Nashville Covenant School shooting, swam through freezing water to save a drowning woman, and rushed into burning buildings to rescue women and children.
Biden honored the military personnel for their bravery, and the scientists for their “discoveries that are helping us meet the climate crisis, treat crippling disease, create lifesaving vaccines, pioneer the way we communicate, and significantly improve our understanding of the universe and our place within it.” But it was his remarks about the eight public safety officers awarded the Medal of Valor for acting above and beyond the call of duty that stood out.
He called in the press and said: “Folks, I wanted you to come in because…I think it’s very important that the public see them and know who they are…. There’s a lot fewer empty chairs around the kitchen table and dining room table because of what these guys did.” Biden thanked their families, “because if you’re the spouse of a firefighter or a police officer, you always worry about that phone call,” and told the award recipients: “You’re the best America has to offer.”
Yesterday, Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” to twenty Americans including former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who served on the January 6 committee. Today, Trump attacked Cheney and others who investigated the events of January 6, 2021, as “dishonest Thugs.”
Cheney responded: “Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic—to protect the America we love from you.”
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?
Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.
That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:
Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?
I think the answer to that is likely no.
I agree. But it they did, I think it’s unlikely they’ll get a 2/4’s majority to allow Trump to continue.
anyone else find this egregious narrative distortion framing more than a bit jarring
“much more right wing group of clowns means right wing plans aren’t all that likely to proceed”
“Good news ¡ If you play roulette with 5 bullets in a 6 barrel then death isn’t certain ¡”
So Johnson is speaker again, but he’s already caught between the MAGAs demanding significant budget cuts and the Democrats’ promise to call attention to every one of those cuts. And popular anger at billionaires seems to be increasing daily: today Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post after her editor killed a cartoon criticizing the tech and media leaders who have been currying favor with Trump. “ditorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate,” she wrote, and after watching colleagues overseas “risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to…hold their countries’ leaders accountable,” she chose to leave so she could continue to speak truth to power.
The Las Vegas truck explosion guy appears to have had a TBI from his military service. Also reported as being a trump supporter.
With all the shit that trump has said about the military and the disrespect shown he has shown (photo ops for the campaign in a sacred military cemetery), one has to wonder what tipped him over the edge.
The Musk and Ramaswamy proposed cuts to Veterans health care?
Blowing up a Musk truck outside a trump hotel seems legit.
Very good of his old secret service agents to do that.
Spiny Norman said:
Very good of his old secret service agents to do that.
They would probably have been lifelong friends almost.
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund
https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
dv said:
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fundhttps://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
Should buy a few slabs for the party.
And a couple of favours, afterwards.
dv said:
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fundhttps://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fundhttps://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.
Couldn’t happen here.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fundhttps://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.
Couldn’t happen here.
Yeah, right.
democracy at work
SCIENCE said:
democracy at work
Yeah. Roll your own, buy your own. Buy and own.
Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fundhttps://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/
A true philanthropist
Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.
Couldn’t happen here.
Didn’t Federal Parly just pass a law before the Christmas break specifically about corporate donations and the money influence of people like Clive Palmer…?
So no, it probably couldn’t.
Besides which, we don’t do inauguration ceremonies, the PM and cabinet are sworn in at the G-Gs office in the day or so after the election result is called.
dv said:
Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.
team sports
show over substance
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.
team sports
show over substance
Likely.
BBC News:
“….another White House run…”
Not for the Democrats, she won’t.
The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.
Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.
A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.
A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.
A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.
And he beat both of them.
It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.
captain_spalding said:
BBC News:
“….another White House run…”
Not for the Democrats, she won’t.
The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.
Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.
A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.
A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.
A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.
And he beat both of them.
It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.
She should probably just wash her hands and accept a lucrative private sector position. There’s no helping the US electorate.
captain_spalding said:
BBC News:
“….another White House run…”
Not for the Democrats, she won’t.
The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.
Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.
A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.
A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.
A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.
And he beat both of them.
It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.
GofC might be doable.
What about just moving to the Bahamas or US Virgin Islands for a while and relaxing by the beach?
party_pants said:
GofC might be doable.
Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
‘Goverbnor’.
Nice new word. Could be useful.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:GofC might be doable.
Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:GofC might be doable.
Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:GofC might be doable.
Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?
Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.
Yeah, well, there is that, i suppose.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?
Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.
No, i meant parachuting her into N. Dakota, or (somewhere more civilised) Vermont or somewhere.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?
Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.
she also appears to be someone who wants to make changes so a do nothing job wouldn’t suit I don’t think.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?
Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.
No, i meant parachuting her into N. Dakota, or (somewhere more civilised) Vermont or somewhere.
I don’t see the point. I don’t think running for the Whitehouse again is a good idea, but California seems the logical next step.
I don’t know what the big local or state issues are in California, or where she stands on those issues. But she’s got the netorks and the supporter and donors etc to have a decent crack at it.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?
No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.
She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.
SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.
You really seem to hate Indian immigrants
SCIENCE said:
Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.
SCIENCE said:
Not for me.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.
And many more, besides.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.
And many more, besides.
we will definitely enjoy observing this
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.
Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.
Cymek said:
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.
I just saw it on Instagram with a meidastouch link.
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.
Might give Trump that impetus he needs…
Michael V said:
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.Might give Trump that impetus he needs…
And then a great platform to annex Greenland.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.Might give Trump that impetus he needs…
And then a great platform to annex Greenland.
Only Dirty Russians Casually Acquire Neighbouring Territory With Veiled Thre… Ve… T… Very Fine Tariffs ¡
From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.
buffy said:
From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.
Its a pity he isn’t an NPC
buffy said:
From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.
Nice.
:)
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)
Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.
He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.
His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”
“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”
The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.
No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.
Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”
Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.
Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.
That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.
The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.
In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.
As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.
What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.
When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.
As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”
But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.
Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”
But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.
Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”
In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.
And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.
But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionaires
Trump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.
“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”
He sounds like a fully paid up victim of fox “news” and US military propaganda.
Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.
No, wait, I’ll kill myself in a stunt in a cybertruck outside trump tower, that’ll learn ‘em.
The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.
‘Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.’
Like fucking for virginity.
‘The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.’
What makes you think that it’s much better here? Not just for ex-service people. Got problems? Well, help is available…as long as you have plenty of money. Sure, there’s ‘public health’ mental health services, but they’re choked with treating drug addicts, because drug-additcion is seen as a ‘mental health’ issue, so there’s no room for the likes of you and me. And drug addicts don’t have money, so they’re not going to go ‘private’. And there’s a lot of them.
For peasants like you and me, there’s no help, no matter what the pamphlets say.
captain_spalding said:
‘Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.’Like fucking for virginity.
‘The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.’
What makes you think that it’s much better here? Not just for ex-service people. Got problems? Well, help is available…as long as you have plenty of money. Sure, there’s ‘public health’ mental health services, but they’re choked with treating drug addicts, because drug-additcion is seen as a ‘mental health’ issue, so there’s no room for the likes of you and me. And drug addicts don’t have money, so they’re not going to go ‘private’. And there’s a lot of them.
For peasants like you and me, there’s no help, no matter what the pamphlets say.
suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.
sarahs mum said:
suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.
When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:
‘Are you hearing voices?’
‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’
‘Do you consider suicide?’
‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’
If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.
After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.
When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:
‘Are you hearing voices?’
‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’
‘Do you consider suicide?’
‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’
If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.
After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.
I spoke to my doc a few years ago about the fact that I had several symptoms of depression.
He asked me if I had thought about killing myself.
I said no, I want to live forever, that’s why I’m here.
Kingy said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.
When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:
‘Are you hearing voices?’
‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’
‘Do you consider suicide?’
‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’
If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.
After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.
I spoke to my doc a few years ago about the fact that I had several symptoms of depression.
He asked me if I had thought about killing myself.
I said no, I want to live forever, that’s why I’m here.
I said no, but there’s a few people i wouldn’t mind knocking off.
Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.
captain_spalding said:
Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.
but we like football.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.
but we like football.
Bread and circuses, that’s what they like.
And, you can even be economical with the bread, if the circuses are sufficiently distracting.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.
but we like football.
How do you feel about meat pies, kangaroos and Holdens…?
Cymek said:
kii said:
Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.
but we like football.
:(
Men, do better. Call it out. Stop accepting it.
At least be civil.
kii said:
There is a lot being posted today about January 6 2021, but this arsehole’s misogynistic and ugly behaviour from last week just makes me so fucking angry.Men, do better. Call it out. Stop accepting it.
At least be civil.
That guy is a rude deadshit.
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
January 6, 2025 (Monday)
In less than 40 minutes today in snow-covered Washington, D.C., a joint session of Congress counted the certified electoral votes that will make Republican Donald Trump president of the United States at noon on January 20. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the session in her role as president of the Senate, announcing to Congress the ballot totals. The ceremony went smoothly, without challenges to any of the certified state ballots. Trump won 312 electoral votes; Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president, won 226.
The Democrats emphasized routine process and acceptance of election results to reinforce that the key element of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Before the session, Harris released a video on social media reminding people that “he peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
But at the session, the tableau on the dais itself illustrated that Republicans have elevated lawmakers who reject that principle. Behind the vice president sat the newly reelected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA), who was a key player in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election: he lied about fraud; recruited colleagues to join a lawsuit challenging the election results from the key states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia; and, after the January 6 riot, challenged the counting of certified votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
After the session concluded, Harris told reporters: “Well, today was…obviously, a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“And today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included, today, performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine, then, the outcome of an election.
“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it—every single person, their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis.
“And today, America’s democracy stood.”
Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again.
It did not seem initially as if any such a resurrection was possible. While MAGA lawmakers and influencers tried to insist that “Antifa” or FBI plants had launched the riot that made congress members hide in fear for their lives while Secret Service agents rushed Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, to a secure location, that left at least seven people dead and at least 140 police officers wounded, and that did about $3 million of damage to the Capitol as rioters broke windows and doors, looted offices, smeared feces on the walls, and tore down an American flag to replace it with a Trump flag, there was little doubt, even among Trump loyalists, as to who was to blame.
All four living presidents condemned Trump and his supporters; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all suspended him; members of his cabinet resigned in protest; corporations and institutions dropped their support for Trump.
Indeed, it seemed that the whole Trump ship was foundering. Trump advisor Hope Hicks texted Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff that the Trump family was now “royally f*cked.” “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boy’s chapter,” Hicks wrote. “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad & upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now.” “Not being dramatic, but we are all f*cked.”
Even then–Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a blistering account of Trump’s behavior and said: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”
But McConnell appeared reluctant to see Trump impeached. He delayed the Senate trial of the House’s charge of “incitement of insurrection” until Biden was president, then pressed for Trump’s acquittal on the grounds that he was no longer president. Even before that February 2021 acquittal, then–House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—who had had a shouting match with Trump on January 6 in which he allegedly begged Trump to call off his supporters and yelled that the rioters were “trying to f*cking kill me!”—traveled to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago to get him to support Republican candidates in the 2022 election.
Their hunger to keep Trump’s voters began the process of whitewashing Trump’s attempt to overturn our democracy. At the same time, those Republicans who had either participated in the scheme or gone along with it continued to defend their behavior. As time passed, they downplayed the violence of January 6. As early as May 2021, some began to claim it was less a deadly attack than a “normal tourist visit.”
When the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol began to collect testimony and evidence, Trump and fellow Republicans did all they could to discredit it. As it became clear that Trump would win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they worked to exonerate him from wrongdoing and accused the Democrats of misleading Americans about the events of that day.
In February 2021, McConnell defended his vote to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection by promising the courts would take care of him. “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen,” he said, “still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
But while more than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes associated with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and many of Trump’s lawyers and advisors have been disbarred or faced charges, Trump has managed to avoid legal accountability by using every possible means to delay the federal case brought against him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
And now, with the help of a compliant Supreme Court stacked with three of his own appointees, he has gained the immunity McConnell said he did not have. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down the aptly named Donald Trump v. United States decision, establishing that sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within the scope of their official duties. Before the new, slimmer set of charges brought after this decision could go forward, voters reelected Trump to the presidency, triggering the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
As Republicans whitewashed January 6 and the legal system failed to hold Trump to account, the importance of Trump’s attack on our democracy seemed to fade. Even the Trump v. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which undermined the key principle that all Americans are equal before the law by declaring Trump above it, got less attention than its astonishingly revolutionary position warranted, coming as it did just four days after President Joe Biden looked and sounded old in a televised presidential debate.
As the 2024 election approached, Trump rewrote the events of January 6 so completely that he began calling it “a day of love.” He said those found guilty of crimes related to January 6 were “political prisoners” and vowed to pardon them on his first day in office. Dan Barry and Alan Feuer noted in the New York Times today that Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, referring to “the Left’s fear mongering over January 6th,” claims that “the mainstream media still refuses to report the truth about what happened that day.”
And yet, today, Trump’s lawyers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he prevent the public release of the final report written by special counsel Jack Smith about Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They say it would disrupt the presidential transition by “giving rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism” and interfere with presidential immunity by diverting Trump’s time and energy.
Having reviewed the two-volume report, the lawyers objected to its claim that Trump and others “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,” that Trump was “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” that he hatched a “criminal design,” and that he “violated multiple federal criminal laws.” They also took issue with the “baseless attacks on other anticipated members of President Trump’s incoming administration, which are an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings.”
They conclude that releasing Smith’s report “would not ‘be in the public interest.’”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.
He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.
His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”
“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”
The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.
No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.
Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”
Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.
Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.
That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.
The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.
In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.
As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.
What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.
When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.
As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”
But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.
Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”
But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.
Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.
And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.
But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionairesTrump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.
Ta. She writes a good essay. Day after day. It’d take me month or more to write an essay like that.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
January 6, 2025 (Monday)In less than 40 minutes today in snow-covered Washington, D.C., a joint session of Congress counted the certified electoral votes that will make Republican Donald Trump president of the United States at noon on January 20. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the session in her role as president of the Senate, announcing to Congress the ballot totals. The ceremony went smoothly, without challenges to any of the certified state ballots. Trump won 312 electoral votes; Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president, won 226.
The Democrats emphasized routine process and acceptance of election results to reinforce that the key element of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Before the session, Harris released a video on social media reminding people that “he peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
But at the session, the tableau on the dais itself illustrated that Republicans have elevated lawmakers who reject that principle. Behind the vice president sat the newly reelected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA), who was a key player in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election: he lied about fraud; recruited colleagues to join a lawsuit challenging the election results from the key states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia; and, after the January 6 riot, challenged the counting of certified votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
After the session concluded, Harris told reporters: “Well, today was…obviously, a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“And today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included, today, performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine, then, the outcome of an election.
“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it—every single person, their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis.
“And today, America’s democracy stood.”
Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again.
It did not seem initially as if any such a resurrection was possible. While MAGA lawmakers and influencers tried to insist that “Antifa” or FBI plants had launched the riot that made congress members hide in fear for their lives while Secret Service agents rushed Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, to a secure location, that left at least seven people dead and at least 140 police officers wounded, and that did about $3 million of damage to the Capitol as rioters broke windows and doors, looted offices, smeared feces on the walls, and tore down an American flag to replace it with a Trump flag, there was little doubt, even among Trump loyalists, as to who was to blame.
All four living presidents condemned Trump and his supporters; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all suspended him; members of his cabinet resigned in protest; corporations and institutions dropped their support for Trump.
Indeed, it seemed that the whole Trump ship was foundering. Trump advisor Hope Hicks texted Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff that the Trump family was now “royally f*cked.” “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boy’s chapter,” Hicks wrote. “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad & upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now.” “Not being dramatic, but we are all f*cked.”
Even then–Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a blistering account of Trump’s behavior and said: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”
But McConnell appeared reluctant to see Trump impeached. He delayed the Senate trial of the House’s charge of “incitement of insurrection” until Biden was president, then pressed for Trump’s acquittal on the grounds that he was no longer president. Even before that February 2021 acquittal, then–House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—who had had a shouting match with Trump on January 6 in which he allegedly begged Trump to call off his supporters and yelled that the rioters were “trying to f*cking kill me!”—traveled to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago to get him to support Republican candidates in the 2022 election.
Their hunger to keep Trump’s voters began the process of whitewashing Trump’s attempt to overturn our democracy. At the same time, those Republicans who had either participated in the scheme or gone along with it continued to defend their behavior. As time passed, they downplayed the violence of January 6. As early as May 2021, some began to claim it was less a deadly attack than a “normal tourist visit.”
When the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol began to collect testimony and evidence, Trump and fellow Republicans did all they could to discredit it. As it became clear that Trump would win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they worked to exonerate him from wrongdoing and accused the Democrats of misleading Americans about the events of that day.
In February 2021, McConnell defended his vote to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection by promising the courts would take care of him. “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen,” he said, “still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
But while more than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes associated with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and many of Trump’s lawyers and advisors have been disbarred or faced charges, Trump has managed to avoid legal accountability by using every possible means to delay the federal case brought against him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
And now, with the help of a compliant Supreme Court stacked with three of his own appointees, he has gained the immunity McConnell said he did not have. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down the aptly named Donald Trump v. United States decision, establishing that sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within the scope of their official duties. Before the new, slimmer set of charges brought after this decision could go forward, voters reelected Trump to the presidency, triggering the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
As Republicans whitewashed January 6 and the legal system failed to hold Trump to account, the importance of Trump’s attack on our democracy seemed to fade. Even the Trump v. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which undermined the key principle that all Americans are equal before the law by declaring Trump above it, got less attention than its astonishingly revolutionary position warranted, coming as it did just four days after President Joe Biden looked and sounded old in a televised presidential debate.
As the 2024 election approached, Trump rewrote the events of January 6 so completely that he began calling it “a day of love.” He said those found guilty of crimes related to January 6 were “political prisoners” and vowed to pardon them on his first day in office. Dan Barry and Alan Feuer noted in the New York Times today that Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, referring to “the Left’s fear mongering over January 6th,” claims that “the mainstream media still refuses to report the truth about what happened that day.”
And yet, today, Trump’s lawyers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he prevent the public release of the final report written by special counsel Jack Smith about Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They say it would disrupt the presidential transition by “giving rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism” and interfere with presidential immunity by diverting Trump’s time and energy.
Having reviewed the two-volume report, the lawyers objected to its claim that Trump and others “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,” that Trump was “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” that he hatched a “criminal design,” and that he “violated multiple federal criminal laws.” They also took issue with the “baseless attacks on other anticipated members of President Trump’s incoming administration, which are an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings.”
They conclude that releasing Smith’s report “would not ‘be in the public interest.’”
Heck.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.
He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.
His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”
“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”
The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.
No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.
Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”
Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.
Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.
That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.
The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.
In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.
As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.
What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.
When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.
As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”
But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.
Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”
But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.
Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.
And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.
But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionairesTrump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.
Ta. She writes a good essay. Day after day. It’d take me month or more to write an essay like that.
she does. she weaves it together so nicely. but that is her day job.
Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
Bubblecar said:
Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,
She stole that.
Bubblecar said:
Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
Interesting, ta.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bubblecar said:
Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,
She stole that.
Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Bubblecar said:
Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson
>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,
She stole that.
Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.
Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,
She stole that.
Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.
Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.
You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.
Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.
You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8
The bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose legendary Letter from America became one of the BBC’s most treasured dispatches, were stolen shortly before his cremation, it was alleged yesterday.
As his life’s work drew tributes from both sides of the Atlantic, a criminal gang allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and other orthopaedic procedures, according to the New York Daily News.
wookiemeister said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.
You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/23/bbc.usnewsThe bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose legendary Letter from America became one of the BBC’s most treasured dispatches, were stolen shortly before his cremation, it was alleged yesterday.
As his life’s work drew tributes from both sides of the Atlantic, a criminal gang allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and other orthopaedic procedures, according to the New York Daily News.
That’s a bit rude, but I suppose he wasn’t going to use them anyway.
Kingy said:
Clever
Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US
US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.
The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.
Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.
“It is not worth the risks.”
In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.
“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”
Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.
For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.
The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.
The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.
Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.
At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.
The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.
After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.
She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.
Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.
Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.
“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”
An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”
In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.
It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.
Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o
& Meidas Touch commentary
BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link
AussieDJ said:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o
& Meidas Touch commentary
BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link
was he wearing jeans though
kii said:
Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
kii said:
Trump supporters crash car while live streaming.Lololol 😆
But the idiots could’ve killed others.
No more fact-checking at Meta. Another crumbles under pressure. I shouldn’t read this stuff. It makes me worried. Especially as it likely emboldens Dutton.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/meta-ends-factchecking-appoints-dana-white-mark-zuckerberg-says/104793862
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
Michael V said:
No more fact-checking at Meta. Another crumbles under pressure. I shouldn’t read this stuff. It makes me worried. Especially as it likely emboldens Dutton.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/meta-ends-factchecking-appoints-dana-white-mark-zuckerberg-says/104793862
from my Canadian cousin…
Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. Zuckerberg acknowledged more harmful content will appear on the platforms now. I tried to post a link to the CNN story about this announcement. Fecebook would not allow me to share that link.
So, if Zucherberg is really concerned about making Meta/Facebook a space for free speech, it is well past time that he stop the throttling of Canadian users sharing items from news publications.
Facebook content police even stopped me from sharing the published obituary of a former work colleague, and threatened my with stronger consequences if I continued to try working around their censorship of Canadian sources.
—
I posted the abc story on his link fine.
I am now attempting to share my free speech comment without the actual link.
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.
nah go on, you know you want to ..
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.
nah go on, you know you want to ..
Get thee behind me, Satan!
Junior is in Greenland.
kii said:
Junior is in Greenland.
Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.
What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.
It can’t be renamed just like that.
While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.It can’t be renamed just like that.
Well, it can be.
You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.
The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Junior is in Greenland.
Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?
Lots of weed
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?
Well, going with his current theme…New America!
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.It can’t be renamed just like that.
Well, it can be.
You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.
The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.
Their is no rest of the world, only the USA
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Junior is in Greenland.
Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?
Lots of weed
Well, rubbing marijuana on your gums to get you through to when you can next get a good nose-full is not quite as effective.
party_pants said:
While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.
There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.
Almost all the world goes metric.
US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.
Rest of the world ignores the US.
US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’
Rest ofthe world…
While we’re at it, let rename every public toilet as a “Trump” and change all the signage.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?
Well, going with his current theme…New America!
A New America would be nice.
This one seems to have had the scnitz.
party_pants said:
While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.
That is no lie either.
What a smart and sensible way to measure things
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?
Well, going with his current theme…New America!
A New America would be nice.
This one seems to have had the scnitz.
Trou de Merde?
Trying to capture the Panama canal in military fashion doesn’t seem a very good idea.
I can’t imagine it would take much to wreck it so no one could use it
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I noticed in the news that he was there.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Junior is in Greenland.
Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?
Plenty of snow in Greenland…
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.
There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.
Almost all the world goes metric.
US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.
Rest of the world ignores the US.
US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’
Rest ofthe world…
Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.
Rest of the world…
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.
There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.
Almost all the world goes metric.
US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.
Rest of the world ignores the US.
US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’
Rest ofthe world…
Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.
Rest of the world…
Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.
Almost all the world goes metric.
US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.
Rest of the world ignores the US.
US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’
Rest ofthe world…
Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.
Rest of the world…
Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Yes.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.
Almost all the world goes metric.
US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.
Rest of the world ignores the US.
US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’
Rest ofthe world…
Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.
Rest of the world…
Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Are the Israelis of the same opinion?
buffy said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.
Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.
Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
kii said:Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
Perhaps he was here plus one.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
Perhaps he was here plus one.
here=her
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.
Rest of the world…
Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Are the Israelis of the same opinion?
Yes. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as the capital, while internationally the capitals are taken to be Tel Aviv and Ramalah respectively.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.It can’t be renamed just like that.
According to Trump, it can.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
kii said:Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.
I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:It can’t be renamed just like that.
Well, it can be.
You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.
The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.
Their is no rest of the world, only the USA
That’s the USA way.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.It can’t be renamed just like that.
According to Trump, it can.
The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL
party_pants said:
While we’re at it, let rename every public toilet as a “Trump” and change all the signage.
LOL
I endorse this!
:)
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:It can’t be renamed just like that.
According to Trump, it can.
The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL
I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:also Gina.
The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
Spiny Norman said:
Cymek said:
Michael V said:According to Trump, it can.
The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL
I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.
DSA perhaps? The Divided States of America.
Spiny Norman said:
Cymek said:
Michael V said:According to Trump, it can.
The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL
I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.
That sounds too much like trump’s name-calling. I often call it “that shithole country”.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.
If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Cymek said:The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL
I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.
DSA perhaps? The Divided States of America.
Like.
Bogsnorkler said:
Shopped.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.
Yeah, Abbott, T. can tell you about that.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
the libs own the media.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.
I’m not holding my breath.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
the libs own the media.
We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.
Once that happens, we’re rooted.
the libs own the media.
Or possibly the other way around…
kii said:
Tops!
:)
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Once that happens, we’re rooted.
the libs own the media.
We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.
much campaigning against them by the lib media.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:the libs own the media.
We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.
much campaigning against them by the lib media.
News Ltd are not the be all and end all of Australian Media.
AussieDJ said:
Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of USUS President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.
The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.
Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.
“It is not worth the risks.”
In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.
“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”
Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.
For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.
The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.
The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.
Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.
At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.
The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.
After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.
She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.
Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.
Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.
“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”
An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”
In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.
It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.
Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o
& Meidas Touch commentary
BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link
Kingy said:
AussieDJ said:
Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of USUS President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.
The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.
Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.
“It is not worth the risks.”
In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.
“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”
Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.
For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.
The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.
The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.
Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.
At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.
The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.
After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.
She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.
Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.
Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.
“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”
An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”
In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.
It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.
Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o
& Meidas Touch commentary
BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link
I particularly liked his “unban” response as per the above quote. Such a petulant little man.
Heather Cox Richardson
41m ·
January 7, 2025 (Tuesday)
Today, President Joe Biden signed proclamations that create the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, protecting 848,000 acres (about 3,430 square kilometers) of land in southern California’s Eastern Coachella Valley. Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the president can designate national monuments to protect areas of “scientific, cultural, ecological, and historic importance.”
Yesterday, Biden protected the East Coast, the West Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea—an area that makes up about 625 million acres or 2.5 million square kilometers—from oil and natural gas drilling. While there is currently little interest among oil companies in drilling in those areas, the new designation will protect them into the future. Noting that nearly 40% of Americans live in coastal communities, Biden said the minimal fossil fuel potential was not worth the risks that drilling would bring to the fishing and tourist industries and to environmental and public health.
The White House noted that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have “conserved more lands and waters”—more than 670 million acres of them—and have “deployed more clean energy, and made more progress in cutting climate pollution and advancing environmental justice than any previous administration.” At the same time, oil and gas production is at an all-time high, demonstrating that land protection and energy production can coexist.
While oil executives blasted Biden’s proclamation protecting the coastal waters, Democratic lawmakers on the newly protected coasts cheered his action, recognizing that oil spills devastate the tourism and fishing on which their constituents depend: the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, killed 11 people, closed 32,000 square miles (82,880 square kilometers) of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing, and has cost more than $65 billion in compensation alone.
Biden protected the oceans under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which enables presidents to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development but does not say that future presidents can revoke that protection to put those waters back into development, meaning that Trump—who similarly protected coastal waters when he was president—will have a hard time overturning Biden’s action.
Nonetheless, Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Biden’s decision “disgraceful” and claimed it was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
Journalist Wes Siler, who writes about the outdoors, environment, and the law, notes that there is a major effort underway among Republicans to privatize public lands to benefit oil and gas industries, as well as other extractive industries, just as Project 2025 outlined. Melinda Taylor, senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, told Bloomberg Law in November: “Project 2025 is a ‘wish list’ for the oil and gas and mining industries and private developers. It promotes opening up more of our federal land to energy development, rolling back protections on federal lands, and selling off more land to private developers.”
In September, Siler wrote in Outside that politicians in Utah have designed a lawsuit to put in front of the Supreme Court. It argues that all the land in Utah currently in the hands of the Bureau of Land Management—18.5 million acres—should be transferred to the control of the state of Utah.
Those eager to get their hands on the land use the words “unappropriated lands” from the 1862 Homestead Act to claim that the federal government is holding the land “without any designated purpose.”
But, as Siler notes, in 2023, BLM-managed land supported 783,000 jobs and produced $201 billion in economic output, and in Utah alone the use of BLM land created more than 36,000 jobs and $6.7 billion in economic output as more than 15 million people visited the state’s public lands. Utah realized hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on that activity, and while it’s true that states cannot tax federal government lands—as lawmakers say—the government pays the state in lieu of taxes: $128.7 million in 2021.
Transferring that land to the state would sacrifice these funds, and because the state constitution requires the state both to balance its budget and to realize profits from state land, that transfer would facilitate the land’s sale to private interests.
Twelve states have now joined Utah’s lawsuit, arguing that federal control of “unappropriated” land within states impinges on state sovereignty, and they are asking the Supreme Court to take up the case as part of its original jurisdiction. As Siler noted in a May article in Outside, Chief Justice John Roberts has expressed an eagerness to revisit the legality of the Antiquities Act the presidents use to protect land—as Biden did today—suggesting he would be willing to side with the states against the federal government. Project 2025 also calls for Congress to repeal the Antiquities Act.
In Wes Siler’s Newsletter yesterday, Siler noted that the new rules package adopted for the 119th Congress makes it easier to transfer public lands to state control. The rules strip away the need to justify the cost of such a transfer and to offset it with budget cuts or increased revenue elsewhere.
In a press conference today, Trump said he would rescind Biden’s policies and “put it back on day one,” and complained that the 625 million acres Biden protected feels “like the whole ocean,” although the Pacific Ocean alone is almost 38 billion acres more than Biden protected.
Also today, Trump announced that a developer from Dubai, DAMAC Properties, will invest at least $20 billion in the U.S. to create new data centers that support artificial intelligence and cloud services. Trump claimed that the company’s chief executive officer, Hussain Sajwani, is investing in the U.S. “because of the fact that he was very inspired by the election,” but DAMAC has been connected to Trump for a while.
Sajwani attended Trump’s first inauguration, and a company tied to chair and current board member of DAMAC Farooq Arjomand paid $600,000 to the key witness for the House Republicans seeking to dig up dirt on President Biden. That man was Alexander Smirnov, who in December 2024 pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI when he claimed Biden had taken bribes from the Ukrainian company Burisma.
Data centers are notoriously high users of energy. They consume 10 to 50 times as much energy per floor space as does a typical commercial office building, which might have something to do with why Trump’s team is so eager to increase American energy production even as it is already at an all-time high. Trump has promised companies that invest a billion or more dollars in the U.S. that they will get expedited approvals and permits, including those covering environmental concerns.
But if the larger story of this moment is the plunder of our public resources for private interests, Trump’s press conference in general seemed to have a different theme. It was what CNN perhaps euphemistically called “wide ranging,” as he abandoned his “America First” isolationism to suggest using force against China as well as U.S. allies Denmark, Panama, Mexico, and Canada, which would destabilize the globe by rejecting the central principle of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that countries must respect each other’s sovereignty. He wildly suggested that the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah was part of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and that his people were part of the negotiations for the return of the Israeli hostages.
Trump’s performance was reminiscent of his off-the-wall press conferences during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, which tanked his popularity enough to get his team to stop him from doing them.
Trump might have chosen to speak today to keep attention away from the arrival of the casket carrying former president Jimmy Carter to Washington, D.C., where it was transported by horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol, where Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda until his Thursday funeral at Washington National Cathedral. The snow and frigid weather were not enough to keep mourners away, and Trump has already expressed frustration that Carter’s death will mean that flags will be at half-staff for his own inauguration.
But he also might have been trying to demonstrate that the transition from Biden’s administration to his own is taking his time and energy in order to add heft to the argument his lawyers made yesterday. They demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland prevent the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report about his investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election because making Trump respond to the media frenzy the report will stir up would take his attention away from the presidential transition.
Trump managed to defang most of the legal cases against him by being elected president, but he apparently still fears the release of Smith’s report. Today, Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed to the bench and who dismissed the charges against Trump in his retention of classified documents, issued an order preventing the Department of Justice from releasing the report. Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe noted that the order “has no legal basis and ought to be reversed quickly—but these days nobody can be confident that law will matter.”
The presidential immunity on which Trump apparently is relying has also failed to protect him from being sentenced in the election interference case in which a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. In Civil Discourse, legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained that Trump wants to stop the sentencing process because it triggers a thirty-day period for Trump to appeal. “Once the appeal is concluded,” she explains, “the conviction is final.” Trump was apparently hoping to hold off that process and buy four years to come up with a way out of a permanent designation as a felon.
It didn’t work. Today, appeals court judge Ellen Gesmer rejected his attempt to stop the sentencing. It will go forward on Friday as planned.
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
I noticed in the news that he was there.
also Gina.
The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.
No Deep State Here, oh no of course there isn’t
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.
It can’t be renamed just like that.
According to Trump, it can.
The language, it evolves.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
It can’t be renamed just like that.
According to Trump, it can.
The language, it evolves.
only if everyone is on board with it
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
According to Trump, it can.
The language, it evolves.
only if everyone is on board with it
wait we didn’t realize that was a requirement
They say Trump is just a titular head; but Bill Clinton was definitely a titular head and still young enough to do something about it.
Peak Warming Man said:
They say Trump is just a titular head; but Bill Clinton was definitely a titular head and still young enough to do something about it.
Refrains from obvious joke about Clinton and ….
Apparently in winter there’s good news for coal enthusiasts.
A fast-moving wildfire in Los Angeles has destroyed homes and sparked evacuations. The blaze, whipped up by “life-threatening” winds, has consumed thousands of hectares and created a plume of smoke across the city.
thank fuck for La Niña here anyway
Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?
After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.
Neophyte said:
We thought they are the deep state.Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?
After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.
Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?
Neophyte said:
Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.
They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.
They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.
It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.
captain_spalding said:
Neophyte said:
Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.
They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.
They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.
It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.
Steady.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Neophyte said:
Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.
They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.
They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.
It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.
Steady.
You know that i’m right.
Spiny Norman said:
Patrick is, at least, a likeable chap.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.
They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.
It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.
Steady.
You know that i’m right.
oh come on everyone knows that it isn’t fascism
party_pants said:
Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?
the deep state used to be known as they.
Opus They
Bogsnorkler said:
party_pants said:
Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?
the deep state used to be known as they.
I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.
SCIENCE said:
Opus They
LOL
party_pants said:
Bogsnorkler said:
party_pants said:
Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?
the deep state used to be known as they.
I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/secret-seven-sisters/
Would they be part of the deep state
Its not unbelievable
Especially as government is elected and can be gone in less than four years.
I suppose an example might be alien technology / contact hidden from the elected government and leaders.
party_pants said:
Bogsnorkler said:
party_pants said:
Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?
the deep state used to be known as they.
I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.
in seriousness again though it may be instructive to look at the linguistic context and then we realise there will always be finger pointing at the deep state because it is simply a term used to describe professionally regulated giants shouldered experts by the casual armchair self educated own researchers so we know where this is going to end up because you know another cuntry that did this and more recently than national socialist land
កម្ពុជា
why is censorship the bogeyman
SCIENCE said:
why is censorship the bogeyman
For some people “government” is the bogeyman, in whatever form it manifests.
well just drop something else then
fuk Tik Tok
wait
fascists are friends
only communists foreign interfere
SCIENCE said:
fuk Tik Tok
wait
FMD.
2m ago
18.29 GMT
President-elect Donald Trump blamed the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, for the “virtually apocalyptic” fires raging through the Los Angeles area, arguing he should have signed a declaration to pump more water through the state to prevent the situation.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
“I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”
kii said:
kii said:
Just a bit Dunning Kruger there.
kii said:
Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.
maybe the firetrucks need this info.
Men come from Cooper’s Crossing,
And Darwin in the south
From the dusty plains of Innisfail
To the Murrumbidgee’s mouth
Through bush fires, snakes and tinea,
Drizzle, drought and flood
None of those will hold them back,
When someone cries out ‘Mud!’
(Oh) Mud, boys, mud;
We’ll give our sweat and blood
Though our backs may break,
Our beards are fake
We’ll all pretend the sets don’t shake…
Mud, boys, mud;
We’ll deck them with a thud,
The fires may burn,
the floods may drench
But we’ll still have a buxom wench
And keep on shouting ‘Mud!’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/08/los-angeles-wildfires-water-firefighters/77556547007/
water problems.
kii said:
Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.
I’ve just come up with a new sideline for my earthworks company :)
Michael V said:
kii said:
Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.
is that a verbatim quote of Elon?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.
is that a verbatim quote of Elon?
No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.
is that a verbatim quote of Elon?
No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.
Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:is that a verbatim quote of Elon?
No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.
Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?
I wouldn’t go that far.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.
Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?
I wouldn’t go that far.
But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?
I wouldn’t go that far.
But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?
Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:I wouldn’t go that far.
But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?
Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.
Then, lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?
Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.
Then, lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”
They used to talk funny in those days.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?
Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.
Then, lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”
:)
Nice.
The scale and spread of the blazes amid a water shortage have stretched exhausted firefighting crews beyond their capacity.
“We’re doing the very best we can,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.
“But no, we don’t have enough fire personnel in LA County between all the departments to handle this.”
Water shortages hit Pacific Palisades the hardest, causing some hydrants to run dry in the upscale neighborhood, officials said.
“We pushed the system to the extreme,” Janisse Quinones, chief executive of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told a press conference.
“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems.”
Pacific Palisades relies on three tanks that hold 3.78 million liters each, and the demand for water to fight fires at lower elevations is making it difficult to refill water tanks at higher elevations, she said.
By Wednesday afternoon, local time, all three of those tanks and all 114 reservoirs throughout the city were refilled, Quinones said in a later press conference.
The fires have struck at an especially vulnerable time for Southern California, which has not seen significant rainfall for months.
to be honest those pictures remind us of gaza or donbas
SCIENCE said:
to be honest those pictures remind us of gaza or donbas
Trump said it is all the Californian Governor’s fault.
While California has always experienced what it calls wildfires, climate change is exacerbating the conditions they need to thrive.“Climate change, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires not only in California but also all over the world,” the California Air Resources Board states.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, California is becoming drier and hotter, and so drought and “fire conditions” are increasing.
Researchers have found that parts of Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington now experience fire weather more than twice as often compared to 1973. Drier winters, early onset spring and less snowpack melt are also attributed to rising temperatures and can exacerbate fire conditions.
“Climate change has changed fire seasons worldwide. Places like Australia and California that have always burned — are burning more. The fire seasons are longer,” Mullins said.
With fire seasons starting earlier and finishing later in both hemispheres, Mullins says it makes it harder to share resources and crews between Australia and other regions.
“This is one of the critical risks of climate change,” he said.
“The critical assets like large firefighting assets, we share . So at the moment we have aircraft on lease in Australia from Canada and America that they could be using over there but they can’t because we have them.
This is a reality of climate change. How do you help each other when you’re both burning?
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Northern Territory
More than 1% of Northern Territory population imprisoned as record jail numbers predicted to climb
Watch houses repurposed as long-term prison cells as Country Liberal government claims ‘such is the nature of the mess we have inherited’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Ella Archibald-Binge
Thu 9 Jan 2025 01.00 AEDT
Share
Police watch houses in the Northern Territory are being repurposed as long-term prison cells as record imprisonment numbers push the system to breaking point.There were 2,613 people locked up in the NT on Tuesday – more than 1% of the territory’s population of 255,100, according to the Department of Corrections.
By contrast, in Western Australia – the state with the next highest imprisonment rate – about 0.2% of the population is behind bars. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the NT incarceration rate is more than five times the national average.
If the NT were a country it would have the second-highest incarceration rate in the world, according to data compiled by the World Prison Brief project.
New laws were enacted on Monday to ensure young people and adults who breach bail conditions, commit serious offences or repeatedly offend are not granted bail.
More than 250 people are being held in NT police watch houses, spilling over from overcrowded prisons unable to cope with a surge that is only expected to grow as tough new bail laws take effect this week.
Clancy Dane, the principal lawyer at Territory Criminal Lawyers, said conditions in police watch houses were “appalling”.
“Police watch houses are overcrowded, they’re oppressive, the lights stay on, the noise is constant,” he said. “Prisoners complain that they don’t have privacy when they go to the toilet.
“That’s going to traumatise people … and it’s not going to make us any safer.”
more….
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/09/northern-territory-prison-population-watch-housesLOL
Location Rates Number
El Salvador 1 659 109,519
Cuba 794 90,000
Rwanda 637 89,034
Turkmenistan 576 35,000
United States of America 541 1,808,100
American Samoa (USA) 538 301
Panama 522 23,798
Tonga 516 557
Guam (USA) 475 820
Uruguay 449 15,767The California prison system has now deployed nearly 800 incarcerated firefighters to fight the devastating blazes in the Los Angeles area, officials said on Thursday afternoon.
The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said it had 783 imprisoned firefighters out in the field responding to the emergencies. That figure has doubled from the day prior.
The incarcerated crews are embedded with the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire).
The CDCR operates more than 30 “fire camps” across the state where people serving state prison sentences are trained in firefighting and support authorities as they respond to fires, floods and other disasters.
The wages are meager, but are considered high-paying jobs behind bars, with CDCR firefighters earning between $5.80 and $10.24 a day and an additional $1 per hour when responding to active emergencies. When responding to disasters, they may earn $26.90 over a 24-hour shift.
well that’s something we suppose
⚠ this quote chain does not imply that any of the above are direct responses to any other of the above, and is merely to include relevant preceding information in currently raised matters
Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)
At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.
President Joe Biden is supporting state and local responses to the fire with federal resources. Today, he approved a major disaster declaration, which enables people and towns to access funds immediately in order to jump-start their recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for some of the costs of fighting the fires. Five U.S. Forest Service large air tankers and ten federal firefighting helicopters have been deployed to support the local firefighters; ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are joining them. California governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard, and the Nevada National Guard is standing by.
Canada, too, has sent water-dropping helicopters and a pair of planes, which are part of a firefighting contract with California that’s been in place for 14 years.
At a fire station in Santa Monica, Biden stood beside Newsom and said: “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”
In contrast to federal support for California under Biden, in the midst of the ongoing crisis President-elect Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the fires, suggesting he had put the needs of fish over the people of California. He posted: “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” “Let this stand as a symbol of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newsom duo,” Trump posted. “January 20th cannot come fast enough!”
Newsom’s office responded: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
Trump is apparently claiming that water that could be used to fight the fires has been diverted to protect the endangered Delta smelt. But the water systems in California are complicated, and importing water from northern California would make no difference for the wildfires.
Los Angeles water doesn’t come from northern California. It comes from an aqueduct east of the Sierra Nevada, from groundwater, and from the Colorado River. Right now, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has more water stored than it has ever had before, according to Mark Gold, a board member. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire,” he told Alastair Bland of CalMatters. “It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”
Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick told Taryn Luna, Liam Dillon, and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times that Trump’s linking of water policy to the raging fires was “blatantly false, irresponsible and politically self-serving.”
The two different responses of the current president and the incoming one reveal dramatically different approaches to the presidency.
Yesterday the Biden administration announced the finalization of a new rule that will remove medical debt from all credit reports. Until now, medical debt has meant that consumers could be denied mortgages, car loans, or small business loans. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that funds from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats shortly after Biden took office in 2021, have enabled the elimination of more than $1 billion in medical debt for 700,000 Americans. Jurisdictions are on track to eliminate about $15 billion in medical debt for nearly 6 million Americans, the White House said.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said.
While Biden and Harris are working to solve problems for regular Americans, Trump has simply gone on the offensive, attacking Democrats for what he claims is their mismanagement without offering any ideas of his own. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he posted. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”
By now, we know that Trump goes on offense to hide his own shortcomings. As Judd Legum of Public Notice pointed out, “The largest wildfire in California history—the August Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres—occurred during the Trump administration.”
That pattern of going on offense to hide his own behavior was also on display today when CNN’s Hadas Gold reported that someone inside the Fox News Channel (FNC) gave the Trump team the questions that Trump would be asked at an Iowa town hall last January just before the Iowa caucus. A forthcoming book by Alex Isenstadt of Politico details the close relationship between Trump and people within FNC. It says that after Trump refused to prepare for that town hall, someone inside Fox texted the questions to a senior Trump aide, enabling them to prep him with answers.
After Trump fell apart during his debate with Vice President Harris, he accused her of knowing the questions ahead of time and said the debate was “rigged.”
Trump apparently went on the offensive yesterday when he called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hours before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court asking it to stop Manhattan judge Juan Merchan from sentencing Trump Friday in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. Alito told reporters that they talked only about a job opportunity for one of Alito’s law clerks and did not discuss the case, but it is highly unusual for a president or president-elect to talk with a Supreme Court justice when that official has business before the court. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said such a thing was “almost unheard of.”
As legal analyst Quinta Jurecic observed, though, someone leaked news of this inappropriate contact astonishingly quickly. Such news usually “has taken a while to dribble out,” Jurecic noted, but “this happened THIS MORNING. omebody was smug or pissed off enough to go to the press right away.”
Trump’s accusations that Biden committed a crime more likely to be chalked up to Trump himself—taking bribes from a foreign company—was also in the news today. Alexander Smirnov, the key witness for the House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about the alleged bribery and to tax evasion.
Julia Ainsley and Carol E. Lee of NBC News today reported another way in which Trump is threatening to go on offense: by conducting a very visible raid targeting undocumented immigrants in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as he takes office. While Presidents Barack Obama and Biden have targeted employers who violate labor laws, Trump wants to demonstrate “shock and awe” by raiding workplaces and sweeping up migrants who are in the U.S. without documentation, regardless of their criminal status. His transition team has been talking with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the logistics of such raids.
And then, of course, there are Trump’s frequent references to taking over other countries. Don Jr. traveled to Greenland this week with right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk, ostensibly to record a podcast, but Trump Sr. followed the trip with posts saying “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” That idea is getting traction among MAGA leaders, even though—or perhaps because—it is a direct affront to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to which both the U.S. and Denmark belong.
Over the New York Post’s map of the “Donroe Doctrine” in which Canada is labeled “51st state,” Greenland is labeled “our land,” the Gulf of Mexico is labeled “Gulf of America,” and the Panama Canal is labeled “Pana-Maga Canal,” the Republican majority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted today: “Our country was built by warriors and explorers. We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon. President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams.” Journalist Jamie Dupree screenshotted the tweet before the committee deleted it.
Behind all the offense, though, things that matter deeply to the American people are going largely unnoticed.
MAGA representatives have been introducing a slew of measures to the new Congress, many of which incorporate the plans of Project 2025 into legislation. They call for turning over immigration to the states, privatizing veterans’ healthcare, and repealing the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools.
Other measures would revoke security clearances for “certain former members of the intelligence community,” introduce a constitutional amendment to cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, and cut off federal funding to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (the office that successfully charged Trump with election interference) and the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney’s Office (the office that has charged Trump with criminal conspiracy).
And MAGA Republicans have proposed a bill to impose a national abortion ban, along with a bill urging Congress to support a consortium of antiabortion doctors for women because, the bill says, “health care should emphasize the whole woman, including her physical, mental, and spiritual wellness,” and “health care for women should also address the needs of men, families, and communities.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.
President Joe Biden is supporting state and local responses to the fire with federal resources. Today, he approved a major disaster declaration, which enables people and towns to access funds immediately in order to jump-start their recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for some of the costs of fighting the fires. Five U.S. Forest Service large air tankers and ten federal firefighting helicopters have been deployed to support the local firefighters; ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are joining them. California governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard, and the Nevada National Guard is standing by.
Canada, too, has sent water-dropping helicopters and a pair of planes, which are part of a firefighting contract with California that’s been in place for 14 years.
At a fire station in Santa Monica, Biden stood beside Newsom and said: “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”
In contrast to federal support for California under Biden, in the midst of the ongoing crisis President-elect Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the fires, suggesting he had put the needs of fish over the people of California. He posted: “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” “Let this stand as a symbol of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newsom duo,” Trump posted. “January 20th cannot come fast enough!”
Newsom’s office responded: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
Trump is apparently claiming that water that could be used to fight the fires has been diverted to protect the endangered Delta smelt. But the water systems in California are complicated, and importing water from northern California would make no difference for the wildfires.
Los Angeles water doesn’t come from northern California. It comes from an aqueduct east of the Sierra Nevada, from groundwater, and from the Colorado River. Right now, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has more water stored than it has ever had before, according to Mark Gold, a board member. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire,” he told Alastair Bland of CalMatters. “It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”
Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick told Taryn Luna, Liam Dillon, and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times that Trump’s linking of water policy to the raging fires was “blatantly false, irresponsible and politically self-serving.”The two different responses of the current president and the incoming one reveal dramatically different approaches to the presidency.
Yesterday the Biden administration announced the finalization of a new rule that will remove medical debt from all credit reports. Until now, medical debt has meant that consumers could be denied mortgages, car loans, or small business loans. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that funds from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats shortly after Biden took office in 2021, have enabled the elimination of more than $1 billion in medical debt for 700,000 Americans. Jurisdictions are on track to eliminate about $15 billion in medical debt for nearly 6 million Americans, the White House said.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said.While Biden and Harris are working to solve problems for regular Americans, Trump has simply gone on the offensive, attacking Democrats for what he claims is their mismanagement without offering any ideas of his own. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he posted. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”
By now, we know that Trump goes on offense to hide his own shortcomings. As Judd Legum of Public Notice pointed out, “The largest wildfire in California history—the August Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres—occurred during the Trump administration.”
That pattern of going on offense to hide his own behavior was also on display today when CNN’s Hadas Gold reported that someone inside the Fox News Channel (FNC) gave the Trump team the questions that Trump would be asked at an Iowa town hall last January just before the Iowa caucus. A forthcoming book by Alex Isenstadt of Politico details the close relationship between Trump and people within FNC. It says that after Trump refused to prepare for that town hall, someone inside Fox texted the questions to a senior Trump aide, enabling them to prep him with answers.
After Trump fell apart during his debate with Vice President Harris, he accused her of knowing the questions ahead of time and said the debate was “rigged.”
Trump apparently went on the offensive yesterday when he called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hours before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court asking it to stop Manhattan judge Juan Merchan from sentencing Trump Friday in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. Alito told reporters that they talked only about a job opportunity for one of Alito’s law clerks and did not discuss the case, but it is highly unusual for a president or president-elect to talk with a Supreme Court justice when that official has business before the court. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said such a thing was “almost unheard of.”
As legal analyst Quinta Jurecic observed, though, someone leaked news of this inappropriate contact astonishingly quickly. Such news usually “has taken a while to dribble out,” Jurecic noted, but “this happened THIS MORNING. omebody was smug or pissed off enough to go to the press right away.”
Trump’s accusations that Biden committed a crime more likely to be chalked up to Trump himself—taking bribes from a foreign company—was also in the news today. Alexander Smirnov, the key witness for the House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about the alleged bribery and to tax evasion.Julia Ainsley and Carol E. Lee of NBC News today reported another way in which Trump is threatening to go on offense: by conducting a very visible raid targeting undocumented immigrants in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as he takes office. While Presidents Barack Obama and Biden have targeted employers who violate labor laws, Trump wants to demonstrate “shock and awe” by raiding workplaces and sweeping up migrants who are in the U.S. without documentation, regardless of their criminal status. His transition team has been talking with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the logistics of such raids.
And then, of course, there are Trump’s frequent references to taking over other countries. Don Jr. traveled to Greenland this week with right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk, ostensibly to record a podcast, but Trump Sr. followed the trip with posts saying “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” That idea is getting traction among MAGA leaders, even though—or perhaps because—it is a direct affront to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to which both the U.S. and Denmark belong.
Over the New York Post’s map of the “Donroe Doctrine” in which Canada is labeled “51st state,” Greenland is labeled “our land,” the Gulf of Mexico is labeled “Gulf of America,” and the Panama Canal is labeled “Pana-Maga Canal,” the Republican majority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted today: “Our country was built by warriors and explorers. We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon. President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams.” Journalist Jamie Dupree screenshotted the tweet before the committee deleted it.
Behind all the offense, though, things that matter deeply to the American people are going largely unnoticed.
MAGA representatives have been introducing a slew of measures to the new Congress, many of which incorporate the plans of Project 2025 into legislation. They call for turning over immigration to the states, privatizing veterans’ healthcare, and repealing the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools.
Other measures would revoke security clearances for “certain former members of the intelligence community,” introduce a constitutional amendment to cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, and cut off federal funding to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (the office that successfully charged Trump with election interference) and the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney’s Office (the office that has charged Trump with criminal conspiracy).
And MAGA Republicans have proposed a bill to impose a national abortion ban, along with a bill urging Congress to support a consortium of antiabortion doctors for women because, the bill says, “health care should emphasize the whole woman, including her physical, mental, and spiritual wellness,” and “health care for women should also address the needs of men, families, and communities.”
Make America Go Away.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.
Make America Go Away.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.
Make America Go Away.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.
Make America Go Away.
I imagine the amount of energy in the fires would be equivalent to a nuke
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
Make America Go Away.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2b6a30a3c53915949e07b13453a01eb61085e29c/0_100_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none!
!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Well, if they decide to start burning those ‘responsible’ at the stake…
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
I imagine the amount of energy in the fires would be equivalent to a nuke
Didn’t some fella once say they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind, but anyway yous all already know our position on this as yous can see there’s plenty enough suffering and harm out there we don’t get why our souls want to cause more on each other, but since they insist on doing it to one another, have it your way Hosea.
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
reporting on a report from FOX.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
He is, this is a screen shot from the video linked in the post.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
Wakka wakka
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.
Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires
That’s a good point.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires
That’s a good point.
They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
Nothing like a good bard dance.
Peak Warming Man said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc
Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
Nothing like a good bard dance.
barn
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.
Nothing like a good bard dance.
barn
Thanks for the correction.
Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Cymek said:See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires
That’s a good point.
They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
Tamb said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:That’s a good point.
They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.
Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:Nothing like a good bard dance.
barn
Thanks for the correction.
Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:
Tau.Neutrino said:They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.
Shakes fist.
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:barn
Thanks for the correction.
Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…
Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.
Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.
Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.
Shakes fist.
Runs away.
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:
Tau.Neutrino said:They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.
QE I never married. Read into that what you will.
Bill’s here and the church fallen down.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.
Shakes fist.
Runs away.
grins like Jack Nicholson
And forces you to play a game called ‘Balls on Chin’
And whatever happens next is all a blur
But you remember
Peak Warming Man said:
Bill’s here and the church fallen down.
What do you think of his statue ?
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:Thanks for the correction.
Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…
Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.
Tamb said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:That’s a good point.
They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.
JFC!
The teenage boys have arrived with their stupid comments.
kii said:
Tamb said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
They need to get wet.
I mean they need rain.
Rain.
QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.
JFC!
The teenage boys have arrived with their stupid comments.
Oh fuck it’s cool to be derogatory to juveniles and specific genders ¡
kii said:
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
Finally, Donny gets a few lumps.
kii said:
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
That’s good. It won’t be punishment fits the crime, but it will be something. Interesting that those two jumped across.
Tamb said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.
Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.
It was indeed.
A march as much as a dance.
roughbarked said:
Tamb said:
Peak Warming Man said:Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.
It was indeed.A march as much as a dance.
When they taught it to us as kids, i didn’t know that ‘Erin’ is an alternative for ‘Ireland’, and i kept wondering who this ‘Erin’ sheila was, and what she was so bloody proud of?
kii said:
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
Good.
From Heather Cox Richardson’s piece:
>>Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools<<
Abolishing the IRS? So no more taxes to be paid by anyone? Country grinds to a complete halt…
buffy said:
From Heather Cox Richardson’s piece:>>Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools<<
Abolishing the IRS? So no more taxes to be paid by anyone? Country grinds to a complete halt…
Ripe for takeover by Canada!
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
From Heather Cox Richardson’s piece:>>Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools<<
Abolishing the IRS? So no more taxes to be paid by anyone? Country grinds to a complete halt…
Ripe for takeover by Canada!
Oops.
kii said:
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
Good
“President Joe Biden enrages MAGA fans during his eulogy for the late Jimmy Carter by delivering powerful words clearly aimed at Donald Trump — while Trump himself sits in the audience.
Biden remained classy but the shade was undeniable…
“You know we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” said Biden.
Camera footage of the event then cut to Donald Trump in the audience, shifting uncomfortably as he immediately clued into the fact that it was his abuses of power being referenced.
Trump is the first convicted felon elected president and his first term was marked by rampant corruption.
“It’s not about being perfect because none of us are perfect,” Biden went on. “We’re all fallible but it’s about asking ourselves are we striving to do things, the right thing, what are the values that animate our spirit?”
“To operate from fear or hope? Ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” Biden asked.
Trump’s only values are greed and a thirst for power. Fear is his favorite political weapon and he’s completely ruled by his ego.
And deep down he knows it.”
From Carter’s funeral. It was a classic moment from Biden.
kii said:
“President Joe Biden enrages MAGA fans during his eulogy for the late Jimmy Carter by delivering powerful words clearly aimed at Donald Trump — while Trump himself sits in the audience.Biden remained classy but the shade was undeniable…
“You know we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” said Biden.
Camera footage of the event then cut to Donald Trump in the audience, shifting uncomfortably as he immediately clued into the fact that it was his abuses of power being referenced.
Trump is the first convicted felon elected president and his first term was marked by rampant corruption.
“It’s not about being perfect because none of us are perfect,” Biden went on. “We’re all fallible but it’s about asking ourselves are we striving to do things, the right thing, what are the values that animate our spirit?”
“To operate from fear or hope? Ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” Biden asked.
Trump’s only values are greed and a thirst for power. Fear is his favorite political weapon and he’s completely ruled by his ego.
And deep down he knows it.”
From Carter’s funeral. It was a classic moment from Biden.
Well done, that man.
Is it possible that Jimmy somehow chose to drop off the twig when he did, just to deny Trump the opportunity to stand up at his funeral, pose and preen, and somehow make it all about himself and how he’s the best President, a perfect President, never been a Preisdent like him, many people are saying that,the best ever?
The video of that moment is brilliant.
I thought I already posted this put seems not.
Speaking of the Gulf of Trump is a Paedophile, there are two zones therein that are not within anyone’s EEZ ( Exclusive Economic Zone): that is, they are international waters not within 200 nautical miles of any nation’s land.
Despite the shapes, these are usually called the Doughnut Holes or Donut Holes.
The Eastern Doughnut Hole is not considered a good prospect for hydrocarbon exploration, but the WDH is. There have been negotiations between the US and Mexico about how to divvy it up.
Theoretically another nation could explore or drill there but I suspect it would not work out for them in the real world.
dv said:
I thought I already posted this put seems not.
Speaking of the Gulf of Trump is a Paedophile, there are two zones therein that are not within anyone’s EEZ ( Exclusive Economic Zone): that is, they are international waters not within 200 nautical miles of any nation’s land.
Despite the shapes, these are usually called the Doughnut Holes or Donut Holes.
The Eastern Doughnut Hole is not considered a good prospect for hydrocarbon exploration, but the WDH is. There have been negotiations between the US and Mexico about how to divvy it up.
Theoretically another nation could explore or drill there but I suspect it would not work out for them in the real world.
The Doughnut Hole monster looks like a pretty mean beast.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:I thought I already posted this put seems not.
Speaking of the Gulf of Trump is a Paedophile, there are two zones therein that are not within anyone’s EEZ ( Exclusive Economic Zone): that is, they are international waters not within 200 nautical miles of any nation’s land.
Despite the shapes, these are usually called the Doughnut Holes or Donut Holes.
The Eastern Doughnut Hole is not considered a good prospect for hydrocarbon exploration, but the WDH is. There have been negotiations between the US and Mexico about how to divvy it up.
Theoretically another nation could explore or drill there but I suspect it would not work out for them in the real world.
The Doughnut Hole monster looks like a pretty mean beast.
Kind of looks like a camel head wearing a mask
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:I thought I already posted this put seems not.
Speaking of the Gulf of Trump is a Paedophile, there are two zones therein that are not within anyone’s EEZ ( Exclusive Economic Zone): that is, they are international waters not within 200 nautical miles of any nation’s land.
Despite the shapes, these are usually called the Doughnut Holes or Donut Holes.
The Eastern Doughnut Hole is not considered a good prospect for hydrocarbon exploration, but the WDH is. There have been negotiations between the US and Mexico about how to divvy it up.
Theoretically another nation could explore or drill there but I suspect it would not work out for them in the real world.
The Doughnut Hole monster looks like a pretty mean beast.
Kind of looks like a camel head wearing a mask
Could it be named Dromedary Gulf?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
“President Joe Biden enrages MAGA fans during his eulogy for the late Jimmy Carter by delivering powerful words clearly aimed at Donald Trump — while Trump himself sits in the audience.Biden remained classy but the shade was undeniable…
“You know we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” said Biden.
Camera footage of the event then cut to Donald Trump in the audience, shifting uncomfortably as he immediately clued into the fact that it was his abuses of power being referenced.
Trump is the first convicted felon elected president and his first term was marked by rampant corruption.
“It’s not about being perfect because none of us are perfect,” Biden went on. “We’re all fallible but it’s about asking ourselves are we striving to do things, the right thing, what are the values that animate our spirit?”
“To operate from fear or hope? Ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” Biden asked.
Trump’s only values are greed and a thirst for power. Fear is his favorite political weapon and he’s completely ruled by his ego.
And deep down he knows it.”
From Carter’s funeral. It was a classic moment from Biden.
Well done, that man.
Seems to hold true that anyone that craves power is extremely dangerous to elect.
I don’t look forward to Darth Trump
George W Bush and Karen Pence pointedly refused to shake DJT’s at the funeral.
dv said:
George W Bush and Karen Pence pointedly refused to shake DJT’s at the funeral.
Who’d have thought, way back in 2009, that we’d be thinking of GW Bush, and saying ‘good on yer’?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
“President Joe Biden enrages MAGA fans during his eulogy for the late Jimmy Carter by delivering powerful words clearly aimed at Donald Trump — while Trump himself sits in the audience.Biden remained classy but the shade was undeniable…
“You know we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” said Biden.
Camera footage of the event then cut to Donald Trump in the audience, shifting uncomfortably as he immediately clued into the fact that it was his abuses of power being referenced.
Trump is the first convicted felon elected president and his first term was marked by rampant corruption.
“It’s not about being perfect because none of us are perfect,” Biden went on. “We’re all fallible but it’s about asking ourselves are we striving to do things, the right thing, what are the values that animate our spirit?”
“To operate from fear or hope? Ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” Biden asked.
Trump’s only values are greed and a thirst for power. Fear is his favorite political weapon and he’s completely ruled by his ego.
And deep down he knows it.”
From Carter’s funeral. It was a classic moment from Biden.
Well done, that man.
So what shyte was Trump whispering in Obama’s ear while Barrack had a forced looking grin on his dial?
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
“President Joe Biden enrages MAGA fans during his eulogy for the late Jimmy Carter by delivering powerful words clearly aimed at Donald Trump — while Trump himself sits in the audience.Biden remained classy but the shade was undeniable…
“You know we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” said Biden.
Camera footage of the event then cut to Donald Trump in the audience, shifting uncomfortably as he immediately clued into the fact that it was his abuses of power being referenced.
Trump is the first convicted felon elected president and his first term was marked by rampant corruption.
“It’s not about being perfect because none of us are perfect,” Biden went on. “We’re all fallible but it’s about asking ourselves are we striving to do things, the right thing, what are the values that animate our spirit?”
“To operate from fear or hope? Ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” Biden asked.
Trump’s only values are greed and a thirst for power. Fear is his favorite political weapon and he’s completely ruled by his ego.
And deep down he knows it.”
From Carter’s funeral. It was a classic moment from Biden.
Well done, that man.
So what shyte was Trump whispering in Obama’s ear while Barrack had a forced looking grin on his dial?
And so the circle of life continues.
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
January 9, 2025 (Thursday)
Family members, friends, and political leaders gathered today at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the life of former president Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at age 100. All five living presidents and most of their wives attended: George W. Bush and Laura Bush were there, along with Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Melania Trump, and Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden.
Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, were also there, meeting Trump for the first time since January 6, 2021, when Trump tweeted to the rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” redoubling the crowd’s fury and sparking chants of “Hang Mike Pence.”
Pence shook Trump’s hand; his wife stayed seated, looking straight ahead. While Obama, sitting next to Trump, spoke to him, former president Bush refused to acknowledge Trump, instead walking past him and giving a familiar greeting to Obama.
By virtue of living to age 100, Carter survived many of his contemporaries, and some left behind eulogies for him. Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, died in 2021 but recorded his memories of working with Carter in the White House from 1977 to 1981. His son Ted Mondale read the eulogy at today’s service.
Mondale recalled how he and Carter had redefined the role of the vice president of the United States, which had fallen into eclipse when President George Washington shut his own vice president, John Adams, out of his central circle of advisors and never recovered. Mondale recalled that Carter had honored his wish to change that pattern by becoming a full partner in the administration. Carter conferred with him regularly, put him in charge of certain central issues, and the two men became close friends.
Mondale also remembered that Carter was farsighted, ignoring short-term political interests to protect the next generations from harm. He tried to put the nation on a path that would find alternatives to fossil fuels, and did his best to advance women’s rights. He pushed for a law to extend the time for states to approve the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to make women’s equality part of the nation’s fundamental law, and he appointed women to positions in his administration and the federal judiciary. Mondale noted that Carter “appointed five times as many women to the federal bench as all of his predecessors combined.”
Mondale recalled Carter’s “extraordinary years of principled and decent leadership, his courageous commitment to civil rights and human rights.” He recalled that toward the end of their time in the White House, in the years immediately after the tumultuous years of President Richard Nixon, with his covert bombing of Cambodia and cover-up of the Watergate break-in, the two men were summing up their administration. The sentence they came up with was: “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace.”
President Gerald Ford also left behind a eulogy for Carter, who had defeated Ford’s reelection attempt in 1976. Despite their political differences, the two men had become friends in 1981 when they traveled to and from the funeral of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who along with Israel’s Menachem Begin had signed the 1978 Camp David Accords negotiated by Carter’s administration that established a framework for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Over time, Ford and Carter became close friends and agreed to deliver eulogies for each other.
Carter fulfilled his promise in 2006, and today Ford’s son Steve fulfilled his father’s.
Ford spoke to Carter’s deep faith in God when he noted that the former president “pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across boundaries of caste. In America’s urban neighborhoods and in rural villages around the world, he reminded us that Christ had been a carpenter.” “I’m looking forward to our reunion,” Ford concluded. “We have much to catch up on. Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome home, old friend.”
Carter’s grandson Jason Carter, chair of the Carter Center’s board of trustees and a former Georgia state senator, emphasized Carter’s integrity: his grandfather’s political convictions reflected his private beliefs. “As governor of Georgia half a century ago, he preached an end to racial discrimination and an end to mass incarceration. As president in the 1970s…he protected more land than any other president in history…. He was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions, and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources. By the way, he cut the deficit, wanted to decriminalize marijuana, deregulated so many industries that he gave us cheap flights and…craft beer. Basically, all of those years ago, he was the first millennial. And he could make great playlists.”
Jason Carter called his grandfather’s life a “love story, about love for his fellow humans and about living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.” He highlighted his grandfather’s work to bring cases of Guinea worm disease from 3.5 million cases in humans every year to fourteen.
Carter noted that “this disease is not eliminated with medicine. It’s eliminated…by neighbors talking to neighbors about how to collect water in the poorest and most marginalized villages in the world. And those neighbors truly were my grandfather’s partners for the past forty years demonstrated their own power to change their world.” When Jimmy Carter “saw a tiny 600-person village that everybody else thinks of as poor, he recognized it. That’s where he was from. That’s who he was.” He saw it as “a place to find partnership and power and a place to carry out that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. Essentially, he eradicated a disease with love and respect. He waged peace with love and respect. He led this nation with love and respect.”
President Joe Biden, who was the first senator to endorse Carter’s run for president in 1976, also gave a eulogy today. In what appeared to be a reflection on the incoming president in the audience, who for years has mocked Carter as the worst president in history, Biden focused on what he called Carter’s “enduring attribute: character, character, character.” And, Biden said, quoting the famous saying from ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Character…is destiny,” both in our lives and in the life of the nation.
Carter taught him, Biden said, that “strength of character is more than title or the power we hold. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect. That everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot. Not a guarantee, but just a shot…. e have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor, and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power.”
Character, Biden said, is not about being perfect, for none of us are perfect. It’s about “asking ourselves: Are we striving to do…the right things?… What are the values that animate our spirit? To operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?”
Biden noted that Carter lived a faith that commanded its adherents to love their neighbors. He also noted that such a commandment is hard to follow, and that it requires action. It is, he said, the essence of the Gospel and many other faith traditions, and it is also “found in the very idea of America. Because the very journey of our nation is a walk of sheer faith. To do the work, to be the country we say we are, to be the country we say we want to be: a nation where all are created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.”
“We’ve never fully lived up to that idea of America,” Biden said, but thanks to patriots like Jimmy Carter, “e’ve never walked away from it either.”
Carter was “ white Southern Baptist who led on civil rights. A decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace. A brilliant nuclear engineer who led on nuclear nonproliferation. A hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy.” He “also established a model post-presidency by making a powerful difference as a private citizen in America,” Biden said, showing “us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flow to others.”
“At our best,” Biden said, “we share the better parts of ourselves: joy, solidarity, love, commitment. Not for reward, but in reverence for the incredible gift of life we’ve all been granted. To make every minute of our time here on Earth count.”
“That’s the definition of a good life,” Biden said. It was the life Jimmy Carter lived for 100 years: a “good life of purpose and meaning, of character driven by destiny and filled with the power of faith, hope, and love.”
dv said:
kii said:
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case.
Good
The inauguration’s in ten days’ time – reckon the judge should sentence him to ten days prison, commencing immediately.
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
dv said:
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
Year, I think he’ll innocent himself.
dv said:
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
Trump was convicted of _ NY state_ crimes. I don’t think he can pardon anyone convicted of state crimes.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
Trump was convicted of _ NY state_ crimes. I don’t think he can pardon anyone convicted of state crimes.
No, he can’t.
Tomorrow, we should know what penalty is imposed on him.
Prison time is at odds of hundreds to one.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
Trump was convicted of _ NY state_ crimes. I don’t think he can pardon anyone convicted of state crimes.
No, he can’t.
But he’ll probably try.
Neophyte said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Trump was convicted of _ NY state_ crimes. I don’t think he can pardon anyone convicted of state crimes.
No, he can’t.
But he’ll probably try.
Nope, won’t happen.
It’s an instance where the ‘states’ rights’ and ‘let the states look after it’ philosophies that he so readily embraces at other times actually works against him.
The independence of state judiciaries is so well enshrined as to be impregnable.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Whether or not a President can self-pardon is considered an untested matter but I expect we are about to find out
Trump was convicted of _ NY state_ crimes. I don’t think he can pardon anyone convicted of state crimes.
No, he can’t.
The investigations into his federal crimes have merely been put on hold: he can nip them in the bud permanently or so he hopes.
captain_spalding said:
Tomorrow, we should know what penalty is imposed on him.Prison time is at odds of hundreds to one.
Probably because I think Merchan has ruled that out.
buffy said:
captain_spalding said:
Tomorrow, we should know what penalty is imposed on him.Prison time is at odds of hundreds to one.
Probably because I think Merchan has ruled that out.
You can never entirely rule out any applicable penalty.
So much can depend on which side of the bed the judge got up on that morning.
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
captain_spalding said:
Tomorrow, we should know what penalty is imposed on him.Prison time is at odds of hundreds to one.
Probably because I think Merchan has ruled that out.
You can never entirely rule out any applicable penalty.
So much can depend on which side of the bed the judge got up on that morning.
Do they write their detailed judicial opinions in the anteroom just after breakfast?
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:Probably because I think Merchan has ruled that out.
You can never entirely rule out any applicable penalty.
So much can depend on which side of the bed the judge got up on that morning.
Do they write their detailed judicial opinions in the anteroom just after breakfast?
No, silly, they do the opinion bits in advance but leave it blank after: I hereby sentence you to___
And fill that in on a whim…
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
captain_spalding said:
Tomorrow, we should know what penalty is imposed on him.Prison time is at odds of hundreds to one.
Probably because I think Merchan has ruled that out.
You can never entirely rule out any applicable penalty.
So much can depend on which side of the bed the judge got up on that morning.
Oh well, go for the death sentence then.
This will be my standard disapproving reaction image from now on.
furious said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:You can never entirely rule out any applicable penalty.
So much can depend on which side of the bed the judge got up on that morning.
Do they write their detailed judicial opinions in the anteroom just after breakfast?
No, silly, they do the opinion bits in advance but leave it blank after: I hereby sentence you to___
And fill that in on a whim…
:)
Yeah, well, i have to admit, my observations were largely of judgements of driving offences, drunk-and-disorderlies, and similar.
There the mood of the magistrate, and whether you impressed him or her positively or negativelycould affect your penalty.
classic
The lower court’s ruling that upheld the law agreed that it has implications for the First Amendment’s free expression protections. But, in a twist, that opinion held that blocking China from potentially being able to censor Americans’ speech was upholding the spirit of the First Amendment.
cissalc
10.10 EST
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation.
Neophyte said:
10.10 EST
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation.
Yeah well I expected that and wondered why Trump was so desperate to stop it happening.
Neophyte said:
10.10 EST
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation.
Yay! The system works as intended.
roughbarked said:
Neophyte said:10.10 EST
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation.
Yeah well I expected that and wondered why Trump was so desperate to stop it happening.
it is a record.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Neophyte said:10.10 EST
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation.
Yeah well I expected that and wondered why Trump was so desperate to stop it happening.
it is a record.
He had that with the conviction this sentencing was for.
Judge Juan Merchan laid out his rationale for imposing the sentence of unconditional discharge on the president-elect.
“The protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do no reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” the judge said.
“The protections are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
He then handed down his sentence, noting that it is influenced by Trump’s recent presidential election victory:
“It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.
“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge.
“Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.”
Merchan concluded with: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
Neophyte said:
Judge Juan Merchan laid out his rationale for imposing the sentence of unconditional discharge on the president-elect.“The protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do no reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” the judge said.
“The protections are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
He then handed down his sentence, noting that it is influenced by Trump’s recent presidential election victory:
“It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.
“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge.
“Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.”
Merchan concluded with: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
So polite and lawful. Apart from that wishes and godspeed aren’t going to help anything much. Assume, was a well placed word.
Meanwhile…
kii said:
Meanwhile…
Also…PWHC is a prolife group. Stating that abortion is not healthcare.
https://nacn-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/PWHC-Booklet.pdf
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:
Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said about the California fires is lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said about the California fires is lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
Aptly summarised. The man deserves to be in a loony bin.
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said
about the California firesis lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
fixed
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said
about the California firesis lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
fixed
You’re quite right.
Several years ago, there was a tally of how frequently Trump told a lie, and it showed that, at that time, he uttered a lie every six minutes (or some very similar interval).
Now, it’s all lies and inventions and fantasies. Every single thing he says. It’s non-stop, continuous lies.
And he gets away with it. Very few in the media are willing to contradict him on anything, or ‘fact-check’ him as CNN has done here. He cans pretty much say anything, with no fear at all of being held to account for it.
More worrying is that politicians elsewhere are taking note of the fact that he gets away with it. Perhaps some in Australia (mind you, i say ‘perhaps’ and ‘some’) are wondering whether they could ever create such an atmosphere in Australia, where ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’ are just outmoded words in the dictionary, and nonsense, fantastic distraction, and outright lies are the only currency offered by and accepted from politicians.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said
about the California firesis lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
fixed
You’re quite right.
Several years ago, there was a tally of how frequently Trump told a lie, and it showed that, at that time, he uttered a lie every six minutes (or some very similar interval).
Now, it’s all lies and inventions and fantasies. Every single thing he says. It’s non-stop, continuous lies.
And he gets away with it. Very few in the media are willing to contradict him on anything, or ‘fact-check’ him as CNN has done here. He cans pretty much say anything, with no fear at all of being held to account for it.
More worrying is that politicians elsewhere are taking note of the fact that he gets away with it. Perhaps some in Australia (mind you, i say ‘perhaps’ and ‘some’) are wondering whether they could ever create such an atmosphere in Australia, where ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’ are just outmoded words in the dictionary, and nonsense, fantastic distraction, and outright lies are the only currency offered by and accepted from politicians.
Yes. It is the rolling on effect. We look to be in for some very trying times ahead.
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said about the California fires is lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
That’s my favourite Kanye album
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
At least CNN has not totally rolled over for Trump:Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN 6 minute read
Updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2025https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/fact-check-trump-california-wildfires-fema/index.html”
Summary: every single thing that Trump has said about the California fires is lies, wrong, demented fantasy, and bullshit.
That’s my favourite Kanye album
Didn’t know it existed.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
fixed
You’re quite right.
Several years ago, there was a tally of how frequently Trump told a lie, and it showed that, at that time, he uttered a lie every six minutes (or some very similar interval).
Now, it’s all lies and inventions and fantasies. Every single thing he says. It’s non-stop, continuous lies.
And he gets away with it. Very few in the media are willing to contradict him on anything, or ‘fact-check’ him as CNN has done here. He cans pretty much say anything, with no fear at all of being held to account for it.
More worrying is that politicians elsewhere are taking note of the fact that he gets away with it. Perhaps some in Australia (mind you, i say ‘perhaps’ and ‘some’) are wondering whether they could ever create such an atmosphere in Australia, where ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’ are just outmoded words in the dictionary, and nonsense, fantastic distraction, and outright lies are the only currency offered by and accepted from politicians.
Yes. It is the rolling on effect. We look to be in for some very trying times ahead.
oh c’m‘on fellas this is old shit, everyone already
knows this shit, it’s as old as prostitution
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
You’re quite right.
Several years ago, there was a tally of how frequently Trump told a lie, and it showed that, at that time, he uttered a lie every six minutes (or some very similar interval).
Now, it’s all lies and inventions and fantasies. Every single thing he says. It’s non-stop, continuous lies.
And he gets away with it. Very few in the media are willing to contradict him on anything, or ‘fact-check’ him as CNN has done here. He cans pretty much say anything, with no fear at all of being held to account for it.
More worrying is that politicians elsewhere are taking note of the fact that he gets away with it. Perhaps some in Australia (mind you, i say ‘perhaps’ and ‘some’) are wondering whether they could ever create such an atmosphere in Australia, where ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’ are just outmoded words in the dictionary, and nonsense, fantastic distraction, and outright lies are the only currency offered by and accepted from politicians.
Yes. It is the rolling on effect. We look to be in for some very trying times ahead.
oh c’m‘on fellas this is old shit, everyone already
knows this shit, it’s as old as prostitution
Yes but few have done it so openly.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
Yes. It is the rolling on effect. We look to be in for some very trying times ahead.
oh c’m‘on fellas this is old shit, everyone already
knows this shit, it’s as old as prostitution
Yes but few have done it so openly.
and relentlessly.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:oh c’m‘on fellas this is old shit, everyone already
knows this shit, it’s as old as prostitution
Yes but few have done it so openly.
and relentlessly.
guess that’s the key then yous always knew it would end up here, if it’s the definition of a politician then we already knew who would be the best
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Yes but few have done it so openly.
and relentlessly.
guess that’s the key then yous always knew it would end up here, if it’s the definition of a politician then we already knew who would be the best…
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
Looks like she knows him better than I do. She has helped me get to know him to a greater degree.
…squirts lighter fluid…
…drops a match…
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
For those not familiar with the 14 words reference, it’s a slogan of David Eden Lane.
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
dv said:
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
For those not familiar with the 14 words reference, it’s a slogan of David Eden Lane.
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
By having Black slaves, no doubt.
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
Ha!
roughbarked said:
dv said:
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
For those not familiar with the 14 words reference, it’s a slogan of David Eden Lane.
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
By having Black slaves, no doubt.
if the US ever goes back to slavery, it will not be restricted to just the negroes next time. There’s a swarm of uneducated, dumb, white, evangelical christians without much worth as humans.
Yes Im 64 and still a teenager.
dv said:
kii said:
Vivian, Elon Musk’s daughter.
For those not familiar with the 14 words reference, it’s a slogan of David Eden Lane.
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Thanks.
Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.
Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.
Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.
America is going to get a criminal president
Na na na na na.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:For those not familiar with the 14 words reference, it’s a slogan of David Eden Lane.
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
By having Black slaves, no doubt.
if the US ever goes back to slavery, it will not be restricted to just the negroes next time. There’s a swarm of uneducated, dumb, white, evangelical christians without much worth as humans.
Trump’s white trash?
kii said:
Again, well done, that man/woman.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Again, well done, that man/woman.
Good POV., in photography talk.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:By having Black slaves, no doubt.
if the US ever goes back to slavery, it will not be restricted to just the negroes next time. There’s a swarm of uneducated, dumb, white, evangelical christians without much worth as humans.
Trump’s white trash?
He sure is
Tau.Neutrino said:
Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.
Trump the president elect is a convicted felon.
America is going to get a criminal president
Na na na na na.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Again, well done, that man/woman.
Good POV., in photography talk.
Bogsnorkler said:
Fair.
Heather Cox Richardson
35m ·
January 10, 2025 (Friday)
Today the Department of Labor released the final jobs report of Joe Biden’s presidency. The nation added 256,000 new jobs in December, a number significantly higher than economists expected. That brings the total number of jobs created under Biden to 16.6 million and makes Biden’s the only administration in history to have created jobs every month. Under the Biden administration, the nation has also had the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years, ending at 4.1%.
Dan Primack of Axios reported that the U.S. gained more jobs during Biden’s four years than it did under President Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or George W. Bush.
In a statement, Biden noted that when he took office, economic forecasts projected that it would take years for the country to recover fully from the effects of the coronavirus shutdown. In fact, the U.S. economy has grown faster and created more jobs than any other country with an advanced economy. Working-age women are now employed at record levels, and the gap in employment between Black Americans and their white counterparts is at the lowest level on record. The administration has brought the inflation of the early recovery back down almost to target levels, while incomes have increased about $4,000 more than prices. The administration, Biden said, has “achieved the soft landing that few thought was possible.”
CNBC economist Carl Quintanilla quoted Matt Peterson of Barron’s, who wrote: “It looks a lot like U.S. consumers are happy with the way things are…nd so are the markets…. The only one who doesn’t seem to be happy with the way things are is Trump.”
Brian Platt of Bloomberg reports that Trump’s threats of tariffs against Canada already have Canadian officials drafting plans for retaliation. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau told CNN yesterday that Trump is talking about annexing Canada to divert attention from how significantly his tariff plans would raise consumer prices.
As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo noted late last year, MAGA was never an ideological movement so much as a vehicle to pull together different constituencies in order to get Trump elected president. Since members of those constituencies have little in common, that effort centers around creating a false world that demonizes Democrats and insists they have created a dangerous world that is biased against MAGA. The only one who can stand against them, the story goes, is Trump, who is being persecuted for his defense of his supporters. That narrative has helped MAGAs to find common ground in their defense of Trump and his cronies and their support for Trump’s vows to retaliate against those he considers his enemies.
That impulse appears to be stronger than ever after Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump today in the New York election interference case in which a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies for covering up payments to an adult film actress to keep her quiet about their sexual encounter before the 2016 presidential election. Merchan said that he could not impose a punishment without encroaching on the presidency, so in an unusually light sentence, he released Trump without restrictions. As legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained, Trump knew he would not get jail time or a fine, but wanted to avoid the sentencing itself because just a month after the sentencing, the designation of convicted felon will become permanent.
Although a unanimous jury convicted him, Trump insisted the trial was “a political witch hunt…done to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election…. The fact is I’m totally innocent.” He seemed to think that ratings should override reality, telling the judge: “I got the largest number of votes by far by any Republican in history,” he said, “and won, as you know, all seven swing states—won conclusively all seven swing states.”
Trump’s version of the case appeared to be convincing to MAGA pundits and lawmakers, who echoed his calls for retribution. Trump’s lawyer Mike Davis warned: “Right now the Democrats think they’re the hunters. And guess what? On January 20th at noon, they’re going to become the hunted.” Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Ronnie Jackson (R-TX) all echoed Trump. “Trump will win in the end and America wins in 10 days when we get Trump back!!” Jackson posted on X.
MAGA supporters have embraced Trump’s attacks on Democrats and on the government, most notably with their fact-free attacks on the Biden administration’s handling of natural disasters—first the terrible flooding in North Carolina, when the right wing spread the lie that government officials were stealing people’s land, and now the terrible fires in Los Angeles that have been fueled in large part by the climate change that cut rainfall since last May and brought an unusually hot summer.
While local, state, and federal officials are doing their best to battle the Los Angeles fires in raging winds and dry conditions, Trump and his allies are lying to create the belief that the Democratic government is to blame for the fires. Trump lied that there is a shortage of water because Democratic governor Gavin Newsom refused to divert water to the area. Others claimed—falsely—that Democratic Mayor Karen Bass cut the budget for the Los Angeles Fire Department, when in fact a 7% increase in funding came through negotiations outside the budget.
They have blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts for the blazes because the Los Angeles Fire Department is headed by Kristin Crowley, an LGBT woman who came up through the ranks in the department over twenty years. And Trump sidekick Elon Musk agreed with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that the fires are part of a “globalist plot” to trigger “total collapse” in the United States.
“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump posted.In reality, firefighters are hard at work, with crews from both Canada and Mexico working along with Californians to suppress the fires.
Trump’s false version of reality has been a potent weapon against the Democrats, and he is promising to continue constructing that false reality: this week he has said he would replace the head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), who is responsible for collecting the documents that establish the historical record of the actions of the national government. The archivist’s predecessor was the person who pursued the classified documents Trump took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, and Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt he would make sure that he had a loyalist in that position.
But it is an open question whether Trump’s false reality will be as convincing when he is back in the White House as it has been when he was sniping from outside. Trump has promised a number of conflicting things to the different constituencies in MAGA, and it is not clear that he can deliver them. And if he does, it’s not clear the American people will want what he is delivering.
Trump says he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services; more than 18,000 physicians have signed a letter warning that he is “unqualified” and “actively dangerous” to the health of Americans. Trump’s plan to elevate him to a position that impacts Americans is “a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death.”
Trump has vowed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and the reinstatement of Title 42 to close the border to migrants, but as Biden and others repeatedly pointed out when Trump complained about Biden’s ending it, Title 42 is part of a 1944 public health law that can be invoked only to stop disease from coming into the U.S. Once the government declared the coronavirus pandemic over, Title 42 had to go. Yesterday, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times reported that Trump’s advisors, led by Stephen Miller, are searching for a disease to invoke to reinstate Title 42. They have even considered falling back on the old trope that immigrants might bring an unknown disease.
But, unlike non-emergency immigration law, Title 42 does not impose penalties for those who try to cross the border repeatedly, a reality Trump used to great effect against Biden as border encounters soared when people made multiple attempts. Now those numbers will be on Trump’s account if he uses Title 42 going forward.
In the meantime, the Biden administration today extended temporary protected status for about a million immigrants from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela who meet certain criteria. Their protection will be extended for 18 months under a 1990 law that stops the deportation of immigrants to countries at war or suffering from natural disasters. The new protection does not cover immigrants from 13 other nations who currently have protected status.
Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post noted that when he was in office before, Trump tried to end protections for Salvadorans and others, saying they came from “sh*thole” countries, and that he is expected to let protections expire during his second term.
When he was running for office, Trump pledged he would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 24 hours, a vow Russian president Vladimir Putin has dismissed. Yesterday, Trump told reporters that Putin wants to meet with him and that they are setting that meeting up; the Kremlin denied that statement was true and noted it would be more appropriate to meet after Trump takes office.
Today the Treasury Department under Biden imposed new sanctions on more than 180 vessels, many of them in Russia’s “shadow fleet” that carries oil, as well as on dozens of oil traders, oilfield service providers, insurance companies, and energy officials in an attempt to reduce the money Russia can realize from energy exports. The United Kingdom and Japan also imposed additional sanctions.
According to U.S. Ambassador to China R. Nicholas Burns, the Biden administration is also making a last effort to try to stop China from supplying Russia with equipment that it can use in its war against Ukraine. The U.S. is warning China that it is aligning “with the most unreliable agents of disorder in the international system.”
Trump may or may not be able to turn his promises into reality, but it is clear that some of his supporters’ plans will not go over well with the majority of Americans, especially as Trump fills his Cabinet with billionaires and spends his time next to the richest man in the world, who spent more than $250 million on Trump’s election.
Today, Ben Leonard, Meredith Lee Hill, and Kelsey Tamborrino reported in Politico that the Republicans on the House Budget Committee, chaired by Representative Jodey Arrington (R-TX), have made a list of more than $5 trillion in budget cuts they could make to fund Trump’s deportation plans as well as his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Options include cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.
For decades now, there has been enough wiggle room in our system to paper over the gulf between image and reality. That slack may continue.
But at least in some places, reality is catching up to the fake stories. During the 2016 presidential campaign, right-wing media spread the lie that leading Democrats were operating a child sex-trafficking wing out of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C. Those lies convinced a man to drive from North Carolina to the restaurant with an assault rifle to stop the crimes, only to discover the story was a hoax. He pleaded guilty to carrying a gun across state lines and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to four years in prison. This week, two North Carolina police officers shot the same man after he pulled a gun on them during a traffic stop. He later died from his injuries.
Yesterday a New York State appeals court refused to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the electronic voting systems company Smartmatic against the parent company of the Fox News Channel for the lies that channel’s hosts told about Smartmatic rigging the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic is suing for $2.7 billion.
And today the figure the “Pizzagate” conspiracy was designed to put into the highest office in the land, and that the Fox News Channel hosts’ lies were intended to keep there, officially became a convict.
CNN
—
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.
The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been in jail since his arrest last February.
—-
dv said:
CNN —
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been in jail since his arrest last February.
——
damn so much to unpack in that
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
CNN —
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been in jail since his arrest last February.
——
damn so much to unpack in that
Sounds like there might also be some Russian descendecy there.
Can America’s economy cope with mass deportations?
Production slowdowns, more imports and pricier housing could follow
Jan 6th 2025|Washington, DC
When Donald Trump takes office on January 20th, deportations will be a priority. The president-elect has promised the biggest removals in American history, with workplace raids and the revocation of parole programmes. Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, and Tom Homan, his border tsar, want to use the armed forces to get the job done. Mr Trump has cited “Operation Wetback”, a controversial campaign in the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower, which threw out around 1.1m people, as an inspiration.
What economic consequences might follow a large-scale crackdown? According to the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, some 11m unauthorised migrants lived in America in 2022, of whom 8.3m were in the workforce. A recent surge means the number will now be higher. Experts estimate there may be 10m unauthorised workers, representing 6% of the labour force. Many work on building sites and farms, as well as in restaurants. California, Florida, New York and Texas are home to nearly half of them. The economic fallout from a deportation of this population—whether full or, as is more likely, partial—can be assessed across three dimensions: employment, consumer prices and public finances.
Deportations are often discussed as a boon for American workers. Mr Miller, for example, has said that mass removals would create jobs for Americans and increase wages. Whether that proves to be the case depends on whether unauthorised immigrant labour substitutes for, or complements, native-born labour. The evidence suggests the latter. A study by Chloe East of the University of Colorado Denver and co-authors found that deportations under President Barack Obama led to the loss of one native-born job for every 11 migrants thrown out of the country. A paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think-tank, has similar findings. The authors estimate that deporting just 1.3m workers would cause employment to permanently fall by 0.6%. Production would take an even bigger hit.
“Unauthorised immigrants do not just supply labour for a fixed demand,” explains Michael Clemens of George Mason University, “they are a crucial ingredient for production.” After all, someone must pack seafood to make lobster salads and hand-harvest cucumbers destined for Greek salads. Yet Americans are seldom willing to take such jobs at the wages on offer. During the covid-19 pandemic, the National Council of Agricultural Employers ran a survey to find out how many out-of-work Americans would take nearly 100,000 seasonal farm jobs that were advertised for guest workers via a federal programme. At the height of the crisis, just 337 applied. With the employment rate among 25- to 45-year-old native-born workers at a decades-long high and the population ageing, labour shortages will only worsen.
Supply bottlenecks tend to push up prices, but the impact varies by sector. Agriculture is especially vulnerable. A report by the Migration Dialogue at the University of California, Davis, estimates that almost 1m of America’s 2.5m farmworkers are unauthorised immigrants. Dairy and poultry farms, which cannot make use of seasonal guest-worker visas, are particularly reliant on them. The loss of this labour could be offset by ramping up automation, through more guest workers or by consumers relying more on imports. Mr Clemens, Ethan Lewis of Dartmouth College and Hannah Postel of Duke University have found that excluding 500,000 temporary Mexican labourers from farms in the 1960s led mostly to more mechanisation. However, robots remain no match for humans when it comes to picking strawberries. Today the consequence would either be higher costs, or another unpalatable outcome for the Trump administration, such as a wider trade deficit.
Housing costs are also likely to be pushed up. Unlike food-production firms, which can sometimes turn to automation or imports, construction companies have fewer alternatives. Some 1.5m unauthorised migrants toil in the industry, accounting for about a sixth of the workforce, as well as just under a third in trades such as drywall installation and roofing. Housebuilding is already under pressure from higher interest rates; further supply-chain disruptions could worsen shortages. Although deportations should mean less housing demand, recent research by Troup Howard of the University of Utah and others finds that removals during the Obama administration exacerbated housing shortages. The supply-side impact of lost labour dominated the fall in demand.
Then there is the fiscal cost. Mass deportations would not just shrink the labour force; they would also strain public finances. Unauthorised immigrants are ineligible for most direct federal benefits, such as Obamacare subsidies, public housing and welfare programmes. But despite being ineligible they still pay into public coffers via sales and payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. Many also pay property taxes indirectly through rent payments.
The fiscal effects of immigration extend beyond direct contributions. Migrants boost labour supply and economic output, lifting taxable income and business profits. The Congressional Budget Office expects the recent surge in migration to reduce federal deficits by $900bn from 2024 to 2034, owing to higher tax revenues and economic growth. Removing these workers would shrink the tax base and leave spending obligations intact—a recipe for unbalanced books.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/01/06/can-americas-economy-cope-with-mass-deportations?
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Is that from those whom live within the Gulf Of America?
sorry we acknowledge that we should have checked carefully before hitting the button but actually we blame dv and his trolling on that page where he linked to the UK thread instead
I wonder what it must be like in the brains of some of these people. This Kent Christmas dude….hooley dooley.
I mean, what’s a normal train of thought for them as they do their morning ablutions? WTF is going through their minds as they brush their teeth? I make random plans about chores. Thoughts like “did I leave another load of washing in the washer?”
Yes, I know, they have other people to do these mundane things for them, before someone says the fucking obvious thing that I just said.
kii said:
I wonder what it must be like in the brains of some of these people. This Kent Christmas dude….hooley dooley.
I mean, what’s a normal train of thought for them as they do their morning ablutions? WTF is going through their minds as they brush their teeth? I make random plans about chores. Thoughts like “did I leave another load of washing in the washer?”
Yes, I know, they have other people to do these mundane things for them, before someone says the fucking obvious thing that I just said.
buffy might find this part of the above article especially uncomfortable….
dv said:
CNN —
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been in jail since his arrest last February.
—-
Trump can pardon him.
kii said:
kii said:
I wonder what it must be like in the brains of some of these people. This Kent Christmas dude….hooley dooley.
I mean, what’s a normal train of thought for them as they do their morning ablutions? WTF is going through their minds as they brush their teeth? I make random plans about chores. Thoughts like “did I leave another load of washing in the washer?”
Yes, I know, they have other people to do these mundane things for them, before someone says the fucking obvious thing that I just said.buffy might find this part of the above article especially uncomfortable….
What ‘Kent Christmas’ (which is a great name for a seasonal holiday in S.E. England) said:
“this is what I believe the Lord is saying. you’ve heard me say this, there is a natural death that’s getting ready to hit wicked people in this nation. and God said, ‘I’m getting ready to remove’ — and God help the man who gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom honor to George Soros. I have to defend God’s people today. hallelujah.”
So, that must be how the MAGA mob are goingto play the next pandemic (bird flu, of some kind?) to sweep across the US under a government run by a President with senile dementia, and Health Secretary who really doesn’t like vaccines, and populated with a vast army of ‘you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-do-to-avoid-dying’ ratbags.
It’s gonna be God, ‘smiting’ all the ‘wicked’, and that’s just how it has to be.
There’ll be a lot of surprised people who’ll discover, most unexpectedly, that they seem to be numbered amongst the ‘wicked’.
With reference to captain_spalding’s comment, I present some insanity that a local former friend posts about the COVID-19 vaccination etc.
Celebrating not being vaccinated: simply the best
============================
Then this one was posted with the comment: Making money while purposely killing us.
PFIZER HAS RELEASED ITS LIST OF SIDE EFFECTS OF ITS C O V I D V A C C I N E!! Not sure if it was a v a c c I n e or a death row injection?
Blood thrombosis.
Acute kidney injury,
Acute flaccid myelitis,
Positive antisperm antibodies,
Brainstem embolism,
Brainstem thrombosis,
Cardiac arrest (hundreds of cases),
Heart failure,
Cardiac ventricular thrombosis,
Cardiogenic shock,
Central nervous system vasculitis,
Neonatal death,
Deep vein thrombosis,
Brainstem encephalitis,
Hemorrhagic encephalitis,
Frontal lobe epilepsy,
Foaming at the mouth,
Epileptic psychosis,
Facial paralysis,
Fetal distress syndrome,
Gastrointestinal amyloidosis,
Generalized tonic-clonic seizure,
Hashimoto’s encephalopathy,
Hepatic vascular thrombosis,
Herpes zoster reactivation,
Hepatitis Immune-mediated,
Interstitial lung disease,
Jugular vein embolism,
Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy,
Liver damage,
Low birth weight,
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,
Myocarditis,
Neonatal seizure,
Pancreatitis,
Pneumonia,
Stillbirth,
Tachycardia,
Temporal lobe epilepsy,
Testicular autoimmunity,
Thrombotic stroke,
Type 1 diabetes mellitus,
Neonatal venous thrombosis,
Vertebral artery thrombosis,
Pericarditis,
Sudden death…
Sources in comments and documents from federal case! 😓
==============================
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
kii said:
I wonder what it must be like in the brains of some of these people. This Kent Christmas dude….hooley dooley.
I mean, what’s a normal train of thought for them as they do their morning ablutions? WTF is going through their minds as they brush their teeth? I make random plans about chores. Thoughts like “did I leave another load of washing in the washer?”
Yes, I know, they have other people to do these mundane things for them, before someone says the fucking obvious thing that I just said.buffy might find this part of the above article especially uncomfortable….
What ‘Kent Christmas’ (which is a great name for a seasonal holiday in S.E. England) said:
“this is what I believe the Lord is saying. you’ve heard me say this, there is a natural death that’s getting ready to hit wicked people in this nation. and God said, ‘I’m getting ready to remove’ — and God help the man who gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom honor to George Soros. I have to defend God’s people today. hallelujah.”
So, that must be how the MAGA mob are goingto play the next pandemic (bird flu, of some kind?) to sweep across the US under a government run by a President with senile dementia, and Health Secretary who really doesn’t like vaccines, and populated with a vast army of ‘you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-do-to-avoid-dying’ ratbags.
It’s gonna be God, ‘smiting’ all the ‘wicked’, and that’s just how it has to be.
There’ll be a lot of surprised people who’ll discover, most unexpectedly, that they seem to be numbered amongst the ‘wicked’.
LOL
Oh so very likely.
:)
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
kii said:
I wonder what it must be like in the brains of some of these people. This Kent Christmas dude….hooley dooley.
I mean, what’s a normal train of thought for them as they do their morning ablutions? WTF is going through their minds as they brush their teeth? I make random plans about chores. Thoughts like “did I leave another load of washing in the washer?”
Yes, I know, they have other people to do these mundane things for them, before someone says the fucking obvious thing that I just said.buffy might find this part of the above article especially uncomfortable….
What ‘Kent Christmas’ (which is a great name for a seasonal holiday in S.E. England) said:
“this is what I believe the Lord is saying. you’ve heard me say this, there is a natural death that’s getting ready to hit wicked people in this nation. and God said, ‘I’m getting ready to remove’ — and God help the man who gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom honor to George Soros. I have to defend God’s people today. hallelujah.”
So, that must be how the MAGA mob are goingto play the next pandemic (bird flu, of some kind?) to sweep across the US under a government run by a President with senile dementia, and Health Secretary who really doesn’t like vaccines, and populated with a vast army of ‘you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-do-to-avoid-dying’ ratbags.
It’s gonna be God, ‘smiting’ all the ‘wicked’, and that’s just how it has to be.
There’ll be a lot of surprised people who’ll discover, most unexpectedly, that they seem to be numbered amongst the ‘wicked’.
And when they find that they are included in the ‘wicked’ they will find a scapegoat to blame and punish, because they really don’t like a plain and simple truth.
Could witches to burn at the stake or dirty foreigners to lock up and torture or bloody lefties to suffer some cruel and unusual punishment like watching Trump speeches on repeat…..someone will cop it good. But not the ‘pure’
Jack Smith has resigned.
Rewatching Schindler’s list, for my Saturday night relaxation. Liam Neeson is a favourite.
Hmm…I wonder if anyone is brave enough to leak the report.
Jack Smith’s report on Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, and mishandling classified documents.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-12/trump-prosecutor-jack-smith-resigns-doj-election/104808496
kii said:
Mary Trump.
She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
ABC News:
Meh. An trip to the US on the public account is a trip to the US on the public account.
Take it while it’s there…
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Mary Trump.
She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
method. Dutton will play the same game.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Mary Trump.
She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
method. Dutton will play the same game.
I think you are right.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Mary Trump.
She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
method. Dutton will play the same game.
As i said earlier, politicians in many places are observing Trump, his behaviours, and his tactics, and those of the Republicans, and asking themselves how they can make use of them themselves.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
method. Dutton will play the same game.
As i said earlier, politicians in many places are observing Trump, his behaviours, and his tactics, and those of the Republicans, and asking themselves how they can make use of them themselves.
pity so called integrity agencies aren’t observing the same and asking themselves what needs to be done to ensure the institutions are geared towards governance rather than team sports
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
method. Dutton will play the same game.
As i said earlier, politicians in many places are observing Trump, his behaviours, and his tactics, and those of the Republicans, and asking themselves how they can make use of them themselves.
pity so called integrity agencies aren’t observing the same and asking themselves what needs to be done to ensure the institutions are geared towards governance rather than team sports
Nods.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:She’s got it right.
Division is distraction, and distraction is the goal of Trump and his cabal.
Promote division, promote confrontation, promote disunity, promote futile and misdirected anger, create scapegoats, cause suffering, destroy lives.
Anything to prevent people having the time to look at how their country is in the hands of incompetents and thieves and sadists, for whom the cruelty is the point.
method. Dutton will play the same game.
As i said earlier, politicians in many places are observing Trump, his behaviours, and his tactics, and those of the Republicans, and asking themselves how they can make use of them themselves.
it’s not like there is no history in Aus of mining companies bankrolling or tossing children overbard.
She’ll be thrilled, and Kevni will be there telling stories about himself to anybody who will listen, and how people with no shoes on drew squiggly lines on pieces of paper and put them in a time capsule during his 2020 summit.
How good was that.
Peak Warming Man said:
She’ll be thrilled, and Kevni will be there telling stories about himself to anybody who will listen, and how people with no shoes on drew squiggly lines on pieces of paper and put them in a time capsule during his 2020 summit.
How good was that.
Now do Joe Hockey…
Could be worded better.
buffy said:
And it’s all about to become something Trump has to deal with himself
The video of him denying science is classic idiot.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-convict-wont-stop-running?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
kii said:
buffy said:
And it’s all about to become something Trump has to deal with himself
The video of him denying science is classic idiot.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-convict-wont-stop-running?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
8^{
thanks though
FWIW …
Lip Reader EXPOSES Trump and Obama’s SECRET CONVERSATION
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW …Lip Reader EXPOSES Trump and Obama’s SECRET CONVERSATION
Oh goody. I’ve been waiting for her to do this.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-13/malibu-pacific-pines-homes-survive-wildfires/104808928
uh stone and stucco any civil andor concrete engineers here, any reason they couldn’t just build fireproof buildings out of concrete
or does it have to be expensive and privileged before it’s newsworthy
Is there a Pudding Lane in LA.
The Convict keeps going on about the big water main up in northern California, the big tap that lets all the water flow down from Canada:
“Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State…’
If i was Gavin, i’d be publicly asking Don the Con, ‘can you please show me just where the fuck this big valve/tap/whatever is, and i’ll go and open it? Because, if you can’t, then just shut the fuck up”.
captain_spalding said:
The Convict keeps going on about the big water main up in northern California, the big tap that lets all the water flow down from Canada:“Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State…’
If i was Gavin, i’d be publicly asking Don the Con, ‘can you please show me just where the fuck this big valve/tap/whatever is, and i’ll go and open it? Because, if you can’t, then just shut the fuck up”.
we’d just ignore our souls like that except the enablers who own the other gigantic hoses that is the flamethrower hoses of social and mass media are also our souls and the biggest enablers of this shit
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/virgin-mary-statue-survives-perfect-condition-california-wildfires-destroy-couples-possessions
“let’s see we could think logically about this and remember that rocks don’t generally burn, or
wait yes it must have been god ¡!¡”
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/virgin-mary-statue-survives-perfect-condition-california-wildfires-destroy-couples-possessions
“let’s see we could think logically about this and remember that rocks don’t generally burn, or
wait yes it must have been god ¡!¡”
Why have you broken my post?
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/virgin-mary-statue-survives-perfect-condition-california-wildfires-destroy-couples-possessions
“let’s see we could think logically about this and remember that rocks don’t generally burn, or
wait yes it must have been god ¡!¡”
LOLOLOL
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/virgin-mary-statue-survives-perfect-condition-california-wildfires-destroy-couples-possessions
“let’s see we could think logically about this and remember that rocks don’t generally burn, or
wait yes it must have been god ¡!¡”
Probably concrete, but that doesn’t burn either…
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
they’re special people.
They’re statue was ‘saved’.
Those heathens next door, with their statue made of coal, they were not ‘spared’.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
they’re special people.
They’re statue was ‘saved’.
Those heathens next door, with their statue made of coal, they were not ‘spared’.
“they’re…”?
More coffee needed.
Looking at pictures from the fires, I think the bit I’m having most trouble with is a fire like that burning in heavily housed areas. I remember the fires getting into Canberra some years ago, but our fires seem to be generally in less populated areas. Even in the Dandenongs, it’s houses in bush, not just streets of houses.
buffy said:
Looking at pictures from the fires, I think the bit I’m having most trouble with is a fire like that burning in heavily housed areas. I remember the fires getting into Canberra some years ago, but our fires seem to be generally in less populated areas. Even in the Dandenongs, it’s houses in bush, not just streets of houses.
and considering that the death toll is not crazy.
And apparently there are problems with drones getting in the way.
>>There have been about 40 incidents relating to unauthorised drones stopping firefighters’ air operations since last week.<<
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
Gee, let me think?
Selfish and insane Christians?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/virgin-mary-statue-survives-perfect-condition-california-wildfires-destroy-couples-possessions
“let’s see we could think logically about this and remember that rocks don’t generally burn, or
wait yes it must have been god ¡!¡”
Why have you broken my post?
we never
we copied the link out so that we could quote what it said as seen above
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Looking at pictures from the fires, I think the bit I’m having most trouble with is a fire like that burning in heavily housed areas. I remember the fires getting into Canberra some years ago, but our fires seem to be generally in less populated areas. Even in the Dandenongs, it’s houses in bush, not just streets of houses.
and considering that the death toll is not crazy.
Do have to commend the authorities for the successful evac. We lost 173 in the Black Saturday bushfires even though they were in rural areas.
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
January 12, 2025 (Sunday)
Almost ten weeks after the 2024 election, North Carolina remains in turmoil from it. Voters in the state elected Donald Trump to the presidency, but they elected Democrat Josh Stein for governor and current Democratic representative Jeff Jackson as attorney general, and they broke the Republicans’ legislative supermajority that permitted them to pass laws over the veto of the current governor, Democrat Roy Cooper. They also reelected Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, to the state supreme court.
Republicans refuse to accept the voters’ choice.
In the last days of their supermajority, under the guise of relieving the western part of the state still reeling from the effects of late September’s Hurricane Helene, Republican legislators stripped power from Stein and Jackson. They passed a law, SB 382, to take authority over public safety and the public utilities away from the governor and prohibited the attorney general from taking any position that the legislature, which is still dominated by Republicans, does not support.
The law also radically changes the way the state conducts elections, giving a newly elected Republican state auditor power over the state’s election board and shortening the amount of time available for the counting of votes and for voters to fix issues on flagged ballots.
Outgoing governor Cooper vetoed the bill when it came to his desk, calling it a “sham” and “playing politics,” but the legislature repassed it over his veto. Now he and incoming governor Stein are suing over the law, saying it violates the separation of powers written into North Carolina’s constitution.
There is an important backstory to this power grab. North Carolina is pretty evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. In 2010, Republican operatives nationwide launched what they called Operation REDMAP, which stood for Redistricting Majority Project. The plan was to take control of state legislatures across the country so that Republicans would control the redistricting maps put in place after the 2010 census.
It worked. In North Carolina, Republicans took control of the legislature for the first time in more than 100 years. They promptly redrew the map of North Carolina’s districts so that the state’s congressional delegation went from a split of 7 Democrats and 6 Republicans in 2010 to a 9–4 split in favor of Republicans in 2012 despite the fact that Democrats won over 80,000 more votes than their Republican opponents. By 2015 that split had increased to 10–3.
The same change showed in the state legislature. North Carolina’s House of Representatives has 120 seats; its Senate has 50 seats. In 2008, Democrats won the House with 55.14% of the vote to the Republicans’ 43.95%. And yet in 2012, with the new maps in place, Republicans won 77 seats to the Democrats’ 43. The North Carolina Senate saw a similar shift. In 2008, Democrats won 51.5% of the vote to the Republicans’ 47.4%, but in 2012, Republicans held 33 seats to the Democrats’ 17.
When they held majorities in both chambers, Democrats passed laws that made it easier to vote, and voter turnout had been increasing with more Black voters than white voters turning out in 2008 and 2012. But in 2012, Republicans used their new power to pass a sweeping new law that made it harder to vote.
When courts found those maps unconstitutional because of racial bias, the state legislature wrote a different map divided, members said, not according to race but according to political partisanship, despite the overlap between the two.
“I’m making clear that our intent is to use the political data we have to our partisan advantage,” said state representative David Lewis, who chaired the redistricting committee. “I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage of 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” Lewis declared: “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.”
That map, too, skewed representation. Although Democrats won a majority of votes for both the state House and the state Senate in 2018, Republicans held 66 out of 120 seats in the House and 29 of 50 seats in the Senate. Although they had lost the majority of the popular vote, Republican leaders claimed “a clear mandate” to advance their policies.
The fight over those maps went all the way to the Supreme Court, which said in Rucho v. Common Cause that the federal courts could not address partisan gerrymandering. Plaintiffs then sued under the state constitution, and in late 2019 a state appeals court agreed that the maps violated the constitution’s guarantee of free elections. A majority on the state supreme court agreed.
The court drew a new map that resulted in an even split again in the congressional delegation in 2022 (North Carolina picked up an additional representative after the 2020 census). But Republicans in that election won two seats on the North Carolina Supreme Court. In late spring 2022 the new right-wing majority said the state courts had no role in policing gerrymandering. The state legislature drew a new congressional map that snapped back to the old Republican advantage: in 2024, North Carolina sent to Congress 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
But they also reelected Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, to the North Carolina Supreme Court, by 734 votes. Her challenger, Republican Jefferson Griffin, has refused to concede, even after the two recounts he requested confirmed her win. He is now focusing on getting election officials to throw out the ballots of 60,000 voters, retroactively changing who can vote in North Carolina.
There has been a fight over whether the case should be heard in federal or state court; Griffin wants it in front of the state supreme court, which has a 5–2 majority of Republicans. Last Tuesday the state supreme court temporarily blocked the state elections board from certifying Riggs’s win while it hears arguments in the case.
As Will Doran of WRAL News explains, Republicans currently have a court majority, but three of the seats currently held by Republicans are on the ballot in 2028. Taking a seat away from Riggs would ensure Democrats could not flip the court, leaving a Republican majority in place for redistricting after the 2030 census.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gives North Carolina an “F” for its maps. In states that are severely gerrymandered for the Republicans, politicians worry not about attracting general election voters, but rather about avoiding primaries from their right, pushing the state party to extremes. In December, Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post noted that Republican leaders in such states are eager to push right-wing policies, with lawmakers in Oklahoma pushing further restrictions on abortion and requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, and those in Arkansas calling for making “vaccine harm” a crime, while Texas is considering a slew of antimigrant laws.
This rightward lurch in Republican-dominated states has national repercussions, as Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in December sued New York doctor Margaret Daly Carpenter for violating Texas law by mailing abortion pills into the state. Law professor Mary Ziegler explains that if the case goes forward, Texas will likely win in its own state courts. Ultimately, the question will almost certainly end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the United States today, a political minority has used the mechanics of government to take power and is now using that power to impose its will on the majority. The pattern is exactly that of the elite southern enslavers who in the 1850s first took over the Democratic Party and then, through it, captured the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House and tried to take over the country.
The story of the 1850s centered around the determination of southern planters to preserve the institution of human enslavement underpinning the economy that had made them rich and powerful, and today we tend to focus on the racial dominance at the heart of that system. But the political machinations that supported their efforts came from the work of New York politician Martin van Buren, whose time in the White House from 1837 to 1841 ultimately had less effect on the country’s politics than his time as a political leader in New York.
In the early 1800s, van Buren recognized that creating a closed system in the state of New York would preserve the power of his own political machine and that from there he could command the heavy weight of New York’s 36 electoral votes—the next closest state, Pennsylvania, had 28, after which electoral vote counts fell rapidly—to swing national politics in the direction he wanted. Van Buren’s focus was less on reinforcing enslavement for racial dominance—although he came from a family that enslaved its Black neighbors—but on money and power.
Van Buren set up a political machine known as the Albany Regency, building his power by taking over all the state offices and judgeships and by insisting on party unity. He opposed federal funding of internal improvements in the state, recognizing that such improvements would disrupt the existing power structure by opening up new avenues for wealth. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1820, he used his machine to elect Andrew Jackson to the White House on a platform promising “reform” of the federal government calling for economic development, a government the Democrats claimed had fallen into the hands of the elite. Once in power, Jackson used the federal government to benefit the enslavers who dominated the southern states.
That focus on preserving power in the states to keep political and economic power in the hands of a minority is a key element of our current moment. After the 1950s, as federal courts upheld the power of the federal government to regulate business and promote infrastructure projects that took open bids for contracts, they threatened to disrupt the economic power of traditional leaders. While state power reinforces social dominance as a few white men make laws for the majority of women and racial, gender, and religious minorities, it also concentrates economic power in the states, which in turn affects the nation.
When a Republican in charge of state redistricting constructs a map based on his idea that “electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats,” and when a Republican candidate calls for throwing out the votes of 60,000 voters to declare victory in an election he lost, they have abandoned the principles of democracy in favor of a one-party state that will operate in their favor alone.
Jean Chretien is 91 today and he gave himself a birthday present. He told Donald J. Trump to piss off in the The Globe and Mail. Here’s his column:
* * *
Today is my 91st birthday.
It’s an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. To look back on the life I’ve had the privilege to lead. And to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I’ve been on this Earth.
This year, I’ve also decided to give myself a birthday present. I’m going to do something in this article that I don’t do very often anymore, and sound off on a big issue affecting the state of the nation and profoundly bothering me and so many other Canadians: The totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
I have two very clear and simple messages.
To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?
I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country. We have built something here that is the envy of the world – when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.
We’ve also built a strong social safety net – especially with public health care – that we are very proud of. It’s not perfect, but it’s based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.
This may not be the “American Way” or “the Trump Way.” But it is the reality I have witnessed and lived my whole long life.
If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don’t know a thing about us. You don’t know that when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up – both times – years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.
We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq.
We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable. And we did it against the odds.
We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness.
And that leads me to my second message, to all our leaders, federal and provincial, as well as those who are aspiring to lead our country: Start showing that spine and toughness. That’s what Canadians want to see – what they need to see. It’s called leadership. You need to lead. Canadians are ready to follow.
I know the spirit is there. Ever since Mr. Trump’s attacks, every political party is speaking out in favour of Canada. In fact, it is to my great satisfaction that even the Bloc Québécois is defending Canada.
But you don’t win a hockey game by only playing defence. We all know that even when we satisfy one demand, Mr. Trump will come back with another, bigger demand. That’s not diplomacy; it’s blackmail.
We need another approach – one that will break this cycle.
Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing: He has unified Canadians more than we have been ever before! All leaders across our country have united in resolve to defend Canadian interests.
When I came into office as prime minister, Canada faced a national unity crisis. The threat of Quebec separation was very real. We took action to deal with this existential threat in a manner that made Canadians, including Quebeckers, stronger, more united and even prouder of Canadian values.
Now there is another existential threat. And we once again need to reduce our vulnerability. That is the challenge for this generation of political leaders.
And you won’t accomplish it by using the same old approaches. Just like we did 30 years ago, we need a Plan B for 2025.
Yes, telling the Americans we are their best friends and closest trading partner is good. So is lobbying hard in Washington and the state capitals, pointing out that tariffs will hurt the American economy too. So are retaliatory tariffs – when you are attacked, you have to defend yourself.
But we also have to play offence. Let’s tell Mr. Trump that we too have border issues with the United States. Canada has tough gun control legislation, but illegal guns are pouring in from the U.S. We need to tell him that we expect the United States to act to reduce the number of guns crossing into Canada.
We also want to protect the Arctic. But the United States refuses to recognize the Northwest Passage, insisting that it is an international waterway, even though it flows through the Canadian Arctic as Canadian waters. We need the United States to recognize the Northwest Passage as being Canadian waters.
We also need to reduce Canada’s vulnerability in the first place. We need to be stronger. There are more trade barriers between provinces than between Canada and the United States. Let’s launch a national project to get rid of those barriers! And let’s strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as real national energy grid.
We also have to understand that Mr. Trump isn’t just threatening us; he’s also targeting a growing list of other countries, as well as the European Union itself, and he is just getting started. Canada should quickly convene a meeting of the leaders of Denmark, Panama, Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to formulate a plan for fighting back these threats.
Every time that Mr. Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So let’s get organized! To fight back against a big, powerful bully, you need strength in numbers.
The whole point is not to wait in dread for Donald Trump’s next blow. It’s to build a country and an international community that can withstand those blows.
Canadians know me. They know I am an optimist. That I am practical. And that I always speak my mind. I made my share of mistakes over a long career, but I never for a moment doubted the decency of my fellow Canadians – or of my political opponents.
The current and future generations of political leaders should remember they are not each other’s enemies – they are opponents. Nobody ever loved the cut-and-thrust of politics more than me, but I always understood that each of us was trying to make a positive contribution to make our community or country a better place.
That spirit is more important now than ever, as we address this new challenge. Our leaders should keep that in mind.
I am 91 today and blessed with good health. I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life.
Vive le Canada!
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
January 12, 2025 (Sunday)>>>snip…
When a Republican in charge of state redistricting constructs a map based on his idea that “electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats,” and when a Republican candidate calls for throwing out the votes of 60,000 voters to declare victory in an election he lost, they have abandoned the principles of democracy in favor of a one-party state that will operate in their favor alone.
Than heavens for electoral commissions. They reduce the risk of the jerrymander.
sarahs mum said:
Jean Chretien is 91 today and he gave himself a birthday present. He told Donald J. Trump to piss off in the The Globe and Mail. Here’s his column: * * *
Today is my 91st birthday.
It’s an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. To look back on the life I’ve had the privilege to lead. And to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I’ve been on this Earth.
This year, I’ve also decided to give myself a birthday present. I’m going to do something in this article that I don’t do very often anymore, and sound off on a big issue affecting the state of the nation and profoundly bothering me and so many other Canadians: The totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
I have two very clear and simple messages.
To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?
I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country. We have built something here that is the envy of the world – when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.
We’ve also built a strong social safety net – especially with public health care – that we are very proud of. It’s not perfect, but it’s based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.
This may not be the “American Way” or “the Trump Way.” But it is the reality I have witnessed and lived my whole long life.
If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don’t know a thing about us. You don’t know that when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up – both times – years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.
We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq.
We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable. And we did it against the odds.
We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness.
And that leads me to my second message, to all our leaders, federal and provincial, as well as those who are aspiring to lead our country: Start showing that spine and toughness. That’s what Canadians want to see – what they need to see. It’s called leadership. You need to lead. Canadians are ready to follow.
I know the spirit is there. Ever since Mr. Trump’s attacks, every political party is speaking out in favour of Canada. In fact, it is to my great satisfaction that even the Bloc Québécois is defending Canada.
But you don’t win a hockey game by only playing defence. We all know that even when we satisfy one demand, Mr. Trump will come back with another, bigger demand. That’s not diplomacy; it’s blackmail.
We need another approach – one that will break this cycle.
Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing: He has unified Canadians more than we have been ever before! All leaders across our country have united in resolve to defend Canadian interests.
When I came into office as prime minister, Canada faced a national unity crisis. The threat of Quebec separation was very real. We took action to deal with this existential threat in a manner that made Canadians, including Quebeckers, stronger, more united and even prouder of Canadian values.
Now there is another existential threat. And we once again need to reduce our vulnerability. That is the challenge for this generation of political leaders.
And you won’t accomplish it by using the same old approaches. Just like we did 30 years ago, we need a Plan B for 2025.
Yes, telling the Americans we are their best friends and closest trading partner is good. So is lobbying hard in Washington and the state capitals, pointing out that tariffs will hurt the American economy too. So are retaliatory tariffs – when you are attacked, you have to defend yourself.
But we also have to play offence. Let’s tell Mr. Trump that we too have border issues with the United States. Canada has tough gun control legislation, but illegal guns are pouring in from the U.S. We need to tell him that we expect the United States to act to reduce the number of guns crossing into Canada.
We also want to protect the Arctic. But the United States refuses to recognize the Northwest Passage, insisting that it is an international waterway, even though it flows through the Canadian Arctic as Canadian waters. We need the United States to recognize the Northwest Passage as being Canadian waters.
We also need to reduce Canada’s vulnerability in the first place. We need to be stronger. There are more trade barriers between provinces than between Canada and the United States. Let’s launch a national project to get rid of those barriers! And let’s strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as real national energy grid.
We also have to understand that Mr. Trump isn’t just threatening us; he’s also targeting a growing list of other countries, as well as the European Union itself, and he is just getting started. Canada should quickly convene a meeting of the leaders of Denmark, Panama, Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to formulate a plan for fighting back these threats.
Every time that Mr. Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So let’s get organized! To fight back against a big, powerful bully, you need strength in numbers.
The whole point is not to wait in dread for Donald Trump’s next blow. It’s to build a country and an international community that can withstand those blows.
Canadians know me. They know I am an optimist. That I am practical. And that I always speak my mind. I made my share of mistakes over a long career, but I never for a moment doubted the decency of my fellow Canadians – or of my political opponents.
The current and future generations of political leaders should remember they are not each other’s enemies – they are opponents. Nobody ever loved the cut-and-thrust of politics more than me, but I always understood that each of us was trying to make a positive contribution to make our community or country a better place.
That spirit is more important now than ever, as we address this new challenge. Our leaders should keep that in mind.
I am 91 today and blessed with good health. I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life.
Vive le Canada!
Fair.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Jean Chretien is 91 today and he gave himself a birthday present. He told Donald J. Trump to piss off in the The Globe and Mail. Here’s his column: * * *
Today is my 91st birthday.
It’s an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. To look back on the life I’ve had the privilege to lead. And to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I’ve been on this Earth.
This year, I’ve also decided to give myself a birthday present. I’m going to do something in this article that I don’t do very often anymore, and sound off on a big issue affecting the state of the nation and profoundly bothering me and so many other Canadians: The totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
I have two very clear and simple messages.
To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?
I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country. We have built something here that is the envy of the world – when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.
We’ve also built a strong social safety net – especially with public health care – that we are very proud of. It’s not perfect, but it’s based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.
This may not be the “American Way” or “the Trump Way.” But it is the reality I have witnessed and lived my whole long life.
If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don’t know a thing about us. You don’t know that when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up – both times – years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.
We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq.
We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable. And we did it against the odds.
We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness.
And that leads me to my second message, to all our leaders, federal and provincial, as well as those who are aspiring to lead our country: Start showing that spine and toughness. That’s what Canadians want to see – what they need to see. It’s called leadership. You need to lead. Canadians are ready to follow.
I know the spirit is there. Ever since Mr. Trump’s attacks, every political party is speaking out in favour of Canada. In fact, it is to my great satisfaction that even the Bloc Québécois is defending Canada.
But you don’t win a hockey game by only playing defence. We all know that even when we satisfy one demand, Mr. Trump will come back with another, bigger demand. That’s not diplomacy; it’s blackmail.
We need another approach – one that will break this cycle.
Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing: He has unified Canadians more than we have been ever before! All leaders across our country have united in resolve to defend Canadian interests.
When I came into office as prime minister, Canada faced a national unity crisis. The threat of Quebec separation was very real. We took action to deal with this existential threat in a manner that made Canadians, including Quebeckers, stronger, more united and even prouder of Canadian values.
Now there is another existential threat. And we once again need to reduce our vulnerability. That is the challenge for this generation of political leaders.
And you won’t accomplish it by using the same old approaches. Just like we did 30 years ago, we need a Plan B for 2025.
Yes, telling the Americans we are their best friends and closest trading partner is good. So is lobbying hard in Washington and the state capitals, pointing out that tariffs will hurt the American economy too. So are retaliatory tariffs – when you are attacked, you have to defend yourself.
But we also have to play offence. Let’s tell Mr. Trump that we too have border issues with the United States. Canada has tough gun control legislation, but illegal guns are pouring in from the U.S. We need to tell him that we expect the United States to act to reduce the number of guns crossing into Canada.
We also want to protect the Arctic. But the United States refuses to recognize the Northwest Passage, insisting that it is an international waterway, even though it flows through the Canadian Arctic as Canadian waters. We need the United States to recognize the Northwest Passage as being Canadian waters.
We also need to reduce Canada’s vulnerability in the first place. We need to be stronger. There are more trade barriers between provinces than between Canada and the United States. Let’s launch a national project to get rid of those barriers! And let’s strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as real national energy grid.
We also have to understand that Mr. Trump isn’t just threatening us; he’s also targeting a growing list of other countries, as well as the European Union itself, and he is just getting started. Canada should quickly convene a meeting of the leaders of Denmark, Panama, Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to formulate a plan for fighting back these threats.
Every time that Mr. Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So let’s get organized! To fight back against a big, powerful bully, you need strength in numbers.
The whole point is not to wait in dread for Donald Trump’s next blow. It’s to build a country and an international community that can withstand those blows.
Canadians know me. They know I am an optimist. That I am practical. And that I always speak my mind. I made my share of mistakes over a long career, but I never for a moment doubted the decency of my fellow Canadians – or of my political opponents.
The current and future generations of political leaders should remember they are not each other’s enemies – they are opponents. Nobody ever loved the cut-and-thrust of politics more than me, but I always understood that each of us was trying to make a positive contribution to make our community or country a better place.
That spirit is more important now than ever, as we address this new challenge. Our leaders should keep that in mind.
I am 91 today and blessed with good health. I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life.
Vive le Canada!
Fair.
such a nice contrast to our very own corruption parties “Hey have you heard, there’s fascism throwing a party in South North America, we’re in¡” fuck them
LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
SCIENCE said:
LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
They know he’s crooked and it’s just blatant bribery.
SCIENCE said:
LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
Why does there need to be donations to an inauguration fund? It’s just a formality thing. It doesn’t need to be a circus.
SCIENCE said:
LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
Looks like Trump has taken a lesson from Australia, there.
Harks back to the days of Neville Wran, ‘The Million Dollar Man’.
If you had a big project for NSW, you could get Nev to back it, provided there was a big one in it for Nev somewhere along the way.
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:
LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
Why does there need to be donations to an inauguration fund? It’s just a formality thing. It doesn’t need to be a circus.
it’s the USSA, seems every damn thing there is a circus
all performative
Absolute clownfuck of a country but at least they are overt about it now
SCIENCE said:
LOL
LOL
sorry we forgot to attribute this so here
https://www.newsweek.com/tech-ceos-donations-donald-trump-joe-biden-inaugurations-compared-2010457
enjoy
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
LOL
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgly2krddwgo
US aviation giant Boeing has told BBC News it is donating $1m (£812,600) to an inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Google and Microsoft have also confirmed they have made similar donations as the firms join a growing list of major American companies contributing to the fund.
democracy doing good work
Why does there need to be donations to an inauguration fund? It’s just a formality thing. It doesn’t need to be a circus.
It’s the US of A.
dv said:
Absolute clownfuck of a country but at least they are overt about it now
They’ve seen it all before, been there done that, they know what they’re getting.
Kyrigos was beaten tonight by a Scotsman, that’s good.
Peak Warming Man said:
Kyrigos was beaten tonight by a Scotsman, that’s good.
Woops.
ChrispenEvan said:
FMD
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
FMD
She can come and clean my bathroom for $100
I hate cleaning bathrooms.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
FMD
She can come and clean my bathroom for $100
I hate cleaning bathrooms.
She doesn’t even really express remorse about it. She just doesn’t like the way other people have reacted.
ChrispenEvan said:
tattooist seems shonky too.
dv said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:FMD
She can come and clean my bathroom for $100
I hate cleaning bathrooms.
She doesn’t even really express remorse about it. She just doesn’t like the way other people have reacted.
It really shatters all the stupid rules about tattoos.
1 think long (years) and hard about getting a tattoo
2 no names
3 visibility /ability to hide tattoo
4 unless you are a criminal, tribal, tattoo artist, or rock star, absolutely no face tattoos.
5 absolutely no names
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-13/australian-dollar-falling-explainer-inflation-rates-trump/104810110
dv said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:FMD
She can come and clean my bathroom for $100
I hate cleaning bathrooms.
She doesn’t even really express remorse about it. She just doesn’t like the way other people have reacted.
Yeah. so i’m not going to just give her any money.
Arts said:
dv said:
party_pants said:
She can come and clean my bathroom for $100
I hate cleaning bathrooms.
She doesn’t even really express remorse about it. She just doesn’t like the way other people have reacted.
It really shatters all the stupid rules about tattoos.
1 think long (years) and hard about getting a tattoo
2 no names
3 visibility /ability to hide tattoo
4 unless you are a criminal, tribal, tattoo artist, or rock star, absolutely no face tattoos.
5 absolutely no names
we mean it’s probably a crowdfunding scam, what’s the margin of donations less cost to remove
ChrispenEvan said:
She couldhave it replaced with a tattoo that reads ‘EMPTY’.
When ah wurr a lad…
..the Navy had a Chief Stoker talk to us about tattooes. He had some magnificent tatts, the like of which i’ve rarely seen since.
He told us, boys, i won’t say don’t get tattooes, i’ve got mine, and i love ‘em. But, think carefully.
I suggest that your first one should be to get your name tattooed across your forehead.
Because (and i don’t say that you will), but you might be tempted to break a law or two one day.
And there’ll be witnesses.
And they wont recall if you were tall or short, or fat or thin, or fair or dark, or even male or female.
But, they’ll recall every detail of your tatts, in vivid colour, until the day they die.
And it amounts to the same thing.
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costs
https://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costshttps://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
That should go down well with their base.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costs
That should go down well with their base.
wait are young angry violent males the older Americans that Republicans are based on
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costshttps://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costshttps://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
That’s why they are still hanging on to their slave trading days mentaity?
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costshttps://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
Sure seems like it.
Also, it seems like they do not like the notion of helping people who are finding life more difficult than themselves.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
That’s why they are still hanging on to their slave trading days mentaity?
It does seem like that, carry a grudge for a few centuries
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Republicans move to repeal law that saves older Americans billions in health care costshttps://pennsylvaniaindependent.com/politics/republicans-health-care-costs-inflation-reduction-act-repeal-scott-perry/
That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
Yet that’s exactly what diddly-squat is.
Michael V said:
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
Sure seems like it.
Also, it seems like they do not like the notion of helping people who are finding life more difficult than themselves.
you’d think it was some woke kind of tone policing cancel culture thing that it’s not acceptable to call stupid people stupid but apparently the fascists love that type of censorship of free speech
wait
Michael V said:
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:That should go down well with their base.
Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
Sure seems like it.
Also, it seems like they do not like the notion of helping people who are finding life more difficult than themselves.
Perhaps I should remind them of the biblical story (Jesus parable) of the Good Samaritan.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Probably will.
At the risk of d-s calling me an elitist, a lot of them are stupid.
Sure seems like it.
Also, it seems like they do not like the notion of helping people who are finding life more difficult than themselves.
Perhaps I should remind them of the biblical story (Jesus parable) of the Good Samaritan.
I don’t think that’s in Genesis: Answers?
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Michael V said:Sure seems like it.
Also, it seems like they do not like the notion of helping people who are finding life more difficult than themselves.
Perhaps I should remind them of the biblical story (Jesus parable) of the Good Samaritan.
I don’t think that’s in Genesis: Answers?
However, the Old Testament is both a Jewish and a Christian document. The New Testament describes the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the basis of Christianity.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Perhaps I should remind them of the biblical story (Jesus parable) of the Good Samaritan.
I don’t think that’s in Genesis: Answers?
However, the Old Testament is both a Jewish and a Christian document. The New Testament describes the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the basis of Christianity.
But but, Genesis answers is popping up everywhere as the proof climate change isn’t real..
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:I don’t think that’s in Genesis: Answers?
However, the Old Testament is both a Jewish and a Christian document. The New Testament describes the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the basis of Christianity.
But but, Genesis answers is popping up everywhere as the proof climate change isn’t real..
What I find strange is even if climate change wasn’t caused by the Earth’s parasitic infection.
Surely it has a secondary bonus of cleaning up pollution, we know fossil fuels cause health problems indirectly
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:I don’t think that’s in Genesis: Answers?
However, the Old Testament is both a Jewish and a Christian document. The New Testament describes the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the basis of Christianity.
But but, Genesis answers is popping up everywhere as the proof climate change isn’t real..
Goalpoasts – shifted – nothing to do with climate change:
That’s got nothing to do with helping others who are finding life difficult. The Good Samaritan parable espouses that principle from Jesus and as such, is a strong Christian moral teaching.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:However, the Old Testament is both a Jewish and a Christian document. The New Testament describes the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the basis of Christianity.
But but, Genesis answers is popping up everywhere as the proof climate change isn’t real..
Goalpoasts – shifted – nothing to do with climate change:
That’s got nothing to do with helping others who are finding life difficult. The Good Samaritan parable espouses that principle from Jesus and as such, is a strong Christian moral teaching.
Yes I know all of that stuff but these people seem to be billybobs from some trailer park in the deep south by the way they seem to see any scientific facts.
There is subtext in the Parable. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and by making the hero a Samaritan, Jesus was presumably trying to cut against prejudice.
dv said:
There is subtext in the Parable. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and by making the hero a Samaritan, Jesus was presumably trying to cut against prejudice.
Yes – a person is a person, is a person. Help them if they need it.
dv said:
There is subtext in the Parable. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and by making the hero a Samaritan, Jesus was presumably trying to cut against prejudice.
The message we got out if it in Religious Instruction is school was:
go easy on dissing people because of their race, religion, nationality, whatever, because you never know whose help you might need in a crisis.
dv said:
There is subtext in the Parable. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and by making the hero a Samaritan, Jesus was presumably trying to cut against prejudice.
That Jesus guy was so woke it’s not funny.
dv said:
There is subtext in the Parable. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and by making the hero a Samaritan, Jesus was presumably trying to cut against prejudice.
Never try and cut against the spin.
What is bothering Judge Aileen Cannon that she is not just outright saying no to the release of Jack Smith’s report?
“So the DOJ has the green light now to release Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s election interference sometime after midnight tonight.”
From Mindy Fischer on Facebook.
sarahs mum said:
I wonder what the amount of water required to put them all out would be
sarahs mum said:
I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
Him being a creep aside, he’s pretty damn stupid.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
I also find it unbelievable. I can’t understand how. He should be buried under a ton of shit but none of it sticks.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
I also find it unbelievable. I can’t understand how. He should be buried under a ton of shit but none of it sticks.
He sums up what is wrong with the USA doesn’t he.
This person is meant to be a world leader and his morals are non-existent and he’s a stupid as they come (where it counts anyway)
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
I also find it unbelievable. I can’t understand how. He should be buried under a ton of shit but none of it sticks.
He sums up what is wrong with the USA doesn’t he.
This person is meant to be a world leader and his morals are non-existent and he’s a stupid as they come (where it counts anyway)
right but hate our souls in power all yous like, we have concern that all the people who buy in are just as much our souls
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:I. Hate. Him. So. Fucking. Much.
I also find it unbelievable. I can’t understand how. He should be buried under a ton of shit but none of it sticks.
He sums up what is wrong with the USA doesn’t he.
This person is meant to be a world leader and his morals are non-existent and he’s a stupid as they come (where it counts anyway)
I think this is the thing.. he’s not supposed to be a world leader. His status as such is an outcome of an antiquated system that is deeply flawed, determined by a society that has suffered a massive moral shift. They cannot see the forest for the trees anymore.
Arts said:
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
I also find it unbelievable. I can’t understand how. He should be buried under a ton of shit but none of it sticks.
He sums up what is wrong with the USA doesn’t he.
This person is meant to be a world leader and his morals are non-existent and he’s a stupid as they come (where it counts anyway)
I think this is the thing.. he’s not supposed to be a world leader. His status as such is an outcome of an antiquated system that is deeply flawed, determined by a society that has suffered a massive moral shift. They cannot see the forest for the trees anymore.
correct,democracy working as intended
SCIENCE said:
Arts said:
Cymek said:
He sums up what is wrong with the USA doesn’t he.
This person is meant to be a world leader and his morals are non-existent and he’s a stupid as they come (where it counts anyway)
I think this is the thing.. he’s not supposed to be a world leader. His status as such is an outcome of an antiquated system that is deeply flawed, determined by a society that has suffered a massive moral shift. They cannot see the forest for the trees anymore.
correct,democracy working as intended
If only the system could catch up.
Heather Cox Richardson
13m ·
January 13, 2025 (Monday)
The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.
Although experts on the National Security Council usually carry over from one administration to the next, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press today reported that incoming officials for the Trump administration are interviewing career senior officials on the National Security Council about their political contributions, how they voted in 2024, and whether they are loyal to Trump. Most of them are on loan from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency and, understanding that they are about to be fired, have packed up their desks to head back to their home agencies.
The National Security Council is the main forum for the president to hash out decisions in national security and foreign policy, and the people on it are picked for their expertise. But Trump’s expected pick to become his national security advisor—his primary advisor on all national security issues—Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) told right-wing Breitbart News that he wants to staff the NSC with people who are “100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.”
Ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) warned that the loyalty purge “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”
But during Trump’s first term, it was Alexander Vindman, who was detailed to the NSC, and his twin Eugene Vindman, who was serving the NSC as an ethics lawyer, who reported concerns about Trump’s July 2019 call to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to their superiors. This launched the investigation that became Trump’s first impeachment, and Trump appears anxious to make sure future NSC members will be fiercely loyal to him.
With extraordinarily slim majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans are talking about pushing through their entire agenda through Congress as a single bill in the process known as budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation, which deals with matters related to spending, revenue, and the debt limit, is one of the few things that cannot be filibustered, meaning that Republicans could get a reconciliation bill through the Senate with just 50 votes. If they can hold their conference together, they could get the package through despite Democratic opposition.
House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have said that the House intends to pass a reconciliation bill that covers border security, defense spending, the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, spending cuts to social welfare programs, energy deregulation, and an increase in the national debt limit.
But Li Zhou of Vox points out that it’s not quite as simple as it sounds to get everything at once, because budget reconciliation measures are not supposed to include anything that doesn’t relate to the budget, and the Senate parliamentarian will advise stripping those things out. In addition, the budget cuts Republicans are circulating include cuts to popular programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.
Still, a lot can be done under budget reconciliation. Democrats under Biden passed the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under reconciliation, and Republicans under Trump passed the 2017 Trump tax cuts the same way.
A wrinkle in those plans is the Republicans’ hope to raise the national debt limit. As soon as they take control of Congress and the White House, Republicans will have to deal immediately with the treasury running up against the debt limit, a holdover from World War I that sets a limit on how much the country can borrow. Although he has complained bitterly about spending under Biden, Trump has demanded that Congress either raise or abandon the debt ceiling because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts he wants to extend will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, and cost estimates for his deportation plans range from $88 billion to $315 billion a year.
Republicans are backing away from adding a debt increase to the budget reconciliation package out of concern that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus will kill the entire bill if they do. Those members want no part of raising the national debt and have demanded $2 trillion in budget cuts before they will consider it. Tonight, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) told Jordain Carney of Politico that Senate Republicans expect the debt limit to be stripped out of the budget reconciliation measure.
So Republicans are currently exploring the idea of leveraging aid to California for the deadly fires in order to get Democrats to sign on to raising the debt ceiling. Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported that Trump met with a group of influential House Republicans over dinner Sunday night at Mar-a-Lago to discuss tying aid for the wildfires to raising the debt ceiling. Today, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed to reporter Hill that this plan is under discussion.
Indeed, Republicans have been in the media suggesting that disaster aid to Democratic states should be tied to their adopting Republican policies. The Los Angeles fires have now claimed at least 24 lives. More than 15,000 firefighters are working to extinguish the wildfires, which have been driven by Santa Ana winds of up to 98 miles (158 km) an hour over ground scorched by high temperatures and low rainfall since last May, conditions caused by climate change.
On the Fox News Channel today, Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA) said: “We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who have been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior. We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy…. Those governors need to change their tune now.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) blamed Democrats for the fires and said of federal disaster relief: “I certainly wouldn’t vote for anything unless we see a dramatic change in how they’re gonna be handling these things in the future.”
Aside from the morality of demanding concessions for disaster aid after President Joe Biden responded with full and unconditional support for regions hit by Hurricane Helene (although Tennessee governor Bill Lee is still lying that Biden delayed aid to his state, when in fact he delayed in asking for it, as required by law), there is a financial problem with this argument. As economist Paul Krugman noted today in his Krugman Wonks Out, California “is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.”
In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.
Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G D P.” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.”
Today, Biden announced student loan forgiveness for another 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people relieved of student debt to more than 5 million borrowers, who have received $183.6 billion in relief. This has been achieved through making sure existing debt relief programs were followed, as they had not been in the past.
Establishment Republicans continue to fight MAGA Republicans, and MAGA fights among itself: former Trump ally Steve Bannon yesterday called Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk “truly evil” and vowed to “take this guy down.” But even as their enablers in the legacy media are normalizing Republican behavior, a reality-based media is stepping up to counter the disinformation.
Aside from the many independent outlets that have held MAGA Republicans to account, MSNBC today announced that progressive journalist Rachel Maddow will return to hosting a nightly one-hour show for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.
And today journalist Jennifer Rubin joined her colleagues who have abandoned the Washington Post as it swung toward Trump. She resigned from the Washington Post with the announcement that she and former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen have started a new media outlet called The Contrarian. Joining them is a gold-star list of journalists and commentators who have stood against the rise of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, many of whom have left publications as those outlets moved rightward.
“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission—defending, protecting and advancing democracy,” Rubin wrote in her resignation announcement. In contrast, the new publication “will be a central hub for unvarnished, unbowed, and uncompromising reported opinion and analysis that exists in opposition to the authoritarian threat.”
“The urgency of the task before us cannot be overstated,” The Contrarian’s mission statement read. “We have already entered the era of oligarchy—rule by a narrow clique of powerful men (almost exclusively men). We have little doubt that billionaires will dominate the Trump regime, shape policy, engage in massive self-dealing, and seek to quash dissent and competition in government and the private sector. As believers in free markets subject to reasonable regulation and economic opportunity for all, we recognize this is a threat not only to our democracy but to our dynamic, vibrant economy that remains the envy of the world.”
In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57v
Legal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing
——
I think the US has a long road back.
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
Trump is going to mess with the timeline and Starfleet will never exist
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine but most of the people here will be a jibbering mess after 4 years.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
What do you think is going to happen?
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
What do you think is going to happen?
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
It will a fascist dystopia before we know it.
The world will go the war when they invade Canada
They will have already conquered South America but everyone let that slide.
They will blitzkrieg at the beginning but Trump in his wisdom will take over and make all war plans.
Greenland not being green with confuse him and they will waste resources looking for it.
Jesus will travel in time and the Americants will kill him as he’s Jewish and not a white man who looks like the ex-singer of a Christian rock band.
God will be annoyed and smite them
Cymek said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
It will a fascist dystopia before we know it.
The world will go the war when they invade Canada
They will have already conquered South America but everyone let that slide.
They will blitzkrieg at the beginning but Trump in his wisdom will take over and make all war plans.
Greenland not being green with confuse him and they will waste resources looking for it.
Jesus will travel in time and the Americants will kill him as he’s Jewish and not a white man who looks like the ex-singer of a Christian rock band.
God will be annoyed and smite them
I’ve heard worse prognostications.
Cymek said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
It will a fascist dystopia before we know it.
The world will go the war when they invade Canada
They will have already conquered South America but everyone let that slide.
They will blitzkrieg at the beginning but Trump in his wisdom will take over and make all war plans.
Greenland not being green with confuse him and they will waste resources looking for it.
Jesus will travel in time and the Americants will kill him as he’s Jewish and not a white man who looks like the ex-singer of a Christian rock band.
God will be annoyed and smite them
He’ll loose the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
captain_spalding said:
Cymek said:
dv said:Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
It will a fascist dystopia before we know it.
The world will go the war when they invade Canada
They will have already conquered South America but everyone let that slide.
They will blitzkrieg at the beginning but Trump in his wisdom will take over and make all war plans.
Greenland not being green with confuse him and they will waste resources looking for it.
Jesus will travel in time and the Americants will kill him as he’s Jewish and not a white man who looks like the ex-singer of a Christian rock band.
God will be annoyed and smite them
I’ve heard worse prognostications.
Thanks
I made it up on the spot and put some effort into it.
I think we are looking at having Queen Magan the First of America and her Consort Prince Harry.
Peak Warming Man said:
I think we are looking at having Queen Magan the First of America and her Consort Prince Harry.
Well, there’s a sector of the American community that positively i>yearns for a ‘proper’ aristocracy.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think we are looking at having Queen Magan the First of America and her Consort Prince Harry.
Well, there’s a sector of the American community that positively yearns for a ‘proper’ aristocracy.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think we are looking at having Queen Magan the First of America and her Consort Prince Harry.
Well, there’s a sector of the American community that positively i>yearns for a ‘proper’ aristocracy.
And proper chaps on Wall Street running things and if one of the chaps steps out of line they won’t muck around they’ll have him straight out to lunch.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think we are looking at having Queen Magan the First of America and her Consort Prince Harry.
Well, there’s a sector of the American community that positively yearns for a ‘proper’ aristocracy.
Ta
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine but most of the people here will be a jibbering mess after 4 years.
How will we know when that happens?
Arts said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/4tbaDI7ycrA?si=Yvex_ikmK4Nbz57vLegal Eagles
The Trump Sentencing——
I think the US has a long road back.
I think the US will be fine but most of the people here will be a jibbering mess after 4 years.
How will we know when that happens?
wook will let us know
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:I think the US will be fine
Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
What do you think is going to happen?
I think that the guarantee of immunity will increase Trump’s criminality tenfold. He was scarcely restrained in his first term, but now he knows he has nothing to worry about ever.
dv said:
Arts said:
Peak Warming Man said:I think the US will be fine but most of the people here will be a jibbering mess after 4 years.
How will we know when that happens?
wook will let us know
He is the one who replaced all birds with drones.
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:Not really though. The principle of equality before the law is one of the basic tenets of a modern democracy.
What do you think is going to happen?
I think that the guarantee of immunity will increase Trump’s criminality tenfold. He was scarcely restrained in his first term, but now he knows he has nothing to worry about ever.
Perhaps Musk is wanting guarantees of expanding his business so no one can compete with him on anything resembling equal terms.
Monopolies previously not allowed.
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…
The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
I don’t know the details of the US Constitution, but I do know none of those people were under its rules.
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
I suppose the worry is he’s prosecuted and civil war / riots ensue.
buffy said:
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
I don’t know the details of the US Constitution, but I do know none of those people were under its rules.
I trust my central point was plain.
(TBF there is one person who is immune from prosecution who holds an important position in Australia, but it is very much beyond party politics)
What if we turn America off then on again?
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
so uh how’s the law enforcement with that Korean ex president fella going then
Tau.Neutrino said:
What if we turn America off then on again?
Smart bomb the place sure who’s in¿
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
so uh how’s the law enforcement with that Korean ex president fella going then
She was imprisoned for five years and then received a pardon on compassionate grounds. She paid a fine of around 10 million dollars.
Cymek said:
dv said:
Arts said:How will we know when that happens?
wook will let us know
He is the one who replaced all birds with drones.
Where is the man or woman who will replace all the drones with birds?
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
Asi say, there’s a sector of the US that yearns for an aristocracy.
And,it seems that even way back in the time of their Revolution, and despite their mantra of ‘no king!’, there was felt a need for some form of royalty, and, in some ways, this was satisfied by awarding to the President some of the powers more usually associated with an absolute monarch.
Tau.Neutrino said:
What if we turn America off then on again?
I think it’s a power problem.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
What if we turn America off then on again?I think it’s a power problem.
I think your right.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
so uh how’s the law enforcement with that Korean ex president fella going then
She was imprisoned for five years and then received a pardon on compassionate grounds. She paid a fine of around 10 million dollars.
the fella not the shella… but we suppose it ain’t over yet, they’re still out with a warrant
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
Asi say, there’s a sector of the US that yearns for an aristocracy.
And,it seems that even way back in the time of their Revolution, and despite their mantra of ‘no king!’, there was felt a need for some form of royalty, and, in some ways, this was satisfied by awarding to the President some of the powers more usually associated with an absolute monarch.
I think the DOJ’s views on prosecuting sitting president’s only dates from the 1970s where it came up under Nixon. He was impeached using a political process of impeachment: not a lega process of prosecution for his actions.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
buffy said:
OOh, ooh, ooh…Jack Smith’s report is out…The DOJ’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind”
Honestly that’s completely fucked up. Boris Johnson was successfully prosecuted in office. Park Geun-hye was convicted of bribery. Jacques Chirac went down for embezzlement. It’s just a gig. It’s an administrative position. It’s not supposed to be a get out of jail free card.
Asi say, there’s a sector of the US that yearns for an aristocracy.
And,it seems that even way back in the time of their Revolution, and despite their mantra of ‘no king!’, there was felt a need for some form of royalty, and, in some ways, this was satisfied by awarding to the President some of the powers more usually associated with an absolute monarch.
Their model was a system with a hereditary monarch. They decided that they should elect their monarch.
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.
January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron Blake
In one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron BlakeIn one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/?
I hope they end up murdering and raping each other.
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.…
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/?
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. “
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron BlakeIn one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/?
I hope they end up murdering and raping each other.
Necrophilia?
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron BlakeIn one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/??
I hope they end up murdering and raping each other.
wait are they in prison already
SCIENCE said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron BlakeIn one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/ ?
I hope they end up murdering and raping each other.
Necrophilia?
wait are they in prison already
I hope your cellmate thinks he’s God
But C.N.N. refer to him as “Bowling Ball Bag Bob”
Serving time again for abuse of a corpse
Only this time the victim’s a Clydesdale horse
While he masturbates to photos of livestock
He does the “Silence of the Lambs” dance to Christian Rock
Eats feces and quotes from Deliverance,
And fights with his imaginary playmate Vince
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
A new clash between Stephen K. Bannon and Elon Musk epitomizes the fraught and bellicose confederation that surrounds Donald Trump.January 13, 2025 at 12:01 p.m. EST Today at 12:01 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron BlakeIn one week, the MAGA movement will make its triumphant return to the top echelon of power in Washington, with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president. This time, he will lead a party and congressional contingent more thoroughly crafted in his image.
But that in and of itself has created problems, because the MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions. It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear.
That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base.
And the fight over what Trumpism means has gotten quite ugly quite quickly.
While previous battles were mostly between the old Republican establishment and MAGA, the new ones are largely between various sectors of the MAGA movement jostling for influence.
And because the tensions appear intractable and Trump has fostered such a combative movement, the clashes don’t appear likely to subside any time soon.
The most recent fight pits one of the most significant figures in Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon, against the face of Trump’s 2024 win, Elon Musk. Bannon has now thrown down the gauntlet and pledged to oust Musk from Trump’s orbit.
Bannon went so far last week as to tell Musk to “go back to South Africa,” where Musk was born and which Bannon said is home to “the most racist people on earth, White South Africans.” (Bannon also invoked other influential Trump advisers with ties to South Africa, David Sacks and Peter Thiel, in his comments.)
He called Musk “truly evil” and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders. Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order.
“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon pledged in an interview with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.
Musk doesn’t appear to have responded thus far. But the clash traces back to perhaps the most pitched internal MAGA fight of the Trump transition. That’s when Bannon and his nationalist allies blanched at Musk’s and fellow “Department of Government Efficiency” head Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.
That fight climaxed when Musk claimed that American workers aren’t good enough for those jobs and Ramaswamy said American culture doesn’t produce enough quality workers for sectors like the tech industry.
Musk ultimately began calling his MAGA critics “subtards” and said that these “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” He later clarified that the “contemptible fools” were “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Musk then directed an expletive at his H-1B critics, adding: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”
Several MAGA-oriented critics of Musk’s position claimed he censored them by taking action against their accounts on X, the social media platform he runs. Musk, who once labeled himself a “free speech absolutist,” ultimately appeared to defend demonetizing such accounts, agreeing with a user who accused them of “inexcusable behavior.”
Expect to hear more about that in the months to come, given Musk’s sudden influence and his rather selective version of free-speech absolutism.
The other internal MAGA battles haven’t been as high-profile, but they also point to simmering internal discord.
In recent days, MAGA allies and cultural conservatives on social media have begun criticizing other MAGA figures for platforming self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces charges in Romania that include human trafficking. Tate has boasted about luring women to produce webcam pornography and then controlling them. He also once boasted about breaking a woman’s jaw.
The critics have targeted Alina Habba, Trump’s incoming White House counselor, and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who both appeared with Tate on Johnson’s show in recent days. Habba effusively praised Tate and likened him to Trump.
Johnson responded to critics this weekend on X, saying: “If you’re upset that people you disagree with have conversations you need to find a different year to live in. Its 2025. Censorship & deplatforming is dead.”
Some on the MAGA right have also criticized Vice President-elect JD Vance for signaling this weekend that Trump would not pardon Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes. Vance ultimately felt compelled to defend his comments, offering assurances that he is an ally of the Jan. 6 defendants.
And further back, many high-profile Republicans and conservatives spoke out against extreme right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who once labeled herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a history of racist online posts, after she appeared with Trump around the time of his poor debate performance last fall. Loomer also appeared with Trump at a 9/11 memorial despite espousing as recently as 2023 the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attack was an “inside job.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Loomer’s past statements “beyond disturbing,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — no stranger to her own extreme and conspiratorial claims — said Loomer doesn’t represent MAGA or the Republican Party and urged Trump to distance himself. (Trump later issued a statement disavowing Loomer’s past comments but defending her in other ways.)
It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base. Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him. That has made surmising his administration’s ideological course difficult.
“I like conflict,” he said in 2018. “I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that.”
But he’s also coming into power with exceedingly small congressional majorities, especially in the House, which should place a premium on unity. And his first term was clearly hampered by his chaotic style.
Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over. Both Bannon and Musk have now effectively vowed to wage war.
Expect these to be the first of many fights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/13/trump-maga-infighting/?
I hope they end up murdering and raping each other.
Necrophilia?
I was thinking more Old Testament stuff. Try Deuteronomy Chapter 20.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Necrophilia?
wait are they in prison already
I hope your cellmate thinks he’s God
But C.N.N. refer to him as “Bowling Ball Bag Bob”
Serving time again for abuse of a corpse
Only this time the victim’s a Clydesdale horse
While he masturbates to photos of livestock
He does the “Silence of the Lambs” dance to Christian Rock
Eats feces and quotes from Deliverance,
And fights with his imaginary playmate Vince
Steady lad.
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California | California wildfires | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/warren-davidson-republican-disaster-relief-california-wildfires
So California contributes how much to the federal coffers? It’s like the 5th largest economy in the fucking world…iirc?
Pardon me if I am incorrect, I’m half awake.
These conservative fuckers just make me want to punch their stupid faces.
Yesterday I watched Pierre Trudeau being interviewed by Jen Psaki, such an eloquent and intelligent man, so diplomatic. Underneath his calm exterior I’m sure he wants to smack trump upside the head.
kii said:
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California | California wildfires | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/warren-davidson-republican-disaster-relief-california-wildfiresSo California contributes how much to the federal coffers? It’s like the 5th largest economy in the fucking world…iirc?
Pardon me if I am incorrect, I’m half awake.
These conservative fuckers just make me want to punch their stupid faces.
Yesterday I watched Pierre Trudeau being interviewed by Jen Psaki, such an eloquent and intelligent man, so diplomatic. Underneath his calm exterior I’m sure he wants to smack trump upside the head.
Put your mental seatbelt on. 4 years, it’s gunna be a long ride.
kii said:
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California | California wildfires | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/warren-davidson-republican-disaster-relief-california-wildfiresSo California contributes how much to the federal coffers? It’s like the 5th largest economy in the fucking world…iirc?
Pardon me if I am incorrect, I’m half awake.
These conservative fuckers just make me want to punch their stupid faces.
Yesterday I watched Pierre Trudeau being interviewed by Jen Psaki, such an eloquent and intelligent man, so diplomatic. Underneath his calm exterior I’m sure he wants to smack trump upside the head.
“In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.
Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G D P.” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.””
Courtesy Heather Cox Richardson and SM from down there:
V
V
V
V
tauto said:
kii said:
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California | California wildfires | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/warren-davidson-republican-disaster-relief-california-wildfiresSo California contributes how much to the federal coffers? It’s like the 5th largest economy in the fucking world…iirc?
Pardon me if I am incorrect, I’m half awake.
These conservative fuckers just make me want to punch their stupid faces.
Yesterday I watched Pierre Trudeau being interviewed by Jen Psaki, such an eloquent and intelligent man, so diplomatic. Underneath his calm exterior I’m sure he wants to smack trump upside the head.
Put your mental seatbelt on. 4 years, it’s gunna be a long ride.
I’m coming home. Slow process made harder by my health problems.
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California | California wildfires | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/warren-davidson-republican-disaster-relief-california-wildfiresSo California contributes how much to the federal coffers? It’s like the 5th largest economy in the fucking world…iirc?
Pardon me if I am incorrect, I’m half awake.
These conservative fuckers just make me want to punch their stupid faces.
Yesterday I watched Pierre Trudeau being interviewed by Jen Psaki, such an eloquent and intelligent man, so diplomatic. Underneath his calm exterior I’m sure he wants to smack trump upside the head.
“In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.
Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G D P.” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.””
Courtesy Heather Cox Richardson and SM from down there:
V
V
V
V
Ta, I read HCR’s earlier. Pieces about this issue crop up whenever disasters happen.
Another absolute piece of idiocy is blaming DEI for the perceived failure of the response. That’s a relatively new scapegoat, recently amplified by the orange stain during the election.
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?
Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
dv said:
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
kii said:
dv said:
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
Heterosexual ? Don’t make me laugh…
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
dv said:
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
Heterosexual ? Don’t make me laugh…
Have I misunderstood him for all these years? Was he not famed for seducing old women at the bus stop with BBQ chooks? Maybe that was a fever dream?
I need to check my notes.
kii said:
dv said:
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
PWM is compassionate. He quietly assisted me when bad shit was going on in my life about 15 or 20 years ago.
kii said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
Heterosexual ? Don’t make me laugh…
Have I misunderstood him for all these years? Was he not famed for seducing old women at the bus stop with BBQ chooks? Maybe that was a fever dream?
I need to check my notes.
Sounds like the desperate elaborations of a bad liar.
Michael V said:
kii said:
dv said:
Honestly, PWM … we had conversations like this in 2016. How bad can it be?Due to my lack of imagination I had no idea about how bad it could be. I knew he would try to kill affordable care and blow out the deficit with tax cuts for his friends, I knew he would stack the courts and sound as ignorant as possible.
But I really didn’t think he would let his vanity and denialism kill 2 million of his compatriots while he dithered, or try to send fraudulent electors to block his successors’ certification, or hold up aid that Congress had approved so that he could blackmail other countries into helping him politically or try to destroy NATO or bust his gut trying to get Russia into the G7, or stow nuclear secrets at his resort and show them around to anyone who wanted to look.
That was the constrained version of him, with half an eye on reelection and some fear of prosecution. Both of those concerns are gone now.
PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
PWM is compassionate. He quietly assisted me when bad shit was going on in my life about 15 or 20 years ago.
Selective compassion.
This guy is trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Some of Pete Hegseth’s tattoos…
kii said:
This guy is trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Some of Pete Hegseth’s tattoos…
No Fascism Here
kii said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:PWM lacks the compassion gene, amongst other things. Typical for his perceived entitled status. Old white heterosexual conservative male. I’d be amazed if he’s ever experienced discrimination in his life.
Heterosexual ? Don’t make me laugh…
Have I misunderstood him for all these years? Was he not famed for seducing old women at the bus stop with BBQ chooks? Maybe that was a fever dream?
I need to check my notes.
wtf everyone knows that homosexuals are the most attractive to women
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
This guy is trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Some of Pete Hegseth’s tattoos…
No Fascism Here
Clearly not.
President Joe Biden is to remove the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a prisoner release deal, the White House said on Tuesday.
Shortly afterwards, Cuba announced it would release 553 prisoners detained for “diverse crimes”. It is hoped these will include participants in anti-government protests four years ago.
President-elect Donald Trump reinstated the country’s terror designation in the final days of his first presidency in 2021, banning US economic aid and arms exports to the country.
But on Tuesday, a Biden administration official said an assessment of the situation had presented “no information” that supported the designation.
—-
Not sure how much exportin’ they can do in a week but okay
dv said:
Nice one.
Pity some people wouldn’t just stop spouting bullshit.
dv said:
I really hate conservative idiots. Dangerous people.
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
You can let me have a go. I reckon I’d do a better job than no fact-checking.
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
Did you mean to post the same image twice?
Or did I miss something?
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
Did you mean to post the same image twice?
Or did I miss something?
He’s slowly driving them mad.
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
I had a look at her Twitter pages.
She claims that Biden is getting ready to take credit for Trump’s success in brokering a Gaza peace deal, and release of hostages.
I asked her if that was in any way similar to what Reagan did, after Carter did the hard yards forthe relase of the hostages in Iran.
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
I had a look at her Twitter pages.
She claims that Biden is getting ready to take credit for Trump’s success in brokering a Gaza peace deal, and release of hostages.
I asked her if that was in any way similar to what Reagan did, after Carter did the hard yards forthe relase of the hostages in Iran.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
dv said:
Meanwhile
Who is to say what is true in this crazy world.
I had a look at her Twitter pages.
She claims that Biden is getting ready to take credit for Trump’s success in brokering a Gaza peace deal, and release of hostages.
I asked her if that was in any way similar to what Reagan did, after Carter did the hard yards for the release of the hostages in Iran.
:)
Heather Cox Richardson
13m ·
January 14, 2025 (Tuesday)
Shortly after midnight last night, the Justice Department released special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on former president Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The 137-page report concludes that “substantial evidence demonstrates that Mr. Trump…engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”
The report explains the case Smith and his team compiled against Trump. It outlines the ways in which evidence proved Trump broke laws, and it lays out the federal interests served by prosecuting Trump. It explains how the team investigated Trump, interviewing more than 250 people and obtaining the testimony of more than 55 witnesses before a grand jury, and how Justice Department policy governed that investigation. It also explains how Trump’s litigation and the U.S. Supreme Court’s surprising determination that Trump enjoyed immunity from prosecution for breaking laws as part of his official duties dramatically slowed the prosecution.
There is little in the part of the report covering Trump’s behavior that was not already public information. The report explains how Trump lied that he won the 2020 presidential election and continued to lie even when his own appointees and employees told him he had lost. It lays out how he pressured state officials to throw out votes for his opponent, then-president-elect Joe Biden, and how he and his cronies recruited false electors in key states Trump lost to create slates of false electoral votes.
It explains how Trump tried to force Justice Department officials to support his lie and to trick states into rescinding their electoral votes for Biden and how, finally, he pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to either throw out votes for Biden or send state counts back to the states. When Pence refused, correctly asserting that he had no such power, Trump urged his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol. He refused to call them off for hours.
Smith explained that the Justice Department concluded that Trump was guilty on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States by trying “to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest”; obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct by creating false evidence; and conspiracy against rights by trying to take away people’s right to vote for president.
The report explains why the Justice Department did not bring charges against Trump for insurrection, noting that such cases are rare and definitions of “insurrection” are unclear, raising concerns that such a charge would endanger the larger case.
The report explained that prosecuting Trump served important national interests. The government has an interest in the integrity of the country’s process for “collecting, counting, and certifying presidential elections.” It cares about “a peaceful and orderly transition of presidential power.” It cares that “every citizen’s vote is counted” and about “protecting public officials and government workers from violence.” Finally, it cares about “the fair and even-handed enforcement of the law.”
While the report contained little new information, what jumped out from its stark recitation of the events of late 2020 and early 2021 was the power of Trump’s lies. There was no evidence that he won the 2020 election; to the contrary, all evidence showed he lost it. Even he didn’t appear to believe he had won. And yet, by the sheer power of repeating the lie that he had won and getting his cronies to repeat it, along with embellishments that were also lies—about suitcases of ballots, and thumb drives, and voting machines, and so on—he induced his followers to try to overthrow a free and fair election and install him in the presidency.
He continued this disinformation after he left office, and then engaged in lawfare, with both him and friendly witnesses slowing down his cases by challenging subpoenas until there were no more avenues to challenge them. And then the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in.
The report calls out the extraordinary July 2024 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. United States declaring that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts. “Before this case,” the report reads, “no court had ever found that Presidents are immune from criminal responsibility for their official acts, and no text in the Constitution explicitly confers such criminal immunity on the President.” It continued: “o President whose conduct was investigated (other than Mr. Trump) ever claimed absolute criminal immunity for all official acts.”
The report quoted the dissent of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, noting that the decision of the Republican-appointed justices “effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding.”
That observation hits hard today, as January 14 is officially Ratification Day, the anniversary of the day in 1784 when members of the Confederation Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War and formally recognized the independence of the United States from Great Britain. The colonists had thrown off monarchy and determined to have a government of laws, not of men.
But Trump threw off that bedrock principle with a lie. His success recalls how Confederates who lost the Civil War resurrected their cause by claiming that the lenience of General Ulysses S. Grant of the United States toward officers and soldiers who surrendered at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 showed not the mercy of a victor but rather an understanding that the Confederates’ defense of human slavery was superior to the ideas of those trying to preserve the United States as a land based in the idea that all men were created equal.
When no punishment was forthcoming for those who had tried to destroy the United States, that story of Appomattox became the myth of the Lost Cause, defending the racial hierarchies of the Old South and attacking the federal government that tried to make opportunity and equal rights available for everyone. In response to federal protection of Black rights after 1948, when President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. military, Confederate symbols and Confederate ideology began their return to the front of American culture, where they fed the reactionary right. The myth of the Lost Cause and Trump’s lie came together in the rioters who carried the Confederate battle flag when they breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth, is adamant about restoring the names of Confederate generals to U.S. military installations. His confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee began today.
The defense secretary oversees about 1.3 million active-duty troops and another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions, as well as a budget of more than $800 billion. Hegseth has none of the usual qualifications of defense secretaries. As Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare pointed out today, he has “never held a policy role…never run anything larger than a company of 200 soldiers…never been elected to anything.”
Hegseth suggested his lack of qualifications was a strength, saying in his opening statement that while “t is true that I don’t have a similar biography to Defense Secretaries of the last 30 years…as President Trump…told me, we’ve repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly ‘the right credentials’…and where has it gotten us? He believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm.”
The “dust on his boots” claim was designed to make Hegseth’s authenticity outweigh his lack of credentials, but former Marine pilot Amy McGrath pointed out that Trump’s defense secretary James Mattis and Biden’s defense secretary Lloyd Austin, both of whom reached the top ranks of the military, each came from the infantry.
Hegseth has settled an accusation of sexual assault, appears to have a history of alcohol abuse, and has been accused of financial mismanagement at two small veterans’ nonprofits. But he appears to embody the sort of strongman ethos Trump craves. Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic did a deep dive into Hegseth’s recent books and concluded that Hegseth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.” Hegseth’s books suggest he thinks that everything that does not support the MAGA worldview is “Marxist,” including voters choosing Democrats at the voting booth. He calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left” and says that without its “utter annihilation,” “America cannot, and will not, survive.”
When Hegseth was in the Army National Guard, a fellow service member who was the unit’s security guard and on an anti-terrorism team flagged Hegseth to their unit’s leadership because one of his tattoos is used by white supremacists. Extremist tattoos are prohibited by army regulations. Hegseth lobbied Trump to intervene in the cases of service members accused of war crimes, and he cheered on Trump’s January 6, 2021, rally. Hegseth has said women do not belong in combat and has been vocal about his opposition to the equity and inclusion measures in the military that he calls “woke.”
Wittes noted after today’s hearing that “he words ‘Russia’ and ‘Ukraine’ barely came up. The words ‘China’ and ‘Taiwan’ made only marginally more conspicuous an appearance. The defense of Europe? One would hardly know such a place as Europe even existed. By contrast, the words ‘lethality,’ ‘woke,’ and ‘DEI’ came up repeatedly. The nominee sparred with members of the committee over the difference between ‘equality’ and ‘equity.’”
Senate Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) spoke today in favor of Hegseth, and Republicans initially uncomfortable with the nominee appear to be coming around to supporting him. But Hegseth refused to meet with Democrats on the committee, and they made it clear that they will not make the vote easy for Republicans.
The top Democrat on the committee, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) said he did not believe Hegseth was qualified for the position. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) exposed his lack of knowledge about U.S. allies and bluntly told him he was unqualified, later telling MSNBC that Hegseth will be an easy target for adversaries with blackmail material.
Hegseth told the armed services committee that all the negative information about him was part of a “smear campaign,” at the same time that he refused to say he would refuse to shoot peaceful protesters in the legs or refuse an unconstitutional order.
After the release of Jack Smith’s report, Trump posted on his social media channel that regardless of what he had done to the country, voters had exonerated him: “Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide,” he wrote. “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
It’s as if the Confederates’ descendants have captured the government of the United States.
sarahs mum said:
“THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
It’s as if the Confederates’ descendants have captured the government of the United States.
“as if”
LOL
Unbelievable.
kii said:
Unbelievable.
In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three ofthem, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Unbelievable.
In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three ofthem, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
That’s not good enough.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Unbelievable.
In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three ofthem, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
That’s not good enough.
Possibly the best of a poor list of candidates?
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three ofthem, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
That’s not good enough.
Possibly the best of a poor list of candidates?
A better list is needed.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three ofthem, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
That’s not good enough.
Possibly the best of a poor list of candidates?
Elizabeth Warren ripped his balls off. It was beautiful to watch.
kii said:
Unbelievable.
Hang about.
Do you really expect a Trump nominee to know anything?
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:That’s not good enough.
Possibly the best of a poor list of candidates?
A better list is needed.
From the Republican party?
Good luck with that.
dv said:
FMD
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Unbelievable.
In his favour, he (1) recognises that there are countries west of the international date line, and (2) he can name three of them, including one that’s south of the Equator.
Which puts him streets ahead of most of Trump’s lackeys.
LOL
Michael V said:
kii said:
Unbelievable.
Hang about.
Do you really expect a Trump nominee to know anything?
Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine ( oh yes, Australia has lost billions too but that’s ok they can just put up taxes). I reckon the yanks have lost a trillion in ukraine
dv said:
:)
dv said:
I reckon should they ever need at Mar-a-Lago Kanye should give Elon the meds he doesn’t want to take himself.
wookiemeister said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Unbelievable.
Hang about.
Do you really expect a Trump nominee to know anything?
Remember that time the Biden government lost 90 billion dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan ?Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine ( oh yes, Australia has lost billions too but that’s ok they can just put up taxes). I reckon the yanks have lost a trillion in ukraine
“Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine …”
…and an awful lot of it belonged to the Russian military.
None of it, or any civilian property, to say nothing of thousands and thousands of lives, would have been destroyed if the Russians had done one simple thing:
stay at home.
captain_spalding said:
wookiemeister said:
Michael V said:Hang about.
Do you really expect a Trump nominee to know anything?
Remember that time the Biden government lost 90 billion dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan ?Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine ( oh yes, Australia has lost billions too but that’s ok they can just put up taxes). I reckon the yanks have lost a trillion in ukraine
“Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine …”
…and an awful lot of it belonged to the Russian military.
None of it, or any civilian property, to say nothing of thousands and thousands of lives, would have been destroyed if the Russians had done one simple thing:
stay at home.
Remember that time they fought against the nazis in ww2
Its always been Russia
Ukraine was initially an invention of the soviet union , then after 1991 the US government started breeding nazis there and fuelling it with weapons and military advisors so they could use it as a battering ram against Russia.
Keep sowing the wind i say. Australia needs to send its army, navy and airforce to ukraine as a unilateral measure for muh democracy. Doubtful though – the Aussie spirit is a punch down society – attack the weak, promote the stupid. If the Australian government could get enough killed in ukraine there would be no rental crisis / house price crisis.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Possibly the best of a poor list of candidates?
A better list is needed.
From the Republican party?
Good luck with that.
They’re not supposed to be party hacks, they’re supposed to be people of competence and experience in that particular field.
Australia is a country that killed itself
wookiemeister said:
captain_spalding said:
wookiemeister said:Remember that time the Biden government lost 90 billion dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan ?
Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine ( oh yes, Australia has lost billions too but that’s ok they can just put up taxes). I reckon the yanks have lost a trillion in ukraine
“Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine …”
…and an awful lot of it belonged to the Russian military.
None of it, or any civilian property, to say nothing of thousands and thousands of lives, would have been destroyed if the Russians had done one simple thing:
stay at home.
They are at homeRemember that time they fought against the nazis in ww2
Its always been Russia
Ukraine was initially an invention of the soviet union , then after 1991 the US government started breeding nazis there and fuelling it with weapons and military advisors so they could use it as a battering ram against Russia.
Keep sowing the wind i say. Australia needs to send its army, navy and airforce to ukraine as a unilateral measure for muh democracy. Doubtful though – the Aussie spirit is a punch down society – attack the weak, promote the stupid. If the Australian government could get enough killed in ukraine there would be no rental crisis / house price crisis.
Wookie,
There’s some things that you seem to have forgotten.
Here’s where you can read about one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Ukrainian_Friendship_Treaty
Russia was entirely happy to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation in 1997, a separate entity, entitled to form its own foreign policy, with borders, the inviolability of which Russia was pleased to observe, with the treaty preventing Ukraine and Russia from invading one another’s country respectively.
A treaty freely and willingly signed by authorised representatives of the Russian government.
So, for at least a while, as far as Russia viewed the situation, it wasn’t “always Russia”.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:A better list is needed.
From the Republican party?
Good luck with that.
They’re not supposed to be party hacks, they’re supposed to be people of competence and experience in that particular field.
“…supposed to be…”
Aye, there’s the rub.
captain_spalding said:
wookiemeister said:
captain_spalding said:“Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine …”
…and an awful lot of it belonged to the Russian military.
None of it, or any civilian property, to say nothing of thousands and thousands of lives, would have been destroyed if the Russians had done one simple thing:
stay at home.
They are at homeRemember that time they fought against the nazis in ww2
Its always been Russia
Ukraine was initially an invention of the soviet union , then after 1991 the US government started breeding nazis there and fuelling it with weapons and military advisors so they could use it as a battering ram against Russia.
Keep sowing the wind i say. Australia needs to send its army, navy and airforce to ukraine as a unilateral measure for muh democracy. Doubtful though – the Aussie spirit is a punch down society – attack the weak, promote the stupid. If the Australian government could get enough killed in ukraine there would be no rental crisis / house price crisis.
Wookie,
There’s some things that you seem to have forgotten.
Here’s where you can read about one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Ukrainian_Friendship_Treaty
Russia was entirely happy to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation in 1997, a separate entity, entitled to form its own foreign policy, with borders, the inviolability of which Russia was pleased to observe, with the treaty preventing Ukraine and Russia from invading one another’s country respectively.
A treaty freely and willingly signed by authorised representatives of the Russian government.
So, for at least a while, as far as Russia viewed the situation, it wasn’t “always Russia”.
It is refreshing with my new Zen-like calm to entirely ignore Wookie and his mind boggling stupidity. Honestly he couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
wookiemeister said:
captain_spalding said:
wookiemeister said:Remember that time the Biden government lost 90 billion dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan ?
Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine ( oh yes, Australia has lost billions too but that’s ok they can just put up taxes). I reckon the yanks have lost a trillion in ukraine
“Billions of dollars of military equipment has been destroyed in ukraine …”
…and an awful lot of it belonged to the Russian military.
None of it, or any civilian property, to say nothing of thousands and thousands of lives, would have been destroyed if the Russians had done one simple thing:
stay at home.
They are at homeRemember that time they fought against the nazis in ww2
Its always been Russia
Ukraine was initially an invention of the soviet union , then after 1991 the US government started breeding nazis there and fuelling it with weapons and military advisors so they could use it as a battering ram against Russia.
Keep sowing the wind i say. Australia needs to send its army, navy and airforce to ukraine as a unilateral measure for muh democracy. Doubtful though – the Aussie spirit is a punch down society – attack the weak, promote the stupid. If the Australian government could get enough killed in ukraine there would be no rental crisis / house price crisis.
Ukraine was Ukraine before russia even existed.
Kiev was founded before Moscow.
I kind of feel sorry for people in the FSB. They probably signed up thinking it was going to be action and intrigue, undercover, poisoning someone’s drink in a casino, escaping with a rocket propelled grappling hook etc.
Instead you’re stuck in a cubical, dryly submitting Putin’s talking points on an Australian Holiday forum.
dv said:
I kind of feel sorry for people in the FSB. They probably signed up thinking it was going to be action and intrigue, undercover, poisoning someone’s drink in a casino, escaping with a rocket propelled grappling hook etc.Instead you’re stuck in a cubical, dryly submitting Putin’s talking points on an Australian Holiday forum.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Made my day, thanks dv.
dv said:
I kind of feel sorry for people in the FSB. They probably signed up thinking it was going to be action and intrigue, undercover, poisoning someone’s drink in a casino, escaping with a rocket propelled grappling hook etc.Instead you’re stuck in a cubical, dryly submitting Putin’s talking points on an Australian Holiday forum.
LOL
