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
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.
A monkey wrench in your civilisation, happy to destroy it with no other plan other than to destroy it.
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.
A monkey wrench in your civilisation, happy to destroy it with no other plan other than to destroy it.
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.
A monkey wrench in your civilisation, happy to destroy it with no other plan other than to destroy it.
Now the Labor party is in control you’ve got no future
Your children will have no homes
In California Labor voters brought in a Labor government and now they have no homes
wookiemeister said:
In California Labor voters brought in a Labor government and now they have no homes
There’s no Labor party in California.
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
kii said:
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
so peace is less important then anti-Semitism then
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
so peace is less important then anti-Semitism then
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
so peace is less important then anti-Semitism then
I really don’t care about Israel. I’ve reached a point where my compassion has been emptied. Empathy burn out.
kii said:
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
I don’t suppose anything is going to change until the entire Middle East grows up and ditches the extremist god beliefs.
Even then likely not.
They all have versions of the truth that are mostly lies and their own narrow point of view.
Not good for lasting peace if its forced and nothing and no one changes.
Cymek said:
I don’t suppose anything is going to change until the entire Middle East grows up and ditches the extremist god beliefs.Even then likely not.
They all have versions of the truth that are mostly lies and their own narrow point of view.
Not good for lasting peace if its forced and nothing and no one changes.
religion lol
dv said:
kii said:
Saw a post about Biden, Blinken and Israel….peace? Can’t be bothered looking for more info. Israel can get fucked.
Yes, it’s extremely complicated.
Due to my current life situation I have had to limit myself to what I care about. Top of my list is always the children caught up in war, but as I get physically sick about it all I have to shutdown my brain. Luckily I am not an idiot who believes in prayer.
we believe opium of the people can do work
SCIENCE said:
we believe opium of the people can do work
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
we believe opium of the people can do work
opiumC4 of the people
nitazenes, hydrazines, same difference
Cymek said:
I don’t suppose anything is going to change until the entire Middle East grows up and ditches the extremist god beliefs.Even then likely not.
They all have versions of the truth that are mostly lies and their own narrow point of view.
Not good for lasting peace if its forced and nothing and no one changes.
It’s not about gods, although it appears to be.
It’s about who thinks they should have inherited the land. (ie: About who pushed who off the land; who stole it, etc.)
Religion is a measure of ethnicity. And so it measures “perpetrators and their kin” and “dispossessed and their kin”.
SCIENCE said:
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
we believe opium of the people can do work
opiumC4 of the peoplenitazenes, hydrazines, same difference
SCIENCE said:
we believe opium of the people can do work
I wasn’t trying to be nasty with my comment about religion.
Just that with so many people with extreme views of religion it doesn’t work for peace.
Some common ground is needed otherwise its more like a forced peace until something bad happens and it starts again.
Michael V said:
Cymek said:
I don’t suppose anything is going to change until the entire Middle East grows up and ditches the extremist god beliefs.Even then likely not.
They all have versions of the truth that are mostly lies and their own narrow point of view.
Not good for lasting peace if its forced and nothing and no one changes.
It’s not about gods, although it appears to be.
It’s about who thinks they should have inherited the land. (ie: About who pushed who off the land; who stole it, etc.)
Religion is a measure of ethnicity. And so it measures “perpetrators and their kin” and “dispossessed and their kin”.
Its not simple is it.
Its just a very sad situation as so many people die for nothing
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
Cymek said:
I don’t suppose anything is going to change until the entire Middle East grows up and ditches the extremist god beliefs.
Even then likely not.
They all have versions of the truth that are mostly lies and their own narrow point of view.
Not good for lasting peace if its forced and nothing and no one changes.
It’s not about gods, although it appears to be.
It’s about who thinks they should have inherited the land. (ie: About who pushed who off the land; who stole it, etc.)
Religion is a measure of ethnicity. And so it measures “perpetrators and their kin” and “dispossessed and their kin”.
Its not simple is it.
Its just a very sad situation as so many people die for nothing
well that’s rather judgemental now, they died for their team
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
It’s not about gods, although it appears to be.
It’s about who thinks they should have inherited the land. (ie: About who pushed who off the land; who stole it, etc.)
Religion is a measure of ethnicity. And so it measures “perpetrators and their kin” and “dispossessed and their kin”.
Its not simple is it.
Its just a very sad situation as so many people die for nothing
well that’s rather judgemental now, they died for their team
to our glorious dead.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-16/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-analysis-trump-netanyahu-two-state/104824160
In Summary;
Donald Trump may call this epic, but unless the world pushes for a political solution based on equal rights for Palestinians rather than a military solution of occupation this will merely be a pause before more killing.
roughbarked said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-16/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-analysis-trump-netanyahu-two-state/104824160
In Summary;
Donald Trump may call this epic, but unless the world pushes for a political solution based on equal rights for Palestinians rather than a military solution of occupation this will merely be a pause before more killing.
I suspect his solution in the Ukraine will be similar
dv said:
roughbarked said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-16/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-analysis-trump-netanyahu-two-state/104824160
In Summary;
Donald Trump may call this epic, but unless the world pushes for a political solution based on equal rights for Palestinians rather than a military solution of occupation this will merely be a pause before more killing.
I suspect his solution in the Ukraine will be similar
Aye.
Joe Biden’s announcement ofthe Gaza ceasefire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAlULVM3HQ
Go straight to the 10 minute 10 sec mark, right near the end, for the best part.
Heather Cox Richardson
6m ·
January 15, 2025 (Wednesday)
It is somehow fitting that President Joe Biden’s farewell address to the nation, scheduled for 8:00 Eastern time tonight, was overshadowed today by the dramatic announcement that after months of negotiation backed by the United States and facilitated by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire and to exchange Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023, for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
From when he broke his foot playing with his dog shortly after he was elected in 2020 and opted to forgo time-consuming physical therapy to address the stiffness in his gait in order to focus on his work, to the day of his January 2021 inauguration when he went straight to the office, through his decision to negotiate the historic 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange involving 26 prisoners and at least five nations at the expense of his reelection campaign, to today’s focus on the long-awaited ceasefire rather than his final speech, Biden has approached the office of the presidency as an opportunity to work for the goals he thinks advance the interests of the United States of America and its people.
This afternoon, Biden appeared, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Good afternoon,” he said to the press. “And it’s a very good afternoon, because at long last I can announce a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas. more than 15 months of conflict that began with brutal massacre of October the seventh, more than 15 months of terror for the hostages, their families, the Israeli people, more than fifteen months of suffering by the innocent people in Gaza, fighting in Gaza will stop and soon the hostages will return home to their families.”
“The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May,” Biden said. That plan “was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the U.N. Security Council.” It has three phases.
Phase one is a six-week ceasefire in which Israeli forces will withdraw from all the populated areas of Gaza and Palestinians can return to their homes. Hamas will release the women, elderly, wounded, and American hostages it holds. Humanitarian assistance will surge into Gaza.
“During the next six weeks,” Biden said, “Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end of the war.” The ceasefire will continue throughout the negotiations, even if they take longer than six weeks. Once phase two begins, the remaining living hostages will come home and all remaining Israeli forces will be withdrawn from Gaza.
In phase three the final remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families, and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin.
Biden noted that he has worked in foreign policy for decades and that “his is one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced.”
Tonight, Biden began his farewell address by reiterating that negotiators had reached a ceasefire deal. Although incoming president Trump has already tried to take credit for the deal, Biden said: “This plan was developed and negotiated by my team. And it will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed. Because that’s how it should be. Working together as Americans.”
Biden then turned to his farewell message to the nation. He began by reflecting on the need to protect our institutions against the abuse of power. “Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances…may not be perfect,” he said, “but it’s maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years, longer than any other nation in history that’s ever tried such a bold experiment.”
“In the past four years, our democracy has held strong,” he said, “And every day, I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history.” He praised Vice President Kamala Harris as his partner, calling it the honor of his life to see Americans working together to come through a once-in-a-century pandemic, “standing up for our rights and our freedoms instead of losing their jobs to an economic crisis,” with “millions of entrepreneurs and companies creating new businesses and industries, hiring American workers, using American products.”
“Together,” Biden said, “we’ve launched a new era of American possibilities, one of the greatest modernizations of infrastructure in our entire history, from new roads, bridges, clean water, affordable high-speed Internet for every American.” We brought back semiconductor manufacturing to the United States, “creating thousands of jobs.” We have given “Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for millions of seniors” protected children and families “by passing the most significant gun safety law in 30 years and bringing violent crime to a 50-year low,” and met “our sacred obligation to over one million veterans so far who were exposed to toxic materials and to their families, providing medical care and education benefits.”
“We’ve created nearly 17 million new jobs—more than any other single administration in a single term. More people have healthcare than ever before. And overseas, we’ve strengthened NATO. Ukraine is still free. And we’ve pulled ahead of our competition with China…. I’m so proud of how much we’ve accomplished together for the American people. And I wish the incoming administration success. Because I want America to succeed.”
Then Biden issued a warning that will stand alongside other prescient warnings outgoing president’s have delivered, like President George Washington famously warning about the dangers of foreign entanglements, and President Dwight Eisenhower warning about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.”
Biden warned the country of “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people.” There are dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked, he said. “Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
Biden pointed out that a century ago the American people stood up to the robber barons and made them “play by the rules everybody else had to…. And it helped put us on a path to building the largest middle class in the world the most prosperous century any nation in the world has ever seen.”
He and his administration worked to accomplish this plan for the last four years, he said, with legislation aimed at both “protecting the environment and growing the economy,” but “powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interests for power and profit.” He warned about “the concentration of technology, power, and wealth.”
While President Eisenhower warned of the rise of the military-industrial complex and “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power,” Biden said that six decades later he is “equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.”
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” he said, “enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit…. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time.”
Going forward, Biden said, “it’s going to be up to the president…, the Congress, the courts, the free press, and the American people to confront these powerful forces.” He called for reforming the tax code to make billionaires pay their fair share, and for getting rid of the flood of dark money in politics.
He called for ethics rules and an 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices, and for banning members of Congress from trading stock. He also called for a constitutional amendment to make it clear that no president is immune from crimes they commit in office. “The president’s power is not unlimited,” he said. “It’s not absolute.”
The concentration of wealth and power threatens democracy, Biden warned, by eroding “the sense of unity and common purpose,” noting that when people feel they don’t have a fair shot at success, staying engaged in the process becomes “exhausting and even disillusioning.” It is essential to democracy for people to feel like they can go as far as their hard work and talent can take them.
Biden noted the “short distance between peril and possibility” but promised that “what I believe is the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. It’s up to us to make our dreams come true.”
After thanking members of his administration, public servants and first responders across the country and around the world, U.S. service members and their families, Vice President Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and their family, Biden offered his “eternal thanks to you, the American people.”
“After 50 years of public service,” he said, “I give you my word: I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands. A nation where the strengths of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure.
“Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith.
“I love America.
“You love it too.
“God bless you all.”
4 takeaways from Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing
She walked a very fine line on election denial and Trump prosecuting his enemies.
January 15, 2025 at 5:13 p.m. ESTtoday at 5:13 p.m. EST
Analysis by Aaron Blake
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi ®, is testifying Wednesday in her first of two scheduled confirmation hearings.
While Bondi isn’t considered among the Trump nominees that the Republican-majority Senate is likely to reject, her testimony is being closely watched.
That’s because attorneys general were central to several major controversies in Trump’s first term — with Trump often leaning on them to do controversial things — and because Trump and his allies have spoken openly about the idea that his perceived foes should be prosecuted.
Below are some takeaways from Bondi’s hearing.
1. She skirted questions about Trump’s retribution.
A major subplot of Bondi’s hearing is whether Trump will seek as president to target his political enemies — something he has occasionally talked openly about and repeatedly attempted during his first term. The big question is what she might do about such an effort if she is leading the Justice Department. Would she go along with it? Would she resist it? And what are her own feelings on such prosecutions?
Trump has recently said members of the House Jan. 6 committee, for example, should be in jail. But he also indicated that he would defer to his attorney general.
Bondi herself talked in 2023 about how “prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones” and “the investigators will be investigated.”
At the hearing, Bondi sought to downplay the idea of retribution, but she avoided some key questions.
She repeatedly talked around the question when Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked what she would do if Trump suggested she investigate one of his perceived enemies.
She initially responded by noting that Hirono had not met with her — the first real testy moment of the hearing. When pressed again to respond, Bondi spoke broadly about restoring integrity to the Justice Department rather than giving a direct answer.
“I certainly have not heard the president say that,” Bondi said. “But what I will tell you is, two-thirds of Americans have lost faith in the Department of Justice, and it’s statements like that, I believe, that make people continue to lose faith.
“If I am confirmed as attorney general, it will be my job to not only keep America safe but restore integrity to that department.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) also focused on the subject, asking what Bondi would do if Trump asked her to do something that was “outside the bounds of ethics or the law.”
“I’ll never speak on a hypothetical, especially one saying that the president would do something illegal,” she replied.
But these questions aren’t really that hypothetical. Trump repeatedly in his first term sought to get the Justice Department and the IRS to scrutinize his foes. He also talked about doing potentially illegal things. His former secretary of state Rex Tillerson said he had to talk Trump out of doing illegal things.
Bondi at another point assured senators, “There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.”
Bondi also said she hadn’t discussed prosecuting President Joe Biden, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) or former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) — three people Trump has talked about prosecuting — with Trump.
“No one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent,” Bondi added.
Interestingly, on the same subject, at least one Republican senator on the committee warned of the possibility of very real potential — at least from prosecutors outside the federal government — and cautioned against it.
“There are a lot of ambitious prosecutors in America, Democrat and Republican,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said. “And I’ll bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.
“And that’s the road we’re headed down, and you’ve got to fix it, counselor.”
Follow live updates on the transition to Trump’s second presidency. We’re tracking the people Trump has picked for key positions in his administration.
2. She walked a very fine line on election denial and her past claims.
One of the biggest personal issues looming over Bondi is her work to overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania on Trump’s behalf. As The Washington Post’s Beth Reinhard reported this past month, that included echoing many of the baseless claims that Trump and fellow Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani were making.
Bondi walked a very fine line on election denial.
Bondi declined to say that Biden’s win was legitimate, instead merely saying: “President Biden is the president of the United States. He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States.” When asked again later, she offered virtually the same answer.
That has become the stock Republican response these days — saying Biden is president but not saying if he’s a legitimate one — because Trump still claims that the election was stolen. But it’s still remarkable that an attorney general nominee wouldn’t confirm Biden’s legitimate 2020 election. There remains no evidence that the election was stolen, and claims to that effect have routinely failed in courts of law.
But very notably, Bondi soon showed she was willing to say whether an election result was legitimate — at least when it came to Trump’s 2024 win.
“President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024,” she added.
And if you look closely, Bondi appeared to try to distance herself from the election challenges, at least somewhat. She said she did “accept” the 2020 election results. And while discussing her work in Pennsylvania, Bondi seemed to make a point to emphasize that she was serving as an “advocate” for Trump.
“What I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign,” Bondi said, before repeating: “I was an advocate for the campaign. And I was on the ground in Pennsylvania, and I saw many things there.”
The implication seemed to be that Bondi didn’t necessarily believe these things but that, like all lawyers, she had a client she was serving.
In a later exchange, Bondi repeatedly avoided a yes-or-no answer when Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) asked whether she had actually found “any evidence of election fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election.”
3. She spun for Trump.
Bondi took exception when Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) suggested she was saying the things she needed to say to get confirmed.
“No, I don’t,” Bondi said. “I sit up here and speak the truth. I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything. I will answer the questions to the best of my ability and honestly.”
But Bondi on more than one occasion clearly spun things in a favorable direction for herself and Trump.
She disputed a Democratic senator’s premise that Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ® and told him to, in the words of the Democratic senator, “find the votes to change the results of the election.”
“Senator, I have not listened to the hour-long conversation, but it’s my understanding that is not what he asked to do,” Bondi said.
In fact, Trump repeatedly urged Raffensperger to find a number of votes that just so happened to align with his losing margin in Georgia, as The Post first reported at the time.
At another point, while talking about an “enemies list,” she disputed that Trump’s controversial pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, had one.
“Senator, to cut to the chase, you’re clearly talking about Kash Patel,” Bondi said when the issue was broached. “I don’t believe he has an enemies list. He made a quote on TV, which I have not heard.”
Patel in a 2023 book included an appendix of “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State” — a list that included many Trump critics.
Whether you call it an enemies list or anything else, though, Patel has talked publicly about prosecuting several people who happen to appear in that appendix, as The Post’s JM Rieger reported.
4. Bondi was combative throughout.
It wasn’t just the testy exchange with Hirono or the corrective to Blumenthal. Despite her confirmation appearing likely and having motivation to play it safe, Bondi wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Democrats on the committee. And some of the exchanges got quite heated.
Schiff peppered her with questions about whether she was aware of any factual basis to prosecute figures including Cheney and special counsel Jack Smith.
Bondi repeatedly dismissed it as a hypothetical — even though Schiff was just asking her to reflect on what she knew about the situations — and Bondi eventually suggested Schiff should focus on crime in California instead.
“We’re all so worried about Liz Cheney, senator,” Bondi began. “You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California right now is through the roof. Your robberies are 87 percent higher than the national average. That’s what I want to focus on, senator.”
When the other Democratic senator from California, Padilla, sought to quickly move through questions about election denial and birthright citizenship, Bondi objected to what she cast as Padilla not letting her speak.
“You pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking,” Bondi said, as Padilla plowed ahead, believing she was avoiding his questions. “Let me answer my question. I’m not going to be bullied by you, Senator Padilla.”
Padilla then asked Bondi to describe the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment — the one pertaining to birthright citizenship. He said he had given her a chance to “study it overnight.”
Bondi shot back: “Senator, I’m here to answer your questions. I’m not here to do your homework and study for you.”
“I look forward to, even given your remarks today, working with you and the people of California, if I am confirmed as the 87th attorney general of the United States of America,” Bondi said. “I didn’t take your homework assignment. I’m sorry. I was preparing for today.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/15/takeaways-from-bondi-confirmation-hearing/?
Hundreds of employees at The Washington Post have sent a signed letter to its owner Jeff Bezos, requesting an in-person meeting.
The staff wrote they are “deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions” which have led readers to “question the integrity” of The Post.
From Witty’s post:
“Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said. “And I’ll bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.”
This, at least, is a charge which could never be brought against any of Trump’s lackeys, hangers-on, parasites, apparatchiks, or similar.
Trump’s mental decline has been a matter of public exhibition all along.
captain_spalding said:
From Witty’s post:“Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said. “And I’ll bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.”
This, at least, is a charge which could never be brought against any of Trump’s lackeys, hangers-on, parasites, apparatchiks, or similar.
Trump’s mental decline has been a matter of public exhibition all along.
“decline”
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
From Witty’s post:“Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said. “And I’ll bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.”
This, at least, is a charge which could never be brought against any of Trump’s lackeys, hangers-on, parasites, apparatchiks, or similar.
Trump’s mental decline has been a matter of public exhibition all along.
“decline”
That’s all right, you might like the next one.
captain_spalding said:
From Witty’s post:“Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said. “And I’ll bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.”
This, at least, is a charge which could never be brought against any of Trump’s lackeys, hangers-on, parasites, apparatchiks, or similar.
Trump’s mental decline has been a matter of public exhibition all along.
I dunno. Trump to me seems to be just as cogent as he was in 2016 which means he still the same idiot he’s always been. The riffing on Hannibal Lecter, the dancing for 45 minutes to YMCA, legitimately crazy beliefs about tariffs, elections, pretty much everything else etc etc seems to me to be him going with his gut which unfortunately works for the morons who love him and the intelligent conservatives who would sell their soul and their country for a buck. My opinion: probably controversial, but there you have it.
It seems amazing now that people were questioning the credentials of Sarah Palin, who had 13 years in elected office as counsellor, mayor and governor before she ran for VP.
Or Condi Rice for that matter.
dv said:
It seems amazing now that people were questioning the credentials of Sarah Palin, who had 13 years in elected office as counsellor, mayor and governor before she ran for VP.Or Condi Rice for that matter.
.. and people though GW Bush was a complete dickhead.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/15/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/15/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
I’m starting to think that the “military-industrial complex” is now a lesser problem that the ‘tech and media disinformation complex”
party_pants said:
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/15/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
I’m starting to think that the “military-industrial complex” is now a lesser problem that the ‘tech and media disinformation complex”
same thing different battlespace
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/15/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
You could say the same has been happening in Austraia under the guise of pretending nothings wrong.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/15/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
You could say the same has been happening in Austraia under the guise of pretending nothing is wrong.
l.
gross
dv said:
The finest government that money can buy.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
The finest government that money can buy.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the finest as such.
dv said:
Yeah, well what can I do?
Spiny Norman said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
The finest government that money can buy.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the finest as such.
The most accommodating government?
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
+1
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
+1
Let’s try a +4 or +6?
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
+1
Let’s try a +4 or +6?
-10
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
Jon Voight picks them up in his LeBaron and on their way to the White House
Mel Gibson yells at the Jews and Stallone yells out “Adriannnnnnnnnnn” and something about a war you’ll never believe
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Brain-dead.
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Why is he standing outside of a barber shop?
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Why is he standing outside of a barber shop?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Why is he standing outside of a barber shop?
four seasons manscaping
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Why is he standing outside of a barber shop?
The understudy for a quartet ?
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Speculation about the eyelid position. Unilateral ptosis.
Stroke? Tumour? Brain aneurysm?
Why is he standing outside of a barber shop?
The understudy for a quartet ?
there’s that four again
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.
Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/01/gop-lawmaker-says-trans-bathroom-ban-must-pass-to-stop-lesbians-from-getting-off-in-womens-room/
kii said:
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/01/gop-lawmaker-says-trans-bathroom-ban-must-pass-to-stop-lesbians-from-getting-off-in-womens-room/
The name Jedediah, doesn’t install confidence does it.
Sounds like a moonshine runner with one tooth (chomper) and has a sister wife
Cymek said:
kii said:
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.
Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
The name Jedediah, doesn’t install confidence does it.
Sounds like a moonshine runner with one tooth (chomper) and has a sister wife
wait is this where it’s at these days name calling and insultation
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
So we are back to giving regular NOT SATIRE warnings because I thought that was Oniony.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.
Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
The name Jedediah, doesn’t install confidence does it.
Sounds like a moonshine runner with one tooth (chomper) and has a sister wife
wait is this where it’s at these days name calling and insultation
Sometimes
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.
Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
The name Jedediah, doesn’t install confidence does it.
Sounds like a moonshine runner with one tooth (chomper) and has a sister wife
wait is this where it’s at these days name calling and insultation
Sometimes
SCIENCE said:
wait is this where it’s at these days name calling and insultation
Absolutely.
With a modus operandi like that, you can go a long way.
You can make it to the White House. Twice.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
So we are back to giving regular NOT SATIRE warnings because I thought that was Oniony.
Southpark has had the Passion of the Christ episode on lately
They always rip on people, Mel Gibson though, it’s extremely funny
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
So we are back to giving regular NOT SATIRE warnings because I thought that was Oniony.
Probably need to be.
Cymek said:
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
So we are back to giving regular NOT SATIRE warnings because I thought that was Oniony.
Southpark has had the Passion of the Christ episode on lately
They always rip on people, Mel Gibson though, it’s extremely funny
There’s a funny ref in the Simpsons when they go to LA and portray Mel as a paranoid nutter in his bunker: this was after he made a guest appearance on the show in an earlier season so the writers might be speaking from experience.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
“It’s hard to pinpoint the literal dumbest lawmaker elected in this very big country, but this nutsack Jedediah Hinkle is really trying quite hard to earn the title.
Hinkle, who is one of the rare examples of actually backsliding from the higher chamber to the lower after getting his ass kicked as an incumbent Senator by Pat Flowers and deciding he needed a safer House election to run in the next cycle, has never met a hateful bill he doesn’t support.
As such, he lost his Senate seat and is now in the House doing this bullshit, and pretending to have vast knowledge of trans people and their experiences but plugging his years any time Zooey Zephyr or SJ Howell speak.
The bill itself was introduced by Kerri Seekins-Crowe, whose own fuckery includes saying she’d rather have a dead child than a trans child. Truly vile stuff, and Zephyr and Howell and thousands of trans and nonbinary folks across Montana and the entire country are stuck bearing the brunt of this hatred.
Meanwhile there’s this chode named Jedediah (which, seriously, the universe sometimes just delivers) who I think is the exact person I meant when I said “the nutsackiest dude you know” the other day, whose photos seem to indicate that he’s had sex two times, ever, and likely thinks that women pee out of their birth canals.
In a just world, every time this shitneck walked into a bathroom, everyone else in it would make orgasmic noises for the entirety of his time in there.
Fuck you, buddy.”
From Mike Ingram
The name Jedediah, doesn’t install confidence does it.
Sounds like a moonshine runner with one tooth (chomper) and has a sister wife
wait is this where it’s at these days name calling and insultation
I don’t care anymore. If Jedediah wants to be a transphobic ignorant fuckwit then he’s earned his insults.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’
ABClink
So we are back to giving regular NOT SATIRE warnings because I thought that was Oniony.
I had to go and check that it was not satire too. I mean…really?
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
Well, it was either those or the secret Deep Underground Military Bases.
Neophyte said:
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
Well, it was either those or the secret Deep Underground Military Bases.
call in the Netanyahu now, bomb those terrorists to heaven
SCIENCE said:
Neophyte said:
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
Well, it was either those or the secret Deep Underground Military Bases.
call in the Netanyahu now, bomb those terrorists to heaven
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
I use C4 to dig a hole to bury dead pets so anything is possible
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AYhb9e9hb/
Cameo by papa foxtrot
Cymek said:
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
I use C4 to dig a hole to bury dead pets so anything is possible
are they dead before you dig the hole though
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AYhb9e9hb/Cameo by papa foxtrot
LOLOLOL
:)
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AYhb9e9hb/Cameo by papa foxtrot
I thought it was that west aussie guy at first. but then not enough swearing.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
I use C4 to dig a hole to bury dead pets so anything is possible
are they dead before you dig the hole though
Yes I’m not horrible.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
The fires in LA were, according to the dumfuck’s distraction bullshit, deliberately lit to destroy the tunnels used by paedophiles.
I use C4 to dig a hole to bury dead pets so anything is possible
are they dead before you dig the hole though
Wouldn’t that spread the pet everywhere and there’d be nothing left to bury?
Heather Cox Richardson
23m ·
January 16, 2025 (Thursday)
In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the “Great Compression,” for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.
That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the “Great Divergence.” Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.
But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic “elite” that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s investment has paid off: Faiz Siddiqui and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post reported that he made more than $170 billion in the weeks between the election and December 15.
Musk promptly became the face of the incoming administration, appearing everywhere with Trump, who put him and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where Musk vowed to cut $2 trillion out of the U.S. budget even if it inflicted “hardship” on the American people.
News broke earlier this week that Musk, who holds government contracts worth billions of dollars, is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. And the world’s two other richest men will be with Musk on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, who together are worth almost a trillion dollars, will be joined by other tech moguls, including the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman; the CEO of the social media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew; and the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai.
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance today, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, billionaire Scott Bessent, said that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts was “the single most important economic issue of the day.” But he said he did not support raising the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009 although 30 states and dozens of cities have raised the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.
There have been signs lately that the American people are unhappy about the increasing inequality in the U.S. On December 4, 2024, a young man shot the chief executive officer of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, which has been sued for turning its claims department over to an artificial intelligence program with an error rate of 90% and which a Federal Trade Commission report earlier this week found overcharged cancer patients by more than 1,000% for life-saving drugs. Americans championed the alleged killer.
It is a truism in American history that those interested in garnering wealth and power use culture wars to obscure class struggles. But in key moments, Americans recognized that the rise of a small group of people—usually men—who were commandeering the United States government was a perversion of democracy.
In the 1850s, the expansion of the past two decades into the new lands of the Southeast had permitted the rise of a group of spectacularly wealthy men. Abraham Lincoln helped to organize westerners against a government takeover by elite southern enslavers who argued that society advanced most efficiently when the capital produced by workers flowed to the top of society, where a few men would use it to develop the country for everyone. Lincoln warned that “crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings” would crush independent men, and he created a government that worked for ordinary men, a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
A generation later, when industrialization disrupted the country as westward expansion had before, the so-called robber barons bent the government to their own purposes. Men like steel baron Andrew Carnegie explained that “he best interests of the race are promoted” by an industrial system, “which inevitably gives wealth to the few.” But President Grover Cleveland warned: “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
Republican president Theodore Roosevelt tried to soften the hard edges of industrialization by urging robber barons to moderate their behavior. When they ignored him, he turned finally to calling out the “malefactors of great wealth,” noting that “there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law. Our aim is to try to do something effective; our purpose is to stamp out the evil; we shall seek to find the most effective device for this purpose; and we shall then use it, whether the device can be found in existing law or must be supplied by legislation. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows.”
Theodore Roosevelt helped to launch the Progressive Era.
But that moment passed, and in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too, contended with wealthy men determined to retain control over the federal government. Running for reelection in 1936, he told a crowd at Madison Square Garden: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves…. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” he said. “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Last night, after President Biden’s warning, Google searches for the meaning of the word “oligarchy” spiked.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
23m ·
January 16, 2025 (Thursday)In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the “Great Compression,” for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.
That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the “Great Divergence.” Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.
But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic “elite” that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s investment has paid off: Faiz Siddiqui and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post reported that he made more than $170 billion in the weeks between the election and December 15.
Musk promptly became the face of the incoming administration, appearing everywhere with Trump, who put him and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where Musk vowed to cut $2 trillion out of the U.S. budget even if it inflicted “hardship” on the American people.
News broke earlier this week that Musk, who holds government contracts worth billions of dollars, is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. And the world’s two other richest men will be with Musk on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, who together are worth almost a trillion dollars, will be joined by other tech moguls, including the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman; the CEO of the social media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew; and the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai.
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance today, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, billionaire Scott Bessent, said that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts was “the single most important economic issue of the day.” But he said he did not support raising the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009 although 30 states and dozens of cities have raised the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.There have been signs lately that the American people are unhappy about the increasing inequality in the U.S. On December 4, 2024, a young man shot the chief executive officer of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, which has been sued for turning its claims department over to an artificial intelligence program with an error rate of 90% and which a Federal Trade Commission report earlier this week found overcharged cancer patients by more than 1,000% for life-saving drugs. Americans championed the alleged killer.
It is a truism in American history that those interested in garnering wealth and power use culture wars to obscure class struggles. But in key moments, Americans recognized that the rise of a small group of people—usually men—who were commandeering the United States government was a perversion of democracy.
In the 1850s, the expansion of the past two decades into the new lands of the Southeast had permitted the rise of a group of spectacularly wealthy men. Abraham Lincoln helped to organize westerners against a government takeover by elite southern enslavers who argued that society advanced most efficiently when the capital produced by workers flowed to the top of society, where a few men would use it to develop the country for everyone. Lincoln warned that “crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings” would crush independent men, and he created a government that worked for ordinary men, a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
A generation later, when industrialization disrupted the country as westward expansion had before, the so-called robber barons bent the government to their own purposes. Men like steel baron Andrew Carnegie explained that “he best interests of the race are promoted” by an industrial system, “which inevitably gives wealth to the few.” But President Grover Cleveland warned: “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
Republican president Theodore Roosevelt tried to soften the hard edges of industrialization by urging robber barons to moderate their behavior. When they ignored him, he turned finally to calling out the “malefactors of great wealth,” noting that “there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law. Our aim is to try to do something effective; our purpose is to stamp out the evil; we shall seek to find the most effective device for this purpose; and we shall then use it, whether the device can be found in existing law or must be supplied by legislation. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows.”
Theodore Roosevelt helped to launch the Progressive Era.
But that moment passed, and in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too, contended with wealthy men determined to retain control over the federal government. Running for reelection in 1936, he told a crowd at Madison Square Garden: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves…. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” he said. “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Last night, after President Biden’s warning, Google searches for the meaning of the word “oligarchy” spiked.
AFAICT, there is nothing I can do to assist.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
23m ·
January 16, 2025 (Thursday)In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the “Great Compression,” for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.
That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the “Great Divergence.” Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.
But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic “elite” that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s investment has paid off: Faiz Siddiqui and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post reported that he made more than $170 billion in the weeks between the election and December 15.
Musk promptly became the face of the incoming administration, appearing everywhere with Trump, who put him and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where Musk vowed to cut $2 trillion out of the U.S. budget even if it inflicted “hardship” on the American people.
News broke earlier this week that Musk, who holds government contracts worth billions of dollars, is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. And the world’s two other richest men will be with Musk on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, who together are worth almost a trillion dollars, will be joined by other tech moguls, including the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman; the CEO of the social media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew; and the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai.
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance today, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, billionaire Scott Bessent, said that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts was “the single most important economic issue of the day.” But he said he did not support raising the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009 although 30 states and dozens of cities have raised the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.There have been signs lately that the American people are unhappy about the increasing inequality in the U.S. On December 4, 2024, a young man shot the chief executive officer of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, which has been sued for turning its claims department over to an artificial intelligence program with an error rate of 90% and which a Federal Trade Commission report earlier this week found overcharged cancer patients by more than 1,000% for life-saving drugs. Americans championed the alleged killer.
It is a truism in American history that those interested in garnering wealth and power use culture wars to obscure class struggles. But in key moments, Americans recognized that the rise of a small group of people—usually men—who were commandeering the United States government was a perversion of democracy.
In the 1850s, the expansion of the past two decades into the new lands of the Southeast had permitted the rise of a group of spectacularly wealthy men. Abraham Lincoln helped to organize westerners against a government takeover by elite southern enslavers who argued that society advanced most efficiently when the capital produced by workers flowed to the top of society, where a few men would use it to develop the country for everyone. Lincoln warned that “crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings” would crush independent men, and he created a government that worked for ordinary men, a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
A generation later, when industrialization disrupted the country as westward expansion had before, the so-called robber barons bent the government to their own purposes. Men like steel baron Andrew Carnegie explained that “he best interests of the race are promoted” by an industrial system, “which inevitably gives wealth to the few.” But President Grover Cleveland warned: “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
Republican president Theodore Roosevelt tried to soften the hard edges of industrialization by urging robber barons to moderate their behavior. When they ignored him, he turned finally to calling out the “malefactors of great wealth,” noting that “there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law. Our aim is to try to do something effective; our purpose is to stamp out the evil; we shall seek to find the most effective device for this purpose; and we shall then use it, whether the device can be found in existing law or must be supplied by legislation. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows.”
Theodore Roosevelt helped to launch the Progressive Era.
But that moment passed, and in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too, contended with wealthy men determined to retain control over the federal government. Running for reelection in 1936, he told a crowd at Madison Square Garden: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves…. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” he said. “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Last night, after President Biden’s warning, Google searches for the meaning of the word “oligarchy” spiked.
AFAICT, there is nothing I can do to assist.
We can all do something to assist. Not in the USA, but being aware of the situation here will help the vulnerable people in our communities. It’s vitally important to be informed about what is happening in other countries and what can happen in Australia. Especially in Queensland. Look at the racist politicians and the hatred against the LGBTQI peoples.
Stand up to homophobic people and their tired old jokes. And the jokes about women.
There’s no requirement to demonstrate in protest rallies.
kii said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
23m ·
January 16, 2025 (Thursday)In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the “Great Compression,” for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.
That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the “Great Divergence.” Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.
But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic “elite” that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s investment has paid off: Faiz Siddiqui and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post reported that he made more than $170 billion in the weeks between the election and December 15.
Musk promptly became the face of the incoming administration, appearing everywhere with Trump, who put him and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where Musk vowed to cut $2 trillion out of the U.S. budget even if it inflicted “hardship” on the American people.
News broke earlier this week that Musk, who holds government contracts worth billions of dollars, is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. And the world’s two other richest men will be with Musk on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, who together are worth almost a trillion dollars, will be joined by other tech moguls, including the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman; the CEO of the social media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew; and the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai.
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance today, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, billionaire Scott Bessent, said that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts was “the single most important economic issue of the day.” But he said he did not support raising the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009 although 30 states and dozens of cities have raised the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.There have been signs lately that the American people are unhappy about the increasing inequality in the U.S. On December 4, 2024, a young man shot the chief executive officer of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, which has been sued for turning its claims department over to an artificial intelligence program with an error rate of 90% and which a Federal Trade Commission report earlier this week found overcharged cancer patients by more than 1,000% for life-saving drugs. Americans championed the alleged killer.
It is a truism in American history that those interested in garnering wealth and power use culture wars to obscure class struggles. But in key moments, Americans recognized that the rise of a small group of people—usually men—who were commandeering the United States government was a perversion of democracy.
In the 1850s, the expansion of the past two decades into the new lands of the Southeast had permitted the rise of a group of spectacularly wealthy men. Abraham Lincoln helped to organize westerners against a government takeover by elite southern enslavers who argued that society advanced most efficiently when the capital produced by workers flowed to the top of society, where a few men would use it to develop the country for everyone. Lincoln warned that “crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings” would crush independent men, and he created a government that worked for ordinary men, a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
A generation later, when industrialization disrupted the country as westward expansion had before, the so-called robber barons bent the government to their own purposes. Men like steel baron Andrew Carnegie explained that “he best interests of the race are promoted” by an industrial system, “which inevitably gives wealth to the few.” But President Grover Cleveland warned: “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
Republican president Theodore Roosevelt tried to soften the hard edges of industrialization by urging robber barons to moderate their behavior. When they ignored him, he turned finally to calling out the “malefactors of great wealth,” noting that “there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law. Our aim is to try to do something effective; our purpose is to stamp out the evil; we shall seek to find the most effective device for this purpose; and we shall then use it, whether the device can be found in existing law or must be supplied by legislation. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows.”
Theodore Roosevelt helped to launch the Progressive Era.
But that moment passed, and in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too, contended with wealthy men determined to retain control over the federal government. Running for reelection in 1936, he told a crowd at Madison Square Garden: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves…. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” he said. “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Last night, after President Biden’s warning, Google searches for the meaning of the word “oligarchy” spiked.
AFAICT, there is nothing I can do to assist.
We can all do something to assist. Not in the USA, but being aware of the situation here will help the vulnerable people in our communities. It’s vitally important to be informed about what is happening in other countries and what can happen in Australia. Especially in Queensland. Look at the racist politicians and the hatred against the LGBTQI peoples.
Stand up to homophobic people and their tired old jokes. And the jokes about women.
There’s no requirement to demonstrate in protest rallies.
and support the aboriginal cause. they are going to take on a new wave of arseholes.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Michael V said:AFAICT, there is nothing I can do to assist.
We can all do something to assist. Not in the USA, but being aware of the situation here will help the vulnerable people in our communities. It’s vitally important to be informed about what is happening in other countries and what can happen in Australia. Especially in Queensland. Look at the racist politicians and the hatred against the LGBTQI peoples.
Stand up to homophobic people and their tired old jokes. And the jokes about women.
There’s no requirement to demonstrate in protest rallies.and support the aboriginal cause. they are going to take on a new wave of arseholes.
Yes, so many vulnerable people and Dutton and company are coming for them.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Michael V said:AFAICT, there is nothing I can do to assist.
We can all do something to assist. Not in the USA, but being aware of the situation here will help the vulnerable people in our communities. It’s vitally important to be informed about what is happening in other countries and what can happen in Australia. Especially in Queensland. Look at the racist politicians and the hatred against the LGBTQI peoples.
Stand up to homophobic people and their tired old jokes. And the jokes about women.
There’s no requirement to demonstrate in protest rallies.and support the aboriginal cause. they are going to take on a new wave of arseholes.
What? Because he won’t stand in front of a flag? I won’t vote for the likes of him but Flag denial is the very least of the issues…
furious said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
We can all do something to assist. Not in the USA, but being aware of the situation here will help the vulnerable people in our communities. It’s vitally important to be informed about what is happening in other countries and what can happen in Australia. Especially in Queensland. Look at the racist politicians and the hatred against the LGBTQI peoples.
Stand up to homophobic people and their tired old jokes. And the jokes about women.
There’s no requirement to demonstrate in protest rallies.and support the aboriginal cause. they are going to take on a new wave of arseholes.
What? Because he won’t stand in front of a flag? I won’t vote for the likes of him but Flag denial is the very least of the issues…
shrug not like a bunch of different things ever go hand in hand so when you don’t like school massacres for example then they can’t just protest that actually having millions and millions of good guys with guns to protect against state overreach is totally a great thing shrug
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
I use C4 to dig a hole to bury dead pets so anything is possible
are they dead before you dig the hole though
Wouldn’t that spread the pet everywhere and there’d be nothing left to bury?
damn just use a shaped charge c’m‘on
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AYhb9e9hb/
Cameo by papa foxtrot
I thought it was that west aussie guy at first. but then not enough swearing.
we uh
we laugh but
the felon did also then use that sandwich shop to poison like 75% of the population and behaviorally manipulate them to fascism that pumps his profits so guess that 7D noughts and crosses does pay off
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
sarahs mum said:
and support the aboriginal cause. they are going to take on a new wave of arseholes.
What? Because he won’t stand in front of a flag? I won’t vote for the likes of him but Flag denial is the very least of the issues…
shrug not like a bunch of different things ever go hand in hand so when you don’t like school massacres for example then they can’t just protest that actually having millions and millions of good guys with guns to protect against state overreach is totally a great thing shrug
So, not standing in front of a flag, is like a school shooting? Or is it like state over reach guns for everyone? I thought it was more like some petty BS…
furious said:
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
What? Because he won’t stand in front of a flag? I won’t vote for the likes of him but Flag denial is the very least of the issues…
shrug not like a bunch of different things ever go hand in hand so when you don’t like school massacres for example then they can’t just protest that actually having millions and millions of good guys with guns to protect against state overreach is totally a great thing shrug
So, not standing in front of a flag, is like a school shooting? Or is it like state over reach guns for everyone? I thought it was more like some petty BS…
this is disingenuous
we were giving yous examples of things going hand in hand
we were not giving yous examples of things that are similar in levels of direct harm
guess why we gave you the examples after the words “different things ever go hand in hand” as opposed to “oh yes that’s exactly so like it’s pretty much the same as” and then read it again
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
SCIENCE said:
shrug not like a bunch of different things ever go hand in hand so when you don’t like school massacres for example then they can’t just protest that actually having millions and millions of good guys with guns to protect against state overreach is totally a great thing shrug
So, not standing in front of a flag, is like a school shooting? Or is it like state over reach guns for everyone? I thought it was more like some petty BS…
this is disingenuous
we were giving yous examples of things going hand in hand
we were not giving yous examples of things that are similar in levels of direct harm
guess why we gave you the examples after the words “different things ever go hand in hand” as opposed to “oh yes that’s exactly so like it’s pretty much the same as” and then read it again
No, it’s just nonsense…
furious said:
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
So, not standing in front of a flag, is like a school shooting? Or is it like state over reach guns for everyone? I thought it was more like some petty BS…
this is disingenuous
we were giving yous examples of things going hand in hand
we were not giving yous examples of things that are similar in levels of direct harm
guess why we gave you the examples after the words “different things ever go hand in hand” as opposed to “oh yes that’s exactly so like it’s pretty much the same as” and then read it again
No, it’s just nonsense…
exactly right, we couldn’t make sense out of a dog whistle either
furious said:
SCIENCE said:furious said:
So, not standing in front of a flag, is like a school shooting? Or is it like state over reach guns for everyone? I thought it was more like some petty BS…
this is disingenuous
we were giving yous examples of things going hand in hand
we were not giving yous examples of things that are similar in levels of direct harm
guess why we gave you the examples after the words “different things ever go hand in hand” as opposed to “oh yes that’s exactly so like it’s pretty much the same as” and then read it again
No, it’s just nonsense…
“Petty?”
I want a reporter to ask Dutton: “You make a point of increasingly rejecting all mainstream approaches to indigenous policy – presumably you intend, eventually, to introduce your own final solution to this issue?”
Bubblecar said:
furious said:
SCIENCE said:this is disingenuous
we were giving yous examples of things going hand in hand
we were not giving yous examples of things that are similar in levels of direct harm
guess why we gave you the examples after the words “different things ever go hand in hand” as opposed to “oh yes that’s exactly so like it’s pretty much the same as” and then read it again
No, it’s just nonsense…
“Petty?”
I want a reporter to ask Dutton: “You make a point of increasingly rejecting all mainstream approaches to indigenous policy – presumably you intend, eventually, to introduce your own final solution to this issue?”
The thing is, they’re all distracted by the petty nonsense: oh no, he won’t stand in front of a flag. That’s the Trump playbook, get the media in a lather about the cats and the dogs. Distracts from the real nastiness…
furious said:
Bubblecar said:
furious said:
No, it’s just nonsense…
“Petty?”
I want a reporter to ask Dutton: “You make a point of increasingly rejecting all mainstream approaches to indigenous policy – presumably you intend, eventually, to introduce your own final solution to this issue?”
The thing is, they’re all distracted by the petty nonsense: oh no, he won’t stand in front of a flag. That’s the Trump playbook, get the media in a lather about the cats and the dogs. Distracts from the real nastiness…
whether it distracts from the nastiness is on the recipient end, so yous can choose to be petty* if yous like, we prefer to recognise it as a component of the nastiness, rather than dismiss and normalise small nasty
*: here this is a better example
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
Bubblecar said:
“Petty?”
I want a reporter to ask Dutton: “You make a point of increasingly rejecting all mainstream approaches to indigenous policy – presumably you intend, eventually, to introduce your own final solution to this issue?”
The thing is, they’re all distracted by the petty nonsense: oh no, he won’t stand in front of a flag. That’s the Trump playbook, get the media in a lather about the cats and the dogs. Distracts from the real nastiness…
whether it distracts from the nastiness is on the recipient end, so yous can choose to be petty* if yous like, we prefer to recognise it as a component of the nastiness, rather than dismiss and normalise small nasty
*: here this is a better example
I’m sorry, people pander to your cryptic nonsense, but you’re an idiot. I would have used harsher words but I’d have the thought police crashing down on me…
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
He’s so powerful, why didn’t he send the rain to California?
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
He’s so powerful, why didn’t he send the rain to California?
who cares, see global warming is a hoax
furious said:
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
The thing is, they’re all distracted by the petty nonsense: oh no, he won’t stand in front of a flag. That’s the Trump playbook, get the media in a lather about the cats and the dogs. Distracts from the real nastiness…
whether it distracts from the nastiness is on the recipient end, so yous can choose to be petty* if yous like, we prefer to recognise it as a component of the nastiness, rather than dismiss and normalise small nasty
*: here this is a better example
I’m sorry, people pander to your cryptic nonsense, but you’re an idiot. I would have used harsher words but I’d have the thought police crashing down on me…
so you lack the intellect to understand simple concepts and instead find them cryptic so instead you have to call names, hey calling names is petty but people with more intellect know that it goes hand in hand with … oh shit
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
Lest we forget William Henry Harrison.
Arts said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
Lest we forget William Henry Harrison.
ethanolamine
Arts said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
Lest we forget William Henry Harrison.
Oh old Tippercanoe.
Arts said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors instead of being held outside the Capitol, due to extreme cold forecast in Washington, Trump confirmed Friday. Temperatures Monday are expected to be the most frigid for an inauguration since President Ronald Reagan’s ceremony in 1985, which was also moved inside. Trump said in a social media post that he would deliver his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and that a Washington arena would be opened for spectators to watch remotely.
Lest we forget William Henry Harrison.
sings
‘… I died in 30 days…’
Bill Gates is the latest billionaire to pay homage to the great man.
In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said he was “impressed” with Trump’s interest in global health issues during their “long and actually quite intriguing dinner.”
He said they discussed the possibility of developing a cure for HIV, with Gates adding: “He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
Gates also said he urged Trump to continue efforts to combat polio around the world.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told the Journal. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”
Peak Warming Man said:
Bill Gates is the latest billionaire to pay homage to the great man.In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said he was “impressed” with Trump’s interest in global health issues during their “long and actually quite intriguing dinner.”
He said they discussed the possibility of developing a cure for HIV, with Gates adding: “He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
Gates also said he urged Trump to continue efforts to combat polio around the world.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told the Journal. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”
Hmmmmm.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bill Gates is the latest billionaire to pay homage to the great man.In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said he was “impressed” with Trump’s interest in global health issues during their “long and actually quite intriguing dinner.”
He said they discussed the possibility of developing a cure for HIV, with Gates adding: “He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
Gates also said he urged Trump to continue efforts to combat polio around the world.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told the Journal. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”
Given that there is a pro-polio wing in the Trump cabinet, and Gates is anti-polio, I can see why he would not want to come away saying “Damn that Trump guy is a total moron”. The only things he responds to is flattery and donations.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Bill Gates is the latest billionaire to pay homage to the great man.In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said he was “impressed” with Trump’s interest in global health issues during their “long and actually quite intriguing dinner.”
He said they discussed the possibility of developing a cure for HIV, with Gates adding: “He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
Gates also said he urged Trump to continue efforts to combat polio around the world.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told the Journal. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”Given that there is a pro-polio wing in the Trump cabinet, and Gates is anti-polio, I can see why he would not want to come away saying “Damn that Trump guy is a total moron”. The only things he responds to is flattery and donations.
I guess there must be a lot of international charity organisations wondering how to best manage Trump.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bill Gates is the latest billionaire to pay homage to the great man.In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said he was “impressed” with Trump’s interest in global health issues during their “long and actually quite intriguing dinner.”
He said they discussed the possibility of developing a cure for HIV, with Gates adding: “He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
Gates also said he urged Trump to continue efforts to combat polio around the world.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation,” Gates told the Journal. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up.”
Oh, i hope that he dies. Soon.
excellent news
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-18/trump-administration-to-launch-immigration-raids/104833176
Incoming United States president Donald Trump’s new administration will launch a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago a day after being sworn into office, according to media reports.
¿ will they be issued with individual evacuation numbers as well ?
oh wait
The reports say immigration officials would be targeting individuals who live illegally in the country and have a criminal background for minor offences.
well that’s all right then
SCIENCE said:
excellent news
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-18/trump-administration-to-launch-immigration-raids/104833176
Incoming United States president Donald Trump’s new administration will launch a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago a day after being sworn into office, according to media reports.
¿ will they be issued with individual evacuation numbers as well ?
oh wait
The reports say immigration officials would be targeting individuals who live illegally in the country and have a criminal background for minor offences.
well that’s all right then
So, will the leaking of the information continue so people can be not around when the ICE folks arrive? And how long might this clog up the system? Because processing lots of people all of a sudden probably needs more staff to have been put on.
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:excellent news
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-18/trump-administration-to-launch-immigration-raids/104833176
Incoming United States president Donald Trump’s new administration will launch a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago a day after being sworn into office, according to media reports.
¿ will they be issued with individual evacuation numbers as well ?
oh wait
The reports say immigration officials would be targeting individuals who live illegally in the country and have a criminal background for minor offences.
well that’s all right then
So, will the leaking of the information continue so people can be not around when the ICE folks arrive? And how long might this clog up the system? Because processing lots of people all of a sudden probably needs more staff to have been put on.
They won’t be able to put on extra staff, with Musk and his mate cutting trillions of dollars from the budget. Mr P has said he will sack 50% of public servants, by choosing those with either even or odd employee numbers.
Merrick Garland exits with his record under scrutiny and the Justice Department bracing for upheaval
WASHINGTON — During hearings on Merrick Garland’s nomination to be President Joe Biden’s attorney general, the longtime federal appeals court judge told senators in 2021 that he hoped to “turn down the volume” on the public discourse about the Justice Department and return to the days when the agency was not the “center of partisan disagreement.”
It didn’t go as planned.
turned 82 in November) and mental acuity were becoming major political liabilities that would eventually, following his disastrous debate performance in June, sink his reelection effort.
Garland said the idea that he would edit or censor Hur’s report was “absurd.” That may have frustrated the White House but it also spared Garland the groundswell of criticism he would have encountered from the right had he stepped in to shade the special counsel’s findings.
By releasing the entire document in unedited form, Garland reflected his determination not only to avoid the appearance of being the president’s protector but also to turn the page from his predecessor. Barr was castigated by the left after he issued his own four-page summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference that was seen as glossing over some of the document’s more damning assessments.
Republicans in the House, angry over what they viewed as the Biden Justice Department’s unfair treatment of Trump, later voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of Biden’s interview with Hur.
The unraveling of years of work
Garland is about to see years of work dismantled when the new administration takes over.
The cases against Trump have unraveled. The Justice Department has decided to withhold from the public for now the section of Smith’s final report on Trump’s classified documents case because an appeal involving Trump’s co-defendants is pending. It’s possible that will never be seen by the public because Trump’s Justice Department almost certainly will not release it.
The future of the Jan. 6 investigation, which has resulted in more than 1,200 convictions against rioters, is in peril. Trump has said he plans to pardon many of them.
Biden, too, pardoned his son after Hunter’s trial conviction and guilty plea. Justice Department officials were surprised and frustrated by Biden’s statement claiming the case against his son had been politicized, especially after the president’s repeated vows to respect the rule of law.
Justice Department staff lined up Friday to cheer for Garland as he left the building. Several employees wiped tears and hugged as the SUV he climbed into drove off.
In his final speech to the workforce, Garland made no overt mention of Trump or the president-elect’s suggestions that he might use the agency’s powers to go after his foes. But Garland warned that “the same powers that enable the federal prosecutor to pursue justice also create the potential for grave injustice.”
“We must understand that there is a difference between what we can do — and what we should do,” Garland said.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/merrick-garland-exits-record-scrutiny-justice-department-bracing-117819912
God save us.
Peak Warming Man said:
God save us.
at “a” ball, so not the real one where the Dunny Trumpet will actually be at?
this equal rights amendment thing, why
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/nx-s1-5264378/biden-era-national-archivist-constitution
would states bother to
ratify it so long after the purported deadline
¿
oh wait the article might answer that
Don’t worry, the difference is that
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-19/meta-fact-checking-cut-raises-alarm-across-asia/104811772
unchecked fascism in the USSA won’t spill over into the rest of the world¡
Should you have to prove your age before watching porn?
America’s Supreme Court weighs a Texan law aimed at protecting kids
Jan 15th 2025 WASHINGTON, DC
THOMAS JEFFERSON’S library was filled with books depicting “vivid scenes of sexuality, lust and sexual scandal”. So wrote the plaintiffs in the lead-up to Free Speech Coalition v Paxton, a case about online pornography heard by America’s Supreme Court on January 15th. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment trade group, was keen to remind the justices that some founding fathers were anything but prudish. (Benjamin Franklin, it seems, also had a stash.)
At issue is a Texan law requiring any website on which more than one-third of content is “sexual” and “harmful to minors” to verify that viewers are at least 18. This means showing a government-issued ID or some other document that proves adulthood, such as a mortgage or employment record. The porn industry fears this will be hugely off-putting for customers, who might fear blackmail or identity theft if their data should get into the wrong hands.
Derek Shaffer, Free Speech Coalition’s lawyer, acknowledged Texas’s “compelling interest” in protecting children from online pornography. But he told the justices that Texas’s law infringes on adults’ freedom of speech. There’s a better way to shield minors, Mr Shaffer said. Parents should deploy content-filtering software.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a mother of seven, scoffed at this suggestion. With the bevy of devices that kids use today (“gaming systems, tablets, phones, computers”), it is difficult for parents to keep up, she said, adding that this was “from personal experience”. “Do you know a lot of parents who are more tech-savvy than their 15-year-old children?” Justice Samuel Alito asked, eliciting laughter in the courtroom. “Come on”, he told Mr Shaffer, “be real.”
The lawyers cited duelling precedents. The best case for Mr Shaffer, Ashcroft v American Civil Liberties Union (2004), struck down the Child Online Protection Act, a federal law that closely resembled Texas’s. Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that the court would have to abandon Ashcroft and four other precedents subjecting age verification to the most exacting form of judicial review—“strict scrutiny”—if it sided with Texas.
But Texas’s solicitor-general, Aaron Nielson, relied on Ginsberg v New York, a decision from 1968 upholding a law that banned the sale of sexual material to children under 17. Paxton is just like Ginsberg, Mr Nielson insisted: it simply applies a rule governing bricks-and-mortar stores to digital porn peddlers.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals cited Ginsberg when it blessed Texas’s law last year. But the vote was 2-1, and the dissenter, Judge Patrick Higginbotham, wrote that all “statutes that infringe upon adults’ constitutionally protected speech” must be evaluated under strict scrutiny rather than “rational-basis scrutiny”, the low bar the court applied—and New York’s law cleared—in Ginsberg. Several justices amplified Judge Higginbotham’s sentiment. Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that Ginsberg had nothing to do with burdens on adults. It said only that children lack a First-Amendment right to buy pornographic magazines.
The hearing ended in a bit of a muddle. All the justices agree it is important to keep porn away from children. But most also seem to think that Texas’s law should have been held to a stricter standard that considers adults’ right to watch porn free from overly burdensome regulations. Most of the justices seem inclined to direct the lower court to have another look at the law under strict scrutiny. But in the end the law will probably survive.
Meanwhile, Texas and other red states have achieved their aims and more: Aylo, the parent company of several pornographic websites including Pornhub, the world’s largest, has yanked its operations from most of the 19 states that have age-verification laws, Texas included. “We don’t want minors accessing our site”, Pornhub’s message to jilted users reads, “but putting everybody’s privacy at risk won’t achieve that.”
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/01/15/should-you-have-to-prove-your-age-before-watching-porn?
kii said:
¡ well if you wanted a studio apartment for an inaccessible price to call a home then you shouldn’t have eaten smashed avocado on that toasted rye !
https://www.wbtv.com/2025/01/17/bill-aiming-get-rid-us-department-education-introduced-by-rep-north-carolina/
Republican Bill to eliminate Department of Education has been introduced to Congress, days before inauguration.
Looking to hit the ground running I guess.
dv said:
https://www.wbtv.com/2025/01/17/bill-aiming-get-rid-us-department-education-introduced-by-rep-north-carolina/Republican Bill to eliminate Department of Education has been introduced to Congress, days before inauguration.
Looking to hit the ground running I guess.
Keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em sick. They’re easier to manage, that way.
dv said:
https://www.wbtv.com/2025/01/17/bill-aiming-get-rid-us-department-education-introduced-by-rep-north-carolina/Republican Bill to eliminate Department of Education has been introduced to Congress, days before inauguration.
Looking to hit the ground running I guess.
FMD
How to further dumb-down the US of A.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Republican Bill to eliminate Department of Education has been introduced to Congress, days before inauguration.
Looking to hit the ground running I guess.
FMD
How to further dumb-down the US of A.
vote
and now it’ll be fixed so good you don’t have to
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.wbtv.com/2025/01/17/bill-aiming-get-rid-us-department-education-introduced-by-rep-north-carolina/Republican Bill to eliminate Department of Education has been introduced to Congress, days before inauguration.
Looking to hit the ground running I guess.
FMD
How to further dumb-down the US of A.
In my experience their toxic patriotism is a main factor of their stupidity. Years of brainwashing, add religion and its the perfect mix for a gullible, malleable society.
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
Relatable
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
I consider myself culturally detached from the USA. They are not my culture, even though we speak mutually understandable (mostly) languages. I feel the same about the UK.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
I consider myself culturally detached from the USA. They are not my culture, even though we speak mutually understandable (mostly) languages. I feel the same about the UK.
Have tried to avoid getting culturally attached and do feel unattached but so many other Australians are, it is difficult to avoid bumping into it.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
Bullshit. I don’t have grandkids, and I don’t want them. Strangely I am able to care about the future for ALL the children growing up in this world. This is what freaks me out. The children who inherit a fucked up world.
My younger brother warned me, in late 1982, about what it would be like for my unborn baby. He has no kids, but was an early childhood educator for much of his adult life, because he cares about other people’s children and what they are going to be dealing with in their futures.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
I don’t worry about it as there is not much I can do about it. Worrying is pointless. Not worrying isn’t the same as not caring.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
Bullshit. I don’t have grandkids, and I don’t want them. Strangely I am able to care about the future for ALL the children growing up in this world. This is what freaks me out. The children who inherit a fucked up world.
My younger brother warned me, in late 1982, about what it would be like for my unborn baby. He has no kids, but was an early childhood educator for much of his adult life, because he cares about other people’s children and what they are going to be dealing with in their futures.
They’ll be fine. Once all the Boomers die off they’ll be able to run things their own way.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
I don’t worry about it as there is not much I can do about it. Worrying is pointless. Not worrying isn’t the same as not caring.
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
I don’t worry about it as there is not much I can do about it. Worrying is pointless. Not worrying isn’t the same as not caring.
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
I care.
We’d long been aware of various weaknesses in US society and culture compared with the rest of the West in general.
But few predicted how these would come to the fore in such grotesque and shocking fashion.
And even in countries like Australia there was undue optimism that steady progress in education and standard of living would continually contribute to a saner and smarter society.
We just have to accept that we rather stupidly underestimated human stupidity.
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:It is a lot harder for those of us who have grandchildren.
Which is what I told an old acquaintance who never had children when he was saying it isn’t going to matter to him because he’ll be dead when all the shit hits the fan.
I don’t worry about it as there is not much I can do about it. Worrying is pointless. Not worrying isn’t the same as not caring.
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
Australia is heading down the same path. Gina what’s-her-face was cozying up to trump at the southern White House. Morrison was also there. Dutton & co hate the same people as trump.
Bubblecar said:
We’d long been aware of various weaknesses in US society and culture compared with the rest of the West in general.But few predicted how these would come to the fore in such grotesque and shocking fashion.
And even in countries like Australia there was undue optimism that steady progress in education and standard of living would continually contribute to a saner and smarter society.
We just have to accept that we rather stupidly underestimated human stupidity.
…and indeed, the role of the internet in nurturing and exploiting it.
kii said:
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:I don’t worry about it as there is not much I can do about it. Worrying is pointless. Not worrying isn’t the same as not caring.
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
Australia is heading down the same path. Gina what’s-her-face was cozying up to trump at the southern White House. Morrison was also there. Dutton & co hate the same people as trump.
I don’t think so. Clive Palmer already tried that and failed badly.
party_pants said:
They’ll be fine. Once all the Boomers die off they’ll be able to run things their own way.
party_pants said:
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
This is the problem. It’s not boomers that at the problem, it’s apathy
Arts said:
party_pants said:They’ll be fine. Once all the Boomers die off they’ll be able to run things their own way.
party_pants said:
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
This is the problem. It’s not boomers that at the problem, it’s apathy
I actually do something, all be it a small contribution, by posting reality to shite posts on FB.
party_pants said:
kii said:
party_pants said:
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
Australia is heading down the same path. Gina what’s-her-face was cozying up to trump at the southern White House. Morrison was also there. Dutton & co hate the same people as trump.
I don’t think so. Clive Palmer already tried that and failed badly.
Australians Could Never Speak The Same Language As Brexiteers And Republicans Oh No Of Course Wait Shit
sarahs mum said:
the world is getting so absurd that I feel I am becoming detached from it. I’m finding it hard to believe what’s going down.
guess Viennese might have felt the same back 90 years ago who knows
Arts said:
party_pants said:They’ll be fine. Once all the Boomers die off they’ll be able to run things their own way.
party_pants said:
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
This is the problem. It’s not boomers that at the problem, it’s apathy
The problem in the US is the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few, and the interference of big business interests in the peace, order and good government of that place. The capture by business interests of the government and the steady dismantling of institutions which are there to assert the public interest over private interests. The culture war stuff is just a distraction.
Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t know.
buffy said:
And it would seem TikTok has gone dark in the US
Making a political point, no doubt.
Betting that Anti-China Trump’s first act as president will be to help a Chinese owned company evade US federal regulation. All they had to do was bribe him.
party_pants said:
buffy said:
Making a political point, no doubt.
Betting that Anti-China Trump’s first act as president will be to help a Chinese owned company evade US federal regulation. All they had to do was bribe him.
ah well we suppose it’s a good thing if cuntries we like use their lawfare capabilities to pressure companies from overseas to accept hostile friendly takeovers mergers
On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s US business, according to a person familiar with the matter. Other investors have also been eyeing TikTok. Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt put together offered ByteDance $US20 billion in cash. Trump’s former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.
party_pants said:
Arts said:
party_pants said:They’ll be fine. Once all the Boomers die off they’ll be able to run things their own way.
party_pants said:
I think I have reached the point of not caring about those foreigners anymore.
This is the problem. It’s not boomers that at the problem, it’s apathy
The problem in the US is the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few, and the interference of big business interests in the peace, order and good government of that place. The capture by business interests of the government and the steady dismantling of institutions which are there to assert the public interest over private interests. The culture war stuff is just a distraction.
Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t know.
Not caring is the point.
But I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything or change opinions. Just joining in the conversation
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Arts said:This is the problem. It’s not boomers that at the problem, it’s apathy
The problem in the US is the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few, and the interference of big business interests in the peace, order and good government of that place. The capture by business interests of the government and the steady dismantling of institutions which are there to assert the public interest over private interests. The culture war stuff is just a distraction.
Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t know.
Not caring is the point.
But I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything or change opinions. Just joining in the conversation
What good does it do for me to care about the US or its people? They have made their own decisions and I have no legal or moral authority to change that. What good does it do, either for me or for them, for me to care about matters that I can’t control?
party_pants said:
What good does it do for me to care about the US or its people? They have made their own decisions and I have no legal or moral authority to change that. What good does it do, either for me or for them, for me to care about matters that I can’t control?
All we can do is make a drink and some snacks, find a comfortable seat, watch the demolition derby from the sidelines, and hope that we don’t get hit by too much debris.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:What good does it do for me to care about the US or its people? They have made their own decisions and I have no legal or moral authority to change that. What good does it do, either for me or for them, for me to care about matters that I can’t control?
All we can do is make a drink and some snacks, find a comfortable seat, watch the demolition derby from the sidelines, and hope that we don’t get hit by too much debris.
Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:What good does it do for me to care about the US or its people? They have made their own decisions and I have no legal or moral authority to change that. What good does it do, either for me or for them, for me to care about matters that I can’t control?
All we can do is make a drink and some snacks, find a comfortable seat, watch the demolition derby from the sidelines, and hope that we don’t get hit by too much debris.
Pretty much.
Don’t forget now that Trump has full immunity to act corruptly, knowing that the SC will uphold his immunity.
It is going to be a bumpy ride.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:What good does it do for me to care about the US or its people? They have made their own decisions and I have no legal or moral authority to change that. What good does it do, either for me or for them, for me to care about matters that I can’t control?
All we can do is make a drink and some snacks, find a comfortable seat, watch the demolition derby from the sidelines, and hope that we don’t get hit by too much debris.
Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
lol.
Arts said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:All we can do is make a drink and some snacks, find a comfortable seat, watch the demolition derby from the sidelines, and hope that we don’t get hit by too much debris.
Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
Arts said:
Arts said:
roughbarked said:Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
just some cheese and crackers for me thanks. if it isn’t too much trouble.
Arts said:
Arts said:
roughbarked said:Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
I haven’t even washed it from yesterday, but here ya go.
Kingy said:
Arts said:
Arts said:
lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
I haven’t even washed it from yesterday, but here ya go.
so they … uh … like big batches and they cannot lie
ChrispenEvan said:
Arts said:
Arts said:lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
just some cheese and crackers for me thanks. if it isn’t too much trouble.
I can do cheese and crackers flavoured popcorn.
Arts said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Arts said:We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
just some cheese and crackers for me thanks. if it isn’t too much trouble.
I can do cheese and crackers flavoured popcorn.
My brian seems to be fried. Perhaps that might be nice to eat.
so anyway is this a good time to invoke the geologist’s defence and mention that the CO2 sorry we mean Conservative OursOles level has been this high before so global warming sorry we mean civil war is just a wokist hoax
Michael V said:
Arts said:
ChrispenEvan said:just some cheese and crackers for me thanks. if it isn’t too much trouble.
I can do cheese and crackers flavoured popcorn.
My brian seems to be fried. Perhaps that might be nice to eat.
good grief, don’t encourage arts. she’ll be getting her copy of Letitia Cropley’s cookbook out
SCIENCE said:
so anyway is this a good time to invoke the geologist’s defence and mention that the CO2 sorry we mean Conservative OursOles level has been this high before so global warming sorry we mean civil war is just a wokist hoax
No, probably not.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
Arts said:I can do cheese and crackers flavoured popcorn.
My brian seems to be fried. Perhaps that might be nice to eat.
good grief, don’t encourage arts. she’ll be getting her copy of Letitia Cropley’s cookbook out
That’s fine.
Heather Cox Richardson
4h ·
January 18, 2025 (Saturday)
Shortly before midnight last night, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its initial findings from a study it undertook last July when it asked eight large companies to turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices. The FTC focused on the middlemen hired by retailers. Those middlemen use algorithms to tweak and target prices to different markets.
The initial findings of the FTC using data from six of the eight companies show that those prices are not static. Middlemen can target prices to individuals using their location, browsing patterns, shopping history, and even the way they move a mouse over a webpage. They can also use that information to show higher-priced products first in web searches. The FTC found that the intermediaries—the middlemen—worked with at least 250 retailers.
“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person’s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC chair Lina Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”
The FTC has asked for public comment on consumers’ experience with surveillance pricing.
FTC commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson, whom Trump has tapped to chair the commission in his incoming administration, dissented from the report.
Matt Stoller of the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project, which is working “to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power,” wrote that “he antitrust enforcers (Lina Khan et al) went full Tony Montana on big business this week before Trump people took over.”
Stoller made a list. The FTC sued John Deere “for generating $6 billion by prohibiting farmers from being able to repair their own equipment,” released a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers had “inflated prices for specialty pharmaceuticals by more than $7 billion,” “sued corporate landlord Greystar, which owns 800,000 apartments, for misleading renters on junk fees,” and “forced health care private equity powerhouse Welsh Carson to stop monopolization of the anesthesia market.”
It sued Pepsi for conspiring to give Walmart exclusive discounts that made prices higher at smaller stores, “eft a roadmap for parties who are worried about consolidation in AI by big tech by revealing a host of interlinked relationships among Google, Amazon and Microsoft and Anthropic and OpenAI,” said gig workers can’t be sued for antitrust violations when they try to organize, and forced game developer Cognosphere to pay a $20 million fine for marketing loot boxes to teens under 16 that hid the real costs and misled the teens.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “sued Capital One for cheating consumers out of $2 billion by misleading consumers over savings accounts,” Stoller continued. It “forced Cash App purveyor Block…to give $120 million in refunds for fostering fraud on its platform and then refusing to offer customer support to affected consumers,” “sued Experian for refusing to give consumers a way to correct errors in credit reports,” ordered Equifax to pay $15 million to a victims’ fund for “failing to properly investigate errors on credit reports,” and ordered “Honda Finance to pay $12.8 million for reporting inaccurate information that smeared the credit reports of Honda and Acura drivers.”
The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice sued “seven giant corporate landlords for rent-fixing, using the software and consulting firm RealPage,” Stoller went on. It “sued $600 billion private equity titan KKR for systemically misleading the government on more than a dozen acquisitions.”
“Honorary mention goes to at the Department of Transportation for suing Southwest and fining Frontier for ‘chronically delayed flights,’” Stoller concluded. He added more results to the list in his newsletter BIG.
Meanwhile, last night, while the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry were at a ball in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency. By morning he appeared to have made more than $25 billion, at least on paper. According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”
Adav Noti, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told Lipton: “It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.” Cryptocurrency leaders worried that just as their industry seems on the verge of becoming mainstream, Trump’s obvious cashing-in would hurt its reputation. Venture capitalist Nick Tomaino posted: “Trump owning 80 percent and timing launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will likely get hurt by it.”
Yesterday the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, asked X, the social media company owned by Trump-adjacent billionaire Elon Musk, to hand over internal documents about the company’s algorithms that give far-right posts and politicians more visibility than other political groups. The European Union has been investigating X since December 2023 out of concerns about how it deals with the spread of disinformation and illegal content. The European Union’s Digital Services Act regulates online platforms to prevent illegal and harmful activities, as well as the spread of disinformation.
Today in Washington, D.C., the National Mall was filled with thousands of people voicing their opposition to President-elect Trump and his policies. Online speculation has been rampant that Trump moved his inauguration indoors to avoid visual comparisons between today’s protesters and inaugural attendees. Brutally cold weather also descended on President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but a sea of attendees nonetheless filled the National Mall.
Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them. On social media, one user posted: “MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”
Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance: his approach to crises is to blame Democrats for them. But he is about to take office with majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, putting responsibility for governance firmly into his hands.
Right off the bat, he has at least two major problems at hand.
Last night, Commissioner Tyler Harper of the Georgia Department of Agriculture suspended all “poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales” until further notice after officials found Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, in a commercial flock. As birds die from the disease or are culled to prevent its spread, the cost of eggs is rising—just as Trump, who vowed to reduce grocery prices, takes office.
There have been 67 confirmed cases of the bird flu in the U.S. among humans who have caught the disease from birds. Most cases in humans are mild, but public health officials are watching the virus with concern because bird flu variants are unpredictable. On Friday, outgoing Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra announced $590 million in funding to Moderna to help speed up production of a vaccine that covers the bird flu. Juliana Kim of NPR explained that this funding comes on top of $176 million that Health and Human Services awarded to Moderna last July.
The second major problem is financial. On Friday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote to congressional leaders to warn them that the Treasury would hit the debt ceiling on January 21 and be forced to begin using extraordinary measures in order to pay outstanding obligations and prevent defaulting on the national debt. Those measures mean the Treasury will stop paying into certain federal retirement accounts as required by law, expecting to make up that difference later.
Yellen reminded congressional leaders: “The debt limit does not authorize new spending, but it creates a risk that the federal government might not be able to finance its existing legal obligations that Congresses and Presidents of both parties have made in the past.” She added, “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Both the avian flu and the limits of the debt ceiling must be managed, and managed quickly, and solutions will require expertise and political skill.
Rather than offering their solutions to these problems, the Trump team leaked that it intended to begin mass deportations on Tuesday morning in Chicago, choosing that city because it has large numbers of immigrants and because Trump’s people have been fighting with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat. Michelle Hackman, Joe Barrett, and Paul Kiernan of the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, reported that Trump’s people had prepared to amplify their efforts with the help of right-wing media.
But once the news leaked of the plan and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.
Arts said:
Arts said:
roughbarked said:Arts was making some popcorn wasn’t she?
lol.
We’re gonna need a bigger bowl.
Maybe we should all toss in.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
4h ·
January 18, 2025 (Saturday)——————cut———————
A fair bit to unpack there.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
4h ·
January 18, 2025 (Saturday)Shortly before midnight last night, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its initial findings from a study it undertook last July when it asked eight large companies to turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices. The FTC focused on the middlemen hired by retailers. Those middlemen use algorithms to tweak and target prices to different markets.
The initial findings of the FTC using data from six of the eight companies show that those prices are not static. Middlemen can target prices to individuals using their location, browsing patterns, shopping history, and even the way they move a mouse over a webpage. They can also use that information to show higher-priced products first in web searches. The FTC found that the intermediaries—the middlemen—worked with at least 250 retailers.
“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person’s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC chair Lina Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”
The FTC has asked for public comment on consumers’ experience with surveillance pricing.
FTC commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson, whom Trump has tapped to chair the commission in his incoming administration, dissented from the report.
Matt Stoller of the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project, which is working “to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power,” wrote that “he antitrust enforcers (Lina Khan et al) went full Tony Montana on big business this week before Trump people took over.”
Stoller made a list. The FTC sued John Deere “for generating $6 billion by prohibiting farmers from being able to repair their own equipment,” released a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers had “inflated prices for specialty pharmaceuticals by more than $7 billion,” “sued corporate landlord Greystar, which owns 800,000 apartments, for misleading renters on junk fees,” and “forced health care private equity powerhouse Welsh Carson to stop monopolization of the anesthesia market.”
It sued Pepsi for conspiring to give Walmart exclusive discounts that made prices higher at smaller stores, “eft a roadmap for parties who are worried about consolidation in AI by big tech by revealing a host of interlinked relationships among Google, Amazon and Microsoft and Anthropic and OpenAI,” said gig workers can’t be sued for antitrust violations when they try to organize, and forced game developer Cognosphere to pay a $20 million fine for marketing loot boxes to teens under 16 that hid the real costs and misled the teens.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “sued Capital One for cheating consumers out of $2 billion by misleading consumers over savings accounts,” Stoller continued. It “forced Cash App purveyor Block…to give $120 million in refunds for fostering fraud on its platform and then refusing to offer customer support to affected consumers,” “sued Experian for refusing to give consumers a way to correct errors in credit reports,” ordered Equifax to pay $15 million to a victims’ fund for “failing to properly investigate errors on credit reports,” and ordered “Honda Finance to pay $12.8 million for reporting inaccurate information that smeared the credit reports of Honda and Acura drivers.”
The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice sued “seven giant corporate landlords for rent-fixing, using the software and consulting firm RealPage,” Stoller went on. It “sued $600 billion private equity titan KKR for systemically misleading the government on more than a dozen acquisitions.”
“Honorary mention goes to at the Department of Transportation for suing Southwest and fining Frontier for ‘chronically delayed flights,’” Stoller concluded. He added more results to the list in his newsletter BIG.
Meanwhile, last night, while the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry were at a ball in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency. By morning he appeared to have made more than $25 billion, at least on paper. According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”Adav Noti, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told Lipton: “It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.” Cryptocurrency leaders worried that just as their industry seems on the verge of becoming mainstream, Trump’s obvious cashing-in would hurt its reputation. Venture capitalist Nick Tomaino posted: “Trump owning 80 percent and timing launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will likely get hurt by it.”
Yesterday the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, asked X, the social media company owned by Trump-adjacent billionaire Elon Musk, to hand over internal documents about the company’s algorithms that give far-right posts and politicians more visibility than other political groups. The European Union has been investigating X since December 2023 out of concerns about how it deals with the spread of disinformation and illegal content. The European Union’s Digital Services Act regulates online platforms to prevent illegal and harmful activities, as well as the spread of disinformation.
Today in Washington, D.C., the National Mall was filled with thousands of people voicing their opposition to President-elect Trump and his policies. Online speculation has been rampant that Trump moved his inauguration indoors to avoid visual comparisons between today’s protesters and inaugural attendees. Brutally cold weather also descended on President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but a sea of attendees nonetheless filled the National Mall.
Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them. On social media, one user posted: “MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”
Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance: his approach to crises is to blame Democrats for them. But he is about to take office with majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, putting responsibility for governance firmly into his hands.
Right off the bat, he has at least two major problems at hand.
Last night, Commissioner Tyler Harper of the Georgia Department of Agriculture suspended all “poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales” until further notice after officials found Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, in a commercial flock. As birds die from the disease or are culled to prevent its spread, the cost of eggs is rising—just as Trump, who vowed to reduce grocery prices, takes office.
There have been 67 confirmed cases of the bird flu in the U.S. among humans who have caught the disease from birds. Most cases in humans are mild, but public health officials are watching the virus with concern because bird flu variants are unpredictable. On Friday, outgoing Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra announced $590 million in funding to Moderna to help speed up production of a vaccine that covers the bird flu. Juliana Kim of NPR explained that this funding comes on top of $176 million that Health and Human Services awarded to Moderna last July.
The second major problem is financial. On Friday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote to congressional leaders to warn them that the Treasury would hit the debt ceiling on January 21 and be forced to begin using extraordinary measures in order to pay outstanding obligations and prevent defaulting on the national debt. Those measures mean the Treasury will stop paying into certain federal retirement accounts as required by law, expecting to make up that difference later.
Yellen reminded congressional leaders: “The debt limit does not authorize new spending, but it creates a risk that the federal government might not be able to finance its existing legal obligations that Congresses and Presidents of both parties have made in the past.” She added, “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Both the avian flu and the limits of the debt ceiling must be managed, and managed quickly, and solutions will require expertise and political skill.
Rather than offering their solutions to these problems, the Trump team leaked that it intended to begin mass deportations on Tuesday morning in Chicago, choosing that city because it has large numbers of immigrants and because Trump’s people have been fighting with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat. Michelle Hackman, Joe Barrett, and Paul Kiernan of the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, reported that Trump’s people had prepared to amplify their efforts with the help of right-wing media.
But once the news leaked of the plan and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.
Good Lord.
SCIENCE said:
Conspiracy theory. I think they are worried about security and snipers etc if the event was to be outdoors.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
Conspiracy theory. I think they are worried about security and snipers etc if the event was to be outdoors.
There Is No Such Thing As Bad OpSec, Just Bad OpShopping
always knew he was a closet communist
SCIENCE said:
always knew he was a closet communist
Correct.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
Conspiracy theory. I think they are worried about security and snipers etc if the event was to be outdoors.
that’s what they’re all saying under there
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:always knew he was a closet communist
Correct.
In fairness Murdoch and Musk come from the Commonwealth
dv said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:always knew he was a closet communist
Correct.
In fairness Murdoch and Musk come from the Commonwealth
But they are based in the US?
roughbarked said:
dv said:
party_pants said:Correct.
In fairness Murdoch and Musk come from the Commonwealth
But they are based in the US?
they are cringe in the US
dv said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:In fairness Murdoch and Musk come from the Commonwealth
But they are based in the US?
they are cringe in the US
are cringe? cringing?
roughbarked said:
dv said:
roughbarked said:But they are based in the US?
they are cringe in the US
are cringe? cringing?
Popular culture reference m’lud
dv said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:they are cringe in the US
are cringe? cringing?
Popular culture reference m’lud
I should get out more by the looks.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:they are cringe in the US
are cringe? cringing?
Popular culture reference m’lud
Lololol 😆
..sigh…🙄
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
kii said:
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
This is going to be a wacky few years with Trump at war with Congressional Republicans.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dispelled the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the U.S.
kii said:
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
Hey playing our souls’ egos is probably cheaper and safer for “foreign” “adversaries” than submitting to politically motivated demands to be hostile takenover right¿
There’s a lot of MAGA mugs complaining on social media about how they’ve spent thousands of dollars on admission tickets, travel, and accommodation to be there at Trump’s inauguration, only to now be told it’s all for nothing, as it’s taking place indoors, and there’s no room for them.
That’s our Donny. Promises you this and that, takes your money, and delivers bugger all.
Also, it appears that he’s now usingthe marketing label ‘$TRUMP’. Could we therefore refer to people who buy his nasty tat as ‘$TRUMPets’?
captain_spalding said:
There’s a lot of MAGA mugs complaining on social media about how they’ve spent thousands of dollars on admission tickets, travel, and accommodation to be there at Trump’s inauguration, only to now be told it’s all for nothing, as it’s taking place indoors, and there’s no room for them.That’s our Donny. Promises you this and that, takes your money, and delivers bugger all.
Also, it appears that he’s now usingthe marketing label ‘$TRUMP’. Could we therefore refer to people who buy his nasty tat as ‘$TRUMPets’?
It’s delicious.
dv said:
kii said:
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
This is going to be a wacky few years with Trump at war with Congressional Republicans.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dispelled the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the U.S.
dv said:
dv said:
kii said:
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
This is going to be a wacky few years with Trump at war with Congressional Republicans.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dispelled the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the U.S.
so he’s a genius
WTF though
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-20/donald-trump-dark-side-productivity-and-growth/104830730
I’m not saying lifting national productivity is bad, far from it, but the pickle in which America now finds itself, with a vastly unpredictable and narcissistic president and a spectacularly unqualified cabinet, tells us that prosperity from productivity growth comes at a social and political cost. America has a lot more murders than any other high-income country — seven homicides per 100,000 people versus two in the next highest, Canada, and one per 100,000 in the UK and France. Maternal mortality rates are far higher in the US than any other country. Life expectancy is 48th in the world.
so forgive us for being fucking stupid, but ¿ how does being able to provide more goods and services, therefore mean that people die from crime and breeding more than before ?
Another way to put it is that America is the only country that really does prioritise economic growth ahead of everything else. In other countries, Australia included, they only pretend to be doing that, while preserving a decent welfare system and progressive taxes.
uh all right we’ll accept that short term priorities may appear more successful in the short term than long term priorities appear in the short term
Americans voted on prices, not jobs. Inflation fell, but prices didn’t, they kept rising — more slowly, that’s true, but they didn’t come down. The consumer price index has risen 21 per cent since Biden’s inauguration; the price of food is up 25 per cent. Naturally Trump promised to bring grocery prices down and says now that he won because of groceries. But having won, he says bringing food prices down will be very, very hard, which is true at least. It makes sense that high prices matter more in politics than jobs because they affect far more voters (ie almost everyone) than unemployment does (4 per cent now, 10 per cent at most in a recession).
sure we get that the second derivative is not the first derivative (and all the other calculus stuff that The Rev Dodgson considered earlier) but you’d hope that apparent prices matter less than real prices which comes back to jobs and earning nah fuck it too difficult
dv said:
dv said:
kii said:
Ron Filipkowski: They shut down their own app for a day, then turned it back on thanking Trump. What an obvious scam this was. Disgusting on the part of the Tik Tok owners, Trump, and all his sycophants who reversed their positions on it one second after he did for no reason other than he did.
This is going to be a wacky few years with Trump at war with Congressional Republicans.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dispelled the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the U.S.
Lololol 😆
https://youtu.be/knH3v5aEe_g?si=T9zCeOy6mF1GqkBz
Legal Eagles: Trump’s plan to end Birthright Citizenship
dv said:
https://youtu.be/knH3v5aEe_g?si=T9zCeOy6mF1GqkBzLegal Eagles: Trump’s plan to end Birthright Citizenship
She was very clear and comprehensible. Thanks.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/knH3v5aEe_g?si=T9zCeOy6mF1GqkBzLegal Eagles: Trump’s plan to end Birthright Citizenship
She was very clear and comprehensible. Thanks.
what did they say
As Trump’s allies war over immigration, Vance remains quiet
JD Vance’s success in the White House could hinge on brokering peace between Trump’s tech world backers and his populist base.
January 19, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Peter Jamison
As prominent backers of President-elect Donald Trump began attacking one another last month over U.S. immigration policy, one voice was conspicuously silent.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has a unique perspective in the argument over the H-1B visa program, which is intended to allow skilled workers into the country for jobs, often in the technology industry. A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Vance is also a champion of the ascendant brand of right-wing economic populism that favors broad new restrictions on immigration.
But as his allies on both sides of the debate have exchanged increasingly vicious insults, Vance has been treading carefully. He has not publicly weighed in on the future of the visa program, which Trump appeared to endorse in late December. Trump’s decision was a victory for the tech executives and financiers — including his key adviser, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who argue that the visas are necessary for American companies to attract the world’s best and brightest.
The debate laid bare the contradictions inherent in the unlikely coalition that propelled Trump’s return to power. A nationalist movement that bills itself as the deliverance of the American working class has joined forces with staggeringly wealthy tech entrepreneurs who aren’t always satisfied with a single passport.
It is a fissure, some say, that might ultimately prove irreconcilable — and one that runs directly through the office of the incoming vice president. Trump may have picked a side in the fight over visas for skilled workers, but the tension between MAGA populists and the “tech right” remains and is likely to pose a recurrent test for Vance after he takes his oath of office on Monday.
“JD’s got a very tough job. He is trying to be the bridge,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who in recent weeks has harshly criticized the H-1B visa program and its defenders in interviews and on his influential “War Room” podcast. “I think you see behind the scenes what he’s doing is trying to bridge this gap. My point is that even with a guy like that, who’s very respected by both sides, I’m just not sure it’s bridgeable.”
Bannon declined to detail the efforts Vance was making behind the scenes to mediate between tech and populist leaders. Vance’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The debate over H-1B visas has in the past been an awkward one for Vance, for reasons not directly related to the dynamics of the MAGA coalition.
In 2022, when Vance was campaigning for a U.S. senate seat representing Ohio and denouncing the visa program as “an unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations,” Axios reported that he had invested in firms that used the visas. Vance said at the time that he did not control the companies in which he invested and had never recommended that they use the H-1B program.
Critics of the program, including some Democrats, say it is abused by companies that claim to face a shortage of skilled labor but in fact are looking to hire workers from abroad at lower wages.
The program became a political flash point in December, when a feud began brewing on the social media platform X between prominent tech figures and far-right MAGA activists, many of whom had been loyal to Trump long before the relatively recent spate of conversions in Silicon Valley.
Musk, who owns X and was born in South Africa, credited H-1B visas with allowing him and others to launch their careers in the United States and wrote, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” Ramaswamy, who along with Musk is running Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and is planning to run for Ohio governor, posted a long tirade, replete with references to 1990s television shows, in which he sought to explain tech companies’ need to hire foreign-born workers by claiming “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
Oren Cass, founder and chief economist at American Compass — a conservative, economically populist think tank that is aligned with Vance and supports new limits on H-1B visas — wrote on Substack that Ramaswamy’s statement was “a meandering middle finger to the American people.”
Through a spokesman, Ramaswamy declined to comment. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
In late December, Trump came down on the side of Musk and Ramaswamy, telling the New York Post that he is “a believer in H-1B” and calling it “a great program.” He also said his companies had used the visas “many times.”
But Trump’s statements did not assuage the concerns of his nationalist base, which has continued to attack the tech titans they see as angling for undeserved influence in the new administration. Executives once vilified by Trump, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and owns The Washington Post, are now making overtures to the incoming president and donating hefty sums to his inaugural fund. Several of them will be seated in prominent places at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
Bannon nevertheless said in an interview that he sees the Silicon Valley worldview as inimical to MAGA.
“On the spectrum of politics today, you have right-wing populists,” he said. “You have progressives. You have liberals. And we debate. Some are globalists — you know, more open borders — but everybody’s on the spectrum of something around the nation state, right?”
Some tech executives, Bannon said, are “in a different category. They don’t believe in that. They believe very much in this techno-feudalism,” or a world in which national sovereignty is displaced by borderless corporate power.
Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate stoked excitement among Silicon Valley tycoons who looked forward to having one of their own — or, at least, somebody who had made money in the same ways they had — in a position of power.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, wrote on X in July.
More recently, many MAGA activists have pointed to Vance’s promises to curb immigration and broadsides against companies that he asserts are abusing H-1B visas as evidence that on this issue, at least, he is on the side of Trump’s base.
“I don’t remember JD Vance running around Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania saying we’re going to replace workers” with immigrant labor, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec said. “JD’s our guy in this.”
Vance himself has remained quiet on both the visa dispute and the larger tension in Trump’s coalition. Some political observers say that’s likely by design.
“It’s the great fault-line between the Trump pitchfork wing and the potentate wing,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a critic of Trump. “JD’s probably hiding from the fight.”
Murphy said the vice presidency — held almost invariably by hyper-ambitious politicians who must learn to subordinate themselves to the occupant of the Oval Office — is always treacherous ground, but could be even trickier under a mercurial president overseeing a fractious coalition.
“Even far more humane cultures than the Trump White House see the vice president quickly getting in the doghouse,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve figured out what the niche is for . My guess is his style is to be low-key, to be loyal and to wait.”
Joel K. Goldstein, a law professor emeritus at St. Louis University and an expert on the American vice presidency, said Vance would not be the first vice president to find himself caught between the desires of a party’s base and the policies of an administration. Vice President Dan Quayle opposed tax increases but was obligated to defend them under President George H.W. Bush. On the Democratic side, Vice President Walter Mondale had to stand behind cuts to social programs that President Jimmy Carter proposed to curb inflation.
“With the modern vice presidency, part of the implicit arrangement is that you’re in the room, you have a voice in decision-making, but once the decision’s made, you defend it,” Goldstein said. “Unless you absolutely can’t defend it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/19/trumps-allies-war-over-immigration-vance-remains-quiet/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump’s allies war over immigration, Vance remains quiet
JD Vance’s success in the White House could hinge on brokering peace between Trump’s tech world backers and his populist base.January 19, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Peter JamisonAs prominent backers of President-elect Donald Trump began attacking one another last month over U.S. immigration policy, one voice was conspicuously silent.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has a unique perspective in the argument over the H-1B visa program, which is intended to allow skilled workers into the country for jobs, often in the technology industry. A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Vance is also a champion of the ascendant brand of right-wing economic populism that favors broad new restrictions on immigration.
But as his allies on both sides of the debate have exchanged increasingly vicious insults, Vance has been treading carefully. He has not publicly weighed in on the future of the visa program, which Trump appeared to endorse in late December. Trump’s decision was a victory for the tech executives and financiers — including his key adviser, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who argue that the visas are necessary for American companies to attract the world’s best and brightest.
The debate laid bare the contradictions inherent in the unlikely coalition that propelled Trump’s return to power. A nationalist movement that bills itself as the deliverance of the American working class has joined forces with staggeringly wealthy tech entrepreneurs who aren’t always satisfied with a single passport.
It is a fissure, some say, that might ultimately prove irreconcilable — and one that runs directly through the office of the incoming vice president. Trump may have picked a side in the fight over visas for skilled workers, but the tension between MAGA populists and the “tech right” remains and is likely to pose a recurrent test for Vance after he takes his oath of office on Monday.
“JD’s got a very tough job. He is trying to be the bridge,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who in recent weeks has harshly criticized the H-1B visa program and its defenders in interviews and on his influential “War Room” podcast. “I think you see behind the scenes what he’s doing is trying to bridge this gap. My point is that even with a guy like that, who’s very respected by both sides, I’m just not sure it’s bridgeable.”
Bannon declined to detail the efforts Vance was making behind the scenes to mediate between tech and populist leaders. Vance’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The debate over H-1B visas has in the past been an awkward one for Vance, for reasons not directly related to the dynamics of the MAGA coalition.
In 2022, when Vance was campaigning for a U.S. senate seat representing Ohio and denouncing the visa program as “an unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations,” Axios reported that he had invested in firms that used the visas. Vance said at the time that he did not control the companies in which he invested and had never recommended that they use the H-1B program.
Critics of the program, including some Democrats, say it is abused by companies that claim to face a shortage of skilled labor but in fact are looking to hire workers from abroad at lower wages.
The program became a political flash point in December, when a feud began brewing on the social media platform X between prominent tech figures and far-right MAGA activists, many of whom had been loyal to Trump long before the relatively recent spate of conversions in Silicon Valley.
Musk, who owns X and was born in South Africa, credited H-1B visas with allowing him and others to launch their careers in the United States and wrote, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” Ramaswamy, who along with Musk is running Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and is planning to run for Ohio governor, posted a long tirade, replete with references to 1990s television shows, in which he sought to explain tech companies’ need to hire foreign-born workers by claiming “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
Oren Cass, founder and chief economist at American Compass — a conservative, economically populist think tank that is aligned with Vance and supports new limits on H-1B visas — wrote on Substack that Ramaswamy’s statement was “a meandering middle finger to the American people.”
Through a spokesman, Ramaswamy declined to comment. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
In late December, Trump came down on the side of Musk and Ramaswamy, telling the New York Post that he is “a believer in H-1B” and calling it “a great program.” He also said his companies had used the visas “many times.”
But Trump’s statements did not assuage the concerns of his nationalist base, which has continued to attack the tech titans they see as angling for undeserved influence in the new administration. Executives once vilified by Trump, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and owns The Washington Post, are now making overtures to the incoming president and donating hefty sums to his inaugural fund. Several of them will be seated in prominent places at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
Bannon nevertheless said in an interview that he sees the Silicon Valley worldview as inimical to MAGA.
“On the spectrum of politics today, you have right-wing populists,” he said. “You have progressives. You have liberals. And we debate. Some are globalists — you know, more open borders — but everybody’s on the spectrum of something around the nation state, right?”
Some tech executives, Bannon said, are “in a different category. They don’t believe in that. They believe very much in this techno-feudalism,” or a world in which national sovereignty is displaced by borderless corporate power.
Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate stoked excitement among Silicon Valley tycoons who looked forward to having one of their own — or, at least, somebody who had made money in the same ways they had — in a position of power.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, wrote on X in July.
More recently, many MAGA activists have pointed to Vance’s promises to curb immigration and broadsides against companies that he asserts are abusing H-1B visas as evidence that on this issue, at least, he is on the side of Trump’s base.
“I don’t remember JD Vance running around Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania saying we’re going to replace workers” with immigrant labor, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec said. “JD’s our guy in this.”
Vance himself has remained quiet on both the visa dispute and the larger tension in Trump’s coalition. Some political observers say that’s likely by design.
“It’s the great fault-line between the Trump pitchfork wing and the potentate wing,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a critic of Trump. “JD’s probably hiding from the fight.”
Murphy said the vice presidency — held almost invariably by hyper-ambitious politicians who must learn to subordinate themselves to the occupant of the Oval Office — is always treacherous ground, but could be even trickier under a mercurial president overseeing a fractious coalition.
“Even far more humane cultures than the Trump White House see the vice president quickly getting in the doghouse,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve figured out what the niche is for . My guess is his style is to be low-key, to be loyal and to wait.”
Joel K. Goldstein, a law professor emeritus at St. Louis University and an expert on the American vice presidency, said Vance would not be the first vice president to find himself caught between the desires of a party’s base and the policies of an administration. Vice President Dan Quayle opposed tax increases but was obligated to defend them under President George H.W. Bush. On the Democratic side, Vice President Walter Mondale had to stand behind cuts to social programs that President Jimmy Carter proposed to curb inflation.
“With the modern vice presidency, part of the implicit arrangement is that you’re in the room, you have a voice in decision-making, but once the decision’s made, you defend it,” Goldstein said. “Unless you absolutely can’t defend it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/19/trumps-allies-war-over-immigration-vance-remains-quiet/?
Vance is a communists.
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump’s allies war over immigration, Vance remains quiet
JD Vance’s success in the White House could hinge on brokering peace between Trump’s tech world backers and his populist base.January 19, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Peter JamisonAs prominent backers of President-elect Donald Trump began attacking one another last month over U.S. immigration policy, one voice was conspicuously silent.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has a unique perspective in the argument over the H-1B visa program, which is intended to allow skilled workers into the country for jobs, often in the technology industry. A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Vance is also a champion of the ascendant brand of right-wing economic populism that favors broad new restrictions on immigration.
But as his allies on both sides of the debate have exchanged increasingly vicious insults, Vance has been treading carefully. He has not publicly weighed in on the future of the visa program, which Trump appeared to endorse in late December. Trump’s decision was a victory for the tech executives and financiers — including his key adviser, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who argue that the visas are necessary for American companies to attract the world’s best and brightest.
The debate laid bare the contradictions inherent in the unlikely coalition that propelled Trump’s return to power. A nationalist movement that bills itself as the deliverance of the American working class has joined forces with staggeringly wealthy tech entrepreneurs who aren’t always satisfied with a single passport.
It is a fissure, some say, that might ultimately prove irreconcilable — and one that runs directly through the office of the incoming vice president. Trump may have picked a side in the fight over visas for skilled workers, but the tension between MAGA populists and the “tech right” remains and is likely to pose a recurrent test for Vance after he takes his oath of office on Monday.
“JD’s got a very tough job. He is trying to be the bridge,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who in recent weeks has harshly criticized the H-1B visa program and its defenders in interviews and on his influential “War Room” podcast. “I think you see behind the scenes what he’s doing is trying to bridge this gap. My point is that even with a guy like that, who’s very respected by both sides, I’m just not sure it’s bridgeable.”
Bannon declined to detail the efforts Vance was making behind the scenes to mediate between tech and populist leaders. Vance’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The debate over H-1B visas has in the past been an awkward one for Vance, for reasons not directly related to the dynamics of the MAGA coalition.
In 2022, when Vance was campaigning for a U.S. senate seat representing Ohio and denouncing the visa program as “an unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations,” Axios reported that he had invested in firms that used the visas. Vance said at the time that he did not control the companies in which he invested and had never recommended that they use the H-1B program.
Critics of the program, including some Democrats, say it is abused by companies that claim to face a shortage of skilled labor but in fact are looking to hire workers from abroad at lower wages.
The program became a political flash point in December, when a feud began brewing on the social media platform X between prominent tech figures and far-right MAGA activists, many of whom had been loyal to Trump long before the relatively recent spate of conversions in Silicon Valley.
Musk, who owns X and was born in South Africa, credited H-1B visas with allowing him and others to launch their careers in the United States and wrote, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” Ramaswamy, who along with Musk is running Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and is planning to run for Ohio governor, posted a long tirade, replete with references to 1990s television shows, in which he sought to explain tech companies’ need to hire foreign-born workers by claiming “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
Oren Cass, founder and chief economist at American Compass — a conservative, economically populist think tank that is aligned with Vance and supports new limits on H-1B visas — wrote on Substack that Ramaswamy’s statement was “a meandering middle finger to the American people.”
Through a spokesman, Ramaswamy declined to comment. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
In late December, Trump came down on the side of Musk and Ramaswamy, telling the New York Post that he is “a believer in H-1B” and calling it “a great program.” He also said his companies had used the visas “many times.”
But Trump’s statements did not assuage the concerns of his nationalist base, which has continued to attack the tech titans they see as angling for undeserved influence in the new administration. Executives once vilified by Trump, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and owns The Washington Post, are now making overtures to the incoming president and donating hefty sums to his inaugural fund. Several of them will be seated in prominent places at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
Bannon nevertheless said in an interview that he sees the Silicon Valley worldview as inimical to MAGA.
“On the spectrum of politics today, you have right-wing populists,” he said. “You have progressives. You have liberals. And we debate. Some are globalists — you know, more open borders — but everybody’s on the spectrum of something around the nation state, right?”
Some tech executives, Bannon said, are “in a different category. They don’t believe in that. They believe very much in this techno-feudalism,” or a world in which national sovereignty is displaced by borderless corporate power.
Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate stoked excitement among Silicon Valley tycoons who looked forward to having one of their own — or, at least, somebody who had made money in the same ways they had — in a position of power.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, wrote on X in July.
More recently, many MAGA activists have pointed to Vance’s promises to curb immigration and broadsides against companies that he asserts are abusing H-1B visas as evidence that on this issue, at least, he is on the side of Trump’s base.
“I don’t remember JD Vance running around Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania saying we’re going to replace workers” with immigrant labor, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec said. “JD’s our guy in this.”
Vance himself has remained quiet on both the visa dispute and the larger tension in Trump’s coalition. Some political observers say that’s likely by design.
“It’s the great fault-line between the Trump pitchfork wing and the potentate wing,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a critic of Trump. “JD’s probably hiding from the fight.”
Murphy said the vice presidency — held almost invariably by hyper-ambitious politicians who must learn to subordinate themselves to the occupant of the Oval Office — is always treacherous ground, but could be even trickier under a mercurial president overseeing a fractious coalition.
“Even far more humane cultures than the Trump White House see the vice president quickly getting in the doghouse,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve figured out what the niche is for . My guess is his style is to be low-key, to be loyal and to wait.”
Joel K. Goldstein, a law professor emeritus at St. Louis University and an expert on the American vice presidency, said Vance would not be the first vice president to find himself caught between the desires of a party’s base and the policies of an administration. Vice President Dan Quayle opposed tax increases but was obligated to defend them under President George H.W. Bush. On the Democratic side, Vice President Walter Mondale had to stand behind cuts to social programs that President Jimmy Carter proposed to curb inflation.
“With the modern vice presidency, part of the implicit arrangement is that you’re in the room, you have a voice in decision-making, but once the decision’s made, you defend it,” Goldstein said. “Unless you absolutely can’t defend it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/19/trumps-allies-war-over-immigration-vance-remains-quiet/?
Vance is a communists.
Probably looking under his bed as we speak
Do you think communists were aware of the fact that was a compromised hiding spot and they hide elsewhere
Witty Rejoinder said:
As Trump’s allies war over immigration, Vance remains quiet
JD Vance’s success in the White House could hinge on brokering peace between Trump’s tech world backers and his populist base.January 19, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Peter JamisonAs prominent backers of President-elect Donald Trump began attacking one another last month over U.S. immigration policy, one voice was conspicuously silent.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has a unique perspective in the argument over the H-1B visa program, which is intended to allow skilled workers into the country for jobs, often in the technology industry. A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Vance is also a champion of the ascendant brand of right-wing economic populism that favors broad new restrictions on immigration.
But as his allies on both sides of the debate have exchanged increasingly vicious insults, Vance has been treading carefully. He has not publicly weighed in on the future of the visa program, which Trump appeared to endorse in late December. Trump’s decision was a victory for the tech executives and financiers — including his key adviser, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who argue that the visas are necessary for American companies to attract the world’s best and brightest.
The debate laid bare the contradictions inherent in the unlikely coalition that propelled Trump’s return to power. A nationalist movement that bills itself as the deliverance of the American working class has joined forces with staggeringly wealthy tech entrepreneurs who aren’t always satisfied with a single passport.
It is a fissure, some say, that might ultimately prove irreconcilable — and one that runs directly through the office of the incoming vice president. Trump may have picked a side in the fight over visas for skilled workers, but the tension between MAGA populists and the “tech right” remains and is likely to pose a recurrent test for Vance after he takes his oath of office on Monday.
“JD’s got a very tough job. He is trying to be the bridge,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who in recent weeks has harshly criticized the H-1B visa program and its defenders in interviews and on his influential “War Room” podcast. “I think you see behind the scenes what he’s doing is trying to bridge this gap. My point is that even with a guy like that, who’s very respected by both sides, I’m just not sure it’s bridgeable.”
Bannon declined to detail the efforts Vance was making behind the scenes to mediate between tech and populist leaders. Vance’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The debate over H-1B visas has in the past been an awkward one for Vance, for reasons not directly related to the dynamics of the MAGA coalition.
In 2022, when Vance was campaigning for a U.S. senate seat representing Ohio and denouncing the visa program as “an unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations,” Axios reported that he had invested in firms that used the visas. Vance said at the time that he did not control the companies in which he invested and had never recommended that they use the H-1B program.
Critics of the program, including some Democrats, say it is abused by companies that claim to face a shortage of skilled labor but in fact are looking to hire workers from abroad at lower wages.
The program became a political flash point in December, when a feud began brewing on the social media platform X between prominent tech figures and far-right MAGA activists, many of whom had been loyal to Trump long before the relatively recent spate of conversions in Silicon Valley.
Musk, who owns X and was born in South Africa, credited H-1B visas with allowing him and others to launch their careers in the United States and wrote, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” Ramaswamy, who along with Musk is running Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and is planning to run for Ohio governor, posted a long tirade, replete with references to 1990s television shows, in which he sought to explain tech companies’ need to hire foreign-born workers by claiming “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
Oren Cass, founder and chief economist at American Compass — a conservative, economically populist think tank that is aligned with Vance and supports new limits on H-1B visas — wrote on Substack that Ramaswamy’s statement was “a meandering middle finger to the American people.”
Through a spokesman, Ramaswamy declined to comment. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
In late December, Trump came down on the side of Musk and Ramaswamy, telling the New York Post that he is “a believer in H-1B” and calling it “a great program.” He also said his companies had used the visas “many times.”
But Trump’s statements did not assuage the concerns of his nationalist base, which has continued to attack the tech titans they see as angling for undeserved influence in the new administration. Executives once vilified by Trump, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and owns The Washington Post, are now making overtures to the incoming president and donating hefty sums to his inaugural fund. Several of them will be seated in prominent places at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
Bannon nevertheless said in an interview that he sees the Silicon Valley worldview as inimical to MAGA.
“On the spectrum of politics today, you have right-wing populists,” he said. “You have progressives. You have liberals. And we debate. Some are globalists — you know, more open borders — but everybody’s on the spectrum of something around the nation state, right?”
Some tech executives, Bannon said, are “in a different category. They don’t believe in that. They believe very much in this techno-feudalism,” or a world in which national sovereignty is displaced by borderless corporate power.
Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate stoked excitement among Silicon Valley tycoons who looked forward to having one of their own — or, at least, somebody who had made money in the same ways they had — in a position of power.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, wrote on X in July.
More recently, many MAGA activists have pointed to Vance’s promises to curb immigration and broadsides against companies that he asserts are abusing H-1B visas as evidence that on this issue, at least, he is on the side of Trump’s base.
“I don’t remember JD Vance running around Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania saying we’re going to replace workers” with immigrant labor, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec said. “JD’s our guy in this.”
Vance himself has remained quiet on both the visa dispute and the larger tension in Trump’s coalition. Some political observers say that’s likely by design.
“It’s the great fault-line between the Trump pitchfork wing and the potentate wing,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a critic of Trump. “JD’s probably hiding from the fight.”
Murphy said the vice presidency — held almost invariably by hyper-ambitious politicians who must learn to subordinate themselves to the occupant of the Oval Office — is always treacherous ground, but could be even trickier under a mercurial president overseeing a fractious coalition.
“Even far more humane cultures than the Trump White House see the vice president quickly getting in the doghouse,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve figured out what the niche is for . My guess is his style is to be low-key, to be loyal and to wait.”
Joel K. Goldstein, a law professor emeritus at St. Louis University and an expert on the American vice presidency, said Vance would not be the first vice president to find himself caught between the desires of a party’s base and the policies of an administration. Vice President Dan Quayle opposed tax increases but was obligated to defend them under President George H.W. Bush. On the Democratic side, Vice President Walter Mondale had to stand behind cuts to social programs that President Jimmy Carter proposed to curb inflation.
“With the modern vice presidency, part of the implicit arrangement is that you’re in the room, you have a voice in decision-making, but once the decision’s made, you defend it,” Goldstein said. “Unless you absolutely can’t defend it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/19/trumps-allies-war-over-immigration-vance-remains-quiet/?
We all saw what he wanted done to Mike Pence.
I do suspect that Musk organised some dodgy shit with the votes. A fair chunk of them was sent through the Starlink network so they had access to the data.
And let’s face it, Trump is farken stupid enough to say that out loud … because there seems to be zero penalty for committing serious crimes there lately.
From the Scottish Sunday Herald TV guide…
Neophyte said:
From the Scottish Sunday Herald TV guide…
LOLOL
https://bsky.app/profile/johncolbert29.bsky.social/post/3lg57lxmuac2y
“…then they rigged the election…”
kii said:
https://bsky.app/profile/johncolbert29.bsky.social/post/3lg57lxmuac2y“…then they rigged the election…”
the US is fcked.
kii said:
https://bsky.app/profile/johncolbert29.bsky.social/post/3lg57lxmuac2y“…then they rigged the election…”
FMD
how convenient that this has now occurred within the 癌症 singularity so there is no longer verifiable content
Heather Cox Richardson
5h ·
January 19, 2025 (Sunday)
You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.
When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.
It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.
It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.
It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.
It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.
Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.
None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.
On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors.
After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: “As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.”
Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. “Now, that’s a strange statement to make,” King went on, “because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice.
He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.
Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.
Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5h ·
January 19, 2025 (Sunday)You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.
When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.
It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.
It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.
It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.
It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.
Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.
None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.
On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors.
After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: “As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.”
Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. “Now, that’s a strange statement to make,” King went on, “because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice.
He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.
Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.
Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025.
He was a good and godly man.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5h ·
January 19, 2025 (Sunday)You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.
————-cut————-
People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.
Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.
Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025.
Huh!
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5h ·
January 19, 2025 (Sunday)You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.
————-cut————-
People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.
Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.
Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025.
Huh!
Best bit of the quote for me:
>>But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” <<
I’m glad someone can raise some optimism.
sarahs mum said:
I’m glad someone can raise some optimism.
well at least most of us will be dead
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
I’m glad someone can raise some optimism.
well at least most of us will be dead
I’m sure all of us will be
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/20/trump-is-back-how-do-we-prepare-for-life-under-a-brutal-regime-of-ai-climate-crypto-madness
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/20/trump-is-back-how-do-we-prepare-for-life-under-a-brutal-regime-of-ai-climate-crypto-madness
That was kind of unfair on Biden.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/20/trump-is-back-how-do-we-prepare-for-life-under-a-brutal-regime-of-ai-climate-crypto-madness
That was kind of unfair on Biden.
agreed.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/20/trump-is-back-how-do-we-prepare-for-life-under-a-brutal-regime-of-ai-climate-crypto-madness
That was kind of unfair on Biden.
Real rot started in 2010 with the US Supreme Court deciding that limiting corporate donations to political parties was a violation of free speech under the first amendment. Since then big money has increasingly dominated politics, to the extent that large donors dominate and drown out the citizenry. They own the politicians and do as they like behind the scenes while the citizens argue over distractions. in recent times the behind the scenes has become overt and in the headlines.
They need a reset and a cull.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/20/trump-is-back-how-do-we-prepare-for-life-under-a-brutal-regime-of-ai-climate-crypto-madness
That was kind of unfair on Biden.
Real rot started in 2010 with the US Supreme Court deciding that limiting corporate donations to political parties was a violation of free speech under the first amendment. Since then big money has increasingly dominated politics, to the extent that large donors dominate and drown out the citizenry. They own the politicians and do as they like behind the scenes while the citizens argue over distractions. in recent times the behind the scenes has become overt and in the headlines.
They need a reset and a cull.
Hopefully they can figure that one out. With luck, peacefully. But with that many guns around, I doubt it.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:That was kind of unfair on Biden.
Real rot started in 2010 with the US Supreme Court deciding that limiting corporate donations to political parties was a violation of free speech under the first amendment. Since then big money has increasingly dominated politics, to the extent that large donors dominate and drown out the citizenry. They own the politicians and do as they like behind the scenes while the citizens argue over distractions. in recent times the behind the scenes has become overt and in the headlines.
They need a reset and a cull.
Hopefully they can figure that one out. With luck, peacefully. But with that many guns around, I doubt it.
I’m hoping that the day Trump orders the US military to invade Greenalnd or Canada they, or the Congress rebel and depose him.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:Real rot started in 2010 with the US Supreme Court deciding that limiting corporate donations to political parties was a violation of free speech under the first amendment. Since then big money has increasingly dominated politics, to the extent that large donors dominate and drown out the citizenry. They own the politicians and do as they like behind the scenes while the citizens argue over distractions. in recent times the behind the scenes has become overt and in the headlines.
They need a reset and a cull.
Hopefully they can figure that one out. With luck, peacefully. But with that many guns around, I doubt it.
I’m hoping that the day Trump orders the US military to invade Greenalnd or Canada they, or the Congress rebel and depose him.
I have my doubts that he’d invade either Canada or Greenland, al least not yet.
That job will come after he’s fixed things so that USAsians never have to vote again.
This was briefly mentioned further up-thread.
Trump admits to vote rigging.
This is his full speech at the Inauguration Eve Rally.
This picks up just after the 53-minute point. Stay with it until around 54:30
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
Hopefully they can figure that one out. With luck, peacefully. But with that many guns around, I doubt it.
I’m hoping that the day Trump orders the US military to invade Greenalnd or Canada they, or the Congress rebel and depose him.
I have my doubts that he’d invade either Canada or Greenland, al least not yet.
That job will come after he’s fixed things so that USAsians never have to vote again.
so what yousal’r‘e saying is that civil war is inevitable
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
I’m hoping that the day Trump orders the US military to invade Greenalnd or Canada they, or the Congress rebel and depose him.
I have my doubts that he’d invade either Canada or Greenland, al least not yet.
That job will come after he’s fixed things so that USAsians never have to vote again.
so what yousal’r‘e saying is that civil war is inevitable
No. pay closer attention…
I hope the Congress, or failing that the military, find a means of deposing Trump when he gets a bit too crazy. Before the point where the citizenry and all their second amendment stockpiles of guns and bullets come into play. Even if there was never a better time when the citizenry need to rise up against tyranny and oppression than now (or soon), that is still the last resort and all steps to avoid it would be good.
Comments on Jim Wright’s recent post..
Best Bluesky comment thus far:
“Sheep are normally left outside.” – Jay Lionel
And this is perfect…
Biden issues preemptive pardons for Milley, Fauci and Jan. 6 committee members
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/20/politics/joe-biden-preemptive-pardons/index.html
DJT doing his jerkoff dance on stage with the Village People… what a time to be alive
Witty Rejoinder said:
Biden issues preemptive pardons for Milley, Fauci and Jan. 6 committee membershttps://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/20/politics/joe-biden-preemptive-pardons/index.html
And the ABC story on this. I think it is unfortunate that it is necessary, but a Good Thing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-20/joe-biden-pardons-dr-anthony-fauci-and-january-6-investigators/104839942
sarahs mum said:
Thank you Gina.
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
buffy said:
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
Yes. It was a strange choice of outfit.
dv said:
Huh!
buffy said:
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
People are saying she looks like the Hamburgler:
buffy said:
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
Elmo is so happy that he had to do a quick Nazi salute.
Spiny Norman said:
Elmo is so happy that he had to do a quick Nazi salute.
FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Spiny Norman said:
Elmo is so happy that he had to do a quick Nazi salute.FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Spiny Norman said:
Elmo is so happy that he had to do a quick Nazi salute.FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
He’s probably fallen for the great replacement bullshit.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
He’s probably fallen for the great replacement bullshit.
It certainly isn’t a good look for most of us to be viewing. Maybe those Nazi sympathisers in black might think he’s talking to them.
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Spiny Norman said:
Elmo is so happy that he had to do a quick Nazi salute.FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
plenty of context in the comments
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:FMD… You can take the boy out of South Africa but not the South Africa out of the boy.
There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
plenty of context in the comments
There are no comments on that page.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:There’s no context for me to make any judgement.
But it looks awful.
plenty of context in the comments
There are no comments on that page.
Why would I post that the comments show context if there are no comments?
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:plenty of context in the comments
There are no comments on that page.
Why would I post that the comments show context if there are no comments?
I have no idea.
There is a button for replies. I pressed that, but I have to join X to see them. And that’s not going to happen.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:There are no comments on that page.
Why would I post that the comments show context if there are no comments?
I have no idea.
There is a button for replies. I pressed that, but I have to join X to see them. And that’s not going to happen.
That is why you can’t see them
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:There are no comments on that page.
Why would I post that the comments show context if there are no comments?
I have no idea.
There is a button for replies. I pressed that, but I have to join X to see them. And that’s not going to happen.
Good idea – Do NOT join Twitter. Bluesky is pretty good so far though.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2n
Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
The world once went to war against fascism but I doubt that the USA will help in the next one.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
The world once went to war against fascism but I doubt that the USA will help in the next one.
What makes you think that?
ChrispenEvan said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
Since nnot all of us can view the context,. If some of the context is worth reading, maybe someone could c&p some for us?
https://x.com/i/status/1881448090680598644
the whole speech. he is giving his heart to the voters/audience whatever.
ChrispenEvan said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
The world once went to war against fascism but I doubt that the USA will help in the next one.
What makes you think that?
It is unlikely while Trump is at the helm?
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Not going to put myself through the torture of watching to find the moment.
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
yes. these are what fuel conspiracies. are we better than that or are we just as gullible?
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
yes. these are what fuel conspiracies. are we better than that or are we just as gullible?
I’d rather not watch.
Another…4…years…of…torture.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:The world once went to war against fascism but I doubt that the USA will help in the next one.
What makes you think that?
It is unlikely while Trump is at the helm?
Laugh?
Cry?
Throw things?
Make silly faces?
So many choices.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Another…4…years…of…torture.
Hibernation?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Another…4…years…of…torture.
Hibernation?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Another…4…years…of…torture.
Hibernation?
Cryogenic chamber ?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Another…4…years…of…torture.
Hibernation?
Cryogenic chamber ?
4 years under anaesthesia ?
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
yes. these are what fuel conspiracies. are we better than that or are we just as gullible?
The answer to your question is that yes, we are just as gullible. All of us. All of the time.
Remember, it’s all about the internal narrative. That which matches the narrative is considered true, and that which doesn’t, false.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard Feynman
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:What makes you think that?
It is unlikely while Trump is at the helm?
Laugh?
Cry?
Throw things?
Make silly faces?
So many choices.
e) All of the above
esselte said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
yes. these are what fuel conspiracies. are we better than that or are we just as gullible?
The answer to your question is that yes, we are just as gullible. All of us. All of the time.
Remember, it’s all about the internal narrative. That which matches the narrative is considered true, and that which doesn’t, false.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard Feynman
I know. It was more rhetorical than anything else. Plus trying to not be too antagonistic.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Hibernation?
Cryogenic chamber ?
4 years under anaesthesia ?
I can’t bear another 4 years of smug-face.
So much smug it can be seen from space.
Lifeforms from Andromeda have reported seeing flashes of smug from the Milky way.
What a performance, some of you were too overcome with emotion to post.
I’m disappointed that he didn’t use “sunlit upland” he used “golden years” but still.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Cryogenic chamber ?
4 years under anaesthesia ?
I can’t bear another 4 years of smug-face.
So much smug it can be seen from space.
Lifeforms from Andromeda have reported seeing flashes of smug from the Milky way.
Well I’ll just have to put up with it so I’m not going to use much if any energy on it.
Fox News with their usual standards.
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.
Spiny Norman said:
Fox News with their usual standards.
Tells the story.
Spiny Norman said:
Fox News with their usual standards.
LOL
Spiny Norman said:
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.
Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
A few people have reported this. I was wondering why I was suddenly following Vance and trump.
Blocked both of them
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
It’s like some people don’t know how the internet works 🙄
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
I’m not going to log into X to read the 300+ comments either, but I did a quick binge, and everything that came back was negative about it, so that’s something I suppose.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
I’m not going to log into X to read the 300+ comments either, but I did a quick binge, and everything that came back was negative about it, so that’s something I suppose.
There is some good news then?
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
A bit more context for Elmo and the possible Nazi salute. He did it twice.Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
I’m not going to log into X to read the 300+ comments either, but I did a quick binge, and everything that came back was negative about it, so that’s something I suppose.
Hang on, he owns the platform and he’s allowing free speech?
It’s not right.
ChrispenEvan said:
esselte said:
ChrispenEvan said:
yes. these are what fuel conspiracies. are we better than that or are we just as gullible?
The answer to your question is that yes, we are just as gullible. All of us. All of the time.
Remember, it’s all about the internal narrative. That which matches the narrative is considered true, and that which doesn’t, false.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard Feynman
I know. It was more rhetorical than anything else. Plus trying to not be too antagonistic.
well you’re all fucking stupid and we all know it
Peak Warming Man said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:Unfortunately I cannot get his comment or could be fortunate?
I’m not going to log into X to read the 300+ comments either, but I did a quick binge, and everything that came back was negative about it, so that’s something I suppose.
Hang on, he owns the platform and he’s allowing free speech?
It’s not right.
The binge didn’t return anything from X. I know nothing about the sign of the X comments.
ChrispenEvan said:
https://x.com/i/status/1881448090680598644
the whole speech. he is giving his heart to the voters/audience whatever.
is that the way celebrities usually signal their heart giving
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
https://x.com/i/status/1881448090680598644
the whole speech. he is giving his heart to the voters/audience whatever.
is that the way celebrities usually signal their heart giving
Kali ma… Kali ma… Kali ma
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
https://x.com/i/status/1881448090680598644
the whole speech. he is giving his heart to the voters/audience whatever.
is that the way celebrities usually signal their heart giving
He’s not just a celebrity, he’s rich, richer than a weather girl.
Apparently the ex-president has pardoned his whole family, I don’t what they’ve planning on doing.
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
esselte said:
The answer to your question is that yes, we are just as gullible. All of us. All of the time.
Remember, it’s all about the internal narrative. That which matches the narrative is considered true, and that which doesn’t, false.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard Feynman
I know. It was more rhetorical than anything else. Plus trying to not be too antagonistic.
well you’re all fucking stupid and we all know it
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
if your stupid and you know it, for fucks sake try not to show it.
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:ChrispenEvan said:
https://x.com/i/status/1881448090680598644
the whole speech. he is giving his heart to the voters/audience whatever.
is that the way celebrities usually signal their heart giving
Kali ma… Kali ma… Kali ma
:-)
Spiny Norman said:
Fox News with their usual standards.
Oh no!
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:ChrispenEvan said:
I know. It was more rhetorical than anything else. Plus trying to not be too antagonistic.
well you’re all fucking stupid and we all know it
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
if your stupid and you know it, for fucks sake try not to show it.
if your stupid and you know it, clap you’re hands.
I give you the clap.
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
Fox News with their usual standards.
Oh no!
so are they flying the standard half mast
It’s pretty obvious that Musk was just trying to illustrate how high Michael V’s bamboo is.
dv said:
It’s pretty obvious that Musk was just trying to illustrate how high Michael V’s bamboo is.
so another obscure reference to CHINA we knew it
kii said:
buffy said:
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
lol
dv said:
It’s pretty obvious that Musk was just trying to illustrate how high Michael V’s bamboo is.
LOL
dv said:
Spy vs Spy
kii said:
buffy said:
I just had a look at the photos on the ABC article about the inauguration. Melania looks like she is wearing mourning clothes.
lol
Tamb said:
dv said:Spy vs Spy
kii said:
lol
Yes, it says that on the meme.
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
sarahs mum said:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lg74qw7q5×2nElon Musk doing a Nazi salute at inauguration
No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
sarahs mum said:
I guess that shows that they tried to do what he wanted – take the Capitol by force…
sarahs mum said:
I don’t get the Americans.
The had a revolution, which was meant to remove them from subjugation to a monarch (who actually had no absolute powers, and couldn’t issue decrees, because the English had already had a civil war about ‘absolute monarchy’, and Parliament made damn sure that the king/queen was pretty much powerless).
But, they created the office of President, from which the incumbent can pretty much rule and create laws by decree.
WTF?
kii said:
Tamb said:
dv said:Spy vs Spylol
Yes, it says that on the meme.
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
Grow up.
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
Pfffft.
Tamb said:
kii said:
Tamb said:Spy vs SpyYes, it says that on the meme.
Oh. Je m’excuse.
The Bungle Bungles
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
I don’t get the Americans.
The had a revolution, which was meant to remove them from subjugation to a monarch (who actually had no absolute powers, and couldn’t issue decrees, because the English had already had a civil war about ‘absolute monarchy’, and Parliament made damn sure that the king/queen was pretty much powerless).
But, they created the office of President, from which the incumbent can pretty much rule and create laws by decree.
WTF?
They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
dv said:
LOLOL
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:No. Context. We have been discussing this.
As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
he seems in pretty good mental and physical health.
So if he keeps cheating at golf and doesn’t get shot he should see out his 4 years or possibly more.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:As much as I intensely hate trump, I think the photo of him with his right hand up and left hand not on the bible is also out of context. I suspect it’s a moment before he reached out with his left hand, etc.
Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
he seems in pretty good mental and physical health.
So if he keeps cheating at golf and doesn’t get shot he should see out his 4 years or possibly more.
Praise the Lord
dv said:
One of them is an intellectual.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:Seems not.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-did-not-place-hand-bibles-during-2025-swearing-in
Another proud day in the history of atheism, y’all must be so proud.
he seems in pretty good mental and physical health.
So if he keeps cheating at golf and doesn’t get shot he should see out his 4 years or possibly more.Praise the Lord
And pass the ammunition.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
I don’t get the Americans.
The had a revolution, which was meant to remove them from subjugation to a monarch (who actually had no absolute powers, and couldn’t issue decrees, because the English had already had a civil war about ‘absolute monarchy’, and Parliament made damn sure that the king/queen was pretty much powerless).
But, they created the office of President, from which the incumbent can pretty much rule and create laws by decree.
WTF?
They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I don’t get the Americans.
The had a revolution, which was meant to remove them from subjugation to a monarch (who actually had no absolute powers, and couldn’t issue decrees, because the English had already had a civil war about ‘absolute monarchy’, and Parliament made damn sure that the king/queen was pretty much powerless).
But, they created the office of President, from which the incumbent can pretty much rule and create laws by decree.
WTF?
They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
Oops… That comma should be after ‘example’ not ‘pardons’.
Okay I understand the spy hat now
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I don’t get the Americans.
The had a revolution, which was meant to remove them from subjugation to a monarch (who actually had no absolute powers, and couldn’t issue decrees, because the English had already had a civil war about ‘absolute monarchy’, and Parliament made damn sure that the king/queen was pretty much powerless).
But, they created the office of President, from which the incumbent can pretty much rule and create laws by decree.
WTF?
They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
the key difference is that power of the office of PM can only be executed through the parliament, the power of the executive is separate to congress.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
the key difference is that power of the office of PM can only be executed through the parliament, the power of the executive is separate to congress.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:They elect their monarch, and call him “Mr. President”.
That was their model.
The Russian revolution replaced the hereditary Tzar with, well a “party elected” Tzar.
That was their model.
As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
the key difference is that power of the office of PM can only be executed through the parliament, the power of the executive is separate to congress.
Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:As the executive, besides a few quirks in the Constitution like pardons, for example the UK PM actually has more power than a US president when he commands a healthy majority in the HoC.
the key difference is that power of the office of PM can only be executed through the parliament, the power of the executive is separate to congress.
Well duh.
It’s the veto power that is the President’s main strength. Trump would not pass the covid relief bill until it was agreed his name and signature was on the cheques in order to give the impression that he was the one paying: a trick that worked on tens of millions of people. Normally the threat of impeachment and conviction in the senate holds a President back a little bit but this one knows he is free and clear.
Also, he is the only person in the united states with criminal immunity so that’s nice. Boris Johnson was successfully criminally prosecuted while in office.
Although this era in the US is unusual in several ways, one of them is the gulf between the views of historians and those of the general public. Different surveys of historians rank Biden 14th and 19th among Presidents: top half but nothing spectacular. Trump is consistently rated right at the bottom by historians.
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:the key difference is that power of the office of PM can only be executed through the parliament, the power of the executive is separate to congress.
Well duh.It’s the veto power that is the President’s main strength. Trump would not pass the covid relief bill until it was agreed his name and signature was on the cheques in order to give the impression that he was the one paying: a trick that worked on tens of millions of people. Normally the threat of impeachment and conviction in the senate holds a President back a little bit but this one knows he is free and clear.
Also, he is the only person in the united states with criminal immunity so that’s nice. Boris Johnson was successfully criminally prosecuted while in office.
further, most of the power of the office of PM is indirect in nature as it’s wielded via the influence he or she has over both the policy platform and the individuals members of the party. The PM doesn’t have much in the way of direct power in terms of being able to enact laws or such.
dv said:
Although this era in the US is unusual in several ways, one of them is the gulf between the views of historians and those of the general public. Different surveys of historians rank Biden 14th and 19th among Presidents: top half but nothing spectacular. Trump is consistently rated right at the bottom by historians.
the academic elites, you mean.. ;)
diddly-squat said:
Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Well duh.
It’s the veto power that is the President’s main strength. Trump would not pass the covid relief bill until it was agreed his name and signature was on the cheques in order to give the impression that he was the one paying: a trick that worked on tens of millions of people. Normally the threat of impeachment and conviction in the senate holds a President back a little bit but this one knows he is free and clear.
Also, he is the only person in the united states with criminal immunity so that’s nice. Boris Johnson was successfully criminally prosecuted while in office.
further, most of the power of the office of PM is indirect in nature as it’s wielded via the influence he or she has over both the policy platform and the individuals members of the party. The PM doesn’t have much in the way of direct power in terms of being able to enact laws or such.
Whereas Trump seems to be able to wake up with any sort of bee bouncing around in his bonnet, get some kind of bullshit put down on paper, attach his scrawl to it, and whammo! that’s how it is from now on, folks.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
Although this era in the US is unusual in several ways, one of them is the gulf between the views of historians and those of the general public. Different surveys of historians rank Biden 14th and 19th among Presidents: top half but nothing spectacular. Trump is consistently rated right at the bottom by historians.
the academic elites, you mean.. ;)
People who’ve seen this movie before, yes
Anyway.. from here it’s pretty much sunlit uplands, or bust, for for the GOP
Goodluck and Godspeed I say… If they pull it off it will be quite the political win.. if they balls it up even half an badly as I hope, I think they find themselves out of jobs in four years time (that is if the Dems haven’t eaten themself alive in the process)
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
Although this era in the US is unusual in several ways, one of them is the gulf between the views of historians and those of the general public. Different surveys of historians rank Biden 14th and 19th among Presidents: top half but nothing spectacular. Trump is consistently rated right at the bottom by historians.
the academic elites, you mean.. ;)
People who’ve seen this movie before, yes
I think that they’re going to have to move ‘the bottom’ a whole lot lower before Trump is gone.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
leaving office Biden was 19 points underwater; Trump was 11.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:It’s the veto power that is the President’s main strength. Trump would not pass the covid relief bill until it was agreed his name and signature was on the cheques in order to give the impression that he was the one paying: a trick that worked on tens of millions of people. Normally the threat of impeachment and conviction in the senate holds a President back a little bit but this one knows he is free and clear.
Also, he is the only person in the united states with criminal immunity so that’s nice. Boris Johnson was successfully criminally prosecuted while in office.
further, most of the power of the office of PM is indirect in nature as it’s wielded via the influence he or she has over both the policy platform and the individuals members of the party. The PM doesn’t have much in the way of direct power in terms of being able to enact laws or such.
Whereas Trump seems to be able to wake up with any sort of bee bouncing around in his bonnet, get some kind of bullshit put down on paper, attach his scrawl to it, and whammo! that’s how it is from now on, folks.
Not quite.. many Executive Orders have been overturned by the courts
diddly-squat said:
Anyway.. from here it’s pretty much sunlit uplands, or bust, for for the GOP
Goodluck and Godspeed I say… If they pull it off it will be quite the political win.. if they balls it up even half an badly as I hope, I think they find themselves out of jobs in four years time (that is if the Dems haven’t eaten themself alive in the process)
And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Anyway.. from here it’s pretty much sunlit uplands, or bust, for for the GOP
Goodluck and Godspeed I say… If they pull it off it will be quite the political win.. if they balls it up even half an badly as I hope, I think they find themselves out of jobs in four years time (that is if the Dems haven’t eaten themself alive in the process)
And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
leaving office Biden was 19 points underwater; Trump was 11.
Not just sentence commutation, pardons…
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Anyway.. from here it’s pretty much sunlit uplands, or bust, for for the GOP
Goodluck and Godspeed I say… If they pull it off it will be quite the political win.. if they balls it up even half an badly as I hope, I think they find themselves out of jobs in four years time (that is if the Dems haven’t eaten themself alive in the process)
And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be some considerable way off in the future.
Americans simply don’t seem to be grown-up enough, yet.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
leaving office Biden was 19 points underwater; Trump was 11.
Yeah.. the data the numbers I was quoting was from aggerated polls
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Anyway.. from here it’s pretty much sunlit uplands, or bust, for for the GOP
Goodluck and Godspeed I say… If they pull it off it will be quite the political win.. if they balls it up even half an badly as I hope, I think they find themselves out of jobs in four years time (that is if the Dems haven’t eaten themself alive in the process)
And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
Might not ever happen.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be some considerable way off in the future.
Americans simply don’t seem to be grown-up enough, yet.
It’s hard to say and I think it will largely depend on how JDV performs as VP, but yes.. it unlikely to the be the case in 2028.
buffy said:
Not just sentence commutation, pardons…
Because they did exactly what he wanted. They weren’t successful, but they tried.
Now he knows he can go a whole lot harder in driving an insurrection, with complete impunity.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:And as long as the Dems don’t nominate a woman for President.
Although there’s not much danger of that. They’ve tried it twice, with both of them being beaten by Donald Effing Trump, for Christ’s sake, so they probably feel that they’ve been burnt twice, and that there’s no ‘third time lucky’ about it.
I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
Might not ever happen.
At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Not just sentence commutation, pardons…Because they did exactly what he wanted. They weren’t successful, but they tried.
Now he knows he can go a whole lot harder in driving an insurrection, with complete impunity.
what would have been nice is if the previous administration actually did their jobs and got the cases against DJT to trial, but alas… Merrick Garland screwed the pooch on that one… I think history will look most dimly on him.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I think the first woman to hold the office of POTUS will be a Republican.
Might not ever happen.
At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
diddly-squat said:
At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
They’ll get around to accepting the idea that a woman can handle being President.
But, it might take another two, maybe three, generations of voters before it happens.
Americans love their political ‘institutions’. It’s why they still run their elections in a way that was absolutely ideally suited to the conditions of the late 18th century.
And, an ‘unwritten’ political institution is ‘no-one with XX chromosomes in the President’s chair’.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Might not ever happen.
At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
I think they’ll be around for a while to come yet; at least I hope so.. Not sure a world without the US as the global superpower would be a better one.
captain_spalding said:
Americans love their political ‘institutions’. It’s why they still run their elections in a way that was absolutely ideally suited to the conditions of the late 18th century.
In regard to elections in the US, it feels like too much power is the hands of elected officials, instead of unelected non-partisan bureaucrats and the elected officials simply don’t want to give up the power they have even if it were to make the system better.
what makes it really hard to run a female candidate in the US is that anyone can make up the most ridiculous, nonsensical, libellous and slanderous twaddle about a candidate, and quite possibly get it ‘legitimised’ by electronic and print media, while reportsof actual deficiences and malfeasanaces on the part of other candidates can, with a bit of horse-trading, be totally disregarded, or at least whitewashed.
And they really go to town on it where a female candidate is involved.
Until there’s some accountability for what’s said (or ignored) in the course of electioneering, it won’t get any better.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
I think they’ll be around for a while to come yet; at least I hope so.. Not sure a world without the US as the global superpower would be a better one.
And then there will be great celebrations when we get the first president to be L
And then there will be great celebrations when we get the first president to be G
And then there will be great celebrations when we get the first president to be B
And then there will be great celebrations when we get the first president to be T
Etc, right through to A I believe.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Might not ever happen.
At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
The Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years but I don’t know when their fines hour was.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
The Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years but I don’t know when their fines hour was.
finest
captain_spalding said:
what makes it really hard to run a female candidate in the US is that anyone can make up the most ridiculous, nonsensical, libellous and slanderous twaddle about a candidate, and quite possibly get it ‘legitimised’ by electronic and print media, while reportsof actual deficiences and malfeasanaces on the part of other candidates can, with a bit of horse-trading, be totally disregarded, or at least whitewashed.And they really go to town on it where a female candidate is involved.
Until there’s some accountability for what’s said (or ignored) in the course of electioneering, it won’t get any better.
KH wasn’t overly attacked for being a woman (although there certainty was some of that), the issue in the last election was she made out to be a champion of “woke institutions” .. the “She is for They/Them, Donald J Trump is for You” tagline. Anyway, truth in advertising laws would go a long way I reckon…
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
I think they’ll be around for a while to come yet; at least I hope so.. Not sure a world without the US as the global superpower would be a better one.
Ah well after the mitosis there will two superpowers.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:At the moment there is just soooooo much focus on gender politics and that makes it hard to run a female candidate and not be construed to be supporting “progressive woke culture”. I’m not sure this will always be the case, at least I hope it isn’t.
I mean how much longer will the US last anyway? 250 years is a long time for a country to operate under a single system of government.
The Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years but I don’t know when their fines hour was.
The Roman Empire never lasted more than 250 years under a given system of government.
captain_spalding said:
what makes it really hard to run a female candidate in the US is that anyone can make up the most ridiculous, nonsensical, libellous and slanderous twaddle about a candidate, and quite possibly get it ‘legitimised’ by electronic and print media, while reportsof actual deficiences and malfeasanaces on the part of other candidates can, with a bit of horse-trading, be totally disregarded, or at least whitewashed.And they really go to town on it where a female candidate is involved.
Until there’s some accountability for what’s said (or ignored) in the course of electioneering, it won’t get any better.
Fuck the Patriarchy.
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
If it were Mitchell Obama at least we could have spoken to the transition council about it.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
Tamb said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
In lieu of an election there will be two movies released. The star of the highest grossing film becomes POTUS.
It works with the various meanings of gross.
Fark.
It’s begun.
Oh well it’s better than being sat next to someone you have nothing in common with
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
I think the next presidential election, whenever that will be, could be between Michell Obama and J D Vance.
Over.
I think there’s no chance of that
Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:I think there’s no chance of that
Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
yeah, it is.
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
They really have a bug up their arse about it
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
yeah, it is.
If it was missing an “a” the Fonz would be upset
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
^point of the post. If it helps, a pointed post is a stake.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
yeah, it is.
No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Ignoring the missing “e”, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, but the probability is > 0.
the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
How would you know? ;)
Tamb said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:the missing ‘e’ is the whole point of the post.
No it isn’t
^point of the post. If it helps, a pointed post is a stake.
Piker
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:No it isn’t
yeah, it is.
No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
dv said:
Tamb said:
dv said:No it isn’t
^point of the post. If it helps, a pointed post is a stake.
Piker
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
The correct address is https://www.hrw.org/
Tamb said:
dv said:
Tamb said:^point of the post. If it helps, a pointed post is a stake.
Piker
That’s a bloke with a long pointed post.
Polemicist
Tamb said:
dv said:
Tamb said:^point of the post. If it helps, a pointed post is a stake.
Piker
That’s a bloke with a long pointed post.
or a gypsy, though that may be spelt differently.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:yeah, it is.
No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
The National Park Service is getting hit hard.
Alt National Park Service Facebook page has updates.
ChrispenEvan said:
Tamb said:
dv said:Piker
That’s a bloke with a long pointed post.or a gypsy, though that may be spelt differently.
pikey.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:yeah, it is.
No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
Okay then if you’re such a great pete-whisperer, what is the point of the omission?
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
Okay then if you’re such a great pete-whisperer, what is the point of the omission?
the allusion that Michelle Obama is really male.
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:No it isn’t. PWM made a minor typo. My response ignored it and avered that there is no chance that the former first lady will be the nominee. I don’t think she would even think about running.
then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
Okay then if you’re such a great pete-whisperer, what is the point of the omission?
Anyway, even if it is referring to some Michell without an e, not Michelle with an e, the probability is still greater than zero.
In fairness to EM, when his hand is on his chest it is flat, not in a fist.
https://www.threads.net/@lgold337/post/DFEpGP2xBO_?xmt=AQGz6G-BUVPcXCJWaeActOhkNe0ipEplYix0Z-iXj7yzlw
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:then you misunderstand why he deliberately left the ‘e’ off. he is a repeat offender doing this.
Okay then if you’re such a great pete-whisperer, what is the point of the omission?
the allusion that Michelle Obama is really male.
WTF
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:Okay then if you’re such a great pete-whisperer, what is the point of the omission?
the allusion that Michelle Obama is really male.
WTF
this is a fairly common trope within certain circles.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:the allusion that Michelle Obama is really male.
WTF
this is a fairly common trope within certain circles.
Yeah but I didn’t know that that circle had an intersection set with our forum regulars.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:the allusion that Michelle Obama is really male.
WTF
this is a fairly common trope within certain circles.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjL7uGYgoaLAxVvR2wGHYQLDisQFnoECBUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fforeman.hms.harvard.edu%2Fis-michelle-obama-a-transgender&usg=AOvVaw0eNsuSBw8T9FSidlmLtRrQ&opi=89978449
Hopefully works
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:WTF
this is a fairly common trope within certain circles.
Yeah but I didn’t know that that circle had an intersection set with our forum regulars.
some people go to websites that are not this forum.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:this is a fairly common trope within certain circles.
Yeah but I didn’t know that that circle had an intersection set with our forum regulars.
some people go to websites that are not this forum.
Me too, like heavens-above
Peak Warming Man said:
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
The correct address is https://www.hrw.org/
There’s a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18UMcxEk9Y/
LOLOLOLOL 😆
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
The correct address is https://www.hrw.org/
There’s a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread.
Um….look again.
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:The correct address is https://www.hrw.org/
There’s a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread.
Um….look again.
I mean in fairness Human Rights Watch are probably going to be relevant
dv said:
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:There’s a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread.
Um….look again.
I mean in fairness Human Rights Watch are probably going to be relevant
I mean in fairness PWM fucked up.
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
It’s begun.
FMD
dv said:
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
so it’s selection on merit along from here presumably…
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
so it’s selection on merit along from here presumably…
alone
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:Um….look again.
I mean in fairness Human Rights Watch are probably going to be relevant
I mean in fairness PWM fucked up.
It’s there if you use the correct web address for it, not some pretend address.
dv said:
Oh well it’s better than being sat next to someone you have nothing in common with
Bruddy ‘eck!
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
so it’s selection on merit along from here presumably…
Oh yeah that shines through in his cabinet selections…
Peak Warming Man said:
kii said:
dv said:I mean in fairness Human Rights Watch are probably going to be relevant
I mean in fairness PWM fucked up.
It’s there if you use the correct web address for it, not some pretend address.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-website-offering-reproductive-health-information-goes-offline/
Spiny Norman said:
Prices to go down?
No effin’ way!
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Prices to go down?
No effin’ way!
biden brought them down. trump just rescinded that order.
Spiny Norman said:
I guess this sort of stuff was predicted.
Sigh.
dv said:
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
FMD
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
President Trump has issued an executive order terminating all inclusion and equity measures in federal government
so it’s selection on merit along from here presumably…
Oh yeah that shines through in his cabinet selections…
I did like the statement made in the hearings for Pete Hegseth, where (I think it was Tammy Duckworth) it was said that because if he lack of leadership expereiense he is asking to have the standards lowered so that he could take the the job
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
I guess that shows that they tried to do what he wanted – take the Capitol by force…
It proves it. He has always called them heroes from the start.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
Though Biden did more to strengthen the economy, Increase jobs, lower inflation and etc. Way more than Trump could do or wiil try to wreck.
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:Biden has left office with a net approval lower than every President since Truman left office in 53
The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
Though Biden did more to strengthen the economy, Increase jobs, lower inflation and etc. Way more than Trump could do or wiil try to wreck.
It’s going to quite a tiresome four years, isn’t it?
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
Though Biden did more to strengthen the economy, Increase jobs, lower inflation and etc. Way more than Trump could do or wiil try to wreck.
It’s going to quite a tiresome four years, isn’t it?
There;s going to be much rage, some justified some not.
Tamb said:
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:I think there’s no chance of that
yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
In lieu of an election there will be two movies released. The star of the highest grossing film becomes POTUS.
Didn’t Trump say there’d be no elections from now on? His royal family will inherit his job.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:The Bingebot tells me that he had a lower approval rating than Trump after his first term, and he had a higher approval rating than Trump after his first term.
Though Biden did more to strengthen the economy, Increase jobs, lower inflation and etc. Way more than Trump could do or wiil try to wreck.
It’s going to quite a tiresome four years, isn’t it?
Though we may weary, we must trudge on with our heavy load.
Tamb said:
ChrispenEvan said:yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
In lieu of an election there will be two movies released. The star of the highest grossing film becomes POTUS.
If Trump appears, in person, in a film, then the term ‘gross’ will have more than one application.
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:
ChrispenEvan said:yes, seeing Michell Obama doesn’t exist.
In lieu of an election there will be two movies released. The star of the highest grossing film becomes POTUS.If Trump appears, in person, in a film, then the term ‘gross’ will have more than one application.
Well he’s been in films. He was in Zoolander and Home Alone 2.
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?
Maybe he just didn’t want to be there and all the photos look like that?
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:In lieu of an election there will be two movies released. The star of the highest grossing film becomes POTUS.
If Trump appears, in person, in a film, then the term ‘gross’ will have more than one application.
Well he’s been in films. He was in Zoolander and Home Alone 2.
Yes, but that was before he totally lost his marbles.
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?
have you ever seen him look otherwise?
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:If Trump appears, in person, in a film, then the term ‘gross’ will have more than one application.
Well he’s been in films. He was in Zoolander and Home Alone 2.
Yes, but that was before he totally lost his marbles.
He stood around looking like he didn’t have any marbles in Home alone 2.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?have you ever seen him look otherwise?
Not I.
Ian said:
Pete, at least, should provide some comic relief.
Actually, along with Vivek and Kash, he could probably re-hash some of the Three Stooges routines.
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?
It’s not just the ABC.
He was really looking like that.
Mind you I wouldn’t like to be forced to celebrate the man who cheated on my mother with a porn star, so it is kind of relatable.
Ian said:
/Made up stuff.
dv said:
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?It’s not just the ABC.
He was really looking like that.
Mind you I wouldn’t like to be forced to celebrate the man who cheated on my mother with a porn star, so it is kind of relatable.
Well, it’s either be there and smile when he looks your way (like Melania does), or get a job.
Michael V said:
Ian said:
/Made up stuff.
Today, it’s made up stuff.
Who can say if we’ll be able to tell the difference, four years from now?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Ian said:
/Made up stuff.
Today, it’s made up stuff.
Who can say if we’ll be able to tell the difference, four years from now?
:)
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”
Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
dv said:
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
I agree.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
But, there’s so much these days which does need to be explained.
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
True enough but … reality is pretty weird
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
and they won’t.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
True enough but … reality is pretty weird
Tell me about it.
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Yes we are back in the era where we need to flag Satire and Not Satire.
I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
The reason is not explanatory; it is to separate the truth from satire. Because it’s getting hard to tell which is which. Especially with Trump’s stuff.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
and they won’t.
Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
The reason is not explanatory; it is to separate the truth from satire. Because it’s getting hard to tell which is which. Especially with Trump’s stuff.
With Trump it is all truth and you’d better believe it.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
and they won’t.
Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
I don’t forsee any maps with the name change being circulated outside the southern US states.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
and they won’t.
Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
They aren’t.
But Trump could use the “You didn’t support me, so I will shit on you” policy.
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:I agree.
Well it’s a bit like what happens to chewing gum and bed posts.
Satire shouldn’t have to be explained.
The reason is not explanatory; it is to separate the truth from satire. Because it’s getting hard to tell which is which. Especially with Trump’s stuff.
Trump’s stuff is the easy part.
Everything he says can be confidently taken to be a lie.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:and they won’t.
Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
They aren’t.
But Trump could use the “You didn’t support me, so I will shit on you” policy.
Funny thing is, US industry is a lot more dependent on Mexico (and Canada) than most people, including most Americans, realise.
It may be that Mexico shits right back at them.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
They aren’t.
But Trump could use the “You didn’t support me, so I will shit on you” policy.
Funny thing is, US industry is a lot more dependent on Mexico (and Canada) than most people, including most Americans, realise.
It may be that Mexico shits right back at them.
Like the USA relies on Mexico for so much.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:They aren’t.
But Trump could use the “You didn’t support me, so I will shit on you” policy.
Funny thing is, US industry is a lot more dependent on Mexico (and Canada) than most people, including most Americans, realise.
It may be that Mexico shits right back at them.
Like the USA relies on Mexico for so much.
For 11% of its oil, for starters.
Sure, its ‘only’ 11%, but losing that source would mean higher prices at the ‘gas pumps’, and there’s no Joe Biden to blame any more. Not a good look for Donny.
They could make up the 11% from elsewhere, but it’s a seller’s market, and they won’t get it as cheap as they do from Mexico right now. Again, that embarrassment of higher fuel prices in the US.
Then we could get into all of the auto parts that are made in Mexico, and shipped to the US for use in American-built vehicles, and we can go on from there.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Can’t see Mexico being all that keen on it.
They aren’t.
But Trump could use the “You didn’t support me, so I will shit on you” policy.
Funny thing is, US industry is a lot more dependent on Mexico (and Canada) than most people, including most Americans, realise.
It may be that Mexico shits right back at them.
He could use that policy on Australia, if we don’t support the re-name. I certainly wouldn’t put it past him.
Just in passing:
Mexico supplies 43% of US auto parts imports, and 63% of US vegetable imports, and 47% of fruit and nut imports.
Get nasty with Mexico, and there could be gunfights in US shops and supermarkets.
captain_spalding said:
Just in passing:Mexico supplies 43% of US auto parts imports, and 63% of US vegetable imports, and 47% of fruit and nut imports.
Get nasty with Mexico, and there could be gunfights in US shops and supermarkets.
Imagine that. The quickest draw gets the bag of carrots.
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
Well, looking at the map showing who has which bits, I suppose he can rename the top half if he wants.
buffy said:
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
Well, looking at the map showing who has which bits, I suppose he can rename the top half if he wants.
Apart from Canada and Greenland.
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:
“Not long after being sworn in, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed as the Gulf of America.”Seems he can, for the USA only. The rest of the world doesn’t have to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/can-donald-trump-rename-the-gulf-of-mexico/104840868
Well, looking at the map showing who has which bits, I suppose he can rename the top half if he wants.
Apart from Canada and Greenland.
What? I don’t think they are in the Gulf of Mexico.
buffy said:
roughbarked said:
buffy said:Well, looking at the map showing who has which bits, I suppose he can rename the top half if he wants.
Apart from Canada and Greenland.
What? I don’t think they are in the Gulf of Mexico.
Well. They are next, according to the chief of staff.
There is a similar example: several Arab states refer to the Persian Gulf as “The Gulf” or even “The Arabian Gulf”.
But everyone else ignores it and I assume the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico will go the same way.
dv said:
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?It’s not just the ABC.
He was really looking like that.
Mind you I wouldn’t like to be forced to celebrate the man who cheated on my mother with a porn star, so it is kind of relatable.
Is ‘relatable’ the ‘word of the moment’? My 9yo grandson used it the other day to describe his viewing preferences on TikTok.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:Well he’s been in films. He was in Zoolander and Home Alone 2.
Yes, but that was before he totally lost his marbles.
He stood around looking like he didn’t have any marbles in Home alone 2.
Of all the good films you haven’t seen this made your list?!?
Reading another ABC piece about Trump:
>>It is the latter that Mr Hockey says he has warned Trump about several times, but that the president does not accept.
“He thinks tariffs are paid by other countries, they’re not, they are paid by American consumers,” Mr Hockey said.
“I have had direct and indirect conversations with President Trump and tried to get it across that a tariff on imported goods ends up being a tax that American consumers have to pay, in the form of higher prices.
“He just doesn’t accept that.”<<
Ref: Link
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..
Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
New America.
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
buffy said:
Just had a look at the ABC selection of inauguration photos. Did they deliberately select ones with Barron looking like he didn’t want to be there?It’s not just the ABC.
He was really looking like that.
Mind you I wouldn’t like to be forced to celebrate the man who cheated on my mother with a porn star, so it is kind of relatable.
Is ‘relatable’ the ‘word of the moment’? My 9yo grandson used it the other day to describe his viewing preferences on TikTok.
No, it’s been a common word in that context since the late 2nd millennium.
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
LOL
kii said:
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
Ian said:
kii said:
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
Ha!
:)
Ian said:
kii said:
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 20, 2025 (Monday)
The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
As Salmon noted, “The emoluments clause of the Constitution,” which prohibits any person holding a government office from accepting any gift or title from a foreign leader or government, “written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.” Salmon also pointed out that there is no way to track the purchases of this coin, meaning it will be a way for those who want something from Trump to transfer money directly to him.
Former Trump official Anthony Scaramucci posted that “anyone in the world can essentially deposit money” into the bank account of the president of the United States.
On Sunday, Trump’s wife Melania launched her own coin. It took the wind out of the sales of Trump’s coin, although both coins have disclaimers saying that the coins are “an expression of support for and engagement with the values embodied by” the Trumps, and are not intended to be “an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.” Her cryptocurrency was worth more than $5 billion within two hours.
CNN noted that the release of the meme coin had raised “serious ethics concerns,” but those who participate in the industry were less gentle. One wrote: “Trump’s sh*tcoin release has caused possibly the greatest overnight loss of credibility in presidential history. He made $60B. Great for Trump family, terrible for this country and hopes we had for the Trump presidency.”
Walter Schaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics under Trump in his first administration, who left after criticizing Trump’s unwillingness to divest himself of his businesses, wrote to CNN: “America voted for corruption, and that’s what Trump is delivering…. Trump’s corruption and naked profiteering is so open, extreme and pervasive this time around that to comment on any one aspect of it would be to lose the forest for the trees. The very idea of government ethics is now a smoldering crater.”
At a rally Sunday night at the Capital One Arena in Washington, Trump highlighted the performance side of his public persona. He teased the next day’s events and let his audience in on a secret that echoed the “neokayfabe” of professional wrestling by leaving people wondering if it was true or a lie. After praising Elon Musk, he told the crowd “He was very effective. He knows those computers better than anybody. Those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So it was pretty good…. Thank you to Elon.”
This morning, hours before he left office, President Joe Biden pardoned several of the targets of MAGA Republicans, including “General Mark A. Milley, Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.” Biden clarified that the pardons “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.” He noted, “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
But, he said, “These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.” He later pardoned his siblings and their spouses to protect them from persecution by the incoming president.
Before he left office, Biden posted on social media: Scripture says: “I have been young and now I’m old yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken.” After all these years serving you, the American people, I have not seen the righteous forsaken. I love you all. May you keep the faith. And may God bless you all.”
This morning, members of the far-right paramilitary organization the Proud Boys marched through the capital carrying a banner that read “Congratulations President Trump” and chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets!”
Two days ago, Trump moved his inauguration into the Capitol Rotunda, where his supporters had rioted on January 6, 2021, because of cold temperatures expected in Washington, D.C. Even with his supporters excluded, the space was cramped, but prime spots went to billionaires: Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, Google chief Sundar Pichai, TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew, and Tesla and SpaceX chief executive owner Elon Musk, who appeared to be stoned.
Right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who launched the Fox News Channel in 1996, was there, as were popular podcaster Joe Rogan and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk.
Although foreign leaders are not normally invited to presidential inaugurations, far-right foreign leaders President Javier Milei of Argentina and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni were there, along with a close ally of Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The streets were largely empty as Trump traveled to the U.S. Capitol. Supporters watched from Capital One Arena as Trump took the oath of office, apparently forgetting to put his hand on the Bibles his wife held. After Vice President–elect J.D. Vance had taken the oath of office, sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had sworn in Trump, the new president delivered his inaugural address.
While inaugural addresses are traditionally an attempt to put the harsh rhetoric of campaigns behind and to emphasize national unity, Trump’s inaugural address rehashed the themes of his campaign rallies. Speaking in the low monotone he uses when he reads from a teleprompter, he delivered an address that repeated the lies on which he built his 2024 presidential campaign.
He said that the Justice Department has been “weaponized,” that Biden’s administration “cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad,” that the U.S. has provided “sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals,” that the government has “treated so badly” the storm victims in North Carolina,” and so on.
Fact-checkers at The Guardian noted the speech was full of “false and misleading claims.”
Trump went on to promise a series of executive orders to address the crises he claimed during his campaign. He would “declare a national emergency at our southern border,” he said, and “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” (Border crossings are lower now than they were at the end of Trump’s last term.) He promised to tell his cabinet members to bring down inflation (it peaked in 2022 and is now close to the Fed’s target of 2%), bring back manufacturing (the Biden administration brought more than 700,000 new manufacturing jobs to the U.S.), end investments in green energy (which has attracted significant private investment, especially in Republican-dominated states), and make foreign countries fund the U.S. government through tariffs (which are, in fact, paid by American consumers).
He also vowed to take the Panama Canal back from Panama, prompting Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino to “fully reject the statements made by” Trump, and Panamanian protesters to burn the American flag.
With a declaration about the Pennsylvania shooting that bloodied his ear, Trump declared that he believes he is on a divine mission. “I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
After his inaugural address, former president Biden and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden left, and Trump delivered a much more animated speech to prominent supporters in which CNN’s Daniel Dale said he returned to his “lie-a-minute style.” He rehashed the events of January 6, 2021, and claimed that then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi is “guilty as hell…that’s a criminal offense.”
But the bigger story came in the afternoon, when Trump held a rally at the Capitol One Arena in place of the traditional presidential parade. Supporters there had watched the inauguration on a jumbotron screen, booing Biden and jumping to their feet to cheer at Trump’s declaration that he had been saved by God. In the afternoon, Elon Musk spoke to the crowd, throwing two salutes that right-wing extremists, including neo-Nazis, interpreted as Nazi salutes.
Trump and his family arrived after 5:00 for the inaugural parade. The new president spoke again in rally mode after six, and then staged a demonstration that he was changing the country by holding a public signing of executive orders. Those appeared to be designed, as he promised, to retaliate against those he feels have wronged him. Among other executive orders, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, drawing approving roars from the crowd.
As Jonathan Swan of the New York Times noted, “Signing executive orders and pardons are two of the parts of the job that Trump loves most. They are unilateral, instantaneous displays of power and authority.” After signing a few executive orders for the crowd, Trump threw the signing sharpies into the crowd, and then he and his family left abruptly.
Back at the White House, retaliation continued. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the January 6 rioters who had been convicted of crimes related to the attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, including Enrico Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who was serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
His pardon also included Daniel Rodriguez, who was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to tasing Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who suffered cardiac arrest and a traumatic brain injury. “Omg I did so much f—-ing s—- r n and got away,” he texted to his gang. “Tazzed the f—- out of the blue”
Trump signed an executive order that withdraws the U.S. from the World Health Organization, another that tries to establish that there are only two sexes in the United States, and yet another that seeks to end the birthright citizenship established by the Fourteenth Amendment. He signed one intending to strip the security clearances from 51 people whom he accuses of election interference related to Hunter Biden’s laptop, and has ordered that an undisclosed list of Trump appointees immediately be granted the highest levels of security clearance without undergoing background checks. He also signed one ordering officials “to deliver emergency price relief.”
Behind the scenes today, officials in the Trump administration fired the acting head of the U.S. immigration court system as well as other leaders of that system, and cancelled the CBP One app, an online lottery system through which asylum seekers could schedule appointments with border agents, leaving asylum seekers who had scheduled appointments three weeks ago stranded. Trump officials have also taken down a government website that helped women find health care and understand their rights. They have also removed the official portrait of former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley from the hallway with the portraits of all the former chairs…now all minus one.
But for all their claims to be hitting the ground running, lawyers noted that some of the executive orders were poorly crafted to accomplish what they claimed—an observer called one “bizarre legal fanfic not really intended for judicial interpretation”—and lawsuits challenging them are already being filed. Others are purely performative, like ordering officials to lower prices.
Further, CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported that almost an hour after Trump became president, “current and former Pentagon officials say they don’t know who is currently in charge of the Defense Department,” a key position to maintain U.S. security against adversaries who might take advantage of transition moments to push against American defenses.
Bertrand reported that the Trump transition team had trouble finding someone to serve as acting secretary until the Senate confirms a replacement for Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Trump’s nominee, former Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth has had trouble getting the votes he needs, although tonight the Senate Armed Services Committee approved him by a straight party line vote.
Bertrand notes that two senior department officials declined to take on the position. The Trump administration swore in Robert Salesses, deputy director of the branch of the Pentagon that focuses on human resources, facilities, and resource management—who has already been confirmed by the Senate in that position—as acting Defense Secretary.
Beginning tomorrow, the Republicans will have to deal with the fact that the Treasury will hit the debt ceiling and will have to use extraordinary measures to pay the obligations of the United States government.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 20, 2025 (Monday)The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
When I search for Strump price chart I get:
So is this what they are talking about, or has he started a new super-strump?
WookieCoin
To the moon !
ChrispenEvan said:
Ian said:
kii said:New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
America likes to invade a Stan now and then.
ChrispenEvan said:
Ian said:
kii said:New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
I hear you brother.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 20, 2025 (Monday)The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
When I search for Strump price chart I get:
So is this what they are talking about, or has he started a new super-strump?
Search $Trump.
Ian said:
I don’t know why Tump isn’t pushing for a new name for New Mexico..Montezuma or Salado.. something without Mexico in it!
Trumpnado
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 20, 2025 (Monday)The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
When I search for Strump price chart I get:
So is this what they are talking about, or has he started a new super-strump?
Search $Trump.
Or Trump Coin
https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&sca_esv=508060710feda40c&sxsrf=ADLYWIKGBUtgKlt0-0XwxlzBqFrYo2kE-w:1737449759146&q=Trump+Coin&tbm=nws&source=univ&tbo=u&ved=2ahUKEwiF3tXduIaLAxVCTWcHHUaeBQoQt8YBKAF6BAgMEAQ&biw=1366&bih=607&dpr=1
Michael V said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 20, 2025 (Monday)The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
When I search for Strump price chart I get:
So is this what they are talking about, or has he started a new super-strump?
Search $Trump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$Trump
OK, so it is a new one.
So how come no-one is mentioning the old STrump?
Or is that nothing to do with Trump?
ChrispenEvan said:
Ian said:
kii said:New America.
Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
‘Stan’ means ‘land’ in Turkic languages. Would Trumpland do?
Witty Rejoinder said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Ian said:Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
‘Stan’ means ‘land’ in Turkic languages. Would Trumpland do?
Much better. sounds like an amusement park.
Witty Rejoinder said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Ian said:Trumpistan has a nice ring to it.
I guess if you are under the impression that all countries with stan in their name are shithole countries.
‘Stan’ means ‘land’ in Turkic languages. Would Trumpland do?
Plonkerland
Top Six Moments from the Inauguration:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFEapy_PnlK/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Top Six Moments from the Inauguration:https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFEapy_PnlK/?
fuck off
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
eraserhead.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Eddie Munster…
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
I don’t know but he appears to have a square head.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
evidently not.
Updated for the First President of the New Era:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Product placement…tick
Personal branding…tick
Puke inducement….tick
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Hmmm… when I first opened that URL there was a spiffy neo-fascist intro but now it’s just a regular website when I tried to watch it again. :-/
ruby said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Product placement…tick
Personal branding…tick
Puke inducement….tick
Ha!
ruby said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Product placement…tick
Personal branding…tick
Puke inducement….tick
tock
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Hmmm… when I first opened that URL there was a spiffy neo-fascist intro but now it’s just a regular website when I tried to watch it again. :-/
I found the same. Hmmm.
Who knew their new First Lady was so interesting-
https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/melania-trump/
SCIENCE said:
ruby said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Updated for the First President of the New Era:https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Product placement…tick
Personal branding…tick
Puke inducement….tick
tock
LOL
President Donald Trump’s job is to bring the country together and keep the economy vibrant.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/20/trump-inauguration-america-decline/?
…
Fuck you Bezos! I may cancel my WP subscription.
Well he’s certainly been busy. Trump has signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship. On the face on it, it appears to contradict the 14th amendment and I would assume this ends up at the Supreme Court.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Funny thing is, US industry is a lot more dependent on Mexico (and Canada) than most people, including most Americans, realise.
It may be that Mexico shits right back at them.
Like the USA relies on Mexico for so much.
For 11% of its oil, for starters.
Sure, its ‘only’ 11%, but losing that source would mean higher prices at the ‘gas pumps’, and there’s no Joe Biden to blame any more. Not a good look for Donny.
They could make up the 11% from elsewhere, but it’s a seller’s market, and they won’t get it as cheap as they do from Mexico right now. Again, that embarrassment of higher fuel prices in the US.
Then we could get into all of the auto parts that are made in Mexico, and shipped to the US for use in American-built vehicles, and we can go on from there.
these idiots buy his merchandise and we think they’re going to care about the price of coal to roll
dv said:
In fairness to EM, when his hand is on his chest it is flat, not in a fist.
https://www.threads.net/@lgold337/post/DFEpGP2xBO_?xmt=AQGz6G-BUVPcXCJWaeActOhkNe0ipEplYix0Z-iXj7yzlw
¿ it’s Jewish to be Nazi now ?
dv said:
Oh well it’s better than being sat next to someone you have nothing in common with
those ASIAN triad bosses never double crossed anyone ever
kii said:
Tamb said:
dv said:Spy vs Spylol
Yes, it says that on the meme.
where
dv said:
Well he’s certainly been busy. Trump has signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship. On the face on it, it appears to contradict the 14th amendment and I would assume this ends up at the Supreme Court.
totally not captured supreme court
Peak Warming Man said:
SCIENCE said:
ruby said:
Product placement…tick
Personal branding…tick
Puke inducement….tick
tock
LOL
ahahahahaha
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Tamb said:Spy vs SpyYes, it says that on the meme.
where
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Yes, it says that on the meme.
where
is that what it says though
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:
where
is that what it says though
There isn’t actually a Nobel Prize in Pedantry.
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:
where
is that what it says though
mine eyes tell me it is so.
Vs. for Competitions in American English
When you are using American English and are talking about a sports contest, debate, or other type of competition, you can use the abbreviation “vs.”
This game is the Wildcats vs. Cougars.
Smith vs. Simpson was a big fight I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the presidential debate when it was Biden vs. Trump.
Vs for Competitions in British English
In British English, you can leave off the period in the versus abbreviation. The correct abbreviation for competitions is “vs”.
The contest is North vs South.
The election is mostly about Conservative Party vs Labour Party.
Brown vs Carson was a close fight.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Him and the bearded guy have the look of being body guards or security, or possibly ushers, or ground inspectors…
esselte said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Him and the bearded guy have the look of being body guards or security, or possibly ushers, or ground inspectors…
maybe it was a rhetorical question and the correct answer is everyone
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
is that what it says though
There isn’t actually a Nobel Prize in Pedantry.
sorry we were just asking questions like a new age BYD there wasn’t actually any technical point yous should have just left the original contributors to it
esselte said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Him and the bearded guy have the look of being body guards or security, or possibly ushers, or ground inspectors…
That’s one hell of a resting-bitch-facethat Elon has.
Or is he tryingto perfect his big-mouth bass impression?
esselte said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Any y’all know who the dude to Elon’s left is?
Him and the bearded guy have the look of being body guards or security, or possibly ushers, or ground inspectors…
Smart thinking Ninety-Nine.
dv said:
https://www.threads.net/@mikkismoments/post/DFGGjv7iPIX?xmt=AQGzmz0xxT8gYX1bFCyeegKQ3luv9ZSRUAVRuKyChMrrSw
Ah well at least the BBC is calling it what it is
it gave us this screen capture in the first suggestion under that
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
https://www.threads.net/@mikkismoments/post/DFGGjv7iPIX?xmt=AQGzmz0xxT8gYX1bFCyeegKQ3luv9ZSRUAVRuKyChMrrSw
Ah well at least the BBC is calling it what it is
it gave us this screen capture in the first suggestion under that
Did JD borrow some of Donny’s clothes for the occasion?
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Ah well at least the BBC is calling it what it is
it gave us this screen capture in the first suggestion under that
Did JD borrow some of Donny’s clothes for the occasion?
and why didn’t he finish the sentence
no not that sentence, the one that should finish with “up to the billionaire oligarchs” there
Via Jeff Tiedrich’s column:
on.
Trump erroneously said Spain was in BRICS when a journalist asked him about NATO countries like Spain which don’t meet the NATO minimum of spending 2% of economic output on defense. Spain ranked last in the 32-nation military alliance, estimated to spend 1.28% on defense last year.
Trump started his answer by saying “Spain is very low,” referring to its defense expenditures, but quickly veered into speaking about the BRICS.
“They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out,” he told the reporter from the presidential desk in the Oval Office
https://apnews.com/article/trump-spain-brics-nato-tariffs-defense-spending-9871cf04825c92e073865ca8bede4077
captain_spalding said:
Via Jeff Tiedrich’s column:
It was an excellent one this morning.
TIL that the majority of American billionaires support the Dems
diddly-squat said:
TIL that the majority of American billionaires support the Dems
Believable but I request a source and further details
dv said:
diddly-squat said:TIL that the majority of American billionaires support the Dems
Believable but I request a source and further details
They’d possibly support the Dems in a more effective way, if only the Dems could be a little more generous with the tax cuts.
But, as it is, it has to be ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the Dems, and donations and media favouritism for the GOP.
dv said:
FMD
Michael V said:
dv said:
FMD
The cruelty is not merely coincidental.
The cruelty is the objective.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
FMD
The cruelty is not merely coincidental.
The cruelty is the objective.
not convinced, doubt they even care about that, they just want the simplest fastest unquestionedest way to fix things up their way
the cruelty part was just their games
sarahs mum said:
Apparently it’s part of the normal process whn updating the website with the change of administration.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Apparently it’s part of the normal process whn updating the website with the change of administration.
goodo then.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Apparently it’s part of the normal process whn updating the website with the change of administration.
goodo then.
shrug raising one’s arm straight out to the audience is all part of the normal process of autism spectrum development or so the weird nerds are telling us
but we do agree that webpages being down for maintenance is legitimately more believable
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Apparently it’s part of the normal process whn updating the website with the change of administration.
goodo then.
shrug raising one’s arm straight out to the audience is all part of the normal process of autism spectrum development or so the weird nerds are telling us
but we do agree that webpages being down for maintenance is legitimately more believable
I vaguely remember it from previous years.
sarahs mum said:
Bloody!
Big danger signal would be if Trump tries to get the US armed forces to swear an oath of allegiance to their Commander in Chief, rather than to defend the Constitution.
It’s been done before, elsewhere, and it didn’t help matters one tiny bit.
sarahs mum said:
Rofl
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/elon-musk-nazi-salute-trump-inauguration-adl-antidefamation-league.html
It’s Clear Enough What Elon Musk Did. The ADL’s Response Is Pathetic.
We desperately need a better anti-antisemitism group than this.
BY JILL FILIPOVIC
Of all the dark moments during Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the darkest may have been the moment Trump acolyte and world’s richest man Elon Musk threw up not one but two Roman salutes—the gesture most strongly associated with Nazis and the phrase “Heil Hitler,” but also used as a symbol of support in other fascist regimes. The gesture was shocking, and observers from the left to the racist right alike agreed on what they saw. Neo-Nazis cheered. (“Holy crap … did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally in Washington DC … This is incredible,” one prominent Holocaust denier wrote, later adding, “We are so back.”) Moderates and liberals were shaken.
One group, though, was unbothered: The Anti-Defamation League, which has as its mission fighting antisemitism and bigotry more broadly.
“It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge,” the ADL posted on the Musk-owned X. “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
Musk responded “Thanks guys” with a laugh-crying emoji.
Ha ha. The joke is on us.
The entire ethos of the men and women (but mostly men) who make up the white-supremacist-adjacent fascist-friendly too-online right is one of saying what they really think with enough plausible deniability to claim it’s all just a big joke, and if you take offense, it’s because you’re a triggered woke scold. There’s always a veneer of irony, a little smirk. If the story gets too big, then it’s yet another example of a biased media engaged in, as Musk called the latest headlines, dirty tricks.
Perhaps Musk wasn’t throwing up a deliberate sieg heil; he is notoriously physically awkward, throwing his limbs around in ways that are often outside of the normal range of human movement. But Musk has made a series of public posts and comments that make it awfully hard to conclude he doesn’t actually harbor racist and antisemitic views, and that should at the very least make groups like the ADL think twice before extending the benefit of the doubt. He is loudly supporting a German far-right party with connections to neo-Nazis. He changed his X avatar to Pepe the Frog, a symbol of far-right racism and antisemitism. After violent anti-immigrant riots rocked the U.K. last summer, Musk sided with the rioters: He has been a vocal supporter of the British far-right hatemonger Tommy Robinson, and was incensed by the seven-year jail sentence handed down to a man who posted an image of a map with a mosque circled in red and the caption “TIME FOR WAR”—a post found to have incited some of the riots. (The mosque was indeed attacked; “we started the southport and liverpool riots, all it took was a telegram and a tiktok account,” the man wrote.) In 2023, after Musk allowed white supremacists to run rampant on his newly acquired social media platform, one X user posted: “Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.” Musk responded, “You have said the actual truth.”
In that context, Musk’s “hand gesture,” as the press have been generously calling it, seems even more ominous.
And it makes the ADL’s urging of “the benefit of the doubt” toward Musk a bit credulous, given that he has been extended this benefit many times, and continues to raise serious doubts. And it’s particularly odd to see the ADL standing up for Musk. The ADL, after all, has as its national director a man who has compared wearing a kaffiyeh to wearing a swastika. The group has conflated protests against Israel’s war in Gaza with antisemitism—and while far too many of these protests have indeed veered into the antisemitic, the ADL seems to equate just about any opposition to Israeli militarism with antisemitism, a position that has badly damaged their credibility. It’s not that there is no antisemitic threat from the left; there is. It’s that a sense of proportion is also necessary, and the ADL seems to believe that an encampment of kaffiyeh-wearing college kids is more dangerous than the wealthiest man in the world who owns a major communications platform and has the ear of the most powerful man in the world. This posture is a damning indictment of an organization that has a crucial mission, is being put to the test, and is badly failing.
dv said:
It’s Clear Enough What Elon Musk Did. The ADL’s Response Is Pathetic.
We desperately need a better anti-antisemitism group than this.
BY JILL FILIPOVICOf all the dark moments during Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the darkest may have been the moment Trump acolyte and world’s richest man Elon Musk threw up not one but two Roman salutes—the gesture most strongly associated with Nazis and the phrase “Heil Hitler,” but also used as a symbol of support in other fascist regimes. The gesture was shocking, and observers from the left to the racist right alike agreed on what they saw. Neo-Nazis cheered. (“Holy crap … did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally in Washington DC … This is incredible,” one prominent Holocaust denier wrote, later adding, “We are so back.”) Moderates and liberals were shaken.
One group, though, was unbothered: The Anti-Defamation League, which has as its mission fighting antisemitism and bigotry more broadly.
“It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge,” the ADL posted on the Musk-owned X. “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
Musk responded “Thanks guys” with a laugh-crying emoji.
Ha ha. The joke is on us.
The entire ethos of the men and women (but mostly men) who make up the white-supremacist-adjacent fascist-friendly too-online right is one of saying what they really think with enough plausible deniability to claim it’s all just a big joke, and if you take offense, it’s because you’re a triggered woke scold. There’s always a veneer of irony, a little smirk. If the story gets too big, then it’s yet another example of a biased media engaged in, as Musk called the latest headlines, dirty tricks.
Perhaps Musk wasn’t throwing up a deliberate sieg heil; he is notoriously physically awkward, throwing his limbs around in ways that are often outside of the normal range of human movement. But Musk has made a series of public posts and comments that make it awfully hard to conclude he doesn’t actually harbor racist and antisemitic views, and that should at the very least make groups like the ADL think twice before extending the benefit of the doubt. He is loudly supporting a German far-right party with connections to neo-Nazis. He changed his X avatar to Pepe the Frog, a symbol of far-right racism and antisemitism. After violent anti-immigrant riots rocked the U.K. last summer, Musk sided with the rioters: He has been a vocal supporter of the British far-right hatemonger Tommy Robinson, and was incensed by the seven-year jail sentence handed down to a man who posted an image of a map with a mosque circled in red and the caption “TIME FOR WAR”—a post found to have incited some of the riots. (The mosque was indeed attacked; “we started the southport and liverpool riots, all it took was a telegram and a tiktok account,” the man wrote.) In 2023, after Musk allowed white supremacists to run rampant on his newly acquired social media platform, one X user posted: “Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.” Musk responded, “You have said the actual truth.”
In that context, Musk’s “hand gesture,” as the press have been generously calling it, seems even more ominous.
And it makes the ADL’s urging of “the benefit of the doubt” toward Musk a bit credulous, given that he has been extended this benefit many times, and continues to raise serious doubts. And it’s particularly odd to see the ADL standing up for Musk. The ADL, after all, has as its national director a man who has compared wearing a kaffiyeh to wearing a swastika. The group has conflated protests against Israel’s war in Gaza with antisemitism—and while far too many of these protests have indeed veered into the antisemitic, the ADL seems to equate just about any opposition to Israeli militarism with antisemitism, a position that has badly damaged their credibility. It’s not that there is no antisemitic threat from the left; there is. It’s that a sense of proportion is also necessary, and the ADL seems to believe that an encampment of kaffiyeh-wearing college kids is more dangerous than the wealthiest man in the world who owns a major communications platform and has the ear of the most powerful man in the world. This posture is a damning indictment of an organization that has a crucial mission, is being put to the test, and is badly failing.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
dv said:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/elon-musk-nazi-salute-trump-inauguration-adl-antidefamation-league.htmlIt’s Clear Enough What Elon Musk Did. The ADL’s Response Is Pathetic.
We desperately need a better anti-antisemitism group than this.
BY JILL FILIPOVICOf all the dark moments during Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the darkest may have been the moment Trump acolyte and world’s richest man Elon Musk threw up not one but two Roman salutes—the gesture most strongly associated with Nazis and the phrase “Heil Hitler,” but also used as a symbol of support in other fascist regimes. The gesture was shocking, and observers from the left to the racist right alike agreed on what they saw. Neo-Nazis cheered. (“Holy crap … did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally in Washington DC … This is incredible,” one prominent Holocaust denier wrote, later adding, “We are so back.”) Moderates and liberals were shaken.
One group, though, was unbothered: The Anti-Defamation League, which has as its mission fighting antisemitism and bigotry more broadly.
——————-cut——————
This posture is a damning indictment of an organization that has a crucial mission, is being put to the test, and is badly failing.
Fair comment.
FWIW.
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
captain_spalding said:
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
I wonder how well AI could be contained from spreading like a virus.
If they are smarter than humanity it could throw up all sorts of false flags, distractions, etc.
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
I wonder how well AI could be contained from spreading like a virus.
If they are smarter than humanity it could throw up all sorts of false flags, distractions, etc.
These AI’s we talk about, they aren’t what we would think of as self aware or not humans experience of it I imagine are they.
More complex machines of information that far outpace humans ability
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
I wonder how well AI could be contained from spreading like a virus.
If they are smarter than humanity it could throw up all sorts of false flags, distractions, etc.
At the moment, an AI being smarter than a lot of humans doesn’t seem like a difficult task.
Spiny Norman said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
I wonder how well AI could be contained from spreading like a virus.
If they are smarter than humanity it could throw up all sorts of false flags, distractions, etc.
At the moment, an AI being smarter than a lot of humans doesn’t seem like a difficult task.
No
Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American who was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.
The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht’s appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
I wonder how well AI could be contained from spreading like a virus.
If they are smarter than humanity it could throw up all sorts of false flags, distractions, etc.
These AI’s we talk about, they aren’t what we would think of as self aware or not humans experience of it I imagine are they.
More complex machines of information that far outpace humans ability
we mean 癌症 spreads like cancer so
dv said:
Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American who was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.
The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht’s appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.
opium wars have long been a strategy of imperialist powers what a trmumpskdamn surprise
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American who was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.
The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht’s appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.
opium wars have long been a strategy of imperialist powers what a trmumpskdamn surprise
CIA is probably annoyed it takes away it’s income, so funding black ops to take down democratic evil baddies is hindered.
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
I object to them using the Stargate name. Surely someone owns the rights to that name.
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
As if AI isn’t often a non-truth clusterfuck now?
dv said:
Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American who was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht’s appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.
Hey-Zeus!
Michael V said:
dv said:
Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American who was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht’s appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.
Hey-Zeus!
I’m guessing money speaks.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
As if AI isn’t often a non-truth clusterfuck now?
Yeah but why stop there when you can have a $500000000000 clusterfuck of disinformation you can drop on your enemies¿
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
FWIW.
I object to them using the Stargate name. Surely someone owns the rights to that name.
Exactly
https://stargateshoppingcentres.com.au/kelmscott/
Maybe AI draws people with supernumerary digits because they are used to seeing aliens
“Police officer bashed in January 6 Capitol riot fears freed attackers will come after him”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-22/police-officers-attacked-january-6-pardons/104845626
More than 400 of the J6 insurgents who were pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
Michael V said:
“Police officer bashed in January 6 Capitol riot fears freed attackers will come after him”https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-22/police-officers-attacked-january-6-pardons/104845626
Biden has also preemptively pardoned the police officers who gave testimony about the January 6 insurrection.
kii said:
Michael V said:
“Police officer bashed in January 6 Capitol riot fears freed attackers will come after him”https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-22/police-officers-attacked-january-6-pardons/104845626
Biden has also preemptively pardoned the police officers who gave testimony about the January 6 insurrection.
Good.
This guy is hoping for court protection.
I’m not sure I really like the circle of unaccountability that both side of politics have created in the past week with pardons and immunity orders..
diddly-squat said:
I’m not sure I really like the circle of unaccountability that both side of politics have created in the past week with pardons and immunity orders..
Yeah because both Biden and Trump’s pardons have been so equivalently troubling…
rolls eyes
diddly-squat said:
I’m not sure I really like the circle of unaccountability that both side of politics have created in the past week with pardons and immunity orders..
Shut up. Have you not been paying attention?
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
I’m not sure I really like the circle of unaccountability that both side of politics have created in the past week with pardons and immunity orders..
Shut up. Have you not been paying attention?
no no no these pardons have occurred in isolation, they have nothing to do with events leading up to them
and they won’t affect any other cuntries at all oh no
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not sure I really like the circle of unaccountability that both side of politics have created in the past week with pardons and immunity orders..
Yeah because both Biden and Trump’s pardons have been so equivalently troubling…
rolls eyes
dude.. I’m not searching for equivalence of any kind, I’m just saying it feels like a shitty norm to have been broken… I mean Biden pardoned his actual son… but hey, if it’s a arms race of unaccountability we’re after I’m sure it won’t end here…
ah well fair play if we had a son and he were in the USSA and the USSA were becoming even more of a fascist state and that son had already been targeted by politically motivated lawfare then of course we wouldn’t be preemptively pardoning him we’d be fucking calling for the firing squad yesterday
So now there are two countries in the world that aren’t in the WHO.
Naturally I looked up the other one, which is Liechtenstein.
Heard on the radio Penny discussing her Quad meeting with Rubio and her sound bite finish with ‘and the importance of our economic partnership’. :-)
we feel like we’re not comprehending something there
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOLOL
:)
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOLOL
:)
Because of the weird speed old films had people moving at ?
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOLOL
:)
oh wow look at all those raised open right hand salutes
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOLOL
:)
Because of the weird speed old films had people moving at ?
No. It’s one of the excuses the the Musk sycophants came up with for him doing the Nazi salute.
At least all this Roman/Nazi salute stuff has displaced criticism of Egon’s awful dancing.
Heather Cox Richardson
58m ·
January 21, 2025 (Tuesday)
“I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER… I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” Jacob Chansley, dubbed the QAnon shaman as a reflection of his horned-animal headdress and body paint at the January 6, 2021, riot inside the U.S. Capitol, posted on X shortly after President Donald Trump commuted the sentences of or pardoned all those convicted of crimes related to the events of that day.
“NOW I AM GONNA BY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!” he continued. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME… EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!”
A Scripps News/Ipsos poll conducted in late November, after Trump had won the 2024 presidential election, found that only 30% of Americans supported pardoning the January 6th protesters. In early January, many Republican lawmakers suggested they would not support pardons for those who committed violence against police officers, and on January 12, 2025, then vice president–elect J.D. Vance told Fox News Sunday that “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
This puts Republican leaders, who claim to defend law and order, on the back foot. When CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, asked Republican senators what they thought of the blanket pardons, even MAGA senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said it was unacceptable to pardon people who assaulted police officers but claimed he “didn’t see it,” although the footage of the violence is widely available. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) both criticized the pardons.
Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) tried to blame Trump’s pardons on former president Joe Biden, saying he had opened the door to broad pardons, although Biden preemptively pardoned people who had not been convicted of crimes but were in Trump’s crosshairs: people like former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed but later accused of “treason” for being unwilling to execute an illegal order. In one of his first moves as president yesterday, Trump had the official portrait of Milley removed from the hall in the Pentagon where portraits of all previous chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are displayed—all, now, except Milley.
The D.C. Police Union expressed its “dismay over the recent pardons,” reiterating its stance that “anyone who assaults a law enforcement officer should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, without exception.”
Trump’s blanket pardons signal to his MAGA base that the judicial system that tried to hold him—and them—accountable is corrupt and that he will protect those who fight for him in the streets. But those pardons do not appear to have popular support.
At the same time, Trump is demonstrating that he intends to create a country dominated by the right-wing, white men who supported him. It is not clear that that intent is any more popular than his pardons for the January 6 rioters.
In that Scripps poll, only 23% of Americans supported restricting women from military combat. But today, Trump fired the first uniformed woman to lead a branch of the armed forces, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan. A senior official for the newly-staffed Department of Homeland Security said she was fired for an “excessive” focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Demonstrating his determination to advance a particular kind of Americanism, Trump announced he would rename the Gulf of Mexico, calling it the Gulf of America, and that he would change the name of Denali in Alaska, the tallest peak in North America, back to the name it held between 1917 and 2015: Mt. McKinley, in honor of the nation’s twenty-fifth president, who was famous primarily because he was assassinated in 1901.
Trump has made McKinley a touchstone of his second administration, saying yesterday that he would “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.”
Senator Murkowski strongly objected to the change. “Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial,” she said.
But it is in his executive order concerning birthright citizenship that Trump most clearly demonstrated his determination for white men to dominate the United States, and for Trump to dominate those men. In an executive order issued last night titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” Trump sought to overturn the U.S. Constitution and its consistent interpretation. He wants the power to decide who can be considered a citizen, and he apparently wants to force the U.S. Supreme Court to give him that power.
In 1868, in the wake of the Civil War, as southern states were passing laws that relegated Black Americans to subservience, Americans added the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to enable the federal government to override those discriminatory state laws. The Fourteenth Amendment provided that “ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and then it charged the federal government with guaranteeing that no state could “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The Fourteenth Amendment made it clear that being born in the United States made someone a United States citizen.
That clarity meant that the Supreme Court reinforced the amendment’s intent, even in the late nineteenth century during a period of anti-immigrant sentiment that was most virulent against the Chinese who made their way to American shores.
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of workers from China. Thirteen years later, in 1895, Wong Kim Ark, an American-born child of Chinese immigrants, was denied reentry to the U.S. after a visit to China. He sued, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship, and he won. In the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court determined that the children of immigrants to the U.S.—no matter how unpopular immigration was at the time—were U.S. citizens, entitled to all the rights and immunities of citizenship, and that no act of Congress could overrule a constitutional amendment.
Trump would like the Supreme Court to award him the power to override the Constitution that a previous Supreme Court denied to Congress, but his attempt to overturn our foundational law has already launched lawsuits. Twenty-two Democratic-led states have sued the Trump administration for violating the U.S. Constitution. Washington, D.C., and San Francisco—fittingly, the city where Wong Kim Ark was born—have joined the lawsuits. So have the American Civil Liberties Union and an expectant mother.
Trump’s administration is facing lawsuits not only on his attacks on birthright citizenship, but also on the executive order that would enable Trump to fire nonpartisan civil servants and replace them with loyalists. And, within minutes of Trump taking office, at least three lawsuits were filed in Washington, D.C., against the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, run by Elon Musk—Vivek Ramaswamy has been pushed out—charging that it was breaking transparency laws.
The new administration has other problems as well. As Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, Trump’s first day on the job was “a dangerous display of rapid mental decline.” Bunch recorded Trump’s slurred speech, rambling, and nonsensical off-the-cuff speeches and said that his “biggest takeaway from a day that some have anticipated and many have dreaded for the last four years is seeing how rapidly the oldest new president in America is declining right in front of us.”
Even before he took office, Trump began to walk back his campaign promises—on lowering food prices, for example—and the administration is continuing to move the goalposts now that he’s in office. Last night the Senate confirmed former senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) 99–0 for secretary of state. Today, when CBS asked Rubio about Trump’s repeated promise to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1, Rubio said that what Trump really meant was that the war in Ukraine needs to come to an end.
But Trump is not helping those trying to defend his presidency. Tonight he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who founded and from January 2011 to October 2013 ran an online criminal marketplace called Silk Road, where more than $200 million in illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services, such as computer hacking, were bought and sold with cryptocurrency. Most of the sales were of drugs, with the Silk Road home page listing nearly 13,000 options, including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD. The wares were linked to at least six deaths from overdose around the world. In May 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison and was ordered to forfeit more than $180 million.
In May 2024, during his presidential campaign, Trump promised to pardon Ulbricht in order to court the votes of libertarians, who support drug legalization on the grounds that people should be able to make their own choices. They saw Ulbricht’s sentence as government overreach.
Tonight, Trump posted that he had pardoned Ulbricht (although Trump spelled his name wrong), saying: “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
SCIENCE said:
we feel like we’re not comprehending something there
That’d want to be one stonking big burrito.
Ian said:
At least all this Roman/Nazi salute stuff has displaced criticism of Egon’s awful dancing.
diddly-squat said:
Ian said:
At least all this Roman/Nazi salute stuff has displaced criticism of Egon’s awful dancing.
He was trained by Elaine Benes apparently, the creator of the dance The Upright Dry Heave
ABC News:
Now let’s see what a difference some of that ol’ Trump magic can make.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Ian said:
At least all this Roman/Nazi salute stuff has displaced criticism of Egon’s awful dancing.
He was trained by Elaine Benes apparently, the creator of the dance The Upright Dry Heave
Note for Michael V: that’s a Seinfeld reference :-)
Neophyte said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
He was trained by Elaine Benes apparently, the creator of the dance The Upright Dry Heave
Note for Michael V: that’s a Seinfeld reference :-)
:)
I just let it go over my head.
This may have been mentioned in passing by SM in a Heather Cox Richardson piece but this may have been missed be some of you. Anyway the shit-show begins:
…
Vivek Ramaswamy quits ‘Doge’ cost-cutting program leaving Musk in charge
Tech entrepreneur, who may run for governor of Ohio, reportedly clashed with billionaire SpaceX CEO
Adam Gabbatt in New York
Wed 22 Jan 2025 01.28 AEDT
Donald Trump’s much-vaunted but ill-defined new “department of government efficiency” (Doge) program lost one of its leaders hours after the new president took office on Monday, as Vivek Ramaswamy bowed out of the government cost-cutting taskforce, leaving Elon Musk in sole charge.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/21/vivek-ramaswamy-quits-doge-elon-musk
Unconfirmed if legit.
But if it is, perhaps it’s time to invest in dental practices in the US.
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
But if it is, perhaps it’s time to invest in dental practices in the US.
Legit post. Trump did not enact the antifluoride actions.
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
But if it is, perhaps it’s time to invest in dental practices in the US.
Legit post. Trump did not enact the antifluoride actions.
Oversight or to come, do you think?
Spiny Norman said:
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
But if it is, perhaps it’s time to invest in dental practices in the US.
Legit post. Trump did not enact the antifluoride actions.
Oversight or to come, do you think?
IDK. I doubt he cares about the issue. He needed RFKJ to drop out so he didn’t munch his scare of the nutbag votes, so he promised him whatever.
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
dv said:Legit post. Trump did not enact the antifluoride actions.
Oversight or to come, do you think?
IDK. I doubt he cares about the issue. He needed RFKJ to drop out so he didn’t munch his scare of the nutbag votes, so he promised him whatever.
Righto. No doubt other insanities to come, especially as he knows there’s no real penalty to anything he does from now on
Trade, fentanyl and TikTok: How China is preparing for Trump 2.0
By Liisa Visentin
January 20, 2025
Singapore: Against the backdrop of tariff threats and an escalating tech war, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a pitch for Donald Trump.
In a phone call days before Trump returns to the White House, Xi talked up the prospect of a new era of “win-win” cooperation and, according to Chinese state media, told the president-elect he was ready to advance ties “from a new starting point”. He even suggested the “two countries can become partners and friends”.
On Tuesday, Trump becomes the man with the greatest power to frustrate Beijing’s ambitions over the next four years, and has vowed to kick things off by slapping tariffs of 10 to 60 per cent on all Chinese imports to the US.
Trump confirmed the phone call as “very good”, posting on his social media platform Truth Social that he and Xi had spoken about trade, fentanyl and TikTok. Taiwan was also discussed, the Chinese side said.
The relationship between the superpowers is at an unpredictable juncture, but Trump’s transactional nature and love of a deal have sparked speculation that some kind of economic grand bargain can be struck between the two countries.
But Beijing is not counting on it.
It is preparing for an all-out trade war that threatens to plunge the nations into a new era of turbulence, one that has the potential to reshape worldwide trade flows with consequences for global security.
“China is preparing for two scenarios – deal or no deal,” says Wu Xinbo, director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“If China can make a deal with Trump that is acceptable to both sides, we may be able to avoid a major showdown. However, if this is not possible, then China has to be prepared for a tariff war, trade war, tech war, whatever it takes, between the two sides.”
Trade-war footing
There are clear signs China has been steeling itself for the fight.
The latest customs data released last week laid bare how the country has front-loaded its exports, rushing them out the door in anticipation that Trump will make good on his tariff threat.
US president-elect Donald Trump is threatening to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on his first day back in office.
China announced it had achieved a record trade surplus in 2024 of almost $US1 trillion, a figure that will only fuel outrage in the US and other western countries that cheap Chinese goods are swamping overseas markets, backed by state subsidies.
Data indicates American companies have been stockpiling Chinese products to pre-empt new tariffs, with exports to the US hitting a two-year high in December of almost $US49 billion, according to a Bloomberg analysis. China’s exports to Vietnam also peaked, driven in part by companies shifting manufacturing or rerouting products destined for the US through Vietnam.
Beijing implemented a string of aggressive trade measures in the lead-up to Trump’s inauguration, marking an escalating tit-for-tat retaliation to the Biden administration’s years-long efforts to strangle China’s access to advanced chips and AI technology through export blacklists and controls. Even in his waning hours in office, Biden signed off on a flurry of new technology restrictions aimed at stymying China’s military advancement.
To counter this, Beijing this month took a leaf from Washington’s playbook and added 28 American entities to its new export control list to “safeguard national security”, banning the sale of dual-use technologies to companies including Boeing Defense, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. It has also launched an antitrust investigation into US chipmaker Nvidia and last month banned the export to the US of key rare minerals used in semiconductors and defence technologies.
“This can be interpreted as Beijing’s effort to build up some bargaining chips for US-China negotiations in the coming months on technological policy competition,” says Zhao Minghao, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Zhao says there is an active debate in China about whether Trump’s tariff threats are designed as leverage to bring Beijing to the negotiating table, or whether they are a means to an end, a tool for achieving the economic de-coupling with China that key figures in the incoming administration want to see.
“No one can be sure or sure what Donald Trump wants and what his economic and trade policy team want,” he says.
A grand bargain on trade?
Many experts dismiss outright the idea that a sweeping grand bargain – one that deals with tariffs, sanctions and export blacklists, let alone such foreign policy issues as the status of Taiwan – between Trump and Xi is possible. Security concerns involving China are deeply entrenched in Washington on both sides of the political aisle and it was Trump’s first administration that began efforts to cut off China’s access to high-tech chips.
“The Chinese government is under no illusion that the Trump presidency will mark any kind of improvement of relations between both countries,” says Dr Benjamin Ho, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“There may be small concessions here and there, on trade, on fentanyl, but nothing strategic.”
Instead, a narrower deal on trade that resembles the phase one deal agreed to under Trump 1.0 is more feasible, says Capital Economics’ chief Asia economist Mark Williams.
The centrepiece of the Trump 1.0 deal involved China agreeing to buy an additional $US200 billion of US products, in exchange for a rollback of some tariffs. But China’s commitments were unrealistic from the outset and hindered by the COVID pandemic, and it failed to meet them.
“The failure of the phase one deal would hang over any negotiations,” Williams assessed in a recent research note to investors.
How Trump proposes to implement the tariffs, whether through phased-in approach or as a blunt instrument hitting all Chinese imports with debilitating duties, will also determine Beijing’s negotiating stance, says Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University.
“Pounding China with overwhelming tariffs will force China into a corner and there will be no place for us to manoeuvre from,” Zhu says.
Another key factor in any deal negotiation is China’s flagging economy, which is being dragged down by domestic challenges – namely the long tail of its property market collapse. A slew of measures announced by authorities last year, including a $US1 trillion stimulus package aimed at spurring confidence and getting Chinese consumers to spend, has so far failed to significantly kickstart its economy.
“It’s possible we will see a mismatch between what Trump wants and what Beijing can offer,” Zhao says.
Even a baby boom can’t stop China’s population shrinking
Recent efforts by China to foster warmer ties and goodwill with Australia, UK and parts of Europe, as well as measures such as expanding visa-free travel to China to many countries, were also part of Beijing’s preventative strategy to ameliorate a plunge in US-China relations, Zhao says.
A win-win gloss to an entrenched superpower rivalry
Xi’s words to Trump on Friday’s phone call raised to a leader-level the diplomatic platitudes of “mutually beneficial” cooperation that Beijing has pumped out for months in preparation for Trump 2.0. It’s a message that China’s vice president Han Zheng will take to Washington DC on Tuesday when he attends Trump’s inauguration as Xi’s stand-in.
Trump, too, has leaned into the quixotic posturing, repeatedly praising Xi as “amazing”, inviting him to his inauguration, and even going so far as to proclaim in December that “China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world”.
This effusive rhetoric belies a widely accepted view in both Beijing and Washington that the US-China relationship under Trump 2.0 will continue to be defined by an intense superpower rivalry and deep suspicion, with national security the foremost concern.
Beijing is also acutely aware that Trump has stacked his team with China hawks, among them Mike Waltz as national security adviser and Marco Rubio, his pick for Secretary of State. Rubio was unambiguous last week when he told his Senate confirmation hearing China was the “most potent and dangerous” nation the US had faced in its history.
“It’s important for China to engage Trump directly and also as early as possible. We do not want his national security hawks to control his China policy,” Wu says.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/deal-or-no-deal-how-china-is-preparing-for-trump-2-0-20250114-p5l460.html
Has Trump got around to outlawing the metric system yet?
captain_spalding said:
Has Trump got around to outlawing the metric system yet?
I dunno. Ronny Raygun did, but for the US only. “If it ws good enough for my grandpappy, then it’s good enough for me and everyone”.
Wine bottles are still 750 ml, though.
:)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-23/trump-putin-tariffs-ukraine/104848882
LOL
Has Putin ended his war with sanctions placed on him, his country and his mates?
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Has Trump got around to outlawing the metric system yet?
I dunno. Ronny Raygun did, but for the US only. “If it ws good enough for my grandpappy, then it’s good enough for me and everyone”.
Wine bottles are still 750 ml, though.
:)
An old guy told me that “they” can’t change the appearance of the money because that’s the beginning of the end or something, something…communism. The $5 note had some purple added to it.
Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
kii said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Has Trump got around to outlawing the metric system yet?
I dunno. Ronny Raygun did, but for the US only. “If it ws good enough for my grandpappy, then it’s good enough for me and everyone”.
Wine bottles are still 750 ml, though.
:)
An old guy told me that “they” can’t change the appearance of the money because that’s the beginning of the end or something, something…communism. The $5 note had some purple added to it.
My gosh! Added colour! Not just green!
I remember USAsians loving our paper currency – colourful with clear bits and low-wear plastic.
(Mind you, we were complimented for our use of English – not a strong accent and most of the words correct, or at least mostly understandable. It took a while for the penny to drop, but it seems it was assumed our first language was German. Austrians, not Australians.)
dv said:
Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
Is it?
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
Is it?
For low values of Good.
dv said:
Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
A former friend from high school has moved to a deep red part of Alabama, for her adult daughter’s music career. Former friend’s father survived WWII concentration camps. I’ve asked her SiL how stuff is going for them. Apparently if it doesn’t directly impact them they don’t worry about it.
I wonder what her father would think about it all?
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
Is it?
For low values of Good.
Excellent one. Germans are calling it out, too.
dv said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:Always good to check in on the Libertarians now and then
Is it?
For low values of Good.
That image should go into the Leon thread.
Elon Musk bashes the $500 billion AI project Trump announced, claiming its backers don’t ‘have the money’
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/tech/elon-musk-trump-stargate-openai/index.html
dv said:
Elon Musk bashes the $500 billion AI project Trump announced, claiming its backers don’t ‘have the money’
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/tech/elon-musk-trump-stargate-openai/index.html
I wonder how long those two are going to stay best mates.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Elon Musk bashes the $500 billion AI project Trump announced, claiming its backers don’t ‘have the money’
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/tech/elon-musk-trump-stargate-openai/index.html
I wonder how long those two are going to stay best mates.
Whilst-ever Trump remembers that Elon used his computers to alter election results, I reckon. And Trump has already said that that happened…
This woman is amazing. She and her brother, he’s in CA, are the children of full-blown MAGA parents. The siblings are progressives. The family does a weekly podcast on the family dynamics. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Anyway, more information on their site.
“This is one of hundreds of emails, phone calls, and dms we received today. We were called every name in the book and threatened with violence, all because we book up and can’t make MAGA cakes for last minute, bogus requests.
Nonetheless, ya’ll rallied and sold us the fuck out today! We couldn’t keep our Bishop cookies on the shelves. Thank you. We sincerely appreciate our real customers and fans, and know you’ve always got our backs.
For everyone all around the country wanting to support us, you can order our merch online. We do ship worldwide!
We’ll have more of your favorite cookies and baked goods tomorrow!!! They thought we’d get canceled but we’ve accrued 4k new followers and are booked up and busier than ever. ✨🐝🫶🏻🖤🤸🏻♀️
Hivebakerytx.com”
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
Elon Musk bashes the $500 billion AI project Trump announced, claiming its backers don’t ‘have the money’
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/tech/elon-musk-trump-stargate-openai/index.html
I wonder how long those two are going to stay best mates.
Trump will likely consider him expendable and a means to an end.
Like Maul and Sideous before him
kii said:
This woman is amazing. She and her brother, he’s in CA, are the children of full-blown MAGA parents. The siblings are progressives. The family does a weekly podcast on the family dynamics. I’m not sure what to make of that.Anyway, more information on their site.
“This is one of hundreds of emails, phone calls, and dms we received today. We were called every name in the book and threatened with violence, all because we book up and can’t make MAGA cakes for last minute, bogus requests.
Nonetheless, ya’ll rallied and sold us the fuck out today! We couldn’t keep our Bishop cookies on the shelves. Thank you. We sincerely appreciate our real customers and fans, and know you’ve always got our backs.
For everyone all around the country wanting to support us, you can order our merch online. We do ship worldwide!
We’ll have more of your favorite cookies and baked goods tomorrow!!! They thought we’d get canceled but we’ve accrued 4k new followers and are booked up and busier than ever. ✨🐝🫶🏻🖤🤸🏻♀️
Hivebakerytx.com”
To lol lol: Who are you calling a piece of shit? Remove the log from your own eye…
Michael V said:
kii said:
This woman is amazing. She and her brother, he’s in CA, are the children of full-blown MAGA parents. The siblings are progressives. The family does a weekly podcast on the family dynamics. I’m not sure what to make of that.Anyway, more information on their site.
“This is one of hundreds of emails, phone calls, and dms we received today. We were called every name in the book and threatened with violence, all because we book up and can’t make MAGA cakes for last minute, bogus requests.
Nonetheless, ya’ll rallied and sold us the fuck out today! We couldn’t keep our Bishop cookies on the shelves. Thank you. We sincerely appreciate our real customers and fans, and know you’ve always got our backs.
For everyone all around the country wanting to support us, you can order our merch online. We do ship worldwide!
We’ll have more of your favorite cookies and baked goods tomorrow!!! They thought we’d get canceled but we’ve accrued 4k new followers and are booked up and busier than ever. ✨🐝🫶🏻🖤🤸🏻♀️
Hivebakerytx.com”
To lol lol: Who are you calling a piece of shit? Remove the log from your own eye…
People are so nasty
What can be helpful is having such a low opinion of these scum that insults mean nothing as they themselves are nothing
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
dv said:
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
Progress for you
Tv always portrays how easily you can be fired in the USA.
Whilst its fiction I assume it has a strong basis in reality.
dv said:
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
That’s more utter shit. Arsehole.
Cymek said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
Progress for you
Tv always portrays how easily you can be fired in the USA.
Whilst its fiction I assume it has a strong basis in reality.
Most positions in the US are “at-will”, meaning that people can be fired with no notice or reason required. US government contractors typically have more stringent employment conditions.
dv said:
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
Looks like being a Congressperson or Senator should be a doddle for the next four years.
Trump and Musk, and Trump’s parasites, look set to do all of the governing by Presidential decree.
Can you die from writer’s cramp?
Like, from signing too many proclamations?
dv said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has revoked a six-decade-old executive order designed to combat workplace discrimination and promote affirmative action among federal contractors, undoing a labor standard that stretches back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson.The rule Trump nuked, Executive Order 11246, forbade federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. It granted the Labor Department the power to enforce its provisions through a contracting standards office.
Progress for you
Tv always portrays how easily you can be fired in the USA.
Whilst its fiction I assume it has a strong basis in reality.
Most positions in the US are “at-will”, meaning that people can be fired with no notice or reason required. US government contractors typically have more stringent employment conditions.
Yeah I assumed as much
Cymek said:
dv said:
Cymek said:Progress for you
Tv always portrays how easily you can be fired in the USA.
Whilst its fiction I assume it has a strong basis in reality.
Most positions in the US are “at-will”, meaning that people can be fired with no notice or reason required. US government contractors typically have more stringent employment conditions.
Yeah I assumed as much
I think it’s in the Constitution somewhere. The inalienable right to wake up grumpy in the morning, and take it out on some employee.
captain_spalding said:
Can you die from writer’s cramp?Like, from signing too many proclamations?
Oh, how I wish.
can’t wait for the opening on the eastern front
SCIENCE said:
can’t wait for the opening on the eastern front
More info needed.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:can’t wait for the opening on the eastern front
More info needed.
what do Nazis do once they’ve consolidated domestic power
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:can’t wait for the opening on the eastern front
More info needed.
what do Nazis do once they’ve consolidated domestic power
Look for Greenland lebensraum.
Got it.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Can you die from writer’s cramp?Like, from signing too many proclamations?
Oh, how I wish.
I know the other type of cramp that also starts with a “W” or a “w” doesn’t kill
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:can’t wait for the opening on the eastern front
More info needed.
what do Nazis do once they’ve consolidated domestic power
Bondage ?
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:More info needed.
what do Nazis do once they’ve consolidated domestic power
Look for
Greenlandlebensraum.Got it.
:)
From Mindy Fischer
“So the felon did his first interview with Hannity tonight. I watched so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome. He started out saying he wants to get rid of FEMA. He said he wants individual states to take care of their own disasters and he claimed the Democrats “have weaponized FEMA” so he’s getting rid of it.
The rapist told Hannity that Biden personally emptied prisons all over the world into the US. Hannity said he’s 100 percent certain that there is going to be a terror attack. The felon said he’s positive that “Biden’s criminals will make a terror attack on our country.”
The orange sack of shit attacked Gavin Newsom saying all of the fire damage in California is his fault. Then he went on an incoherent rant about the big faucet that Newsom uses to turn off the water coming from Canada. He sounded like a deranged mental patient.
The felon had a complete meltdown over Biden’s pardons. Then he said he was going to use the DOJ to go after Biden now because Biden didn’t pardon himself.
Hannity asked the felon why he pardoned J6 rioters who were violent with the police. He said they were all innocent and J6 was “a political hoax.” Then he added, “I said I would pardon the J6 hostages and I won in a landslide.”
Of course Hannity couldn’t let the rapist go without saying God saved him from bullets. The felon said “it was a miracle.” Then he called himself the chosen one. He is so far past delusional.
For a guy who was just sworn into the presidency, the felon seems very angry and stressed out. He looks like he’s not sleeping. Seeing him looking and sounding so miserable tonight was the only good part of the interview. May the pathetic sack of shit never know another moment of peace.
Cheers to the resistance!”
kii said:
From Mindy Fischer
“So the felon did his first interview with Hannity tonight. I watched so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome. He started out saying he wants to get rid of FEMA. He said he wants individual states to take care of their own disasters and he claimed the Democrats “have weaponized FEMA” so he’s getting rid of it.
The rapist told Hannity that Biden personally emptied prisons all over the world into the US. Hannity said he’s 100 percent certain that there is going to be a terror attack. The felon said he’s positive that “Biden’s criminals will make a terror attack on our country.”
The orange sack of shit attacked Gavin Newsom saying all of the fire damage in California is his fault. Then he went on an incoherent rant about the big faucet that Newsom uses to turn off the water coming from Canada. He sounded like a deranged mental patient.
The felon had a complete meltdown over Biden’s pardons. Then he said he was going to use the DOJ to go after Biden now because Biden didn’t pardon himself.
Hannity asked the felon why he pardoned J6 rioters who were violent with the police. He said they were all innocent and J6 was “a political hoax.” Then he added, “I said I would pardon the J6 hostages and I won in a landslide.”
Of course Hannity couldn’t let the rapist go without saying God saved him from bullets. The felon said “it was a miracle.” Then he called himself the chosen one. He is so far past delusional.
For a guy who was just sworn into the presidency, the felon seems very angry and stressed out. He looks like he’s not sleeping. Seeing him looking and sounding so miserable tonight was the only good part of the interview. May the pathetic sack of shit never know another moment of peace.
Cheers to the resistance!”
:)
fsm said:
Reminds me of that scene from Rat Race.
fsm said:
is that a legit elon X-post or just a meme?
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
is that a legit elon X-post or just a meme?
https://www.betootaadvocate.com/world-news/elon-musk-releases-stunning-new-design-for-tesla-model-ss/
The ongoing battle between secularism and religion
dv said:
!!!
dv said:
The ongoing battle between secularism and religion
The Auspol Bulletin
20m ·
THE SHEER GALL OF TRUMP IS STAGGERING !
BUT WHO REALLY CARES ?
Just like that. he declares the Gulf of Mexico renamed to Gulf of America!
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are responsible for establishing and maintaining the names of oceans and seas.
The Conversation’s Clive Schofield wrote an informative piece today on Trump’s renaming which we thought our readers would find interesting.
“Yes, Trump can rename the Gulf of Mexico – just not for everyone. Here’s how it works
————————————————————————————————————-
Published: January 23, 2025 1.31pm AEDT
Among the blizzard of executive orders issued by Donald Trump on his first day back in the Oval Office was one titled Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness. It unilaterally renamed “the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America”.
The order was justified by this maritime space having long been an “integral asset” to the United States, with its “bountiful geology” yielding around 14% of US crude oil production, “vibrant American fisheries”, and it being “a favourite destination of American tourism”.
The gulf was also characterised as “an indelible part of America” that would continue to play “a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy”.
But while it’s undoubtedly important to the US, this part of the Atlantic Ocean washes against other countries, too. So, can the president really rename it? Sure! At least as far as the US is concerned, anyway.
Naming rights
————————-
The relevant federal body is the Board on Geographic Names (BGN), established in 1890 with the mission to maintain uniform geographic name usage.
Specifically, Trump’s executive order instructs the secretary of the interior to take “all appropriate actions” to change the name to the Gulf of America, ensure all federal references reflect the renaming, and update the Geographic Names Information System.
The BGN has usually been reluctant to change generally accepted geographic names. However, the executive order clearly signals that the composition of the board may change in order to ensure the proposed renaming happens.
But whatever the US decides to call the gulf, it doesn’t mean other countries will pay any heed. Indeed, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo promptly suggested the US might itself be renamed Mexican America.
She was referring to a 17th-century map showing that name for much of the area that now makes up the US, and asserted Mexico and the rest of the world would continue to use the name Gulf of Mexico.
Disputed histories
——————————
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) publishes a volume called Limits of Oceans and Seas, covering the names of seas and oceans around the world, including the “Gulf of Mexico”.
But the study is explicit that these limits “have no political significance whatsoever” and are “solely for the convenience” of hydrographic offices preparing information for mariners.
It has not been published since 1953 – precisely because of a dispute over the geographic name of the body of water between Japan and Korea. Japan prefers to call it the Sea of Japan (as most know it) but South Korea has long campaigned for it to be named the East Sea or East Sea/Sea of Japan.
A revised edition of the IHO volume was submitted to member states in 2002 but dealt with the issue by omitting coverage of the East Sea/Sea of Japan. It remains a working document only.
The issue is taken so seriously by South Korea that an ambassador-level position was created to deal with it, and a Society for the East Sea was established 30 years ago.
That this deadlock has prevented a new edition of an IHO publication for more than 70 years shows not only the difficulty of changing generally well-recognised geographic names, but also the importance countries place on these matters.
Dangerous ground
——————————-
Place names – known as toponyms – are sensitive because they show that any country changing a name has the right to do so, which implies sovereignty and possession. Names therefore carry historical and emotional significance and are readily politicised.
This is particularly true where past conflicts with unresolved legacies and current geopolitical rivalries are in play. For example, the Sea of Japan/East Sea dispute goes back to Japan’s 1905 annexation of Korea and subsequent 40-year colonial rule.
Similarly, the disputed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas, over which Britain and Argentina went to war in 1982, remains a perennial source of diplomatic dispute.
But the South China Sea case is hard to beat. All or parts of this body of water are simultaneously referred to as the South Sea (Nan Hai) by China, the West Philippines Sea by the Philippines, the North Natuna Sea by Indonesia, and (another) East Sea (Biển Đông) by Vietnam.
To further complicate things in that same area, what in English are generally known as the Spratly Islands are known in Chinese as the Nánshā Qúndǎo, the Kepulauan Spratly in Malay, and in Vietnamese as the Trường Sa.
All the individual islands, rocks and cays in this highly disputed zone also carry names, individually or collectively, in multiple languages. Even the names of entirely and permanently submerged features have proved controversial. Early British Admiralty cartographers were arguably most accurate in naming the area simply “Dangerous Ground”.
Political gulfs
Globally, there have been moves to replace colonial references with original indigenous names, something very familiar to Australians and New Zealanders.
In the same executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Trump also changed the name of the highest peak in North America (in Alaska) from Denali back to Mount McKinley (named after the 25th president, William McKinley, in 1917).
This simultaneously attacked the legacy of former president Barack Obama, who renamed the peak Denali in 2015, and spoke to Trump’s war on perceived “woke” politics.
That said, the change was tempered by the fact the national park area surrounding the mountain will retain the name Denali National Park and Preserve.
Ultimately, Trump can re-badge the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, but only from a strictly US perspective. It is unlikely to matter much to the rest of the world, save for those wishing to curry favour with the new administration.
Most of the world will likely continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. And the Gulf of America may yet be consigned to history in four years’ time.”
————————————————————————————————————-
(Clive Schofield is Professor, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong)
In our opinion, and with all the many major issues confronting our planet at present, why would anyone care a rats what a body of water is called ?
This just shows the stupidity and a complete lack of understanding of the worldly topics by President Trump that really matter.
As Clive says, the rest of the world will continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico so let Trump play with his crayons again and redraw his local map of North America. Wonder if he’ll hold that up as if to say ‘look Mom, I did good!’
Trump administration cancels travel for refugees already cleared to resettle in the US
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trump-administration-cancels-travel-refugees-cleared-resettle-us-117976709
Cymek said:
dv said:
The ongoing battle between secularism and religion
how do they even believe that this felon is a follower of their cult
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.html
I’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
^
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
Yes. Way, way, way beyond ridiculous.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.html
I’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
^
it’s a spectacle the show is the point
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
You left out the inverted commas. It should read “Trump inauguration event”.
It’s a piggy-bank fund for Donny. You want a favour from Donny at some future time, you bung a million or two into the “fund for his inauguration”.
Some small part of it probably does go to some sort of shindig for the occasion, but the rest gets spirited away into Donny’s stash, minus whatever the various hangers-on feel safe in skimming off the top.
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
You left out the inverted commas. It should read “Trump inauguration event”.
It’s a piggy-bank fund for Donny. You want a favour from Donny at some future time, you bung a million or two into the “fund for his inauguration”.
Some small part of it probably does go to some sort of shindig for the occasion, but the rest gets spirited away into Donny’s stash, minus whatever the various hangers-on feel safe in skimming off the top.
Probably true.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
You left out the inverted commas. It should read “Trump inauguration event”.
It’s a piggy-bank fund for Donny. You want a favour from Donny at some future time, you bung a million or two into the “fund for his inauguration”.
Some small part of it probably does go to some sort of shindig for the occasion, but the rest gets spirited away into Donny’s stash, minus whatever the various hangers-on feel safe in skimming off the top.
Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:You left out the inverted commas. It should read “Trump inauguration event”.
It’s a piggy-bank fund for Donny. You want a favour from Donny at some future time, you bung a million or two into the “fund for his inauguration”.
Some small part of it probably does go to some sort of shindig for the occasion, but the rest gets spirited away into Donny’s stash, minus whatever the various hangers-on feel safe in skimming off the top.
Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Hopefully Barron will turn out okay
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Hopefully Barron will turn out okay
yes, living in the shadow of your old man unable to speak your mind. who knows what he is like.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.html
I’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
^
it’s a spectacle the show is the point
Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
^
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:You left out the inverted commas. It should read “Trump inauguration event”.
It’s a piggy-bank fund for Donny. You want a favour from Donny at some future time, you bung a million or two into the “fund for his inauguration”.
Some small part of it probably does go to some sort of shindig for the occasion, but the rest gets spirited away into Donny’s stash, minus whatever the various hangers-on feel safe in skimming off the top.
Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
ChrispenEvan said:
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Hopefully Barron will turn out okay
yes, living in the shadow of your old man unable to speak your mind. who knows what he is like.
As i say, DJT knows.
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Probably true.
he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
The cause of so many ills in the world, the quest for money.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
it’s a spectacle the show is the point
Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
^
/TIC
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
because that is what we are talking about.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:money is still meaningless when you are dead.
Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
because that is what we are talking about.
Possible cause problems for family wanting it after you are dead
An executive order by President Donald Trump requiring agencies to stop paying money for two mammoth Biden-era laws could bring a wide range of infrastructure, transportation and energy projects to a halt — including those already delivering jobs to Republican-led states.
The language in question, in one of dozens of orders Trump issued on his first day in office, commands agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” under former President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law and his 2022 climate statute. That wording could imperil billions of dollars in funding for projects that states have already begun working on, some lawmakers and policy experts said Tuesday, for everything from roads and bridges to broadband and withstanding the effects of climate change.
—-
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:money is still meaningless when you are dead.
Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
because that is what we are talking about.
Well, it will have meaning for DJT until he exhales his last breath.
If there was chance for DJT to take a dollar off someone in his own last dying moments, it’s a fair bet that Donny would do it.
Cymek said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
Cymek said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
because that is what we are talking about.
Possible cause problems for family wanting it after you are dead
There was a lot of that after Fred died.
DJT pulled a few swifties to see that Fred Jr.‘s family got very little out of Fred Sr.‘s estate.
Cymek said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
because that is what we are talking about.
Possible cause problems for family wanting it after you are dead
good. they shouldn’t be so mercenary.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-23/questions-asked-forged-bail-document-used-to-flee-rehab/104850092
This is interesting
I wonder if he had a friend who worked for the courts or corrective services.
How closely was the document scrutinised.
I reckon you could cut and paste his details onto a real document and it would fool a lot of people.
dv said:
An executive order by President Donald Trump requiring agencies to stop paying money for two mammoth Biden-era laws could bring a wide range of infrastructure, transportation and energy projects to a halt — including those already delivering jobs to Republican-led states.The language in question, in one of dozens of orders Trump issued on his first day in office, commands agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” under former President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law and his 2022 climate statute. That wording could imperil billions of dollars in funding for projects that states have already begun working on, some lawmakers and policy experts said Tuesday, for everything from roads and bridges to broadband and withstanding the effects of climate change.
—-
More shit.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:he’ll be dead one day so all that money is meaningless.
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
life is not a monopoly game.
Cymek said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-23/questions-asked-forged-bail-document-used-to-flee-rehab/104850092This is interesting
I wonder if he had a friend who worked for the courts or corrective services.
How closely was the document scrutinised.
I reckon you could cut and paste his details onto a real document and it would fool a lot of people.
Scan, modify, print. Easy as.
sarahs mum said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
life is not a monopoly game.
I know that, and you know that, but…
The Deusches Museum in Munich is the world’s largest museum of science and technology. They have taken down Musk’s portrait for obvious reasons but that does seem a little unfair given that they still have Oberth up there.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.htmlI’m late on this but I only just found out that $170 million was raised for the Trump inauguration event.
That’s… just fucking insane. Regardless of who it is, even if it is the best President they ever had. It’s a ceremony to swear someone into a job.
Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
I think you’re overestimating the pop-reference strength of this forum
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
ha
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:Its unusual for the USA, they aren’t really into unnecessary pageantry
I think you’re overestimating the pop-reference strength of this forum
I trust Cymek will get it.
dv said:
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
ha
I saw this on a SF chef’s fb page, one Australian said it was missing Biden. Apparently Bing still shows Biden.
:)
Spiny Norman said:
:)
ha
Spiny Norman said:
:)
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 22, 2025 (Wednesday)
Marc Caputo of Axios reported today that Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of all the January 6 rioters convicted of crimes for that day’s events, including those who attacked police officers, was a spur of the moment decision by Trump apparently designed to get the issue behind him quickly. “Trump just said: ‘F*ck it: Release ‘em all,’” an advisor recalled.
Rather than putting the issue behind him, Trump’s new administration is already mired in controversy over it. NBC News profiled the men who threw Nazi salutes, posted that they intended to start a civil war, vowed “there will be blood,” and called for the lynching of Democratic lawmakers. These men, who attacked police with bear spray, flag poles, and a metal whip and choked officers with their bare hands, are now back on the streets.
That means they are also headed home to their communities. Jackson Reffitt, who reported his father Guy’s participation in the January 6 riot and was a key witness against him, told reporters he fears for his life now that his father is free. Jackson recorded his father’s threat against talking to the authorities. “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor,” his father said, “and traitors get shot.” “I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson told CNN. “I’m terrified. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The country’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, has spoken out against the pardons, as has the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote: “Law and order? Back the blue? What happened to that ?” “What happened is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy,” it wrote. “By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.”
Mark Jacob of Stop the Presses commented: “Republicans—the Jailbreak Party.”
One of the pardoned individuals is already back in prison on a gun charge, illustrating, as legal analyst Joyce White Vance said, why Trump should have evaluated “prior criminal history, behavior in prison, risk of dangerousness to the community following release. Now,” she said, “we all pay the price for him using the pardon power as a political reward.” On social media, Heather Thomas wrote: “So when all was said and done, the only country that opened prisons and sent crazy murderous criminals to prey upon innocent American citizens, was us.”
MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reported that Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 18 years in prison, met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this afternoon.
For the past two days, the new Trump administration has been demonstrating that it is far easier to break things than it is to build them.
In his determination to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures, Trump has shut down all federal government DEI offices and has put all federal employees working in such programs on leave, telling agencies to plan for layoffs. He reached back to the American past to root out all possible traces of DEI, calling it “illegal discrimination in the federal government.” Trump revoked a series of executive orders from various presidents designed to address inequities among American populations.
Dramatically, he reached all the way back to Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in September 1965 to stop discriminatory practices in hiring in the federal government and in the businesses of those who were awarded federal contracts. Johnson put forward Executive Order 11246 shortly after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to protect minority voting and a year after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, both designed to level the playing field in the United States between white Americans, Black Americans and Americans of color.
In an even more dramatic reworking of American history, though, the Trump administration has frozen all civil rights cases currently being handled by the Department of Justice and has ordered Trump’s new supervisor of the civil rights division, Kathleen Wolfe, to make sure that none of the civil rights attorneys file any new complaints or other legal documents.
Congress created the Department of Justice in 1870…to prosecute civil rights cases.
Today, Erica L. Green reported for the New York Times that Trump’s team has threatened federal employees with “adverse consequences” if they refuse to turn in colleagues who “defy orders to purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies.” Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill commented: “Can’t wait until these guys have to define in court a ‘DEI hire’ and ‘DEI employees.’”
Trump’s team has told the staff at Department of Health and Human Services—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to stop issuing health advisories, scientific reports, and updates to their websites and social media posts. Lena H. Sun, Dan Diamond, and Rachel Roubein of the Washington Post report that the CDC was expected this week to publish reports on the avian influenza virus, which has shut down Georgia’s poultry industry.
Trump has also set out to make his mark on the Department of Homeland Security. Trump yesterday removed the U.S. Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, and ordered the Coast Guard to surge cutters, aircrafts, boats and personnel to waters around Florida and borders with Mexico and to “the maritime border around Alaska, Hawai’i, the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” to stop migrants. The service is already covering these areas as well as it can: last August, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Kevin Lunday, told the Brookings Institution that the service was short of personnel and ships.
As Josh Funk reported in the Associated Press, Trump also fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), responsible for keeping the nation’s transportation systems safe. He also fired all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, mandated by Congress after the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to review safety in airports and airlines.
Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, and Kara Scannell of CNN reported that Trump has pushed aside senior Department of Justice lawyers in the national security division, prosecutors who work on international affairs, and lawyers in the criminal division, all divisions that were involved in the prosecutions involving Trump.
Trump has also suspended all funding disbursements for projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, laws that invested billions of dollars in construction of clean energy manufacturing and the repair of roads, bridges, ports, and so on, primarily in Republican-dominated states.
Breaking things is easy, but it is harder to build them.
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly teased the idea that he had a secret plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine in a day. This morning, in a social media post, he revealed it. He warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that he would “put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
In fact, President Barack Obama and then–secretary of state John Kerry hit Russia with sanctions after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and under President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the U.S. and its allies have maintained biting sanctions against Russia. At the same time, Russia’s trade with the U.S. has fallen to lows that echo those of the period immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Making a ridiculous post about tariffs on Truth Social was his secret plan to end the war in 24 hours?” wrote editor Ron Filipkowski of MeidasNews. “What a ridiculous clown show. Idiocracy.”
Yesterday, Trump held an event with chief executive officer Sam Altman of OpenAI, chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison of Oracle, and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son of SoftBank to roll out a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence, although Ja’han Jones of MSNBC explained that it’s not clear how much of that investment was already in place. In any case, Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk promptly threw water on the announcement, posting on X, “They don’t actually have the money.” He added “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Musk has his own plan for developing AI tools and is in a legal battle with OpenAI. Altman retorted: “this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put first.” As Jones noted, the fight took the shine off Trump’s big announcement.
As for turning his orders into reality, Trump has turned that responsibility over to others.
Mark Berman and Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post noted today that Trump’s executive orders covered a wide range of topics and then simply told the incoming attorney general to handle them. A key theme of Trump’s campaign was his accusations that Biden was using the Justice Department against Trump and his loyalists; Berman and Roebuck point out that Trump “appears to want the Justice Department to act as both investigator and enforcer of his personal and policy wishes.”
This morning, Meryl Kornfield and Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post, with the help of researcher Alec Dent, reported on Trump’s first meeting with House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD). Trump frequently repeated, “promises made, promises kept,” but offered no guidance for how he foresees getting his agenda through Congress, where the Republicans have tiny margins. Both Johnson and Thune pointed out that it will be difficult to get majorities behind some of his plans.
According to Kornfield and Svitek, Trump stressed “that he doesn’t care how his agenda becomes law, just that it must.”
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
I think you’re overestimating the pop-reference strength of this forum
I trust Cymek will get it.
I do
Spiny Norman said:
:)
That’s clever and funny
Cymek said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
That’s clever and funny
but if he never has to back down or step aside then he can still believe he’s a king
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:I think you’re overestimating the pop-reference strength of this forum
I trust Cymek will get it.
I do
please explain
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I trust Cymek will get it.
I do
please explain
https://familyguy.fandom.com/wiki/Fouad
Spiny Norman said:
:)
truth is the whole family and VP looked angry. It’s lock step stuff.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:I do
please explain
https://familyguy.fandom.com/wiki/Fouad
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
Not to him.
He’s still trying to prove to his father Fred (died 1999) that he’s a worthy successor.
Fred was a manipulative psychopath, who demanded total obedience from his sons, and who had only one measure for his offspring: making money.
When Fred Jr. decided to take a career path that didn’t conform with Dad’s ideas, Fred Sr. did everything he could to, basically, destroy Fred Jr.
Donald took over as the heir apparent, and he’s been on a mission to prove himself to Dad ever since. Donny will take a buck anywhere, and from anyone.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, except money, has any value to Donald Trump.
money is still meaningless when you are dead.
Well, everything is meaningless when you’re dead.
Why single out ‘money’?
so is this like how when black lives matter all lives matter, or like how when men are abusing women not all men are abusing women
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
That’s clever and funny
but if he never has to back down or step aside then he can still believe he’s a king
If he gets to the other side the best he can hope for is to become a queen…
dv said:
They have taken down Musk’s portrait for obvious reasons…
‘Obvious reasons’ could include that they’re tired of looking at a picture of a bloke smirking.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
That’s clever and funny
but if he never has to back down or step aside then he can still believe he’s a king
If he gets to the other end, he can be Queen.
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
The bingbot includes Biden.
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
The bingbot includes Biden.
I see I’m a little behind the times on this one.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
Fine here:
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
truth is the whole family and VP looked angry. It’s lock step stuff.
Usha Vance appeared to be listening and thinking about what was being said. I reckon she might have a heart.
Spiny Norman said:
:)
LOL
kii said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
:)
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Google “US Presidents in order”
Various people, in the USA and Australia, are reporting that Biden is missing.
The bingbot includes Biden.
Yes, that was noted in the post I saw. Biden is back on Google now, people were reporting it.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Fair.
:)
This is a popular topic on a few pages.
kii said:
This is a popular topic on a few pages.
thank goodness.
Now i have a reasonable explanation to give to Mrs S for that lipstick she found in my ute.
A flurry of scientific gatherings and panels across federal science agencies were canceled on Wednesday, at a time of heightened sensitivity about how the Trump administration will shift the agencies’ policies and day-to-day affairs.
Several meetings of National Institutes of Health study sections, which review applications for fellowships and grants, were canceled without being rescheduled, according to agency notices reviewed by STAT. A Feb. 20-21 meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, a panel that advises the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services on vaccine policy, was also canceled. So was a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria that was scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29.
The scope of the cancellations was unclear. It was also unclear whether they were related to the Trump administration’s freeze on external communications until Feb. 1.
—-
https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/22/trump-administrations-cancels-scientific-meetings-abruptly/
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
That’s clever and funny
but if he never has to back down or step aside then he can still believe he’s a king
If he gets to the other end, he can be Queen.
This is a popular topic on a few pages.
thank goodness.
Now i have a reasonable explanation to give to Mrs S for that lipstick she found in my ute.
exactly ahahahahahaha
you just went to the other side
wait
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
This is a popular topic on a few pages.
thank goodness.
Now i have a reasonable explanation to give to Mrs S for that lipstick she found in my ute.
LOL
oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
SCIENCE said:
oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
In fairness I do think that most Americans knew what they were voting for. He was not at all subtle about his intentions.
A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”
As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
In fairness I do think that most Americans knew what they were voting for. He was not at all subtle about his intentions.
Mrs. California doesn’t believe Musk did a nazi salute and she has suddenly become an expert in Asperger’s ‘disease’.
Spiny Norman said:
A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
yeah right, good luck with that. Even the Pope wanks.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
In fairness I do think that most Americans knew what they were voting for. He was not at all subtle about his intentions.
Mrs. California doesn’t believe Musk did a nazi salute and she has suddenly become an expert in Asperger’s ‘disease’.
I don’t believe her.
These people will just say anything. They are quietly happy the fash are in charge and just aren’t quite ready to say so yet.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
yeah right, good luck with that. Even the Pope wanks.
Should be noted that Blackmon is a progressive Democrat and he’s just making a point.
Spiny Norman said:
A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
Unforeseen consequences: more rapes.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
yeah right, good luck with that. Even the Pope wanks.
dv said:
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
yeah right, good luck with that. Even the Pope wanks.
Should be noted that Blackmon is a progressive Democrat and he’s just making a point.
I judge them (USAliens) all at face value these days.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 22, 2025 (Wednesday)Marc Caputo of Axios reported today that Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of all the January 6 rioters convicted of crimes for that day’s events, including those who attacked police officers, was a spur of the moment decision by Trump apparently designed to get the issue behind him quickly. “Trump just said: ‘F*ck it: Release ‘em all,’” an advisor recalled.
Rather than putting the issue behind him, Trump’s new administration is already mired in controversy over it. NBC News profiled the men who threw Nazi salutes, posted that they intended to start a civil war, vowed “there will be blood,” and called for the lynching of Democratic lawmakers. These men, who attacked police with bear spray, flag poles, and a metal whip and choked officers with their bare hands, are now back on the streets.
That means they are also headed home to their communities. Jackson Reffitt, who reported his father Guy’s participation in the January 6 riot and was a key witness against him, told reporters he fears for his life now that his father is free. Jackson recorded his father’s threat against talking to the authorities. “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor,” his father said, “and traitors get shot.” “I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson told CNN. “I’m terrified. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The country’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, has spoken out against the pardons, as has the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote: “Law and order? Back the blue? What happened to that ?” “What happened is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy,” it wrote. “By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.”
Mark Jacob of Stop the Presses commented: “Republicans—the Jailbreak Party.”
One of the pardoned individuals is already back in prison on a gun charge, illustrating, as legal analyst Joyce White Vance said, why Trump should have evaluated “prior criminal history, behavior in prison, risk of dangerousness to the community following release. Now,” she said, “we all pay the price for him using the pardon power as a political reward.” On social media, Heather Thomas wrote: “So when all was said and done, the only country that opened prisons and sent crazy murderous criminals to prey upon innocent American citizens, was us.”
MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reported that Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 18 years in prison, met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this afternoon.
For the past two days, the new Trump administration has been demonstrating that it is far easier to break things than it is to build them.
In his determination to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures, Trump has shut down all federal government DEI offices and has put all federal employees working in such programs on leave, telling agencies to plan for layoffs. He reached back to the American past to root out all possible traces of DEI, calling it “illegal discrimination in the federal government.” Trump revoked a series of executive orders from various presidents designed to address inequities among American populations.
Dramatically, he reached all the way back to Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in September 1965 to stop discriminatory practices in hiring in the federal government and in the businesses of those who were awarded federal contracts. Johnson put forward Executive Order 11246 shortly after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to protect minority voting and a year after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, both designed to level the playing field in the United States between white Americans, Black Americans and Americans of color.
In an even more dramatic reworking of American history, though, the Trump administration has frozen all civil rights cases currently being handled by the Department of Justice and has ordered Trump’s new supervisor of the civil rights division, Kathleen Wolfe, to make sure that none of the civil rights attorneys file any new complaints or other legal documents.
Congress created the Department of Justice in 1870…to prosecute civil rights cases.Today, Erica L. Green reported for the New York Times that Trump’s team has threatened federal employees with “adverse consequences” if they refuse to turn in colleagues who “defy orders to purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies.” Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill commented: “Can’t wait until these guys have to define in court a ‘DEI hire’ and ‘DEI employees.’”
Trump’s team has told the staff at Department of Health and Human Services—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to stop issuing health advisories, scientific reports, and updates to their websites and social media posts. Lena H. Sun, Dan Diamond, and Rachel Roubein of the Washington Post report that the CDC was expected this week to publish reports on the avian influenza virus, which has shut down Georgia’s poultry industry.
Trump has also set out to make his mark on the Department of Homeland Security. Trump yesterday removed the U.S. Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, and ordered the Coast Guard to surge cutters, aircrafts, boats and personnel to waters around Florida and borders with Mexico and to “the maritime border around Alaska, Hawai’i, the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” to stop migrants. The service is already covering these areas as well as it can: last August, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Kevin Lunday, told the Brookings Institution that the service was short of personnel and ships.
As Josh Funk reported in the Associated Press, Trump also fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), responsible for keeping the nation’s transportation systems safe. He also fired all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, mandated by Congress after the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to review safety in airports and airlines.Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, and Kara Scannell of CNN reported that Trump has pushed aside senior Department of Justice lawyers in the national security division, prosecutors who work on international affairs, and lawyers in the criminal division, all divisions that were involved in the prosecutions involving Trump.
Trump has also suspended all funding disbursements for projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, laws that invested billions of dollars in construction of clean energy manufacturing and the repair of roads, bridges, ports, and so on, primarily in Republican-dominated states.
Breaking things is easy, but it is harder to build them.
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly teased the idea that he had a secret plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine in a day. This morning, in a social media post, he revealed it. He warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that he would “put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
In fact, President Barack Obama and then–secretary of state John Kerry hit Russia with sanctions after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and under President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the U.S. and its allies have maintained biting sanctions against Russia. At the same time, Russia’s trade with the U.S. has fallen to lows that echo those of the period immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Making a ridiculous post about tariffs on Truth Social was his secret plan to end the war in 24 hours?” wrote editor Ron Filipkowski of MeidasNews. “What a ridiculous clown show. Idiocracy.”
Yesterday, Trump held an event with chief executive officer Sam Altman of OpenAI, chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison of Oracle, and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son of SoftBank to roll out a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence, although Ja’han Jones of MSNBC explained that it’s not clear how much of that investment was already in place. In any case, Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk promptly threw water on the announcement, posting on X, “They don’t actually have the money.” He added “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Musk has his own plan for developing AI tools and is in a legal battle with OpenAI. Altman retorted: “this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put first.” As Jones noted, the fight took the shine off Trump’s big announcement.
As for turning his orders into reality, Trump has turned that responsibility over to others.
Mark Berman and Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post noted today that Trump’s executive orders covered a wide range of topics and then simply told the incoming attorney general to handle them. A key theme of Trump’s campaign was his accusations that Biden was using the Justice Department against Trump and his loyalists; Berman and Roebuck point out that Trump “appears to want the Justice Department to act as both investigator and enforcer of his personal and policy wishes.”
This morning, Meryl Kornfield and Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post, with the help of researcher Alec Dent, reported on Trump’s first meeting with House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD). Trump frequently repeated, “promises made, promises kept,” but offered no guidance for how he foresees getting his agenda through Congress, where the Republicans have tiny margins. Both Johnson and Thune pointed out that it will be difficult to get majorities behind some of his plans.
According to Kornfield and Svitek, Trump stressed “that he doesn’t care how his agenda becomes law, just that it must.”
It’s fucking awful.
SCIENCE said:
oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
They knew bloody well what they were voting for.
And they’ll pull the same shit the German population did in 1945: “we knew there was some kind of camp, but we didn’t know what went on there”, and “we were told they’d all gone to live in the new territories in the east (or, in the USS, “they’d gone ‘home to their own country’)”, etc. etc.
They beat the Nazis (OK, the Russians helped. A bit. Ok, a lot. A whole lot. Massively. Enormously.), but WW2 was where the US population really began its love affair with its arsenal.
Being armed was seen as the solution. Get a gun, be’ready’, don’t be at a ‘disadvantage’. Be a steely-eyed American patriot, ready to blow any damn threat to ‘freedom’ to kingdome-come.
And, you know what, the ideas those Krauts had weren’t all bad. Organisation, that’s good. Be suspicious of ‘wimpy’ government, that’s good, too, never can tell when ‘subversives’ might misdirect the government. And uniforms, let’s have some uniforms, so people know that we’re the ‘good guys’. Whatever the disposals store has available.
And it’ll come full-circle, now that the preservation of the ‘purity’ of Americanism is seen as worthy of the sacrifice of those who are deemed, by the decree of the ruling cabal, and by popular prejudice, to be unworthy of its benefits.
Germany started with deportations, ‘voluntary’ and involuntary, , too.
Spiny Norman said:
A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/01/22/mississippi-politician-files-contraception-begins-erection-act/
Well that’ll stop blokes rubbing one out for sure.
Sen. Bradford Blackmon is a Democrat and I suspect this is his attempt at trying to take the piss. In the past his big thing has been removal of Confederate symbols from public spaces.
Hey it turns out that Elmo does in fact know the difference between a my “heart goes out to you” and a Nazi salute.
If you play the video it’s pretty obvious.
sarahs mum said:
Peter Birkenhead
7h ·
Wisdom from Jennifer Walter shared with me by my friend Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Peter Birkenhead
7h ·
Wisdom from Jennifer Walter shared with me by my friend Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig.
Good advice there.
sarahs mum said:
it is time top stop talking and start rebelling. Whether violently or non-violently, they need to make the country ungovernable until Trump is deposed.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:oh c’m‘on it was just a little sending out of hearts
They knew bloody well what they were voting for.
And they’ll pull the same shit the German population did in 1945: “we knew there was some kind of camp, but we didn’t know what went on there”, and “we were told they’d all gone to live in the new territories in the east (or, in the USS, “they’d gone ‘home to their own country’)”, etc. etc.
They beat the Nazis (OK, the Russians helped. A bit. Ok, a lot. A whole lot. Massively. Enormously.), but WW2 was where the US population really began its love affair with its arsenal.
Being armed was seen as the solution. Get a gun, be’ready’, don’t be at a ‘disadvantage’. Be a steely-eyed American patriot, ready to blow any damn threat to ‘freedom’ to kingdome-come.
And, you know what, the ideas those Krauts had weren’t all bad. Organisation, that’s good. Be suspicious of ‘wimpy’ government, that’s good, too, never can tell when ‘subversives’ might misdirect the government. And uniforms, let’s have some uniforms, so people know that we’re the ‘good guys’. Whatever the disposals store has available.
And it’ll come full-circle, now that the preservation of the ‘purity’ of Americanism is seen as worthy of the sacrifice of those who are deemed, by the decree of the ruling cabal, and by popular prejudice, to be unworthy of its benefits.
Germany started with deportations, ‘voluntary’ and involuntary, , too.
There was a Nazi movement in the US in the early 1930s. It never went away. Just hid itself.
Spiny Norman said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Peter Birkenhead
7h ·
Wisdom from Jennifer Walter shared with me by my friend Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig.
Good advice there.
gish gallop.
sarahs mum said:
Yeah.
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
sarahs mum said:Peter Birkenhead
7h ·
Wisdom from Jennifer Walter shared with me by my friend Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig.
Good advice there.
gish gallop.
I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:Good advice there.
gish gallop.
I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
By one person?
dv said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:gish gallop.
I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
By one person?
No. By a Professor at another university, and several of his current and former students. It was clearly orchestrated by the Professor. The questions were his. Some were even read out from paper notes, presumably pre-prepared. The session chair was a former student of his. He should have controlled the questioning but didn’t.
dv said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:gish gallop.
I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
By one person?
alleged
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
By one person?
No. By a Professor at another university, and several of his current and former students. It was clearly orchestrated by the Professor. The questions were his. Some were even read out from paper notes, presumably pre-prepared. The session chair was a former student of his. He should have controlled the questioning but didn’t.
I remember walking into a PhD presentation with one of my supers who said, ‘I’m on for bad cop today.’
SCIENCE said:
alleged
I’ve checked. It’s correct. The NASA office of diversity and equal opportunity’s pages are 404’d.
not sure what to make of this but there you are
2h ago19.38 AEDT
Trump suggests it was a mistake for Biden to not pardon himself before leaving officeUS president Donald Trump has suggested that it was a mistake for the former president, Joe Biden, to not pardon himself before leaving office.
In an interview with Fox News host, Sean Hannity, Trump said:
This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.”It came as Trump told Hannity that he was given the option to pardon himself in 2021 when he was departing the White House, but declined because he believed he had done nothing wrong.
Donald Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity.In the interview – his first one-on-one interview since returning to the White House for his second term – Trump said that Biden had been given “very bad advice”. He said:
Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Somebody advised Joe Biden to give pardons to everybody but him.”Additionally, in the same interview, Trump said he may withhold aid to California until the state adjusts how it manages its scarce water resources. He falsely claimed that California’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump told Hannity.
More on that in a moment. Here are some other developments:
Donald Trump has described attacks on police officers at the US Capitol on January 6 2021 as “very minor incidents” as he sought to defend his decision to pardon the insurrectionists. Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. Trump also used the prime-time Fox News interview to discuss his barrage of executive orders, dismiss security concerns over Chinese-owned app TikTok (“Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?”) and discuss the possibility of cutting off federal funds to so-called “sanctuary cities” that shield undocumented immigrants from federal detention requests. On Thursday, Trump will speak remotely at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, delivering his first major speech to global business and political leaders. He is due to give a speech and engage in a dialogue at 11am US Eastern Time (4pm GMT), according to the meeting schedule. It is not clear what he will discuss. The new US presidential envoy for special missions has pushed back against Nato chief, Mark Rutte’s talk at the World Economic Forum about Ukraine joining Nato, pointing out many members of the alliance aren’t paying their “fair share” already. Richard Grenell, appointed by Trump in December, said it is “pretty shocking” that so many foreign ministers in Europe, and so many US politicians, did not try to stop the Russia-Ukraine war, and criticised Biden’s handling of the situation.Updated at
20.37 AEDT
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
dv said:By one person?
No. By a Professor at another university, and several of his current and former students. It was clearly orchestrated by the Professor. The questions were his. Some were even read out from paper notes, presumably pre-prepared. The session chair was a former student of his. He should have controlled the questioning but didn’t.
I remember walking into a PhD presentation with one of my supers who said, ‘I’m on for bad cop today.’
One question at a time, I could discuss and we could both grow our understanding.
20 orchestrated attacks at once left me significantly distressed. I drove the four hours home from the conference in the middle of winter with sub-zero air temperatures with the window of the car open. I thought I was going to vomit that whole time.
The Professor was trying to protect his 25 year old PhD which he thought was under attack. I had new data and analysed it differently to arrive at a different conclusion. I wasn’t attacking him or his thesis, but trying to improve our understanding.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
also
Huh!
:)
SCIENCE said:
not sure what to make of this but there you are
Great placement of the red play icon, looked like a clown nose…
>>>Trump suggests it was a mistake for Biden to not pardon himself before leaving office
Even though Trump himself reasoned that nothing he did while president was bad.
furious said:
SCIENCE said:not sure what to make of this but there you are
Great placement of the red play icon, looked like a clown nose…
:)
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.
sarahs mum said:
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.
Quite
sarahs mum said:
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.
One of the thugs released was dobbed in by his adult son. He is now fearing for his safety. He has publicly stated he fears his father’s retribution.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.One of the thugs released was dobbed in by his adult son. He is now fearing for his safety. He has publicly stated he fears his father’s retribution.
Well, his father did threaten him.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.One of the thugs released was dobbed in by his adult son. He is now fearing for his safety. He has publicly stated he fears his father’s retribution.
Well, his father did threaten him.
We have one back in jail on firearm charges, don’t we?
The quote “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” is often attributed to George Orwell, but there is no evidence that he actually said or wrote this saying1. However, the sentiment behind the quote suggests that in a climate of widespread deception, speaking the truth becomes a bold and courageous act of defiance against prevailing norms2.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Just two days into his new term, Donald Trump appears to be burning through political capital and alienating his allies (and supplicants) with his decision to indiscriminately pardon January 6 rioters, resulting in what can only be described as a debacle. Rachel Maddow reads a portion of Judge Beryl Howell’s rebuke.One of the thugs released was dobbed in by his adult son. He is now fearing for his safety. He has publicly stated he fears his father’s retribution.
Well, his father did threaten him.
https://youtu.be/U_weHRdfYCg?si=SyYB8cJs1P-XJkBP
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:One of the thugs released was dobbed in by his adult son. He is now fearing for his safety. He has publicly stated he fears his father’s retribution.
Well, his father did threaten him.
We have one back in jail on firearm charges, don’t we?
At least one.
Also according that interview Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has pardoned the father on a gun charge in Texas.
There’s just a barage of bad news and I am going to have another go at doing what I said I’d do which is try to disengage
dv said:
There’s just a barage of bad news and I am going to have another go at doing what I said I’d do which is try to disengage
I keep trying to do that.
Watching a series featuring Peter Capaldi.
It’s very cold today. Heater is on. Blanket is nice.
…sigh…
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:Well, his father did threaten him.
We have one back in jail on firearm charges, don’t we?
At least one.
Also according that interview Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has pardoned the father on a gun charge in Texas.
nice kid.
Donald Trump’s war on DEI is not about “merit”.
Executive orders attacking DEI are about promoting unqualified white men over diverse candidates.
Article by Amanda Marcotte, senior writer for Salon.com
Donald Trump lies about everything, but the lies strewn throughout his executive order shutting down diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government are especially taxing on one’s credulity. Efforts to improve diversity, the order reads, “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.”
This paean to the importance of “excellence” and “hard work” comes from a man who, a mere five years ago, looked a row of medical researchers and doctors in the eye and suggested he understands science better than they do, despite having not studied it for a day of his life.
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/23/donald-on-dei-is-not-about-merit/
AussieDJ said:
Donald Trump’s war on DEI is not about “merit”.Executive orders attacking DEI are about promoting unqualified white men over diverse candidates.
Article by Amanda Marcotte, senior writer for Salon.com
Donald Trump lies about everything, but the lies strewn throughout his executive order shutting down diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government are especially taxing on one’s credulity. Efforts to improve diversity, the order reads, “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.”
This paean to the importance of “excellence” and “hard work” comes from a man who, a mere five years ago, looked a row of medical researchers and doctors in the eye and suggested he understands science better than they do, despite having not studied it for a day of his life.
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/23/donald-on-dei-is-not-about-merit/
well a woman would write that wouldn’t they, how do we know that he doesn’t know better than a bunch of medical researchers and doctor
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
oh so they’re finally commenting
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-24/donald-trump-elon-musk-zuckerberg-tech-oligarchy/104845412
LOL
The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, hit back on X, saying “funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to the democrats”. In fairness, it’s more or less standard procedure for business leaders to throw money at an incoming president — but not like this. In the case of Joe Biden’s inauguration, donation records show only Uber threw $US1 million at the event, while Microsoft gave $US500,000, and Google and Amazon chipped in less than a third of this year’s gift. In 2021, Apple donated just $US43,200. Meta and OpenAI didn’t contribute at all. Personal politics to one side, there’s nothing baffling about that discrepancy.
hmm let us guess whether old el paso applies to all of the following
Whether their new-found enthusiasm for the Trump White House is a case of reluctant surrender, sincere endorsement, or a cynical grab for a seat in a nascent tech oligarchy, it appears to be paying off.
yeah no shit
For CEOs of the tech giants, a preference for seeing Donald Trump in the White House rather than Joe Biden or anyone like him, is a canny business decision, and an obvious one at that. The Biden Administration made a point …
how fucking naive can yous be
It’s not clear yet exactly how Donald Trump will handle the task of tech regulation, but early indications suggest a lighter touch, to say the least.
oh yeah “regulation” that’s right this is the extremists who were campaigning all the way for deregulation, and yous keep talking about regulation, fuck
hey remember when every joker and their deity were terrified of 爱 and everyone was screaming for a moratorium or something well nice one good luck with that though you’re right there will be regulation, it’ll be “if it doesn’t spew out right wing extremism and hate then it should be killed” yeah
exactly right,
as yous can see, Pakistanis have
been Nazis for thousands of years
kii said:
Possibly the wrong thread.
kii said:
Old white man doesn’t like being told that he can’t be a shitty person. Alabama.Lololol 😆
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Old white man doesn’t like being told that he can’t be a shitty person. Alabama.
Lololol 😆
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Old white man doesn’t like being told that he can’t be a shitty person. Alabama.
Lololol 😆
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
Heh!
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Old white man doesn’t like being told that he can’t be a shitty person. Alabama.
Lololol 😆
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
¿ref
furious said:
dv said:
Michael V said:I’ve not hear of that before. Thanks.
I had a similar thing done to me at a conference. During the question and answer 10 minute segment after I presented my paper, I got about 20 long and complex questions in a row without being allowed to address them individually. It was orchestrated. It was devastating.
By one person?
Ha!
:)
Reverend Budde, the bishop pissing trump off, was involved in the internment of Matthew Shepard.
“For 20 years he had no permanent resting place due to concerns his grave would be vandalized, and when Reverend Budde learned of this, she invited the Shepards to inter him inside the Washington National Cathedral. She co-officiated the service which stated that Matthew was now and forever home in the church where he was loved.”
His death broke my heart.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
¿ref
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
¿ref
I’ve met a few of them.
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
¿ref
Proving you are not a robot to a robot…. Classic bot behaviour.
Arts said:
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:¿ref
Proving you are not a robot to a robot…. Classic bot behaviour.
I was assimilated. resistance was futile.
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship
——-
ummmm…
sarahs mum said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship———
ummmm…
don’t worry Australia can go back there before 1984 as well
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship———
ummmm…
don’t worry Australia can go back there before 1984 as well
Can Trump declare Terra Nullius this late in the game
kii said:
Reverend Budde, the bishop pissing trump off, was involved in the internment of Matthew Shepard.“For 20 years he had no permanent resting place due to concerns his grave would be vandalized, and when Reverend Budde learned of this, she invited the Shepards to inter him inside the Washington National Cathedral. She co-officiated the service which stated that Matthew was now and forever home in the church where he was loved.”
His death broke my heart.
I had not heard of Matthew Shepard.
Heck!
sarahs mum said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship——-
ummmm…
FMD!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15q4ZhjSCy/
Cymek said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15q4ZhjSCy/
There’s some weird AI going on in there.
Michael V said:
Cymek said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15q4ZhjSCy/
There’s some weird AI going on in there.
Yes
kii said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
The comments are mostly paranoid make-it-up MAGAs supporting the father 150%.
Blood awful.
we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
the bottom half.
Sorry if this has already been brought up – but has Trump indicated at any point that now he’s president, all those boxes of classified documents can come back to the White House from Mar-A-Lago?
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
the bottom half.
a Banach half
ChrispenEvan said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
the bottom half.
the bit with the arseholes
Neophyte said:
Sorry if this has already been brought up – but has Trump indicated at any point that now he’s president, all those boxes of classified documents can come back to the White House from Mar-A-Lago?
The boxes were reclaimed by the FBI many moons ago
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:we’re going to bet you a Forum meet up that half of them aren’t actually humans at all
I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
The right half, obviously.
kii said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:I already know that half of the forum aren’t human.
But do you know which half?
The right half, obviously.
paralytic, a stroke of genius
sarahs mum said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
The Trump admin is leaning on a pre-14th Amendment law in its fight to redefine birthright citizenship——-
ummmm…
Some of the things I’ve seen here and in the news about the presidential proclamations are reminiscent of those
“Sovereign Citizens” who represent themselves in court with stuff they really haven’t understood during their internet reading.
Heather Cox Richardson
3m ·
January 23, 2025 (Thursday)
Last night, in an interview with host Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, President Donald Trump tried to explain away his blanket pardons for the January 6 rioters, calling the instances of violence against police officers “very minor incidents.”
In fact, as Brett Samuels of The Hill reported, about 600 of the rioters were accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers, and ten were convicted of sedition.
Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News explained that rioters wounded more than 140 officers with “firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive ‘Trump’ billboard, ‘Trump’ flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.”
Three federal judges have weighed in on the pardons after Trump’s appointees in the Department of Justice ordered them to dismiss pending cases against current January 6 defendants, an order that, as David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo noted, “flies in the face of decades of DOJ independence.”
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly summed up the judges’ outrage when she wrote: “Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions, and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021. What occurred that day is preserved for the future through thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions analyzing and recounting the evidence through a neutral lens. Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies.”
The leaders of two key paramilitary gangs who participated in the January 6 violence, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, are not helping Trump to put the pardons behind him. Now out of prison rather than serving his 22-year sentence, Tarrio called in to conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars within hours of his release to claim that he still commands the gang and that he plans retribution for those who put him behind bars. Tess Owen of WIRED reported that the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which monitors online activity, saw a surge among Proud Boys’ channels after the pardons, as members discussed ways to advance Trump’s agenda.
Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison, also wants revenge. On Wednesday, he was at the U.S. Capitol, where Michael Kunzelman and Lisa Mascaro of the Associated Press reported he met with at least one lawmaker and chatted with others.
Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian reported tonight that those January 6 rioters Trump pardoned are already talking about running for office. Mahtesian notes that in primaries where candidates need to prove they are truly MAGA, those who served time in prison for Trump will have sterling credentials.
Kunzelman and Mascaro also noted that, in an apparent attempt to divert attention from the pardons back to Trump’s contention that the bipartisan January 6 committee had been biased against him, on the same day that Rhodes was at the Capitol, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) revived a special committee to retrace the steps of the House committee that investigated the riot.
But that didn’t go terribly well, as Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post today reported an exclusive story revealing that last June an aide to Johnson advised the committee not to subpoena White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson out of concern that if it did, the sexually explicit texts Republican lawmakers had sent her might come to light. According to Alemany, “multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of ‘sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors’ with Hutchinson.” Instead, the committee accused former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) of talking to Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s lawyer present. Cheney called the report “defamatory” and a “malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”
Apparently undaunted, Trump today issued pardons for nearly two dozen antiabortion activists convicted of violating the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, which the civil rights division of the Department of Justice explains “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.” Trump, who is due to speak tomorrow by video with the annual antiabortion March for Life, said it was a “great honor” to pardon the protesters.
Still, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico reported that one antiabortion activist, who wanted to remain anonymous because she fears retaliation from the administration, wondered why Trump hadn’t pardoned the antiabortion activists on Monday, as he did the January 6 rioters. “These pardons are fully in line with Trump’s agenda to oppose the weaponization of the government,” she told Ollstein. “So why he couldn’t have pardoned them along with the 1,500 on Day 1 is beyond me.”
It seems that for Trump and his extremist supporters, the federal government—which reflects the will of the majority—has been “weaponized” against a political minority that seeks to control the country.
To gain that control, Trump has assured his followers that the country is literally under attack and that the United States, which has the strongest military and the strongest economy in the world, is losing. On Monday, Trump—who persuaded congressional Republicans to kill a strong bipartisan measure to tighten the border and fund immigration courts so asylum-seekers could have quick hearings—declared that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States, although border crossings are lower now than they were at the end of his first administration. The order asked the heads of the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security to consider whether it was necessary to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy the military to suppress domestic insurrection.
Yesterday, acting secretary of defense Robert Salesses told reporters that the Department of Defense has ordered 1,500 active-duty military personnel along with air support and intelligence assets to the southern border of the United States, joining 2,500 active-duty military personnel already there, and that the military will provide flights for deportations led by the Department of Homeland Security. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump is directing “the Department of Defense to make homeland security a core mission of the agency.”
Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart of Reuters report that there have been informal discussions in the department about sending as many as 10,000 troops to the border, a discussion that raises the question of whether Mexico would feel obliged to respond in kind. And, according to Meg Kelly, Alex Horton, and Missy Ryan of the Washington Post, the Trump administration is trying to get rid of an office in the Pentagon that works to protect civilians in battlefield operations. The Civilian Protection Center of Excellence is housed within the Department of the Army and works to help the military limit unintended civilian deaths.
And yet the idea of using a strong military to defend America apparently does not extend to its leadership. Tara Copp of the Associated Press reported that Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth, who has a history of financial mismanagement, alcohol abuse, and allegations of sexual assault, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he paid a woman $50,000 as part of a confidentiality agreement to maintain her silence after she accused him of sexual assault.
Today, both Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said they could not support Hegseth’s nomination. They were the only two Republicans who refused to vote in favor of his nomination advancing to the full Senate today.
But they are not the only ones standing against Trump’s attempt to overturn traditional American values.
Today, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s executive order that sought to end the birthright citizenship established in 1868 by the Fourteenth Amendment. Twenty-two states and two cities, as well as other parties, have sued over the executive order. Coughenour was responding to a suit brought by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington.
Coughenour, who was appointed to the bench by Republican president Ronald Reagan in 1981, told Trump’s Department of Justice attorneys, “I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.” When the lawyers told him they maintained the order was constitutional, Coughenour was aghast. “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar can state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind. Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?”
Coughenour blocked the order until February 6, when he will hold a hearing to consider a preliminary injunction.
And after Trump announced he would withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday announced that his philanthropic foundation will cover the financial contribution the U.S. will not. According to Zack Budryk of The Hill, it will also provide the agreement’s reporting requirements for emissions associated with climate change.
“hilanthropy’s role in driving local, state, and private sector action is more crucial than ever—and we’re committed to leading the way,” Bloomberg said.
Finally, tonight, firefighters have begun to control the fires in Southern California. As of this evening, the Hughes fire is 36% contained, the Laguna fire is no longer expanding, the Palisades fire is 75% contained, and the Eaton fire is 95% contained. New fires have broken out, but rain is forecast for the weekend.
sarahs mum said:
Finally, tonight, firefighters have begun to control the fires in Southern California. As of this evening, the Hughes fire is 36% contained, the Laguna fire is no longer expanding, the Palisades fire is 75% contained, and the Eaton fire is 95% contained. New fires have broken out, but rain is forecast for the weekend.
see how great the new Fuhrer is
ChrispenEvan said:
Ha!
ChrispenEvan said:
I’m sorry, I had to check that. It’s true. They do dress like that.
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.
…all medical research.
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Does he somehow imagine that, if he stops the government spending money on such things, he’ll be able to, in some way, divert the funds to his personal fortune?
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Gosh.
He’s become quite the wrecker, fully empowered and experienced as he is (they are). The groups behind him knew they had to do stuff fast this time. Agenda 2025 and Project 47, etc.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Does he somehow imagine that, if he stops the government spending money on such things, he’ll be able to, in some way, divert the funds to his personal fortune?
Possibly. I can’t speak for those motives, but I do see a very large streak of mean-spiritedness.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Gosh.
He’s become quite the wrecker, fully empowered and experienced as he is (they are). The groups behind him knew they had to do stuff fast this time. Agenda 2025 and Project 47, etc.
Not to mention Order 66…
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Does he somehow imagine that, if he stops the government spending money on such things, he’ll be able to, in some way, divert the funds to his personal fortune?
Possibly. I can’t speak for those motives, but I do see a very large streak of mean-spiritedness.
Cut spending, to enable more tax cuts for the rich…
furious said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Gosh.
He’s become quite the wrecker, fully empowered and experienced as he is (they are). The groups behind him knew they had to do stuff fast this time. Agenda 2025 and Project 47, etc.
Not to mention Order 66…
The Bad Batch will come after him
perhaps it is RFK.
ChrispenEvan said:
Melania’s way of signalling ‘hurry up and pop youe clogs. Look, i’ve already got the outfit’.
furious said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Gosh.
He’s become quite the wrecker, fully empowered and experienced as he is (they are). The groups behind him knew they had to do stuff fast this time. Agenda 2025 and Project 47, etc.
Not to mention Order 66…
Yeah, right…
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Melania’s way of signalling ‘hurry up and pop youe clogs. Look, i’ve already got the outfit’.
I wish.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Melania’s way of signalling ‘hurry up and pop youe clogs. Look, i’ve already got the outfit’.
I wish.
Perhaps with him fucking over so many people someone will try to kill him and succeed.
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Melania’s way of signalling ‘hurry up and pop youe clogs. Look, i’ve already got the outfit’.
I wish.
Perhaps with him fucking over so many people someone will try to kill him and succeed.
Maybe Vance will throw him into a reactor shaft…
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
President Convicted Criminal SmugFace can go freeze himself.
sarahs mum said:
perhaps it is RFK.
treat it with raw milk.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
As of today, it looks as though Donald Trump is in the process of freezing federally-funded cancer research in the United States,” says Chris Hayes.…all medical research.
Does he somehow imagine that, if he stops the government spending money on such things, he’ll be able to, in some way, divert the funds to his personal fortune?
It’s like when Umbridge took over Hogwarts
‘Tariffs Explained to MAGA by a Professional Importer/Exporter’
Youtube, 6 min 58 sec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwZT_nisxsQ
A remarkably intelligent, civilised, and polite example of the MAGA-fan-on-the-street style of video.
ChrispenEvan said:
:)
ChrispenEvan said:
I saw similar some time ago, where some Chinese kid was holding forth on Facebook about how China has every right to own the South ChinaSea.
An Australian responded, denyingthat this was the case, and stating that, one quite dodgy map aside, China had no right at all.
The Chinese kid demanded to know what qualified an Australian, of all people, to comment on the matter.
To which the Australian responded with evidence of his doctorate in maritime history, with a particular focus on the history and development of trade and immigration in the western pacific.
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
I saw similar some time ago, where some Chinese kid was holding forth on Facebook about how China has every right to own the South ChinaSea.
An Australian responded, denyingthat this was the case, and stating that, one quite dodgy map aside, China had no right at all.
The Chinese kid demanded to know what qualified an Australian, of all people, to comment on the matter.
To which the Australian responded with evidence of his doctorate in maritime history, with a particular focus on the history and development of trade and immigration in the western pacific.
Yeah, I do that sometimes.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
I saw similar some time ago, where some Chinese kid was holding forth on Facebook about how China has every right to own the South ChinaSea.
An Australian responded, denyingthat this was the case, and stating that, one quite dodgy map aside, China had no right at all.
The Chinese kid demanded to know what qualified an Australian, of all people, to comment on the matter.
To which the Australian responded with evidence of his doctorate in maritime history, with a particular focus on the history and development of trade and immigration in the western pacific.
Yeah, I do that sometimes.
What field your quals?
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
I saw similar some time ago, where some Chinese kid was holding forth on Facebook about how China has every right to own the South ChinaSea.
An Australian responded, denyingthat this was the case, and stating that, one quite dodgy map aside, China had no right at all.
The Chinese kid demanded to know what qualified an Australian, of all people, to comment on the matter.
To which the Australian responded with evidence of his doctorate in maritime history, with a particular focus on the history and development of trade and immigration in the western pacific.
:)
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:I saw similar some time ago, where some Chinese kid was holding forth on Facebook about how China has every right to own the South ChinaSea.
An Australian responded, denyingthat this was the case, and stating that, one quite dodgy map aside, China had no right at all.
The Chinese kid demanded to know what qualified an Australian, of all people, to comment on the matter.
To which the Australian responded with evidence of his doctorate in maritime history, with a particular focus on the history and development of trade and immigration in the western pacific.
Yeah, I do that sometimes.
What field your quals?
Propositioning Chinese youths.
totally not captured
A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped by her station one day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his straight-arm gesture that many have likened to a Nazi salute. Staffers at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted by email on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 website by Wednesday afternoon. “Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “A search for a replacement is underway.”
apparently some billionaires are less our souls than others
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250123-bloomberg-us-climate-paris-agreement
they say he did it last time too
SCIENCE said:
apparently some billionaires are less our souls than others
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250123-bloomberg-us-climate-paris-agreement
they say he did it last time too
in contrast
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
SCIENCE said:
totally not captured
A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped by her station one day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his straight-arm gesture that many have likened to a Nazi salute. Staffers at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted by email on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 website by Wednesday afternoon. “Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “A search for a replacement is underway.”
Bloody!
AussieDJ said:
:)
The Rev Dodgson said:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Nice one.
kii said:
Yeah.
Strange how someone can be the richest person on Earth and still be utterly worthless at the same time.
There’s a special kind of madness in America these days—a high-octane, batshit insanity powered by MAGA hats, grievance, and cheap vodka. And at the epicenter of this lunacy, like a lightning rod attracting the worst our country has to offer, stands Michael Fanone, the former cop who dared to call Donald Trump an authoritarian to his face. For his trouble, Fanone was beaten nearly to death with a flagpole on January 6, 2021, only to watch as Trump’s cultists were welcomed back into polite society with open arms, presidential pardons, and the smug satisfaction of knowing their crimes had been wiped clean by the stroke of a pen.
This is no ordinary story of political dysfunction. No, this is an obscene carnival of cowardice, starring a former president who should be pacing around a cell but instead plays golf and whines on Truth Social. The aftermath of January 6th has turned into a grotesque sitcom with a laugh track straight out of hell. And Fanone? He’s the guy left holding the flaming bag of shit—literally.
Before we get to the pardons, let’s talk about Fanone’s mom. A 78-year-old woman minding her own business in Virginia became the target of a campaign of terror so vile it would make your stomach turn. First, some jackass decided to swat her house. For those unfamiliar, swatting is when some anonymous coward calls the cops and pretends there’s an active shooter, sending armed officers to storm the home of some unsuspecting victim. In this case, the victim was an elderly woman whose only crime was giving birth to a man who helped fight off a mob of Trump’s supporters.
But the lunatics weren’t done. Someone else threw a brick at the window of her home. Then, while she was raking leaves in her front yard, another gutless wonder drove by and chucked a bag of excrement at her. A bag of excrement. Let that sink in. Somewhere out there, a person woke up one morning, decided to take a dump, put it in a bag, and hurl it at an old lady. If there’s a clearer metaphor for the state of Trumpism, I’ve yet to see it.
But the real obscenity, the pièce de résistance of this farce, is Trump’s pardons. One by one, the cretins who beat Fanone and other officers senseless were granted get-out-of-jail-free cards, courtesy of the man who incited the riot in the first place. You’d think the assault of a police officer would be a red line even for Trump’s base, but no—these people weren’t just forgiven; they were celebrated. Heroes of the “patriot” movement. Martyrs to the cause of Make America Great Again.
Legally, those pardons mean Fanone and the other officers are no longer considered victims of crimes committed on January 6th. Think about that. The man was dragged into a mob, beaten unconscious, and suffered a heart attack while defending democracy—and now, thanks to Trump, the perpetrators’ crimes technically never happened. As if the blood spilled that day could just be swept under the rug like some embarrassing accident at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Fanone can’t even get a restraining order against the people who assaulted him. Why? Because under the law, they’re no longer criminals. A restraining order requires evidence of ongoing harassment or threats, and thanks to Trump’s golden ticket of clemency, these goons can walk around with their heads held high, free to harass, intimidate, or worse, without any consequence.
Oh, and if Fanone wanted to file a restraining order, he’d need their addresses, which are conveniently protected. So he’s stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare where the system that should protect him has been gutted, leaving him exposed to the whims of the very people who tried to kill him.
The real tragedy here isn’t just what happened to Fanone or his mother. It’s what the pardons signify: the triumph of cruelty as a political weapon. Trump has turned victimhood into a brand and grievance into a business model. His pardons are less about mercy and more about sticking it to his enemies. By erasing the crimes of January 6th, he sends a message: “If you’re loyal to me, you can do whatever the hell you want.”
The consequences of this are staggering. It’s not just about Fanone or the other officers who were attacked—it’s about the collapse of accountability. We’re living in a country where the law bends to the whims of a man who treats the presidency like his personal revenge fantasy.
Michael Fanone is a hero, but he’s also a man fighting a losing battle against a system that has failed him at every turn. His mother, an innocent bystander, has been dragged into the fray, humiliated and harassed by people too cowardly to face him directly. And the man who made all this possible is golfing in Florida, grinning like a Cheshire cat while his pardoned goons roam free.
This isn’t just a story about political dysfunction. It’s a goddamn horror show—a cautionary tale about what happens when cruelty and cowardice become virtues, and the people who stand up for what’s right are left to fend for themselves in a country that’s lost its soul.
sarahs mum, have you seen the stuff that’s happening to a cake shop in Texas?
Hive Bakery
The back story of the owner’s parents is surreal.
kii said:
sarahs mum, have you seen the stuff that’s happening to a cake shop in Texas?
Hive Bakery
The back story of the owner’s parents is surreal.
no. i haven’t.
“Pete Hegseth has narrowly secured enough votes to become the next US defense secretary after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nomination.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-25/us-politics-live-updates-donald-trump-second-term/104859052
FMD
“Donald Trump ends security deal for Anthony Fauci, says he’d feel no responsibility if harm befell him”
“When asked about Dr Fauci and former national security adviser John Bolton, Mr Trump said, “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security, too.”“
—————————————————-
Perhaps Trump ought to hire his own security, too.
The retributions by the mean-spirited arsehole have now started.
This is so wrong in so many ways.
Michael V said:
“Donald Trump ends security deal for Anthony Fauci, says he’d feel no responsibility if harm befell him”“When asked about Dr Fauci and former national security adviser John Bolton, Mr Trump said, “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security, too.”“
—————————————————-
Perhaps Trump ought to hire his own security, too.The retributions by the mean-spirited arsehole have now started.
This is so wrong in so many ways.
I imagine they’ll move to the EU and claim asylum.
sarahs mum said:
Legally, those pardons mean Fanone and the other officers are no longer considered victims of crimes committed on January 6th. Think about that. The man was dragged into a mob, beaten unconscious, and suffered a heart attack while defending democracy—and now, thanks to Trump, the perpetrators’ crimes technically never happened. As if the blood spilled that day could just be swept under the rug like some embarrassing accident at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Fanone can’t even get a restraining order against the people who assaulted him. Why? Because under the law, they’re no longer criminals. A restraining order requires evidence of ongoing harassment or threats, and thanks to Trump’s golden ticket of clemency, these goons can walk around with their heads held high, free to harass, intimidate, or worse, without any consequence.
I’ve cut most of the quote out sm, to just leave the bit I am commenting on. I’m not sure this bit is right though. Someone here looked it up for me a few days ago, and apparently the pardon does not mean they are no longer criminals. Their verdicts stand and they have a record that they must declare when applying for jobs etc. So their crimes are not wiped out, their punishment is – if I am understanding it correctly.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Legally, those pardons mean Fanone and the other officers are no longer considered victims of crimes committed on January 6th. Think about that. The man was dragged into a mob, beaten unconscious, and suffered a heart attack while defending democracy—and now, thanks to Trump, the perpetrators’ crimes technically never happened. As if the blood spilled that day could just be swept under the rug like some embarrassing accident at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Fanone can’t even get a restraining order against the people who assaulted him. Why? Because under the law, they’re no longer criminals. A restraining order requires evidence of ongoing harassment or threats, and thanks to Trump’s golden ticket of clemency, these goons can walk around with their heads held high, free to harass, intimidate, or worse, without any consequence.
I’ve cut most of the quote out sm, to just leave the bit I am commenting on. I’m not sure this bit is right though. Someone here looked it up for me a few days ago, and apparently the pardon does not mean they are no longer criminals. Their verdicts stand and they have a record that they must declare when applying for jobs etc. So their crimes are not wiped out, their punishment is – if I am understanding it correctly.
I think some did have their convictions totally quashed; I think I heard that the BBC when I was half asleep. (could be wrong)
Finding out who was convicted of Fanone attack could solve it.
Greg: If not for vote suppression tactics, Kamala Harris would have won. Our buddy Greg Palast is with us. Who actually won or lost the 2024 presidential election? Greg, welcome back. I should mention you are a Guardian and New York Times reporter and author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Thom: Your latest film is Vigilantes, Inc., and gregpalast.com is your website. Hey, Greg.
Greg: Hey, glad to be with you, Thom.
Thom: Thank you. So, who won or lost the election?
Greg: It’s real simple. If not for vote suppression tactics—that’s a fancy way of saying shafting people of color and young people out of their votes—Kamala Harris would have won by 3,565,000 votes. That’s the number of voters denied their right to vote because they were purged, challenged, or had their provisional ballots thrown out.
Let me give you some numbers. The reason I’ve waited to make this report is that I had to get the data from government agencies, particularly the Elections Assistance Commission. People don’t realize that I used to be a professor of statistics and a forensic economist. This is my specialty—numbers. I’ve done this work for attorneys general, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other agencies, even for federal courts.
According to the Elections Assistance Commission’s official numbers, 4,776,706 voters were wrongly purged from the rolls. I’m not making this up. We had experts from Microsoft and Amazon go through every purge name in two states—Georgia and Wisconsin. For example, in Georgia, we found 198,000 voters who were wrongly removed from the rolls. We even have their names and addresses. Overwhelmingly, these were voters of color.
In Wisconsin, nearly every voter removed by the purge was either a Black voter in Milwaukee or a student in Madison. And this year, we saw a new phenomenon: vigilante voter challenges. For the first time, individual voters could challenge others. For example, I could say, “Thom Hartmann doesn’t live in Portland; he shouldn’t be allowed to vote.”
By August, there were 317,000 challenges. The NAACP reported over 200,000 challenges in Georgia alone by Election Day.
We also had 2.12 million mail-in ballots rejected. This wouldn’t matter if it were random, but it’s not. According to a Washington state study, Black voters are 400% more likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected compared to white voters. Washington has the least voter suppression of any state.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found that mail-in or in-precinct ballot rejection rates are 900% higher for Black voters than for white voters. Over half a million votes were spoiled because machines couldn’t read them—again, disproportionately affecting voters of color.
We had 1.2 million provisional ballots rejected. People think, “Oh, I’ll fill out a provisional ballot.” But 43% of those were thrown out, according to the U.S. government. Provisional ballots are disproportionately given to Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Asian-American voters, who are 300% more likely to receive one than white voters.
Factoring in some double counting, the vote suppression rate was about 2.3%. Kamala Harris would have gained 3.565 million more votes, winning Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, with 286 electoral votes. These calculations are precise. Without voter suppression tactics, she would have won.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Legally, those pardons mean Fanone and the other officers are no longer considered victims of crimes committed on January 6th. Think about that. The man was dragged into a mob, beaten unconscious, and suffered a heart attack while defending democracy—and now, thanks to Trump, the perpetrators’ crimes technically never happened. As if the blood spilled that day could just be swept under the rug like some embarrassing accident at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Fanone can’t even get a restraining order against the people who assaulted him. Why? Because under the law, they’re no longer criminals. A restraining order requires evidence of ongoing harassment or threats, and thanks to Trump’s golden ticket of clemency, these goons can walk around with their heads held high, free to harass, intimidate, or worse, without any consequence.
I’ve cut most of the quote out sm, to just leave the bit I am commenting on. I’m not sure this bit is right though. Someone here looked it up for me a few days ago, and apparently the pardon does not mean they are no longer criminals. Their verdicts stand and they have a record that they must declare when applying for jobs etc. So their crimes are not wiped out, their punishment is – if I am understanding it correctly.
yes. I suppose. but the courts are not being particularly sympathetic to anti-trump causes.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Legally, those pardons mean Fanone and the other officers are no longer considered victims of crimes committed on January 6th. Think about that. The man was dragged into a mob, beaten unconscious, and suffered a heart attack while defending democracy—and now, thanks to Trump, the perpetrators’ crimes technically never happened. As if the blood spilled that day could just be swept under the rug like some embarrassing accident at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Fanone can’t even get a restraining order against the people who assaulted him. Why? Because under the law, they’re no longer criminals. A restraining order requires evidence of ongoing harassment or threats, and thanks to Trump’s golden ticket of clemency, these goons can walk around with their heads held high, free to harass, intimidate, or worse, without any consequence.
I’ve cut most of the quote out sm, to just leave the bit I am commenting on. I’m not sure this bit is right though. Someone here looked it up for me a few days ago, and apparently the pardon does not mean they are no longer criminals. Their verdicts stand and they have a record that they must declare when applying for jobs etc. So their crimes are not wiped out, their punishment is – if I am understanding it correctly.
yes. I suppose. but the courts are not being particularly sympathetic to anti-trump causes.
Residual effects of convictions
A presidential pardon restores various rights lost as a result of the pardoned offense and may lessen to some extent the stigma arising from a conviction, but it does not erase or expunge the record of the conviction itself. Therefore, a person who is granted a pardon must still disclose any convictions on any form where such information is required although the person may also disclose the fact that a pardon was received. Also, as most civil disabilities arising from a criminal conviction, such as loss of the right to vote and hold state public office, are imposed by state rather than federal law, they may be removed only by state action.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_pardons_in_the_United_States#Residual_effects_of_convictions
ah well at least they’re totally not captured
kii said:
No, Donny, you can’t just have the planes land in Mexico, force the deportees out onto the runway, and then take off again.
You’ll have to first talk with the people who actually run Mexico, and get them to at least agree to a reasonable and responsible plan.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 24, 2025 (Friday)
“NUTS!”
That was the official answer Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe delivered to the four German soldiers sent on December 22, 1944, to urge him to surrender the town of Bastogne in the Belgian Ardennes.
In June 1944, on D-Day, the Allies had begun an invasion of northern Europe, and Allied soldiers had advanced against the German troops more quickly than anticipated. By December the Allied troops were stretched out along a 600-mile (1,000 km) front and were tired. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff decided to hold the most fatigued troops in the easily defended Ardennes region over the Christmas to let them rest. To reinforce them, they sent inexperienced troops. The Allies anticipated little trouble.
So they were surprised on December 16, 1944, when the Germans launched more than 400,000 personnel, more than 1,400 tanks and armored vehicles, 2,600 pieces of artillery, and more than 1,000 combat aircraft directly at a 75-mile (120 km) stretch of the front in the Ardennes in an offensive designed to punch through the Allied lines.
And thus began the Battle of the Bulge.
This German counteroffensive moved forward fast, creating the bulge that gave the battle its name. But the German advance hit bottlenecks at Bastogne and other places, while isolated soldiers defended important crossroads and burned gasoline stocks to keep them out of German tanks. On December 22, 1944, as Allied troops were reeling, German soldiers brought to McAuliffe a demand that he surrender Bastogne.
“The fortune of war is changing,” their missive read. “This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units…. There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town…. If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne.”
It was that request that prompted McAuliffe’s “NUTS!” Members of his staff were more colorful when they had to explain to their German counterparts what McAuliffe’s slang meant. “Tell them to take a flying sh*t,” one said. Another explained: “You can go to hell.”
By the time of this exchange, British forces had already swung around to stop the Germans, Eisenhower had rushed reinforcements to the region, and the Allies were counterattacking. On December 26, General George S. Patton’s Third Army relieved Bastogne. The Allied counter offensive forced back the bulge the Germans had pushed into the Allied lines. By January 25, 1945, the Allies had restored the front to where it had been before the attack and the battle was over.
The Battle of the Bulge was the deadliest battle for U.S. forces in World War II. More than 700,000 soldiers fought for the Allies during the 41-day battle. The U.S. alone suffered some 75,000 casualties that took the lives of 19,000 men. The Germans lost 80,000 to 100,000 soldiers, too many for them ever to recover.
The Allied soldiers fighting in that bitter cold winter were fighting against fascism, a system of government that rejected the equality that defined democracy, instead maintaining that some men were better than others. German fascists under leader Adolf Hitler had taken that ideology to its logical end, insisting that an elite few must lead, taking a nation forward by directing the actions of the rest. They organized the people as if they were at war, ruthlessly suppressing all opposition and directing the economy so that business and politicians worked together to consolidate their power. Logically, that select group of leaders would elevate a single man, who would become an all-powerful dictator. To weld their followers into an efficient machine, fascists demonized opponents into an “other” that their followers could hate, dividing their population so they could control it.
In contrast to that system was democracy, based on the idea that all people should be treated equally before the law and should have a say in their government. That philosophy maintained that the government should work for ordinary people, rather than an elite few. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inspired the American people to defend their democracy—however imperfectly they had constructed it in the years before the war—and when World War II was over, Americans and their allies tried to create a world that would forever secure democracy over fascism.
The 47 allied nations who had joined together to fight fascism came together in 1945, along with other nations, to create the United Nations to enable countries to solve their differences without war. In 1949 the United States, along with Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the U.K., created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a peacetime military alliance to stand firm against aggression, deterring it by declaring that an attack on one would be considered an attack on all.
At home, the government invested in ordinary Americans. In 1944, Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, more commonly known as the G.I. Bill, to fund higher education for some 7.8 million former military personnel. The law added to the American workforce some 450,000 engineers, 180,000 medical professionals, 360,000 teachers, 150,000 scientists, 243,000 accountants, 107,000 lawyers, and 36,000 clergymen.
In 1946 the Communicable Disease Center opened its doors as part of an initiative to stop the spread of malaria across the American South. Three years later, it had accomplished that goal and turned to others, combatting rabies and polio and, by 1960, influenza and tuberculosis, as well as smallpox, measles, and rubella. In the 1970s it was renamed the Center for Disease Control and took on the dangers of smoking and lead poisoning, and in the 1980s it became the Centers for Disease Control and took on AIDS and Lyme disease. In 1992, Congress added the words “and Prevention” to the organization’s title to show its inclusion of chronic diseases, workplace hazards, and so on.
Congress invested in the nation’s infrastructure with projects like the Interstate Highway System, funded by the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, which fueled the economy not just by providing jobs and tying together the states, but also by creating a market for new cars and for motels, diners, and gas stations along the new roads.
Americans also worked to put the racial segregation that had inspired Hitler behind them, using the federal government to level the playing field between white Americans, Black Americans, and people of color. As Chris Geidner wrote yesterday in Law Dork, that impulse had gained traction in 1941, when labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph told President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that Black Americans weren’t being hired at the factories working in defense industries. He urged Roosevelt to issue an executive order requiring that factories that received federal contracts must hire Black workers.
As Geidner recounts, a week later, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, saying it was “the policy of the United States “to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders.“
After the war, President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948, and as Black and Brown Americans claimed their right to be treated equally, Congress expanded recognition of those rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Shortly after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, translating FDR’s 1941 measure into the needs of the peacetime country. “It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.”
This democratic government was popular, but as the memory of the dangers of fascism faded, opponents began to insist that such a government was leading the United States to communism. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, along with the deregulation of business and cuts to the social safety net, began to concentrate wealth at the top of society. As wealth moved upward, lawmakers chipped away at the postwar government that defended democracy.
And now, since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday, the dismantling of that system is happening all at once.
The Guardian reported today that incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered a halt to almost all foreign aid, with the exception of military assistance to Israel and Egypt. The Guardian notes that this order is likely unlawful, since Congress sets the budget and in 1974 declared it illegal for the president to impound funds. Still, a source foresaw the end of the global influence the U.S. has had since World War II, telling The Guardian: “Freezing these international investments will lead our international partners to seek other funding partners—likely US competitors and adversaries—to fill this hole and displace the United States’ influence the longer this unlawful impoundment continues.”
As Peter Baker of the New York Times notes, new president Donald Trump is trying to break NATO by demanding that members increase military spending to 5% of their nations’ economies, although the U.S. currently spends about 3% of its GDP on defense. If we were to meet that requirement, Baker points out, the U.S. would have to increase its defense budget by $567 billion a year. Isabel van Brugen of Newsweek reports that an Italian news agency says that Trump intends to pull about 20,000 U.S. troops from Europe and wants Europe to pay to maintain the rest.
Trump has undertaken to dismantle the postwar democratic government at home, too. He has stopped the funding for repairing roads, bridges, airports, and ports that passed Congress in a bipartisan vote in 2022, as well as taken away funding for new solar manufacturing plants and other new systems to address climate change.
He has frozen all travel and communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” one researcher told Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Carolyn Y. Johnson, and Mark Johnson of the Washington Post. “This is like a meteor just crashed into all of our cancer centers and research areas.”
And, of course, Trump has declared a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In his revoking of LBJ’s Executive Order 11246, itself based on FDR’s Executive Order 8802, he explicitly rejected the principles for which the Americans fought in World War II.
January 25, 2025, marks eighty years since the end of the Battle of the Bulge.
The Germans never did take Bastogne.
sarahs mum said:
The Allied soldiers fighting in that bitter cold winter were fighting against fascism, a system of government that rejected the equality that defined democracy, instead maintaining that some men were better than others. German fascists under leader Adolf Hitler had taken that ideology to its logical end, insisting that an elite few must lead, taking a nation forward by directing the actions of the rest. They organized the people as if they were at war, ruthlessly suppressing all opposition and directing the economy so that business and politicians worked together to consolidate their power. Logically, that select group of leaders would elevate a single man, who would become an all-powerful dictator.
In contrast to that system was democracy, based on the idea that all people should be treated equally before the law and should have a say in their government. That philosophy maintained that the government should work for ordinary people, rather than an elite few. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inspired the American people to defend their democracy—however imperfectly they had constructed it in the years before the war—and when World War II was over, Americans and their allies tried to create a world that would forever secure democracy over fascism. “It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.” This democratic government was popular, but as the memory of the dangers of fascism faded, opponents began to insist that such a government was leading the United States to communism.
well, they were correct
if you take that ideology described as “democracy” above to its logical end, then you do indeed get communism
I’m going to limit myself to one US pol post per day and today it is to say: that Fox News host was confirmed as Secretary of Defence. It was a 50-50 vote with the tie broken by Vance (who, as VP, is president of the senate).
Three Republicans voted to oppose: Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins.
Why are you limiting yourself?
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
Because it’s all too distressing, is my guess.
buffy said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
Because it’s all too distressing, is my guess.
such baits
buffy said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
Because it’s all too distressing, is my guess.
Gotta learn the subtle art of not caring.
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
dv said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
I tend to assume the worst and avoid the US Politics thread, for the most part.
It’s bad shit over there but it’s not my problem and there’s nowt I can do about it.
dv said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
hey, it’s not all bad news.. I mean apparently eggs are so cheap now they are selling them by the dozen…
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
hey, it’s not all bad news.. I mean apparently eggs are so cheap now they are selling them by the dozen…
you gotta laff. you have bird flu. you kill off lots and lots of chooks. the price of eggs goes up. and it’s the democrats fault.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
hey, it’s not all bad news.. I mean apparently eggs are so cheap now they are selling them by the dozen…
you gotta laff. you have bird flu. you kill off lots and lots of chooks. the price of eggs goes up. and it’s the democrats fault.
Adams County Hit with Bird Flu at Commercial Turkey Farm | Hoosier Ag Today
dv said:
I’m going to limit myself to one US pol post per day and today it is to say: that Fox News host was confirmed as Secretary of Defence. It was a 50-50 vote with the tie broken by Vance (who, as VP, is president of the senate).Three Republicans voted to oppose: Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins.
I completely understand. Currently I am trying to find a balance between keeping myself informed and staying less stressed.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
I just found I was seeing dozens of worse-than-worse-case-scenario news items a day and posting about them here and I just figured … why? You all know it sucks. Am I just trying to contaminate my friends with a little bit of sadness? It’s simpler to just think of the worst thing, square it, and take it as read that that’s what happened.
hey, it’s not all bad news.. I mean apparently eggs are so cheap now they are selling them by the dozen…
you gotta laff. you have bird flu. you kill off lots and lots of chooks. the price of eggs goes up. and it’s the democrats fault.
well
who let it spread
SCIENCE said:
FMD
I have to laugh sometimes or I will scream.
Republicans in Congress have formed a new subcommittee to investigate the Jan 6 attack and erase “false narratives”. It is headed by Congressman Barry Loudermilk who gave many of the insurgents a guided tour of the Capitol in the days before the attack.
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
Doctors say DV’s best in small doses.
dv said:
Republicans in Congress have formed a new subcommittee to investigate the Jan 6 attack and erase “false narratives”. It is headed by Congressman Barry Loudermilk who gave many of the insurgents a guided tour of the Capitol in the days before the attack.
Fabulous.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Arts said:
Why are you limiting yourself?
Doctors say DV’s best in small doses.
unwilling to be whelmed.
America’s collective IQ has now fallen below negative.
77,302,580 people are seriously effected.
Worse than Covid.
LOL
Heather Cox Richardson
13m ·
January 25, 2025 (Saturday)
We have all earned a break for this week, but as some of you have heard me say, I write these letters with an eye to what a graduate student will need to know in 150 years. Two things from last night belong in the record of this time, not least because they illustrate President Donald Trump’s deliberate demonstration of dominance over Republican lawmakers.
Last night the Senate confirmed former Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth as the defense secretary of the United States of America. As Tom Bowman of NPR notes, since Congress created the position in 1947, in the wake of World War II, every person who has held it has come from a senior position in elected office, industry, or the military. Hegseth has been accused of financial mismanagement at the small nonprofits he directed, has demonstrated alcohol abuse, and paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement. He has experience primarily on the Fox News Channel, where his attacks on “woke” caught Trump’s eye.
The secretary of defense oversees an organization of almost 3 million people and a budget of more than $800 billion, as well as advising the president and working with both allies and rivals around the globe to prevent war. It should go without saying that a candidate like Hegseth could never have been nominated, let alone confirmed, under any other president. But Republicans caved, even on this most vital position for the American people’s safety.
The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker (R-MS), tried to spin Hegseth’s lack of relevant experience as a plus: “We must not underestimate the importance of having a top-shelf communicator as secretary of defense. Other than the president, no official plays a larger role in telling the men and women in uniform, the Congress and the public about the threats we face and the need for a peace-through-strength defense policy.”
Vice President J.D. Vance had to break a 50–50 tie to confirm Hegseth, as Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined all the Democrats and Independents in voting no. Hegseth was sworn in early this morning.
That timing mattered. As MSNBC host Rachel Maddow noted, as soon as Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), whose “yes” was secured only through an intense pressure campaign, had voted in favor, President Trump informed at least 15 independent inspectors general of U.S. government departments that they were fired, including, as David Nakamura, Lisa Rein, and Matt Viser of the Washington Post noted, those from “the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration.” Most were Trump’s own appointees from his first term, put in when he purged the inspectors general more gradually after his first impeachment.
Project 2025 called for the removal of the inspectors general. Just a week ago Ernst and her fellow Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley co-founded a bipartisan caucus—the Inspector General Caucus—to support those inspectors general. Grassley told Politico in November that he intends to defend the inspectors general.
Congress passed a law in 1978 to create inspectors general in 12 government departments. According to Jen Kirby, who explained inspectors general for Vox in 2020, a movement to combat waste in government had been building for a while, and the fraud and misuse of offices in the administration of President Richard M. Nixon made it clear that such protections were necessary. Essentially, inspectors general are watchdogs, keeping Congress informed of what’s going on within departments.
Kirby notes that when he took office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan promptly fired all the inspectors general, claiming he wanted to appoint his own people. Congress members of both parties pushed back, and Reagan rehired at least five of those he had fired. George H.W. Bush also tried to fire the inspectors general but backed down when Congress backed up their protests that they must be independent.
In 2008, Congress expanded the law by creating the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. By 2010 that council covered 68 offices.
During his first term, in the wake of his first impeachment, Trump fired at least five inspectors general he considered disloyal to him, and in 2022, Congress amended the law to require any president who sought to get rid of an inspector general to “communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer.” Congress called the law the “Securing Inspector General Independence Act of 2022.”
The chair of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, responded immediately to the information that Trump wanted to fire inspectors general. Ware recommended that Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor, who had sent the email firing the inspectors general, “reach out to White House Counsel to discuss your intended course of action. At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss” the inspectors general, because of the requirements of the 2022 law.
This evening, Nakamura, Rein, and Viser reported in the Washington Post that Democrats are outraged at the illegal firings and even some Republicans are expressing concern and have asked the White House for an explanation. For his part, Trump said, incorrectly, that firing inspectors general is “a very standard thing to do.” Several of the inspectors general Trump tried to fire are standing firm on the illegality of the order and plan to show up to work on Monday.
The framers of the Constitution designed impeachment to enable Congress to remove a chief executive who deliberately breaks the law, believing that the determination of senators to hold onto their own power would keep them from allowing a president to seize more than the Constitution had assigned him.
In Federalist No. 69, Alexander Hamilton tried to reassure those nervous about the centralization of power in the new Constitution that no man could ever become a dictator because unlike a king, “The President of the United States would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law.”
But the framers did not anticipate the rise of political parties. Partisanship would push politicians to put party over country and eventually would induce even senators to bow to a rogue president. MAGA Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming told the Fox News Channel today that he is unconcerned about Trump’s breaking the law written just two years ago. “Well, sometimes inspector generals don’t do the job that they are supposed to do. Some of them deserve to be fired, and the president is gonna make wise decisions on those.”
There is one more story you’ll be hearing more about from me going forward, but it is important enough to call out tonight because it indicates an important shift in American politics. In an Associated Press/NORC poll released yesterday, only 12% of those polled thought the president relying on billionaires for policy advice is a good thing. Even among Republicans, only 20% think it’s a good thing.
Since the very earliest days of the United States, class was a central lens through which Americans interpreted politics. And yet, in the 1960s, politicians began to focus on race and gender, and we talked very little about class. Now, with Trump embracing the world’s richest man, who invested more than $250 million in his election, and with Trump making it clear through the arrangement of the seating at his inauguration that he is elevating the interests of billionaires to the top of his agenda, class appears to be back on the table.
The Hive Bakery in Texas is coping huge amounts of viscous trolling.
One comment:
“I need to know the exact address of this hidden little gem.”
From Libs of TikTok, a far right nutcase who doesn’t know how the internet works
kii said:
The Hive Bakery in Texas is coping huge amounts of viscous trolling.
One comment:
“I need to know the exact address of this hidden little gem.”
From Libs of TikTok, a far right nutcase who doesn’t know how the internet works
LOL
Even brian-dead me got the address and phone number in about 15 seconds.
Michael V said:
kii said:
The Hive Bakery in Texas is coping huge amounts of viscous trolling.
One comment:
“I need to know the exact address of this hidden little gem.”
From Libs of TikTok, a far right nutcase who doesn’t know how the internet worksLOL
Even brian-dead me got the address and phone number in about 15 seconds.
The address is literally on the Facebook page and the website and …everywhere…plus photos of the shop front.
¿¿¿
Apparently ethnics in ethnic cleansing North America voted for ethnic cleansing.
Swear I thought this was a skit but no. Nope. She’s dead serious. Smh.
Has this been mentioned here today?
ABC News:
’Tens of thousands of Germans have rallied against the far-right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as US tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.
Mr Musk, speaking by video link on Saturday, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Mr Musk said.
AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling.’
I was prepared to consider that Musk’s gesture of recent days might, just might, have been a poorly-executed spontaneous thing, open to misinterpretation.
I now find my willingness to consider it so to be waning significantly.
captain_spalding said:
Has this been mentioned here today?ABC News:
’Tens of thousands of Germans have rallied against the far-right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as US tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.
Mr Musk, speaking by video link on Saturday, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Mr Musk said.
AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling.’
I was prepared to consider that Musk’s gesture of recent days might, just might, have been a poorly-executed spontaneous thing, open to misinterpretation.
I now find my willingness to consider it so to be waning significantly.
That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Michael V said:
That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
captain_spalding said:
Has this been mentioned here today?ABC News:
’Tens of thousands of Germans have rallied against the far-right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as US tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.
Mr Musk, speaking by video link on Saturday, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Mr Musk said.
AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling.’
I was prepared to consider that Musk’s gesture of recent days might, just might, have been a poorly-executed spontaneous thing, open to misinterpretation.
I now find my willingness to consider it so to be waning significantly.
Several times. And I think the same conclusion has been reached each time.
Remember Kristi Noem of dog killing fame?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Has this been mentioned here today?ABC News:
’Tens of thousands of Germans have rallied against the far-right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as US tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.
Mr Musk, speaking by video link on Saturday, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Mr Musk said.
AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling.’
I was prepared to consider that Musk’s gesture of recent days might, just might, have been a poorly-executed spontaneous thing, open to misinterpretation.
I now find my willingness to consider it so to be waning significantly.
Several times. And I think the same conclusion has been reached each time.
That’s me, the late Captain Spalding.
party_pants said:
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Si ce n’est pas vrai, alors c’est une invention heureuse.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Si ce n’est pas vrai, alors c’est une invention heureuse.
It seems to be the buzz on the economics and politics channels I follow. Musk is destroying his own brand. tesla is vastly overrated already and is just a tech bubble stock.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Read something today about him not getting an office near the oval office, as he wanted,, but in a building far from the white house.
kii said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Read something today about him not getting an office near the oval office, as he wanted,, but in a building far from the white house.
That would not surprise me one bit. Trump has used him to get elected. Now his immediate usefulness is over he is being ;pushed to the sidelines, The MAGA faithful loathe him already.
captain_spalding said:
Has this been mentioned here today?
ABC News:
’Tens of thousands of Germans have rallied against the far-right ahead of next month’s legislative elections, as US tech billionaire Elon Musk again endorsed the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party.
Mr Musk, speaking by video link on Saturday, told thousands of AfD supporters gathered in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Mr Musk said.
AfD supporters at the rally shouted their approval as party co-leader Alice Weidel looked on smiling.’
I was prepared to consider that Musk’s gesture of recent days might, just might, have been a poorly-executed spontaneous thing, open to misinterpretation.
I now find my willingness to consider it so to be waning significantly.
… he was supporting fascists before it happened so we’re not sure why it required a wait and see if he was supporting fascists after it happened to be convinced that he was supporting fascists at the time it happened …
kii said:
Remember Kristi Noem of dog killing fame?
what about it, surely this is an American tradition
party_pants said:
kii said:
party_pants said:
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Read something today about him not getting an office near the oval office, as he wanted,, but in a building far from the white house.
That would not surprise me one bit. Trump has used him to get elected. Now his immediate usefulness is over he is being ;pushed to the sidelines, The MAGA faithful loathe him already.
we appreciate the wishful thinking but we suspect there will be plenty more military industrial complexity to go yet
additionally maybe yous feel he won’t be elevated further in the USSA but oh wait that’s right this discussion was occurring because our souls are interfering in plenty of other cuntries and won’t stop until they run out of platform
Oooh seems we missed this hilarious one but any of yous remember¿
Rep. Ogles Proposes Amending the 22nd Amendment to Allow Trump to Serve a Third Term
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Read something today about him not getting an office near the oval office, as he wanted,, but in a building far from the white house.
That would not surprise me one bit. Trump has used him to get elected. Now his immediate usefulness is over he is being ;pushed to the sidelines, The MAGA faithful loathe him already.
we appreciate the wishful thinking but we suspect there will be plenty more military industrial complexity to go yet
additionally maybe yous feel he won’t be elevated further in the USSA but oh wait that’s right this discussion was occurring because our souls are interfering in plenty of other cuntries and won’t stop until they run out of platform
Right now, the military-industrial complex is the east of their worries. The tech bros and the Judeo-Gnostic-hybrid-Nationalists are the more real and present danger.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
Dunno.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
That would not surprise me one bit. Trump has used him to get elected. Now his immediate usefulness is over he is being ;pushed to the sidelines, The MAGA faithful loathe him already.
we appreciate the wishful thinking but we suspect there will be plenty more military industrial complexity to go yet
additionally maybe yous feel he won’t be elevated further in the USSA but oh wait that’s right this discussion was occurring because our souls are interfering in plenty of other cuntries and won’t stop until they run out of platform
Right now, the military-industrial complex is the east of their worries. The tech bros and the Judeo-Gnostic-hybrid-Nationalists are the more real and present danger.
+ l = least of their worries
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:That’s an almost identical sentiment to what I posted earlier. Except I am now completely convinced it was no mistake.
Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
It’d be nice.
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
we appreciate the wishful thinking but we suspect there will be plenty more military industrial complexity to go yet
additionally maybe yous feel he won’t be elevated further in the USSA but oh wait that’s right this discussion was occurring because our souls are interfering in plenty of other cuntries and won’t stop until they run out of platform
Right now, the military-industrial complex is the east of their worries. The tech bros and the Judeo-Gnostic-hybrid-Nationalists are the more real and present danger.
+ l = least of their worries
For the Americans you mean¿ Maybe. We’re thinking more of the effect on the rest of the world hence the concern that peak Musk in the USSA is by no means anywhere near the end for the rest of the world. The piece of shit also runs a bunch of companies that could totally be easily tooled to weapons production.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Do you reckon he’s been on the phone to Hugo Boss, asked them to dust off the old patterns, sent them his measurements?
I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
It’d be nice.
Well it’s not that hard to picture…
The Trump voters are climate change deniers, and the sort of people who buy ever larger 4WDs and utes that run on petrol or diesel, because medium size EV sedans are woke bullshit, and also unmasculine (under the new toxic definition of same). So they aren’t going to buy a Tesla any time soon.
The market tends to be mostly climate change believers who like to signal both their “doing my bit ot help out” and their wealth by purchasing a more expensive EV over a petrol car.
Those demographics fall on opposite sides to where Elon had positioned himself. Expect a consumer boycott on the one side, with no corresponding uptake from the other.
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
Right now, the military-industrial complex is the east of their worries. The tech bros and the Judeo-Gnostic-hybrid-Nationalists are the more real and present danger.
+ l = least of their worries
For the Americans you mean¿ Maybe. We’re thinking more of the effect on the rest of the world hence the concern that peak Musk in the USSA is by no means anywhere near the end for the rest of the world. The piece of shit also runs a bunch of companies that could totally be easily tooled to weapons production.
Quite the opposite. Peak Musk and consumer collapse will happen slowest in the US. In the EU for example will be within the next month.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
It’d be nice.
Well it’s not that hard to picture…
The Trump voters are climate change deniers, and the sort of people who buy ever larger 4WDs and utes that run on petrol or diesel, because medium size EV sedans are woke bullshit, and also unmasculine (under the new toxic definition of same). So they aren’t going to buy a Tesla any time soon.
The market tends to be mostly climate change believers who like to signal both their “doing my bit ot help out” and their wealth by purchasing a more expensive EV over a petrol car.
Those demographics fall on opposite sides to where Elon had positioned himself. Expect a consumer boycott on the one side, with no corresponding uptake from the other.
yep, I was thinking along those lines.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
Si ce n’est pas vrai, alors c’est une invention heureuse.
It seems to be the buzz on the economics and politics channels I follow. Musk is destroying his own brand. tesla is vastly overrated already and is just a tech bubble stock.
but he is on the govt space teat.
Boris said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:It’d be nice.
Well it’s not that hard to picture…
The Trump voters are climate change deniers, and the sort of people who buy ever larger 4WDs and utes that run on petrol or diesel, because medium size EV sedans are woke bullshit, and also unmasculine (under the new toxic definition of same). So they aren’t going to buy a Tesla any time soon.
The market tends to be mostly climate change believers who like to signal both their “doing my bit ot help out” and their wealth by purchasing a more expensive EV over a petrol car.
Those demographics fall on opposite sides to where Elon had positioned himself. Expect a consumer boycott on the one side, with no corresponding uptake from the other.
yep, I was thinking along those lines.
You guys forget he is positioning himself to get hundreds of billions of dollars from the next phase of usa space travel. Elon and trump will soon announce their plans to be the first on mars.
SpaceX will be a huge winner
Poor NASA
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Si ce n’est pas vrai, alors c’est une invention heureuse.
It seems to be the buzz on the economics and politics channels I follow. Musk is destroying his own brand. tesla is vastly overrated already and is just a tech bubble stock.
but he is on the govt space teat.
The government can always buy SpaceX.
Or Elon might be forced to sell it if X and Tesla both collapse. it will be the only asset he has left to clear his debts.
tauto said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Well it’s not that hard to picture…
The Trump voters are climate change deniers, and the sort of people who buy ever larger 4WDs and utes that run on petrol or diesel, because medium size EV sedans are woke bullshit, and also unmasculine (under the new toxic definition of same). So they aren’t going to buy a Tesla any time soon.
The market tends to be mostly climate change believers who like to signal both their “doing my bit ot help out” and their wealth by purchasing a more expensive EV over a petrol car.
Those demographics fall on opposite sides to where Elon had positioned himself. Expect a consumer boycott on the one side, with no corresponding uptake from the other.
yep, I was thinking along those lines.
You guys forget he is positioning himself to get hundreds of billions of dollars from the next phase of usa space travel. Elon and trump will soon announce their plans to be the first on mars.
SpaceX will be a huge winner
Poor NASA
Mars will never happen.
You guys forget he is positioning himself to get hundreds of billions of dollars from the next phase of usa space travel. Elon and trump will soon announce their plans to be the first on mars.
SpaceX will be a huge winner
Poor NASA
Mars will never happen.
Maybe, but not before elon has made 100s of billions.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
+ l = least of their worries
For the Americans you mean¿ Maybe. We’re thinking more of the effect on the rest of the world hence the concern that peak Musk in the USSA is by no means anywhere near the end for the rest of the world. The piece of shit also runs a bunch of companies that could totally be easily tooled to weapons production.
Quite the opposite. Peak Musk and consumer collapse will happen slowest in the US. In the EU for example will be within the next month.
so AfD will lose hard and Dutton will collapse and so forth
good
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
It seems to be the buzz on the economics and politics channels I follow. Musk is destroying his own brand. tesla is vastly overrated already and is just a tech bubble stock.
but he is on the govt space teat.
The government can always buy SpaceX.
Or Elon might be forced to sell it if X and Tesla both collapse. it will be the only asset he has left to clear his debts.
wait didn’t they just pump a bunch of bullshit cryptocurrencies
¿
oh right oh shit
This thread is getting close to Peak Woo.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:I reckon we have reached peak Elon, and his customer base is going to desert him. Big stock price tumbles coming up and a huge asset crash, but he will still be saddled with all his debts.
It’d be nice.
Well it’s not that hard to picture…
The Trump voters are climate change deniers, and the sort of people who buy ever larger 4WDs and utes that run on petrol or diesel, because medium size EV sedans are woke bullshit, and also unmasculine (under the new toxic definition of same). So they aren’t going to buy a Tesla any time soon.
The market tends to be mostly climate change believers who like to signal both their “doing my bit ot help out” and their wealth by purchasing a more expensive EV over a petrol car.
Those demographics fall on opposite sides to where Elon had positioned himself. Expect a consumer boycott on the one side, with no corresponding uptake from the other.
Fair enough.
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
For the Americans you mean¿ Maybe. We’re thinking more of the effect on the rest of the world hence the concern that peak Musk in the USSA is by no means anywhere near the end for the rest of the world. The piece of shit also runs a bunch of companies that could totally be easily tooled to weapons production.
Quite the opposite. Peak Musk and consumer collapse will happen slowest in the US. In the EU for example will be within the next month.
so AfD will lose hard and Dutton will collapse and so forth
good
It’d be nice. But we’ll see. I for one, will not be holding my breath.
Trump has shut down the civil rights division. The consequences of this should horrify us all.
Nice, this is exactly how
sanctions should be used¡
SCIENCE said:
Nice, this is exactly how
sanctions should be used¡
I wonder if there are USA people living in these South American countries who might now be in danger of being sent home.
SCIENCE said:
Nice, this is exactly how
sanctions should be used¡
I did wonder where DJT was planning to send all those millions of deportees and what would happen if the recipients said “no thanks”
AussieDJ said:
Trump has shut down the civil rights division. The consequences of this should horrify us all.
I seem to recall that the US once had a Congress, and a Senate.
They still around, and doing anything? Or is it just rule by decree these days?
Faaaaark!
JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams?
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see
Is in the hands of fools
You might also like
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams?
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Crying
Crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Crying
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams?Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be cryingBetween the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see
Is in the hands of fools
You might also likeThe wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams?Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Crying
Crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Crying
Here’s Don the Con arriving in California (from Jeff Tiedrichs’ column):
You can see the 30 second video here:
Donny tries his usual stupid ploy of tryingto yank the other person towards himself, so as to literally throw them off balance, and make it look like Donny is the boss.
Newsom easily deals with that, and actually yanks back. Then he gives Donny a finger pointing, and (i’d bet) gives him a finger-pointing warning to watch his damn fool mouth while he’s here in California.
captain_spalding said:
AussieDJ said:
Trump has shut down the civil rights division. The consequences of this should horrify us all.I seem to recall that the US once had a Congress, and a Senate.
They still around, and doing anything? Or is it just rule by decree these days?
Rhetorical question…
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
NatCon = USA NewNazi?
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
Well surely that’ll get up the noses of the conservative Republicans.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
Well surely that’ll get up the noses of the conservative Republicans.
I don’t think that many of them are Forumites.
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in court
In the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
dv said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in courtIn the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
When I read about this the other day, I couldn’t figure out what ‘Indians not taxed.’ meant.
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
pol pot said that didn’t he?
Karl K.
@Aimhere2000
Here’s one way this could play out.
1. Trump attempts to invade Greenland.
2. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, so it is part of NATO.
3. NATO Article 5 says all NATO countries are obligated to come to each other’s defense.
4. The USA is part of NATO, so is obligated to come to Greenland’s defense.
5. The US troops in Greenland are ordered to shoot themselves in the head.
Michael V said:
dv said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in courtIn the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
When I read about this the other day, I couldn’t figure out what ‘Indians not taxed.’ meant.
probably the literal meaning. Those who had come to some sort of treaty the the government which included being taxed, and those who were still living “in the wild” so to speak. But we’re talking 150 years ago and things have change a bit since then.
even if you are in danger of feeling whelmed DV I do think now is not the time to disengage from the news. now more than ever is the time to stay focussed on the history being made.
Also…fuck.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in courtIn the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
When I read about this the other day, I couldn’t figure out what ‘Indians not taxed.’ meant.
probably the literal meaning. Those who had come to some sort of treaty the the government which included being taxed, and those who were still living “in the wild” so to speak. But we’re talking 150 years ago and things have change a bit since then.
Isn’t there some taxation exemptions for enterprises on ‘Indian’ land/reservations/nations, which is why a number of Native American communities operate casinos on suich property, and use the proceeds as community funds?
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
4 things come to mind
Targeting intellectuals for hatred.
All part of the great dumbing down.
Reckless incitement without thinking.
What a stupid thing to say.
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
pol pot said that didn’t he?
Effectively. Then had most of them killed.
SCIENCE said:
Karl K.
@Aimhere2000
Here’s one way this could play out.
1. Trump attempts to invade Greenland.
2. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, so it is part of NATO.
3. NATO Article 5 says all NATO countries are obligated to come to each other’s defense.
4. The USA is part of NATO, so is obligated to come to Greenland’s defense.
5. The US troops in Greenland are ordered to shoot themselves in the head.
LOL
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:When I read about this the other day, I couldn’t figure out what ‘Indians not taxed.’ meant.
probably the literal meaning. Those who had come to some sort of treaty the the government which included being taxed, and those who were still living “in the wild” so to speak. But we’re talking 150 years ago and things have change a bit since then.
Isn’t there some taxation exemptions for enterprises on ‘Indian’ land/reservations/nations, which is why a number of Native American communities operate casinos on suich property, and use the proceeds as community funds?
As i understand it, it is a state vs federal thing. At the time the reservation treaties were made the land was a Federally administered territory and not a state yet. When they became a state some of the treaty provisions carried over and the reservations are exempt from certain state laws and taxes. Hence the gambling loopholes and stuff.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in courtIn the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
When I read about this the other day, I couldn’t figure out what ‘Indians not taxed.’ meant.
probably the literal meaning. Those who had come to some sort of treaty the the government which included being taxed, and those who were still living “in the wild” so to speak. But we’re talking 150 years ago and things have change a bit since then.
I see. Thanks.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!
JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
pol pot said that didn’t he?
Effectively. Then had most of them killed.
yeah we were reminded of that
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
pol pot said that didn’t he?
Effectively. Then had most of them killed.
yeah we were reminded of that
Canada could take advantage, and recruit a lot of clever people at discount rates.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
Effectively. Then had most of them killed.
yeah we were reminded of that
Canada could take advantage, and recruit a lot of clever people at discount rates.
Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:yeah we were reminded of that
Canada could take advantage, and recruit a lot of clever people at discount rates.
Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
his “conscience is clear” but acknowledged that mistakes were made and told Thayer that “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country”. He also rejected the idea that millions had died saying “To say that millions died is too much” and that “You know, for the other people, the babies, the young ones, I did not order them to be killed”
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
yeah we were reminded of that
Canada could take advantage, and recruit a lot of clever people at discount rates.
Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
reminds us of this
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-15/sa-health-targets-uk-doctors-amid-nhs-strike/102482114
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Canada could take advantage, and recruit a lot of clever people at discount rates.
Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
He’s been in this china shop before.
SCIENCE said:
his “conscience is clear” but acknowledged that mistakes were made and told Thayer that “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country”. He also rejected the idea that millions had died saying “To say that millions died is too much” and that “You know, for the other people, the babies, the young ones, I did not order them to be killed”
Free rein to commit genocide is just that.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
He’s been in this china shop before.
they think they already own us.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Ha!
And all the other countries Dunny wants to pick a fight with, too, I suppose.
I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
He’s been in this china shop before.
No bull!
That’s why he’s doing it all quickly. See Project 2025 and Agenda 47. His mistake in his first term was to do stuff way too slowly, according to the mobs behind the project and agenda.
Michael V said:
agenda? Didn’t he say there are only two genders.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
He’s been in this china shop before.
No bull!
That’s why he’s doing it all quickly. See Project 2025 and Agenda 47. His mistake in his first term was to do stuff way too slowly, according to the mobs behind the project and agenda.
sarahs mum said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:I just hope he doesn’t want to pick a fight with us. he might find the average Australian to be a little less polite than the average Canadian.
He’s been in this china shop before.
they think they already own us.
Well, they’re wrong.
Gina owns us.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Peak Warming Man said:He’s been in this china shop before.
they think they already own us.
Well, they’re wrong.
Gina owns us.
she’s one of them now.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
Well surely that’ll get up the noses of the conservative Republicans.
I don’t think that many of them are Forumites.
Heh. That’d be none I’d reckon.
dv said:
“Excluding Indians”: Trump admin questions Native Americans’ birthright citizenship in courtIn the Trump administration’s arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States under the 14th Amendment, citing 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States,” the filing reads.
The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language — the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — is best understood “to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act —i.e., those who are ‘subject to any foreign power’ and ‘Indians not taxed.’”
The Justice Department attorneys return to the topic of whether or not Native Americans should be entitled to birthright citizenship later in their arguments, citing a Supreme Court case, Elk v. Wilkins, in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued
——
https://www.yahoo.com/news/excluding-indians-trump-admin-questions-164312466.html
The dark ages are back.
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Uhh…
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Sounds a lot like Nazi occupiers.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Gosh this sounds awfully familiar….
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Gosh this sounds awfully familiar….
I think we need an overseas recruitment drive in the US for high demand occupations like medicine and science.
Get a few takers I reckon.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Australia Card 2.0…?
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Gosh this sounds awfully familiar….
Operation Fortitude, Melbourne 2015.
Boris said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
But under that visage…
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Bloody!
I wonder whether that’ll help the native Americans, now they are not considered birth-right citizens again.
I’ll add to that:
“Mayor accuses ICE of detaining vet, U.S. citizens in N.J. immigration raid”
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/24/ice-raid-newark-new-jersey-immigration-us-citizens
Oh, ICE stands for “Immigration and Customs Enforcement”. It took quite a while to find out, because everybody seems to use ICE without explanation, seeming expecting everybody else to know.
Boris said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Gosh this sounds awfully familiar….
It’s like being a Palestinian in Palestine. No card = jail or death. The Israelis learnt well off the Nazis.
Arts said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Told you I look normal.
Arts said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Two weeks…
Boris said:
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Gosh this sounds awfully familiar….
Operation Fortitude, Melbourne 2015.
ah yes
Commissioner Quaedvlieg
Mr Pezzullo
well thank fuck those are two names we never heard of ever again
wait
oh shit
party_pants said:
I think we need an overseas recruitment drive in the US for high demand occupations like medicine and science.
Get a few takers I reckon.
reminds us of this
Maybe the ICE are deliberately doing a bad job so that the public backlash forces a policy backdown. They should make sure they target the MAGAs and round them up in all this, just to give them a taste of what they voted for.
party_pants said:
I think we need an overseas recruitment drive in the US for high demand occupations like medicine and science.Get a few takers I reckon.
Professor of anything, too, now Vance says they are the enemy (quoting Nixon The Angel).
Boris said:
Arts said:
Boris said:
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Told you I look normal.
curved a bit like a belle, we like that
Boris said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:There’ll be at least a couple on this side of the Pacific, taking notes.
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe never, but, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster in the US, they’ll try it.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
captain_spalding said:
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe
Bull, yous all know that all it takes is for them to start a war and boom that long time is measured in instants.
Michael V said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Most of our illegal immigrants are Poms and Irish who overstay their visas. They blend in and look the same as everyone else, so they are difficult to spot from a racial profiling approach.
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
It may be a long time until they can implement such things here, or maybe
Bull, yous all know that all it takes is for them to start a war and boom that long time is measured in instants.
There’s quite a few of those them people who are itching the finger on the trigger.
party_pants said:
Maybe the ICE are deliberately doing a bad job so that the public backlash forces a policy backdown. They should make sure they target the MAGAs and round them up in all this, just to give them a taste of what they voted for.
I like this MAGA round-up notion.
Won’t happen.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
nfi
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
I was more an Alderman type bowler, swing. Not bad for the grade I played.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Native Americans have been advised to carry their tribal ID cards at all times. Some Navajo have been caught up in ICE raids.
Yay, ID cards now so you don’t “accidentally” get arrested and deported.
Without me Googling it, I think it’s more to do with certain privileges. Like the man I met who could receive the carcass of an eagle to use the feathers etc. Non-indigenous people are not authorized to us certain animal remains. That might just be in this area.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
Arts said:
Boris said:
I’ve managed to avoid deportation for 55 years because I look so normal.
Told you I look normal.
curved a bit like a belle, we like that
You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
Just another normal looking bowl.
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
I was more an Alderman type bowler, swing. Not bad for the grade I played.
Good to know.
My shoulder doesn’t work so well. Thus my balls are slow and loopy. Confuses many but gets hit over te fence by those aggressive bats-men-persons.
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:You put up an image of yourself the other day. I expect you are a Merv Hughes sibling.
But can he bowl as well?
I was more an Alderman type bowler, swing. Not bad for the grade I played.
So are you a Hughes sibling?
Michael V said:
The lunacy begins.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:The lunacy begins.
Begins? Have you not been paying attention?
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:The lunacy begins.
Begins? Have you not been paying attention?
Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Faaaaark!JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:
“The professors are the enemy.”
NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
And you got all that from a single cherry-picked few second snip of unknown context. Science is being attacked from all directions, not least here.
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
PermeateFree said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
And you got all that from a single cherry-picked few second snip of unknown context. Science is being attacked from all directions, not least here.
Good afternoon, PF. How are you today?
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:The lunacy begins.
Begins? Have you not been paying attention?
Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Hence the toey comment.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:Begins? Have you not been paying attention?
Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Hence the toey comment.
I see now
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Trump does seem to have imagined that he could just send the planes, that they would land, shove the people out throught the door/tail ramp/whatever, then the planes come home again, and no-one would say ‘boo’ about it.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
Like Trump did, with Ukraine and Russia, in 24 hours.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
Like Trump did, with Ukraine and Russia, in 24 hours.
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Arse.
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
It is looking like an implosion.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:The lunacy begins.
Begins? Have you not been paying attention?
so it ends
Don’t take my word for it, there’s a lot of info about it around the place.
PermeateFree said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:NatCon = USA NewNazi?
‘Conservative’ used to mean ‘let’s not make too many big changes too rapidly, keep things much as they are, and advance by increments’.
It now, apparently, means ‘we’re throwing everything into reverse, opening the throttles, and the next stop is the Dark Ages!”.
And you got all that from a single cherry-picked few second snip of unknown context. Science is being attacked from all directions, not least here.
fuck off we’re only being attacked by felon fanbullies
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
well go on then
Michael V said:
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
头
captain_spalding said:
Don’t take my word for it, there’s a lot of info about it around the place.
but as long as the economies of the other shit hole cuntries goes to deeper shit what’s the problem
Heather Cox Richardson
34m ·
January 26, 2025 (Sunday)
On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln rose before the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, to make a speech. Just 28 years old, Lincoln had begun to practice law and had political ambitions. But he was worried that his generation might not preserve the republic that the founders had handed to it for transmission to yet another generation. He took as his topic for that January evening, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”
Lincoln saw trouble coming, but not from a foreign power, as other countries feared. The destruction of the United States, he warned, could come only from within. “If destruction be our lot,” he said, “we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
The trouble Lincoln perceived stemmed from the growing lawlessness in the country as men ignored the rule of law and acted on their passions, imposing their will on their neighbors through violence. He pointed specifically to two recent events: the 1836 lynching of free Black man Francis McIntosh in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 1837 murder of white abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy by a proslavery mob in Alton, Illinois.
But the problem of lawlessness was not limited to individual instances, he said. A public practice of ignoring the law eventually broke down all the guardrails designed to protect individuals, while lawbreakers, going unpunished, became convinced they were entitled to act without restraint. “Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane,” Lincoln said, “they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation.”
The only way to guard against such destruction, Lincoln said, was to protect the rule of law on which the country was founded. “As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor…. Let reverence for the laws…become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.”
Lincoln was quick to clarify that he was not saying all laws were good. Indeed, he said, bad laws should be challenged and repealed. But the underlying structure of the rule of law, based in the Constitution, could not be abandoned without losing democracy.
Lincoln didn’t stop there. He warned that the very success of the American republic threatened its continuation. “en of ambition and talents” could no longer make their name by building the nation—that glory had already been won. Their ambition could not be served simply by preserving what those before them had created, so they would achieve distinction through destruction.
For such a man, Lincoln said, “Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.” With no dangerous foreign power to turn people’s passions against, people would turn from the project of “establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty” and would instead turn against each other.
Lincoln reminded his audience that the torch of American democracy had been passed to them. The Founders had used their passions to create a system of laws, but the time for passion had passed, lest it tear the nation apart. The next generation must support democracy through “sober reason,” he said. He called for Americans to exercise “general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.”
“Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”
What became known as the Lyceum Address is one of the earliest speeches of Lincoln’s to have been preserved, and at the time it established him as a rising politician and political thinker. But his recognition, in a time of religious fervor and moral crusades, that the law must prevail over individual passions reverberates far beyond the specific crises of the 1830s.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
头
There’s a story that, in the UK’s House of Commons, there’s a line on the floor in front of the front benches behind which MPs must remain, so as to always be two swords’ length from the opposing MPs.
However, swords have never been permitted in the House, and there was no lines on the floor in the building which preceded the current one (construction begun in 1840).
Michael V said:
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
Same here.
In fact I didn’t even notice the word “tow”, and didn’t have a clue what dv was on about.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
dv said:*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
Same here.
In fact I didn’t even notice the word “tow”, and didn’t have a clue what dv was on about.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Eric has probably never seen it written down, only heard it said out loud.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
*toe
Hence the toey comment.
I see now
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
Same here.
In fact I didn’t even notice the word “tow”, and didn’t have a clue what dv was on about.
maybe they’re a bit twee
buffy said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
Same here.
In fact I didn’t even notice the word “tow”, and didn’t have a clue what dv was on about.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Eric has probably never seen it written down, only heard it said out loud.
He’s lousy at everything including spelling.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
*toe
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
头
Are you giving me head?
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
Well, TIL.
I always thought the line to be towed was a rope or fishing line with the details dragged along by it, not a line in the sand to put ones toe up against.
Now to remember.
头
Are you giving me head?
head
noun: head, top, hair, beginning, start, side, hairstyle, aspect, chief
adjective: first, leading
auxiliary verb: measure word for livestock
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Have been attempting to avoid giving any energy to Trump.
But isn’t this the first planes out, that have been turned back?
I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
dv said:
kii said:
dv said:*toe
Hence the toey comment.
I see now
good
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
not much different to brain dead magas.
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
true.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
Boris said:
dv said:
kii said:Hence the toey comment.
I see now
good
^ ^^
Boris said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
gratery set
Boris said:
party_pants said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:
Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
gratery set
Put US through the grater and reset.
Boris said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
Wow, and here’s me thinking that you could solve the whole mess!
not much different to brain dead magas.
Yeah, that’s not a nice thing to say about roughbarked!
party_pants said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
Can it get any worse? Probably.
party_pants said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
The Great Reset is what certain brands of conspiracy theorists posit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset#Conspiracy_theories
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:I seem to recall that you have given plenty of energy to trump posts here. I have a memory like an elephant.
Mexico has also turned back planes.
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
Boris said:
party_pants said:
Boris said:The Great Reset?
Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
The Great Reset is what certain brands of conspiracy theorists posit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset#Conspiracy_theories
I can’t keep up with conspiracy theorists, there are too many. Cricket keeps me far more entertained and interested.
kii said:
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
a slipping clutch
party_pants said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Gotta stop pretending that the USA is still a democracy. Time for revolution and a reset.
The Great Reset?
Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
It sure does.
party_pants said:
Boris said:
party_pants said:Call it what you will.
My thinking is that when you get a person like the Dunny Trumpet and his cronies winning an election, a bunch of people who openly despise and want to dismantle democracy, well, then democracy itself has failed. The are systemic failures in the democratic system. So the system must be rebooted and some other system implemented which closes these gaps. Having a directly elected president with so much unchecked executive power seems like a bad idea right now.
The Great Reset is what certain brands of conspiracy theorists posit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset#Conspiracy_theories
I can’t keep up with conspiracy theorists, there are too many. Cricket keeps me far more entertained and interested.
I follow a few debunking pages on FB.
turns out STEMocracy is better after all
kii said:
Boris said:
roughbarked said:I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
LOL, not a fucking clue just your twisted mind.
Boris said:
party_pants said:
Boris said:The Great Reset is what certain brands of conspiracy theorists posit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset#Conspiracy_theories
I can’t keep up with conspiracy theorists, there are too many. Cricket keeps me far more entertained and interested.
I follow a few debunking pages on FB.
I very rarely FB these days. I only follow what family and friends are up to.
kii said:
Boris said:
roughbarked said:I’ve been concentrating on my family of late. There’s nothing I can do about whatever Trump gets up to.
don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
Are you going to become fixated on Boris next?
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
Boris said:don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
Are you going to become fixated on Boris next?
Hope so. It is so funny.
Boris said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
Are you going to become fixated on Boris next?
Hope so. It is so funny.
there’s 爱 for shit like this surely
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
Boris said:don’t engage. it isn’t worth the effort.
You just don’t like that I’ve seen exactly what you are.
Are you going to become fixated on Boris next?
Let’s admit it, we’re all fixated on Boris.
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
The term the golden age is applied retrospectively so using it to describe the future is stupid
Arts said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
The term the golden age is applied retrospectively so using it to describe the future is stupid
Yeah, that too. But it is more about the general tone of the message he is trying to get across than the exact choice of words. Very undemocratic.
party_pants said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
The term the golden age is applied retrospectively so using it to describe the future is stupid
Yeah, that too. But it is more about the general tone of the message he is trying to get across than the exact choice of words. Very undemocratic.
Yes. To use a term that is supposed to describe a time of great flourish and then to declare they will get ther by force is laughable.
ABC headline: Donald Trump suspends sanctions after Colombia backs down on migrant row, White House says
But if you read the article, not so sure about a backdown…
>>Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said the country has “overcome the impasse with the US”.
“The government of Colombia … has the presidential plane ready to facilitate the return of Colombians who were going to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights,” he said.<<
Well that’s all very well and good but Trump needs to watch it, he’s dealing with one of the chaps, a Knight of Relm.
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
I think you could have done more with your one post a day in this thread.
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
If we ignore it, will it just go away?
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
Somme courses are needed,
How to be diplomatic with a convicted criminal.
And
How to be diplomatic with idiots
Etc
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
I’m alarmed.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
If we ignore it, will it just go away?
I’m concerned that the administration will pick off various nations with targeted tariffs to make examples and bring the rotw into line. A coordinated response is merited.
Quietly quietly.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
If we ignore it, will it just go away?
I’m concerned that the administration will pick off various nations with targeted tariffs to make examples and bring the rotw into line. A coordinated response is merited.
Quietly quietly.
Well the rest of the world doesnt really want or need to go to war against America but it is going to have to be a war like effort.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Not tryna be alarmist but I think the decent and half-decent nations need to quietly come to some arrangement with regard to dealing with the US over the next few years.
If we ignore it, will it just go away?
I’m concerned that the administration will pick off various nations with targeted tariffs to make examples and bring the rotw into line. A coordinated response is merited.
Quietly quietly.
Makes sense. All of the other countries in central and south America for a start.
Trump’s budget pick, Russ Vought, is starting to upend Washington
The president’s nominee for the Office of Management and Budget aims to slash spending and regulation — and push the limits of presidential power to achieve Trump’s agenda.
Updated January 24, 2025
By Tony Romm and Jeff Stein
Even before he takes the reins at the White House budget office, Russell Vought has started trying to remake Washington.
He has promised to pursue stark spending cuts, and he’s signaled support for wresting some powers of the purse away from Congress. He’s proposed vast changes to Medicaid and other safety-net programs, and he’s redoubled his commitment to purging the federal workforce, triggering a quiet, early exodus of career civil servants.
The fate of Vought’s agenda ultimately rests with the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to confirm the 48-year-old conservative hawk as the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. But Vought’s ideas have already captured the nation’s capital and shaped some of President Donald Trump’s earliest policy directives, underscoring the longtime lieutenant’s powerful and growing influence.
“Russ brings four years of experience, combined with four years of thinking deeply about how to actually change the system and change the bureaucracy,” said Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally who served as the GOP speaker of the House in the 1990s.
“To achieve the Trump agenda, you have to control the bureaucracy because it will do everything it can to undermine and slow-walk you,” Gingrich said. “Russ is maybe the key factor in getting the bureaucracy moving in the same direction as the American people and the president.”
For Vought, a successful Senate vote would mark a return to OMB, the pivotal White House agency he also led in Trump’s first term. His original tenure was controversial, as Vought clashed with Democrats over spending blueprints he submitted to Congress and the government’s handling of specific funds, particularly after the Trump administration slowed delivery of aid to Ukraine.
Soon after he departed the administration, Vought began laying the groundwork for a second Trump term: He chartered the Center for Renewing America, and he assisted with Project 2025, ultimately producing two conservative policy proposals that called for sweeping transformations of the federal bureaucracy. In some of his writings, Vought claimed the United States is under a “post-constitutional” order, foreshadowing the combative style he intends to revive at OMB.
Already, Trump has taken steps to implement policies Vought previously supported: Beginning Monday, the president issued orders to freeze some federal funding, block diversity initiatives and make it easier to fire career government employees. Some of the ideas resemble Vought’s past work, but he declined this week to speak about his think tank’s prior recommendations — and Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025.
Almost immediately, Trump’s early directives sparked lawsuits from opponents and triggered unrest among federal workers. Some of the White House’s own career employees also appeared to revolt, leading to an unusually large wave of staff departures ahead of Vought’s expected arrival, according to three people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel matters.
Underscoring the ferocity of Democrats’ opposition, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) on Wednesday sought to characterize Vought’s thinking as extreme: “We want to traumatize federal employees,” Kaine said, referring to a comment Vought reportedly made about the civil workforce. “And then we want to take all these programs that help everyday people who are struggling and cut them because they are ‘woke and weaponized.’”
A spokeswoman for Vought did not respond to a request for comment. At the hearing, the president’s nominee said his past remarks were directed at “the weaponized bureaucracy.”
The clashes foreshadowed the tectonic shifts underway in Washington, where OMB — rarely a focus of the political spotlight — is set to become the foremost battleground over the nation’s fiscal future.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump pitched voters on dramatic budget cuts, linking federal spending to rising inflation. His advisers, including the tech billionaire Elon Musk, often measured the magnitude of their preferred reductions into the trillions of dollars, raising the potential that they could affect virtually every agency and program except defense.
Ultimately, Trump and his GOP allies hope to produce savings that can help offset the cost of their still-evolving plan to extend, and possibly expand, tax cuts adopted during Trump’s first term. They also face rapidly approaching fiscal deadlines: Republicans must act to prevent a government shutdown, with funding set to expire in March, and raise the nation’s debt ceiling to ensure that Washington does not default on its obligations this spring.
Entering those fights, Trump has turned to Vought, who once led the staff for the Republican Study Committee, a powerful bloc in the House that now includes the largest swath of GOP lawmakers in the chamber. He burst onto the national scene during the first Trump administration, initially as deputy director of OMB before becoming its chief.
Throughout his tenure, Vought pushed aggressively for spending reductions, even as the national debt soared under Trump. In past White House budgets, he proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and other programs that Democrats see as critical for low-income families. And Vought sought major reductions to the Education Department, Interior Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, though some of the changes he recommended never became law.
Over two confirmation hearings this month, Vought reprised his calls for austerity entering Trump’s second term, promising to “begin to tackle our spending and debt,” as he said Wednesday. But he said the new administration has not yet set a target for fiscal year 2026, which begins in October.
He specifically pointed to welfare reform, and programs including Medicaid, arguing the government had set up a “benefit hammock” that allowed low-income Americans to obtain health insurance and other aid while unemployed.
“You can get sizable levels of savings and reforms,” Vought told the Senate Budget Committee.
His vision broadly delighted Republicans.
“You served in Washington for years. You’re going to be challenging the status quo. You’re going to be called crazy,” said Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana), before invoking the Bible, to some laughter in the room: “Many people also called Noah crazy, then the rains came, and all the fact-checkers died. You have to persevere.”
But Democrats squared off repeatedly with Vought over the depth of cuts he envisions and his views on how to achieve them. In alignment with Trump, Vought expressed renewed openness about invoking a power known as impoundment, which could allow the president to reduce or zero out entire funding categories, even if lawmakers vote otherwise.
“The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional,” Vought said, referring to the 1970s law that limits the White House’s ability to withhold funds. “I agree with that.”
Hours into his second term, Trump signed an initial battery of executive orders that signaled his willingness to test the limits of his spending powers. One directive this week halted the disbursement of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ 2022 health and climate law, which already had been designated to a contractor, said David A. Super, an administrative law professor at Georgetown Law School. That is a separate issue from impoundments, according to Super, who noted the policy still amounts to going back on an existing commitment.
“When the federal government breaches its contracts, it calls the entire sanctity of contracts into question and makes it impossible for anyone to trust the federal government,” Super said. “Once it starts defaulting on its contract obligations, vendors will charge it much more — and taxpayers will end up footing the bill.”
Vought this week said some of Trump’s early actions impose only a “programmatic delay” on federal funds, noting the administration would soon begin a legal review on the issue. (He and his allies have articulated a detailed explanation for why they believe the existing spending law is unconstitutional.) But Democrats led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) still questioned the president’s directives, warning that Vought’s proposed tactics threaten to undermine dealmaking in Congress
“And I have to say that your answer to this should be disconcerting to every single member on this committee,” Murray added.
Even though the Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on Vought’s nomination, some budget staffers have quietly departed OMB, a tension that former officials attributed to friction between the incoming leader and the career civil service. Dating back to Trump’s term, Vought has supported efforts to reclassify federal workers in a way that would allow the president to fire them more easily — a designation, known as Schedule F, that Trump revived as one of his first acts in office.
Among those departing is Mark Sandy, who broke ranks to testify in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in 2019 about the decision to pause congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine. Also expected to leave are Edna Curtin, of the budget office’s national security division; Tyler Curtis, of its treasury division; and Matt O’Kane, in its intelligence branch, the people said.
More than 10 senior executive service positions are now vacant. While part of this turnover is due to retirements and normal attrition, numerous White House budget staffers are also apprehensive about Vought’s demands to shift money around in ways that may prove legally dubious, the people said.
Bill Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, said he has spoken to budget office officials “who are very concerned and worried” that some budget orders could violate federal law.
“There are a number of senior service-type career people who are nervous about having to act on directives they think could be unconstitutional or not legal,” Hoagland said. “But that’s what the Trump administration wants to hope — they want people to leave.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/24/russell-vought-trump-budget/?
roughbarked said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:If we ignore it, will it just go away?
I’m concerned that the administration will pick off various nations with targeted tariffs to make examples and bring the rotw into line. A coordinated response is merited.
Quietly quietly.
Well the rest of the world doesnt really want or need to go to war against America but it is going to have to be a war like effort.
a trade war.
Go after the tech bros and their ilk. Countries to form blocs where a tariff against one for refusing some demand form the Dunny Trumpet becomes a retaliation from all of them.
party_pants said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:If we ignore it, will it just go away?
I’m concerned that the administration will pick off various nations with targeted tariffs to make examples and bring the rotw into line. A coordinated response is merited.
Quietly quietly.
Makes sense. All of the other countries in central and south America for a start.
Sending millions of South American undocumented migrants home will hurt America more than anyone else. Bring it on I say.
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Why would he want things to work? That’s not really his brand.
Every country apply a fifty-five ppercent tarrif to USA imports.
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Irrational belief that he has people who will all do as he says. He’s the deal maker.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Every country apply a fifty-five ppercent tarrif to USA imports.
How about simply charging the big US companies tax payable in Australia?
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Irrational belief that he has people who will all do as he says. He’s the deal maker.
He is a convicted criminal and should be treated as such.
roughbarked said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Every country apply a fifty-five ppercent tarrif to USA imports.How about simply charging the big US companies tax payable in Australia?
Yes, something like that..
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Irrational belief that he has people who will all do as he says. He’s the deal maker.
He is a convicted criminal and should be treated as such.
Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
Arts said:
kii said:
Squeak squeak! He’s a bit toey.
The term the golden age is applied retrospectively so using it to describe the future is stupid
The language it evolves,
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Either the states take it up or it does not happen.
dv said:
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Why would he want things to work? That’s not really his brand.
Ha!
Trump: “I could have been sunbathing on the beach. You have never seen a body so beautiful. Much better than Sleepy Joe.”
https://x.com/i/status/1883681307890504120
Far canal!
When I said just one per day, I meant I would just be posting one news item, I’m going to allow some general discussion.
dv said:
When I said just one per day, I meant I would just be posting one news item, I’m going to allow some general discussion.
Boris said:
dv said:
When I said just one per day, I meant I would just be posting one news item, I’m going to allow some general discussion.
like Trump, like Trump
Michael V said:
dv said:
buffy said:
I’m a bit curious to know how Trump thinks things will actually work without all these civil servants. Particularly if those who know how things work decide to early retire or something. When all your experience and knowledge walks out the door, things don’t work.
Why would he want things to work? That’s not really his brand.
Ha!
so Russell is a bludger well we already knew that
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:Irrational belief that he has people who will all do as he says. He’s the deal maker.
He is a convicted criminal and should be treated as such.
Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
He is a convicted criminal and should be treated as such.
Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
we said we 爱 you but we aied
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
we said we 爱 you but we aied
It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:Tau.Neutrino said:
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
we said we 爱 you but we aied
It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
poikilotherm said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:we said we 爱 you but we aied
It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
Yeah, it’s terrific.
dv said:
When I said just one per day, I meant I would just be posting one news item, I’m going to allow some general discussion.
waaal, that’s right kind o’ ya, pardner.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:He is a convicted criminal and should be treated as such.
Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
I’ve read a few books written about him, and the cumulative impression that i garner from them is that he and the truth are complete and utter strangers. It seems likely that he’s never said a true thing in his life.
poikilotherm said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:we said we 爱 you but we aied
It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
He has some kind of built-in Babelfish translator for lies.
captain_spalding said:
… It seems likely that he’s never said a true thing in his life.
and the sad thing is he’s probably never needed to
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:Yeah, in most sensible countries people with convictions for business fraud are excluded from running for public office. Over there he was not excluded from running, and his win was actually used as an excuse to impose no penalty.
How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
I’ve read a few books written about him, and the cumulative impression that i garner from them is that he and the truth are complete and utter strangers. It seems likely that he’s never said a true thing in his life.
Not even the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God.
poikilotherm said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:we said we 爱 you but we aied
It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
Nods.
Michael V said:
poikilotherm said:
party_pants said:It’s a lifetime of business practice, tell everybody what they want to hear. Even if that means telling lies, or telling different groups mutually exclusive things.
People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
Nods.
That fits well with “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel.
“Still, a man hears what he want to hear and disregards the rest.
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie “ etc…
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.
So, that’s nice.
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
What?
Why?
This is why I am trying to limit engagement, this shit cannot be understood.
dv said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
What?
Why?
This is why I am trying to limit engagement, this shit cannot be understood.
Same here. I keep trying to find a balance to stay informed, but not getting stressed.
I unfollow political people on social media, and add more art/cats and dogs. Then start adding the political people again, starting the whole cycle again.
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
fk/
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
poikilotherm said:People love hearing what they want/expect to hear.
Nods.
That fits well with “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel.
“Still, a man hears what he want to hear and disregards the rest.
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie “ etc…
I was going to quote that :)
There’s a lot of songs from the 60’s/70’s that show that what’s happening these days isn’t a new thing at all.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
Michael V said:Nods.
That fits well with “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel.
“Still, a man hears what he want to hear and disregards the rest.
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie “ etc…
I was going to quote that :)
There’s a lot of songs from the 60’s/70’s that show that what’s happening these days isn’t a new thing at all.
They were the songs protesting about what our elders were doing to the world and its peoples and now we are still having the same issues but the new age protesters are turning nasty.
dv said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
What?
Why?
This is why I am trying to limit engagement, this shit cannot be understood.
^
Countries with Alarming School Shooting Numbers.
Spiny Norman said:
Countries with Alarming School Shooting Numbers.
The censorship of the word is ridiculous.
It’s a serious subject, but it’s hard to stop yourself reading it as ‘school shitting incidents’.
A substitute teacher in Dallas Fort Worth posted on X alerting ICE about students in his class…for checks notes…not speaking English.
kii said:
A substitute teacher in Dallas Fort Worth posted on X alerting ICE about students in his class…for checks notes…not speaking English.
I was going to make a joke about it being a Spanish-language class, but then i thought, just maybe…
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
If they’d had the technology, it would have been done in Occupied Europe, too.
Would have gone down a treat with al least some of the viewers back in Germany.
And, it’s meant to instil fear in the ‘illegals’ among the viewers who haven’t yet been ‘visited’ themselves.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
I’m not being serious.
Spiny Norman said:
Countries with Alarming School Shooting Numbers.
Ta. The stats say something.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
A substitute teacher in Dallas Fort Worth posted on X alerting ICE about students in his class…for checks notes…not speaking English.
I was going to make a joke about it being a Spanish-language class, but then i thought, just maybe…
When I was in Miami nearly a quarter of a century ago, I noticed that most signs I saw were in Spanish first, English second.
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
I’m not being serious.
so why do they do it then
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
I’m not being serious.
so why do they do it then
captain_spalding said:
And, it’s meant to instil fear in the ‘illegals’ among the viewers who haven’t yet been ‘visited’ themselves.
What is?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dr Phil is embedded with ICE during raids in Chicago.So, that’s nice.
Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
If they’d had the technology, it would have been done in Occupied Europe, too.
Would have gone down a treat with al least some of the viewers back in Germany.
Sorry, I don’t understand.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
A substitute teacher in Dallas Fort Worth posted on X alerting ICE about students in his class…for checks notes…not speaking English.
I was going to make a joke about it being a Spanish-language class, but then i thought, just maybe…
When I was in Miami nearly a quarter of a century ago, I noticed that most signs I saw were in Spanish first, English second.
Many Americans believe, incorrectly, that English is America’s national language.
kii said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I was going to make a joke about it being a Spanish-language class, but then i thought, just maybe…
When I was in Miami nearly a quarter of a century ago, I noticed that most signs I saw were in Spanish first, English second.
Many Americans believe, incorrectly, that English is America’s national language.
Ta. I wasn’t aware of that either.
I just thought the dual-language signage was interesting and nice.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Why is it nice?
And why would they have done so?
Embedding a TV personality in ICE raids seems quite daft to me.
If they’d had the technology, it would have been done in Occupied Europe, too.
Would have gone down a treat with al least some of the viewers back in Germany.
Sorry, I don’t understand.
They basically televise the ICE raids, with ‘Dr.’ Phil as the recognisable and ‘popular’ host of the proceedings. Televising it is meant to appeal to the people who voted for Trump on the basis of, or partly because of, his proposed polict towards the illegal immigrants who he’d done so much to demonise in the minds of his target audience.
The televising shows the people that Trump is ‘getting on with the job’.
The same strategy might well have been employed by earlier autocrats in pursuit of their reprehensible ideologies, had the capability been available.
It also has the ‘benefit’ of showing any ‘illegals’ in the TV audience just what might be in store for them. Perhaps it will prompt them to try to spare themselves, and their families, the trauma of such a raid, and to either leave thecountry voluntarily, or to turn themselves in. It might, at least, encourage them to be a bit more co-operative when the raid does come.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:If they’d had the technology, it would have been done in Occupied Europe, too.
Would have gone down a treat with al least some of the viewers back in Germany.
Sorry, I don’t understand.
They basically televise the ICE raids, with ‘Dr.’ Phil as the recognisable and ‘popular’ host of the proceedings. Televising it is meant to appeal to the people who voted for Trump on the basis of, or partly because of, his proposed polict towards the illegal immigrants who he’d done so much to demonise in the minds of his target audience.
The televising shows the people that Trump is ‘getting on with the job’.
The same strategy might well have been employed by earlier autocrats in pursuit of their reprehensible ideologies, had the capability been available.
It also has the ‘benefit’ of showing any ‘illegals’ in the TV audience just what might be in store for them. Perhaps it will prompt them to try to spare themselves, and their families, the trauma of such a raid, and to either leave thecountry voluntarily, or to turn themselves in. It might, at least, encourage them to be a bit more co-operative when the raid does come.
Thanks. I see now. Not just an embedded TV personality, but broadcasting.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:When I was in Miami nearly a quarter of a century ago, I noticed that most signs I saw were in Spanish first, English second.
Many Americans believe, incorrectly, that English is America’s national language.
Ta. I wasn’t aware of that either.
I just thought the dual-language signage was interesting and nice.
Canada has two official languages (and they are ‘official’), equal in standing: English and French.
Well, Canadian French.
I once found some secondhand books in French that looked interesting. I bought acouple, and showed them to my French teacher.
He looked through them, and then said ‘pfft, ils sont en québécois’(‘they’re in Québécois’ (Canadian French). And he showed me the differences between French and Québécois in grammar and syntax, and the spelling of some words, and how some words would be pronounced slightly differently.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Sorry, I don’t understand.
They basically televise the ICE raids, with ‘Dr.’ Phil as the recognisable and ‘popular’ host of the proceedings. Televising it is meant to appeal to the people who voted for Trump on the basis of, or partly because of, his proposed polict towards the illegal immigrants who he’d done so much to demonise in the minds of his target audience.
The televising shows the people that Trump is ‘getting on with the job’.
The same strategy might well have been employed by earlier autocrats in pursuit of their reprehensible ideologies, had the capability been available.
It also has the ‘benefit’ of showing any ‘illegals’ in the TV audience just what might be in store for them. Perhaps it will prompt them to try to spare themselves, and their families, the trauma of such a raid, and to either leave the country voluntarily, or to turn themselves in. It might, at least, encourage them to be a bit more co-operative when the raid does come.
Thanks. I see now. Not just an embedded TV personality, but broadcasting.
I have to admit, i’m assuming that the events will be or have been broadcast. I had a quick look, but couldn’t find any more info on kii’s post.
However, it would seem to be pointless to incorporate a ‘broadcaster’ in the raids if nothing was going to be broadcast.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:How can any country trust someone who has made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
I’ve read a few books written about him, and the cumulative impression that i garner from them is that he and the truth are complete and utter strangers. It seems likely that he’s never said a true thing in his life.
Not even the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:I’ve read a few books written about him, and the cumulative impression that i garner from them is that he and the truth are complete and utter strangers. It seems likely that he’s never said a true thing in his life.
Not even the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God.
Imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
I’m not being serious.
so why do they do it then
sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Many Americans believe, incorrectly, that English is America’s national language.
Ta. I wasn’t aware of that either.
I just thought the dual-language signage was interesting and nice.
Canada has two official languages (and they are ‘official’), equal in standing: English and French.
Well, Canadian French.
I once found some secondhand books in French that looked interesting. I bought acouple, and showed them to my French teacher.
He looked through them, and then said ‘pfft, ils sont en québécois’(‘they’re in Québécois’ (Canadian French). And he showed me the differences between French and Québécois in grammar and syntax, and the spelling of some words, and how some words would be pronounced slightly differently.
what’s the précis
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Peak Warming Man said:Not even the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God.
Imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
Think back over your own life. Try to imagine how many things you’ve said in that time.
Now imagine that almost all (if not every one) of those things you’ve said in that time were lies.
What a life, huh?
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Ta. I wasn’t aware of that either.
I just thought the dual-language signage was interesting and nice.
Canada has two official languages (and they are ‘official’), equal in standing: English and French.
Well, Canadian French.
I once found some secondhand books in French that looked interesting. I bought acouple, and showed them to my French teacher.
He looked through them, and then said ‘pfft, ils sont en québécois’(‘they’re in Québécois’ (Canadian French). And he showed me the differences between French and Québécois in grammar and syntax, and the spelling of some words, and how some words would be pronounced slightly differently.
what’s the précis
Ask Kenneth.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Imagine the number of lies told over his lifetime.
Think back over your own life. Try to imagine how many things you’ve said in that time.
Now imagine that almost all (if not every one) of those things you’ve said in that time were lies.
What a life, huh?
well our lives are one long statement so they’re all just one colossal lie or a supermassive truth
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
so why do they do it then
sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
kii said:
SCIENCE said:captain_spalding said:
sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
From TATE on “Dr. Phil”
2020s
In February 2022, around a dozen current and former employees of Dr. Phil alleged that they experienced “verbal abuse in a workplace that fosters fear, intimidation, and racism.” Seven current employees also claimed that the show’s guests are often manipulated and treated unethically. Attorneys for McGraw and his co-producer, Carla Pennington, categorically denied every allegation.
A former guest who appeared on Dr. Phil in 2016, Danielle Bregoli, also known as “Bhad Bhabie”, criticized the methods of Turn-About Ranch, an Escalante, Utah-based therapeutic horse ranch for troubled youth that McGraw had endorsed. In 2022, McGraw, Viacom and CBS were sued by Bregoli and Hannah Archuleta, another former guest, for recommending their parents send them to Turn-About Ranch. Afterward, McGraw stopped recommending Turn-About Ranch on Dr. Phil
Sounds like a lovely guy.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:captain_spalding said:
sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
Dr Phil is a robot.
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
Dr Phil is a robot.
n short:
The US Justice Department says it has fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations into Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the department this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Mr Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents.
What’s next?
It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-28/trump-justice-department-fires-more-than-a-dozen-employees/104866230
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:sorry we don’t understand why would Dr Phil instill fear in hardworking young hopefuls, is he a mechanical loom or a child molester or something
I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
Dr Phil is a robot.
I was nearly about to suggest the same.
He seems rather similar to Trump, and i’m sure that they understand each other.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
Dr Phil is a robot.
I was nearly about to suggest the same.
He seems rather similar to Trump, and i’m sure that they understand each other.
It is a TV star government.
roughbarked said:
In short:
The US Justice Department says it has fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations into Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the department this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Mr Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents.
What’s next?It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-28/trump-justice-department-fires-more-than-a-dozen-employees/104866230
All as predicted. Retribution.
Fire and brimstone Old Testament retribution.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:I’m not serious about it being nice. What is it…being facetiousness? Sarcasm?
Dr Phil is a robot.
I was nearly about to suggest the same.
He seems rather similar to Trump, and i’m sure that they understand each other.
Yes.
:)
They have no idea.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:In short:
The US Justice Department says it has fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations into Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the department this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Mr Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents.
What’s next?It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-28/trump-justice-department-fires-more-than-a-dozen-employees/104866230
All as predicted. Retribution.
Fire and brimstone Old Testament retribution.
Same all around the world.
It would be great if they could be different.
All those people in his administration.
No real creative ideas.
anyway thanks to all the people who gave us serious explanations to help us understand much appreciated
SCIENCE said:
anyway thanks to all the people who gave us serious explanations to help us understand much appreciated
No worries.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:In short:
The US Justice Department says it has fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations into Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the department this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Mr Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents.
What’s next?It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-28/trump-justice-department-fires-more-than-a-dozen-employees/104866230
All as predicted. Retribution.
Fire and brimstone Old Testament retribution.
every administration makes these types of changes… they usually just don’t say the quiet bit out loud, is all.
Peak Warming Man said:
SCIENCE said:anyway thanks to all the people who gave us serious explanations to help us understand much appreciated
No worries.
Be happy.
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.
Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
Boris said:
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
Nah, that was Artificial Interference.
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
Yeah kind of, they are broadening its versatility and generality … or at least, they are trying to
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.
https://www.deepseek.com/
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
no, it’s not a buzzword and no, software from 20 years ago had no adaptive reasoning.
so 爱 is just fusion power
kii said:
I’ll give ‘em credit for one thing: they’re jolly inventive in their pointless cruelty.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
I’ll give ‘em credit for one thing: they’re jolly inventive in their pointless cruelty.
Unfortunately.
:(
What the ABC journalists can tell us about Trump’s order on ending DEI programs:
Michael V said:
What the ABC journalists can tell us about Trump’s order on ending DEI programs:
Yet i was criticised in these pages the other day for suggesting that the current conservative agenda and action in the US is to throw the entire country into reverse, and head backwards with all speed.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
What the ABC journalists can tell us about Trump’s order on ending DEI programs:Yet i was criticised in these pages the other day for suggesting that the current conservative agenda and action in the US is to throw the entire country into reverse, and head backwards with all speed.
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
And ‘gas’ prices.
Now that The Chosen One is back in the White House, oil companies must be diverting motorists into petrol stations at gunpoint, and demanding that they fill their cars’ tanks for free.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
My weekend order had 18 eggs for about the same price as previous orders….$7.12.
Been that price for a few months.
Just ordinary eggs, cage free or something.
I tried the ones in yellow cartons for a while, they’re called Happy Eggs, but I remained miserable.
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
And ‘gas’ prices.
Now that The Chosen One is back in the White House, oil companies must be diverting motorists into petrol stations at gunpoint, and demanding that they fill their cars’ tanks for free.
I don’t drive.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
Record high
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:How’s the price of eggs these days?
And ‘gas’ prices.
Now that The Chosen One is back in the White House, oil companies must be diverting motorists into petrol stations at gunpoint, and demanding that they fill their cars’ tanks for free.
I don’t drive.
Gasoline prices are up a little but nothing to write home about, just looks like normal fluctuations.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
How’s the price of eggs these days?
My weekend order had 18 eggs for about the same price as previous orders….$7.12.
Been that price for a few months.
Just ordinary eggs, cage free or something.I tried the ones in yellow cartons for a while, they’re called Happy Eggs, but I remained miserable.
Eggs at records high prices, petrol prices yet to fall.
Further miracles expected, stay tuned for developments.
Probably mouthing off.
dv said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:And ‘gas’ prices.
Now that The Chosen One is back in the White House, oil companies must be diverting motorists into petrol stations at gunpoint, and demanding that they fill their cars’ tanks for free.
I don’t drive.
Gasoline prices are up a little but nothing to write home about, just looks like normal fluctuations.
The Gardener is helping me with odd jobs I need to do towards packing up my studio, because I have given him 100s of dollars worth of equipment etc. A couple of hours here and there. I’m paying him $5 for gas each time.
Michael V said:
kii said:
The dumbfuck claiming credit for the recent rain in California.
FMD
Only 3 months ago they were blaming Biden for it.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
What the ABC journalists can tell us about Trump’s order on ending DEI programs:
Yet i was criticised in these pages the other day for suggesting that the current conservative agenda and action in the US is to throw the entire country into reverse, and head backwards with all speed.
Yeah but was the lining of his suit a crass display of national socialist nationalist patriotic pride¿
(LOL who criticised that WTF)
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
I’ll give ‘em credit for one thing: they’re jolly inventive in their pointless cruelty.
Unfortunately.
:(
wait we thought shit politics in the USSA couldn’t possibly impact anywhere else in the world
Boris said:
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
50 years
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
Peak Warming Man said:Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
50 years
Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
50 years
Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
ok boomer
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
50 years
Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
sarahs mum said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
Peak Warming Man said:
buffy said:
I find it interesting that DeepSeek is open source.
Is AI just another buzz word, I think most software has had a certain amount of artificial intelligence built in going back 20 or more years.
50 years
Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
ok boomer
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
we meant 50 years of 爱 not stylised paperclips but fair
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
ok boomer
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
we meant 50 years of 爱 not stylised paperclips but fair
we did have decks of punched cards. and fn impact printers.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
we meant 50 years of 爱 not stylised paperclips but fair
we did have decks of punched cards. and fn impact printers.
yeah crazy times back then you have a bunch of cereal boxes in one hand, and then in the other you have artificial neural networks doing their thing
The backpropagation algorithm was originally introduced in the 1970s, but its importance wasn’t fully appreciated until a famous 1986 paper by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton, and Ronald Williams. That paper describes several neural networks where backpropagation works far faster than earlier approaches to learning, making it possible to use neural nets to solve problems which had previously been insoluble.
and even that’s not to mention pre electronic computing algorithms going back hundreds of years
sarahs mum said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:50 years
Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
Ah.
I have had some acquaintance with an IBM 370/158. And then an IBM 3084.
sarahs mum said:
You have wonder about how long it will be before the first of the round-up arrests occurs.
sarahs mum said:
That’s a veiled threat.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
Ah.
I have had some acquaintance with an IBM 370/158. And then an IBM 3084.
i went on to a 3031.
spent some time with ex nasa univac 1108s.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
You have wonder about how long it will be before the first of the round-up arrests occurs.
Give it a month and they’ll already be in recession with high inflation. Shortages on the supermarket shelves and all that. Then we’ll see who is public enemy.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Some of us were using computers 50 years ago, but the only paper clips around then were to keep the punch-card coding sheets together.
1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
Ah.
I have had some acquaintance with an IBM 370/158. And then an IBM 3084.
1975 – I was operating an IBM 360. Registrar General’s Department, Births, Deaths and Marriages.
When Matthew was born, I did an entire print run to get an unsigned, but original birth certificate for him. (All issued birth certificates are copies.) I had to write the print run off as a bad paper feed. I decided not to sign the print (I had access to the RG’s signature stamp), as I thought I could get into legal trouble if found out.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:1977 I was operating an IBM 370/145
Ah.
I have had some acquaintance with an IBM 370/158. And then an IBM 3084.
1975 – I was operating an IBM 360. Registrar General’s Department, Births, Deaths and Marriages.
When Matthew was born, I did an entire print run to get an unsigned, but original birth certificate for him. (All issued birth certificates are copies.) I had to write the print run off as a bad paper feed. I decided not to sign the print (I had access to the RG’s signature stamp), as I thought I could get into legal trouble if found out.
i had some brief encounters with a 360/60.
Heather Cox Richardson
10h ·
January 27, 2025 (Monday)
Yesterday, President Donald Trump began a trade war with Colombia after that country’s president refused to permit two U.S. military airplanes full of deportees to land in Colombia. As Regina Garcia Cano and Astrid Suárez of the Associated Press pointed out, Colombia and the U.S. had an existing agreement for deportations under former president Joe Biden, and it accepted 475 deportation flights from 2020 to 2024, accepting 124 flights in 2024 alone. But the Biden administration used commercial and charter flights, while as national security analyst Juliette Kayyem noted, Trump used a military plane that arrived unannounced.
As Tim Naftali of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs explained: “If a foreign country tries to land its military planes—except in an emergency—without an existing agreement that is an infringement of sovereignty.” Colombia rejected the military planes without prior authorization and offered the use of its presidential plane instead.
Colombia also asked the U.S. to provide notice and decent treatment for its people, an issue that had been raised and resolved in 2023 after migrants arrived in hand and foot cuffs. Colombian president Gustavo Petro noted that the U.S. had committed that it would guarantee dignified conditions for the repatriation of migrants. The plane of migrants landed in Honduras, where Colombia sent its presidential plane to pick them up.
Trump announced that Colombia’s “denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States,” and slapped a 25% tariff on products from Colombia, which include about $6 billion of crude petroleum, $1.8 billion of coffee, and $1.6 billion of cut flowers. In addition, he said, the U.S. would revoke the visas of all Colombian “Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.” He promptly deported Colombian staff members of the World Bank who were working for international diplomatic organizations in the U.S., and canceled visa appointments at Colombia’s U.S. Embassy.
Rather than backing down, President Petro threatened to levy a retaliatory tariff on U.S. products. Colombia imports 96.7% of the corn it feeds its livestock from the U.S., putting Colombia in the top five export markets for U.S. corn. According to a letter written by a bipartisan group of lawmakers eager to protect that trade, led by Senator Todd Young (R-IN), in 2003 the U.S. exported more than 4 million metric tons of corn to Colombia, which translated to $1.14 billion in sales. “American farmers cannot afford to lose such a vital export market,” the lawmakers wrote, “especially when access to the top U.S. corn export market, Mexico, is already at risk.”
By this morning the economic crisis appeared to be over, although U.S. visa restrictions apparently remain. With prior authorization and better treatment of migrants, Colombia is willing to accept the migrant flights. The White House declared victory, saying: “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again. President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.”
The administration’s handling of the situation with Colombia reveals that their power depends on convincing people to ignore reality and instead to believe in the fantasy world Trump dictates.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced yesterday morning that “eportation flights have begun.” In fact, nothing is “beginning.” In 2024, Colombia accepted on average more than two U.S. flights of migrants a week. And, as immigration scholar Austin Kocher noted, “everyone on this deportation flight was arrested and detained by the Biden administration.”
Over the past four years, Trump and MAGA Republicans repeatedly insisted that Biden had maintained “open borders,” while in fact, what the administration did was to try to address a situation made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
As Katie Tobin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains, before the coronavirus pandemic, Venezuela, where the economy was particularly bad under rising authoritarian Nicolás Maduro, sent migrants abroad. By June 2022, 6 million Venezuelans had fled their country; by September 2024, that number was 7.7 million. South American governments welcomed the Venezuelan migrants and others, including Haitians fleeing their country’s political chaos.
But as economies collapsed after the coronavirus crisis, Tobin explains, migrant populations that had settled in South American countries were forced out. From 2019 to 2021, Colombia’s per capita gross domestic product fell 4.6%; Peru’s, 5.3%; Ecuador’s, 2.8%; Brazil’s, 11.7%; and Venezuela’s, 20%. As the U.S. economy grew by 8.38%, Canada’s grew by 13.1%, and Mexico’s dropped only by 0.7%, migrants headed north. In September 2021, when 15,000 Haitians who had originally migrated to Brazil arrived at the U.S. border with Mexico, countries throughout the hemisphere realized that they needed a new regional approach to migration.
After nine months of negotiations, 21 countries announced that they had created a new migration pact for the Western Hemisphere. It provided economic support for Latin American countries that were original destinations for migrants, expanded formal pathways for immigration, and increased border security across the region.
Canada and Mexico were the first countries to buy into the new agreement. The U.S. turned next to strong ally Colombia, which agreed in March 2022, after which Vice President Kamala Harris brought on board Caribbean countries. By June 10, when the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection was announced, twenty-one nations had signed on. U.N. observers were present to demonstrate their support.
The Biden administration insisted that countries begin immediate action, and they did. Tobin notes that Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru have made sweeping new offers of legal status to hundreds of thousands of migrants already living in their countries, while Colombia has offered legal status to 2 million Venezuelans and Brazil has welcomed more than 500,000. Mexico and Guatemala have offered legal pathways to workers.
Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain, and the U.S. launched a virtual platform to enable migrants to apply for admission remotely. When Mexico agreed to accept Venezuelans who had crossed into the U.S. unlawfully and at the same time the U.S. announced a legal pathway for 24,000 Venezuelans, border crossings dropped 90% within a week. Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador expanded that initiative to include Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans.
By 2023, border arrests had fallen by about half. Although Congress failed to pass a strong bipartisan measure to increase border security and fund immigration courts, arrests fell by half again after Biden in June 2024 issued a proclamation that barred migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deemed the border was overwhelmed. By the end of Biden’s term, unlawful border crossings had plummeted to lows that hadn’t been seen since June 2020.
There are new challenges to managing migration as wars, climate change, and economic pressures push migrants out of various parts of Africa and out of China. Many of those migrants are finding their way to Latin America and from there to the U.S. The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates that 117 million people were displaced by the end of 2023.
Trump won election in part by vowing to shut down immigration, and as soon as he took office he canceled the CBP One app, the virtual platform that allowed migrants to apply for asylum. During the campaign, he vowed to deport those migrants he claimed were criminals, which many interpreted to mean he would only remove those who had committed violent crimes (which the U.S. has always done). But in his first term, Trump’s people considered anyone who entered the U.S. outside of immigration law to be a criminal, and this appears to be the definition his people are using now.
Daily deportation raids in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a few hundred people in sweeps began almost as soon as Trump took office. Josh Campbell, Andy Rose, and Nick Valencia of CNN reported that the federal government has flooded the media with video and photos of agents in tactical gear, their vests bearing the words “Police ICE” and “Homeland Security” as they lead individuals in handcuffs. The journalists report that this is not an accident: agents were told to have their agency names clearly displayed for the press.
The presence of television talk show host Dr. Phil (McGraw) with an ICE team in Chicago reinforces the sense that these arrests are designed for the cameras. So does yesterday’s report by Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post that Trump is disappointed with the sweeps so far and has directed officials to ramp up arrests aggressively, providing quotas for ICE field offices. Today, new secretary of defense Pete Hegseth said the department will “shift” to “the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America at the southern border.”
Yesterday’s spat with Colombia’s president enabled Trump to declare victory, but Colombia has been the top U.S. ally in Latin America, a close partner in combating drug trafficking and managing migration. That relationship, which has taken years of careful cultivation, is now threatened.
Will Freeman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy, posted: “I can’t think of many worse strategic blunders for the U.S., as it competes w/ China, than going nuclear against its oldest strategic ally & last big country in S. America where it enjoys a trade advantage…. Trump certainly expects that b 1/3 of Colombian exports go to the U.S. Petro will be forced to back down. But Petro seems to welcome the fight & has already signaled wishes to deepen ties w/ China. Colombia will lose partnership on security it badly needs. Only China stands to gain from this.”
Indeed, China’s ambassador to Colombia promptly noted that “we are at the best moment of our diplomatic relations between China and Colombia, which are now 45 years old.”
Meanwhile, according to former ambassador Luis G. Moreno, the Trump administration has shut down 2,100 courses in the premier training facility for State Department foreign service officers, ostensibly because they are too associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Moreno adds: “Dismantling of a professional diplomatic corps is underway.”
buffy said:
Probably mouthing off.
Sheriff Patrick Williamson said his condolences go out to the family of the deceased.
“Any loss of life is traumatic to those that were close to Mr Huttle,” he said.
>The Huttles didn’t think of any of that when he and his uncle went to the riot
roughbarked said:
Caroline Kennedy calls Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘predator’ ahead of confirmation hearing.
not a glowing reference.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Caroline Kennedy calls Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘predator’ ahead of confirmation hearing.
not a glowing reference.
She’ll go on the retributions list.
Toe-the-line Republicans will vote for him anyway.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Caroline Kennedy calls Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘predator’ ahead of confirmation hearing.
not a glowing reference.
Clearly poor choice by Trump.
reality bites
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Caroline Kennedy calls Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘predator’ ahead of confirmation hearing.
not a glowing reference.
Clearly poor choice by Trump.
which makes it the right choice.
Boris said:
reality bites
America made great again.
Boris said:
reality bites
He’s been liberated from the burdens of help, food, cash, and hope.
Boris said:
reality bites
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SCUy3DrUZmw
Boris said:
reality bites
By wearing that hat, he’ll attract money from Musk, I’d hope.
As SCIENCE would say, “Let er rip”
By leaving WHO, the US would lose its voice at the World Health Assembly, and the country and its many health agencies would lose access to critical health information.
Margaret Heffernan, a behavioural researcher with a focus is on Public health policy at RMIT University, said the US was shooting itself in the foot.
“The irrational withdrawal of the USA from the WHO now makes the USA vulnerable to decreased human capital and quality of life on all health indicators, lack of guidance on informed health emergencies, depleted health literacy and increase in non-communicable and communicable diseases,” Dr Heffernan said.
“With USA international travel this potentially increases the disease risk for Australia making everyone globally vulnerable.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-25/donald-trump-executive-order-us-withdrawal-who/104850406
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:not a glowing reference.
Clearly poor choice by Trump.
which makes it the right choice.
trump picked up the stray Kennedy voters. firmed the field.
Jon Stewart interviews AOC.. really interesting for those that are curious as to the ongoing platform that the Dems may, or may not, take forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeheoxWzf2o
Note this video goes for an hour.
roughbarked said:
As SCIENCE would say, “Let er rip”By leaving WHO, the US would lose its voice at the World Health Assembly, and the country and its many health agencies would lose access to critical health information.
Margaret Heffernan, a behavioural researcher with a focus is on Public health policy at RMIT University, said the US was shooting itself in the foot.
“The irrational withdrawal of the USA from the WHO now makes the USA vulnerable to decreased human capital and quality of life on all health indicators, lack of guidance on informed health emergencies, depleted health literacy and increase in non-communicable and communicable diseases,” Dr Heffernan said.
“With USA international travel this potentially increases the disease risk for Australia making everyone globally vulnerable.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-25/donald-trump-executive-order-us-withdrawal-who/104850406
We’ll just have start treating them like infected livestock. Keep them separate from everyone else, wear protective clothing, quarantine where necessary.
You know, like they’re ‘unclean’.
diddly-squat said:
Jon Stewart interviews AOC.. really interesting for those that are curious as to the ongoing platform that the Dems may, or may not, take forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeheoxWzf2o
Note this video goes for an hour.
diddly-squat said:
Jon Stewart interviews AOC.. really interesting for those that are curious as to the ongoing platform that the Dems may, or may not, take forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeheoxWzf2o
Note this video goes for an hour.
Have to take Mrs S to a doc’s appointment.
Does it boil down to ‘sit back and watch Trump’s mob trash the place, and hope there’s enough left in the wreckage afterwards to bodge something together’?
This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
diddly-squat said:
This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
and how long is this one?
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
and how long is this one?
20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
diddly-squat said:
This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
Most people here are only interested in stuff that reinforces their world view.
I hope this is not one of those……………..those objective things and stuff.
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
and how long is this one?
20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
I seem to have a lot of tabs opened that I haven’t bothered to watch too much of.
BREAKING: MASS CHAOS AS TRUMP FREEZES ALL MEDICAID SPENDING!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dS-NAd-v8
six and a half minutes.
sarahs mum said:
BREAKING: MASS CHAOS AS TRUMP FREEZES ALL MEDICAID SPENDING!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dS-NAd-v8
six and a half minutes.
There have been further updates on this. Judges doing stuff, and constituents contacting senators etc.
I can’t be arsed to find links.
sarahs mum said:
BREAKING: MASS CHAOS AS TRUMP FREEZES ALL MEDICAID SPENDING!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dS-NAd-v8
six and a half minutes.
Bloodbath!
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
BREAKING: MASS CHAOS AS TRUMP FREEZES ALL MEDICAID SPENDING!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dS-NAd-v8
six and a half minutes.
There have been further updates on this. Judges doing stuff, and constituents contacting senators etc.
I can’t be arsed to find links.
they’ll go past in due time.
Would you still love JD Vance if he was a worm?
Oh wait, he is!
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5107827-vance-defends-trumps-jan-6-pardons-including-those-who-attacked-police/
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:This also worth a listen..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88
Jon Stewart’s monologue from this week’s Daily Show
and how long is this one?
20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
but it is our shit. which makes a difference. not yours.
Republican Senate candidate and conservative intellectual Sam Parker has called for Selena Gomez to be deported following her tearful Instagram video concerning the detention of children arrested in ICE raids. Gomez was born in Texas to Texas born parents.
Boris said:
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:and how long is this one?
20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
but it is our shit. which makes a difference. not yours.
For mine, watching those late night host shows is just depressing now.
dv said:
Watching shit on the internet is preferable to watching shit on the TV.
Boris said:
diddly-squat said:20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
but it is our shit. which makes a difference. not yours.
For mine, watching those late night host shows is just depressing now.
dv said:
Boris said:
diddly-squat said:
20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
but it is our shit. which makes a difference. not yours.
For mine, watching those late night host shows is just depressing now.
Just use the transcript damn yous all.
Because of fucking course
dv said:
Republican Senate candidate and conservative intellectual Sam Parker has called for Selena Gomez to be deported following her tearful Instagram video concerning the detention of children arrested in ICE raids. Gomez was born in Texas to Texas born parents.
Another “conservative intellectual”.
Maybe “conservative intellectual” = “idiot”.
dv said:
Republican Senate candidate and conservative intellectual Sam Parker has called for Selena Gomez to be deported following her tearful Instagram video concerning the detention of children arrested in ICE raids. Gomez was born in Texas to Texas born parents.
wait who does she think she is anyway did the national socialists let the Jews born in Germany stay and enjoy the show
dv said:
Because of fucking course
Dipshits egotists and intellectuals¿
dv said:
Because of fucking course
Likely a loyalist.
If RFKJ gets the job, this bloke should expect a call from him:
captain_spalding said:
If RFKJ gets the job, this bloke should expect a call from him:
One doesn’t have to accept the treatment. Nobody’s forcing other people to take statins etc. It’s a recommendation by somebody far more knowledgeable and experienced.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
If RFKJ gets the job, this bloke should expect a call from him:
One doesn’t have to accept the treatment. Nobody’s forcing other people to take statins etc. It’s a recommendation by somebody far more knowledgeable and experienced.
YES. I have a friend who would never go to the doctor no matter how much anyone begged him to. Now he has no choice because he collapsed in public and was subsequently taken to hospital. Now he knows that he has advanced Parkinsons and is aware that he may die very soon.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
If RFKJ gets the job, this bloke should expect a call from him:
One doesn’t have to accept the treatment. Nobody’s forcing other people to take statins etc. It’s a recommendation by somebody far more knowledgeable and experienced.
Tamb said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
If RFKJ gets the job, this bloke should expect a call from him:
One doesn’t have to accept the treatment. Nobody’s forcing other people to take statins etc. It’s a recommendation by somebody far more knowledgeable and experienced.
I was pulled back from the brink of death by chemo. 6 years later I’m still here. Maybe the gent is in error.
Most definitely he’s in error.
who needs the cdc?
sarahs mum said:
who needs the cdc?
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/28/health/tuberculosis-outbreak-kansas/index.html
sarahs mum said:
who needs the cdc?
Sings:
Everything’s up to date in Kansas city
They gone about as fur as they can go…
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10h ·
January 27, 2025 (Monday)
Ta.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
who needs the cdc?
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/28/health/tuberculosis-outbreak-kansas/index.html
ah so it’s
Nationally, tuberculosis case counts in the United States increased in 2023 among all age groups and in most reporting jurisdictions, according to a report released last year by the CDC. The numbers of reported cases rose slightly from 8,320 in 2022 to 9,615 in 2023, and the rate of TB rose from 2.5 cases per 100,000 people in 2022 to 2.9 in 2023. But the report emphasizes that the United States has “one of the lowest TB rates in the world” and that most US residents are at “minimal risk” for TB.
Sleepy Joe’s fault
Heather Cox Richardson
6h ·
January 28, 2025 (Tuesday)
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a plan for a second Trump term prepared by a number of right-wing institutions led by the Heritage Foundation. The plan called for dismantling the nonpartisan civil service and replacing it with officers loyal to an extraordinarily strong executive. It called for that strong executive to take control of the Department of Justice and the military and then, once firmly in power, to impose Christian nationalism on the country.
The members of the Heritage Foundation who wrote Project 2025 are closely aligned with Hungarian president Victor Orbán’s Danube Institute, and their plan looks much like his erosion of democracy to create a dictatorship that enforces white male Christian patriarchy. On Monday, Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times reflected on the influence of Hungary on the American right wing, posting: “it has always been wild to me that the model these guys have for the united states is a country that would rival mississippi for poorest state if it became part of this country.”
Once people heard about Project 2025, they came out strongly against it. Trump then maintained he knew nothing about the plan, although many of the people involved in it had been part of his first administration.
On January 24, Nik Popli noted in Time magazine that a number of the people who wrote Project 2025 have been tapped to serve in Trump’s second administration and that nearly two thirds of the executive orders Trump has signed either mirror or partly mirror the plans in that nearly 900-page document. “The real shame is that on the campaign trail, Trump did not level with Americans,” Skye Perryman of the legal organization Democracy Forward told Popli. “He didn’t seek to try to convince Americans that this was his agenda. He acted as if he didn’t have anything to do with Project 2025, when we know and have seen that he’s really seeking to accelerate that agenda.”
On Monday, January 27, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued to agency heads guidance for how to implement what was, in Trump’s first term, known as “Schedule F,” a plan to replace the nonpartisan civil servant system established in 1883 with people loyal to Trump. As soon as he took office, former president Joe Biden rescinded Schedule F, but it has come back in Trump’s second term as “Schedule Policy/Career.”
The plan strips tens of thousands of federal workers of their civil service protections. Don Kettl of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy told Erich Wagner of Government Executive that the new rules say “the responsibility of people in the executive branch is to do what the president says, as he decides it should be done, and anyone who doesn’t is subject to firing…. It’s a flat-out assertion of presidential authority under Article II that I’ve never seen put quite so broadly.”
Today, the Trump administration sent an email blast titled “Fork in the Road” to federal workers offering to let them resign and keep their pay until September, a transparent attempt to clear places for loyalists. Judd Legum of Popular Information noted that this sure looked like Elon Musk was “spiking the ball,” as this was the same subject line he sent to Twitter employees when he bought the company. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo looked at the buyout proposal and noted that “zero legal authority exists to do this.”
Last night, legal commentator Joyce White Vance detailed the Trump administration’s attacks on the independence of the Department of Justice. On Monday, Trump’s acting attorney general fired more than a dozen lawyers who worked on the criminal prosecutions of now-president Trump, after reassigning many more. In a statement, an official for the department said that the acting attorney general “does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.” In a masterpiece of gaslighting, the statement added: “This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”
Vance points out that “n administration can’t fire career federal prosecutors based on their perceived political loyalties.” She continues: “The real witch hunt is here. And it’s a warning to all other federal employees to mind their loyalty if they want to keep their jobs. That’s the point. Trump knows he can’t lawfully fire these people in this manner. He wants to make the point that he’s willing to do it, in hopes others will stay in line.”
Trump appears to be trying to gain control over the military and turn it into a political instrument. In his inaugural address he said he would free the U.S. military “to focus on their sole mission: defeating America’s enemies.” But, in fact, the stated mission of the U.S. military is “to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.” Those two statements are not the same thing.
As Michael T. Klare wrote today in The Nation, the focus of Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, former Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth, is not to ensure the nation’s security, but to fight “the ‘Marxists’ in government, the media, and civil society who, he claims, have instilled ‘wokism’ in the US military—that is, a commitment to racial and gender diversity.”
When Republican senators balked at confirming Hegseth, Trump’s allies forced him through by a vote of 50–50, with Vice President J.D. Vance, who shares Hegseth’s right-wing religious extremism, casting the deciding vote.
Today, Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan, and Alex Horton of the Washington Post reported that Hegseth has stripped retired former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Mark Milley of his security detail, revoked his security clearance, and ordered an inspector general to investigate his behavior. Trump appointed Milley but came to despise him because he stood against Trump’s unconstitutional orders.
While strafing the independent civil service, the Justice Department, and the military, the administration is also working to strengthen the hand of the president. Over the weekend, Trump openly broke a law passed by Congress in 2022 to limit his ability to fire inspectors general, and when met with shrugs by Republican enablers, the administration moved to bigger power grabs.
It is ignoring a 1974 law that says the president must disburse monies appropriated by Congress, passed after President Richard Nixon tried to override the power of Congress by “impounding” the money it appropriated for things lawmakers thought would benefit their constituents. Federal money, after all, belongs to the American people. The authors of Project 2025 insist that the 1974 Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and that the president can decide simply to stop funding the things Congress deems important, thus reducing Congress from the lawmaking body the Constitution established to a sort of advisory body.
When Trump tried this in 2019, impounding money Congress had appropriated for Ukraine’s fight against Russian incursions in order to force Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to smear Trump’s political rival Joe Biden, the House of Representatives impeached him. Although Republican senators agreed Trump was guilty, they acquitted him, fearing that convicting him would hurt their party in the 2020 elections.
On Friday the Trump administration froze all foreign aid appropriated by Congress. “We get tired of giving massive amounts of money to countries that hate us, don’t we?” Trump said on Monday, but the truth is that American soft power has been crucial in maintaining U.S. global influence since World War II. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called it “dumb and murderous,” adding: “Tons of kids are just going to die needlessly” as U.S.-funded food supplies for famine-stricken Sudan stop. “The terrorists will benefit” as U.S. money for prisons holding ISIS members dries up. “The point of all this is to destroy U.S. power in the world,” Murphy wrote. “That primarily helps China, who is INCREASING its aid programs as we disappear. China—the place where all of Trump’s billionaires make their products and want deals to open markets. Think there’s a connection?”
International aid groups that depend on U.S. funding appeared shocked. “The recent stop-work cable from the State Department suspends programs that support America’s global leadership and creates dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill,” said InterAction, the largest alliance of international aid organizations. “This halt interrupts critical life-saving work including clean water to infants, basic education for kids, ending the trafficking of girls, and providing medications to children and others suffering from disease. It stops assistance in countries critical to U.S.
interests, including Taiwan, Syria, and Pakistan. And, it halts decades of life-saving work through PEPFAR that helps babies to be born HIV-free.”
International aid organizations hoped the decision would be reversed, but on Monday night the Trump administration accused the leadership of USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, of trying to get around its order to freeze all foreign aid, and it placed dozens of career officials on administrative leave. Still, after an outcry, newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio today announced a temporary waiver for certain “lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” although what that means is unclear.
On Monday, Trump’s White House budget office went even further in strengthening Trump. It ordered a pause on all federal government grants and loans, requiring them all to guarantee that they ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and stop spending for clean energy initiatives. According to Jeff Stein, Jacob Bogage, and Emily Davies of the Washington Post, the memo sent to government agencies said programs affected are “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
Georgetown University Law Center professor Josh Chafetz wrote: “There is simply no plausible argument that the president has the constitutional authority to refuse to spend appropriated funds because he doesn’t like how the money is being spent…. And it’s hard to think of anything more destructive of our constitutional order than a claim that a president can either spend funds that have not been appropriated or refuse to spend funds that have.”
Today, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters: “Last night President Trump plunged the country into chaos…. The Trump administration announced a halt to virtually all federal funds across the country. In an instant, Donald Trump has shut off billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that directly support states, cities, towns, schools, hospitals, small businesses, and, most of all, American families. This is a dagger at the heart of the average American family in red states, in blue states, in cities, in suburbs, in rural areas…. Funds for things like disaster assistance, local law enforcement, rural hospitals, aid to the elderly, food for people in need, all are on the chopping block.” “Congress approved these investments and they are not optional,” Schumer said; “they are the law.”
While it is unclear what this freeze covers, Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post says there is general agreement that it includes discretionary spending, including the Head Start early childhood development program and WIC, the nutrition program for mothers and infants. Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) wrote that Trump’s order is “illegal & dictatorial & Americans will die as a result.”
Senator Angus King (I-ME) called Trump’s impoundment of all federal grants and loans “blatantly unconstitutional.” “This is a profound constitutional issue,” he continued. “What happened last night is the most direct assault on the authority of Congress…in the history of the United States.”
This evening a federal judge issued a stay to stop the Trump administration’s freeze on the disbursement of federal monies. Judge Loren L. AliKahn of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has paused the measure until Monday evening while she hears arguments concerning it.
Today, CNN host Jim Acosta, a Trump critic, announced on air he was leaving the channel after its management tried to move him to a middle-of-the-night slot. “People often ask me if the highlight of my career at CNN was at the White House covering Donald Trump,” Acosta said. “Actually, no. That moment came…when I covered…President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba in 2016 and had the chance to question the dictator there, Raul Castro, about the island’s political prisoners. As the son of a Cuban refugee I took home this lesson: It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant. I’ve always believed it is the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN and I plan on…doing…that in the future. One final message: Don’t give into the lies. Don’t give into the fear. Hold onto the truth and to hope. Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message: I will not give in to the lies. I will not give into the fear. Post it on your social media.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
6h ·
January 28, 2025 (Tuesday)During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a plan for a second Trump term prepared by a number of right-wing institutions led by the Heritage Foundation. The plan called for dismantling the nonpartisan civil service and replacing it with officers loyal to an extraordinarily strong executive. It called for that strong executive to take control of the Department of Justice and the military and then, once firmly in power, to impose Christian nationalism on the country.
The members of the Heritage Foundation who wrote Project 2025 are closely aligned with Hungarian president Victor Orbán’s Danube Institute, and their plan looks much like his erosion of democracy to create a dictatorship that enforces white male Christian patriarchy. On Monday, Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times reflected on the influence of Hungary on the American right wing, posting: “it has always been wild to me that the model these guys have for the united states is a country that would rival mississippi for poorest state if it became part of this country.”
(snip)
I have just watched this video popped up in my YT feed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDG-4g_XzEQ
lunk
24 minutes but worth a listen. In the video a Russian lady tries to explain the Russian social class structure and how it works. She explains that it is very close to a feudal system adapted to an industrial economy. It operates on a system of patrons and vassals. Those higher up have ther resources and wealth within their grasp, which they share out to people who are willing to become their vassals.
Well worth a listen to how she explains it. It is a very hierarchical system, not even remotely based on merit.
It get the feeling that the neo-right in many countries, including the US and Hungary, even in the UK and other places – want to adopt features of this system.
Even though it describes Putin and Russia, to me it echoes axactly hoe Trump sees himself, and what he expects of his cronies.
She compares it to a mafia clan system, but the big difference is that instead of the mafia clan being opposed to the state and the law, they are the state and the law.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
6h ·
January 28, 2025 (Tuesday)During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a plan for a second Trump term prepared by a number of right-wing institutions led by the Heritage Foundation. The plan called for dismantling the nonpartisan civil service and replacing it with officers loyal to an extraordinarily strong executive. It called for that strong executive to take control of the Department of Justice and the military and then, once firmly in power, to impose Christian nationalism on the country.
The members of the Heritage Foundation who wrote Project 2025 are closely aligned with Hungarian president Victor Orbán’s Danube Institute, and their plan looks much like his erosion of democracy to create a dictatorship that enforces white male Christian patriarchy. On Monday, Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times reflected on the influence of Hungary on the American right wing, posting: “it has always been wild to me that the model these guys have for the united states is a country that would rival mississippi for poorest state if it became part of this country.”
(snip)
I have just watched this video popped up in my YT feed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDG-4g_XzEQ
lunk24 minutes but worth a listen. In the video a Russian lady tries to explain the Russian social class structure and how it works. She explains that it is very close to a feudal system adapted to an industrial economy. It operates on a system of patrons and vassals. Those higher up have ther resources and wealth within their grasp, which they share out to people who are willing to become their vassals.
Well worth a listen to how she explains it. It is a very hierarchical system, not even remotely based on merit.
It get the feeling that the neo-right in many countries, including the US and Hungary, even in the UK and other places – want to adopt features of this system.
Even though it describes Putin and Russia, to me it echoes axactly hoe Trump sees himself, and what he expects of his cronies.
She compares it to a mafia clan system, but the big difference is that instead of the mafia clan being opposed to the state and the law, they are the state and the law.
i keep on reflecting on the us propaganda i was raised on. the untouchables etc. the fight against the mob. the mob owns it all now.
to me this is a bit of a light bulb moment. This is what these people actually want to achieve. A strictly hierarchical feudal like society where wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a small few, and then carefully doled out and delegated to willing and loyal vassals down the line. Anyone who wants a share of it has to kiss arse (and probably more) to get on the ladder. the little people don’t count, dissenters don’t count. Experts don’t count for very much.
party_pants said:
to me this is a bit of a light bulb moment. This is what these people actually want to achieve. A strictly hierarchical feudal like society where wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a small few, and then carefully doled out and delegated to willing and loyal vassals down the line. Anyone who wants a share of it has to kiss arse (and probably more) to get on the ladder. the little people don’t count, dissenters don’t count. Experts don’t count for very much.
buckley’s chance of getting to Mars.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
to me this is a bit of a light bulb moment. This is what these people actually want to achieve. A strictly hierarchical feudal like society where wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a small few, and then carefully doled out and delegated to willing and loyal vassals down the line. Anyone who wants a share of it has to kiss arse (and probably more) to get on the ladder. the little people don’t count, dissenters don’t count. Experts don’t count for very much.
buckley’s chance of getting to Mars.
Mars will never happen in our lifetime.
You cannot have a free society in an artificially contrived and maintained environment. It has to be a hierarchical system with military like discipline.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
to me this is a bit of a light bulb moment. This is what these people actually want to achieve. A strictly hierarchical feudal like society where wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a small few, and then carefully doled out and delegated to willing and loyal vassals down the line. Anyone who wants a share of it has to kiss arse (and probably more) to get on the ladder. the little people don’t count, dissenters don’t count. Experts don’t count for very much.
buckley’s chance of getting to Mars.
Mars will never happen in our lifetime.
You cannot have a free society in an artificially contrived and maintained environment. It has to be a hierarchical system with military like discipline.
i don’t know why they want to go mars anyway.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:buckley’s chance of getting to Mars.
Mars will never happen in our lifetime.
You cannot have a free society in an artificially contrived and maintained environment. It has to be a hierarchical system with military like discipline.
i don’t know why they want to go mars anyway.
In case an asteroid hits the Earth and wipes out the planet, they can still carry on at Mars. That seems to be about the only reasoning. But I think it is naff.
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle Station…
The plan for SpaceX to retrieve Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore has been planned for months.
The ship they will ride home on, the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 is, in fact, docked on-station at the ISS right now. It’s been there since AUGUST OF LAST YEAR.
Due to safety protocols, the ISS doesn’t detach the return ship until a new ship is docked — so there’s always a lifeboat on-station in case of emergency.
The new ship, SpaceX Crew-10, is scheduled to launch in March — and has been since long before Trump took office.
Williams and Wilmore are not stranded. They were reassigned to the International Space Station’s crew after problems developed with the Boeing Starliner Calypso and it had to return to earth un-crewed for safety reasons. They aren’t stranded. They weren’t abandoned by the Biden Administration. They are NASA astronauts currently assigned to the ISS. That’s their job and they certainly aren’t complaining about getting time on orbit. Astronauts fight for that opportunity.
Trump’s statement is just so much taking credit for something already done. Just like his “I sent the military to turn on the water in California.”
___
Addendum: Though I do like the part where Trump seems to imply Elon Musk will personally pilot the rescue spacecraft himself.
Good luck, Elon!!!
I am strongly opposed to nearly everything Trump stands for, but I would support blasting Elon Musk into space.
ah well at least something light for your opening
kii said:
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle Station…
Williams and Wilmore are not stranded. They were reassigned to the International Space Station’s crew after problems developed with the Boeing Starliner Calypso and it had to return to earth un-crewed for safety reasons. They aren’t stranded. They weren’t abandoned by the Biden Administration. They are NASA astronauts currently assigned to the ISS. That’s their job and they certainly aren’t complaining about getting time on orbit. Astronauts fight for that opportunity.
LOL saying it more times makes it truer¡
Yeah right….
Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay opened to hold illegal migrants.
Sending innocent illegals to a jail made for terrorists.
Well well. I didn’t really expect Penn Jillette to be uttering these words.
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump — at one time the New York Times printed a list of who Trump hated the most. I was number seven. To give you an idea, Hillary Clinton was number eight.
Oh my! What did you do?
This is not what I really did, but this is the funny version. I said his hair looked like cotton candy made of piss.
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
In the face of all of that, what gives you hope?
People.
The fact that people are good and things always get better. If you look at the big picture, every 20-year period has gotten better. I mean, all we have to mention is sanitation and then you’re done.
I also think the more power you give to women, the less death and suffering there is. It’s just always been true. And I do believe that that arc always swings towards decency.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
roughbarked said:
Yeah right….
Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay opened to hold illegal migrants.
Sending innocent illegals to a jail made for terrorists.
how are the showers there do they smell like fresh almonds
roughbarked said:
Yeah right….Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay opened to hold illegal migrants.
Sending innocent illegals to a jail made for terrorists.
Gees.. can you imagine living in a country where the government holds immigration detainees in an an offshore processing facility…
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
6h ·
January 28, 2025 (Tuesday)During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a plan for a second Trump term prepared by a number of right-wing institutions led by the Heritage Foundation. The plan called for dismantling the nonpartisan civil service and replacing it with officers loyal to an extraordinarily strong executive. It called for that strong executive to take control of the Department of Justice and the military and then, once firmly in power, to impose Christian nationalism on the country.
———————————————cut————————————————-
Today, CNN host Jim Acosta, a Trump critic, announced on air he was leaving the channel after its management tried to move him to a middle-of-the-night slot. “People often ask me if the highlight of my career at CNN was at the White House covering Donald Trump,” Acosta said. “Actually, no. That moment came…when I covered…President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba in 2016 and had the chance to question the dictator there, Raul Castro, about the island’s political prisoners. As the son of a Cuban refugee I took home this lesson: It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant. I’ve always believed it is the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN and I plan on…doing…that in the future. One final message: Don’t give into the lies. Don’t give into the fear. Hold onto the truth and to hope. Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message: I will not give in to the lies. I will not give into the fear. Post it on your social media.”
Thanks.
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
Yeah right….Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay opened to hold illegal migrants.
Sending innocent illegals to a jail made for terrorists.
Gees.. can you imagine living in a country where the government holds immigration detainees in an an offshore processing facility…
exactly right remember at the start of Pandemic how those dirty ASIAN Australian citizens returning from normal travel to CHINA were locked up in Christmas Island detention for their own safety
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
Yeah right….Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay opened to hold illegal migrants.
Sending innocent illegals to a jail made for terrorists.
Gees.. can you imagine living in a country where the government holds immigration detainees in an an offshore processing facility…
But when have we sent 30,000 people offshore?
From ABC News:
From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
captain_spalding said:
From ABC News:
From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
they say this every year and every year the national socialism advances so talk is talk have they done anything to halt it
captain_spalding said:
From ABC News:From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
Is this a reference to something I’ve said? I’ve never suggested some pollies aren’t arseholes, I’ve merely said that they’re exactly like everyone else, the good and the bad in degrees of venality.
SCIENCE said:
What a pity that Ben Franklin, or someone like him, didn’t sneak something of that sort into the amendments to the US Consitution.
Then, the right to universal health care could be as vigorously defended as the right to carry a machine gun.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
From ABC News:From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
Is this a reference to something I’ve said? I’ve never suggested some pollies aren’t arseholes, I’ve merely said that they’re exactly like everyone else, the good and the bad in degrees of venality.
No, Witty, not you. You’ve expressed opinions about my opinions in a forthright manner on several occasions (a healthy thing for both of us, i should say), but this wasn’t one of yours. :)
captain_spalding said:
From ABC News:From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
In fairness, if you were a person with political aspirations you’d have to be barking mad not to look at what Trump has done and try to understand how you could emulate some of his political tactics.
diddly-squat said:
In fairness, if you were a person with political aspirations you’d have to be barking mad not to look at what Trump has done and try to understand how you could emulate some of his political tactics.
Yeah, i mean, if someone showed you a way to manipulate poker machines to cough up jackpots, would you forswear its use on grounds of ‘principle’?
captain_spalding said:
From ABC News:From ‘Chit Chat: Penn Jillette on truth, working with Timothée Chalamet and having Donald Trump for a boss’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/penn-and-teller-donald-trump-marty-supreme/104872384
I hate to even say this word but I know Trump and I don’t believe he ever lies.
A lie has respect for the truth in that it negates it. Bullshit is just anything that pops into your head, and it negates the whole idea of truth.
He bullshits, which is worse, he has made no attempt to find out what’s true and then negate it. He just says whatever he wants. That is much more dangerous. Once you’ve thrown out the idea there is an agreeable truth, I think we’re done.
And:
As much as we laugh about this, I think I need to say that, as dire as you think the situation in the United States is, I believe it’s that bad or worse. Because I know Trump…
And:
It’s really bad in the US, and it’s totally beyond comprehension, because it’s not just the US, this kind of crazy despot is catching on everywhere.
So, there’s at least one person besides me who suggests that political figures in countries other than the US (including Western ‘democracies) are taking note of what Trump gets away with, and considering (if not actually) applying the strategies.
Or perhaps Penn Jillette just shares my predilection for parading your own saintliness.
They are all taking note of what Trump gets away with, and they are all considering it.
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
diddly-squat said:
In fairness, if you were a person with political aspirations you’d have to be barking mad not to look at what Trump has done and try to understand how you could emulate some of his political tactics.
In the US, maybe.
It tends not to fly in Australia. In the last election there was some attempt on the Lib right to follow American trends by complaining about “wokeness” and there was a negative correlation between the number of times they did that and their electoral success. Clearest example was Katherine Deves, who managed to get 33% of the vote in a blue ribbon Liberal seat.
It’s a very different political system in Australia, and (at the risk of you calling me an elitist) there seem to be fewer pitiably ignorant people here. Gabbling mendacious lunatics tend to be marginalised politically in Australia. I don’t think someone Trumpish would even last a week as the leader of a major party in Australia.
Indeed I attribute the improvement in Dutton’s approval numbers to his success at moderating his message and staying well within the bounds of normality. He’s stepped away from the ideological wars, gone back to basics.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:In fairness, if you were a person with political aspirations you’d have to be barking mad not to look at what Trump has done and try to understand how you could emulate some of his political tactics.
In the US, maybe.
It tends not to fly in Australia. In the last election there was some attempt on the Lib right to follow American trends by complaining about “wokeness” and there was a negative correlation between the number of times they did that and their electoral success. Clearest example was Katherine Deves, who managed to get 33% of the vote in a blue ribbon Liberal seat.
It’s a very different political system in Australia, and (at the risk of you calling me an elitist) there seem to be fewer pitiably ignorant people here. Gabbling mendacious lunatics tend to be marginalised politically in Australia. I don’t think someone Trumpish would even last a week as the leader of a major party in Australia.
Indeed I attribute the improvement in Dutton’s approval numbers to his success at moderating his message and staying well within the bounds of normality. He’s stepped away from the ideological wars, gone back to basics.
I mean I don’t think you could take a blueprint of his success and directly translate it here, or in other countries for that matter…. but there are certain aspects that either right leaning politicians or even populists could cherry pick from.
Largely I think Trump has (as most successful politicians do) taken advantage of a moment in time (right time right place kind of thing) – in a lot of way it reminds me of the Tony Abbot win from opposition in that he was able to deliver a populist message against the backdrop of a largely unpopular incumbent.
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Love it!
:)
sarahs mum said:
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
dv said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
kii said:Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
dv said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
guantanemo.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
OK but in the meantime what’s the considered good faith argument
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
LolLol. 😂
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Navajo Nation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwest U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers since Wednesday.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement read.”
https://www.axios.com/…/federal-funding-freeze-memo…
Wrong link, sm?
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/01/28/native-americans-ice-immigration-trump-birthright-citizenship
“Between the lines: Congress did not grant citizenship to Native Americans until 1924 — a development President Trump’s lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily-blocked executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.
His attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that “birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.”
Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against members’ citizenship.”
I’ll say.
Boris said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
LolLol. 😂
You are really pathetic. Are you okay with diddly-squat making fun of a deadly situation?
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Where the fuck are they going to deport them to?
I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
It’s a joke, Joyce.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
It’s a joke, Joyce.
LOL, it’s diddly, so got to attack. It’s stupid.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Shut the fuck up you idiot.
It’s a joke, Joyce.
LOL, it’s diddly, so got to attack. It’s stupid.
I dunno, diddly’s comment may very well be insightful: it could reflect Trump’s own ‘logic’ on the matter.
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:It’s a joke, Joyce.
LOL, it’s diddly, so got to attack. It’s stupid.
I dunno, diddly’s comment may very well be insightful: it could reflect Trump’s own ‘logic’ on the matter.
yes, I can imagine him thinking like that.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:LOL, it’s diddly, so got to attack. It’s stupid.
I dunno, diddly’s comment may very well be insightful: it could reflect Trump’s own ‘logic’ on the matter.
yes, I can imagine him thinking like that.
I’m sure he’ll deny it if you ask him but at the same time confirm and go further.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I mean… I think it’s pretty clear that Indians come from India
Shut the fuck up you idiot.
It’s a joke, Joyce.
So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Shut the fuck up you idiot.
It’s a joke, Joyce.
So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:It’s a joke, Joyce.
So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
I see kii is getting hysterical.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:It’s a joke, Joyce.
So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
The young man who was here today is quietly terrified about this. He’s bought a gun in case he gets attacked by the local racist thugs. He has fairly dark skin, born in NM and mostly Hispanic.
At 21 years of age he has his own business, and also works for a local funeral home picking up people who die at home.
He gets picked on by old white men who contract him to do backbreaking yard work, one flicked his nose because he thought that the dead weeds weren’t cut short enough.
He also has a speech impediment that attracts ridicule from his customers.
Your stupid comments are offensive.
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
I reckon that’s dodgy, too.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
I reckon that’s dodgy, too.
Likely.
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Hysterical and knee-jerk.
Excellent
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
Oh, look! It’s the old man who has to comment on everything 🙄
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Amerind.
I reckon that’s dodgy, too.
Likely.
“Amerind” or “Amerindian”
The term “Amerind”/“Amerindian” is a portmanteau of “American Indian”. It was coined in 1902 by the American Anthropological Association, but from its creation has been controversial. It was rejected by some leading members of the Association, and while adopted by many it was never universally accepted. Usage in English occurs primarily in anthropological and linguistic contexts, rather than Native American ones; it also finds some use in news outlets in describing the Taíno people of Puerto Rico. The term “Amerind” has official status in Guyana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:So it’s okay to make tired old racist jokes about people’s lives?
Fucking typical.
I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
The young man who was here today is quietly terrified about this. He’s bought a gun in case he gets attacked by the local racist thugs. He has fairly dark skin, born in NM and mostly Hispanic.
At 21 years of age he has his own business, and also works for a local funeral home picking up people who die at home.
He gets picked on by old white men who contract him to do backbreaking yard work, one flicked his nose because he thought that the dead weeds weren’t cut short enough.
He also has a speech impediment that attracts ridicule from his customers.
Your stupid comments are offensive.
That young man has a good deal to be worried about, and his situation is horrifying.
However, your comments are also often offensive.
I like you, kii, and i wish you well. But, to put it bluntly, you often engage your mouth before you employ your brain.
You’re a person living under a great deal of strain, in difficult circumstances, in a ‘foreign’ country which seems hell-bent on destroying itself. We all understand that.
But, this does not give you any special insight, any moral high ground, any privileged position. You are not always right. You are often right, but not always right.
You do not accept criticism, however mild, at all. You do not tolerate any view or observation that does not entirely coincide with your own, and what you consider to be the final and incontestable evidence of your own own opinions, experiences and perceptions.
When you encounter something that’s in any way contrary to those things, your only strategies are to cite an example or experience, which is as likely as not to be in the vein of a non sequitur, or to go instantly to telling people to ‘fuck off’. Or both. And that’s all of the shots there are in your locker.
In this latest case, you did not take time to assess the remark that diddly squat made, or you would have easily seen that he was referringto the misnomer of ‘Indian’, and not the people to who it is applied. You did not apply the Rule of Comedy Writing: to ask yourself ‘what are we supposed to be laughing at here?’. It’s obvious that we’re ‘laughing’ at a word, not a people.
Like one or two other Forumites, you seem to use the Forum as an outlet for hostility, aggression, and frustration. Pop in here, hang around for a bit, and you’ll probably find someone who makes a remark that provides an excuse for you to tell them to ‘fuck off’, and/or offer your assessment of their negative character traits.
I expect that you will do precisely that for me, and you’re welcome to. I most assuredly have faults and defects, and they can be pointed out to me. The difference between us is, i will consider what is said, and see if any of it is valid, and how i can use it for betterment.
As i say, i like you, kii, and i hope that you can get through all of your trials and tribulations, and arrive at a happy place. This is something of a good-bye letter to you, as i expect that i’ll now be on your ‘attack-on-sight’ list, and that pleasant discourse between us (from one side, at least) will no longer be possible.
I may well regret posting all of this, but, you will always have my support, kii, and my earnest hopes for your well-being.
LOL
SCIENCE said:
LOL
+1
captain_spalding said:
Like one or two other Forumites, you seem to use the Forum as an outlet for hostility, aggression, and frustration. Pop in here, hang around for a bit, and you’ll probably find someone who makes a remark that provides an excuse for you to tell them to ‘fuck off’, and/or offer your assessment of their negative character traits.
well look we’re sorry but fuck yous yous’re all still a bunch of our souls
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Like one or two other Forumites, you seem to use the Forum as an outlet for hostility, aggression, and frustration. Pop in here, hang around for a bit, and you’ll probably find someone who makes a remark that provides an excuse for you to tell them to ‘fuck off’, and/or offer your assessment of their negative character traits.
well look we’re sorry but fuck yous yous’re all still a bunch of our souls
Yes, but we’re your favourite our souls.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Like one or two other Forumites, you seem to use the Forum as an outlet for hostility, aggression, and frustration. Pop in here, hang around for a bit, and you’ll probably find someone who makes a remark that provides an excuse for you to tell them to ‘fuck off’, and/or offer your assessment of their negative character traits.
well look we’re sorry but fuck yous yous’re all still a bunch of our souls
Yes, but we’re your favourite our souls.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:
I see kii is getting hysterical.
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
indigènes
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
indigènes
Indeed.
kii said:
Boris said:
kii said:Shut the fuck up you idiot.
LolLol. 😂
You are really pathetic. Are you okay with diddly-squat making fun of a deadly situation?
is this anything like how after the fires andor floods the people who lost everything and went home to rubble sat and laughed and they were wrong to do so
kii said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:It wasn’t a joke about the people, anyway.
It was, as cursory examination of the remark beyond a knee-jerk response to an opportunity to abuse someone would show, a reference to how the ‘popular’ but totally inaccurate misnomer of ‘Indian’ has been and often still is applied to Native American people.
Amerind.
Oh, look! It’s the old man who has to comment on everything 🙄
Oh, look! It’s the old woman who has to comment on everything 🙄
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie and Senator Mike Lee are advocating for the US to leave NATO. Congressman Andy Ogles has introduced a proposal to allow DJT to serve a thord term. I suspect neither of these ideas will get enough support in Congress to pass but then again I’ve overestimated these people before.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/thomas-massie-mike-lee-advocate-122240334.html
https://ogles.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-ogles-proposes-amending-22nd-amendment-allow-trump-serve-third-term
dv said:
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie and Senator Mike Lee are advocating for the US to leave NATO. Congressman Andy Ogles has introduced a proposal to allow DJT to serve a thord term. I suspect neither of these ideas will get enough support in Congress to pass but then again I’ve overestimated these people before.https://www.yahoo.com/news/thomas-massie-mike-lee-advocate-122240334.html
https://ogles.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-ogles-proposes-amending-22nd-amendment-allow-trump-serve-third-term
at least you can be sure that the second one won’t go anywhere.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
wait what the fuck
A regional American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening, U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. The aircraft went down in the Potomac River near the airport around 9 p.m. local time. A multi-agency search and rescue operation is underway, according to D.C. police.
oh wow
There.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Passenger jet collides with helicopter in Washington DC | ABC News
This footage was captured by a webcam situated on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Ats, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Passenger jet collides with helicopter in Washington DC | ABC News
This footage was captured by a webcam situated on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Ats, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River.
Of course, it’ll all somehow be Joe Biden’sfault.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
This footage was captured by a webcam situated on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Ats, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River.
Of course, it’ll all somehow be Joe Biden’sfault.
well that’s how the tail wags the dog i’n‘it
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
This was supposed to be his moment of redemption, his big I’m-not-actually-insane speech. Instead, it turned into a political demolition derby featuring protesters screaming that he was a liar and a killer, Bernie Sanders interrogating him about baby clothes, Elizabeth Warren asking if he planned to run HHS like a side hustle, and a surreal moment where Kennedy had to confirm that he probably said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon. By the end of the day, Capitol Police had forcibly removed more people from the chamber than a dive bar on St. Patrick’s Day.
Kennedy barely got through his opening statement before a woman exploded from the gallery like a jack-in-the-box filled with rage and science degrees.
“YOU LIE!” she screamed, holding up a sign that read VACCINES SAVE LIVES before being swiftly tackled and dragged out by Capitol Police.
Kennedy blinked rapidly, which is how you know he was hearing the voice of the worm that used to live in his brain whispering, Abort mission, Bobby. Abort mission.
A brief moment of peace settled over the room, and then it happened again.
“YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE!” another protester howled, launching into a full-body rage spiral before security carried her out, legs kicking, like a screaming suitcase with opinions.
Kennedy took a deep breath and tried to regain his footing, but Senator Ron Wyden had been waiting for this moment like a prosecutor with a personal vendetta.
“Are you lying to us, Mr. Kennedy?” Wyden snapped, staring daggers at him.
Kennedy forced a nervous smile, but it came out looking like he’d just been told he had to fight a horse for a parking spot.
“That claim has been repeatedly debunked,” he said, attempting to sound reasonable despite an entire room full of people who were watching YouTube compilations of him saying the exact opposite.
Wyden wasn’t buying it.
“You signed a petition to restrict access to the COVID vaccine. Did you or did you not?”
Kennedy mumbled something about the petition being “misrepresented” as the air in the room thickened with sweat, bad decisions, and organic supplements.
Wyden was gearing up for a finishing blow when another protester detonated like a landmine.
“YOU’RE A FRAUD!” she shrieked as security dragged her away in a full-body lock.
Even the cops looked exhausted now.
Then came Bernie Sanders, a man who has not been in the mood for nonsense since 1972.
“Are you supportive of these baby onesies?” he demanded.
The room froze.
Kennedy’s brain crashed like a Windows 98 PC.
“Excuse me?”
Sanders lifted a printed-out photo of a baby bodysuit covered in anti-vaccine slogans.
“These are being sold by the Children’s Health Defense, the organization you founded.”
Kennedy looked like he had just accidentally eaten a ghost pepper and was trying to play it cool.
“I—I don’t have oversight over that organization anymore,” he mumbled.
Sanders cracked his knuckles like a man ready to fistfight a CEO and leaned in.
“Are you supportive of these onesies?”
Kennedy started sweating through his suit.
Laughter rippled through the room. A Republican senator actually covered his face.
Kennedy, now looking desperate for a fire alarm to pull, tried to pivot to his real passion: banning corn syrup.
Sanders wasn’t having it.
Then Elizabeth Warren took the mic, radiating pure prosecutorial energy.
“Will you commit to not taking money from pharmaceutical companies while serving as Secretary of Health?” she asked, in the tone of a woman who already knew the answer but was going to enjoy watching him squirm.
Kennedy grinned like a dog that just chewed up your furniture and is hoping you’ll laugh it off.
“I don’t think they’d want to give me money,” he chuckled.
Warren did not chuckle.
“Will you commit to not profiting from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies while serving as HHS Secretary?”
Kennedy froze.
The color drained from his face.
“You’re asking me not to sue drug companies?” he said, voice rising.
“No, I’m not going to agree to that.”
Warren’s eyes gleamed like a hawk spotting a wounded rabbit.
“So you’ll be suing the same companies you’re supposed to regulate?”
Kennedy looked like he wanted to melt into his chair.
Then came Michael Bennet, a man who had been waiting patiently to drop a grenade into Kennedy’s lap.
“Did you say that Lyme disease was a militarily engineered bioweapon?” Bennet asked, deadpan.
Kennedy hesitated.
“I probably said that.”
The audience gasped.
Bennet cocked an eyebrow.
“Did you say that pesticides turn children transgender?”
Kennedy turned bone white.
“I don’t recall saying that.”
Bennet’s lip twitched.
“But you do recall saying Lyme disease was a bioweapon?”
Kennedy looked like he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart.
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.
The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
This was supposed to be his moment of redemption, his big I’m-not-actually-insane speech. Instead, it turned into a political demolition derby featuring protesters screaming that he was a liar and a killer, Bernie Sanders interrogating him about baby clothes, Elizabeth Warren asking if he planned to run HHS like a side hustle, and a surreal moment where Kennedy had to confirm that he probably said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon. By the end of the day, Capitol Police had forcibly removed more people from the chamber than a dive bar on St. Patrick’s Day.
Kennedy barely got through his opening statement before a woman exploded from the gallery like a jack-in-the-box filled with rage and science degrees.
“YOU LIE!” she screamed, holding up a sign that read VACCINES SAVE LIVES before being swiftly tackled and dragged out by Capitol Police.
Kennedy blinked rapidly, which is how you know he was hearing the voice of the worm that used to live in his brain whispering, Abort mission, Bobby. Abort mission.
A brief moment of peace settled over the room, and then it happened again.
“YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE!” another protester howled, launching into a full-body rage spiral before security carried her out, legs kicking, like a screaming suitcase with opinions.
Kennedy took a deep breath and tried to regain his footing, but Senator Ron Wyden had been waiting for this moment like a prosecutor with a personal vendetta.
“Are you lying to us, Mr. Kennedy?” Wyden snapped, staring daggers at him.
Kennedy forced a nervous smile, but it came out looking like he’d just been told he had to fight a horse for a parking spot.
“That claim has been repeatedly debunked,” he said, attempting to sound reasonable despite an entire room full of people who were watching YouTube compilations of him saying the exact opposite.Wyden wasn’t buying it.
“You signed a petition to restrict access to the COVID vaccine. Did you or did you not?”
Kennedy mumbled something about the petition being “misrepresented” as the air in the room thickened with sweat, bad decisions, and organic supplements.Wyden was gearing up for a finishing blow when another protester detonated like a landmine.
“YOU’RE A FRAUD!” she shrieked as security dragged her away in a full-body lock.
Even the cops looked exhausted now.Then came Bernie Sanders, a man who has not been in the mood for nonsense since 1972.
“Are you supportive of these baby onesies?” he demanded.The room froze.
Kennedy’s brain crashed like a Windows 98 PC.
“Excuse me?”Sanders lifted a printed-out photo of a baby bodysuit covered in anti-vaccine slogans.
“These are being sold by the Children’s Health Defense, the organization you founded.”
Kennedy looked like he had just accidentally eaten a ghost pepper and was trying to play it cool.
“I—I don’t have oversight over that organization anymore,” he mumbled.
Sanders cracked his knuckles like a man ready to fistfight a CEO and leaned in.
“Are you supportive of these onesies?”Kennedy started sweating through his suit.
Laughter rippled through the room. A Republican senator actually covered his face.
Kennedy, now looking desperate for a fire alarm to pull, tried to pivot to his real passion: banning corn syrup.
Sanders wasn’t having it.Then Elizabeth Warren took the mic, radiating pure prosecutorial energy.
“Will you commit to not taking money from pharmaceutical companies while serving as Secretary of Health?” she asked, in the tone of a woman who already knew the answer but was going to enjoy watching him squirm.
Kennedy grinned like a dog that just chewed up your furniture and is hoping you’ll laugh it off.
“I don’t think they’d want to give me money,” he chuckled.
Warren did not chuckle.“Will you commit to not profiting from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies while serving as HHS Secretary?”
Kennedy froze.
The color drained from his face.
“You’re asking me not to sue drug companies?” he said, voice rising.
“No, I’m not going to agree to that.”
Warren’s eyes gleamed like a hawk spotting a wounded rabbit.
“So you’ll be suing the same companies you’re supposed to regulate?”
Kennedy looked like he wanted to melt into his chair.
Then came Michael Bennet, a man who had been waiting patiently to drop a grenade into Kennedy’s lap.
“Did you say that Lyme disease was a militarily engineered bioweapon?” Bennet asked, deadpan.Kennedy hesitated.
“I probably said that.”
The audience gasped.
Bennet cocked an eyebrow.
“Did you say that pesticides turn children transgender?”
Kennedy turned bone white.
“I don’t recall saying that.”
Bennet’s lip twitched.
“But you do recall saying Lyme disease was a bioweapon?”Kennedy looked like he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart.
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
just watching this…
Heather Cox Richardson
14m ·
January 29, 2025 (Wednesday)
In a conversation with Greg Sargent of the New Republic published today, writer Amanda Marcotte called out an important moment in White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s first press conference yesterday.
When a reporter noted that “gg prices have skyrocketed since President Trump took office,” and asked “what specifically is he doing to lower those costs for Americans?” Leavitt answered: “Really glad you brought this up because there is a lot of reporting out there that is putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs. I would like to point out to each and every one of you that in 2024, when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure, egg prices increased 65 percent in this country. We also have seen the cost of everything—not just eggs—bacon, groceries, gasoline, have increased because of the inflationary policies of the last administration.”
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump repeatedly attacked Biden for the post-pandemic inflation that afflicted the country, and promised to bring down “the price of everything.” Even before he took office, Trump had begun to walk back his promise, and J.D. Vance has also suggested price relief would “take a little bit of time.” Now coffee and egg prices are at an all-time high, and the administration’s solution is to attack Biden. No matter the incompetencies of the Trump presidency, Marcotte notes, it appears the answer will be: You might not like what we’re doing, but don’t you hate Democrats more?
President Richard Nixon’s team pioneered this strategy before the 1970 midterm elections to rally wavering Republicans around the president’s party. Nixon had won election with a promise that he would end the war in Vietnam honorably, but had, in fact, increased the U.S. presence there. By the end of 1969, with opposition mounting, he insisted that a “silent majority” agreed with his Vietnam policies. Then, at the end of April 1970, he told the American people that he had sent ground troops into Vietnam’s neighbor Cambodia. Protests led to the killing of four college students at Ohio’s Kent State University. Members of Nixon’s key demographic, middle-class white Americans, threatened to abandon him.
Nixon’s advisors urged him to win his voters back by attacking their opponents as lazy, dangerous, and un-American. They called their strategy “positive polarization” because it stoked the anger they needed voters to feel in order to show up to vote, a development they saw as positive. Patrick Buchanan wrote a memo to Nixon urging him to take much stronger control over the nation, to manipulate the media, and to go to war with his opponents, whom he considered illegitimate, warning: “e are in a contest over the soul of the country now and the decision will not be some middle compromise—it will be their kind of society or ours.”
Nixon so internalized this advice that by 1972 he was willing to sabotage his Democratic opponent’s campaign in order to win, convinced that a Democratic victory would destroy America. He ended up having to resign when his participation in covering up the bugging of the Democratic National Convention’s headquarters at the Watergate Hotel surfaced, but in his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan picked up the rhetorical technique of dividing the country in two.
In part, that depended on constructing a false world, claiming when challenged on his stories of government mismanagement that a “liberal media” was determined to undermine him. When voters elected him, Reagan began the dismantling of the post–World War II government that protected equality before the law, equal access to resources, and the right to have a say in government. Whenever it seemed that voters were turning against the Republicans’ policies, which moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1% between 1981 and 2021, Republicans doubled down on the idea that popular government programs were “socialist” or “Marxist,” designed to redistribute wealth from hardworking Americans to undeserving “liberals.”
By 2020, accompanying that rhetoric with voter suppression and a flood of money into Republican election war chests had made many Republican voters loyal to the party above the country. So convinced were they that the government was corrupt and that they were fighting a war for America that they were willing to die of Covid in order to “own the Libs.” And in 2021 they tried to overturn democracy in order to keep their leader in power.
Now, in 2025, the impulse simply to hurt Democrats no matter how badly such actions would hurt the country showed in a social media post today by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) that the Senate should confirm Trump’s deeply problematic nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because “no Cabinet nominee could damage the political future of Democrats more than RFK.”
Kennedy is before the Senate Finance Committee today in confirmation hearings to head the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Food and Drug Administration, among other agencies. Kennedy is a conspiracy theorist who opposes the vaccines that have slashed deadly illnesses in the U.S., and has attacked the institutions he would oversee; more than 18,000 physicians have signed a letter opposing his confirmation.
Yesterday, Kennedy’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, broke her silence about him to write an open letter to senators. She warned that he “lacks any relevant government, financial, management, or medical experience” and, calling him a “predator,” warned that he has “gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life.”
Forcing the Republican agenda by continuing to portray political opponents as dangerous to America because of wasteful spending and misguided priorities has reached cartoonish extremes. Trump has nonsensically claimed that thanks to him, the U.S. military has “TURNED ON THE WATER” in California, apparently misunderstanding that the Army Corps of Engineers had conducted maintenance on federal water pumps for three days and turned them back on when the maintenance was complete.
Yesterday, Leavitt claimed that the Trump administration tried to stop all foreign aid because Biden supposedly sent $50 million of condoms to Gaza and that the administration was just focusing on being “good stewards of tax dollars.” The story is simply false. The U.S. Agency for International Development spent about $7 million on condoms in 2023, the vast majority of which went to Africa through anti-AIDS programs; Trump’s first administration made similar investments.
At the same time they are portraying Democrats as wasteful and misguided, Trump and MAGA Republicans are claiming Democratic accomplishments for themselves. Last night, Trump claimed he had “just asked Elon Musk and to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” and Musk chipped in that it was “errible that the Biden administration left them there so long.” In fact, as fact-checkers quickly noted, NASA says the astronauts whose damaged spaceship has returned to Earth are not stuck in space but are staffing the space station, and that a SpaceX capsule has been docked at the station since September in an arrangement made by the Biden administration to bring them back to Earth as soon as a new crew arrives.
True MAGA is buying the lies the administration is selling—Fox News Channel pundit Jesse Watters suggested Gazans were using condoms as balloons to float explosives into Israel—but it is possible Nixon’s system of polarization is reaching the end of its rope.
Key to Trump’s 2024 win was his insistence that violent crime was skyrocketing in the U.S.—in fact, it was plummeting—and he vowed to deport “criminal” migrants. Since he took office, a number of made-for-television sweeps have tried to demonstrate that he is making America safer. But his commutations and pardons of all the January 6 rioters convicted of crimes has made that a hard sell, especially as one is now wanted for soliciting sex with a minor and another has been killed by Indiana police for resisting arrest. In addition, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council notes that Trump officials ordered prosecutors to divert resources away from truly dangerous drug traffickers to go after undocumented immigrants.
Those who believed Trump would not come for anyone but “criminals” are learning otherwise: NBC News reported on Monday that nearly half the migrants arrested in a Chicago sweep on Sunday either had nonviolent offenses or had committed no offense. While the Trump administration defends its sweeps by saying it considers anyone who has broken immigration law to be a criminal, being undocumented is in fact a civil offense, not a crime, and many of Trump’s supporters did not think he would make such general sweeps.
But the biggest wake-up call for those embracing the longtime language of polarization is that when Trump on Tuesday shut down all federal funding and grants to stop what he called the “Marxist” diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives of the government, he was attacking virtually all Americans. The administration’s pause of all federal funding and grants until it could make sure “DEI” had been purged out of them cut everything from Meals on Wheels, a food delivery program for shut-ins, to education, local law enforcement, and the Medicaid on which programs for the elderly depend.
The outcry was so strong that today the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo to rescind its previous memo freezing all federal programs. But Leavitt immediately contradicted the apparent content of the new memo, saying the cuts were still in effect. Judd Legum of Popular Information noted that the plan seemed to be “to create as much chaos as possible.” That chaos keeps attention on the administration, and it appeared to be a way for the White House to upend lawsuits against the freeze. So far, that has not worked. U.S. District Judge John McConnell said he was inclined to grant a restraining order, noting that “the administration is acting with a distinction without a difference.”
The Trump administration’s cutting of the federal funding on which Americans depend in the name of opposition to “Marxism” and “DEI” contrasts spectacularly with its embrace of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk; the billionaires in Trump’s Cabinet; and the billionaires who have poured money into the Trump administration.
CNN’s Chris Isidore notes that government subsidies built Musk’s fortune and that he continues to receive government contracts worth billions of dollars. In addition to government contracts, Trump’s tax policy favors the very rich. On Monday, January 27, the Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee billionaire Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary. In his confirmation hearings, Bessent told the Senate that he believes extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts is “the single most important economic issue of the day…. If we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity.”
Republicans identify the rapidly growing federal deficit as a crisis for which Democrats are to blame, but in fact, President Bill Clinton—with an assist from Republican president George H.W. Bush—eliminated the federal deficit in the 1990s. What threw the deficit into the red was the tax cuts and unfunded wars under George W. Bush, along with Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, that disproportionately benefited the very wealthy and corporations. The U.S. Treasury estimates that extending the TCJA as is—Trump has mused on deeper cuts—would cost $4.2 trillion over the next ten years.
Slashing the federal funding that supports ordinary Americans will make it easier to fund federal contracts and further tax cuts for the wealthy. With that tradeoff so visible in 2025, will “owning the Libs” still be worth it?
Trump seemed to be worried that it might not be. This afternoon he threw red meat directly at the MAGA base with an announcement that he would be signing an executive order to open a 30,000-person-capacity migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”
sarahs mum said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
This was supposed to be his moment of redemption, his big I’m-not-actually-insane speech. Instead, it turned into a political demolition derby featuring protesters screaming that he was a liar and a killer, Bernie Sanders interrogating him about baby clothes, Elizabeth Warren asking if he planned to run HHS like a side hustle, and a surreal moment where Kennedy had to confirm that he probably said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon. By the end of the day, Capitol Police had forcibly removed more people from the chamber than a dive bar on St. Patrick’s Day.
Kennedy barely got through his opening statement before a woman exploded from the gallery like a jack-in-the-box filled with rage and science degrees.
“YOU LIE!” she screamed, holding up a sign that read VACCINES SAVE LIVES before being swiftly tackled and dragged out by Capitol Police.
Kennedy blinked rapidly, which is how you know he was hearing the voice of the worm that used to live in his brain whispering, Abort mission, Bobby. Abort mission.
A brief moment of peace settled over the room, and then it happened again.
“YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE!” another protester howled, launching into a full-body rage spiral before security carried her out, legs kicking, like a screaming suitcase with opinions.
Kennedy took a deep breath and tried to regain his footing, but Senator Ron Wyden had been waiting for this moment like a prosecutor with a personal vendetta.
“Are you lying to us, Mr. Kennedy?” Wyden snapped, staring daggers at him.
Kennedy forced a nervous smile, but it came out looking like he’d just been told he had to fight a horse for a parking spot.
“That claim has been repeatedly debunked,” he said, attempting to sound reasonable despite an entire room full of people who were watching YouTube compilations of him saying the exact opposite.Wyden wasn’t buying it.
“You signed a petition to restrict access to the COVID vaccine. Did you or did you not?”
Kennedy mumbled something about the petition being “misrepresented” as the air in the room thickened with sweat, bad decisions, and organic supplements.Wyden was gearing up for a finishing blow when another protester detonated like a landmine.
“YOU’RE A FRAUD!” she shrieked as security dragged her away in a full-body lock.
Even the cops looked exhausted now.Then came Bernie Sanders, a man who has not been in the mood for nonsense since 1972.
“Are you supportive of these baby onesies?” he demanded.The room froze.
Kennedy’s brain crashed like a Windows 98 PC.
“Excuse me?”Sanders lifted a printed-out photo of a baby bodysuit covered in anti-vaccine slogans.
“These are being sold by the Children’s Health Defense, the organization you founded.”
Kennedy looked like he had just accidentally eaten a ghost pepper and was trying to play it cool.
“I—I don’t have oversight over that organization anymore,” he mumbled.
Sanders cracked his knuckles like a man ready to fistfight a CEO and leaned in.
“Are you supportive of these onesies?”Kennedy started sweating through his suit.
Laughter rippled through the room. A Republican senator actually covered his face.
Kennedy, now looking desperate for a fire alarm to pull, tried to pivot to his real passion: banning corn syrup.
Sanders wasn’t having it.Then Elizabeth Warren took the mic, radiating pure prosecutorial energy.
“Will you commit to not taking money from pharmaceutical companies while serving as Secretary of Health?” she asked, in the tone of a woman who already knew the answer but was going to enjoy watching him squirm.
Kennedy grinned like a dog that just chewed up your furniture and is hoping you’ll laugh it off.
“I don’t think they’d want to give me money,” he chuckled.
Warren did not chuckle.“Will you commit to not profiting from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies while serving as HHS Secretary?”
Kennedy froze.
The color drained from his face.
“You’re asking me not to sue drug companies?” he said, voice rising.
“No, I’m not going to agree to that.”
Warren’s eyes gleamed like a hawk spotting a wounded rabbit.
“So you’ll be suing the same companies you’re supposed to regulate?”
Kennedy looked like he wanted to melt into his chair.
Then came Michael Bennet, a man who had been waiting patiently to drop a grenade into Kennedy’s lap.
“Did you say that Lyme disease was a militarily engineered bioweapon?” Bennet asked, deadpan.Kennedy hesitated.
“I probably said that.”
The audience gasped.
Bennet cocked an eyebrow.
“Did you say that pesticides turn children transgender?”
Kennedy turned bone white.
“I don’t recall saying that.”
Bennet’s lip twitched.
“But you do recall saying Lyme disease was a bioweapon?”Kennedy looked like he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart.
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
just watching this…
:00
Mr Kenedy thanks for being with us um I
0:04
very much like the slogan that you
0:07
coined make America healthy
0:10
again and I strongly agree with that
0:14
effort uh despite spending as you
0:17
indicated two or three times as much per
0:19
capita on healthare as other
0:21
nations uh we have 85 million people who
0:24
are uninsured underinsured we have all
0:26
kinds of chronic illnesses our life
0:29
expectancy is lower than other countries
0:31
and for workingclass people in this
0:33
country they are living 6 seven years
0:36
shorter lives than the top 1% we got a
0:39
problem okay and I’m going to suggest
0:41
some ideas that I think can remedy that
0:45
uh last year the insurance industry in
0:47
this country made over7 billion dollar
0:52
while at the same time 85 million
0:53
Americans uninsured or
0:56
underinsured do you agree with me that
1:00
the United States to join every other
1:02
major country on Earth and guarantee
1:04
Health Care to all people as a human
1:08
right yes
1:10
no Senator I would
1:13
say senator I can’t give you a yes or no
1:16
qu answer that question healthare a
1:17
human right is Healthcare a human
1:20
right in the way that free speech to the
1:24
human right yeah I would say it’s
1:27
different because if with free speech
1:30
doesn’t cost anybody anything but in
1:33
healthcare if you smoke cigarettes for
1:37
20 years and you get cancer do you you
1:40
are now taking from the
1:43
pool and so are you guaranteed the
1:47
same I’m sorry I’d love to talk for an
1:50
hour with you we got a few minutes left
1:52
here all right every other country in US
1:55
says Healthcare whether you’re poor or
1:57
rich young or old to human right I’m not
1:59
hearing you say that all right you’ve
2:01
talked about the drug companies and
2:02
maybe we agree on this one as you all
2:05
know despite the drug companies making
2:07
over 100 billion in profits paying CEOs
2:09
outrageous compensation packages we in
2:12
some cases pay 10 times more for the
2:15
same drug will you support legislation
2:18
that I will introduce which says that in
2:21
America we should not be paying a nickel
2:23
more for prescription drugs than people
2:25
around the rest of the world yes
2:28
no to equalize it not to equalize it
2:32
that we should not be paying more than
2:35
other countries for the same damn drug
2:38
president
2:39
trump it has asked me when in fact I had
2:42
a meeting with President Trump a week
2:45
ago where we showed him the charts he
2:48
knows the charts I question we’re paying
2:50
10 times more from Europe that’s right
2:52
and are you going to commit to us that
2:54
you will end that absurdity I I think in
2:57
principle we can’t we should we should
3:00
and that disparity good okay that’s
3:02
great all
3:03
right I happen to believe that climate
3:06
change is real it’s an existential
3:09
threat and it is a health care
3:12
issue Donald Trump thinks that it is a
3:15
hoax originating in China question is in
3:19
your judgment is climate change a hoax
3:23
or is it real causing devastating
3:25
problems uh president Trump and I from
3:28
the beginning from our first meeting
3:30
agreed to disagree on that issue I
3:32
believe clim is existential my job is to
3:36
make Americans healthy again you believe
3:38
that you think you disagree with Trump
3:41
you don’t think climate change is a hoax
3:43
is what I’m hearing my job here is to I
3:46
just asking you Mr Kenny not it’s your
3:47
question I answered your question
3:49
Senator okay you disagree with the
3:50
president on that I answered your
3:53
question okay I’m going to pick up on a
3:56
point that Senator Hassen made look
3:58
there is no question
4:00
that abortion is a divisive issue in
4:02
this
4:03
country I would say a majority of the
4:05
people are pro-choice there’s a strong
4:07
minority who are pro-life a year and a
4:11
half ago you went to New Hampshire
4:13
running for president gave a speech and
4:16
you talked about government should not
4:19
tell a woman what she can do with her
4:22
own body that’s her choice now I think
4:26
everybody on that side is pro-life I
4:28
think everybody here is pro choice I
4:30
have never seen any major politician
4:33
flip on that issue quite as quickly as
4:36
you did when Trump asked you to become
4:40
HHS secretary tell me why you think
4:44
people should have con confidence in
4:47
your consistency and in your word when
4:50
you really made a major u-turn on an
4:53
issue of that importance in such a short
4:56
time
4:58
Senator I believe and I’ve always
5:00
believed that every abortion is a
5:02
tragedy but you told the people in New
5:05
Hampshire that it was their right all
5:07
right let me do a last question here
5:09
because I’m running out of
5:10
time I I think the gist of what you were
5:12
trying to say today is you’re really Pro
5:16
vaccine you want to ask questions you
5:19
have started a group called The
5:21
Children’s Health defense you’re the
5:25
originator right now as I understand
5:27
that on their website they are selling
5:29
what’s called onesies these are little
5:31
things clothing for babies one of them
5:34
is titled unfa
5:37
unafraid next one and they’re sold for
5:39
26 bucks a piece by the way next one is
5:43
no vax no problem now you’re coming
5:46
before this committee and you say you’re
5:49
Pro vaccine just want to ask some
5:51
questions and yet your organization is
5:53
making money selling a child’s product
5:57
to parents for 26 bucks which cast
6:01
fundamental doubt on on the usefulness
6:04
of vaccines can you tell us now that you
6:07
will now that you are pro vaccine that
6:11
you’re going to have your organization
6:13
take these products off the market
6:15
Senator I have no power over that
6:16
organization I’m not part of it I
6:18
resigned from the board that was just a
6:20
few months ago you founded that you
6:22
certainly have power you can make that
6:25
are you supportive of this I had nothing
6:28
to do with are you supportive of the
6:29
ones I’m supportive of vaccines are you
6:32
supportive of these this clothing which
6:34
is militantly antivaccine I I am
6:37
supportive of vaccines I will uh I I
6:41
want good science and I want to protect
6:43
V you will not tell the organization you
6:45
founded not to continue selling that
6:48
product thank you Mr chairman
alleged
et cetera
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
Trump can fix that
Ian said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
Trump can fix that
Get Elon to turn on a gigantic tap somewhere.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:SCIENCE said:
This footage was captured by a webcam situated on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Ats, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River.
Of course, it’ll all somehow be Joe Biden’sfault.
F’shore!
When the Pigeons of Dumbfuckery come home to roost:
Ian said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
Trump can fix that
But he doesn’t want to, they are, after all, Marxist Democrats They deserve migraines.
captain_spalding said:
Ian said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
Trump can fix that
Get Elon to turn on a gigantic tap somewhere.
No, no, that was the army, wasn’t it?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/trump-condoms-gaza
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted that his administration had “stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, doubling down on a claim first made by his press secretary which appears to be contradicted by the facts.
As the Guardian reported on Tuesday, a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/trump-condoms-gazaSpeaking at the White House on Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted that his administration had “stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, doubling down on a claim first made by his press secretary which appears to be contradicted by the facts.
As the Guardian reported on Tuesday, a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
Outrageous lies are grist to the mill of US conservative politics, now.
Tried, tested and proven.
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/trump-condoms-gazaSpeaking at the White House on Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted that his administration had “stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, doubling down on a claim first made by his press secretary which appears to be contradicted by the facts.
As the Guardian reported on Tuesday, a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
Outrageous lies are grist to the mill of US conservative politics, now.
Tried, tested and proven.
I think that it’s safe to presume that ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that’s saidby Trump or his ‘spokespeople’ is bullshit.
‘Bullshit’, not ‘lies’.
As referred to earlier today, as Penn Jillette said (paraphrased) ‘a lie is intended to negate a truth. ‘Bullshit’ is whatever pops into someone’s head, with no relationship to any pre-existing truth’.
I’m sure you guys would have been all over this.
But 11 years seems a bit steep, but he is appealing.
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
——————————————————cut———————————————————
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
Who wrote the piece?
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
——————————————————cut———————————————————
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
Nicely written – made me smile. Thanks for posting.Who wrote the piece?
whoever runs that FB i presume.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
14m ·
January 29, 2025 (Wednesday)———————————————————cut——————————————————-
Thanks.
Boris said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked into his Senate confirmation hearing like a man stepping onto an ice rink wearing banana peels for shoes. He had one job: convince the world that he was not a bug-eyed conspiracy theorist who once hoarded a whale head and left a bear carcass in Central Park. Instead, he walked out as the leading cause of migraines among Democratic senators.
——————————————————cut———————————————————
Even the Republican senators were staring at their desks, avoiding eye contact.
The hearing finally adjourned, but Kennedy is not in the clear yet.
His next grilling is scheduled for tomorrow, and there’s no telling how much worse it can get.
His opponents smell blood. His supporters are already crafting conspiracy theories about the deep state.
And if the vote ends in a deadlock, Vice President JD Vance will cast the deciding vote.
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.The nation waits in suspense. Pass the whiskey.
Nicely written – made me smile. Thanks for posting.Who wrote the piece?
whoever runs that FB i presume.
Oh, it’s an unattributed Facebook post. Pity.
alleged
Peak Warming Man said:
I’m sure you guys would have been all over this.
But 11 years seems a bit steep, but he is appealing.
I know youse all will be wondering how this plays out, I’ll try and keep youse abreast of proceedings.
Boris said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Yes, JD Vance—the political equivalent of a wet cardboard box—will determine if a man once partially controlled by a brain parasite will run America’s health system.
made
that
“once”
LOL
Peak Warming Man said:
I’m sure you guys would have been all over this.
But 11 years seems a bit steep, but he is appealing.
And no derogatory memes about him either, the man has rights.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/attn-federal-workers-who-replied/comments
Robert J. Rei
21h
Edited
What follows below is a c/p. One link to the Reddit source where I found this is included at the end of this quote, along with a link to my Newsletter in which I published this matter for wider exposure.
________________________________________________
OPM employee here, we are not the bad guys
I’m a current employee at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’m posting this because people need to know what’s going on at OPM.
I’ve been an OPM employee for nearly a decade and a Federal Employee for almost 20 years. I’ve never witnessed anything even remotely close to what’s happening right now. In short, there’s a hostile takeover of the federal civil service.
Let me say this in no uncertain terms — OPM has been compromised and taken over. The very backbone of American Government, the HR of all HR in the U.S. Government has been taken over by outside politicals. In just five days, they managed to push aside dozens of non-political, career civil servants who were there specifically to prevent the civil service from becoming the President’s henchmen.
The current Acting Director, Charles (Chuck) Ezell is a low-level branch chief. He’s the friendliest “yes man” you’ll ever meet. He never says no. It’s clear they pushed aside all the high-level non political civil servants who refused to do Donald Trump’s bidding, until they found Chuck.
Under his name, they’ve sent numerous requests to all the agencies to collect information on gov’t employees that they see as a threat to their agenda. Instructions say to send these lists to Amanda Scales. But Amanda is not actually an OPM employee, she works for Elon Musk. She wasn’t even properly cleared by OPM Personnel Security.
Our CIO, Melvin Brown, (also a non political career public servant) was pushed aside just one week into his tenure because he refused to setup email lists to send out direct communications to all career civil servants. Such communications are normally left up to each agency.
Instead, an on-prem (on-site) email server was setup. Someone literally walked into our building and plugged in an email server to our network to make it appear that emails were coming from OPM. It’s been the one sending those various “test” message you’ve all seen. We think they’re building a massive email list of all federal employees to generate mass RIF notices down the road.
The non-political civil servants here at OPM are watching helplessly as our government is being systematically dismantled bit by bit. Even the IGs are being fired to prevent them from investigating the numerous whistleblower complaints we’ve filed.
Please share this and tell the world that OPM is not the bad guy. We’re just as helpless to stop this as the rest of our fellow public servants. Hopefully someone out there can help us, but it’s looking pretty grim.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ibbbh7/this_was_posted_about_opm_in_our_union_chat/
https://robertjrei.substack.com/p/election-investigation-updates
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Passenger jet collides with helicopter in Washington DC | ABC News
This footage was captured by a webcam situated on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Ats, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River.
Of course, it’ll all somehow be Joe Biden’sfault.
well that’s how the tail wags the dog i’n‘it
Apparently there’s been a major plasne crash today. Mid-air collision near Washington DC. Airliner and a military helicopter.
Roughie brought that to our attention earlier.
Did anybody care?
Into the icy Potomac River.
Literally – the river has ice floating on it.
Not much hope, I reckon.
I should express my condolences to the family & friends of the deceased.
So the other question is, what other Russians
Former world champion Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were two of the passengers on the American Airlines flight, according to Russian State media. Their son Maxim, who competed for the United States in singles, was also feared to have been on board the plane, Russia’s TASS and RIA news agencies reported. He had been competing at the US figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas A number of figure skaters and coaches were believed to have been on the flight. Shishkova and Naumov competed in pair skating for the USSR and Russian national teams. In 1994, they became world champions.
were on board, who were they trying to assassinate and make it look like an accident¿
Peak Warming Man said:
I’m sure you guys would have been all over this.
But 11 years seems a bit steep, but he is appealing.
Certainly does seem weird that they were able to get this done and dusted so quickly, given they could scarcely ever find their shoes when it time to get up and prosecute the once and present cunt
no survivors
SCIENCE said:
no survivors
I didn’t think there was much chance. I hoped I was wrong.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:no survivors
I didn’t think there was much chance. I hoped I was wrong.
I’m interested in the crash investigation.. it looked and feels like there’s more to the story… but perhaps the helicopter pilot had a medical episode.
not quite so heavy
SCIENCE said:
not quite so heavy
:)
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:I’m sorry, i seem to have misplaced my list of permitted subjects for levity. I stand admonished.
The young man who was here today is quietly terrified about this. He’s bought a gun in case he gets attacked by the local racist thugs. He has fairly dark skin, born in NM and mostly Hispanic.
At 21 years of age he has his own business, and also works for a local funeral home picking up people who die at home.
He gets picked on by old white men who contract him to do backbreaking yard work, one flicked his nose because he thought that the dead weeds weren’t cut short enough.
He also has a speech impediment that attracts ridicule from his customers.
Your stupid comments are offensive.
That young man has a good deal to be worried about, and his situation is horrifying.
However, your comments are also often offensive.
I like you, kii, and i wish you well. But, to put it bluntly, you often engage your mouth before you employ your brain.
You’re a person living under a great deal of strain, in difficult circumstances, in a ‘foreign’ country which seems hell-bent on destroying itself. We all understand that.
But, this does not give you any special insight, any moral high ground, any privileged position. You are not always right. You are often right, but not always right.
You do not accept criticism, however mild, at all. You do not tolerate any view or observation that does not entirely coincide with your own, and what you consider to be the final and incontestable evidence of your own own opinions, experiences and perceptions.
When you encounter something that’s in any way contrary to those things, your only strategies are to cite an example or experience, which is as likely as not to be in the vein of a non sequitur, or to go instantly to telling people to ‘fuck off’. Or both. And that’s all of the shots there are in your locker.
In this latest case, you did not take time to assess the remark that diddly squat made, or you would have easily seen that he was referringto the misnomer of ‘Indian’, and not the people to who it is applied. You did not apply the Rule of Comedy Writing: to ask yourself ‘what are we supposed to be laughing at here?’. It’s obvious that we’re ‘laughing’ at a word, not a people.
Like one or two other Forumites, you seem to use the Forum as an outlet for hostility, aggression, and frustration. Pop in here, hang around for a bit, and you’ll probably find someone who makes a remark that provides an excuse for you to tell them to ‘fuck off’, and/or offer your assessment of their negative character traits.
I expect that you will do precisely that for me, and you’re welcome to. I most assuredly have faults and defects, and they can be pointed out to me. The difference between us is, i will consider what is said, and see if any of it is valid, and how i can use it for betterment.
As i say, i like you, kii, and i hope that you can get through all of your trials and tribulations, and arrive at a happy place. This is something of a good-bye letter to you, as i expect that i’ll now be on your ‘attack-on-sight’ list, and that pleasant discourse between us (from one side, at least) will no longer be possible.
I may well regret posting all of this, but, you will always have my support, kii, and my earnest hopes for your well-being.
TL;DR
Anyway…
I’ll just take my miserable* and hysterical* self off to a corner for a beating
*recent descriptions of me from Boris.
Boris said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Amerind.
Oh, look! It’s the old man who has to comment on everything 🙄
Oh, look! It’s the old woman who has to comment on everything 🙄
But I don’t comment on everything…
PS your childish responses to my posts lack originality and creativity. Try harder.
Arts said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:no survivors
I didn’t think there was much chance. I hoped I was wrong.
I’m interested in the crash investigation.. it looked and feels like there’s more to the story… but perhaps the helicopter pilot had a medical episode.
Apparently they were on a training mission. Night Vision. Air traffic asked them if they had sight of the plane coming in to land but it appears they were looking at a different plane?
roughbarked said:
Arts said:
Michael V said:I didn’t think there was much chance. I hoped I was wrong.
I’m interested in the crash investigation.. it looked and feels like there’s more to the story… but perhaps the helicopter pilot had a medical episode.
Apparently they were on a training mission. Night Vision. Air traffic asked them if they had sight of the plane coming in to land but it appears they were looking at a different plane?
Reference?
Until it’s formally investigated don’t repeat random shit from random people on the internet.
(I also saw this comment being reposted on Facebook.)
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Arts said:I’m interested in the crash investigation.. it looked and feels like there’s more to the story… but perhaps the helicopter pilot had a medical episode.
Apparently they were on a training mission. Night Vision. Air traffic asked them if they had sight of the plane coming in to land but it appears they were looking at a different plane?
Reference?
Until it’s formally investigated don’t repeat random shit from random people on the internet.
(I also saw this comment being reposted on Facebook.)
I didn’t post it on facebook. It came off the ABC news.
LOL
Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Apparently they were on a training mission. Night Vision. Air traffic asked them if they had sight of the plane coming in to land but it appears they were looking at a different plane?
Reference?
Until it’s formally investigated don’t repeat random shit from random people on the internet.
(I also saw this comment being reposted on Facebook.)
I didn’t post it on facebook. It came off the ABC news.
I didn’t say you posted it on Facebook. Where’s the reference from the ABC News for the comment? Otherwise it looks like a random brain fart after you’ve read stuff on social media.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:Reference?
Until it’s formally investigated don’t repeat random shit from random people on the internet.
(I also saw this comment being reposted on Facebook.)
I didn’t post it on facebook. It came off the ABC news.
I didn’t say you posted it on Facebook. Where’s the reference from the ABC News for the comment? Otherwise it looks like a random brain fart after you’ve read stuff on social media.
I don’t give a fuck what it looks like. It was what was read out on the ABC news. I’m sure the ABC often repeat what other news sources have uttered.
I have not copied down their source just for you.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:
I didn’t post it on facebook. It came off the ABC news.
I didn’t say you posted it on Facebook. Where’s the reference from the ABC News for the comment? Otherwise it looks like a random brain fart after you’ve read stuff on social media.
I don’t give a fuck what it looks like. It was what was read out on the ABC news. I’m sure the ABC often repeat what other news sources have uttered.
I have not copied down their source just for you.
pretty amusing i’n‘it
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riots
Settlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/meta-trump-settlement-25-million
…
FMD how is it not in the right for any social media company to ban someone from their platform. Someone should sue Facebook for backing down and paying up to the detriment of shareholders just to curry favour with Trump.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Reagan Airport announced it had halted all take-offs and landings as authorities attended the scene after the incident was reported at 8:47pm.
It is understood the plane was en route from Wichita in Kansas and was approaching a runway at Reagan Airport when the collision occurred.
The helicopter was flying south.
A spokesperson for the Military District of Washington said the helicopter had been on a training flight at the time of the incident, after taking off from Fort Belvoir.
US media outlets have reported air traffic recordings show controllers asking the helicopter if it had the plane in sight, and instructing it to pass behind the landing aircraft.
A crew member on the helicopter reportedly agreed the aircraft was in sight, and requested “visual separation” with the incoming plane, allowing it to fly closer than may otherwise be allowed if the pilots didn’t see the plane.
The controllers approved the request.
Shortly after, commotion is heard on the audio, and seconds after that, controllers begin diverting aircraft away from the scene.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/what-we-know-so-far-about-potomac-crash/104878290
thanks but are they social media outlets
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:I didn’t post it on facebook. It came off the ABC news.
I didn’t say you posted it on Facebook. Where’s the reference from the ABC News for the comment? Otherwise it looks like a random brain fart after you’ve read stuff on social media.
I don’t give a fuck what it looks like. It was what was read out on the ABC news. I’m sure the ABC often repeat what other news sources have uttered.
I have not copied down their source just for you.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Reagan Airport announced it had halted all take-offs and landings as authorities attended the scene after the incident was reported at 8:47pm.
It is understood the plane was en route from Wichita in Kansas and was approaching a runway at Reagan Airport when the collision occurred.
The helicopter was flying south.
A spokesperson for the Military District of Washington said the helicopter had been on a training flight at the time of the incident, after taking off from Fort Belvoir.
US media outlets have reported air traffic recordings show controllers asking the helicopter if it had the plane in sight, and instructing it to pass behind the landing aircraft.
A crew member on the helicopter reportedly agreed the aircraft was in sight, and requested “visual separation” with the incoming plane, allowing it to fly closer than may otherwise be allowed if the pilots didn’t see the plane.
The controllers approved the request.
Shortly after, commotion is heard on the audio, and seconds after that, controllers begin diverting aircraft away from the scene.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-30/what-we-know-so-far-about-potomac-crash/104878290
thanks but are they social media outlets
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.
The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.
https://apnews.com/article/ronald-reagan-national-airport-crash-62adba7fb1f546b4cf1716e42b86482b
Witty Rejoinder said:
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riotsSettlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/meta-trump-settlement-25-million
…
FMD how is it not in the right for any social media company to ban someone from their platform. Someone should sue Facebook for backing down and paying up to the detriment of shareholders just to curry favour with Trump.
Yeah, but overall it is best – without pandering to Trump, Meta will be destroyed – by Trump.
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riotsSettlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/meta-trump-settlement-25-million
…
FMD how is it not in the right for any social media company to ban someone from their platform. Someone should sue Facebook for backing down and paying up to the detriment of shareholders just to curry favour with Trump.
Yeah, but overall it is best – without pandering to Trump, Meta will be destroyed – by Trump.
can’t they just shift their operations to Singapore or something
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riotsSettlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/meta-trump-settlement-25-million
…
FMD how is it not in the right for any social media company to ban someone from their platform. Someone should sue Facebook for backing down and paying up to the detriment of shareholders just to curry favour with Trump.
Yeah, but overall it is best – without pandering to Trump, Meta will be destroyed – by Trump.
can’t they just shift their operations to Singapore or something
No, Singapore would make them pay proper taxes.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:Yeah, but overall it is best – without pandering to Trump, Meta will be destroyed – by Trump.
can’t they just shift their operations to Singapore or something
No, Singapore would make them pay proper taxes.
Cayman Islands?
SCIENCE said:
Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
FMD
Witty Rejoinder said:
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riotsSettlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/meta-trump-settlement-25-million
…
FMD how is it not in the right for any social media company to ban someone from their platform. Someone should sue Facebook for backing down and paying up to the detriment of shareholders just to curry favour with Trump.
I’VE BEEN BANNED FROM BETTER SITES THAN META AND DIDN’T GET A CENT.
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I too would not be looked well upon if I used those tactics in a courtroom.
All I can grok from this is that it can only get weirder until the people say stop.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
yeah that’s probably what we were referring to
and people thought actual 爱 was going to destroy the world
these natural stupid bots are so predictable and yet so many of their drones buy in
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
yeah that’s probably what we were referring to
and people thought actual 爱 was going to destroy the world
these natural stupid bots are so predictable and yet so many of their drones buy in
Have you got your popcorn and peanuts handy?
Please, just make it stop.
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
When’s this madness going to stop.
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
:(
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
He really should have gone to trial for all that he had done, before he could become president again but hey, he didn’t.
Peak Warming Man said:
When’s this madness going to stop.
When the madmen are dead or locked up?
kii said:
Please, just make it stop.
LOLOLOL
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
dv said:
excuses
it wasn’t a SpaceX helicopter that took down the flight now was it
innocent
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Trying to avoid a bigger insurrection.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
excuses
it wasn’t a SpaceX helicopter that took down the flight now was it
innocent
You know it wasn’t.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
He really should have gone to trial for all that he had done, before he could become president again but hey, he didn’t.
yous all say weird but yous’re wrong it’s simply working as intended
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
He really should have gone to trial for all that he had done, before he could become president again but hey, he didn’t.
yous all say weird but yous’re wrong it’s simply working as intended
Doesn’t make it any less weird.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
I seem to remember a lot of frivolous legal stuff thrown at the courts to waste time.
Merrick Garland is a waste of space.
Various legal people writing about Jack Smith’s team being extremely thorough because of all the convoluted issues.
Taking a small, chartered plane to the remote Cuban coastline, Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny visited Guantanamo Bay five times.
He was representing Adelaide man David Hicks, who was detained on the United States naval base from January 2002 until May 2007.
Access to the military prison, best known for holding terror suspects, was rare, even for lawyers.
And what Mr Kenny witnessed there was “appalling”.
“Initially they held the detainees in cages,” he told the ABC.
“They were effectively like dog pens, with a concrete floor, a corrugated iron roof and cyclone wire surrounds.”
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
There’s so much wrong that it is hard to keep everything in mind but remember a few months back when Trump was involved in a criminal trial and he kept threatening and intimidating the judge and jury and court staff and their family members like some Mafioso and we were wondering why he wasn’t in jail for this? Like there is no way anyone else in the entire world would be allowed to get away with it? But the dominant theory in the press was that he was being given extra leeway to make sure the conviction would not be subject to any reasonable appeal? And now he’s President of the United States again and will incur absolutely no penalty.
20 years down the line the US will be starting to recover from this era but this will still remain one of the weirdest things ever to happen in the politics of a developed nation.
I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
“A man has been hospitalised with serious injuries after he was attacked by a kangaroo in central Queensland.
The man, aged in his 50s, was left with serious lacerations to the arms and chest and hip injuries after the altercation with a kangaroo in Emerald, around 240km west of Rockhampton, about 11.52am yesterday.”
Kangaroos 1 man 0 but they’re a long way behind on points.
Peak Warming Man said:
“A man has been hospitalised with serious injuries after he was attacked by a kangaroo in central Queensland.
The man, aged in his 50s, was left with serious lacerations to the arms and chest and hip injuries after the altercation with a kangaroo in Emerald, around 240km west of Rockhampton, about 11.52am yesterday.”Kangaroos 1 man 0 but they’re a long way behind on points.
Woops
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
I think that they were just scared.
It would have meant prosecuting a former President for insurrection (a crime that could be viewed as being in the same league as treason), carried out while he was still the incumbent President, and possibly sending him to the hoosegow for 10 years.
It’s something entirely without precedent in the US (and most other places), and something that the people who wrote the US Constitutuion and laws could never have envisaged happening. It would be a massive event in US history, and have consequences for the US for ever after.
While they may have been proceedingwith extreme caution, to obviate any possible future challenges to their prosecution, it’s also likely that no-one wanted to be the one(s) who brought such a monumental case to trial.
So, tiny little steps ensured that (a) the case would be rock-solid, and (b) there was a good chance that it would all ‘just go away’, if enough time was allowed.
And, case (b) came out on top.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
I think that they were just scared.
It would have meant prosecuting a former President for insurrection (a crime that could be viewed as being in the same league as treason), carried out while he was still the incumbent President, and possibly sending him to the hoosegow for 10 years.
It’s something entirely without precedent in the US (and most other places), and something that the people who wrote the US Constitutuion and laws could never have envisaged happening. It would be a massive event in US history, and have consequences for the US for ever after.
While they may have been proceedingwith extreme caution, to obviate any possible future challenges to their prosecution, it’s also likely that no-one wanted to be the one(s) who brought such a monumental case to trial.
So, tiny little steps ensured that (a) the case would be rock-solid, and (b) there was a good chance that it would all ‘just go away’, if enough time was allowed.
And, case (b) came out on top.
I also think they believed that he wouldn’t be re-elected (in part because of the threat of prosecution) and were, ideally, hoping that they could push the cases out into the next term so as to let some (political) water go under the bridge (so to speak). How wrong they were.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
I think we all thought that.
dv said:
I think we should all back off and wait for the investigation to hand down their report
They’ll get to the bottom of it and we’ll find out who the two pilots and the air traffic controller voted for, what religion they belonged to, whether they were black or gay or possibly both.
So just hold your horses and let the justice system take its course.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
I think we should all back off and wait for the investigation to hand down their report
They’ll get to the bottom of it and we’ll find out who the two pilots and the air traffic controller voted for, what religion they belonged to, whether they were black or gay or possibly both.
So just hold your horses and let the justice system take its course.
so they definitely weren’t disabled
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
I think we should all back off and wait for the investigation to hand down their report
They’ll get to the bottom of it and we’ll find out who the two pilots and the air traffic controller voted for, what religion they belonged to, whether they were black or gay or possibly both.
So just hold your horses and let the justice system take its course.
:)
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:Hey it’s amazing yous peoples was correct
Less than 24 hours after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people, Donald Trump has blamed the crash on past Democratic leaders and initiatives to boost diversity in aviation.
what a fucking surprise oh our deity¿¡
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
I think we should all back off and wait for the investigation to hand down their report
They’ll get to the bottom of it and we’ll find out who the two pilots and the air traffic controller voted for, what religion they belonged to, whether they were black or gay or possibly both.
So just hold your horses and let the justice system take its course.
They were probably born in Kenya. Let’s see their birth certifcates.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Now let’s climb all over one another to be the first to post what Elon Musk says about it all.
Woodie said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Now let’s climb all over one another to be the first to post what Elon Musk says about it all.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Yeah.
Woodie said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Now let’s climb all over one another to be the first to post what Elon Musk says about it all.
I’m keeping mum so I can post later that I told you so.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Yeah.
pretty much how Oz politics work.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I think the weirdest thing was the inability of the DoJ to actually get their ducks in a row fast enough to bring him trial… that, for me, will go down as the single biggest failure of the Biden administration.
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
My point is that they didn’t balls it up. The Biden admin decided to slowroll the prosecution so that it would not proceed while DJT was a potential candidate.
This was posted before the crash.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Yeah.
Don’t forget DEI, as I predicted…
Trump suggests Democrats and diversity to blame for Washington air crash
Heather Cox Richardson
40m ·
January 30, 2025 (Thursday)
Last night, just before 9:00 Eastern time, an American Airlines jet originating in Wichita, Kansas, carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army helicopter carrying three military personnel collided in the airspace over Washington, D.C. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River. Authorities say there were no survivors.
I’m going to leave that right there, with my best wishes for the victims and their friends and family, and hope that we can give them some breathing room.
It is perfectly legitimate to stop reading right here and pick the world up again tomorrow.
But for people who want to hear more about the larger picture of today’s United States, I’ll turn to what the administration’s reaction to this tragedy says about the ideology of the new Trump administration.
As Claire Moses of the New York Times noted, last night’s event is the most serious air disaster involving a commercial jet since 2009. Last night, more than an hour after news of the crash broke, President Donald Trump posted on his social media network: “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
Trump’s impulse to blame other people for the tragedy even before anything was known about its causes reflects his rejection of the concept of the American government in favor of the idea that the world is simply a collection of individuals. Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. government has performed an extensive and remarkably successful role in public safety. But Trump talks about the U.S. government—what he calls the “Deep State”—as if it is the enemy and must be destroyed, while elevating those operating outside of it as society’s true leaders.
This rejection of the U.S. government began as soon as he took office as he purged officials and civil servants with the accusation that they had been poisoned by “Marxism,” or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Transportation safety officials were among those purged, and the loss of the person at the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during former president Joe Biden’s term, Mike Whitaker, after he clashed with Elon Musk captures Trump’s antigovernment worldview. After Whitaker called for Musk’s SpaceX company to be fined $633,009 over safety and environmental violations, Musk endorsed an employee’s complaint that Whitaker required SpaceX “to consult on minor paperwork updates relating to previously approved non-safety issues that have already been determined to have zero environmental impact.” Musk wrote: “He needs to resign.”
Musk appears to believe that humans must colonize Mars in order to become a multiplanetary species as insurance against the end of life on Earth. As Jeffrey Kluger reported for Time magazine today, Musk has complained that the FAA’s environmental and safety requirements were “unreasonable and exasperating” and that they “undercut American industry’s ability to innovate.” Musk publicly complained: “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!”
Whitaker resigned the day Trump took office. That same day, the administration froze the hiring of all federal employees, including air traffic controllers, although the U.S. Department of Transportation warned in June 2023 that 77% of air traffic control facilities critical to daily operations of the airline industry were short staffed. The next day, January 21, Trump fired Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief David Pekoske, and administration officials removed all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which Congress created after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Trump administration vacated the positions with an eye to “eliminating the misuse of resources.”
Other vacant positions at the FAA, according to CNN’s Alexandra Skores, are “the deputy administrator, an associate administrator of airports, an associate administrator for security and hazardous materials safety, chief counsel, assistant administrator of communications, assistant administrator of government and industry affairs, and assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment.”
Late this morning, Trump spoke to reporters about the crash, saying “We do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we’ll probably state those opinions now.” That opinion was that the people responsible for the accident were not of “superior intelligence.” He claimed that his Democratic predecessors had lowered standards for air traffic controllers (although the language he quoted from the FAA website was from his own time in office). “hen I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first. And they put politics at a level that nobody has ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.”
He continued: “The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg—a real winner,” apparently forgetting that the former transportation secretary was part of the Biden administration and left office on January 20. “Do you know how badly everything’s run since he’s run the Department of Transportation? He’s a disaster…he’s just got a good line of bullsh*t.”
Trump blamed diversity hiring for the collision. When a reporter asked Trump, “I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash,” Trump answered: “Because I have common sense, ok? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.” Trump’s new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, whom Trump elevated to that position from his role as a weekend host at the Fox News Channel, also spoke, confirming that “We will have the best and brightest in every position possible…. The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department.”
Shortly after the press conference, Sydney Ember and Emily Steel of the New York Times reported that staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., was “not normal” at the time of the crash, with one air traffic controller doing the work usually assigned to two.
In response to Trump’s comments, Buttigieg posted: “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”
Tonight, Trump held a televised signing of a new executive order blaming former presidents Barack Obama, who left office in 2017, and Joe Biden for the crash. It says that “problematic and likely illegal decisions” during their administrations “minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).” They implemented “dangerous ‘diversity equity and inclusion’ tactics,” it said, and recruited “individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.” The executive order says that his return to “merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion” will “ensure that all Americans fly with peace of mind.”
MeidasTouch posted: “Trump’s handling of this situation should be treated as one of the biggest scandals in presidential history.”
But there is a larger story than that of Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for a disaster that happened on his watch. His administration seems to be trying to replace the government Americans have created through their representatives over centuries to promote the interests of all Americans with a group of white men who can operate as they see best, without restraint.
Ashley Parker of The Atlantic reported last night that the Office of Management and Budget sent out the memo that froze all federal grants and loans—and thus prompted a constitutional crisis—without getting approval from the White House. Trump has nominated right-wing religious extremist Russell Vought, who was a key author of Project 2025, to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, although he has not yet been confirmed.
Emily Davies, Jeff Stein, and Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post reported yesterday that the proposal emailed to many of the 2.3 million people who work for the federal government offering them an inducement to resign was also a surprise to the White House. The memo came from the Office of Personnel Management, now run by Elon Musk’s team, and the email had the same title as one Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the company.
Rather than cowing employees, though, the unauthorized and unclear offer prompted federal employees to flood Reddit with vows to “make these goons as frustrated as possible.” One wrote, “It took me 10 years of applying and 20 years experience in my field to get here. I will not be pushed out by two billionaire trust funds babies. I’M NOT LEAVING!”
Annie Linskey and Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Meta has settled a lawsuit Trump brought against the company after it suspended him because of his participation in the January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Meta will pay $25 million. The reporters explained that Trump demanded the settlement from Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg after the 2024 election, saying the case had to be dealt with before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent.” As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said: “It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game.”
It seems that Musk and the technology billionaires want to smash the government to enable their futuristic visions, and Christian Nationalists like Russell Vought want to smash it to replace it with religious rule. Trump wants to smash it for money and power. But in the first two weeks of the new administration, their enthusiasm for breaking things has produced what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo—even before today’s frantic attempt to blame Democrats for the air tragedy—called “a fairly epic face plant.”
furious said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Yeah.
Don’t forget DEI, as I predicted…
Trump suggests Democrats and diversity to blame for Washington air crash
Don’t you start…
FWIW a video that shows the moment of the collision. :(
https://x.com/i/status/1884791147777696056
I will wait until the report comes out on the crash before commenting on whose fault it may be.
Shitstain.
furious said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
Yeah.
Don’t forget DEI, as I predicted…
Trump suggests Democrats and diversity to blame for Washington air crash
I predict the sun will rise tomorrow.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Did i not predict, yesterday, that it would somehow be blamed on Biden et al?
I think we all thought that.
Yes, it was pretty much a dead cert, wasn’t it?
so we agree that fascists are deitydamn predictable and yet everyone’s surprised the USSA is doing what the USSA does
dv said:
This was posted before the crash.
so it was planned
pandemic
planplan planplan planplan
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
This was posted before the crash.
so it was planned
plandemic
planplan planplan planplan
sorry fixed and fuck autochlorrekt
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
My point is that they didn’t balls it up. The Biden admin decided to slowroll the prosecution so that it would not proceed while DJT was a potential candidate.
so we agree the protection racket system is working exactly as intended
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
This was posted before the crash.
so it was planned
plandemic
planplan planplan planplan
sorry fixed and fuck autochlorrekt
also the contributor there gets 8/10 for hedging and underconfidence, could have won on higher odds by calling DEI and Biden what a fail
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:You say “inability”. I think it was basically a decision not to prosecute him effectively.
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
My point is that they didn’t balls it up. The Biden admin decided to slowroll the prosecution so that it would not proceed while DJT was a potential candidate.
That would seem to me to be a pretty big mistake
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Look, I think there was obviously an attempt to be especially litigious in their preperation, but it’s nbot like they only had 5min to do this.. they had actual years and they completely ballzed it up…
My point is that they didn’t balls it up. The Biden admin decided to slowroll the prosecution so that it would not proceed while DJT was a potential candidate.
That would seem to me to be a pretty big mistake
or a stroke of genius
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
My point is that they didn’t balls it up. The Biden admin decided to slowroll the prosecution so that it would not proceed while DJT was a potential candidate.
That would seem to me to be a pretty big mistake
or a stroke of genius
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
Pennsylvania official Laura Smith has resigned from office after posting a Tiktok video mimicking Musk’s Hitlergruss. Michigan priest Calvin Robinson has been defrocked for doing the same.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
That would seem to me to be a pretty big mistake
or a stroke of genius
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
or a stroke of genius
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
dv said:
Pennsylvania official Laura Smith has resigned from office after posting a Tiktok video mimicking Musk’s Hitlergruss. Michigan priest Calvin Robinson has been defrocked for doing the same.
Both are dreadful people, but Laura Smith…wow. I saw her via tizzyent on Instagram. She just thought she was so funny.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Forgot to add: the lower down the rank a person is the less they matter to the players higher up in the system. A common poor person outside of the system is worth practically nothing.
There is no concept of running the country for the best interests of the society as a whole including the poor people. Because the poor don’t matter. They are there only as a source of wealth to be extracted.
it’s a typical spoilt little rich kids imagination of how the world should work. Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and the flow of wealth from the latter upwards to the former.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Yuck.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Yuck.
I am convinced that this is how Donald trump thinks, and how he want to run his presidency. As if it is just some sort of normal and natural way for a society to operate.
Assigning this sort of mentality to him suddenly everything he does and says makes sense. Rather than thinking him stupid and going “he can’t be serious!” every time he does something undemocratic.
kii said:
dv said:
Pennsylvania official Laura Smith has resigned from office after posting a Tiktok video mimicking Musk’s Hitlergruss. Michigan priest Calvin Robinson has been defrocked for doing the same.
Both are dreadful people, but Laura Smith…wow. I saw her via tizzyent on Instagram. She just thought she was so funny.
Sure but to me it highlights that in any normal walk of life everyone knows exactly what that is and there are consequences, whereas when you have half a trillion dollars and control a major social media arm, people pop out of the ground to say “No it was a Roman salute”, “No it was the Tai chi exercise called monkey swats a gnat”.
dv said:
kii said:
dv said:
Pennsylvania official Laura Smith has resigned from office after posting a Tiktok video mimicking Musk’s Hitlergruss. Michigan priest Calvin Robinson has been defrocked for doing the same.
Both are dreadful people, but Laura Smith…wow. I saw her via tizzyent on Instagram. She just thought she was so funny.
Sure but to me it highlights that in any normal walk of life everyone knows exactly what that is and there are consequences, whereas when you have half a trillion dollars and control a major social media arm, people pop out of the ground to say “No it was a Roman salute”, “No it was the Tai chi exercise called monkey swats a gnat”.
There are just so many people willing to put the hope of being invited into his group of followers ahead of their own dignity.
dv said:
kii said:
dv said:
Pennsylvania official Laura Smith has resigned from office after posting a Tiktok video mimicking Musk’s Hitlergruss. Michigan priest Calvin Robinson has been defrocked for doing the same.
Both are dreadful people, but Laura Smith…wow. I saw her via tizzyent on Instagram. She just thought she was so funny.
Sure but to me it highlights that in any normal walk of life everyone knows exactly what that is and there are consequences, whereas when you have half a trillion dollars and control a major social media arm, people pop out of the ground to say “No it was a Roman salute”, “No it was the Tai chi exercise called monkey swats a gnat”.
Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Forgot to add: the lower down the rank a person is the less they matter to the players higher up in the system. A common poor person outside of the system is worth practically nothing.
There is no concept of running the country for the best interests of the society as a whole including the poor people. Because the poor don’t matter. They are there only as a source of wealth to be extracted.
it’s a typical spoilt little rich kids imagination of how the world should work. Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and the flow of wealth from the latter upwards to the former.
There’s already too much of that.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Yuck.
I am convinced that this is how Donald trump thinks, and how he want to run his presidency. As if it is just some sort of normal and natural way for a society to operate.
Assigning this sort of mentality to him suddenly everything he does and says makes sense. Rather than thinking him stupid and going “he can’t be serious!” every time he does something undemocratic.
Lord Donald.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Yuck.
I am convinced that this is how Donald trump thinks, and how he want to run his presidency. As if it is just some sort of normal and natural way for a society to operate.
Assigning this sort of mentality to him suddenly everything he does and says makes sense. Rather than thinking him stupid and going “he can’t be serious!” every time he does something undemocratic.
I wonder if/when he’s going to make some move to make the Presidency a hereditary office, or one where he can appoint his successor, like Hitler appointed Admiral Donitz as the new fuhrer?
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
party_pants said:Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Forgot to add: the lower down the rank a person is the less they matter to the players higher up in the system. A common poor person outside of the system is worth practically nothing.
There is no concept of running the country for the best interests of the society as a whole including the poor people. Because the poor don’t matter. They are there only as a source of wealth to be extracted.
it’s a typical spoilt little rich kids imagination of how the world should work. Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and the flow of wealth from the latter upwards to the former.
There’s already too much of that.
It is how the world used to work, probably for centuries. The modern liberal democratic society is a fairly recent invention, and maybe is just a brief interlude in history.
party_pants said:
It is how the world used to work, probably for centuries. The modern liberal democratic society is a fairly recent invention, and maybe is just a brief interlude in history.
That may be so.
But, it can take an awful to keep ‘em down on the farm, once they’ve seen Paree.
Michael V said:
dv said:
kii said:Both are dreadful people, but Laura Smith…wow. I saw her via tizzyent on Instagram. She just thought she was so funny.
Sure but to me it highlights that in any normal walk of life everyone knows exactly what that is and there are consequences, whereas when you have half a trillion dollars and control a major social media arm, people pop out of the ground to say “No it was a Roman salute”, “No it was the Tai chi exercise called monkey swats a gnat”.
Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
Meh. He’s probably ADHD but not autistic.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:It is how the world used to work, probably for centuries. The modern liberal democratic society is a fairly recent invention, and maybe is just a brief interlude in history.
That may be so.
But, it can take an awful to keep ‘em down on the farm, once they’ve seen Paree.
‘…an awful lot…’
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Yuck.
I am convinced that this is how Donald trump thinks, and how he want to run his presidency. As if it is just some sort of normal and natural way for a society to operate.
Assigning this sort of mentality to him suddenly everything he does and says makes sense. Rather than thinking him stupid and going “he can’t be serious!” every time he does something undemocratic.
I wonder if/when he’s going to make some move to make the Presidency a hereditary office, or one where he can appoint his successor, like Hitler appointed Admiral Donitz as the new fuhrer?
He’s already nudging that turd by asking for a third term.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:Forgot to add: the lower down the rank a person is the less they matter to the players higher up in the system. A common poor person outside of the system is worth practically nothing.
There is no concept of running the country for the best interests of the society as a whole including the poor people. Because the poor don’t matter. They are there only as a source of wealth to be extracted.
it’s a typical spoilt little rich kids imagination of how the world should work. Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and the flow of wealth from the latter upwards to the former.
There’s already too much of that.
It is how the world used to work, probably for centuries. The modern liberal democratic society is a fairly recent invention, and maybe is just a brief interlude in history.
Ja.
Spiny Norman said:
:)
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Sure but to me it highlights that in any normal walk of life everyone knows exactly what that is and there are consequences, whereas when you have half a trillion dollars and control a major social media arm, people pop out of the ground to say “No it was a Roman salute”, “No it was the Tai chi exercise called monkey swats a gnat”.
Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
Meh. He’s probably ADHD but not autistic.
AD olf H i D ler ?
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
Meh. He’s probably ADHD but not autistic.
AD olf H i D ler ?
That’s a close approximation, yes.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
Meh. He’s probably ADHD but not autistic.
AD olf H i D ler ?
I’m stealing that
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Some even excused the Nazi gesture as “he’s autistic”.
Meh. He’s probably ADHD but not autistic.
AD olf H i D ler ?
Everyone else is pisskop when you’re a trillionaire.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
:)
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
Nah. There is nothin g genius about giving Trump even one week in office just to demonstrate how bad he will be. And there’s no such thing as a one week term. They are at the point now where someone has to cross the Rubicon and remove him somehow. But once that genie is out of the bottle it may be hard to put back in.
The the people that still believe in democracy are in a terrible bind. In fours years time there will be nothing left of it .
we mean assuming that there really are oligarchs pulling strings and billionaires donating to influence and data analytics companies making moves then it is a glorious beautiful artful flourish to arrange things so that all these so called safeguards fail in plausibly deniable little steps at a rate that enables a graceful descent into fascist hell
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
Forgot to add: the lower down the rank a person is the less they matter to the players higher up in the system. A common poor person outside of the system is worth practically nothing.
There is no concept of running the country for the best interests of the society as a whole including the poor people. Because the poor don’t matter. They are there only as a source of wealth to be extracted.
it’s a typical spoilt little rich kids imagination of how the world should work. Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and the flow of wealth from the latter upwards to the former.
Yuck.
I am convinced that this is how Donald trump thinks, and how he want to run his presidency. As if it is just some sort of normal and natural way for a society to operate.
Assigning this sort of mentality to him suddenly everything he does and says makes sense. Rather than thinking him stupid and going “he can’t be serious!” every time he does something undemocratic.
There’s already too much of that.
I wonder if/when he’s going to make some move to make the Presidency a hereditary office, or one where he can appoint his successor, like Hitler appointed Admiral Donitz as the new fuhrer?
It is how the world used to work, probably for centuries. The modern liberal democratic society is a fairly recent invention, and maybe is just a brief interlude in history.
That may be so.
But, it can take an awful to keep ‘em down on the farm, once they’ve seen Paree.
‘…an awful lot…’
He’s already nudging that turd by asking for a third term.
anyway cutting back to our proximate bit
Don’t be too fixated on the fascism stuff. What they are after is a form of feudalism. Not real feudalism of course because that is usually associated with an agrarian economy, but a similar hierarchical structure where resources and power are tightly concentrated. Power and influence and wealth are doled out from the central authority figure to lackeys and flunkeys and stooges on the basis of personal loyalty to the patron. Positions of power and influence are handed out as rewards to loyal followers. These in turn hand out subordinate positions and appointments to their own personal followers and so on down the line several times. Each player has a boss they must keep happy, and each is in turn the boss of their own little group they exploit. China and Russia already operate like this.
maybe and note that we have never been a citizen of the USSA or the USSR or the DPRK or the DPRNA or West Taiwan or East Ukraine but some people out there tell us that the endpoint of populism is fascism and although we haven’t thought it through to the end so we aren’t absolutely certain we find that it seems quite plausible and even possible so we remain concerned
we get that the fascism stuff is “for show” and “to get a reaction” and “generates traffic” but we don’t feel that it’s safe to risking simply dismissing it as mere cisgender ableist teenage white male edginess
DEI= Donald’s Enormous Incompetence
Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.
A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
dv said:
Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.
A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
well good we need less barriers to world leading innovation and research and this should hurry things up so we can get to the full human trials at Block 10 instead of torturing those other poor animals
Hey everyone guess what we
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/most-secure-airspace-world-how-could-plane-helicopter-crash-dc/104882730
have an idea for a niche for high speed rail but it probably requires dirty ASIAN industry.
Friends Like These
Despite earlier reports Donald Trump would wait until March 1, Mexico and Canada will be hit with tariffs of 25 per cent, and China a rate of 10 per cent, from Saturday February 1.
President Donald Trump’s executive order declares there are only two sexes, male and female.
roughbarked said:
President Donald Trump’s executive order declares there are only two sexes, male and female.
Data on health disparities among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth was also removed, while a database tracking behaviours that increase health risks for youth was offline.
Queer people who live and work in the United States are concerned about the executive order on gender that Donald Trump signed in his first week as US president.
A two-page memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management orders agencies must make such such changes by January 31.
The memo specifies that each agency must end all programs that promote or reflect gender ideology as outlined in Mr Trump’s executive order, requiring them to “recognise women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
“There’s a lot of work going on at the agency to comply,” said a CDC source who was not authorised to speak publicly.
Missing pages also include those with data on HIV in the US in general, as well as pages with statistics on HIV in Hispanic/Latino people, women, by age and by race and ethnicity.
For example, a page with information about how people can get HIV tests was offline on Friday local time, according to the Internet Archive.
As was a page for doctors with information about testing for HIV and treating patients.
They have to be kidding. MTG has a plaque?
dv said:
Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
A 22-year-old veteran of the department, golly.
dv said:
Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
More FMD!
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.
From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
President Donald Trump’s executive order declares there are only two sexes, male and female.
Data on health disparities among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth was also removed, while a database tracking behaviours that increase health risks for youth was offline.
Queer people who live and work in the United States are concerned about the executive order on gender that Donald Trump signed in his first week as US president.
A two-page memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management orders agencies must make such such changes by January 31.
The memo specifies that each agency must end all programs that promote or reflect gender ideology as outlined in Mr Trump’s executive order, requiring them to “recognise women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
“There’s a lot of work going on at the agency to comply,” said a CDC source who was not authorised to speak publicly.
Missing pages also include those with data on HIV in the US in general, as well as pages with statistics on HIV in Hispanic/Latino people, women, by age and by race and ethnicity.
For example, a page with information about how people can get HIV tests was offline on Friday local time, according to the Internet Archive.
As was a page for doctors with information about testing for HIV and treating patients.
FMD.
captain_spalding said:
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
reads more like they were trying to get in the know and agree
roughbarked said:
They have to be kidding. MTG has a plaque?
The irony!
“Trust the Science” – only when it suits…
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
They have to be kidding. MTG has a plaque?
The irony!
“Trust the Science” – only when it suits…
we suppose this isn’t the only place where the suggestion has been made, gender aside, that in Homo sapiens sex is a variable on a single axis dimension
however as we are not sexologists we continue to wait for the definitive evaluation of this suggestion
captain_spalding said:
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
Mmmmm.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
reads more like they were trying to get in the know and agree
The ‘ohhh, okay’ at the end is columnist Jeff Tiedrich’s remark on the exchange.
Donald Trump: “It was Joe Biden’s fault. It was Obama’s fault. It was DEI. I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts. It wasn’t my fault! I swear to God!”
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.
From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
reads more like they were trying to get in the know and agree
The ‘ohhh, okay’ at the end is columnist Jeff Tiedrich’s remark on the exchange.
yes we get that but note he didn’t include the reporter’s response because it was almost certainly a sanewashing of the shit
the reporters aren’t calling his shit out, they’re giving it a platform
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Fired inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong was removed from her Washington D.C. office on Monday after refusing to comply with the conditions of her termination.A 22-year-old veteran of the department—which has a broad mandate to investigate food safety and animal welfare—Fong’s office has been investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, among other investigations into the Boar’s Head’s listeria outbreak.
The USDA launched a federal investigation into Neuralink in 2022 for potential animal-welfare violations following internal staff complaints alleging the needless suffering and deaths of animals via testing, reported Reuters at the time.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-foe-escorted-fed-004315382.html
A 22-year-old veteran of the department, golly.
Good catch lol. She is a 22 year veteran.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
reads more like they were trying to get in the know and agree
The ‘ohhh, okay’ at the end is columnist Jeff Tiedrich’s remark on the exchange.
yes we get that but note he didn’t include the reporter’s response because it was almost certainly a sanewashing of the shit
the reporters aren’t calling his shit out, they’re giving it a platform
Maybe, but i don’t buy it. The question clearly poses a dilemma for Trump by presenting the several conflicts in Trump’s own remarks on what he imagines were the causes (about which he had earlier said ‘we do not know what led to this crash’).
All Trump could come up with was a ridiculous ‘…so, there!’ answer.
None of it makes him look good.
But, i do agree, there’s has been and still is a VAST amount of sanewashing of Trump’s idiocy.
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The ‘ohhh, okay’ at the end is columnist Jeff Tiedrich’s remark on the exchange.
yes we get that but note he didn’t include the reporter’s response because it was almost certainly a sanewashing of the shit
the reporters aren’t calling his shit out, they’re giving it a platform
Maybe, but i don’t buy it. The question clearly poses a dilemma for Trump by presenting the several conflicts in Trump’s own remarks on what he imagines were the causes (about which he had earlier said ‘we do not know what led to this crash’).
All Trump could come up with was a ridiculous ‘…so, there!’ answer.
None of it makes him look good.
But, i do agree, there’s has been and still is a VAST amount of sanewashing of Trump’s idiocy.
Yeah there could be a few reporters who do continue to push back, though by and large almost all the media outlets with significant reach seem to simply roll with the the capture.
There was false balance and both sidesing in decades gone by, and it’s evolved into all this “let’s just announce what our souls say, it’s the easiest and short term safest way to get more views by jumping on the bandwagon” “well it doesn’t make sense to us but obviously they’re the ones got elected so they must be IQ200geniuses and playing 12 dimensional 圍棋 and we better just repeat it in hushed deferential tones”. We totally love how it then all gets lapped up… fuck STEM illiteracy.
Trump’s golfing ratio has decreased.
It will probably rise soon, but, then, it’s the weekend.
Prices of eggs and petrol have presumably been raised in recent days, so as to give scope for Trump to soon claim credit for their decrease.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The good news is that at least some media people now seem willing to point out Trump’s nonsense right to his face.From a Presidential press conference (via Jeff Tiedrich’s column):
reads more like they were trying to get in the know and agree
The ‘ohhh, okay’ at the end is columnist Jeff Tiedrich’s remark on the exchange.
They showed that video on Planet America last night. It sounded like the answer just stunned the room.
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
sarahs mum said:
Where’s that?
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
Ah. Doesn’t look like there’ll be survivors.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Where’s that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Philadelphia_Learjet_crash
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
I was going to post this earlier, but just couldn’t be bothered to.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
I was going to post this earlier, but just couldn’t be bothered to.
ah well thanks anyway
Any minute now, Trump will start hinting that people are crashing planes deliberately ‘just to make me look bad’.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Live Storm Chasers
53m ·
🚨BREAKING: A Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Learjet 55 XA-UCI crashes in neighborhood just after taking off from Philadelphia to Springfield MO. 6 people onboard. 2 Doctors, 2 Piots, 1 Patient and 1 Family Member.
I was going to post this earlier, but just couldn’t be bothered to.
ah well thanks anyway
Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
captain_spalding said:
Any minute now, Trump will start hinting that people are crashing planes deliberately ‘just to make me look bad’.
That’s been my running thought since I saw the news.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
I was going to post this earlier, but just couldn’t be bothered to.
ah well thanks anyway
Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
i have not read.
kii said:
Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
AussieDJ said:
kii said:Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems.
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce.
Musk, OPM, representatives of the new team, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OPM has sent out memos that eschew the normal dry wording of government missives as it encourages civil servants to consider buyout offers to quit and take a vacation to a “dream destination.”
Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said the actions inside OPM raised concerns about congressional oversight at the agency and how Trump and Musk view the federal bureaucracy.
“This makes it much harder for anyone outside Musk’s inner circle at OPM to know what’s going on,” Moynihan said.
……….
More at the link above.
Spiny Norman said:
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.
Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
Compare the decent, honourable response to …
https://x.com/i/status/1885387699005354275
Kingy said:
Spiny Norman said:
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
Military aircraft often do not have TCAS.
AussieDJ said:
Compare the decent, honourable response to …https://x.com/i/status/1885387699005354275
And if you want to go with the other side, Planet America showed how Ronald Reagan spoke after the Challenger disaster.
Kingy said:
Spiny Norman said:
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Boris said:
Kingy said:
Spiny Norman said:
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
That does seem self defeating to me, but I’m not an airplane surgeon.
Kingy said:
Boris said:
Kingy said:Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
That does seem self defeating to me, but I’m not an airplane surgeon.
richard C would be handy to have in this discussion but he’s unavailable.
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Where’s that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Philadelphia_Learjet_crash
Not good.
But it’ll all be Biden and DEI’s fault…
captain_spalding said:
Any minute now, Trump will start hinting that people are crashing planes deliberately ‘just to make me look bad’.
LOL
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Where’s that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Philadelphia_Learjet_crash
ta
Kingy said:
Boris said:
Kingy said:Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
That does seem self defeating to me, but I’m not an airplane surgeon.
just a limitation of the system. plus in these situations the pilots will turn them off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdOU2BGHwHo
7:10 in.
AussieDJ said:
kii said:Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
FMD!
(Again)
kii said:
LOLOLOL
Boris said:
Kingy said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
That does seem self defeating to me, but I’m not an airplane surgeon.
just a limitation of the system. plus in these situations the pilots will turn them off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdOU2BGHwHo
7:10 in.
Ta.
Boris said:
Kingy said:
Spiny Norman said:
A better video of the recent mid-air collision in the US.
A bit surprising that the chopper pilot didn’t see how close the airliner was, with the landing lights on so bright apparently right in front of them.Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
AussieDJ said:
Compare the decent, honourable response to …https://x.com/i/status/1885387699005354275
Heh.
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:
Kingy said:Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:
Kingy said:Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
others beg to differ that it would be effective in this situation.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Yeah that does happen at times. It also depends on the company procedures. With parallel runway operations the TCAS alerts can get annoying so it’s sometimes switched to standby. When operating it’s got two modes –
TA which is just Traffic Advisory and the box shouts out “TRAFFIC TRAFFIC” if it detects another plane that could possibly intrude too close to your plane.
TA/RA which is Traffic Advisory with Resolution Advisory. That’s the next step up and the TCAS box in each plane talks to each other and they work out with the same criteria as the plain TA but if needed will shout out a Resolution Advisory, which goes something like “TRAFFIC TRAFFIC CLIMB NOW CLIMB NOW” with the other plane getting a “DESCEND NOW” shout.
With the position of the airliner, ie, nearly lined-up with the runway, you just wouldn’t expect any conflicting traffic so it is indeed possible they set the TCAS to standby.
Not sure about the military chopper.
Boris said:
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
others beg to differ that it would be effective in this situation.
It would be, as per my post just before this one.
But as you say it’s a balancing act between getting too many TA’s & possible TA/RA’s and so the TCAS may well have been in standby.
Just had a quick look at the area and there’s only the one main north/south runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport, with a smaller one crossing it going SE/NW. So no parallel ops.
The next nearest airport I could find was a military one about 15 km away, so it doesn’t seem likely that they were swamped with traffic around the RR airport. Just that chopper.
I have seen in person such things happen when the traffic gets a bit much for the controllers, and separation breaks down. I lost three friends in this mid-air. :(
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:
Kingy said:Surely TCAS should have been flashing warnings?
not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Yeah what is what?
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Yeah what is what?
Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Boris said:not effective at low altitudes and with all the other aircraft around would be warning all the time.
Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
Yeah, I noticed that sometimes. Back when I worked in Cannington under the flight path for Perth International main runway, we’d sometimes see a military cargo plane like a C-17 or similar, I’d rush inside the office to look up FlightRadar 24 and there would be nothing. Same in around 2011 or 2012 when the Queen last visited, arrived on an RAAF Boeing 737, but that wasn’t showing up either.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
Aye.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Yeah what is what?
Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:Yeah it is. I suspect that the military chopper didn’t have TCAS fitted.
Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
I’ve seen that sort of stuff.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
OIC.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:Yeah what is what?
Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:Yeah what is what?
Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
Oh okay.
Yeah it’s still effective close to an airport and works just fine, but there’s invariably a lot of things going on and you typically want the least amount of distractions. So as Boris says, the TCAS may well have been in standby and not active.
And as I mentioned, when you’re lined-up & close to the runway you really aren’t thinking about colliding with another aircraft. (mostly)
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Saw a piece on the news with some aviation expert, he suggested they have it fitted but that it can be turned off. It seems to have been turned off in this case.
Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
Actually, that’s pretty old-fashioned stuff, over a quarter of a century old, in fact. I’d‘ve thought they’d‘ve found more effective things to do now.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Yeah it works at low altitudes, but as I mentioned there’s often a lot going on and you’re unlikely to have any conflicting traffic when lined-up with the runway so it wouldn’t be unusual to turn it off.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
Oh okay.
Yeah it’s still effective close to an airport and works just fine, but there’s invariably a lot of things going on and you typically want the least amount of distractions. So as Boris says, the TCAS may well have been in standby and not active.
And as I mentioned, when you’re lined-up & close to the runway you really aren’t thinking about colliding with another aircraft. (mostly)
Thanks.
Michael V said:
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:Military aircraft often have the ability to switch off indicating systems, like ADS-B.
You can see it happen sometimes on Flightradar 24. There might be e.g. a RAAF Airbus tootling around Amberley for quite a while, and then, suddenly, out over the countryside, it just disappears off the plot, just like that.
probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
Actually, that’s pretty old-fashioned stuff, over a quarter of a century old, in fact. I’d‘ve thought they’d‘ve found more effective things to do now.
Yeah, it’s all done via 5G now…
Spiny Norman said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Yeah it works at low altitudes, but as I mentioned there’s often a lot going on and you’re unlikely to have any conflicting traffic when lined-up with the runway so it wouldn’t be unusual to turn it off.
Also if the pilot is racially or gender diverse, they’re allowed to turn it off or just ignore it.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
It’s a box on airliners and some other planes that talks to the other TCAS boxes in the area and between the two of them they work out if the planes are going to intrude on each other’s lateral separation and vertical separation as well. They know the position* and altitude of each other and so can work such things out.
- The position is constantly moving of course, so I guess they plot that path a minute or so into the future.
Sorry, my question was poorly phrased.
You had replied “Yeah it is. snip” (See below.)
I couldn’t work out what you were referring to. I still can’t. But it’s not important. (I had already looked up TCAS.)
It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Thanks. I understand now.
furious said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:probably the the start of a chemtrail run.
Actually, that’s pretty old-fashioned stuff, over a quarter of a century old, in fact. I’d‘ve thought they’d‘ve found more effective things to do now.
Yeah, it’s all done via 5G now…
Ah, yes, of course.
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Witty Rejoinder said:It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Yeah it works at low altitudes, but as I mentioned there’s often a lot going on and you’re unlikely to have any conflicting traffic when lined-up with the runway so it wouldn’t be unusual to turn it off.
Also if the pilot is racially or gender diverse, they’re allowed to turn it off or just ignore it.
LOL
party_pants said:
Spiny Norman said:
Witty Rejoinder said:It is useful at low altitude according to Bill refuting Boris.
Yeah it works at low altitudes, but as I mentioned there’s often a lot going on and you’re unlikely to have any conflicting traffic when lined-up with the runway so it wouldn’t be unusual to turn it off.
Also if the pilot is racially or gender diverse, they’re allowed to turn it off or just ignore it.
That’s a bit premature, let’s wait and see what the gender, race, sexual preference, religion and star sign is of the people involved was first.
He was white, which I guess makes him part of a minority on a global scale
Bill criminalizing votes for immigrant sanctuary policies ‘constitutionally suspect’
‘The state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,’ said one First Amendment expert
https://tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/29/bill-criminalizing-votes-for-immigrant-sanctuary-policies-constitutionally-suspect/
As Gov. Bill Lee’s immigration enforcement plan moves swiftly through the Tennessee Legislature, one component of the bill — aimed at arresting local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants — drew scrutiny Tuesday.
Included in the governor’s wide-ranging proposal to coordinate with the Trump Administration on mass immigrant detentions and deportations is a provision that creates a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or enact sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies can shield undocumented immigrants and limit cooperation with enforcement action
The felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine, would apply to any public official who votes in favor of a sanctuary law, policy or on non-binding resolutions.
—-
dv said:
Bill criminalizing votes for immigrant sanctuary policies ‘constitutionally suspect’
‘The state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,’ said one First Amendment experthttps://tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/29/bill-criminalizing-votes-for-immigrant-sanctuary-policies-constitutionally-suspect/
As Gov. Bill Lee’s immigration enforcement plan moves swiftly through the Tennessee Legislature, one component of the bill — aimed at arresting local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants — drew scrutiny Tuesday.
Included in the governor’s wide-ranging proposal to coordinate with the Trump Administration on mass immigrant detentions and deportations is a provision that creates a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or enact sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies can shield undocumented immigrants and limit cooperation with enforcement action
The felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine, would apply to any public official who votes in favor of a sanctuary law, policy or on non-binding resolutions.
—-
free speech?
dv said:
Bill criminalizing votes for immigrant sanctuary policies ‘constitutionally suspect’
‘The state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,’ said one First Amendment experthttps://tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/29/bill-criminalizing-votes-for-immigrant-sanctuary-policies-constitutionally-suspect/
As Gov. Bill Lee’s immigration enforcement plan moves swiftly through the Tennessee Legislature, one component of the bill — aimed at arresting local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants — drew scrutiny Tuesday.
Included in the governor’s wide-ranging proposal to coordinate with the Trump Administration on mass immigrant detentions and deportations is a provision that creates a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or enact sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies can shield undocumented immigrants and limit cooperation with enforcement action
The felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine, would apply to any public official who votes in favor of a sanctuary law, policy or on non-binding resolutions.
—-
FMD!
dv said:
Bill criminalizing votes for immigrant sanctuary policies ‘constitutionally suspect’
‘The state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,’ said one First Amendment experthttps://tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/29/bill-criminalizing-votes-for-immigrant-sanctuary-policies-constitutionally-suspect/
As Gov. Bill Lee’s immigration enforcement plan moves swiftly through the Tennessee Legislature, one component of the bill — aimed at arresting local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants — drew scrutiny Tuesday.
Included in the governor’s wide-ranging proposal to coordinate with the Trump Administration on mass immigrant detentions and deportations is a provision that creates a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or enact sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies can shield undocumented immigrants and limit cooperation with enforcement action
The felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine, would apply to any public official who votes in favor of a sanctuary law, policy or on non-binding resolutions.
—-
And then they go to church and pretend they follow jesus’ will.
Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself
Kingy said:
dv said:
Bill criminalizing votes for immigrant sanctuary policies ‘constitutionally suspect’
‘The state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,’ said one First Amendment experthttps://tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/29/bill-criminalizing-votes-for-immigrant-sanctuary-policies-constitutionally-suspect/
As Gov. Bill Lee’s immigration enforcement plan moves swiftly through the Tennessee Legislature, one component of the bill — aimed at arresting local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants — drew scrutiny Tuesday.
Included in the governor’s wide-ranging proposal to coordinate with the Trump Administration on mass immigrant detentions and deportations is a provision that creates a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or enact sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies can shield undocumented immigrants and limit cooperation with enforcement action
The felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine, would apply to any public official who votes in favor of a sanctuary law, policy or on non-binding resolutions.
—-
And then they go to church and pretend they follow jesus’ will.
Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself
Where’s the fun in that? Stoopid Bible.
No Police State Here
dv said:
He was white, which I guess makes him part of a minority on a global scale
see told you those DEI communists were to blame they’re trying to kill off all the whites and great American replace them
Plane crash in Pennsylvania. Carrying a paediatric case back to Mexico. Her mum, medical staff and the pilots.
AussieDJ said:
AussieDJ said:
kii said:Has anyone posted the Musk’s Thugs accessing social security system?
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems.
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce.
Musk, OPM, representatives of the new team, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OPM has sent out memos that eschew the normal dry wording of government missives as it encourages civil servants to consider buyout offers to quit and take a vacation to a “dream destination.”
Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said the actions inside OPM raised concerns about congressional oversight at the agency and how Trump and Musk view the federal bureaucracy.
“This makes it much harder for anyone outside Musk’s inner circle at OPM to know what’s going on,” Moynihan said.
……….
More at the link above.
so uh people who can should uh get the fuck out now
captain_spalding said:
Any minute now, Trump will start hinting that people are crashing planes deliberately ‘just to make me look bad’.
we thought he would start hiring people to crash planes so he could make others look bad
oh shit it’s already happening
wait
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
January 31, 2025 (Friday)
On February 1, 1862, in the early days of the Civil War, the Atlantic Monthly published Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” summing up the cause of freedom for which the United States troops would soon be fighting. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” it began.
“He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.”
Howe had written the poem on a visit to Washington, D.C., with her husband. Approaching the city, she had reflected sadly that there was little she could do for the United States. She couldn’t send her menfolk to war: her husband was too old to fight, her sons too young. And with a toddler, she didn’t even have enough time to volunteer to pack stores for the field hospitals. “I thought of the women of my acquaintance whose sons or husbands were fighting our great battle; the women themselves serving in the hospitals, or busying themselves with the work of the Sanitary Commission,” she recalled, and worried there was nothing she could give to the cause.
One day she, her husband, and friends, toured the troop encampments surrounding the city. To amuse themselves on the way back to the hotel, they sang a song popular with the troops as they marched. It ended: “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave; his soul is marching on.” A friend challenged Howe to write more uplifting words for the soldiers’ song.
That night, Howe slept soundly. She woke before dawn and, lying in bed, began thinking about the tune she had heard the day before. She recalled: “s I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind…. With a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen…. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”
Howe’s hymn captured the tension of Washington, D.C., during the war, and the soldiers’ camps strung in circles around the city to keep invaders from the U.S. Capitol.
“I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.”
Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic went on to define the Civil War as a holy war for human freedom:
“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.”
The Battle Hymn became the anthem of the Union during the Civil War, and exactly three years after it appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, on February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Joint Resolution of Congress passing the Thirteenth Amendment and sending it off to the states for ratification. The amendment provided that “either slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” It gave Congress power to enforce that amendment. This was the first amendment that gave power to the federal government rather than taking it away.
When the measure had passed the House the day before, the lawmakers and spectators had gone wild. “The members on the floor huzzaed in chorus with deafening and equally emphatic cheers of the throng in the galleries,” the New York Times reported. “The ladies in the dense assemblage waved their handkerchiefs, and again and again the applause was repeated, intermingled with clapping of hands and exclamations of ‘Hurrah for freedom,’ ‘Glory enough for one day,’ &c.
The audience were wildly excited, and the friends of the measure were jubilant.” Indiana congressman George Julian later recalled, “It seemed to me I had been born into a new life, and that the world was overflowing with beauty and joy, while I was inexpressibly thankful for the privilege of recording my name on so glorious a page of the nation’s history.”
But the hopes of that moment had crumbled within a decade. Almost a century later, students from Bennett College, a women’s college in Greensboro, North Carolina, set out to bring them back to life. They organized to protest the F.W. Woolworth Company’s willingness to sell products to Black people but refusal to serve them food. On February 1, 1960, their male colleagues from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat down on stools at Woolworth’s department store lunch counter in Greensboro. David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil were first-year students who wanted to find a way to combat the segregation under which Black Americans had lived since the 1880s.
So the men forced the issue by sitting down and ordering coffee and doughnuts. They sat quietly as the white waitress refused to serve them and the store manager ignored them. They came back the next day with a larger group. This time, television cameras covered the story. By February 3 there were 60 men and women sitting. By February 5 there were 50 white male counterprotesters.
By March the sit-in movement had spread across the South, to bus routes, museums, art galleries, and swimming pools. In July, after profits had dropped dramatically, the store manager of the Greensboro Woolworth’s asked four Black employees to put on street clothes and order food at the counter. They did, and they were served. Desegregation in public spaces had begun.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized February 1 as the first day of Black History Month, asking the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
On February 1, 2023, Tyre Nichols’s family laid their 29-year-old son to rest in Memphis, Tennessee. He was so severely beaten by police officers on January 7, allegedly for a traffic violation, that he died three days later.
In 2025 the U.S. government under President Donald Trump has revoked a 60-year-old executive order that protected equal opportunity in employment and has called for an end to all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. This February 1, neither the Pentagon nor the State Department will recognize Black History Month.
Mine eyes have seen the glory.
Trump DOJ demands list of thousands of FBI agents, others who worked on Jan. 6 and Trump investigations for possible firing.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html
fsm said:
Trump DOJ demands list of thousands of FBI agents, others who worked on Jan. 6 and Trump investigations for possible firing.https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html
Let us hope that he leaves some decent people there. Surely he can’t stack the FBI with his own criminals
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
Trump DOJ demands list of thousands of FBI agents, others who worked on Jan. 6 and Trump investigations for possible firing.https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html
Let us hope that he leaves some decent people there. Surely he can’t stack the FBI with his own criminals
They kinda need an FBI to deal with all the other criminals. Dismantling the FBI is giving all criminals a free run.
There isd no choice now, they have to remove him from office. If that means violence then so be it.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
Trump DOJ demands list of thousands of FBI agents, others who worked on Jan. 6 and Trump investigations for possible firing.https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html
Let us hope that he leaves some decent people there. Surely he can’t stack the FBI with his own criminals
They kinda need an FBI to deal with all the other criminals. Dismantling the FBI is giving all criminals a free run.
There isd no choice now, they have to remove him from office. If that means violence then so be it.
He’s like a two year old who’s broken open the piggy bank.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:Let us hope that he leaves some decent people there. Surely he can’t stack the FBI with his own criminals
They kinda need an FBI to deal with all the other criminals. Dismantling the FBI is giving all criminals a free run.
There isd no choice now, they have to remove him from office. If that means violence then so be it.
He’s like a two year old who’s broken open the piggy bank.
It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:They kinda need an FBI to deal with all the other criminals. Dismantling the FBI is giving all criminals a free run.
There isd no choice now, they have to remove him from office. If that means violence then so be it.
He’s like a two year old who’s broken open the piggy bank.
It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:He’s like a two year old who’s broken open the piggy bank.
It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
I think it best that things go to shit for a good few months to make sure his Republicans counterparts who should know better learn the permanent error of their ways.
With the country in crisis much needed reforms will be easier to legislate and implement.
One hope is that this is part of some plan by elements of the Republican party: to let Trump run amok for a while, doing progressively crazier things, until they have sufficient grounds to cause his removal from office, and his replacement with Vance, who has been coached on how to be just the kind of President that the party and their backers want to have.
Donny won the election for them, but that doesn’t mean that they have to put up with him for four years.
It’s not a glorious hope, but there it is.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:He’s like a two year old who’s broken open the piggy bank.
It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
Trump has just unleashed the yearnings of so many wanna-be dictators, whether in the privacy of their own homes, in their own companies, or in the public sphere.
The wheels are in motion to dismantle so many institutions. The flood of refugees will be one thing, there are going to be so many other consequences of the many forms of retribution, revenge, retaliation that are coming.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
I think it best that things go to shit for a good few months to make sure his Republicans counterparts who should know better learn the permanent error of their ways.
With the country in crisis much needed reforms will be easier to legislate and implement.
I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
I think it best that things go to shit for a good few months to make sure his Republicans counterparts who should know better learn the permanent error of their ways.
With the country in crisis much needed reforms will be easier to legislate and implement.
I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
True.
party_pants said:
I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
The Chinese will be careful to not let very many escape.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
The Chinese will be careful to not let very many escape.
It will be a long and drawn-out affair.
And the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow is not flash hot either.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
The Chinese will be careful to not let very many escape.
It will be a long and drawn-out affair.
I don’t think so.
War, what you might call ‘proper’ war, these days, between big powers (assuming that the US does intervene) is likey to be like the lives of cavemen: short , very nasty, and awfully brutal.
A matter of weeks at the most. Enormous destruction, huge loss of life, tragedy on an unimaginable scale, but all in what might be thought of as a very short time frame.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:I fear that China might invade Taiwan in the meantime if the US is distracted for too long.
We might get a flood of refugees from there too.
The Chinese will be careful to not let very many escape.
Capitalist bastards they are.
Peak Warming Man said:
And the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow is not flash hot either.
My favourite quote about that, from an acquaintance:
‘At Heathrow, i saw much baggage, some retrieval, no system.’
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
And the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow is not flash hot either.
My favourite quote about that, from an acquaintance:
‘At Heathrow, i saw much baggage, some retrieval, no system.’
One of the passengers fainted and fell onto the luggage carousel but he’s slowly coming around.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:The Chinese will be careful to not let very many escape.
It will be a long and drawn-out affair.
I don’t think so.
War, what you might call ‘proper’ war, these days, between big powers (assuming that the US does intervene) is likey to be like the lives of cavemen: short , very nasty, and awfully brutal.
A matter of weeks at the most. Enormous destruction, huge loss of life, tragedy on an unimaginable scale, but all in what might be thought of as a very short time frame.
It’s a long way from China to Taiwan. The Chinese may take a few of the outer islands quite easily. The main island will not be easy. Very mountainous. probably get help from Japan too. Chinese trade through Malacca can be blockaded and starved, particularly oil and food. If Taiwan can hold off the initial phase like Ukraine did, then it will deteriorate into a long drawn out affair. Cut China off from food and oil (and iron ore and coal), and they will starve or die of cold. Revolution in China might be the outcome. But it will be at enormous cast to the whole world. An economic depression the likes of which we have never seen.
dv said:
Boris said:
diddly-squat said:20 min
but it strikes me that most of us here don’t seem overly pressed for time when it comes to watching shit on the internet
but it is our shit. which makes a difference. not yours.
For mine, watching those late night host shows is just depressing now.
Same with Brookes and Capehart on PBS. I used to watch it regularly, getting views of one conservative and one liberal commentator. But the failure of the US to pass this easiest of test makes their chatter seem pointless.
party_pants said:
It’s a long way from China to Taiwan. The Chinese may take a few of the outer islands quite easily. The main island will not be easy. Very mountainous. probably get help from Japan too. Chinese trade through Malacca can be blockaded and starved, particularly oil and food. If Taiwan can hold off the initial phase like Ukraine did, then it will deteriorate into a long drawn out affair. Cut China off from food and oil (and iron ore and coal), and they will starve or die of cold. Revolution in China might be the outcome. But it will be at enormous cast to the whole world. An economic depression the likes of which we have never seen.
There’s something in what you say.
In the Pacific war of WW2, there was a strong push in the American thinking that they ought to invade Taiwan (or Formosa, as they called it then), partly but not entirely driven by MacArthur’s desire to grab more resources, but eventually the Americans realised that would be a very long and difficult fight, at enormous cost, for a debatable goal.
In an effort to not only rewrite the history of his January 6 insurrection but to exact revenge on the agents and lawyers who worked to hold him and his rioting supporters accountable, Donald Trump appears to be in the midst of a massive purge of the FBI and the DOJ, turning them into agencies that cater to his interests and concerns instead of the law. Rachel Maddow explains.
fsm said:
Trump DOJ demands list of thousands of FBI agents, others who worked on Jan. 6 and Trump investigations for possible firing.https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html
FMD!
ruby said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:It’s his own private, personal agenda, of which he never made any secret at any time in the last four years.
It’s all about revenge, payback, retribution, retaliation, reprisal.
He feels that he ‘suffered’ at the hands of others (i.e. he did not get what he wanted), and, in his mind, the only possible response to that ‘suffering’ is to inflict his ‘vengeance’.
He doesn’t give a shit about what the rest of the cabal do to the country, he’ll sign anything they put in front of him, as long as they go along with his programme of revenge.
Yes, this is why they need to remove him from office. Sooner rather than later.
otherwise we’ll be dealing with a flood of refugee immigrants coming here and trying to claim asylum. We can’t cope with those numbers.
Trump has just unleashed the yearnings of so many wanna-be dictators, whether in the privacy of their own homes, in their own companies, or in the public sphere.
The wheels are in motion to dismantle so many institutions. The flood of refugees will be one thing, there are going to be so many other consequences of the many forms of retribution, revenge, retaliation that are coming.
uh we were promised that what shit hits the fan in the USSA stays only in the USSA so
maybe but yous don’t generally see people telling yous that paranoia is intellectually superior yet they do tell yous that just because yous’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after yous
so we’re telling yous that just because yous might be cynical doesn’t mean they aren’t selfish as fuck
anyway yes we know that this wise one said “check it” and not “completely discard it as useless” so go for it
SCIENCE said:
maybe but yous don’t generally see people telling yous that paranoia is intellectually superior yet they do tell yous that just because yous’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after yous
so we’re telling yous that just because yous might be cynical doesn’t mean they aren’t selfish as fuck
anyway yes we know that this wise one said “check it” and not “completely discard it as useless” so go for it
Flap that in the wind then.
SCIENCE said:
Nah bitch. You gotta overthrow him and all his cronies. Passive warm fuzzies is going to do nothing.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
Nah bitch. You gotta overthrow him and all his cronies. Passive warm fuzzies is going to do nothing.
Right, yous want to actually know about them trying to infect yous with virus¿
yeah so uh
It is obscene/
disclaimer we haven’t checked or gotten an international law degree
SCIENCE said:
disclaimer we haven’t checked or gotten an international law degree
Personally, I’d place LEGO bans on Americans because they refuse to recognise the plural of LEGO.
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
Nah bitch. You gotta overthrow him and all his cronies. Passive warm fuzzies is going to do nothing.
Right, yous want to actually know about them trying to infect yous with virus¿
yeah so uh
apparently there’s an old hope
https://blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/end-of-term-web-archive/
LOL
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
I can’t find any direct reports of it: only reports of reports. No news outlet is positively saying it happened.
dv said:
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
I can’t find any direct reports of it: only reports of reports. No news outlet is positively saying it happened.
In other news millions of MAGAs in Florida flocked to the supermarkets really early because of the TARIFFS!!
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
She seems to be so nice.
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
I can’t find any direct reports of it: only reports of reports. No news outlet is positively saying it happened.
In other news millions of MAGAs in Florida flocked to the supermarkets really early because of the TARIFFS!!
did they find what they were after
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
She seems to be so nice.
Not sure what her being married to an old bloke has to do with anything though.
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
She seems to be so nice.
Not sure what her being married to an old bloke has to do with anything though.
It’s part of the culture. Older men with very young wives.
I’d need to type too many words to do a full explanation and I can’t be bothered right now.
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
It looks like she probably didn’t say it, going by reports from sources like MSN and the Irish Star.
Unless there’s further reports which show that she did, we should probably give her the benfit of the doubt.
There’s a 47 minute video by Reuters of her press conference from one day ago, but i really don’t want to sift through it.
Spiny Norman said:
I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Here’s me trying to avoid doing the Google thing about the press secretary saying something about Jesus not needing electricity.
Is this satire or true?
It looks like she probably didn’t say it, going by reports from sources like MSN and the Irish Star.
Unless there’s further reports which show that she did, we should probably give her the benfit of the doubt.
There’s a 47 minute video by Reuters of her press conference from one day ago, but i really don’t want to sift through it.
What’s the context of this anyway.
Seems like a fairly harmless true statement to me.
Spiny Norman said:
Struth.
Spiny Norman said:
To be replacedwith a single word:
OBEDIENCE
Tau.Neutrino said:
Spiny Norman said:
I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
Spiny Norman said:
Bloody!
roughbarked said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Spiny Norman said:
I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
plus he doesn’t have white overalls on and he has a sidearm, by the looks.
roughbarked said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Spiny Norman said:
I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
If the paint pail is half-full, one only needs to run the roller around the inside of the pail to rub out the excess.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
Tau.Neutrino said:I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
If the paint pail is half-full, one only needs to run the roller around the inside of the pail to rub out the excess.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
Tau.Neutrino said:I like how he places a drip mat under the paint tin.
Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
plus he doesn’t have white overalls on and he has a sidearm, by the looks.
Maybe someone just made it up, it’s a long shot I know.
Peak Warming Man said:
Boris said:
roughbarked said:Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
plus he doesn’t have white overalls on and he has a sidearm, by the looks.
Maybe someone just made it up, it’s a long shot I know.
You mean…something on the internet that’s…not true?!
Peak Warming Man said:
Boris said:
roughbarked said:Hang on.. where is the paint tray for the roller to load paint?
plus he doesn’t have white overalls on and he has a sidearm, by the looks.
Maybe someone just made it up, it’s a long shot I know.
Not (dare I say it?) shopped?
Gasp.
Some of the news is terrible but some of it is so bizarre that it ca scarcely be believed. Imagine if we read that MP Amanda Rishworth gave Clive Palmer and his deputies open access to Social Services data. We’d think we’d had a stroke or something. Not even the Minister has the access that Musk’s people has been given.
dv said:
Some of the news is terrible but some of it is so bizarre that it ca scarcely be believed. Imagine if we read that MP Amanda Rishworth gave Clive Palmer and his deputies open access to Social Services data. We’d think we’d had a stroke or something. Not even the Minister has the access that Musk’s people has been given.
Plus he’s bombed somewhere in Africa?
dv said:
Some of the news is terrible but some of it is so bizarre that it ca scarcely be believed. Imagine if we read that MP Amanda Rishworth gave Clive Palmer and his deputies open access to Social Services data. We’d think we’d had a stroke or something. Not even the Minister has the access that Musk’s people has been given.
Yes, it’s awful.
But, buyer beware…
kii said:
dv said:
Some of the news is terrible but some of it is so bizarre that it ca scarcely be believed. Imagine if we read that MP Amanda Rishworth gave Clive Palmer and his deputies open access to Social Services data. We’d think we’d had a stroke or something. Not even the Minister has the access that Musk’s people has been given.
Plus he’s bombed somewhere in Africa?
Who has bombed what in Africa?
Boris said:
Ha!
Michael V said:
kii said:
dv said:
Some of the news is terrible but some of it is so bizarre that it ca scarcely be believed. Imagine if we read that MP Amanda Rishworth gave Clive Palmer and his deputies open access to Social Services data. We’d think we’d had a stroke or something. Not even the Minister has the access that Musk’s people has been given.
Plus he’s bombed somewhere in Africa?
Who has bombed what in Africa?
Trump
Somalia
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Plus he’s bombed somewhere in Africa?
Who has bombed what in Africa?
Trump
Somalia
Trump says he ordered air strikes on Islamic State group in Somalia – BBC News https://search.app/hc5gAFgrQjZXFLY59
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Plus he’s bombed somewhere in Africa?
Who has bombed what in Africa?
Trump
Somalia
Thanks.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, left wing Democrat and member of The Squad who has been highly critical of DJT generally, has praised the attack: “It’s my sincere hope that Isis and Alshabab will be defeated and the people of Somalia will see an end to terrorism.”
WASHINGTON — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Saturday night that his country would respond to President Donald Trump’s decision to enact a 25% tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S. by implementing a 25% tariff against $155 billion in U.S. goods.
—-
These North American Tru——s are so Tru
culent
dv said:
WASHINGTON — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Saturday night that his country would respond to President Donald Trump’s decision to enact a 25% tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S. by implementing a 25% tariff against $155 billion in U.S. goods.—-
These North American Tru——s are so Tru
culent
It would be much easier if the US government manufactured and sold the Fentanyl themselves, instead of blaming other countries for their drug problems.
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.
If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam
——
what do I think about this DV?
Opium War¡ Opium War¡ Opium War¡
Gonna be interesting to see what happens with these North American tariffs … I mean the impacts won’t be immediate but it creates a very real game of chicken that I don’t see either side backing down from…
Heather Cox Richardson
12m ·
February 1, 2025 (Saturday)
Throughout now-president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, it was clear that his support was coming from three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal government. Now we are watching them do it.
The group that serves President Donald Trump is gutting the government both to get revenge against those who tried to hold him accountable before the law and to make sure he and his cronies will never again have to worry about legality.
Last night, officials in the Trump administration purged the Federal Bureau of Investigation of all six of its top executives and, according to NBC’s Ken Dilanian, more than 20 heads of FBI field offices, including those in Washington, D.C., and Miami, where officials pursued cases against now-president Trump. Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, who represented Trump in a number of his criminal cases, asked acting FBI director Brian J. Driscoll Jr. for a list of FBI agents who had worked on January 6 cases to “determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim of MSNBC reported that Trump denied knowing about the dismissals but said the firings were “a good thing” because “hey were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization.”
Officials also fired 25 to 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on cases involving the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and reassigned others. Bove ordered the firings. Career civil servants can’t be fired without cause, and these purges come on top of the apparently illegal firing of 18 inspectors general across federal agencies and a purge of the Department of Justice of those who had worked on cases involving Trump.
Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee, reported on Friday that federal prosecutors were withdrawn from a criminal investigation of Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) for election fraud; Ogles recently filed a House resolution to enable Trump to run for a third term and another supporting Trump’s designs on Greenland. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss an election fraud case against former representative Jeffrey Fortenberry (R-NE). Trump called Fortenberry’s case an illustration of “the illegal Weaponization of our Justice System by the Radical Left Democrats.”
That impulse to protect Trump showed yesterday in what a local water manager said was an “extremely unprecedented” release of water from two dams in California apparently to provide evidence of his social media post that the U.S. military had gone into California and “TURNED ON THE WATER.” In fact, water was released from two reservoirs that hold water to supply farmland in the summer. They are about 500 miles (800 km) from Los Angeles, where the fires were earlier this year, and the water did not go to Southern California. “This is going to hurt farmers,” a water manager said, “This takes water out of the summer irrigation portfolio.” But Trump posted that if California officials had listened to him six years ago, there would have been no fires. Shashank Joshi of The Economist called it “real ‘mad king’ stuff.”
Trump’s loyalists overlap with the MAGA crew that embraces Project 2025, a plan that mirrors the one used by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to overthrow democracy in Hungary. Operating from the position that modern democracy destroys a country by treating everyone equally before the law and welcoming immigrants, it calls for discrimination against women and gender, racial, and religious minorities; rejection of immigrants; and the imposition of religious laws to restore a white Christian patriarchy.
Former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson has been a vocal proponent of Orbán’s ideology, and J.D. Vance this week hired Carlson’s son, 28-year-old Buckley, as his deputy press secretary. Although Trump claimed during the campaign he didn’t know anything about Project 2025, Steve Contorno and Casey Tolan of CNN estimate that more than two thirds of Trump’s executive orders mirror Project 2025.
You can see the influence of this faction in the indiscriminate immigration sweeps the administration has launched, Trump’s announcement that he is opening a 30,000-bed migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and officials’ revocation of protection for more than 600,000 Venezuelans legally in the U.S. and possibly also for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. You can see it in the administration’s attempt to end the birthright citizenship written into the U.S. Constitution in 1868.
It shows in the new administration’s persecution of transgender Americans, including Trump’s executive order purging trans service members from the military, another limiting access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and yet another ordering trans federal prisoners to be medically detransitioned and then moved to facilities that correspond to their sex at birth, an outcome that a trans woman suing the administration calls “humiliating, terrifying, and dangerous.”
The administration has ordered that federal employees must remove all pronouns from their email signatures and, as Jeremy Faust reported in Inside Medicine, that researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must scrub from their work any references to “ender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female.” Faust notes that the requirements are vague and that because “most manuscripts include demographic information about the populations or patients studied,” the order potentially affects “just about any major study…including studies on Covid-19, cancer, heart disease, or anything else.”
Those embracing this ideology are also isolationist. As soon as he took office, Trump imposed a freeze on foreign aid except for military aid to Israel and Egypt, abruptly cutting off about $60 billion in funding—less than 1% of the U.S. budget—to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides humanitarian assistance to fight starvation and provide basic medical care for the globe’s most vulnerable and desperate populations. The outcry, both from those appalled that the U.S. would renege on its promises to provide food for children in war-torn countries and from those who recognize that the U.S. withdrawal from these popular programs would create a vacuum China is eager to fill, made Trump’s new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, say that “humanitarian programs” would be exempted from the freeze, but that appears either untrue or so complicated to negotiate that programs are shutting down anyway.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) appears to be beside himself over this destruction. “Let me explain why the total destruction of USAID…matters so much,” he posted on social media. “China—where Musk makes his money—wants USAID destroyed. So does Russia. Trump and Musk are doing the bidding of Beijing and Moscow. Why?” “The U.S. is in full retreat from the world,” he wrote, and there is “o good reason for it. The immediate consequences of this are cataclysmic. Malnourished babies who depend on U.S. aid will die. Anti-terrorism programs will shut down and our most deadly enemies will get stronger. Diseases that threaten the U.S. will go unabated and reach our shores faster. And China will fill the void. As developing countries will now ONLY be able to rely on China for help, they will cut more deals with Beijing to give them control of ports, critical mineral deposits, etc. U.S. power will shrink. U.S. jobs will be lost.” Murphy speculated that “billionaires like Musk who make $ in China” or “someone buying all that secret Trump meme coin” would benefit from deliberately sabotaging eighty years of U.S. goodwill on the international stage.
And that brings us to the third faction: that of the tech bros, led by billionaire Elon Musk, who according to year-end Federal Election Commission filings spent more than $290 million supporting Trump and the Republicans in 2024. Musk appears to consider colonizing space imperative for the survival of humanity, and part of that goal requires slashing government regulations, as well as receiving government contracts that help to fund his space program.
Before he took office, Trump named Musk and another billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, to an extra-governmental group called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but Musk has assumed full control of the group, whose mission is to cut the federal budget by as much as $2 trillion.
Musk is interested in the government for future contracts, although a report from January 30, when Musk’s Tesla company filed its annual financial report, showed that the company, which is valued at more than $1 trillion and which made $2.3 billion in 2024, paid $0 in federal income tax. Today, Musk’s X social media company became a form of state media when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would no longer email updates about this week’s two plane crashes—one in Washington, D.C., and one in Philadelphia—and that reporters would have to get their information through X.
Musk’s goal might well be the crux of the drastic cuts to federal aid, as well as the attempt last week from the Office of Management and Budget to “pause” federal funding and grants to make sure funding reflected Trump’s goals. After a public outcry over the loss of payments to local law enforcement, Meals on Wheels for shut-ins, supplemental nutrition programs, and so on, the OMB rescinded its first memo, but then White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately contradicted the new memo, saying the cuts were still in effect.
The chaos surrounding the cuts could have been designed to make it difficult for opponents to sue over them. This method of changing government priorities through “impoundment” is illegal. Congress—which is the body that represents the American people—appropriates the money for programs, and the president takes an oath to execute the laws. After President Richard M. Nixon tried it, Congress passed a 1974 law making impoundment expressly illegal. But the on-again-off-again confusion appeared at first to stand a chance of stopping lawsuits. It didn’t work: a federal judge halted the funding freeze, suggesting it was a blatant violation of the Constitution.
But then, yesterday, Elon Musk forced the resignation of David A. Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department. Lebryk had been at Treasury since 1989 and had risen to become the person in charge of the U.S. government payment system that disburses about $6 trillion a year through Social Security benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, contracts, grants, salaries for federal government workers, tax refunds, and so on, essentially managing the nation’s checkbook.
According to Jeff Stein, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post, Musk’s team wanted access to the payment system. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) demanded answers from Trump’s new Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, warning that “these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”
Now, though, with Musk’s people at the computers that control the nation’s payment system, they can simply stop whatever payments they want to.
Wyden continued by reminding Bessent that the press has reported that Musk has previously been “denied a high-level clearance to access the government’s most sensitive secrets. I am concerned that Musk’s enormous business operation in China—a country whose intelligence agencies have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data about Americans, including U.S. government employee data by hacking U.S. government systems—endangers U.S. cybersecurity and creates conflicts of interest that make his access to these systems a national security risk.”
This afternoon, Wyden posted that he has been told that Bessent has given the Department of Government Efficiency full access to the system. “Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it.”
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo posted: “This is more or less like taking the gold from Fort Knox and putting it in Elons basement. Anyone who gets a check from soc sec or anything else he can cut it off or see all yr personal and financial data.” Pundit Stuart Stevens called it “the most significant data leak in cyber history.”
All three of these factions are focused on destroying the federal government, which, after all, represents the American people through their elected representatives and spends their taxpayer money. Musk, who is an unelected adjunct to Trump, this evening gleefully referred to the civil servants in the government who work for the American people as “the opposing team.”
But something jumps out from the chaos of the past two weeks. Instructions are vague, circumstances are chaotic, and it’s unclear who is making decisions. That confusion makes it hard to enforce laws or sue, although observers note that what’s going on is “illegal and a breach of the constitutional order.”
Our federal government rests on the U.S. Constitution. The three different factions of Trump’s MAGA Republicans agree that the government must be destroyed, and they are operating outside the constitutional order, not eager to win legal victories so much as determined to slash and burn down the government without them.
Today, senior Washington Post political reporter Aaron Blake noted that while it is traditional for cabinet nominees to pledge that they will refuse to honor illegal presidential orders, at least seven of Trump’s nominees have sidestepped that question. Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, now-confirmed defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, small business administrator nominee Kelly Loeffler, Veterans Affairs secretary nominee Douglas A. Collins, and commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick all avoided the question by saying that Trump would never ask them to do anything illegal. FBI director nominee Kash Patel just said he would “always obey the law.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
12m ·
February 1, 2025 (Saturday)Throughout now-president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, it was clear that his support was coming from three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal government. Now we are watching them do it.
The group that serves President Donald Trump is gutting the government both to get revenge against those who tried to hold him accountable before the law and to make sure he and his cronies will never again have to worry about legality.
Last night, officials in the Trump administration purged the Federal Bureau of Investigation of all six of its top executives and, according to NBC’s Ken Dilanian, more than 20 heads of FBI field offices, including those in Washington, D.C., and Miami, where officials pursued cases against now-president Trump. Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, who represented Trump in a number of his criminal cases, asked acting FBI director Brian J. Driscoll Jr. for a list of FBI agents who had worked on January 6 cases to “determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”Clarissa-Jan Lim of MSNBC reported that Trump denied knowing about the dismissals but said the firings were “a good thing” because “hey were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization.”
Officials also fired 25 to 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on cases involving the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and reassigned others. Bove ordered the firings. Career civil servants can’t be fired without cause, and these purges come on top of the apparently illegal firing of 18 inspectors general across federal agencies and a purge of the Department of Justice of those who had worked on cases involving Trump.Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee, reported on Friday that federal prosecutors were withdrawn from a criminal investigation of Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) for election fraud; Ogles recently filed a House resolution to enable Trump to run for a third term and another supporting Trump’s designs on Greenland. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss an election fraud case against former representative Jeffrey Fortenberry (R-NE). Trump called Fortenberry’s case an illustration of “the illegal Weaponization of our Justice System by the Radical Left Democrats.”
That impulse to protect Trump showed yesterday in what a local water manager said was an “extremely unprecedented” release of water from two dams in California apparently to provide evidence of his social media post that the U.S. military had gone into California and “TURNED ON THE WATER.” In fact, water was released from two reservoirs that hold water to supply farmland in the summer. They are about 500 miles (800 km) from Los Angeles, where the fires were earlier this year, and the water did not go to Southern California. “This is going to hurt farmers,” a water manager said, “This takes water out of the summer irrigation portfolio.” But Trump posted that if California officials had listened to him six years ago, there would have been no fires. Shashank Joshi of The Economist called it “real ‘mad king’ stuff.”
Trump’s loyalists overlap with the MAGA crew that embraces Project 2025, a plan that mirrors the one used by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to overthrow democracy in Hungary. Operating from the position that modern democracy destroys a country by treating everyone equally before the law and welcoming immigrants, it calls for discrimination against women and gender, racial, and religious minorities; rejection of immigrants; and the imposition of religious laws to restore a white Christian patriarchy.
Former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson has been a vocal proponent of Orbán’s ideology, and J.D. Vance this week hired Carlson’s son, 28-year-old Buckley, as his deputy press secretary. Although Trump claimed during the campaign he didn’t know anything about Project 2025, Steve Contorno and Casey Tolan of CNN estimate that more than two thirds of Trump’s executive orders mirror Project 2025.
You can see the influence of this faction in the indiscriminate immigration sweeps the administration has launched, Trump’s announcement that he is opening a 30,000-bed migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and officials’ revocation of protection for more than 600,000 Venezuelans legally in the U.S. and possibly also for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. You can see it in the administration’s attempt to end the birthright citizenship written into the U.S. Constitution in 1868.
It shows in the new administration’s persecution of transgender Americans, including Trump’s executive order purging trans service members from the military, another limiting access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and yet another ordering trans federal prisoners to be medically detransitioned and then moved to facilities that correspond to their sex at birth, an outcome that a trans woman suing the administration calls “humiliating, terrifying, and dangerous.”
The administration has ordered that federal employees must remove all pronouns from their email signatures and, as Jeremy Faust reported in Inside Medicine, that researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must scrub from their work any references to “ender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female.” Faust notes that the requirements are vague and that because “most manuscripts include demographic information about the populations or patients studied,” the order potentially affects “just about any major study…including studies on Covid-19, cancer, heart disease, or anything else.”
Those embracing this ideology are also isolationist. As soon as he took office, Trump imposed a freeze on foreign aid except for military aid to Israel and Egypt, abruptly cutting off about $60 billion in funding—less than 1% of the U.S. budget—to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides humanitarian assistance to fight starvation and provide basic medical care for the globe’s most vulnerable and desperate populations. The outcry, both from those appalled that the U.S. would renege on its promises to provide food for children in war-torn countries and from those who recognize that the U.S. withdrawal from these popular programs would create a vacuum China is eager to fill, made Trump’s new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, say that “humanitarian programs” would be exempted from the freeze, but that appears either untrue or so complicated to negotiate that programs are shutting down anyway.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) appears to be beside himself over this destruction. “Let me explain why the total destruction of USAID…matters so much,” he posted on social media. “China—where Musk makes his money—wants USAID destroyed. So does Russia. Trump and Musk are doing the bidding of Beijing and Moscow. Why?” “The U.S. is in full retreat from the world,” he wrote, and there is “o good reason for it. The immediate consequences of this are cataclysmic. Malnourished babies who depend on U.S. aid will die. Anti-terrorism programs will shut down and our most deadly enemies will get stronger. Diseases that threaten the U.S. will go unabated and reach our shores faster. And China will fill the void. As developing countries will now ONLY be able to rely on China for help, they will cut more deals with Beijing to give them control of ports, critical mineral deposits, etc. U.S. power will shrink. U.S. jobs will be lost.” Murphy speculated that “billionaires like Musk who make $ in China” or “someone buying all that secret Trump meme coin” would benefit from deliberately sabotaging eighty years of U.S. goodwill on the international stage.
And that brings us to the third faction: that of the tech bros, led by billionaire Elon Musk, who according to year-end Federal Election Commission filings spent more than $290 million supporting Trump and the Republicans in 2024. Musk appears to consider colonizing space imperative for the survival of humanity, and part of that goal requires slashing government regulations, as well as receiving government contracts that help to fund his space program.
Before he took office, Trump named Musk and another billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, to an extra-governmental group called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but Musk has assumed full control of the group, whose mission is to cut the federal budget by as much as $2 trillion.Musk is interested in the government for future contracts, although a report from January 30, when Musk’s Tesla company filed its annual financial report, showed that the company, which is valued at more than $1 trillion and which made $2.3 billion in 2024, paid $0 in federal income tax. Today, Musk’s X social media company became a form of state media when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would no longer email updates about this week’s two plane crashes—one in Washington, D.C., and one in Philadelphia—and that reporters would have to get their information through X.
Musk’s goal might well be the crux of the drastic cuts to federal aid, as well as the attempt last week from the Office of Management and Budget to “pause” federal funding and grants to make sure funding reflected Trump’s goals. After a public outcry over the loss of payments to local law enforcement, Meals on Wheels for shut-ins, supplemental nutrition programs, and so on, the OMB rescinded its first memo, but then White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately contradicted the new memo, saying the cuts were still in effect.
The chaos surrounding the cuts could have been designed to make it difficult for opponents to sue over them. This method of changing government priorities through “impoundment” is illegal. Congress—which is the body that represents the American people—appropriates the money for programs, and the president takes an oath to execute the laws. After President Richard M. Nixon tried it, Congress passed a 1974 law making impoundment expressly illegal. But the on-again-off-again confusion appeared at first to stand a chance of stopping lawsuits. It didn’t work: a federal judge halted the funding freeze, suggesting it was a blatant violation of the Constitution.
But then, yesterday, Elon Musk forced the resignation of David A. Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department. Lebryk had been at Treasury since 1989 and had risen to become the person in charge of the U.S. government payment system that disburses about $6 trillion a year through Social Security benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, contracts, grants, salaries for federal government workers, tax refunds, and so on, essentially managing the nation’s checkbook.
According to Jeff Stein, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post, Musk’s team wanted access to the payment system. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) demanded answers from Trump’s new Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, warning that “these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”
Now, though, with Musk’s people at the computers that control the nation’s payment system, they can simply stop whatever payments they want to.Wyden continued by reminding Bessent that the press has reported that Musk has previously been “denied a high-level clearance to access the government’s most sensitive secrets. I am concerned that Musk’s enormous business operation in China—a country whose intelligence agencies have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data about Americans, including U.S. government employee data by hacking U.S. government systems—endangers U.S. cybersecurity and creates conflicts of interest that make his access to these systems a national security risk.”
This afternoon, Wyden posted that he has been told that Bessent has given the Department of Government Efficiency full access to the system. “Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it.”
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo posted: “This is more or less like taking the gold from Fort Knox and putting it in Elons basement. Anyone who gets a check from soc sec or anything else he can cut it off or see all yr personal and financial data.” Pundit Stuart Stevens called it “the most significant data leak in cyber history.”
All three of these factions are focused on destroying the federal government, which, after all, represents the American people through their elected representatives and spends their taxpayer money. Musk, who is an unelected adjunct to Trump, this evening gleefully referred to the civil servants in the government who work for the American people as “the opposing team.”
But something jumps out from the chaos of the past two weeks. Instructions are vague, circumstances are chaotic, and it’s unclear who is making decisions. That confusion makes it hard to enforce laws or sue, although observers note that what’s going on is “illegal and a breach of the constitutional order.”
Our federal government rests on the U.S. Constitution. The three different factions of Trump’s MAGA Republicans agree that the government must be destroyed, and they are operating outside the constitutional order, not eager to win legal victories so much as determined to slash and burn down the government without them.
Today, senior Washington Post political reporter Aaron Blake noted that while it is traditional for cabinet nominees to pledge that they will refuse to honor illegal presidential orders, at least seven of Trump’s nominees have sidestepped that question. Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, now-confirmed defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, small business administrator nominee Kelly Loeffler, Veterans Affairs secretary nominee Douglas A. Collins, and commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick all avoided the question by saying that Trump would never ask them to do anything illegal. FBI director nominee Kash Patel just said he would “always obey the law.”
FMD!
From bad to worse. And it’s only just started.
And Boris: I’ve left the text there for everybody to read, in case they missed sm’s post.
5-Year-Old Tammy Kemp Pens Manifesto About Trump’s Fascist Fucking Bullshit.
“This shit is crazy,” said young Tammy Kemp, tossing her Dora the Explorer coloring book onto the carpet. “This Trump asshole is fucking up our democracy and replacing it with full-blown Nazi-level fascism and no one is doing a fucking thing about this messy ass shit of a country. The adults in America can go fuck themselves.”
“Of course we’re concerned about her mental health,” said Nancy Kemp, Tammy’s mother, washing down an edible with a glass of white wine. “What five-year old writes a 37-page manifesto about the fall of America and the destruction of freedom? But lets’ face it. All this gaslighting from Trump and his vile cronies is an assault on the well-being of our entire nation — and the world. I’m losing my shit, too. Who with a brain and a heart isn’t infuriated by this bigoted grifter and his cult of fascists?”
“Honestly, I don’t blame my daughter for being so traumatized,” said Allen Kemp. “America is officially a very scary, fascist state. And the world knows it. But as a father, shit, just listen to her. She’s got the vocabulary and attitude of a 60-year-old long-haul trucker. As a dad I hate to admit that I’m impressed with her maturity. Kids today are certainly growing up faster than we did. I guess you have to when you’re living in a lawless nation of lies.”
Amusing satire.
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Spiny Norman said:
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Yep. There are lots of conversations about the cheating, rigging, stealing…whatever.
Spiny Norman said:
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Bloody!
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Bloody!
Strange isn’t it, that no evidence of Biden stealing the 2020 election despite protestations from Trump et. al.
Yet likely, there will be more evidence than only this of the Trump side cheating.
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.
Donald Trump says the tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the largest US trading partners signalled hope that the trade war would not last long.
On Sunday, Mr Trump defended the tariffs that he announced the day before.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Bloody!
Strange isn’t it, that no evidence of Biden stealing the 2020 election despite protestations from Trump et. al.
Yet likely, there will be more evidence than only this of the Trump side cheating.
It will need to be proven how the manipulation was done and who did it, for this to be accepted.
roughbarked said:
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.Donald Trump says the tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the largest US trading partners signalled hope that the trade war would not last long.
On Sunday, Mr Trump defended the tariffs that he announced the day before.
Ref?
buffy said:
roughbarked said:
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.Donald Trump says the tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the largest US trading partners signalled hope that the trade war would not last long.
On Sunday, Mr Trump defended the tariffs that he announced the day before.
Ref?
buffy said:
roughbarked said:
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.Donald Trump says the tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the largest US trading partners signalled hope that the trade war would not last long.
On Sunday, Mr Trump defended the tariffs that he announced the day before.
Ref?
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Bloody!
Strange isn’t it, that no evidence of Biden stealing the 2020 election despite protestations from Trump et. al.
Yet likely, there will be more evidence than only this of the Trump side cheating.
It will need to be proven how the manipulation was done and who did it, for this to be accepted.
If it was the other way round, the evidence presented would look pretty weak and unconvincing to me.
Which suggests the evidence probably is weak and unconvincing.
roughbarked said:
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.
it’s good to elect these honest kinds of dudes
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043
CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals
— Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts
by Jeremy Faust MD, MS, MA, Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today
February 1, 2025
kii said:
Spiny Norman said:
Looks like they cheated.
I suspected as much.
Yep. There are lots of conversations about the cheating, rigging, stealing…whatever.
thankfully there is a justice system that isn’t totally captured and these things are clear and easy so it should be legally resolved by the time oh we d’n‘o’ shall we say when the felon has been granted the third term as they amended
Boris said:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals
— Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts
by Jeremy Faust MD, MS, MA, Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today
February 1, 2025
We are entering the Nazi era of book burning all over again.
roughbarked said:
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
so yous admit you are vulnerable to extreme unmitigated bias
roughbarked said:
Boris said:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043
CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals
— Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts
by Jeremy Faust MD, MS, MA, Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today
February 1, 2025
We are entering the Nazi era of book burning all over again.
how is being careful what one says, the same as fascist fiction fuel
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
so yous admit yous are vulnerable to extreme unmitigated bias
fkn autocorrect
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
so yous admit you are vulnerable to extreme unmitigated bias
If you say so.
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
roughbarked said:
and now he’s admitting that tariffs may cause pain.Donald Trump says the tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the largest US trading partners signalled hope that the trade war would not last long.
On Sunday, Mr Trump defended the tariffs that he announced the day before.
Ref?
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
FFS! Most people here get news from various sources.
Just post a link, or at least mention the source.
Uh… does he know how that ended?
dv said:
Uh… does he know how that ended?
Might have missed that one in Sunday School. Might have been sick that week.
Boris said:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals
— Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts
by Jeremy Faust MD, MS, MA, Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today
February 1, 2025
FMD!
dv said:
Uh… does he know how that ended?
Ha!
:)
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
Seems people don’t read the ABC news much. It is my only news reference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/trump-says-us-pain-trade-war-mexico-canada-china/104888498
so yous admit you are vulnerable to extreme unmitigated bias
If you say so.
that’s not how SCIENCE works dude
kii said:
Nobody Could Have Foreseen This
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Nobody Could Have Foreseen This
Umm, I suspect you left something out. This:
/TIC
Boris said:
That’d be extremely funny if it weren’t so serious…
I mean, we should have comedians saying such stuff.
He actually said this.
dv said:
Uh… does he know how that ended?
would love to read the full comment thread of that one
From the Wall Street Journal (not usually considered to be some ‘woke’ pinko lefty rag):
Wall Street Jornal:
“President Trump will fire his first tariff salvo on Saturday against those notorious American adversaries . . . Mexico and Canada. They’ll get hit with a 25% border tax, while China, a real adversary, will endure 10%. This reminds us of the old Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend.”
Michael V said:
Boris said:
That’d be extremely funny if it weren’t so serious…
I mean, we should have comedians saying such stuff.
ah yes Boorish Johnson did quite well too
captain_spalding said:
From the Wall Street Journal (not usually considered to be some ‘woke’ pinko lefty rag):
um is keeping one’s promise not a good reason
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
From the Wall Street Journal (not usually considered to be some ‘woke’ pinko lefty rag):
um is keeping one’s promise not a good reason
But, he hasn’t kept his promise.
He’s putting 10% tariff on Chinese imports, and he promised that it would be 60%.
captain_spalding said:
From the Wall Street Journal (not usually considered to be some ‘woke’ pinko lefty rag):
Well that’s done it; the Editorial Board members will lose their jobs.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
That’d be extremely funny if it weren’t so serious…
I mean, we should have comedians saying such stuff.
ah yes Boorish Johnson did quite well too
Nods.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
From the Wall Street Journal (not usually considered to be some ‘woke’ pinko lefty rag):
um is keeping one’s promise not a good reason
But, he hasn’t kept his promise.
He’s putting 10% tariff on Chinese imports, and he promised that it would be 60%.
Fair point we suppose we were just observing that all these propaganda outlets were gushing about their great dear supreme leader emperor führer and then they did pretty much what they indicated they were going to do and boom the love came spilling out.
David Hogg has been elected as a vice chairperson of the DNC.
Looks like the Canadians are saying…“OK, you want to play silly games…let’s play!”
kii said:
The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover
Is Elon like the Smithers to Trump.
Both wandering around in a post apocalypse Earth looking for some teddy bear.
kii said:
The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover
well that’s
The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
pretty cool
fuck Palantir and all that “data analytics” shit
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover
well that’s
The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
pretty cool
fuck Palantir and all that “data analytics” shit
Isn’t a palantir that crystal ball that Sauron and Saruman used.
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies
in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam——
what do I think about this DV?
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies
in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam——
what do I think about this DV?
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
ta. :)
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies
in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam——
what do I think about this DV?
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
ta. :)
yeah the media and people keep saying that oh this thing is going well that’s why the shares went up, oh that other thing is bad and the prices are bad correspondingly, but we’re pretty unconvinced at this stage given it seems like the vast bulk of shifts are speculation and manipulation these days
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
ta. :)
yeah the media and people keep saying that oh this thing is going well that’s why the shares went up, oh that other thing is bad and the prices are bad correspondingly, but we’re pretty unconvinced at this stage given it seems like the vast bulk of shifts are speculation and manipulation these days
Fair comment.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies
in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam——
what do I think about this DV?
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
while, for the most part the value of a currency is relative to market factors like demand and it’s supply; the single largest lever that is available to a government to influence the value of it’s currency is monetary policy. In particular, changes to interest rates (which are a proxy for a strengthening or weakening economy) are what brokers look to when looking to make currency trades.
Outside of that, it’s fluctuations in an economy’s underlying variables (for instance in Australia that’s things like the price of iron ore and coal) that tend to create the ebbs and flows of demand and supply.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
ta. :)
yeah the media and people keep saying that oh this thing is going well that’s why the shares went up, oh that other thing is bad and the prices are bad correspondingly, but we’re pretty unconvinced at this stage given it seems like the vast bulk of shifts are speculation and manipulation these days
I don’t think there are too instances where the market is being intentionally manipulated (that why we have market watchdogs), but speculation is totally part of the game.
Government legislates (or threatens to legislate) , brokers then interpret the likely impacts of the legislation and then pivot their positions accordingly. That’s the actual game…
separately just found this on the fascist place
There won’t be any tariffs.
This is all just another pump & dump scheme for insiders to make money from the predictable wild swings.
He announces chaos.
Market tanks.
Oligarchs buy up cheap assets.
Trump says ‘never mind’
Market crawls back to normal.
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
ta. :)
yeah the media and people keep saying that oh this thing is going well that’s why the shares went up, oh that other thing is bad and the prices are bad correspondingly, but we’re pretty unconvinced at this stage given it seems like the vast bulk of shifts are speculation and manipulation these days
I don’t think there are too instances where the market is being intentionally manipulated (that why we have market watchdogs), but speculation is totally part of the game.
Government legislates (or threatens to legislate) , brokers then interpret the likely impacts of the legislation and then pivot their positions accordingly. That’s the actual game…
yes we find the whole speculative positive feedback loop tedious and wasteful but no biggie people are free to gamble
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
27 January at 15:23 ·
Previously I theorised that the Trump/oligarchy cabal had a different agenda with regards to the effect of tariffs than the one overtly presented to the US electorate.
What people are told.
The idea was to announce that tax (particularly on the rich) can be reduced and services and govt finances can be paid, instead, by revenue from tariffs. The tariffs it was said will encourage import replacement as local production will become more competitive.
The Other/Real agenda
What I theorised though, is that the real objective is to force those countries who export to the US to reduce the value of their own currencies relative to the US dollar. The main comparative advantage the USA has had for a while now is that being the de facto currency for global trade it has been largely insulated from currency deflation/devaluation. This is because many large economies hold huge quantities US dollars and bonds and hope to retain the value of these. The upshot of this is that the US has been able to print money knowing that other economies, e.g. the European Union, China and Japan would honour the ‘face-value’ of any new ‘conjured-up’ notes/currency.
No other currency has had this advantage and the only time post-WWII that it failed, albeit temporarily, was during the GFC.If USA’s trading partners devalue their currencies
in order to keep products cheap in a tariff heavy US market then the US dollar gets a boost relatively. This gives an amazing advantage to the US billionaire/oligarch class. They can buy-up competing companies overseas, get controlling share interests in companies across the globe, and they further can expect higher returns on money sitting in banks and trusts etc. Again, this keeps the old US ‘gravy train’ of money for nothing happening.
But there is a problem;
BRICS started as a group of powerful economies whose leaders gathered together to engineer a post-US dollar-hegemony trading and financial system. Their first goal is to replace the US dollar as their main trading currency. This immediately reduces the global stake in keeping the US dollar high in value. Secondly, they hope to create a trading bloc that will rival Europe and the US. (Note that the US trading bloc really includes Canada and Mexico which have now been alienated by Trump’s bullying tactics.)
As BRICS grows US economic hegemony fades.
Yesterday Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Colombia, an ally of the US. Colombia has reciprocated. Coffee prices in the US are going to jump, but that is the least of the problems Trumps has unleashed. Colombia is not part of BRICS however; it now has incentives to apply for membership. Inevitably other Latin American countries will follow.
Given Trumps bullying attitude towards Denmark and Canada one might see pressures on Canada and the EU to join BRICS. This would bring about the very disaster for the great US ‘Ponzi-scheme’ that the oligarchs wanted to avoid. It would issue in a global economy in which the US has no special privileges and advantages. Just in the last week or so the number of partner member of BRICs have expanded. Already BRICS represents one of the largest trading blocs in the world. See the expanding list of members and partners below.
Bear in mind too that one of the few real comparative advantages the US has is oil and gas. This, advantage will bring diminishing returns, however, as the world switches to renewables.
The other comparative advantage the US has had is in computer chips and in AI development. In the latter case the US believed itself to be years ahead of its competitors. Just in the last month. however, China has shown that it can produce open-source available AI at about 100th of the cost of production in the US. That pretty much leaves the US with cultural production such as movies and television and social media giants. The financial sector which has been so dominant could well collapse if the dollar is gutted. A new GFC and a global recovery from it would be unlikely to result in a return to the “the same old used-to-be.” Instead, it would be something entirely different. The USA might have to do a hard-reset post-Trump to regain a place in that yet unknowable new world.
As of January 2025, BRICS has 10 full members and 13 partner members.
Full Members:
1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. India
4. China
5. South Africa
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Iran
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Indonesia
Partner Members:
1. Algeria
2. Belarus
3. Bolivia
4. Cuba
5. Kazakhstan
6. Malaysia
7. Nigeria
8. Thailand
9. Türkiye
10. Uganda
11. Uzbekistan
12. Vietnam——
what do I think about this DV?
Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
while, for the most part the value of a currency is relative to market factors like demand and it’s supply; the single largest lever that is available to a government to influence the value of it’s currency is monetary policy. In particular, changes to interest rates (which are a proxy for a strengthening or weakening economy) are what brokers look to when looking to make currency trades.
Outside of that, it’s fluctuations in an economy’s underlying variables (for instance in Australia that’s things like the price of iron ore and coal) that tend to create the ebbs and flows of demand and supply.
but interest rates are not directly decided by the govt?
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Above, I have highlighted and separated out a small section of supposition that I think may be incorrect. But I don’t know.
Australia’s currency floats on the market. In other words, the market sets devaluation or revaluation parameters. Should the market think we are doing well, the price will go up relative to the US dollar (effectively revaluation). If the markets think we are doing badly it will go down (devaluation, effectively).
I imagine most other currencies are similar.
The point is that our country doesn’t do the devaluation so the premise that we do that is incorrect.
Again, I imagine most other countries are similar.
The market however, may well devalue us, and I cannot comment about this, or anything else in the Economics Bucket, because I know so little about this subject.
while, for the most part the value of a currency is relative to market factors like demand and it’s supply; the single largest lever that is available to a government to influence the value of it’s currency is monetary policy. In particular, changes to interest rates (which are a proxy for a strengthening or weakening economy) are what brokers look to when looking to make currency trades.
Outside of that, it’s fluctuations in an economy’s underlying variables (for instance in Australia that’s things like the price of iron ore and coal) that tend to create the ebbs and flows of demand and supply.
but interest rates are not directly decided by the govt?
no, but but a govt can indirectly impact the choices made by the Central Bank through how much money it spends in the economy (both wages for govt employees and other spending programs)
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.
Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you’re fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump’s world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.
The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don’t have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can’t demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren’t binary. China’s choices aren’t (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don’t buy soybeans. They can also © buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.
One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. In a one-time distributive bargain, e.g. negotiating with the cabinet maker in your casino about whether you’re going to pay his whole bill or demand a discount, you don’t have to worry about your ongoing credibility or the next deal. If you do that to the cabinet maker, you can bet he won’t agree to do the cabinets in your next casino, and you’re going to have to find another cabinet maker.
There isn’t another Canada.
So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining. If you attempt distributive bargaining, success is impossible. And we see that already.
Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM – HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.
Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that’s just not how politics works, not over the long run.
For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here’s another huge problem for us.
Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy. But the leaders on the other side of the table have not eschewed expertise, they have embraced it. And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you’re fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump’s world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.
The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don’t have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can’t demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren’t binary. China’s choices aren’t (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don’t buy soybeans. They can also © buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.
One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. In a one-time distributive bargain, e.g. negotiating with the cabinet maker in your casino about whether you’re going to pay his whole bill or demand a discount, you don’t have to worry about your ongoing credibility or the next deal. If you do that to the cabinet maker, you can bet he won’t agree to do the cabinets in your next casino, and you’re going to have to find another cabinet maker.
There isn’t another Canada.
So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining. If you attempt distributive bargaining, success is impossible. And we see that already.
Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM – HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.
Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that’s just not how politics works, not over the long run.
For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here’s another huge problem for us.
Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy. But the leaders on the other side of the table have not eschewed expertise, they have embraced it. And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
….
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
fixed
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you’re fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump’s world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.
The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don’t have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can’t demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren’t binary. China’s choices aren’t (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don’t buy soybeans. They can also © buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.
One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. In a one-time distributive bargain, e.g. negotiating with the cabinet maker in your casino about whether you’re going to pay his whole bill or demand a discount, you don’t have to worry about your ongoing credibility or the next deal. If you do that to the cabinet maker, you can bet he won’t agree to do the cabinets in your next casino, and you’re going to have to find another cabinet maker.
There isn’t another Canada.
So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining. If you attempt distributive bargaining, success is impossible. And we see that already.
Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM – HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.
Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that’s just not how politics works, not over the long run.
For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here’s another huge problem for us.
Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy. But the leaders on the other side of the table have not eschewed expertise, they have embraced it. And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
Yes. Thanks.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
…
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
Yes. Thanks.
fixed
Boris said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Interesting, thanks.
Yes. Thanks.
fixed
Formatted.
Boris said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
….
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
fixed
Apologies. Someone arrived, so I didn’t shorten it.
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Michael V said:Interesting, thanks.
fixed
Apologies. Someone arrived, so I didn’t shorten it.
I found the threads post that came from. Did he write that in 2018? (Yes, I know it’s just been posted on threads, but there is 2018 after his name at the bottom)
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
….
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
Another way of saying it is that, as several have said, Trump sees everything as ‘transactional’. It’s all buy and sell, or bartering, ideally with Trump coming out of it with more of something, or higher value of something, than the other side.
You give me that, i give you this, but, ha ha, sucker, you wound up with ‘less’ than i did, ha ha.
He sees every interaction as an isolated, stand-alone, no-flow-on ‘deal’. A ‘deal’ where Trump has to feel that he was the ‘winner’, and the other side the ‘loser’. The possibility of the other side pursuing alternatives…not considered possible by Trump. In his mind, his is always the only deal in town.
There’s no mutually satisfactory deals in Trump’s view. Everything is couched in terms of ‘beating’ someone.
To use a nother phrase: with Trump, peace is never an option.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece…
“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don’t know, I’m an adjunct professor at Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of “The Art of the Deal,” a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you’ve read The Art of the Deal, or if you’ve followed Trump lately, you’ll know, even if you didn’t know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call “distributive bargaining.”
….
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn’t even bringing checkers to a chess match. He’s bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig
Interesting, thanks.
Another way of saying it is that, as several have said, Trump sees everything as ‘transactional’. It’s all buy and sell, or bartering, ideally with Trump coming out of it with more of something, or higher value of something, than the other side.
You give me that, i give you this, but, ha ha, sucker, you wound up with ‘less’ than i did, ha ha.
He sees every interaction as an isolated, stand-alone, no-flow-on ‘deal’. A ‘deal’ where Trump has to feel that he was the ‘winner’, and the other side the ‘loser’. The possibility of the other side pursuing alternatives…not considered possible by Trump. In his mind, his is always the only deal in town.
There’s no mutually satisfactory deals in Trump’s view. Everything is couched in terms of ‘beating’ someone.
To use a nother phrase: with Trump, peace is never an option.
So, what do you think the deal is between Trump and Musk?
a) From Tump’s point of view.
b) From Musk’s point of view.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Michael V said:
Interesting, thanks.
Another way of saying it is that, as several have said, Trump sees everything as ‘transactional’. It’s all buy and sell, or bartering, ideally with Trump coming out of it with more of something, or higher value of something, than the other side.
You give me that, i give you this, but, ha ha, sucker, you wound up with ‘less’ than i did, ha ha.
He sees every interaction as an isolated, stand-alone, no-flow-on ‘deal’. A ‘deal’ where Trump has to feel that he was the ‘winner’, and the other side the ‘loser’. The possibility of the other side pursuing alternatives…not considered possible by Trump. In his mind, his is always the only deal in town.
There’s no mutually satisfactory deals in Trump’s view. Everything is couched in terms of ‘beating’ someone.
To use a nother phrase: with Trump, peace is never an option.
So, what do you think the deal is between Trump and Musk?
a) From Tump’s point of view.
b) From Musk’s point of view.
I see that Musk called USAID a criminal organisation and it must die.
From theshovel.com.au
AussieDJ said:
From theshovel.com.au
It’s a bit sad when satire makes more sense than non-satire.
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)
Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.
Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.
Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.
South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.
The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.
Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.
He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.
As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”
Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”
“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.
“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”
Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.
In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”
On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Interesting, thanks.
Another way of saying it is that, as several have said, Trump sees everything as ‘transactional’. It’s all buy and sell, or bartering, ideally with Trump coming out of it with more of something, or higher value of something, than the other side.
You give me that, i give you this, but, ha ha, sucker, you wound up with ‘less’ than i did, ha ha.
He sees every interaction as an isolated, stand-alone, no-flow-on ‘deal’. A ‘deal’ where Trump has to feel that he was the ‘winner’, and the other side the ‘loser’. The possibility of the other side pursuing alternatives…not considered possible by Trump. In his mind, his is always the only deal in town.
There’s no mutually satisfactory deals in Trump’s view. Everything is couched in terms of ‘beating’ someone.
To use a nother phrase: with Trump, peace is never an option.
So, what do you think the deal is between Trump and Musk?
a) From Tump’s point of view.
b) From Musk’s point of view.
it’s a game of chicken where each F of them thinks the army backing F is going to be the better army and will win when push comes to shove but if this was a game of motorcycle chicken neither of them can believe that there’s a steel cable close to the interpoint of their crossing paths
AussieDJ said:
From theshovel.com.au
:)
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Michael V said:
Interesting, thanks.
fixed
Apologies. Someone arrived, so I didn’t shorten it.
give and take, we’ren’t fussed if someone lazily hits quote and doesn’t get around to trimming things down, it’sn’t difficult to scroll a bit, though we accept that if someone is using a screen reader it might take them a bit more work
since when was hero spelled with the letters a,c,m,m,s
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
————————————————cut————————————————
Sigh.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
fixed
Apologies. Someone arrived, so I didn’t shorten it.
give and take, we’ren’t fussed if someone lazily hits quote and doesn’t get around to trimming things down, it’sn’t difficult to scroll a bit, though we accept that if someone is using a screen reader it might take them a bit more work
I support this post.. also sometimes I click on someone’s post and it’s easier to read the whole article from the quote rather than scroll through and find the original post ( especially if it’s someone I don’t usually click on)
sarahs mum said:
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Might be an opportunity for Australian wine producers.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:
fixed
Apologies. Someone arrived, so I didn’t shorten it.
give and take, we’ren’t fussed if someone lazily hits quote and doesn’t get around to trimming things down, it’sn’t difficult to scroll a bit, though we accept that if someone is using a screen reader it might take them a bit more work
I reject this reality!
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
————————————————cut————————————————
Sigh.
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
It also does a lot of work as a plausible legend for US intelligence people.
Elon may meet his match when the CIA etc. take an interest.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.
Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.
Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.
South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.
The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.
Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.
He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.
As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”
Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”
“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.
“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”
Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.
In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”
it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
————————————————cut————————————————
Sigh.
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
It also does a lot of work as a plausible legend for US intelligence people.
Elon may meet his match when the CIA etc. take an interest.
He’ll sack the lot of them and remove their funding too, if they have the temerity to mess with him, I reckon.
Mind, the CIA may very well have some extremely dark, very large slush funds, hidden away somewhere earmarked for just this type of eventuality.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Sigh.
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
It also does a lot of work as a plausible legend for US intelligence people.
Elon may meet his match when the CIA etc. take an interest.
He’ll sack the lot of them and remove their funding too, if they have the temerity to mess with him, I reckon.
Mind, the CIA may very well have some extremely dark, very large slush funds, hidden away somewhere earmarked for just this type of eventuality.
The CIA has a very significant lesson that it’s always willing to teach to anyone who they feel needs to know it, including Musk: you DO NOT f*** around with the big boys.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.
Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.
Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.
South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.
The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.
Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.
He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.
As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”
Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”
“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.
“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”
Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.
In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”
it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.
Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.
Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.
South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.
The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.
Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.
He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.
As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”
Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”
“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.
“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”
Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.
In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”
it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
and maga has the arsenals.
US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno
——
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest this one came straight from Eldrad. The only foreigners on Earth that these people care about are white South African farmers for some reason.
Flash back to 2018:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-wants-a-refugee-intake-of-white-south-african-farmers-20180315-p4z4gr.html
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has asked his department to look into a special refugee intake of white South African farmers subject to violence, murder and persecution in their homeland.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
The MAGA faithful believe Trump’s lies. High inflation and plunging stock markets will help most of them see the error of their ways. Only then will Trump lose power if not politically but philosophically and the US state apparatus will have to then extricate itself from this crisis of their own making.
It may not be a good outcome but it will be a constitutional one with less lingering animosity that will make the resolution of this crisis harder to come by.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
The MAGA faithful believe Trump’s lies. High inflation and plunging stock markets will help most of them see the error of their ways. Only then will Trump lose power if not politically but philosophically and the US state apparatus will have to then extricate itself from this crisis of their own making.
It may not be a good outcome but it will be a constitutional one with less lingering animosity that will make the resolution of this crisis harder to come by.
That will all be blamed on Trump’s enemies, and Canada, Mexico, China etc waging a “war on the US economy”.
The MAGA faithful won’t come to their senses because they don’t have any senses to come to. The lunacy, stupidity and complete dishonesty of Trump and his allies has been obvious for ages.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
Charlie Radtke
19h ·
This letter was written by Milley (and never sent) TO TRUMP ON JUNE 8, 2020 following the fiasco at the protest at Lafayette Square:
“The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.
Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue—the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.
And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
Charlie Radtke
19h ·
This letter was written by Milley (and never sent) TO TRUMP ON JUNE 8, 2020 following the fiasco at the protest at Lafayette Square:
“The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.
Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue—the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.
And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”
although we don;t know why it wasn’t sent or why it is on facebook.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
The MAGA faithful believe Trump’s lies. High inflation and plunging stock markets will help most of them see the error of their ways. Only then will Trump lose power if not politically but philosophically and the US state apparatus will have to then extricate itself from this crisis of their own making.
It may not be a good outcome but it will be a constitutional one with less lingering animosity that will make the resolution of this crisis harder to come by.
“When the shelf breaks” (to borrow a term) for the MAGAs, they will resort to violence. I doubt they will go looking for a “constitutional outcome”. They will be looking for someone more Trumper than Trump.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
is that like how our own politicians swear there is no leadership challenge
dv said:
US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno——
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest this one came straight from Eldrad. The only foreigners on Earth that these people care about are white South African farmers for some reason.
Flash back to 2018:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-wants-a-refugee-intake-of-white-south-african-farmers-20180315-p4z4gr.html
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has asked his department to look into a special refugee intake of white South African farmers subject to violence, murder and persecution in their homeland.
ah yes that brings back memories
what is the “some reason” though
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:What exactly is this “absurd MAGA conclusion” to which it might be left to develop? I cannot see it being a good outcome. I predict that it will itself be violent and involve civil bloodshed.
The MAGA faithful believe Trump’s lies. High inflation and plunging stock markets will help most of them see the error of their ways. Only then will Trump lose power if not politically but philosophically and the US state apparatus will have to then extricate itself from this crisis of their own making.
It may not be a good outcome but it will be a constitutional one with less lingering animosity that will make the resolution of this crisis harder to come by.
“When the shelf breaks” (to borrow a term) for the MAGAs, they will resort to violence. I doubt they will go looking for a “constitutional outcome”. They will be looking for someone more Trumper than Trump.
IMO Trump’s personality cult will not be replicated with anyone else. If people resort to violence there are just as many ANTIFA with guns as Proud Boys; and as CS as pointed out the US military including the state militias are not supporters of one side or the other.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
It also does a lot of work as a plausible legend for US intelligence people.
Elon may meet his match when the CIA etc. take an interest.
He’ll sack the lot of them and remove their funding too, if they have the temerity to mess with him, I reckon.
Mind, the CIA may very well have some extremely dark, very large slush funds, hidden away somewhere earmarked for just this type of eventuality.
The CIA has a very significant lesson that it’s always willing to teach to anyone who they feel needs to know it, including Musk: you DO NOT f*** around with the big boys.
wait are these the CIA who have computers and therefore
wait is felon compromising computers
wait
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?” USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure. Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Sigh.
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
shrug UNRWA is a terrorist organisation, USAID is a criminal organisation, guess that’s how it swings
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:The MAGA faithful believe Trump’s lies. High inflation and plunging stock markets will help most of them see the error of their ways. Only then will Trump lose power if not politically but philosophically and the US state apparatus will have to then extricate itself from this crisis of their own making.
It may not be a good outcome but it will be a constitutional one with less lingering animosity that will make the resolution of this crisis harder to come by.
“When the shelf breaks” (to borrow a term) for the MAGAs, they will resort to violence. I doubt they will go looking for a “constitutional outcome”. They will be looking for someone more Trumper than Trump.
IMO Trump’s personality cult will not be replicated with anyone else. If people resort to violence there are just as many ANTIFA with guns as Proud Boys; and as CS as pointed out the US military including the state militias are not supporters of one side or the other.
It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 2, 2025 (Sunday)Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.
Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.
Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.
Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”
After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they’re deliberately accessing, but it’s also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”
USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.
Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”
Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.
Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.
Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.
South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.
The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.
Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.
He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.
As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”
Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”
“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.
“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”
Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers.
Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.
In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”
it is worse than expected.
Time to stop talking and start shooting. Violence is now the only answer.
Granted that if I were a US citizen i’d be polishing my gun in anticipation, we still might get out of this with no civil bloodshed. Let the process develop to its absurd MAGA conclusion after which there can be national healing and much needed reforms. Obviously if Trump invokes the Insurrection act then all bets are off.
^this
Democracy has an inbuilt autocorrect .. it’s going to be a shitty four years, but there will be no third Trump term and as a result we’ll get contested primaries on both sides..
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno——
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest this one came straight from Eldrad. The only foreigners on Earth that these people care about are white South African farmers for some reason.
Flash back to 2018:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-wants-a-refugee-intake-of-white-south-african-farmers-20180315-p4z4gr.html
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has asked his department to look into a special refugee intake of white South African farmers subject to violence, murder and persecution in their homeland.ah yes that brings back memories
what is the “some reason” though
It’s ineffable m’lud
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:“When the shelf breaks” (to borrow a term) for the MAGAs, they will resort to violence. I doubt they will go looking for a “constitutional outcome”. They will be looking for someone more Trumper than Trump.
IMO Trump’s personality cult will not be replicated with anyone else. If people resort to violence there are just as many ANTIFA with guns as Proud Boys; and as CS as pointed out the US military including the state militias are not supporters of one side or the other.
It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:IMO Trump’s personality cult will not be replicated with anyone else. If people resort to violence there are just as many ANTIFA with guns as Proud Boys; and as CS as pointed out the US military including the state militias are not supporters of one side or the other.
It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I expect things will come to fruition in 6 months to a year.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
shrug the USSA done it before when Great Depression smacked them down, just jump* in the deep end of the war and that MIC will do the rest of the economic stimulus
*: get bombed
oh wait oh right this time the USSA is in the … other … role so we just need to know who they bomb first to know who is going to save the world this time
sarahs mum said:
Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
well, yous know … he may well be right about that
same way that astrologers are right but hey
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I expect things will come to fruition in 6 months to a year.
Fair enough.
SCIENCE said:
wait are these the CIA who have computers and therefore
wait is felon compromising computers
wait
If Musk takes on the US intelligence community, a community which exists to gather information, i think that there will be a number potential outcomes.
It’s highly likely that he would find most of them to be…undesirable.
Most undesirable.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:It is a long road to go down for an unreliable outcome.
Perhaos as a first step to avoiding violence, the US federal civil service need to go on a general strike until Elon is removed. A general boycott of X, StarLink and Tesla, including secondary boycotts and disruption of supply chains. And so what if they are illegal – if there are so many transgressions they can’t all be prosecuted, especially if the FBI and DOJ go out on strike or refuse to investigate those cases. A total boycott of the new DOGE, including turning off their power and water etc. Threatening any civil servant who joins the department with a permanent career red flag. Make it so undesirable to work there that nobody will do it.
Failing that, targeted assignations. Especially those not important enough to get the full secret service protection. So that nobody dares to work there.
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I expect things will come to fruition in 6 months to a year.
I think that the Trump administration is going to be fighting it’s good fight for the next four years… after that there will be no more Trump administration.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I expect things will come to fruition in 6 months to a year.
I think that the Trump administration is going to be fighting it’s good fight for the next four years… after that there will be no more Trump administration.
I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
It may be that the Trump/Musk duopoly will not endure for very long.
Given the size of the egos involved, conflict in that partnership could well be inevitable, with Trump fearing usurpation of his authority by Musk, and Musk feeling that Trump owes his Presidency to him.
As they progress to ever more ludicrous impulsive actions, and as the consequences of those actions become evident, forces within the Republican party could move to act in concert with the Democrats, and have Trump removed from office, as being unfit to hold it.
With Vance installed as a (comparatively, at least) more stable and compliant President, the Republicans could get on with an agenda which has, at least, a veneer of competence and propriety.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
If left to run for 4 years there no longer be such a system for political change.
- 4 years of gerrymandering and voter suppression in GOP states.
- 4 years of stacking the courts with Trump cronies to uphold dubious decisions
- 4 years of purging the DOJ and FBI and replacing them with cronies
- 4 years of purging the civil service and doing the same
- 4 years of all government payments including benefits, social security and government contracts being controlled and funneled through X, with use of that accursed app being mandatory if you want any federal government payment, like the proverbial Mark of the Beast.
They need the military-industrial complex to save democracy.
Maybe start a grass-roots disinformation campaign amongst the Christian right that Elon is the Beast of Revelation?
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I expect things will come to fruition in 6 months to a year.
I think that the Trump administration is going to be fighting it’s good fight for the next four years… after that there will be no more Trump administration.
I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
If left to run for 4 years there no longer be such a system for political change.
- 4 years of gerrymandering and voter suppression in GOP states.
- 4 years of stacking the courts with Trump cronies to uphold dubious decisions
- 4 years of purging the DOJ and FBI and replacing them with cronies
- 4 years of purging the civil service and doing the same
- 4 years of all government payments including benefits, social security and government contracts being controlled and funneled through X, with use of that accursed app being mandatory if you want any federal government payment, like the proverbial Mark of the Beast.They need the military-industrial complex to save democracy.
Maybe start a grass-roots disinformation campaign amongst the Christian right that Elon is the Beast of Revelation?
the GOP can’t gerrymander the electoral college
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I think that the Trump administration is going to be fighting it’s good fight for the next four years… after that there will be no more Trump administration.
I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
or resignation of the president.
A general strike and widespread “passive” civil disobedience might achieve that.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I think that the Trump administration is going to be fighting it’s good fight for the next four years… after that there will be no more Trump administration.
I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
I think if he loses the support of the saner cohorts of the current MAGA faithful I can’t see the GOP apparatchiks persisting with such a unpopular and disruptive president if it serves their interests to turn on him. In any crisis the first prerogative is to find someone to blame…
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
or resignation of the president.
A general strike and widespread “passive” civil disobedience might achieve that.
you really think that Trump would resign in the face of civil disobedience.. maybe you remember the BLM protests during his last administration
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I can’t see Trump self-correcting for his poor decisions. Tariffs causing inflation? Let’s double-down on deporting the undocumented by the millions as a distraction. Meanwhile inflation…
I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
I think if he loses the support of the saner cohorts of the current MAGA faithful I can’t see the GOP apparatchiks persisting with such a unpopular and disruptive president if it serves their interests to turn on him. In any crisis the first prerogative is to find someone to blame…
I just don’t see that happening.. I can see the GOP backing him until the Primaries and then he essentially becomes a lame duck and everyone just ignores him like they did with Biden
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
If left to run for 4 years there no longer be such a system for political change.
- 4 years of gerrymandering and voter suppression in GOP states.
- 4 years of stacking the courts with Trump cronies to uphold dubious decisions
- 4 years of purging the DOJ and FBI and replacing them with cronies
- 4 years of purging the civil service and doing the same
- 4 years of all government payments including benefits, social security and government contracts being controlled and funneled through X, with use of that accursed app being mandatory if you want any federal government payment, like the proverbial Mark of the Beast.They need the military-industrial complex to save democracy.
Maybe start a grass-roots disinformation campaign amongst the Christian right that Elon is the Beast of Revelation?
the GOP can’t gerrymander the electoral college
voter suppression will do the trick
but even if the next president is a Dem or an Indie, of even a GOP moderate. They have another 4 years of purges and replacements to get things back on track, except for the judges who might serve for decades. These will obstruct any efforts at reform. it will take decades to recover if Trump is left to run 4 years. Not to mention the law apperatus being used to go after and suppress any political opposition that might want a restoration to a pre 2010 democratic system.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I agree.. but I don’t think that will result in the end of the administration.. in the US there really isn’t an easy way to remove a President from office outside of impeachment (which is unlikely to happen as it would essentially require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress) or application of the 25th Amendment (which would also require the support of a majority of the Republicans in congress).
or resignation of the president.
A general strike and widespread “passive” civil disobedience might achieve that.
you really think that Trump would resign in the face of civil disobedience.. maybe you remember the BLM protests during his last administration
Not easily. but it might sway Congress to impeach him or rule him unfit on medical grounds. The hard word of resign quietly or we will remove you in disgrace might do it.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:If left to run for 4 years there no longer be such a system for political change.
- 4 years of gerrymandering and voter suppression in GOP states.
- 4 years of stacking the courts with Trump cronies to uphold dubious decisions
- 4 years of purging the DOJ and FBI and replacing them with cronies
- 4 years of purging the civil service and doing the same
- 4 years of all government payments including benefits, social security and government contracts being controlled and funneled through X, with use of that accursed app being mandatory if you want any federal government payment, like the proverbial Mark of the Beast.They need the military-industrial complex to save democracy.
Maybe start a grass-roots disinformation campaign amongst the Christian right that Elon is the Beast of Revelation?
the GOP can’t gerrymander the electoral college
voter suppression will do the trick
but even if the next president is a Dem or an Indie, of even a GOP moderate. They have another 4 years of purges and replacements to get things back on track, except for the judges who might serve for decades. These will obstruct any efforts at reform. it will take decades to recover if Trump is left to run 4 years. Not to mention the law apperatus being used to go after and suppress any political opposition that might want a restoration to a pre 2010 democratic system.
yes.. that’s how democracy works
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:or resignation of the president.
A general strike and widespread “passive” civil disobedience might achieve that.
you really think that Trump would resign in the face of civil disobedience.. maybe you remember the BLM protests during his last administration
Not easily. but it might sway Congress to impeach him or rule him unfit on medical grounds. The hard word of resign quietly or we will remove you in disgrace might do it.
on what grounds do you think he would be impeached? there are actual standards, it’s really not an easy thing to do…
maybe you could convince me that the 25th amendment could be invoked if he did something horrifically against the national interest…
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:the GOP can’t gerrymander the electoral college
voter suppression will do the trick
but even if the next president is a Dem or an Indie, of even a GOP moderate. They have another 4 years of purges and replacements to get things back on track, except for the judges who might serve for decades. These will obstruct any efforts at reform. it will take decades to recover if Trump is left to run 4 years. Not to mention the law apperatus being used to go after and suppress any political opposition that might want a restoration to a pre 2010 democratic system.
yes.. that’s how democracy works
So democracy works by stacking the courts with cronies, stacking the FBI and DOJ with cronies; and using these to go after opposition politicians on Trumped 1 up charges ??
This is how democracy “works” in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.
1 – pun intended, because I’m a clever fuck
Somewhere in the USA Grassy Nole is writing a manifesto made up of letters cut out of newspapers and magazines.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:voter suppression will do the trick
but even if the next president is a Dem or an Indie, of even a GOP moderate. They have another 4 years of purges and replacements to get things back on track, except for the judges who might serve for decades. These will obstruct any efforts at reform. it will take decades to recover if Trump is left to run 4 years. Not to mention the law apperatus being used to go after and suppress any political opposition that might want a restoration to a pre 2010 democratic system.
yes.. that’s how democracy works
So democracy works by stacking the courts with cronies, stacking the FBI and DOJ with cronies; and using these to go after opposition politicians on Trumped 1 up charges ??
This is how democracy “works” in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.
1 – pun intended, because I’m a clever fuck
Unlike Russia or Hungary or Turkiye, the US still has a functioning judicial system where the burden of proof is a hurdle that the People have to clear, there is a free media and there is a opposition party in government… there may be political prosecutions under a Trump administration (in fact I think it’s likely) but he’s not going to be able to replace the entire judicial system in four years..
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:you really think that Trump would resign in the face of civil disobedience.. maybe you remember the BLM protests during his last administration
Not easily. but it might sway Congress to impeach him or rule him unfit on medical grounds. The hard word of resign quietly or we will remove you in disgrace might do it.
on what grounds do you think he would be impeached? there are actual standards, it’s really not an easy thing to do…
maybe you could convince me that the 25th amendment could be invoked if he did something horrifically against the national interest…
Simple, the Congress has no term limits. Apart from those retiring, they are all concerned with getting re-elected.
Just as they found an excuse not to impeach Donald Trump during his first term because they thought it might harm their chances with the electorate, if Trump is so on the nose and openly rejected, then those jelly backs will just as quickly throw him under the bus and distance themselves from him.
But it needs a massive groundswell of public protests, including strikes and secondary boycotts and so on, which are probably illegal so it is not technically peaceful resistance.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:yes.. that’s how democracy works
So democracy works by stacking the courts with cronies, stacking the FBI and DOJ with cronies; and using these to go after opposition politicians on Trumped 1 up charges ??
This is how democracy “works” in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.
1 – pun intended, because I’m a clever fuck
Unlike Russia or Hungary or Turkiye, the US still has a functioning judicial system where the burden of proof is a hurdle that the People have to clear, there is a free media and there is a opposition party in government… there may be political prosecutions under a Trump administration (in fact I think it’s likely) but he’s not going to be able to replace the entire judicial system in four years..
In 4 years time it will be dysfunctional. That is my point.
They can already rig which judge gets to hear which case, e.g. the judge in Florida that was allocated the classified documents case. She pretty much dismissed it before it could go to trial. With a fair judge and a speedy trial, DJT could already have been in prison for treason. 4 more years and there will probably be some hand-picked cronies who can “influence” jury selection too.
dv said:
US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno——
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest this one came straight from Eldrad. The only foreigners on Earth that these people care about are white South African farmers for some reason.
Flash back to 2018:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-wants-a-refugee-intake-of-white-south-african-farmers-20180315-p4z4gr.html
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has asked his department to look into a special refugee intake of white South African farmers subject to violence, murder and persecution in their homeland.
Fk Dutton.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
Charlie Radtke
19h ·
This letter was written by Milley (and never sent) TO TRUMP ON JUNE 8, 2020 following the fiasco at the protest at Lafayette Square:
“The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.
Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue—the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.
And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”
:(
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
and maga has the arsenals.
No, the military has the arsenals, and they’re sworn to defend the Constitution, not Trump, Musk, or MAGA.
is that like how our own politicians swear there is no leadership challenge
Possibly.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:So democracy works by stacking the courts with cronies, stacking the FBI and DOJ with cronies; and using these to go after opposition politicians on Trumped 1 up charges ??
This is how democracy “works” in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.
1 – pun intended, because I’m a clever fuck
Unlike Russia or Hungary or Turkiye, the US still has a functioning judicial system where the burden of proof is a hurdle that the People have to clear, there is a free media and there is a opposition party in government… there may be political prosecutions under a Trump administration (in fact I think it’s likely) but he’s not going to be able to replace the entire judicial system in four years..
In 4 years time it will be dysfunctional. That is my point.
They can already rig which judge gets to hear which case, e.g. the judge in Florida that was allocated the classified documents case. She pretty much dismissed it before it could go to trial. With a fair judge and a speedy trial, DJT could already have been in prison for treason. 4 more years and there will probably be some hand-picked cronies who can “influence” jury selection too.
the reason DJT didn’t see the inside of a court room on the other charges isn’t because of the judge, it’s because the MG run DoJ screwed the pooch
SCIENCE said:
:)
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
shrug the USSA done it before when Great Depression smacked them down, just jump* in the deep end of the war and that MIC will do the rest of the economic stimulus
*: get bombed
oh wait oh right this time the USSA is in the … other … role so we just need to know who they bomb first to know who is going to save the world this time
Somalia?
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
voter suppression will do the trick
but even if the next president is a Dem or an Indie, of even a GOP moderate. They have another 4 years of purges and replacements to get things back on track, except for the judges who might serve for decades. These will obstruct any efforts at reform. it will take decades to recover if Trump is left to run 4 years. Not to mention the law apperatus being used to go after and suppress any political opposition that might want a restoration to a pre 2010 democratic system.
yes.. that’s how democracy works
So democracy works by stacking the courts with cronies, stacking the FBI and DOJ with cronies; and using these to go after opposition politicians on Trumped 1 up charges ??
This is how democracy “works” in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.
1 – pun intended, because I’m a clever fuck
ah well we agree — they should own their work
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:Unlike Russia or Hungary or Turkiye, the US still has a functioning judicial system where the burden of proof is a hurdle that the People have to clear, there is a free media and there is a opposition party in government… there may be political prosecutions under a Trump administration (in fact I think it’s likely) but he’s not going to be able to replace the entire judicial system in four years..
In 4 years time it will be dysfunctional. That is my point.
They can already rig which judge gets to hear which case, e.g. the judge in Florida that was allocated the classified documents case. She pretty much dismissed it before it could go to trial. With a fair judge and a speedy trial, DJT could already have been in prison for treason. 4 more years and there will probably be some hand-picked cronies who can “influence” jury selection too.
the reason DJT didn’t see the inside of a court room on the other charges isn’t because of the judge, it’s because the MG run DoJ screwed the pooch
I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:In 4 years time it will be dysfunctional. That is my point.
They can already rig which judge gets to hear which case, e.g. the judge in Florida that was allocated the classified documents case. She pretty much dismissed it before it could go to trial. With a fair judge and a speedy trial, DJT could already have been in prison for treason. 4 more years and there will probably be some hand-picked cronies who can “influence” jury selection too.
the reason DJT didn’t see the inside of a court room on the other charges isn’t because of the judge, it’s because the MG run DoJ screwed the pooch
I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
Additional – she is only in her mid-40s. She;s got another 30 years of fucking up justice ahead of her.
https://asm.org/articles/2024/february/not-if-but-when-spotlight-chelsey-spriggs
https://bsky.app/profile/sarahmackattack.bsky.social/post/3lhapwgivb22m
Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.
disclaimer we’ve only partially checked
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:In 4 years time it will be dysfunctional. That is my point.
They can already rig which judge gets to hear which case, e.g. the judge in Florida that was allocated the classified documents case. She pretty much dismissed it before it could go to trial. With a fair judge and a speedy trial, DJT could already have been in prison for treason. 4 more years and there will probably be some hand-picked cronies who can “influence” jury selection too.
the reason DJT didn’t see the inside of a court room on the other charges isn’t because of the judge, it’s because the MG run DoJ screwed the pooch
I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:the reason DJT didn’t see the inside of a court room on the other charges isn’t because of the judge, it’s because the MG run DoJ screwed the pooch
I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
but the argument is self-defeating. You can’t blame the DOJ for NOT jurisdiction shopping without implicitly acknowledging that rigged judges are appointed in certain districts and the system is not unbiased.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I disagree completely. It was Judge A. Cannon that dismissed the case, on spurious grounds. She is a Trump crony, appointed by Trump to serve his interested in Florida. She delayed and postponned the case for as long as she could, then dismissed it, leaving not enough time for an appeal against her decision before Trump was already nominated as the official candidate. It is a matter of pure obstruction of justice from a hand-picked crony.
firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
dude.. she was appointed to the case through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes. She was also appointed to her position through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes..
I mean I personally think that the core of the problem is that the founding fathers ballzed up the constitutional powers of the president… It’s hard to get angry when a person that has the powers of the king, uses those powers to be king like…
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
but the argument is self-defeating. You can’t blame the DOJ for NOT jurisdiction shopping without implicitly acknowledging that rigged judges are appointed in certain districts and the system is not unbiased.
they could have tried the case in Washington
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:firstly she was appointed to the case through normal processes.. she wasn’t a ring in and secondly, it was the DOJ’s choice to file the charges in Florida… had the DoJ moved more swiftly there is every chance would could have tried the case.. Jack Smith didn’t even get a chance to appeal certain parts of AC’s ruling..
The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
dude.. she was appointed to the case through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes. She was also appointed to her position through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes..
I mean I personally think that the core of the problem is that the founding fathers ballzed up the constitutional powers of the president… It’s hard to get angry when a person that has the powers of the king, uses those powers to be king like…
I am not angry, I don’t care.
i just don’t think the US will be a functioning democracy in years time if Trump is left alone to do as he pleases.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
dude.. she was appointed to the case through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes. She was also appointed to her position through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes..
I mean I personally think that the core of the problem is that the founding fathers ballzed up the constitutional powers of the president… It’s hard to get angry when a person that has the powers of the king, uses those powers to be king like…
I am not angry, I don’t care.
i just don’t think the US will be a functioning democracy in years time if Trump is left alone to do as he pleases.
My feeling is that you can rest easy…. But hey, let’s touch base in a bit less than 4 years and see what happens
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
party_pants said:The fact is that she existed in the system in the first place. She has been assigned a previous case involving Trump and made a biased ruling. The secret documents case should never have been assigned to her, but it was incorrectly assumed to be an adjunct to the previous case and not a new one. Meanwhile the original ruling was overturned on appeal with all appeal judges scathing of her poor reasoning, but nobody thought to shift the documents case to a different judge Trump’s lawyers couldn’t believe their luck.
Just having a crony in the system that might get a randomly assigned case, or mis-assigned case, corrupts the system.
but the argument is self-defeating. You can’t blame the DOJ for NOT jurisdiction shopping without implicitly acknowledging that rigged judges are appointed in certain districts and the system is not unbiased.
they could have tried the case in Washington
That is my point. That is implicitly accepting that the system has different standards of justice based different regions. The DOJ were probably following proper procedure in lodging the case at the nearest Federal Court District to where the offences happened. it would have been seen as jurisdiction shopping if they had moved the case to D.C. or some other more anti-Trump district.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:dude.. she was appointed to the case through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes. She was also appointed to her position through perfectly legal, perfectly normal processes..
I mean I personally think that the core of the problem is that the founding fathers ballzed up the constitutional powers of the president… It’s hard to get angry when a person that has the powers of the king, uses those powers to be king like…
I am not angry, I don’t care.
i just don’t think the US will be a functioning democracy in years time if Trump is left alone to do as he pleases.
My feeling is that you can rest easy…. But hey, let’s touch base in a bit less than 4 years and see what happens
OK. I predict Elon and Trump will both be dead before the 4 July celebrations 2025.
party_pants said:
OK. I predict Elon and Trump will both be dead before the 4 July celebrations 2025.
hey look don’t worry nobody can have a 3rd term anyway but
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2241781/
¿ oh wait can’t they amend it so that they can serve even if they’re dead ?
But thanks for your time anyway D_S.
this is how debate should be conducted, stick to the topic, don’t resort to personal insults etc.
I am willing to do this all day with anyone who wants to play.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Sigh.
USAID does a lot of good humanitarian work.
shrug UNRWA is a terrorist organisation, USAID is a criminal organisation, guess that’s how it swings
In that case it has swung.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think that violence is would lead to a far less predictable and likely less stable result
I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
They elected Trump and gave in to Musk.
“Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
-me mate Chris in new hampshire..
sarahs mum said:
“Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
-me mate Chris in new hampshire..
Chris is on the money.
sarahs mum said:
“Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
-me mate Chris in new hampshire..
Seems like it.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I don’t think this can be left to play out for 4 years and still be recoverable through the old democratic process.
I think you are demonstrably wrong.. there is no guarantee that civil upheaval would result is some sore of net positive result.. and essentially what you are a saying is that people would have to die in order for there to be political change.. I mean fuck.. we have a system for democratic political change, it’s called an election.
They elected Trump and gave in to Musk.
it’s only upheaval if the result is worse
Spiny Norman said:
FMD!
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FMD!
Musk is the cat among the pigeons at the moment.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FMD!
Musk is the cat among the pigeons at the moment.
This observation so deep. So profound.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:FMD!
Musk is the cat among the pigeons at the moment.
This observation so deep. So profound.
if you say so.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Musk is the cat among the pigeons at the moment.
This observation so deep. So profound.
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:
This observation so deep. So profound.
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
we mean yous came from here originally right, and yous want to get out of the dangerous place, sure please do come back where yous went from
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:
This observation so deep. So profound.
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
It is not often I get called a genius.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
In Surprising Revelation It Turns Out The Fascists Are Just Playing Games And Using Abuse Methods Oh Wow
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
First comment:
“love jordan! movie had a huge influence on me as an 80s kid. became a scientist and everything. miss those days so much. <3”
… so it’s all good.
Thanks for sharing your genius roughbarked.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
First comment:
“love jordan! movie had a huge influence on me as an 80s kid. became a scientist and everything. miss those days so much. <3”
… so it’s all good.
Thanks for sharing your genius roughbarked.
No wukkas.
Well Well. He’ll have to stop Russia attacking to get Ukraine to dig and ship the stuff.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
if you say so.
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
I’m not going to reply to those responses. it is beneath me.
Boris said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
The responses are also pure genius¡
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
I’m not going to reply to those responses. it is beneath me.
She’s so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
… and the responses to the responses.
….
damn
I’m not going to reply to those responses. it is beneath me.
She’s so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite
LOL.
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
Bet he’s a lousy poker player.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
Bet he’s a lousy poker player.
dude wins every game he plays and yous idiots call him lousy
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
Bet he’s a lousy poker player.
dude wins every game he plays and yous idiots call him lousy
Because he shirtfronts everybody.
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single-handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbours… Good job by him…
I suspect you may have left something out. This:
/TIC
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
I wonder if the capricious threat of tariffs at a moment’s notice is just as bad as the real deal with all the inflationary expectations in the market but none of the actual tariff revenue?
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
Bet he’s a lousy poker player.
dude wins every game he plays and yous idiots call him lousy
If he wins, it’s because he takes risks.
And, he’s not averse to taking the risks because he’s always betting with other peoples’ money.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
Bet he’s a lousy poker player.
dude wins every game he plays and yous idiots call him lousy
If he wins, it’s because he takes risks.
And, he’s not averse to taking the risks because he’s always betting with other peoples’ money.
or regardless if one has a larger reserve than the other player what happens yes
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:dude wins every game he plays and yous idiots call him lousy
If he wins, it’s because he takes risks.
And, he’s not averse to taking the risks because he’s always betting with other peoples’ money.
or regardless if one has a larger reserve than the other player what happens yes
No, Trump never takes risks with his own money. His daddy taught him that.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
I wonder if the capricious threat of tariffs at a moment’s notice is just as bad as the real deal with all the inflationary expectations in the market but none of the actual tariff revenue?
In all seriousness, I do think the whole tariff thing is just his effort at a negotiating tactic… I expect he believed that the threat would be enough to have both Mexico and Canada just bend over an be fucked..
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
I wonder if the capricious threat of tariffs at a moment’s notice is just as bad as the real deal with all the inflationary expectations in the market but none of the actual tariff revenue?
In all seriousness, I do think the whole tariff thing is just his effort at a negotiating tactic… I expect he believed that the threat would be enough to have both Mexico and Canada just bend over an be fucked..
so what did Mexico and Canada get out of it as opposed to getting fucked
SCIENCE said:
so what did Mexico and Canada get out of it as opposed to getting fucked
Mexico got a promise from Trump (for what that’s worth) that the US government will do more to work with Mexico to restrict the flow of firearms from the enormous American arms industry, legal, and, mostly, illegal, into Mexico.
Canada just got Trump to withdraw his threat for a while. Which is all that they really wanted. A lot of the enhanced border measures that Trump claims as his ‘victory’ were, in fact, announced by the Canadian government back in December, to be implemented this year.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:So it seems President Trump has single handedly saved America from the ruin of trade tariffs imposed by its two closest neighbors… Good job by him…
I wonder if the capricious threat of tariffs at a moment’s notice is just as bad as the real deal with all the inflationary expectations in the market but none of the actual tariff revenue?
In all seriousness, I do think the whole tariff thing is just his effort at a negotiating tactic… I expect he believed that the threat would be enough to have both Mexico and Canada just bend over an be fucked..
According to the BBC it worked with Mexico, they have sent troops to the border and Trump has postponed his tarrifs
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
so what did Mexico and Canada get out of it as opposed to getting fucked
Mexico got a promise from Trump (for what that’s worth) that the US government will do more to work with Mexico to restrict the flow of firearms from the enormous American arms industry, legal, and, mostly, illegal, into Mexico.
Canada just got Trump to withdraw his threat for a while. Which is all that they really wanted. A lot of the enhanced border measures that Trump claims as his ‘victory’ were, in fact, announced by the Canadian government back in December, to be implemented this year.
thanks we hadn’t kept up and the mainstream fan media made it sound like MexCan were both diverting extra resources into protecting USSA from MexCan criminals while USSA simply had to not follow through on the threats
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
so what did Mexico and Canada get out of it as opposed to getting fucked
Mexico got a promise from Trump (for what that’s worth) that the US government will do more to work with Mexico to restrict the flow of firearms from the enormous American arms industry, legal, and, mostly, illegal, into Mexico.
Canada just got Trump to withdraw his threat for a while. Which is all that they really wanted. A lot of the enhanced border measures that Trump claims as his ‘victory’ were, in fact, announced by the Canadian government back in December, to be implemented this year.
thanks we hadn’t kept up and the mainstream fan media made it sound like MexCan were both diverting extra resources into protecting USSA from MexCan criminals while USSA simply had to not follow through on the threats
Like i said, Trump doesn’t bet, except on sure things, and he especially likes to bet on events that have already been run.
I wonder if some of Trump’s “advisors” might have whispered to him that it was unexpected that Canada and Mexico might retaliate in the way they had and perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing to lose the grog market etc. For Canada at least, I suspect the damage is done and many Canadians are likely to boycott American goods anyway. Quietly, but effectively. Not a government action. An action of the people.
buffy said:
I wonder if some of Trump’s “advisors” might have whispered to him that it was unexpected that Canada and Mexico might retaliate in the way they had and perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing to lose the grog market etc. For Canada at least, I suspect the damage is done and many Canadians are likely to boycott American goods anyway. Quietly, but effectively. Not a government action. An action of the people.
Hope there is more of it.
buffy said:
I wonder if some of Trump’s “advisors” might have whispered to him that it was unexpected that Canada and Mexico might retaliate in the way they had and perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing to lose the grog market etc. For Canada at least, I suspect the damage is done and many Canadians are likely to boycott American goods anyway. Quietly, but effectively. Not a government action. An action of the people.
The American liquor industry certainly has a great deal of clout, as does the American automotive industry.
The former was looking at severe damage to a market where it sells a lot of its products.
The latter was looking at big price increases on significant portions of their parts supply.
And that’s before you get to the energy indistries, which would have been facing increased costs for oil and electricity from Canada (Canada supplies 60% of US oil imports).
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
I wonder if some of Trump’s “advisors” might have whispered to him that it was unexpected that Canada and Mexico might retaliate in the way they had and perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing to lose the grog market etc. For Canada at least, I suspect the damage is done and many Canadians are likely to boycott American goods anyway. Quietly, but effectively. Not a government action. An action of the people.
The American liquor industry certainly has a great deal of clout, as does the American automotive industry.
The former was looking at severe damage to a market where it sells a lot of its products.
The latter was looking at big price increases on significant portions of their parts supply.
And that’s before you get to the energy indistries, which would have been facing increased costs for oil and electricity from Canada (Canada supplies 60% of US oil imports).
Trump is taking some very big risks. Including this one.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been made a “special government employee”, which potentially avoids disclosure rules about conflicts of interest and finances.
The US Agency for International Development, the world’s largest single aid donor and a target of criticism by Mr Musk and Mr Trump, has been closed and employees locked out of their offices.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-04/trump-makes-musk-special-government-employee/104894216
But, i agree, a lot of Canadians may take to reading labels more closely, to see where the items they purchase were made.
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
sarahs mum said:
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
Where are the Senate, and the House?
There’s two people running the US right now.
One signs bits of paper, and the other runs around locking doors.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
Where are the Senate, and the House?
There’s two people running the US right now.
One signs bits of paper, and the other runs around locking doors.
What next? A military coup? A takeover of the govt. by pissed off Generals?
sarahs mum said:
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
:(
Bloody.
:(
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
Where are the Senate, and the House?
There’s two people running the US right now.
One signs bits of paper, and the other runs around locking doors.
This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Kate Case
3h ·
Shit…meet fan
Shared with permission.
(written by a person in the US)
“I’m sitting here today working, listening to my husband in meetings with his company. They have had a bunch of big government contracts (software development) and everyone at the government who they worked with is fired. And they were told all contractors and contracts were fired too. Literally nobody to talk to. They think none of the pending things will be paid so they basically have to fire almost 150 people this week. They likely won’t get paid on all of the outstanding billable work they have done in the past month and a half. They have nobody to reach out to for questions, billing info, etc. And they are discussing how this is generational destruction. Even if everyone waits for 4 years (not even considering the millions without jobs now), the destruction is not fixable. They are all talking about how many laws have been broken doing this, but also, the government was not designed to prevent a coup from inside, so…even if they sue for their pay or the work, how long will that take? Years? They can’t keep people employed so have to let go of hundred plus people and are talking to other companies with gov’t contracts doing the same. When they said this is not fixable, this is a generational catastrophe. And we haven’t even seen the fallout yet, as things are cruisin’ along on the first week —- but when there are no people to do this work and no money for government programs, states, infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, food assistance, social security, etc. and millions of government employees don’t have jobs and millions of contractors doing government work don’t have jobs… Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
Where are the Senate, and the House?
There’s two people running the US right now.
One signs bits of paper, and the other runs around locking doors.
This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Where are the Senate, and the House?
There’s two people running the US right now.
One signs bits of paper, and the other runs around locking doors.
This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
Someone is going to have to clean up the mess at some time in the future.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
it’s a long time till the mid terms.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:and what good what that do?
well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
it’s a long time till the mid terms.
and it looks like it will seem interminable.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
it’s a long time till the mid terms.
and it looks like it will seem interminable.
shrug we’re confident that not all 70000000 our souls are outright cult members so we’re just going to go out on a distal twig and say that Americans wanted this Americans voted for this and Americans can own this
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was a “mistake” for President Trump to pardon individuals convicted of crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think pardoning people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5122585-trump-mcconnell-january-6-pardons/
Hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot. He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to throw out any pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants whose cases haven’t yet been adjudicated, covering about 470 people.
About 600 people were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the turmoil, and 10 were convicted of sedition, the most serious charge that was brought against any individual resulting from that day.
Asked to describe his relationship with Trump, McConnell said, “Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened Jan. 6.”
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:and what good what that do?
well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
it’s a long time till the mid terms.
so what would you have them do?
dv said:
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was a “mistake” for President Trump to pardon individuals convicted of crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.“I think pardoning people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5122585-trump-mcconnell-january-6-pardons/
Hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot. He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to throw out any pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants whose cases haven’t yet been adjudicated, covering about 470 people.
About 600 people were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the turmoil, and 10 were convicted of sedition, the most serious charge that was brought against any individual resulting from that day.
Asked to describe his relationship with Trump, McConnell said, “Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened Jan. 6.”
‘Mitch McConnell says that not bolting stable door is dumb, horse not available for comment.’
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:well I suppose it lays out an alternative plan that voters could choose from… I mean I think the Dems need to say steadfast in Congress and force every GOP member to have to participate in this nonsense and not give any easy outs (every single motion needs to have every single Dem voting against it). The Dem need to make the GOP own every single decision…
Liberal outrage plays into Trump’s hands.. he wants people to be outraged, to call him a dictator, to say that democracy is on the line… this all works in his favor because there is nothing a MAGA voter loves more than liberal tears…
but it also only works if there is a clear alternative as to what the Dems would do with tax revenues, what they would do about immigration, what they would do about the price of goods, what they would do to make people feel that they are being listened to…
it’s a long time till the mid terms.
so what would you have them do?
It isn’t up to me.
but I think some illegal stuff has gone down that could end up in courts. seems like there are 1000s of unfair dismissals for a start.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was a “mistake” for President Trump to pardon individuals convicted of crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.“I think pardoning people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5122585-trump-mcconnell-january-6-pardons/
Hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot. He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to throw out any pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants whose cases haven’t yet been adjudicated, covering about 470 people.
About 600 people were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the turmoil, and 10 were convicted of sedition, the most serious charge that was brought against any individual resulting from that day.
Asked to describe his relationship with Trump, McConnell said, “Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened Jan. 6.”
‘Mitch McConnell says that not bolting stable door is dumb, horse not available for comment.’
he started this fucking mess when he blocked Obama’s SCOTUS pick…
sarahs mum said:
Ok, I had to rant for a moment. Where are the freaking Dems?”
they were deelected so make of that what you need to
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:it’s a long time till the mid terms.
so what would you have them do?
It isn’t up to me.
but I think some illegal stuff has gone down that could end up in courts. seems like there are 1000s of unfair dismissals for a start.
It’s not really the Dem’s job to do anything about this other then to say how they would do things differently… I mean there are judicial processes for unfair dismissal so if laws have in deed been broken then courts will show this.
Mind you, the Dems may want the same purge powers when it comes back around to their time to govern again, so they may not be quite as worried about this as you think.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
I wonder if some of Trump’s “advisors” might have whispered to him that it was unexpected that Canada and Mexico might retaliate in the way they had and perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing to lose the grog market etc. For Canada at least, I suspect the damage is done and many Canadians are likely to boycott American goods anyway. Quietly, but effectively. Not a government action. An action of the people.
The American liquor industry certainly has a great deal of clout, as does the American automotive industry.
The former was looking at severe damage to a market where it sells a lot of its products.
The latter was looking at big price increases on significant portions of their parts supply.
And that’s before you get to the energy indistries, which would have been facing increased costs for oil and electricity from Canada (Canada supplies 60% of US oil imports).
Trump is taking some very big risks. Including this one.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been made a “special government employee”, which potentially avoids disclosure rules about conflicts of interest and finances.
The US Agency for International Development, the world’s largest single aid donor and a target of criticism by Mr Musk and Mr Trump, has been closed and employees locked out of their offices.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-04/trump-makes-musk-special-government-employee/104894216
But, i agree, a lot of Canadians may take to reading labels more closely, to see where the items they purchase were made.
we thought that our souls were trying to exploit something like the belief perseverance conceptual conservatism backfire effect, so that when our souls treat them Canadians mean and then kiss and make up it makes them even keener
dv said:
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was a “mistake” for President Trump to pardon individuals convicted of crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think pardoning people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5122585-trump-mcconnell-january-6-pardons/
Hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot. He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to throw out any pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants whose cases haven’t yet been adjudicated, covering about 470 people.
About 600 people were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the turmoil, and 10 were convicted of sedition, the most serious charge that was brought against any individual resulting from that day.
Asked to describe his relationship with Trump, McConnell said, “Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened Jan. 6.”
an innocent mistake, probably a nervous tic by someone with Asperger ADHD Tourette superior orders, a happy accident
drugs don’t make addicts, people make addicts, but apparently the problem is drugs are available so wait
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:This can only last so long… The Executive needs Congress in order to appropriate funds and pass laws and therefore GOP Congressmen and woman will ultimately end up being complicit.
and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
They love to hate.
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.
It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
They love to hate.
how is it odd though like if Australia were the biggest baddest power in our region and pushed our neighbours around like Indonesia or East Timor or a bunch of shit hole Pacific islands then Australians would be loving it too
Treasury sued over DOGE access to sensitive data
Three federal employees’ unions are suing the Trump administration in an attempt to stop the Treasury from sharing confidential data with the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/04/treasury-sued-doge-sensitive-information-musk-trump
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.
It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
so policing this problem under Biden was completely ineffective and they missed the 50 000 000 000 tonnes that did get through
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
hmmm .. I could be wrong but “raising awareness” didn’t work too well for them in the last election…
Don’t get me wrong, I think raising awareness is important, but it needs to be “hey guys, we are just passengers here but this is, afterall, what Americans voted for – if that doesn’t working for you in the same way it’s not working for us, I’d likel to let you know that if it were us in the situation we would “ and less Chicken Little “this guy is despicable and he’s a threat to democracy, “
I know this isn’t going to happen overnight, but they need to start working on what this alternative picture is outside it of be “not Trump”
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
and it came from China.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.
It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
and it came from China.
ah yes like that SARS-CoV-2 that dirty CHINA unleashed on poor unsuspecting helpless anglophone cuntries sadness
SCIENCE said:
drugs don’t make addicts, people make addicts, but apparently the problem is drugs are available so wait
I was gunna vote but got some really good shit and I was really out of it man, stayed at home watching the View.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:and to be clear, I don’t think there is much use in the Dems feigning outrage at every step nor in telling people “I told you so”.. They need to work out how they would do this differently and start communicating that message to voters.
and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
Michael V said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
Michael V said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
apparently
When the researchers looked at regime support across several demographics, the list experiments revealed that ethnic Han respondents, educated respondents, and CCP members were more supportive.
When asked directly, 94% of respondents said they backed Chinese President Xi Jinping, and 91% said they believed the government works for the people.
When using the list experiment method, on the other hand, support for Xi and the government dropped by nearly 30 percentage points.
CHINA good
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
yes
and people will love that too
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
I think it has to do with this. He can’t impose tariffs without there being some kind of emergency. Fentanyl smuggling is that emergency. I’m not sure if Trump has actually declared a national emergency though?
INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC POWERS ACT
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/110th-congress/senate-report/82
For thirty years, presidents of the United States have widely exercised their authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. Chapter 35). Under this statute, a president declares a national emergency with respect to an ``unusual and extraordinary threat’‘ posed by a country or transnational group. Section 1705 of the law details the president’s specific authorities to impose economic sanctions against these threats, regulating and prohibiting foreign exchange transactions, bank payments or credit transfers, and the importing or exporting of currency or securities, among other powers.SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
They love to hate.
how is it odd though like if Australia were the biggest baddest power in our region and pushed our neighbours around like Indonesia or East Timor or a bunch of shit hole Pacific islands then Australians would be loving it too
Maybe. Maybe not.
We’ve not been brought up so much in the dog-eat-dog ethic, nor have we as much admired the ‘big boss’ figures, whether they be politician, gangsters, or whatever.
And we haven’t been inculcated quite so deeply with the idea that ‘our way is the best in the world, and everyone should do just what we say, and be just like us’.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
dv said:The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
If he does it right, it will.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
dv said:The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
If he does it right, it will.
esselte said:
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
I think it has to do with this. He can’t impose tariffs without there being some kind of emergency. Fentanyl smuggling is that emergency. I’m not sure if Trump has actually declared a national emergency though?
INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC POWERS ACT
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/110th-congress/senate-report/82
For thirty years, presidents of the United States have widely exercised their authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. Chapter 35). Under this statute, a president declares a national emergency with respect to an ``unusual and extraordinary threat’‘ posed by a country or transnational group. Section 1705 of the law details the president’s specific authorities to impose economic sanctions against these threats, regulating and prohibiting foreign exchange transactions, bank payments or credit transfers, and the importing or exporting of currency or securities, among other powers.
Doesn’t look like such a good idea now, does it?
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:captain_spalding said:
They love to hate.
how is it odd though like if Australia were the biggest baddest power in our region and pushed our neighbours around like Indonesia or East Timor or a bunch of shit hole Pacific islands then Australians would be loving it too
Maybe. Maybe not.
We’ve not been brought up so much in the dog-eat-dog ethic, nor have we as much admired the ‘big boss’ figures, whether they be politician, gangsters, or whatever.
And we haven’t been inculcated quite so deeply with the idea that ‘our way is the best in the world, and everyone should do just what we say, and be just like us’.
well we hope not but we know a bit of history and a bit of human behaviour and a bit of what we see around these areas so we’ren’t counting on it
kii said:
Pardon me, I sneezed. I meant to post this.
diddly-squat said:
hmmm .. I could be wrong but “raising awareness” didn’t work too well for them in the last election…
Well of course not, they were chasing phantoms back then, thinking people were being motivated by economic issues. It turns out all people want is chaos, polio, disasters, triillionaires blocking their pensions. Americans think Trump is doing a great job, but Dems just aren’t geared up to deliver incompetence. There may be no path back for them.
Michael V said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:and what good what that do?
The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
Exactly. We just have to accept that it’s a very peculiar country and the focus of the ROTW should be on limiting the external fallout.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
hmmm .. I could be wrong but “raising awareness” didn’t work too well for them in the last election…Well of course not, they were chasing phantoms back then, thinking people were being motivated by economic issues. It turns out all people want is chaos, polio, disasters, triillionaires blocking their pensions. Americans think Trump is doing a great job, but Dems just aren’t geared up to deliver incompetence. There may be no path back for them.
I think you may be underestimating the Dem abilities there
kii said:
kii said:
kii said:Pardon me, I sneezed. I meant to post this.
Lol
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:The aim is to try to win back either the Senate or the HoR in 2026. There’s really nothing they can do right now but raise awareness.
New Activote poll today has DJT approval at 52%, disapproval at 46%. He hasn’t been this popular since 2017. It might seem odd to us but Americans love this stuff. We thought they were concerned about inflation but it’s clear now they don’t give a shit about inflation.
Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
Exactly. We just have to accept that it’s a very peculiar country and the focus of the ROTW should be on limiting the external fallout.
Yep.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:Well, if they love it, why are we getting het-up about it?
Exactly. We just have to accept that it’s a very peculiar country and the focus of the ROTW should be on limiting the external fallout.
Yep.
but we were promised there wouldn’t be any fallout
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Exactly. We just have to accept that it’s a very peculiar country and the focus of the ROTW should be on limiting the external fallout.
Yep.
but we were promised there wouldn’t be any fallout
I have to say, a Fentanyl Czar sounds like a mob boss. Seems like some name Trump made up and Trudeau put his tongue firmly in his cheek and said “OK”.
buffy said:
I have to say, a Fentanyl Czar sounds like a mob boss. Seems like some name Trump made up and Trudeau put his tongue firmly in his cheek and said “OK”.
They like using Czar in the US for people with “important” roles…
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Yep.
but we were promised there wouldn’t be any fallout
well the same people tell us now that the law will be just
furious said:
buffy said:
I have to say, a Fentanyl Czar sounds like a mob boss. Seems like some name Trump made up and Trudeau put his tongue firmly in his cheek and said “OK”.
They like using Czar in the US for people with “important” roles…
odd i’n‘it
what would yous suggest alternatively though, ¿ opium oligarch
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
buffy said:
I have to say, a Fentanyl Czar sounds like a mob boss. Seems like some name Trump made up and Trudeau put his tongue firmly in his cheek and said “OK”.
They like using Czar in the US for people with “important” roles…
odd i’n‘it
what would yous suggest alternatively though, ¿ opium oligarch
Drug Squad?
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
They like using Czar in the US for people with “important” roles…
odd i’n‘it
what would yous suggest alternatively though, ¿ opium oligarch
Drug Squad?
Oxycodone Overlord
Good.
China retaliates against US tariffs with additional tariffs of its own: 15% on US coal and LNG, 10% on farm equipment and autos
Reuters is reporting that China has announced a package of tariffs on a range of US products in an immediate response to a 10% tariff on Chinese imports announced by US President Donald Trump. It says China has retaliated with a 15% tariff on US coal and LNG, and 10% tariffs on crude oil, farm equipment and some autos, effective February 10.
CHINA, doing its bit to end the fossil fuel age and save the world, as always.
Actually, on second thoughts, not good. Those carbon taxes should be higher.
Hydromorphone Hegemon
SCIENCE said:
Hydromorphone Hegemon
Endone Drone.
esselte said:
dv said:
The topic DJT keeps harping on wrt Canada is the “massive” amount of fentanyl crossing the border southward.It has emerged that the amount of fentanyl seized at the border last year was 20 kg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
I think it has to do with this. He can’t impose tariffs without there being some kind of emergency. Fentanyl smuggling is that emergency. I’m not sure if Trump has actually declared a national emergency though?
INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC POWERS ACT
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/110th-congress/senate-report/82
For thirty years, presidents of the United States have widely exercised their authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. Chapter 35). Under this statute, a president declares a national emergency with respect to an ``unusual and extraordinary threat’‘ posed by a country or transnational group. Section 1705 of the law details the president’s specific authorities to impose economic sanctions against these threats, regulating and prohibiting foreign exchange transactions, bank payments or credit transfers, and the importing or exporting of currency or securities, among other powers.
Didn’t he say he was going to call the illegal immigrants an emergency as well?
Heather Cox Richardson
35m ·
February 3, 2025 (Monday)
I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change.
But they are not doing that.
Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.
The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.
But Republicans are allowing Musk to run amok. This could be because they know that Trump has embraced the idea that the American government is a “Deep State,” but that the extreme cuts the MAGA Republicans say they want are actually quite unpopular with Americans in general, and even with most Republican voters. By letting Musk make the cuts the MAGA base wants, they can both provide those cuts and distance themselves from them.
But permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man.
Musk’s team in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has taken control of the U.S. Treasury payment systems that handle about $6 trillion in annual transactions for the U.S. government, thus gaining access to Americans’ personal information as well as information about Musk’s competitors. From there, Musk claims to have been cancelling those transactions he thinks are wasteful. He claims, for example, to have “deleted” the popular Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Direct File system that enabled people to file their taxes online for free, without the help of paid tax preparers.
Musk’s team apparently consists of six engineers, aged 19 to 24, who are taking control of the computers at government agencies. From the Treasury Department, they went on to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Their breaching of the computers there compromises our national intelligence systems, which must now be considered insecure.
From there, they went on to the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the federal government’s 7,500 or so buildings. Musk’s people sent an email to regional managers telling them to begin ending the leases on federal offices. According to Chris Megerian of the Associated Press, the person in charge of that initiative is Nicole Hollander, who describes herself on LinkedIn as employed at Musk’s social media company, X.
Today, according to an email sent to employees of the Small Business Administration, Musk’s people have gotten into that agency’s human resources, contracts, and payment systems. The Small Business Administration supports small businesses and entrepreneurs, and under the Biden-Harris administration, small businesses boomed thanks to small-dollar loans to women, Black, and Latino entrepreneurs.
By this afternoon, Musk’s people were digging into the data of the Department of Education with an eye to dismantling it from the inside before Trump tries to shut it down with an executive order, although only Congress itself can shutter the department. According to Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, and Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post, Musk’s DOGE staffers had accessed sensitive internal data systems, including the personal information of millions of students who are taking part in the federal student aid program. It is highly unlikely that Congress would destroy the Department of Education, so Musk and Trump hope to hollow it out from within.
On a livestream last night, Musk said of his destruction of the federal government: “If it’s not possible now, it will never be possible. This is our shot, This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have. If we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen.”
Three federal employees unions are suing the Trump administration to stop Musk, and today, Democratic members of the House and Senate tried to enter the USAID building but were denied entry. Led by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Democrats condemned what Raskin called Musk and Trump’s “illegal, unconstitutional interference with congressional power.”
“Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payment systems of the United States Department of Treasury,” Raskin said, “but you don’t control the money of the American people. The United States Congress does that—under Article I of the Constitution. And just like the president, who was elected to something, cannot impound the money of the people, we don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear.”
Senator Murphy said: “et’s not pull any punches about why this is happening. Elon Musk makes billions of dollars based off of his business with China. And China is cheering at . There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our government right now is doing it based on self-interest: their belief that if they can make us weaker in the world, if they can elevate their business partners all around the world, they will gain the benefit.”
Murphy continued: “But there’s another reason this is happening. They’re shuttering agencies and sending employees home in order to create the illusion that they’re saving money, in order to…pass a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations.”
While Musk and his DOGE team are trying systematically to dismantle the government, today Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze trillions of dollars in grants and loans before DOGE got going. AliKhan said that by impounding funds—which Congress declared illegal in 1974—Trump’s Office of Management and Budget “attempted to wrest the power of the purse away from the only branch of government entitled to wield it.” It is Congress, not the president, that determines federal spending.
Meanwhile, the elected president, Donald Trump, sparked a crisis last Friday when his White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that he fully intended to go through with the trade war he had hyped on the campaign trail. Trump announced he would levy tariffs of 25% on most products from Mexico and Canada and of 10% on products from China, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, in violation of the trade agreement his own team had negotiated during his first term.
As soon as Leavitt announced the upcoming tariffs, the stock market began to fall, and by last night, stock market futures had fallen 450 points on the expectation of tariffs hitting at midnight tonight. Today, the stock market continued to fall. Even reliable Trump allies began to complain that the tariffs would raise prices. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called Trump’s tariffs “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Today, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced that she and Trump had “reached a series of agreements” that would pause the threatened tariffs for a month. Mexico agreed to “reinforce the northern border with 10,000 elements of the National Guard immediately, to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States,” while the U.S. “commits to work to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.”
When Trump announced their conversation shortly afterward, he omitted the part of the agreement that committed the U.S. to try to stop the flow of guns to Mexico. He also did not mention that, in fact, Mexico committed to putting 10,000 troops at the border in 2021. As Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post commented: “Any news outlet reporting Mexico
conceded anything to Trump to get him to delay tariffs has not done its homework. Trump boasts he got Mexico to commit to stationing 10K troops at our border. Apparently he didn’t realize Mexico already has 15K troops deployed there”
The crisis at the northern border worked out in a similar fashion. After conferring, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump announced a 30-day pause in the implementation of tariffs. Trudeau agreed to appoint a border czar and to implement a $1.3 billion border plan that Canada had announced in December.
In other words, while Musk was causing a constitutional crisis, Trump created an economic crisis that threatened both domestic and global chaos, then claimed Biden administration achievements as his own and declared victory.
The tariffs on Chinese goods went into effect as planned. China has promised to levy tariffs of up to 15% on certain U.S. products beginning a week from today. It also said it will investigate Google to see if it has violated antitrust laws.
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”
.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
It often sounds like Trump is weaving different stories together as if they are the same thing when clearly he’s losing it mid-sentence and away he goes.
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
And, the American nation will, largely, shrug its shoulders and say ‘so what? Everything that Trump says is a lie’.
Once upon a time, andeasily within living memory, any whiff of a demonstrable notion that someone was less than honest would have simply excluded them from running for the presidency.
But, there’s now a US President whose major claim to fame is that he simply makes up shit, on the fly. Is someone to whom the concept of a ‘fact’ is an entirely alien notion. Who appears to be mentally incapable of making a true statement.
O tempora, o mores.
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
Michael V said:
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
Honestly, i don’t think that he can tell the truth. About anything.
He’s been telling lies about everything, especially about himself and what he does, for so long, that i think that he now has a conditioned mental reflex which identifies what is true, and then prompts him to say or do anything at all, except something that acknowledges, responds to, or conforms to, that truth.
Michael V said:
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
Honestly, i don’t think that he can tell the truth. About anything.
He’s been telling lies about everything, especially about himself and what he does, for so long, that i think that he now has a conditioned mental reflex which identifies what is true, and then prompts him to say or do anything at all, except something that acknowledges, responds to, or conforms to, that truth.
Michael V said:
You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
dv said:
Michael V said:You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
and, he’s only been in office for 15 days.
Gawd ‘elp all of us.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
35m ·
February 3, 2025 (Monday)I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change.
But they are not doing that.
Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.
The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.
………………………………..CUT………………………………..
More summation of bad news from the US of A.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
Honestly, i don’t think that he can tell the truth. About anything.
He’s been telling lies about everything, especially about himself and what he does, for so long, that i think that he now has a conditioned mental reflex which identifies what is true, and then prompts him to say or do anything at all, except something that acknowledges, responds to, or conforms to, that truth.
Plausible.
dv said:
Michael V said:You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
I observe in order to understand and see whether there’s anything that can be done to stop similar stuff happening here.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Honestly, i don’t think that he can tell the truth. About anything.
He’s been telling lies about everything, especially about himself and what he does, for so long, that i think that he now has a conditioned mental reflex which identifies what is true, and then prompts him to say or do anything at all, except something that acknowledges, responds to, or conforms to, that truth.
Plausible.
I’ve seen it on a somewhat-less-global-effects scale in some (actually, morethan a few) ‘managers’.
I’ve seen managers who would always lie about everything, all the time.
Even when it was to their disadvantage to not tell the truth about a situation, they would lie about it. It was some sort of defence mechanism, where they felt that having anyone else know what the ‘real’ situation was would somehow diminish their standing/position/power.
I was, on a couple of occasions, asked why i did not set my sights on higher management positions. My excuse was that ‘i hate meetings’. The truth was that i couldn’t bear the thought of having to tell lies all the time.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:You didn’t expect Trump to start telling the truth did you?
It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
I observe in order to understand and see whether there’s anything that can be done to stop similar stuff happening here.
Mind you, I don’t yet understand why this stuff is happening. Some explanations (excuses) make a little sense. But nothing makes complete sense.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
dv said:It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
I observe in order to understand and see whether there’s anything that can be done to stop similar stuff happening here.
Mind you, I don’t yet understand why this stuff is happening. Some explanations (excuses) make a little sense. But nothing makes complete sense.
Basically, there’s a lot of people in the US who have guns, and they’re looking for a situation where they can finally go and shoot some people. Otherwise, they’ve wasted all that money.
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
this didn’t include that they are filling condoms with helium and using them to drop bombs on their enemies?
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
dv said:It is hard not to comment on some of this stuff because it is just … so … weird.
I observe in order to understand and see whether there’s anything that can be done to stop similar stuff happening here.
Mind you, I don’t yet understand why this stuff is happening. Some explanations (excuses) make a little sense. But nothing makes complete sense.
I think most of the things he says, are said in order to make himself feel important. Alot of the other stuff is just bluster; stuff he says on whim as a part of what he calls his “weave”. That said, I do also think he does things, and says things, in order to deliberately cause anger and outrage.
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
Michael V said:I observe in order to understand and see whether there’s anything that can be done to stop similar stuff happening here.
Mind you, I don’t yet understand why this stuff is happening. Some explanations (excuses) make a little sense. But nothing makes complete sense.
I think most of the things he says, are said in order to make himself feel important. Alot of the other stuff is just bluster; stuff he says on whim as a part of what he calls his “weave”. That said, I do also think he does things, and says things, in order to deliberately cause anger and outrage.
oh good. we have some common ground/
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
BREAKING: Donald Trump drops one of his most insane lies to date by claiming that Elon Musk’s rummaging through our federal government has revealed that we were spending “a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas.”.
“He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs,” Trump said of Elon Musk to reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas,” Trump lied.
“And many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous, and they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else you could say. Probably, fraud and abuse can be added to it,” he added without evidence.
Trump had previously claimed that $50 million in American tax dollars was being spent on contraceptives for Palestinians in Gaza. The actual number is $0.
In reality, the U.S. government does provide condoms to many countries in the world to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS — but none of them go to Gaza.
Worse still, the number that Trump touted is completely fabricated because the U.S. Agency for International Development stated in a report last April that $61 million TOTAL was spent in 2023 to provide contraceptives to other countries.
—-
And, the American nation will, largely, shrug its shoulders and say ‘so what? Everything that Trump says is a lie’.
Once upon a time, andeasily within living memory, any whiff of a demonstrable notion that someone was less than honest would have simply excluded them from running for the presidency.
But, there’s now a US President whose major claim to fame is that he simply makes up shit, on the fly. Is someone to whom the concept of a ‘fact’ is an entirely alien notion. Who appears to be mentally incapable of making a true statement.
O tempora, o mores.
STEMocracy wouldn’t be worse
Michigan health care analyst keeps CDC information online after Trump administration data purge
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/02/03/michigan-health-care-analyst-keeps-cdc-information-online-after-trump-administration-data-purge/
progress means running time backwards
alternative ending
(the blue checker is a shill as far as we tell)
SCIENCE said:
progress means running time backwards
LOL
disclaimer we haven’t been watching their “question time” so we can’t confirm or refute
i drank raw milk for many years. i harvested my own cream. and i did no pasteurisation at all.
however, if the milk was a couple of days old it was going to the pigs. as was all the skim milk.
I didn’t sell any of the milk. I’m happy buying pasteurised milk.
different cows will milk different percentages. We had a jersey house cow for a while. high butterfat. we had ayrshires for years. high yield. high protein. great browsers/‘doers’. Commercially they run them for Cadbury contracts as they get paid on protein rather than butterfat.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
progress means running time backwards
LOL
disclaimer we haven’t been watching their “question time” so we can’t confirm or refute
There’s the chimney lad, here’s your brush, and away you go.
not sure if this one was played here before, probably overshadowed by the fireballs
United employee, 64, critically injured after American Airlines airplane wing strikes tug vehicle at Chicago O’Hare Airport
By Caitlin McCormack
Published Feb. 2, 2025, 8:13 p.m. ET
SCIENCE said:
not sure if this one was played here before, probably overshadowed by the fireballs
United employee, 64, critically injured after American Airlines airplane wing strikes tug vehicle at Chicago O’Hare Airport
By Caitlin McCormack
Published Feb. 2, 2025, 8:13 p.m. ET
(OHSA repealed)
Here’s your street corner, fella, here’s your begging bowl, good luck.
SCIENCE said:
not sure if this one was played here before, probably overshadowed by the fireballs
United employee, 64, critically injured after American Airlines airplane wing strikes tug vehicle at Chicago O’Hare Airport
By Caitlin McCormack
Published Feb. 2, 2025, 8:13 p.m. ET
daphuq
The collision flipped the tug vehicle and its driver, identified as a 64-year-old man employed by United, became trapped. Police did not release his name. The driver was eventually freed and taken to Lutheran General Hospital in critical condition. He suffered injuries to his head and lower body, but is now in stable condition, police said.
don’t those things have a lower centre of gravity than a lamborghini
that shithole cuntry really is the upside down
Always knew that the Koch dark money was on Meta.
Meta is a genus of long-jawed orb-weavers that was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in 1835. They are often associated with caves, caverns, and recesses, earning some of them the name “cave orbweavers”
Beattie is a former Trump speechwriter who believes Jan 6 wa s
orchestrated by the FBI and has regularly presented at White Nationalist events. He has been appointed as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.
not satire
dv said:
Beattie is a former Trump speechwriter who believes Jan 6 wa s
orchestrated by the FBI and has regularly presented at White Nationalist events. He has been appointed as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.not satire
the murmurings are that he’s unlikely to be confirmed, but yeah, hard to believe that people will put themselves on the line to vote against an undersecretary role.
can’t wait to hear DJT’s dulcet tones knock one of his one-hit-wonders
dv said:
Beattie is a former Trump speechwriter who believes Jan 6 wa s
orchestrated by the FBI and has regularly presented at White Nationalist events. He has been appointed as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.not satire
They really hate women, don’t they?
People may wonder, yet again, why I continually push back against sexist “jokes” about women. Making jokes about any group of people is part of the play to make them appear to be irrelevant, disposable etc.
According to Destroy the Joint – 4 Australian women have been killed by violence this year.
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
― Margaret Atwood
What a pathetic little piece of shit he is.
Spiny Norman said:
What a pathetic little piece of shit he is.
Indubitably
Trump orders US to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council
By Esther Linder at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-meets-with-donald-trump-live-blog/104897312
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump was in the Oval Office signing another set of executive orders.
roughbarked said:
Trump orders US to withdraw from UN Human Rights CouncilBy Esther Linder at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-meets-with-donald-trump-live-blog/104897312
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump was in the Oval Office signing another set of executive orders.
and he’s still sticking with kick the Palestinians out of Gaza and send them to neighbouring Arab countries.
He wants to build hotels on the new Gaza surfing paradise.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Trump orders US to withdraw from UN Human Rights CouncilBy Esther Linder at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-meets-with-donald-trump-live-blog/104897312
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump was in the Oval Office signing another set of executive orders.
and he’s still sticking with kick the Palestinians out of Gaza and send them to neighbouring Arab countries.
He wants to build hotels on the new Gaza surfing paradise.
and more:
In his departure from Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he hopes his talks with Trump will help further redraw the map of the region.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Trump orders US to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council
By Esther Linder at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-meets-with-donald-trump-live-blog/104897312
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump was in the Oval Office signing another set of executive orders.
and he’s still sticking with kick the Palestinians out of Gaza and send them to neighbouring Arab countries.
He wants to build hotels on the new Gaza surfing paradise.
and more:
In his departure from Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he hopes his talks with Trump will help further redraw the map of the region.
oh this is pretty cool this is pretty awesome
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
What a pathetic little piece of shit he is.
Indubitably
wait we thought it was free speech
SCIENCE said:
progress means running time backwards
alternative ending
(the blue checker is a shill as far as we tell)
TB (etc) here we come.
SCIENCE said:
progress means running time backwards
alternative ending
(the blue checker is a shill as far as we tell)
I wonder if linden hills farm realise that their milk is combined with other dairy’s milk to give a consistent average fat content?
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:progress means running time backwards
alternative ending
(the blue checker is a shill as far as we tell)
TB (etc) here we come.
Brucellosis and others.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:progress means running time backwards
alternative ending
(the blue checker is a shill as far as we tell)
TB (etc) here we come.
Brucellosis and others.
I asked the bingbot if raw milk was legal in Australia, and it came back with a clear “no”, but also reports of illness from drinking raw milk in Victoria, so what is going on?
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:TB (etc) here we come.
Brucellosis and others.
I asked the bingbot if raw milk was legal in Australia, and it came back with a clear “no”, but also reports of illness from drinking raw milk in Victoria, so what is going on?
Some people drink their own or a neighbour’s untreated milk straight from the cow into the bottle.
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:Brucellosis and others.
I asked the bingbot if raw milk was legal in Australia, and it came back with a clear “no”, but also reports of illness from drinking raw milk in Victoria, so what is going on?
Some people drink their own or a neighbour’s untreated milk straight from the cow into the bottle.
Despite the fact that it is illegal.
dv said:
Beattie is a former Trump speechwriter who believes Jan 6 wa s
orchestrated by the FBI and has regularly presented at White Nationalist events. He has been appointed as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.not satire
No. Not satire; Arse.
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
dv said:
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
Sounds like he’s doing GWB’s shock and awe.
Spiny Norman said:
What a pathetic little piece of shit he is.
Ha!
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:TB (etc) here we come.
Brucellosis and others.
I asked the bingbot if raw milk was legal in Australia, and it came back with a clear “no”, but also reports of illness from drinking raw milk in Victoria, so what is going on?
Some people do illegal things.
dv said:
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
When we were at Peak Rant against the Don he was drug addict and gaga.
dv said:
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
what do yous mean hypocrisy we thought that was the business plan
dv said:
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
Some people do not have a two-week-long memory.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
I know there’s no point thinking any of these people caring about hypocrisy but while DJT starts a trade war with Canada because of $600000 of fentanyl, remember two weeks ago when he pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his online illegal drug market Silk Road that moved 200 million dollar worth of gear.
Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said of the conviction.
When we were at Peak Rant against the Don he was drug addict and gaga.
I don’t know the man. The people who worked most closely with him reported he was addicted to adderal and incoherent. If you know better than them, so be it.
Peak Warming Man said:
When we were at Peak Rant against the Don he was drug addict and gaga.
What’s changed?
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.
‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
LOL
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That can’t be right. PwM knows him personally and reckons he is ticketyboo with regard to the old noggin.
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That was a strategy from his last term.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That can’t be right. PwM knows him personally and reckons he is ticketyboo with regard to the old noggin.
one reason you don’t allow the inmates to be in charge of the asylum.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That was a strategy from his last term.
The flip side is, he can easily be made to forget about hare-brained, impulsive ideas that he has, and staff can remove from his desk any documents that relate to things that are likely to set him off on some half-arsed course of action, with confidence that he’ll never notice.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That can’t be right. PwM knows him personally and reckons he is ticketyboo with regard to the old noggin.
Damn straight.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That can’t be right. PwM knows him personally and reckons he is ticketyboo with regard to the old noggin.
Damn straight.
Wet magnets don’t work.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That was a strategy from his last term.
The flip side is, he can easily be made to forget about hare-brained, impulsive ideas that he has, and staff can remove from his desk any documents that relate to things that are likely to set him off on some half-arsed course of action, with confidence that he’ll never notice.
so that’s the new excuse i’n‘it, it’s not his fault, he’s just demented enough to not be responsible, but not enough to disqualify
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
‘Officials put Trump’s name in ‘as many memo paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned’‘
Tactic among a number developed to keep easily distracted President focused on important information.‘Donald Trump can only stay focused on intelligence reports if his name is in them, according to officials close to him.
Staff members are being forced to strategically include the President’s name in the reports to ensure that he keeps reading and doesn’t get distracted, they said. National Security Council officials make sure “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned”, they told Reuters.
The trick is part of a range of techniques developed by officials to keep Mr Trump’s infamously short attention span focused on important information.’
That was a strategy from his last term.
The flip side is, he can easily be made to forget about hare-brained, impulsive ideas that he has, and staff can remove from his desk any documents that relate to things that are likely to set him off on some half-arsed course of action, with confidence that he’ll never notice.
Well that’s working well, isn’t it?
The Rev Dodgson said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:That was a strategy from his last term.
The flip side is, he can easily be made to forget about hare-brained, impulsive ideas that he has, and staff can remove from his desk any documents that relate to things that are likely to set him off on some half-arsed course of action, with confidence that he’ll never notice.
Well that’s working well, isn’t it?
It worked just well enough, until he (or Elon?) replaced the few of his staff with any sense with the current crop of dills.
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.
The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
sarahs mum said:
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
Yes! Excellent outcome. Pity that Mr Tarrio is an arrogant piece of shit.
sarahs mum said:
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
Don’t worry. Trump’ll sort it out.
Maybe some accuracy. who knows?
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
Yes! Excellent outcome. Pity that Mr Tarrio is an arrogant piece of shit.
The name itself already tells you what they are going to be like.
Usually the opposite to what they say they stand for
Border Songs, by Jim Lynch.
I read this book a good few years ago. Really enjoyed it.
sarahs mum said:
Maybe some accuracy. who knows?
Trump wants US to take over Gaza, and displace all Palestinians to other countries.
FMD
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
Don’t worry. Trump’ll sort it out.
send it to the Supreme Court they’ll judge it fairly and unbiasedly
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group.The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.
The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.
In a lengthy statement, Mr. Tarrio said the church should have its nonprofit status revoked and Judge Bosier should be impeached. “Their actions are a betrayal of justice,” he wrote, adding, “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”
The initial judgment against the Proud Boys determined that Mr. Tarrio and other members of the group had climbed over a fence surrounding the church, which is just blocks from the White House, and burned a Black Lives Matter banner it was flying. The episode took place after a violent clash between supporters and critics of President Trump.
The church called the Proud Boys’ actions “acts of terror” in its lawsuit and said they had been meant “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.” A judge agreed, calling the Proud Boys’ conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/proud-boys.html
Don’t worry. Trump’ll sort it out.
send it to the Supreme Court they’ll judge it fairly and unbiasedly
Yeah.
Michael V said:
Trump wants US to take over Gaza, and displace all Palestinians to other countries.FMD
kii said:
Michael V said:
Trump wants US to take over Gaza, and displace all Palestinians to other countries.FMD
Now he wants to deport people out of other countries.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
Don’t worry. Trump’ll sort it out.
send it to the Supreme Court they’ll judge it fairly and unbiasedly
Yeah.
They should
Courts aren’t part of who is and isn’t president
Having it otherwise is dangerous
Business as usual it should be
I see Kennedy and Gabbard have cleared the first hurdle along party lines.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
Trump wants US to take over Gaza, and displace all Palestinians to other countries.FMD
Now he wants to deport people out of other countries.
Seems to be his idea of perfect harmony and fun.
Boris said:
I see Kennedy and Gabbard have cleared the first hurdle along party lines.
If Gabbard is confirmed tomorrow, then we’re Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsi.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Trump orders US to withdraw from UN Human Rights CouncilBy Esther Linder at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-meets-with-donald-trump-live-blog/104897312
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump was in the Oval Office signing another set of executive orders.
and he’s still sticking with kick the Palestinians out of Gaza and send them to neighbouring Arab countries.
He wants to build hotels on the new Gaza surfing paradise.
and more:
In his departure from Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he hopes his talks with Trump will help further redraw the map of the region.
Well, as discussed here over the past couple of weeks…you can redraw and rename things (with your Sharpie) on your copy of a map, but it changes nothing in the wider scheme of things.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:I asked the bingbot if raw milk was legal in Australia, and it came back with a clear “no”, but also reports of illness from drinking raw milk in Victoria, so what is going on?
Some people drink their own or a neighbour’s untreated milk straight from the cow into the bottle.
Despite the fact that it is illegal.
I think you will find it is illegal to sell it.
captain_spalding said:
Boris said:
I see Kennedy and Gabbard have cleared the first hurdle along party lines.
If Gabbard is confirmed tomorrow, then we’re Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsi.
One of them is an environmentalist, ex heroin addict and ex Democrat..
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
send it to the Supreme Court they’ll judge it fairly and unbiasedly
Yeah.
They should
Courts aren’t part of who is and isn’t president
Having it otherwise is dangerous
Business as usual it should be
sorry we meant since the SCOTUS is as captured as the rest of the our souls in that shit hole cuntry we’re totally sure that they would uphold a decision to mitigate fascist extremism
though we also acknowledge that this whole chain is a sarcasm after a sarcasm
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
Yeah.
They should
Courts aren’t part of who is and isn’t president
Having it otherwise is dangerous
Business as usual it should be
sorry we meant since the SCOTUS is as captured as the rest of the our souls in that shit hole cuntry we’re totally sure that they would uphold a decision to mitigate fascist extremism
though we also acknowledge that this whole chain is a sarcasm after a sarcasm
:)
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
Trump wants US to take over Gaza, and displace all Palestinians to other countries.FMD
Now he wants to deport people out of other countries.
I say just outsource all border control and immigration to the Australian Parliament – could be a nifty little money spinner for us….
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Now he wants to deport people out of other countries.
I say just outsource all border control and immigration to the Australian Parliament – could be a nifty little money spinner for us….
You’re a really sick shit. You think that it’s a good time to be making jokes about this?
How long before DJT makes a similar recommendation for the Ukrainians? “Why would they want to go back to Ukraine? It’s been hell for them.”
dv said:
How long before DJT makes a similar recommendation for the Ukrainians? “Why would they want to go back to Ukraine? It’s been hell for them.”
what do yous reckon, tiktok for taiwan after that
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Now he wants to deport people out of other countries.
I say just outsource all border control and immigration to the Australian Parliament – could be a nifty little money spinner for us….
Put AI in charge
buffy said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:Some people drink their own or a neighbour’s untreated milk straight from the cow into the bottle.
Despite the fact that it is illegal.
I think you will find it is illegal to sell it.
They do that too.
Boris said:
Yeah and he didn’t write the book either.
Boris said:
but he also got the mainstream propaganda engine sorry we mean western media to gush about it and create the impression that it was his doing and he’s benefited from the publicity so
The two men addressed a packed White House briefing room during a press conference where Mr Trump announced a surprise plan for the Middle East in which the United States “would take over the Gaza Strip”.
Mr Netanyahu said: “Israel would end the war by winning the war.”
Mr Trump wants to rebuild Gaza, but not to what it was before.
“It should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it, and lived there and died there, and lived a miserable existence there,” he said.
“Instead of having to go back and do it again, the US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”
Ever the property developer, Mr Trump used the moment to talk about the creation of jobs.
“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out,” he said.
“ create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area to do a real job, do something different.”
What Donald Trump is suggesting is the United States taking over a piece of land that it has no legal right to.
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
but he also got the mainstream propaganda engine sorry we mean western media to gush about it and create the impression that it was his doing and he’s benefited from the publicity so
The misinformation is already out there.
roughbarked said:
What Donald Trump is suggesting is the United States taking over a piece of land that it has no legal right to.
So he’s a traditionalist
supposedly a while back
STUDENT WALK OUT- OUTSIDE CITY HALL NOW: High school students from all over LA have walked out of class and gathered in front of city hall to protest the president’s fascist agenda. SOLIDARITY WITH THE YOUTH! FUCK ICE!
SCIENCE said:
supposedly a while back
STUDENT WALK OUT- OUTSIDE CITY HALL NOW: High school students from all over LA have walked out of class and gathered in front of city hall to protest the president’s fascist agenda. SOLIDARITY WITH THE YOUTH! FUCK ICE!
remember Kent State
Arts said:
SCIENCE said:
supposedly a while back
STUDENT WALK OUT- OUTSIDE CITY HALL NOW: High school students from all over LA have walked out of class and gathered in front of city hall to protest the president’s fascist agenda. SOLIDARITY WITH THE YOUTH! FUCK ICE!
remember Kent State
yeah but it’s February 4 there today, and that Kent thing was May 4, everyone knows that with glorious democracy like the USSA has it’s June 4 that couldn’t possibly ever happen in
wait
dv said:
Can’t believe she waited 5 weeks to get back to herself. So rude.
Same energy
Boris said:
Well, there you go.
Heather Cox Richardson
32m ·
February 4, 2025 (Tuesday)
Shortly after 1:00 this morning, Vittoria Elliott, Dhruv Mehrotra, Leah Feiger, and Tim Marchman of Wired reported that, according to three of their sources, “ 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies , has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government.”
According to the reporters, Elez apparently has the privileges to write code on the programs at the Bureau of Fiscal Service that control more than 20% of the U.S. economy, including government payments of veterans’ benefits, Social Security benefits, and veterans’ pay. The admin privileges he has typically permit a user “to log in to servers through secure shell access, navigate the entire file system, change user permissions, and delete or modify critical files. That could allow someone to bypass the security measures of, and potentially cause irreversible changes to, the very systems they have access to.”
“If you would have asked me a week ago” if an outsider could’ve been given access to a government server, one federal IT worker told the Wired reporters, “I’d have told you that this kind of thing would never in a million years happen. But now, who the f*ck knows.”
The reporters note that control of the Bureau of Fiscal Service computers could enable someone to cut off monies to specific agencies or even individuals. “Will DOGE cut funding to programs approved by Congress that Donald Trump decides he doesn’t like?” asked Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) yesterday. “What about cancer research? Food banks? School lunches? Veterans aid? Literacy programs? Small business loans?”
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo reported that his sources said that Elez and possibly others got full admin access to the Treasury computers on Friday, January 31, and that he—or they—have “already made extensive changes to the code base for the payment system.” They are leaning on existing staff in the agency for help, which those workers have provided reluctantly in hopes of keeping the entire system from crashing. Marshall reports those staffers are “freaking out.” The system is due to undergo a migration to another system this weekend; how the changes will interact with that long-planned migration is unclear.
The changes, Marshall’s sources tell him, “all seem to relate to creating new paths to block payments and possibly leave less visibility into what has been blocked.”
Both Wired and the New York Times reported yesterday that Musk’s team intends to cut government workers and to use artificial intelligence, or AI, to make budget cuts and to find waste and abuse in the federal government.
Today Jason Koebler, Joseph Cox, and Emanuel Maiberg of 404 Media reported that they had obtained the audio of a meeting held Monday by Thomas Shedd for government technology workers. Shedd is a former Musk employee at Tesla who is now leading the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), the team that is recoding the government programs.
At the meeting, Shedd told government workers that “things are going to get intense” as his team creates “AI coding agents” to write software that would, for example, change the way logging into the government systems works. Currently, that software cannot access any information about individuals; as the reporters note, login.gov currently assures users that it “does not affect or have any information related to the specific agency you are trying to access.”
But Shedd said they were working through how to change that login “to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud.”
When a government employee pointed out that the Privacy Act makes it illegal for agencies to share personal information without consent, Shedd appeared unfazed by the idea they were trying something illegal. “The idea would be that folks would give consent to help with the login flow, but again, that’s an example of something that we have a vision, that needs worked on, and needs clarified. And if we hit a roadblock, then we hit a roadblock. But we still should push forward and see what we can do.”
A government employee told Koebler, Cox, and Maiberg that using AI coding agents is a majo
r security risk. “Government software is concerned with things like foreign adversaries attempting to insert backdoors into government code. With code generated by AI, it seems possible that security vulnerabilities could be introduced unintentionally. Or could be introduced intentionally via an AI-related exploit that creates obfuscated code that includes vulnerabilities that might expose the data of American citizens or of national security importance.”
A blizzard of lawsuits has greeted Musk’s campaign and other Trump administration efforts to undermine Congress. Today, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the minority leaders in their respective chambers, announced they were introducing legislation to stop Musk’s unlawful actions in the Treasury’s payment systems and to protect Americans, calling it “Stop the Steal,” a play on Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
This evening, Democratic lawmakers and hundreds of protesters rallied at the Treasury Department to take a stand against Musk’s hostile takeover of the U.S. Treasury payment system. “Nobody Elected Elon,” their signs read. “He has access to all our information, our Social Security numbers, the federal payment system,” Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said. “What’s going to stop him from stealing taxpayer money?”
Tonight, the Washington Post noted that Musk’s actions “appear to violate federal law.” David Super of Georgetown Law School told journalists Jeff Stein, Dan Diamond, Faiz Siddiqui, Cat Zakrzewski, Hannah Natanson, and Jacqueline Alemany: “So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.”
Musk’s takeover of the U.S. government to override Congress and dictate what programs he considers worthwhile is a logical outcome of forty years of Republican rhetoric. After World War II, members of both political parties agreed that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The idea was to use tax dollars to create national wealth. The government would hold the economic playing field level by protecting every American’s access to education, healthcare, transportation and communication, employment, and resources so that anyone could work hard and rise to prosperity.
Businessmen who opposed regulation and taxes tried to convince voters to abandon this system but had no luck. The liberal consensus—“liberal” because it used the government to protect individual freedom, and “consensus” because it enjoyed wide support—won the votes of members of both major political parties.
But those opposed to the liberal consensus gained traction after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision declared segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. Three years later, in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, sent troops to help desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Those trying to tear apart the liberal consensus used the crisis to warn voters that the programs in place to help all Americans build the nation as they rose to prosperity were really an attempt to redistribute cash from white taxpayers to undeserving racial minorities, especially Black Americans. Such programs were, opponents insisted, a form of socialism, or even communism.
That argument worked to undermine white support for the liberal consensus. Over the years, Republican voters increasingly abandoned the idea of using tax money to help Americans build wealth.
When majorities continued to support the liberal consensus, Republicans responded by suppressing the vote, rigging the system through gerrymandering, and flooding our political system with dark money and using right-wing media to push propaganda. Republicans came to believe that they were the only legitimate lawmakers in the nation; when Democrats won, the election must have been rigged. Even so, they were unable to destroy the post–World War II government completely because policies like the destruction of Social Security and Medicaid, or the elimination of the Department of Education, remained unpopular.
Now, MAGA Republicans in charge of the government have made it clear they intend to get rid of that government once and for all. Trump’s nominee to direct the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was a key architect of Project 2025, which called for dramatically reducing the power of Congress and the United States civil service. Vought has referred to career civil servants as “villains” and called for ending funding for most government programs. “The stark reality in America is that we are in the late stages of a complete Marxist takeover of the country,” he said recently.
In the name of combatting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Trump administration is taking down websites of information paid for with tax dollars, slashing programs that advance health and science, ending investments in infrastructure, trying to end foreign aid, working to eliminate the Department of Education, and so on. Today the administration offered buyouts to all the people who work at the Central Intelligence Agency, saying that anyone who opposes Trump’s policies should leave. Today, Musk’s people entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides daily weather and wind predictions; cutting NOAA and privatizing its services is listed as a priority in Project 2025.
Stunningly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today that the U.S. has made a deal with El Salvador to send deportees of any nationality—including U.S. citizens, which would be wildly unconstitutional—for imprisonment in that nation’s 40,000-person Terrorism Confinement Center, for a fee that would pay for El Salvador’s prison system.
Tonight the Senate confirmed Trump loyalist Pam Bondi as attorney general. Bondi is an election denier who refuses to say that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. As Matt Cohen of Democracy Docket noted, a coalition of more than 300 civil rights groups urged senators to vote against her confirmation because of her opposition to LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and reproductive rights, and her record of anti-voting activities. The vote was along party lines except for Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), who crossed over to vote in favor.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is the logical outcome of the mentality that the government should not enable Americans to create wealth but rather should put cash in the pockets of a few elites. Far from representing a majority, Musk is unelected, and he is slashing through the government programs he opposes. With full control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans could cut those parts themselves, but such cuts would be too unpopular ever to pass. So, instead, Musk is single-handedly slashing through the government Americans have built over the past 90 years.
Now, MAGA voters are about to discover that the wide-ranging cuts he claims to be making to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs skewer them as well as their neighbors. Attracting white voters with racism was always a tool to end the liberal consensus that worked for everyone, and if Musk’s cuts stand, the U.S. is about to learn that lesson the hard way.
In yet another bombshell, after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters tonight that the U.S. “will take over the Gaza Strip,” and suggested sending troops to make that happen. “We’ll own it,” he said. “We’re going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of.” It could become “the Riviera of the Middle East,” he said.
Reaction has been swift and incredulous. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, called the plan “deranged” and “nuts.” Another Foreign Relations Committee member, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), said he was “speechless,” adding: “That’s insane.” While MAGA representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) posted in support, “Let’s turn Gaza into Mar-a-Lago,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) told NBC News reporters Frank Thorp V and Raquel Coronell Uribe that there were “a few kinks in that slinky,” a reference to a spring toy that fails if it gets bent.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) suggested that Trump was trying to distract people from “the real story—the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people.”
Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff, looking at DJT as he announces the US takeover of Gaza.
IDK why people can still look shocked by anything like this. She was part of his campaign, she must know what he is like.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
32m ·
February 4, 2025 (Tuesday)
More FMD stuff.
The US of A seems to be coming to a very swift, very inconsiderate, very un-empathetic, very fascist end.
I suppose they voted for it…
US Postal Service suspends incoming packages from China, Hong Kong
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-suspends-incoming-packages-china-hong-kong-2025-02-05/
lol
sarahs mum said:
“If you would have asked me a week ago” if an outsider could’ve been given access to a government server, one federal IT worker told the Wired reporters, “I’d have told you that this kind of thing would never in a million years happen. But now, who the f*ck knows.”
we love how these beautiful golden hearted (and golden haired) wide eyed (and blue eyed) Americans are all such sweet summer children
dv said:
US Postal Service suspends incoming packages from China, Hong Konghttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-suspends-incoming-packages-china-hong-kong-2025-02-05/
lol
Chinese watch movements suddenly cost more than the Rolexes they are faking.
I saw an interesting comment on a Facebook nature group
The woman in question is appalled at the direction her nation is heading.
Becoming mean and nasty she said and all considerations for a better society are gone.
dv said:
US Postal Service suspends incoming packages from China, Hong Konghttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-suspends-incoming-packages-china-hong-kong-2025-02-05/
lol
:)
dv said:
US Postal Service suspends incoming packages from China, Hong Konghttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-suspends-incoming-packages-china-hong-kong-2025-02-05/
lol
Bang goods from china?
Cymek said:
I saw an interesting comment on a Facebook nature group
The woman in question is appalled at the direction her nation is heading.
Becoming mean and nasty she said and all considerations for a better society are gone.
becoming
LOL
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
32m ·
February 4, 2025 (Tuesday)More FMD stuff.
The US of A seems to be coming to a very swift, very inconsiderate, very un-empathetic, very fascist end.
I suppose they voted for it…
Apparently us Aussies are not going to distance ourselves from it either.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
32m ·
February 4, 2025 (Tuesday)More FMD stuff.
The US of A seems to be coming to a very swift, very inconsiderate, very un-empathetic, very fascist end.
I suppose they voted for it…
Apparently us Aussies are not going to distance ourselves from it either.
I’m an Aussie distancer!
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
32m ·
February 4, 2025 (Tuesday)More FMD stuff.
The US of A seems to be coming to a very swift, very inconsiderate, very un-empathetic, very fascist end.
I suppose they voted for it…
Apparently us Aussies are not going to distance ourselves from it either.
People or government ?
I’d worry as a leader of an ally to the USA what would happen if you didn’t toe the line.
Can see Trump punishing them.
The USA has always had those bully boy fascist overtones made worse by the moral corruption of the Cold War.
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
More FMD stuff.
The US of A seems to be coming to a very swift, very inconsiderate, very un-empathetic, very fascist end.
I suppose they voted for it…
Apparently us Aussies are not going to distance ourselves from it either.
People or government ?
I’d worry as a leader of an ally to the USA what would happen if you didn’t toe the line.
Can see Trump punishing them.
The USA has always had those bully boy fascist overtones made worse by the moral corruption of the Cold War.
ah well given we have a choice between an active enabler and a passive enabler we can’t wait for the result
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
Rula Jebreal talking with Joy Reid
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Y4HYqxMKP/
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
diddly-squat said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
The ones that used to do that are being sacked nine to the dozen.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
The ones that used to do that are being sacked nine to the dozen.
no, they aren’t
diddly-squat said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
Would it be ironic if the all the sacked USAID people took up arms in rage and overthrew the government.
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
I’ll have to agree there.
That’s really funny.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
I’ll have to agree there.
That’s really funny.
no one expected musk to take over the government, yet here we are. we have another two years.
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
Disregarding whether they will be fair the mechanism by which Trump/the GOP could cancel the mid-terms would cause open rebellion and such flagrant disregard for the constitution that things would come to a head before the actual date of the mid-terms in November 2026.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Witty Rejoinder said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
Disregarding whether they will be fair the mechanism by which Trump/the GOP could cancel the mid-terms would cause open rebellion and such flagrant disregard for the constitution that things would come to a head before the actual date of the mid-terms in November 2026.
There’s a reasonably high chance of all sorts of rebellion.
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
Disregarding whether they will be fair the mechanism by which Trump/the GOP could cancel the mid-terms would cause open rebellion and such flagrant disregard for the constitution that things would come to a head before the actual date of the mid-terms in November 2026.
There’s a reasonably high chance of all sorts of rebellion.
that is nonsense as well
Boris said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:that’s funny.
I’ll have to agree there.
That’s really funny.
no one expected musk to take over the government, yet here we are. we have another two years.
Just two?
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Disregarding whether they will be fair the mechanism by which Trump/the GOP could cancel the mid-terms would cause open rebellion and such flagrant disregard for the constitution that things would come to a head before the actual date of the mid-terms in November 2026.
There’s a reasonably high chance of all sorts of rebellion.
that is nonsense as well
BUt the USA has all sorts of rebellious groups roaming the streets honking horns and waving signs.
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Yes. We have lost faith in the US sticking with the constitution and preserving free and fair elections.
Every method they can possibly use. From voter suppression to arresting opposition politicians on false charges, denying security or police protection, intimidation, threats, invoking marshall law .. through to encouraging the Jan 6 types to go out on election day and smash up polling booths and beat up voters and officials.
You’ve got to think big when you’re President, think outside the box.
And I have to tell you it’s difficult for my feeble mind to envisage Gaza being the Riveira of the Middle East.
But that’s the difference from great Statesman, and a mere punter
A great one said “some people see things as they are, others dream things that never were.and ask why not”
Peak Warming Man said:
You’ve got to think big when you’re President, think outside the box.
And I have to tell you it’s difficult for my feeble mind to envisage Gaza being the Riveira of the Middle East.
But that’s the difference from great Statesman, and a mere punterA great one said “some people see things as they are, others dream things that never were.and ask why not”
Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle-East. We all know how that worked out.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
There are a few reddit posts along these lines in a few of the business subs I’m in, people going bust overnight as their business model was based on USAid.
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
It’s so refreshing to see such innocence and naïvete in this age of cynicism.
The US, and not just under DJT, is always complaining about the other NATO allies not spending 2% of GDP on the military. Of the 32 states, 9 are not meeting the 2% obligation.
This might be a fair complaint, but it should be noted that OECD members have committed to giving 0.7% of GDP to foreign development aid. Only a few of these meet this commitment and the USA is close to the bottom of the table. I’ve included some non-OECD countries (asterisked). Note that Turkey’s should also have a question mark because they count the cost of their refugee hosting as foreign aid: this may or may not be reasonable, they are hosting 4 million refugees.
| Donor | % of GDP |
| Qatar* | 1.17 |
| Turkey | 1.15 |
| Luxembourg | 1.05 |
| Norway | 1.02 |
| Sweden | 0.99 |
| Denmark | 0.71 |
| India* | 0.65 |
| Germany | 0.6 |
| Netherlands | 0.59 |
| United Arab Emirates* | 0.55 |
| United Kingdom | 0.5 |
| France | 0.44 |
| Switzerland | 0.44 |
| Belgium | 0.42 |
| Finland | 0.42 |
| China* | 0.36 |
| Ireland | 0.31 |
| Malta | 0.3 |
| Japan | 0.29 |
| New Zealand | 0.28 |
| Austria | 0.27 |
| Canada | 0.27 |
| Iceland | 0.27 |
| Italy | 0.24 |
| Australia | 0.22 |
| Spain | 0.21 |
| Portugal | 0.16 |
| Slovenia | 0.16 |
| United States | 0.16 |
| South Korea | 0.15 |
| Romania* | 0.14 |
| Croatia* | 0.14 |
| Greece | 0.14 |
| Estonia | 0.13 |
| Czech Republic | 0.13 |
| Poland | 0.12 |
| Slovak Republic | 0.12 |
| Lithuania | 0.11 |
| Hungary | 0.1 |
| Latvia | 0.1 |
| Israel | 0.07 |
| Taiwan* | 0.07 |
| Russia* | 0.03 |
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_International_Development
“The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance – the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms. USAID has missions in over 100 countries, primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
In 2025, the second Trump administration announced sweeping changes to USAID. President Donald Trump ordered a near-total freeze on all foreign aid. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, announced the intention of shutting down USAID..”
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
Yes. I agree.
(It could be seen as a “hidden” subsidy.)
poikilotherm said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
There are a few reddit posts along these lines in a few of the business subs I’m in, people going bust overnight as their business model was based on USAid.
Bummer.
A real bummer for them, their employees and all their families.
poikilotherm said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
There are a few reddit posts along these lines in a few of the business subs I’m in, people going bust overnight as their business model was based on USAid.
Business sub-reddits. The horror!
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who became a national figure after he used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider. Penny was cleared of homicide last year following the death of Jordan Neely, a case that spurred debate over vigilantism and public safety. Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, which Penny will join as deal partner, aims to back companies supporting American interests including startups in the defense, manufacturing and space industries. In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance called Penny’s hiring “Incredible news.”
Bloomberg Email Newsletter
dv said:
The US, and not just under DJT, is always complaining about the other NATO allies not spending 2% of GDP on the military. Of the 32 states, 9 are not meeting the 2% obligation.
This might be a fair complaint, but it should be noted that OECD members have committed to giving 0.7% of GDP to foreign development aid. Only a few of these meet this commitment and the USA is close to the bottom of the table. I’ve included some non-OECD countries (asterisked). Note that Turkey’s should also have a question mark because they count the cost of their refugee hosting as foreign aid: this may or may not be reasonable, they are hosting 4 million refugees.
Donor % of GDP
Qatar* 1.17 Turkey 1.15 Luxembourg 1.05 Norway 1.02 Sweden 0.99 Denmark 0.71 India* 0.65 Germany 0.6 Netherlands 0.59 United Arab Emirates* 0.55 United Kingdom 0.5 France 0.44 Switzerland 0.44 Belgium 0.42 Finland 0.42 China* 0.36 Ireland 0.31 Malta 0.3 Japan 0.29 New Zealand 0.28 Austria 0.27 Canada 0.27 Iceland 0.27 Italy 0.24 Australia 0.22 Spain 0.21 Portugal 0.16 Slovenia 0.16 United States 0.16 South Korea 0.15 Romania* 0.14 Croatia* 0.14 Greece 0.14 Estonia 0.13 Czech Republic 0.13 Poland 0.12 Slovak Republic 0.12 Lithuania 0.11 Hungary 0.1 Latvia 0.1 Israel 0.07 Taiwan* 0.07 Russia* 0.03
so it’s all good as long as our soles crash the economy faster than they shut external aid, then the fraction should be climbing towards the target
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Yes. We have lost faith in the US sticking with the constitution and preserving free and fair elections.
Every method they can possibly use. From voter suppression to arresting opposition politicians on false charges, denying security or police protection, intimidation, threats, invoking marshall law .. through to encouraging the Jan 6 types to go out on election day and smash up polling booths and beat up voters and officials.
but it’s legal methods so it’s all right, the other team just needs to communicate better
Boris said:
no one expected musk to take over the government, yet
LOL
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Yes. We have lost faith in the US sticking with the constitution and preserving free and fair elections.
Every method they can possibly use. From voter suppression to arresting opposition politicians on false charges, denying security or police protection, intimidation, threats, invoking marshall law .. through to encouraging the Jan 6 types to go out on election day and smash up polling booths and beat up voters and officials.
but it’s legal methods so it’s all right, the other team just needs to communicate better
And if it is illegal they can reasonably expect on getting pardons.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
Actually this part makes clearer sense now, it’s like the tariff thing, or the insurrection. Our souls just say things like “we’re going to do XYZ” and wait a tick, then the markets respond or whatever the fuck, and then the people actually responsible for XYZ take the hint / hear the dog whistle / cave to veiled threats and actually do the consequences of XYZ, meanwhile our souls just say “oh actually maybe we won’t do XYZ” and so they didn’t technically do it, and nobody can blame them for doing it, but the consequences have already been done and they win again¡
It’s hilarious¡
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
¿ but why not, isn’t “the sun has for all of history risen each day” the correct reasoning to explain that the sun will rise again tomorrow ?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who became a national figure after he used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider. Penny was cleared of homicide last year following the death of Jordan Neely, a case that spurred debate over vigilantism and public safety. Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, which Penny will join as deal partner, aims to back companies supporting American interests including startups in the defense, manufacturing and space industries. In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance called Penny’s hiring “Incredible news.”Bloomberg Email Newsletter
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
Right around the world.
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who became a national figure after he used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider. Penny was cleared of homicide last year following the death of Jordan Neely, a case that spurred debate over vigilantism and public safety. Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, which Penny will join as deal partner, aims to back companies supporting American interests including startups in the defense, manufacturing and space industries. In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance called Penny’s hiring “Incredible news.”
Bloomberg Email Newsletter
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who became a national figure after he used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider. Penny was cleared of homicide last year following the death of Jordan Neely, a case that spurred debate over vigilantism and public safety. Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, which Penny will join as deal partner, aims to back companies supporting American interests including startups in the defense, manufacturing and space industries. In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance called Penny’s hiring “Incredible news.”
Bloomberg Email Newsletter
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
I guess I need some other term for when a person kills another person but it’s not murder or homicide.
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
what I find funny is that people actually believe there will be mid-term elections that will be fair or even happen.
¿ but why not, isn’t “the sun has for all of history risen each day” the correct reasoning to explain that the sun will rise again tomorrow ?
Their groundhog is rarely correct.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
I guess I need some other term for when a person kills another person but it’s not murder or homicide.
manslaughter?
dv said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
I guess I need some other term for when a person kills another person but it’s not murder or homicide.
how about “killing”?
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Well, that’s fucked.
so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
Right around the world.
i was thinking more like Ohio and Nebraska.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
Right around the world.
i was thinking more like Ohio and Nebraska.
There’s so much that thi is likely to kill or hurt rather badly.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
It’s a pretty weird world where murdering an unarmed non-violent homeless person for no reason is a road to riches but I suppose that’s life
did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
I guess I need some other term for when a person kills another person but it’s not murder or homicide.
capitalism
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:so much of usaid is in product as opposed to cash. it’s going to stuff up a lot of us business.
Right around the world.
i was thinking more like Ohio and Nebraska.
corn and soybeans are down.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:Right around the world.
i was thinking more like Ohio and Nebraska.
corn and soybeans are down.
My main concern is the effect on revegetation of the Aral Basin.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:i was thinking more like Ohio and Nebraska.
corn and soybeans are down.
My main concern is the effect on revegetation of the Aral Basin.
Moving there soon?
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
alleged
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
hey hey maybe just like it’s not rape if they consent, it’s not a coup if they’re captured
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
Aye, the extent of power will depend on the challenges that happen in the Supreme Court.
Which we already know have declared that the president has criminal immunity.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
I mean, Musk has the authority do what he is doing because it’s been given to him by the Executive branch and endorsed (at least by way of non-action) by Congress – that may not last forever.
So even “abuse of power” probably isn’t the right term… Although it’s clearly outside of traditional norms.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
self coup.
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
hey hey maybe just like it’s not rape if they consent, it’s not a coup if they’re captured
Well, the creation of an new department by executive order and not by legislation passed by the Congress is legally dubious. The appointment of a head of that department without Congressional scrutiny even more so. The exercise of powers of such a mal-appointed cunt (MAC). It all stinks of being unlawful. But the courts are slow and stacked with cronies. There seems to be a legislative and legal paralysis, while the MAC just runs riot and everyone obediently follows his orders without putting up a fight.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:corn and soybeans are down.
My main concern is the effect on revegetation of the Aral Basin.
Moving there soon?
Only my wit is dry
tauto said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
Aye, the extent of power will depend on the challenges that happen in the Supreme Court.
Which we already know have declared that the president has criminal immunity.
But does the presidential immunity extend beyond the president?
buffy said:
tauto said:
party_pants said:Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
Aye, the extent of power will depend on the challenges that happen in the Supreme Court.
Which we already know have declared that the president has criminal immunity.
But does the presidential immunity extend beyond the president?
You will have to ask Trump’s lawyers.
buffy said:
tauto said:
party_pants said:Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
Aye, the extent of power will depend on the challenges that happen in the Supreme Court.
Which we already know have declared that the president has criminal immunity.
But does the presidential immunity extend beyond the president?
no, but a President has the ability to pardon a person from a crime and by extension, prosecution.
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:
tauto said:Aye, the extent of power will depend on the challenges that happen in the Supreme Court.
Which we already know have declared that the president has criminal immunity.
But does the presidential immunity extend beyond the president?
no, but a President has the ability to pardon a person from a crime and by extension, prosecution.
You don’t see that giving pardons to the Jan 6 mob sets a bad precedent for the future rule of law and upholding fair and free elections?
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:But does the presidential immunity extend beyond the president?
no, but a President has the ability to pardon a person from a crime and by extension, prosecution.
You don’t see that giving pardons to the Jan 6 mob sets a bad precedent for the future rule of law and upholding fair and free elections?
I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
diddly-squat said:
…when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If they continue in the way that they’ve been acting for the last two weeks, I reckon that the Trump administration will do a good job of dismantling itself.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:…when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If they continue in the way that they’ve been acting for the last two weeks, I reckon that the Trump administration will do a good job of dismantling itself.
just like last time.. there will be positions that will be revolving doors.
I also really don’t see the Trump / Musk relationship having a lot of longevity.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:no, but a President has the ability to pardon a person from a crime and by extension, prosecution.
You don’t see that giving pardons to the Jan 6 mob sets a bad precedent for the future rule of law and upholding fair and free elections?
I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
diddly-squat said:
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If the Dems ever get back in office, they’ll renormalise. When Biden took office he did not do what Trump did, rooting out disloyalists and politicising the DOJ, appointing inexperienced yes men to key positions. Things went back to the normal staid way they were before. There’ll be a change in staff but they won’t give George Soros the reins to the Treasury or abolish the Department of Defence.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:…when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If they continue in the way that they’ve been acting for the last two weeks, I reckon that the Trump administration will do a good job of dismantling itself.
And what about fiscal rectitude.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:…when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If they continue in the way that they’ve been acting for the last two weeks, I reckon that the Trump administration will do a good job of dismantling itself.
And what about fiscal rectitude.
Barry Humphries used that a lot, I think it had a nice ring to it.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:You don’t see that giving pardons to the Jan 6 mob sets a bad precedent for the future rule of law and upholding fair and free elections?
I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
I’m not clinging an the idea that “democracy will prevail” because of light and truth and love and whatever… what I’m saying is that some institutions are just really fucking hard to dismantle, and while America has a free press, while it has a party of opposition, while it has a functioning judicial system, these things are just not likely to happen. I personally think it’s naive to view the situation otherwise.
The modern Democrats are a very boring, ordinary right-of-centre party with a strong belief in institutional continuity and norms. Is there any place for such a party in the US these days? IDK.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If the Dems ever get back in office, they’ll renormalise. When Biden took office he did not do what Trump did, rooting out disloyalists and politicising the DOJ, appointing inexperienced yes men to key positions. Things went back to the normal staid way they were before. There’ll be a change in staff but they won’t give George Soros the reins to the Treasury or abolish the Department of Defence.
Sure, the Dems of the past are far more respectful of norms and traditions than the current MAGA version of the GOP.. but don’t think for a second that if the Dems take the WH back in four years time that they won’t purge the system of every single MAGA installed bureaucrat and official.. I mean do you think they’ll keep Kash Patel as the director of the FBI because check notes that position has a ten year tenure? I think not.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
I’m not clinging an the idea that “democracy will prevail” because of light and truth and love and whatever… what I’m saying is that some institutions are just really fucking hard to dismantle, and while America has a free press, while it has a party of opposition, while it has a functioning judicial system, these things are just not likely to happen. I personally think it’s naive to view the situation otherwise.
The first and last of these are already severly compromised.
The traditional media already has less influence than social media anyway
The point that i have been trying to make is that the mass pardons compromises the judicial system. Committing acts of treason and violent insurrection don’t matter if the perpetrators can reasonably rely upon getting pardons.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
I’m not clinging an the idea that “democracy will prevail” because of light and truth and love and whatever… what I’m saying is that some institutions are just really fucking hard to dismantle, and while America has a free press, while it has a party of opposition, while it has a functioning judicial system, these things are just not likely to happen. I personally think it’s naive to view the situation otherwise.
The first and last of these are already severly compromised.
The traditional media already has less influence than social media anyway
The point that i have been trying to make is that the mass pardons compromises the judicial system. Committing acts of treason and violent insurrection don’t matter if the perpetrators can reasonably rely upon getting pardons.
there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not clinging an the idea that “democracy will prevail” because of light and truth and love and whatever… what I’m saying is that some institutions are just really fucking hard to dismantle, and while America has a free press, while it has a party of opposition, while it has a functioning judicial system, these things are just not likely to happen. I personally think it’s naive to view the situation otherwise.
The first and last of these are already severly compromised.
The traditional media already has less influence than social media anyway
The point that i have been trying to make is that the mass pardons compromises the judicial system. Committing acts of treason and violent insurrection don’t matter if the perpetrators can reasonably rely upon getting pardons.
there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
The small number of bad faith actors include 4 of the 7 Supreme Court justices. The declaration of presidential immunity they made last year is not the outcome of a functional justice system.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:The first and last of these are already severly compromised.
The traditional media already has less influence than social media anyway
The point that i have been trying to make is that the mass pardons compromises the judicial system. Committing acts of treason and violent insurrection don’t matter if the perpetrators can reasonably rely upon getting pardons.
there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
The small number of bad faith actors include 4 of the 7 Supreme Court justices. The declaration of presidential immunity they made last year is not the outcome of a functional justice system.
why, because you don’t like the answer? is it implausible to think that maybe the Constitution of the United States actually does provide broad immunity for the office as President? I mean I personally think that no one is “above the law” but like it or not, that would seem just not the rules of the game in the US.
I mean I don’t think that Indonesia executing drug traffickers is a “good thing”, but thems the rules in Indonesia.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
The small number of bad faith actors include 4 of the 7 Supreme Court justices. The declaration of presidential immunity they made last year is not the outcome of a functional justice system.
why, because you don’t like the answer? is it implausible to think that maybe the Constitution of the United States actually does provide broad immunity for the office as President? I mean I personally think that no one is “above the law” but like it or not, that would seem just not the rules of the game in the US.
I mean I don’t think that Indonesia executing drug traffickers is a “good thing”, but thems the rules in Indonesia.
Refs call
Moving the goalposts
Yellow card
party_pants said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:did you not read, he was cleared of homicide, so it wasn’t murder, it’s just death
I guess I need some other term for when a person kills another person but it’s not murder or homicide.
how about “killing”?
Homicide is killing of a human. Murder and manslaughter are legal subsets of this.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
The small number of bad faith actors include 4 of the 7 Supreme Court justices. The declaration of presidential immunity they made last year is not the outcome of a functional justice system.
why, because you don’t like the answer? is it implausible to think that maybe the Constitution of the United States actually does provide broad immunity for the office as President? I mean I personally think that no one is “above the law” but like it or not, that would seem just not the rules of the game in the US.
I mean I don’t think that Indonesia executing drug traffickers is a “good thing”, but thems the rules in Indonesia.
You must remember at all times that i don’t care about them because they are foreigners.
However, i have followed several legal experts and constitutional experts who reckon the majority reasoning is faulty and presents a circular argument. It sets the bar so high that no president can ever be prosecuted for acting illegally.. without going into the detail. The president is effectively “above the law”, which we both agree is a bad thing. I am just thinking through the consequences of that.
With this one ruling, the whole notion of checks and balances which the Enlightenment founding fathers created has been dismissed, and the president is pretty much a king now. The only thing that stopped this happening before was the personal goodwill and commitment by all the previous presidents to the ideals of democratic government. When you get a cunt with no virtue or commitment to convention he becomes a king. And a bad king at that.
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Well, you might well ignore what Musk is doing, and hide behind a very tight definition, but I can’t.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
Don’t be too harsh, I don’t think there is a term yet invented to describe the absolute abuse of power that is going on with these Trump nominees.
hey hey maybe just like it’s not rape if they consent, it’s not a coup if they’re captured
Well, the creation of an new department by executive order and not by legislation passed by the Congress is legally dubious. The appointment of a head of that department without Congressional scrutiny even more so. The exercise of powers of such a mal-appointed cunt (MAC). It all stinks of being unlawful. But the courts are slow and stacked with cronies. There seems to be a legislative and legal paralysis, while the MAC just runs riot and everyone obediently follows his orders without putting up a fight.
Well, most people don’t want to be shot, or to lose their job.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:hey hey maybe just like it’s not rape if they consent, it’s not a coup if they’re captured
Well, the creation of an new department by executive order and not by legislation passed by the Congress is legally dubious. The appointment of a head of that department without Congressional scrutiny even more so. The exercise of powers of such a mal-appointed cunt (MAC). It all stinks of being unlawful. But the courts are slow and stacked with cronies. There seems to be a legislative and legal paralysis, while the MAC just runs riot and everyone obediently follows his orders without putting up a fight.
Well, most people don’t want to be shot, or to lose their job.
Any legal action is going to be slow and costly. it will get drawn out and appealed until it reaches the “small number of bad actors” on the full bench of the Supreme Court.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Are you completely ignoring the COUP that is going on?
sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Well, you might well ignore what Musk is doing, and hide behind a very tight definition, but I can’t.
you used a word to describe something, the word you used simply isn’t applicable, is all.. it’s not a coup.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s particularly clear that the details of what Musk is doing are good or bad, that will likely only come out in the fullness of time. All we do know is that no one really knows what he is doing. Now I think that’s not a great thing in public bureaucracies, but it’s far from uncommon.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:Well, the creation of an new department by executive order and not by legislation passed by the Congress is legally dubious. The appointment of a head of that department without Congressional scrutiny even more so. The exercise of powers of such a mal-appointed cunt (MAC). It all stinks of being unlawful. But the courts are slow and stacked with cronies. There seems to be a legislative and legal paralysis, while the MAC just runs riot and everyone obediently follows his orders without putting up a fight.
Well, most people don’t want to be shot, or to lose their job.
Any legal action is going to be slow and costly. it will get drawn out and appealed until it reaches the “small number of bad actors” on the full bench of the Supreme Court.
All legal action is slow and costly.
It’s one reason that Project 2025 etc wanted this stuff to be done fast. It’ll all be over before most of it reaches any court hearing.
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:sigh
by literal definition, what Musk is doing is not a Coup d’état…
Well, you might well ignore what Musk is doing, and hide behind a very tight definition, but I can’t.
you used a word to describe something, the word you used simply isn’t applicable, is all.. it’s not a coup.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s particularly clear that the details of what Musk is doing are good or bad, that will likely only come out in the fullness of time. All we do know is that no one really knows what he is doing. Now I think that’s not a great thing in public bureaucracies, but it’s far from uncommon.
I didn’t use the term “Coup d’état”.
I used the word coup, which has a considerably wider definition. And I chose the widest of the definitions I have read. I was certainly not invoking the notion that there is military involvement.
All of which is semantics. But if it looks like a duck etc…
Musk has effectively, and likely quite illegally taken over the electronic machinery of the US government including databases, electronic communications systems etc. Employees from high to low have been electronically locked out of several government departments. Employees have reportedly been asked to resign, and given monetary offers en-masse. It has been swift, and appears to be unauthorised by Congress. That certainly feels like a coup to me, and I refuse to ignore that.
It is frightening that it is happening in the US, and frightening that similar might be possible here and people might be emboldened enough to try it.
dv said:
Deny Defend Depose
We’re gonna need a bigger Luigi.
party_pants: “You must remember at all times that i don’t care about them because they are foreigners.”
Well, that says a lot about you.
Oh, and look!
diddly-squat has crapped his crap all over the forum!
dv said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:My main concern is the effect on revegetation of the Aral Basin.
Moving there soon?
Only my wit is dry
:)
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
Well, you might well ignore what Musk is doing, and hide behind a very tight definition, but I can’t.
you used a word to describe something, the word you used simply isn’t applicable, is all.. it’s not a coup.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s particularly clear that the details of what Musk is doing are good or bad, that will likely only come out in the fullness of time. All we do know is that no one really knows what he is doing. Now I think that’s not a great thing in public bureaucracies, but it’s far from uncommon.
I didn’t use the term “Coup d’état”.
I used the word coup, which has a considerably wider definition. And I chose the widest of the definitions I have read. I was certainly not invoking the notion that there is military involvement.
All of which is semantics. But if it looks like a duck etc…
Musk has effectively, and likely quite illegally taken over the electronic machinery of the US government including databases, electronic communications systems etc. Employees from high to low have been electronically locked out of several government departments. Employees have reportedly been asked to resign, and given monetary offers en-masse. It has been swift, and appears to be unauthorised by Congress. That certainly feels like a coup to me, and I refuse to ignore that.
It is frightening that it is happening in the US, and frightening that similar might be possible here and people might be emboldened enough to try it.
it was a Roman salute and he was just giving his heart to the happy people
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
The first and last of these are already severly compromised.
The traditional media already has less influence than social media anyway
The point that i have been trying to make is that the mass pardons compromises the judicial system. Committing acts of treason and violent insurrection don’t matter if the perpetrators can reasonably rely upon getting pardons.
there is an abundance of free press in the US, to say that there isn’t is just factually incorrect and the judicial system functions; there my be bad faith actors in certain positions, but it still functions.. a single judge may be able to close down a case, but the right of appeal still exists.
The small number of bad faith actors include 4 of the 7 Supreme Court justices. The declaration of presidential immunity they made last year is not the outcome of a functional justice system.
There is so much free press that they all seem to be paid for already to spout right propaganda¡ We meant gratis, not libre¡ Wait¡ The language¡ It evolves¡
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:What I find funny is the notion that elections won’t happen and won’t be fair.. The US takes election integrity pretty seriously.
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
To cancel or manipulate the upcoming mid-term and future elections in a constitutionally valid way would be near impossible as you described, but the concern is that Trump will do this unconstitutionally and that the checks and balances designed to stop him from doing so will fail.
How many coup’s / auto-coup’s in history do you think happened legally or without disruption to the existing constitutional order?
esselte said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
To cancel or manipulate the upcoming mid-term and future elections in a constitutionally valid way would be near impossible as you described, but the concern is that Trump will do this unconstitutionally and that the checks and balances designed to stop him from doing so will fail.
How many coup’s / auto-coup’s in history do you think happened legally or without disruption to the existing constitutional order?
All of them¡ It was the preceding administration that was illegal¡
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If the Dems ever get back in office, they’ll renormalise. When Biden took office he did not do what Trump did, rooting out disloyalists and politicising the DOJ, appointing inexperienced yes men to key positions. Things went back to the normal staid way they were before. There’ll be a change in staff but they won’t give George Soros the reins to the Treasury or abolish the Department of Defence.
Sure, the Dems of the past are far more respectful of norms and traditions than the current MAGA version of the GOP.. but don’t think for a second that if the Dems take the WH back in four years time that they won’t purge the system of every single MAGA installed bureaucrat and official.. I mean do you think they’ll keep Kash Patel as the director of the FBI because check notes that position has a ten year tenure? I think not.
yeah they were wrong to prosecute the insurrectionists
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
If the Dems ever get back in office, they’ll renormalise. When Biden took office he did not do what Trump did, rooting out disloyalists and politicising the DOJ, appointing inexperienced yes men to key positions. Things went back to the normal staid way they were before. There’ll be a change in staff but they won’t give George Soros the reins to the Treasury or abolish the Department of Defence.
Sure, the Dems of the past are far more respectful of norms and traditions than the current MAGA version of the GOP.. but don’t think for a second that if the Dems take the WH back in four years time that they won’t purge the system of every single MAGA installed bureaucrat and official.. I mean do you think they’ll keep Kash Patel as the director of the FBI because check notes that position has a ten year tenure? I think not.
good point, Republicans are just doing what Republicans have always done, but those damn Democrats are about to try something different, which they shouldn’t, because they should keep doing the same thing they’ve been doing which hasn’t worked
wait
oh that’s right the geniuses said they’d keep falling if they kept doing things that failed
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
If the Dems ever get back in office, they’ll renormalise. When Biden took office he did not do what Trump did, rooting out disloyalists and politicising the DOJ, appointing inexperienced yes men to key positions. Things went back to the normal staid way they were before. There’ll be a change in staff but they won’t give George Soros the reins to the Treasury or abolish the Department of Defence.
Sure, the Dems of the past are far more respectful of norms and traditions than the current MAGA version of the GOP.. but don’t think for a second that if the Dems take the WH back in four years time that they won’t purge the system of every single MAGA installed bureaucrat and official.. I mean do you think they’ll keep Kash Patel as the director of the FBI because check notes that position has a ten year tenure? I think not.
yeah they were wrong to prosecute the insurrectionists
They were wrong not to impeach him and jail him when they had the chance the first time.
Does anyone think that the name Trump is seen to be an advantage in itself? Regardless of who he is.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
You don’t see that giving pardons to the Jan 6 mob sets a bad precedent for the future rule of law and upholding fair and free elections?
I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
oh look here’s a construct that took the work of many people over a lot of time to build, and it’s fucking hard to dismantle
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
I think the circle of unaccountability that both Trump and Biden enabled through their Presidential pardons is bad thing for a whole bunch of reasons – mostly I see it as a selectivve undermining of the Judicial system. But hey, the POTUS has the power to pardon people anyone for any reason – I think it’s hard to be angry when a person that has the powers of a king acts in a kingly manner… it seems the founding fathers just fucked this on up.. Now the Constitution is a living document, so maybe this will lead to a case where those powers will be stripped back.
I very much doubt it though — if for no other reason than the Dems will want to do the same shit when it’s their turn to dismantle the Trump administration.
I’m not angry. I just think it is the end of democracy when these powers are exercised improperly.
You asked by earlier what means Trump might avoid the mid-term elections. This is one of those means. 1500 felons pardoned at a stroke. They will be emboldened to do it all again in tow years time. Along with ten times as many more, if they know that they’ve still got Trump to pardon them. Kiss goodbye to free and fair elections, hello mib rule.
Can’t you see that? Why do you so naively cling to the old idea of “US democracy will prevail”?
it is dead.
oh look here’s a construct that took the work of many people over a lot of time to build, and it’s fucking hard to dismantle
Though with his death all that’s gone will be his insane verbal diarrhoea as his brain flatulates. The henchmen will still be there.
Especially the smooth talking Vance.
US officials say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarily
By Caitlin Rawling https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/top-trump-officials-walk-back-idea-of-us-taking-over-of-gaza/104903136
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
> Ha. Once moved, he’ll make it permanent then. or at least he’s thinking he can.
roughbarked said:
US officials say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarilyBy Caitlin Rawling https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/top-trump-officials-walk-back-idea-of-us-taking-over-of-gaza/104903136
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
> Ha. Once moved, he’ll make it permanent then. or at least he’s thinking he can.
Maybe it was just his avaricious nature that prompted his ‘idea’ of taking control of Gaza. All that prime, seaside Mediterranean resort-ready real estate…
Maybe it was just the squirrels in his brain.
Maybe it was something to get Elon off the front page for a bit.
roughbarked said:
US officials say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarilyBy Caitlin Rawling https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/top-trump-officials-walk-back-idea-of-us-taking-over-of-gaza/104903136
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
> Ha. Once moved, he’ll make it permanent then. or at least he’s thinking he can.
and from the same live feed.
While Trump’s top officials have been walking back the idea of permanently relocating Palestinians, Donald Trump has signed an executive order on Wednesday attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports.
The order directs the Department of Justice to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in education.
“The war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony with dozens of women and girls aligned behind him.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, calls for “immediate enforcement” nationwide.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
US officials say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarilyBy Caitlin Rawling https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/top-trump-officials-walk-back-idea-of-us-taking-over-of-gaza/104903136
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
> Ha. Once moved, he’ll make it permanent then. or at least he’s thinking he can.
Maybe it was just his avaricious nature that prompted his ‘idea’ of taking control of Gaza. All that prime, seaside Mediterranean resort-ready real estate…
Maybe it was just the squirrels in his brain.
Maybe it was something to get Elon off the front page for a bit.
Squirrels. All by the name of Elon. ;)
captain_spalding said:
Maybe it was just his avaricious nature that prompted his ‘idea’ of taking control of Gaza. All that prime, seaside Mediterranean resort-ready real estate…
all those prime terrorist targets.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:Maybe it was just his avaricious nature that prompted his ‘idea’ of taking control of Gaza. All that prime, seaside Mediterranean resort-ready real estate…
all those prime terrorist targets.
Not a problem. Donny can arrange for the US government to provide generous property insurance coverage.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:Well, you might well ignore what Musk is doing, and hide behind a very tight definition, but I can’t.
you used a word to describe something, the word you used simply isn’t applicable, is all.. it’s not a coup.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s particularly clear that the details of what Musk is doing are good or bad, that will likely only come out in the fullness of time. All we do know is that no one really knows what he is doing. Now I think that’s not a great thing in public bureaucracies, but it’s far from uncommon.
I didn’t use the term “Coup d’état”.
I used the word coup, which has a considerably wider definition. And I chose the widest of the definitions I have read. I was certainly not invoking the notion that there is military involvement.
All of which is semantics. But if it looks like a duck etc…
Musk has effectively, and likely quite illegally taken over the electronic machinery of the US government including databases, electronic communications systems etc. Employees from high to low have been electronically locked out of several government departments. Employees have reportedly been asked to resign, and given monetary offers en-masse. It has been swift, and appears to be unauthorised by Congress. That certainly feels like a coup to me, and I refuse to ignore that.
It is frightening that it is happening in the US, and frightening that similar might be possible here and people might be emboldened enough to try it.
This thing MV, is that the GOP are the one in control, they control the Executive branch of government as well as Congress, if this was a coup, who exactly is Musk supposed to be wrestling control from?
In regards to the illegality I think will be much harder to prove, or even show. From what I’ve seen, it’s not even clear what laws he could be braking, that said, he a (special) govt employee and he is acting with the implicit authority of the President and he has the support of Congress.
What it looks like to me is an administrating running around in a room in the dark, where it should probably be turning on the light and walking…
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
US officials say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarilyBy Caitlin Rawling https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/top-trump-officials-walk-back-idea-of-us-taking-over-of-gaza/104903136
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
> Ha. Once moved, he’ll make it permanent then. or at least he’s thinking he can.
Maybe it was just his avaricious nature that prompted his ‘idea’ of taking control of Gaza. All that prime, seaside Mediterranean resort-ready real estate…
Maybe it was just the squirrels in his brain.
Maybe it was something to get Elon off the front page for a bit.
Or all three.
kii said:
Yeah.
esselte said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:that’s funny.
so do people honestly think that there won’t be free and fair mid-term elections in two years or even presidential elections in four year time?
what mechanism will DJT or the GOP use to achieve this? because you I’m imagining you understand it means an amendment to the constitution.. something two-thirds of both houses of Congress need to agree to then three-quarter of all states would have to ratify.
That would mean between 1 in 4 and 1 three of the Dems in both the House and Senate would have to agree to the amendment and about half of the current blue states would havve to do so as well (that assumes every Republican agrees).
it ain’t gonna happen
To cancel or manipulate the upcoming mid-term and future elections in a constitutionally valid way would be near impossible as you described, but the concern is that Trump will do this unconstitutionally and that the checks and balances designed to stop him from doing so will fail.
How many coup’s / auto-coup’s in history do you think happened legally or without disruption to the existing constitutional order?
I mean sure, but in some ways it’s lucky that the mechanics of elections in the US are decentralised.
Srsly tho draxx them sklounst.
Worth remembering there was a bipartisan commitment based on ending the Occupation and a two-state solution based on the UN mandated borders and negotiated land swaps. Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama all openly spoke about the need to end the Occupation. This ended in 2016 when both HRC and DJT omitted the O-word from the party’s vocabulary.
dv said:
Srsly tho draxx them sklounst.
Worth remembering there was a bipartisan commitment based on ending the Occupation and a two-state solution based on the UN mandated borders and negotiated land swaps. Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama all openly spoke about the need to end the Occupation. This ended in 2016 when both HRC and DJT omitted the O-word from the party’s vocabulary.
The Israeli’s seem opposed to any Palestinian state.
It seems they feel the need to oppress them.
kii said:
‘Congress’? ‘…congressional…’?
To what withered, powerless, and dead-in-all-but-name institution do those terms refer?
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:you used a word to describe something, the word you used simply isn’t applicable, is all.. it’s not a coup.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s particularly clear that the details of what Musk is doing are good or bad, that will likely only come out in the fullness of time. All we do know is that no one really knows what he is doing. Now I think that’s not a great thing in public bureaucracies, but it’s far from uncommon.
I didn’t use the term “Coup d’état”.
I used the word coup, which has a considerably wider definition. And I chose the widest of the definitions I have read. I was certainly not invoking the notion that there is military involvement.
All of which is semantics. But if it looks like a duck etc…
Musk has effectively, and likely quite illegally taken over the electronic machinery of the US government including databases, electronic communications systems etc. Employees from high to low have been electronically locked out of several government departments. Employees have reportedly been asked to resign, and given monetary offers en-masse. It has been swift, and appears to be unauthorised by Congress. That certainly feels like a coup to me, and I refuse to ignore that.
It is frightening that it is happening in the US, and frightening that similar might be possible here and people might be emboldened enough to try it.
This thing MV, is that the GOP are the one in control, they control the Executive branch of government as well as Congress, if this was a coup, who exactly is Musk supposed to be wrestling control from?
In regards to the illegality I think will be much harder to prove, or even show. From what I’ve seen, it’s not even clear what laws he could be braking, that said, he a (special) govt employee and he is acting with the implicit authority of the President and he has the support of Congress.
What it looks like to me is an administrating running around in a room in the dark, where it should probably be turning on the light and walking…
diddly-squat said:
What it looks like to me is an administrating running around in a room in the dark, where it should probably be turning on the light and walking…
Apologies for the accidental blank post.
Trump did learn something from his previous term.
To get in, and do as much damage as you can, as quickly as you can, by whatever means, with the help of anyone who’s willing.
He also remembers what Steve ‘Yeah, I Look Like I Sleep in a Dumpster’ Bannon told him: flood the scene with shit.
Cause as much upheaval, chaos, and speculation as you can. Make it impossible for anyone to tell just what things you mean to do, and what’s just blather.
He’s already signed more ‘Executive Orders’ than some Presidents sign in their entire terms. He’s re-writing American law to suit his own programme of revenge, and to satisfy the pet hates of his closest allies, as well as the prejudices of his mob. He’ll accommodate the agendas of others, as long as they don’t interfere with his own.
As for ‘when was a coup ever enacted without breaking laws’…i know that it’s a ‘Godwin’ moment, but have a re-read of how the Nazis rose to power, consolidated that power, and eliminated any obstacles to their schemes. They were always careful to maintain at least a thin veneer of legitimacy for their actions. Up until the point where they didn’t need to, any more.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:What it looks like to me is an administrating running around in a room in the dark, where it should probably be turning on the light and walking…
Apologies for the accidental blank post.
Trump did learn something from his previous term.
To get in, and do as much damage as you can, as quickly as you can, by whatever means, with the help of anyone who’s willing.
He also remembers what Steve ‘Yeah, I Look Like I Sleep in a Dumpster’ Bannon told him: flood the scene with shit.
Cause as much upheaval, chaos, and speculation as you can. Make it impossible for anyone to tell just what things you mean to do, and what’s just blather.
He’s already signed more ‘Executive Orders’ than some Presidents sign in their entire terms. He’s re-writing American law to suit his own programme of revenge, and to satisfy the pet hates of his closest allies, as well as the prejudices of his mob. He’ll accommodate the agendas of others, as long as they don’t interfere with his own.
As for ‘when was a coup ever enacted without breaking laws’…i know that it’s a ‘Godwin’ moment, but have a re-read of how the Nazis rose to power, consolidated that power, and eliminated any obstacles to their schemes. They were always careful to maintain at least a thin veneer of legitimacy for their actions. Up until the point where they didn’t need to, any more.
and eventually, they were no more.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:What it looks like to me is an administrating running around in a room in the dark, where it should probably be turning on the light and walking…
Apologies for the accidental blank post.
Trump did learn something from his previous term.
To get in, and do as much damage as you can, as quickly as you can, by whatever means, with the help of anyone who’s willing.
He also remembers what Steve ‘Yeah, I Look Like I Sleep in a Dumpster’ Bannon told him: flood the scene with shit.
Cause as much upheaval, chaos, and speculation as you can. Make it impossible for anyone to tell just what things you mean to do, and what’s just blather.
He’s already signed more ‘Executive Orders’ than some Presidents sign in their entire terms. He’s re-writing American law to suit his own programme of revenge, and to satisfy the pet hates of his closest allies, as well as the prejudices of his mob. He’ll accommodate the agendas of others, as long as they don’t interfere with his own.
As for ‘when was a coup ever enacted without breaking laws’…i know that it’s a ‘Godwin’ moment, but have a re-read of how the Nazis rose to power, consolidated that power, and eliminated any obstacles to their schemes. They were always careful to maintain at least a thin veneer of legitimacy for their actions. Up until the point where they didn’t need to, any more.
I agree that it seems clear his MO is to cause as much chaos as quickly as possible, to walk in and overturn the table on day one. I think the best thing Dems can do is make the GOP own every single decision, and not just Trump, every single Congressman and Congresswoman. They can’t let them have any easy wins here,
But I guess I’m just not quite a pessimistic as the rest of you, but only time will tell the true extent of the damage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/05/west-point-cadet-clubs-disbanded-dei-trump/
The list of clubs removed from West Point because of DEI.
The Asian-Pacific Forum Club
The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club
The Corbin Forum
The Japanese Forum Club
The Korean-American Relations Seminar
The Latin Cultural Club
The Native American Heritage Forum
The National Society of Black Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society of Women Engineers (West Point chapter)
Spectrum
The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association
kii said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/05/west-point-cadet-clubs-disbanded-dei-trump/The list of clubs removed from West Point because of DEI.
The Asian-Pacific Forum Club
The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club
The Corbin Forum
The Japanese Forum Club
The Korean-American Relations Seminar
The Latin Cultural Club
The Native American Heritage Forum
The National Society of Black Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society of Women Engineers (West Point chapter)
Spectrum
The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association
FMD
Michael V said:
kii said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/05/west-point-cadet-clubs-disbanded-dei-trump/The list of clubs removed from West Point because of DEI.
The Asian-Pacific Forum Club
The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club
The Corbin Forum
The Japanese Forum Club
The Korean-American Relations Seminar
The Latin Cultural Club
The Native American Heritage Forum
The National Society of Black Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society of Women Engineers (West Point chapter)
Spectrum
The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association
FMD
Multicultural seems to be slated for eradication.
Michael V said:
kii said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/05/west-point-cadet-clubs-disbanded-dei-trump/The list of clubs removed from West Point because of DEI.
The Asian-Pacific Forum Club
The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club
The Corbin Forum
The Japanese Forum Club
The Korean-American Relations Seminar
The Latin Cultural Club
The Native American Heritage Forum
The National Society of Black Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (West Point chapter)
The Society of Women Engineers (West Point chapter)
Spectrum
The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association
FMD
Don’t mention wars, slavery or genocide of the native population
dv said:
fecal transplants en masse.
Boris said:
dv said:
fecal transplants en masse.
for all the good it did i may as well stuck it up my arse!
Boris said:
Boris said:
dv said:
fecal transplants en masse.
for all the good it did i may as well stuck it up my arse!
Ideal for your purposes. Slow release. Bring you down gradually…
dv said:
Thursday: Trump threatens to impose a tariff on whoever is putting all that poo in the water.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Thursday: Trump threatens to impose a tariff on whoever is putting all that poo in the water.
pretty sure they’ve already stopped measuring poo water
Boris said:
dv said:
fecal transplants en masse.
perfect for our souls
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Thursday: Trump threatens to impose a tariff on whoever is putting all that poo in the water.
pretty sure they’ve already stopped measuring poo water
Yes, it’s an established Trump strategy.
If the extent of a problem is not measured, then no problem may be said to exist.
maybe
the games we(0,0,1) play
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-02-05-pete-hegseths-venmo-defense-contractors-unitedhealth/
Pete Hegseth’s Venmo: Defense Contractors, UnitedHealth Execs, Fox, and Friends
The VA may be the next government agency to go dark, if Pete Hegseth’s digital Rolodex is anything to go by.
SCIENCE said:
maybe
They (government) seemed to have convinced many North Americans that sort of thing is socialist
It being human decency to grant protection and basic rights for living without fear
I can only imagine that with Hegseth and Gabbard and Kenedy all being confirmed, or close to be confirmed, that Matt Gaetz must be feeling like a bit of fool for withdrawing his nomination.
Bless
dv said:
Bless
it does cut costs I spoz.
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThh
Luke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Dumb as they are, they’re about to get even more dumb.
dv said:
Bless
Perfect.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Dumb as they are, they’re about to get even more dumb.
I wonder what the end game is
Hybrid Trump/Musk’s controlled by neural chips and sent to work in the slaves mine on Mars
excellent
International shipment data, analysed by economists Pablo Faigelbaum and Amit Khandemwal, signalled a correlation between de minimis packages arriving in the US from China and household incomes.
Their findings, published last October, concluded that eliminating the de minimis threshold would “disproportionately hurt lower-income and minority consumers” and reduce aggregate welfare by up to $US13 billion.
“73 per cent of direct shipments imported by the poorest zip codes are de minimis compared to 52 per cent for the richest zip codes,” they wrote.
“The share of de minimis shipments from China also declines with income: 48 per cent for the poorest zip codes compared to 22 per cent for the richest.
“If were eliminated, the tariff schedule would flip from pro-poor to pro-rich.”
system working as intended
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
i want someone else to teach my kid.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Bless
Perfect.
it is good to see that the checks and balances have a strong and powerful man overseeing their functions
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Nice guy.
Boris said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Nice guy.
money well spent
fsm said:
I say let him do it.
He’ll probably screw it up, and take over Gaza province in Mozambique by mistake.
captain_spalding said:
fsm said:
I say let him do it.
He’ll probably screw it up, and take over Gaza province in Mozambique by mistake.
I like to spend some time in Mozambique.
The sunny sky is aqua blue
fsm said:
LOL
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 5, 2025 (Wednesday)
Five years ago, on February 5, 2020, Republican senators acquitted then-president Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial. Trump immediately vowed retaliation against those who tried to hold him accountable before the law for his actions. “It’s payback time,” one Republican said. “He has an enemies list that is growing by the day.”
Now Trump is back in office and purging the government of those he perceives to be his enemies. His administration is purging the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the civil service of anyone deemed insufficiently supportive of the president.
But it is not clear that the 78-year-old Trump is the one calling the shots. Although Trump maintained during his campaign that he had no idea what the right-wing Project 2025 was, multiple media outlets have established that most of his flurry of executive orders appear to have been lifted from the 922-page document. That document is the product of a group of far-right organizations led by the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to Viktor Orbán’s Danube Institute.
This week’s threatened tariff war blew up in Trump’s face. After his vow to put tariffs of 25% on most products from Mexico and Canada sent the stock market plunging, he was left declaring victory over Mexico and Canada after they essentially assured him they would do things they are already doing. In the meantime, as Carl Quintanilla noted today, Trump’s tariffs on products from China are increasing prices in the U.S.
Last night, Trump horrified even his own advisors by saying that the United States would take over Gaza and turn it into a resort area. Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported today that Trump’s team “had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility of the idea” when Trump blurted it out. “here had been no meetings with the State Department or Pentagon, as would normally occur for any serious foreign policy proposal,” Swan and Haberman wrote, “let alone one of such magnitude. There had been no working groups. The Defense Department had produced no estimates of the troop numbers required, or cost estimates, or even an outline of how it might work. There was little beyond an idea inside the president’s head,” an idea his own officials considered “fantastical even for Mr. Trump.”
Trump’s comments were so badly received in the Middle East that Matthew Gertz of Media Matters wondered if Secretary of State Marco Rubio had ordered additional security for the U.S. diplomatic facilities there.
Today, Trump praised Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for coaching Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in college, although Mahomes arrived at Texas Tech after Tuberville had already left.
In his important piece “The Logic of Destruction and How to Resist It,” published February 2 in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder reflected on the president’s multiple photo ops signing executive orders to, for example, blame former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for a plane crash that happened during Trump’s term. Snyder referred to the president as “a befuddled Trump signing ever larger pieces of paper for the cameras.”
Today journalist Gil Duran of The Nerd Reich noted that a thinker popular with the technological elite in 2022 laid out a plan to gut the U.S. government and replace it with a dictatorship. This would be a “reboot” of the country, Curtis Yarvin wrote, and it would require a “full power start,” a reference to restarting a stalled starship by jumping to full power, which risks destroying the ship.
Yarvin called for “giving absolute sovereignty to a single organization,” headed by the equivalent of the rogue chief executive officer of a corporation who would destroy the public institutions of the democratic government. Trump—whom Yarvin dismissed as weak—would give power to that CEO, who would “run the executive branch without any interference from the Congress or courts.” “Most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut down and replaced with new and efficient systems.”
Once loyalists have replaced civil servants in a new ideological “army,” the CEO “will throw it directly against the administrative state—not bothering with confirmed appointments, just using temporary appointments as needed. The job of this landing force is not to govern.” The new regime must take over the country and “perform the real functions of the old, and ideally perform them much better.” It must “seize all points of power, without respect for paper protections.”
Duran noted that Vice President J.D. Vance has echoed Yarvin’s prescriptions and that Trump sidekick billionaire Elon Musk appears to be putting Yarvin’s blueprint into action. “Musk is taking a systematic approach,” Duran wrote, “one that has been outlined in public forums for years.”
This morning, Anna Wilde Mathews and Liz Essley Whyte of the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk’s team has accessed payment and contracting systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mathews and Whyte note that CMS sits at the center of the country’s healthcare economy. In 2024, it disbursed about $1.5 trillion, or about 22% of the total amount of the federal total.
On X, Musk said “this is where the big money fraud is happening.” But, in fact, CMS is not operating without oversight. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which operates out of the Department of Justice, investigates healthcare fraud. In June 2024 it announced criminal charges against 193 defendants across 32 federal districts who allegedly participated in healthcare fraud schemes that involved about $2.75 billion in intended losses and $1.6 billion in actual losses.
Indeed, as Eric Levitz of Vox pointed out, “DOGE has not presented evidence of ‘fraud’; they have highlighted millions of dollars worth of spending that Musk considers wasteful. By contrast, the identified $233 billion of fraud in 2024. We don’t need to let a billionaire ignore federal law to do government oversight”
“It is extraordinary how much access Elon Musk and his sort of creepy 22-year-old henchmen have to all of our data,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) told MSNBC today. “They have information that would allow them to shut down your tax refund, your Medicare payment…. Potentially, they know everything about you and your family, and the reality is that this could get dystopian very quickly…. If you were to start speaking ill of Elon Musk on social media, Elon Musk might be able to stop or delay your tax refund, or your mom’s Social Security benefit, in part because we have no window into what’s happening inside the Department of Treasury right now.”
While Murphy didn’t say it explicitly, control over such information also gives Musk power over business rivals and political leaders. When Musk’s team went into the Department of Labor today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) noted that “e could manipulate quarterly job numbers and much more. We are talking about MARKET MOVING INFORMATION! Do employers want Musk to have access to any of their confidential data?”
Today, when asked about Musk’s conflicts of interest as he reviews federal spending while also receiving more than $15 billion in federal contracts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had already promised that “if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, that Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.” Donald Kettl, a scholar of public policy, told Dana Hull of Bloomberg: “I don’t know of any other case, anywhere, in which an individual could determine for himself whether he had a conflict of interest. In fact, self-determination of a conflict of interest is itself a conflict of interest.”
In a shocking attack on the intelligence personnel who collect information around the world to keep Americans safe, today the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent a list of all employees the agency hired in the past two years to the White House, sending the list by unclassified email. Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported that a former CIA agent called the reporting of the names “a counterintelligence disaster.” Lowell also reported that Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he understands that the White House “insisted” on the list coming through unclassified email.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted: “Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China. A disastrous national security development.”
Today, protesters gathered across the country to protest the takeover of the U.S. government by Musk and his cronies, and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) noted on Facebook that the U.S. Senate phone system has been overwhelmed with around 1,600 calls a minute, in contrast to the 40 calls a minute it usually receives. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) announced he would introduce the ELON MUSK Act—the Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy Act—which would ban federal contracts for Special Government Employees, similar to the bans for members of Congress and other federal employees.
Opposition might well continue to grow, as the bite of the cuts the Trump administration and Musk are making to the federal government is only beginning to be felt at home (the collapse of USAID is already an international crisis). Those cuts are poised to hurt Trump’s own rural voters worse than they hurt Democratic areas. In Virginia, about 400,000 people in rural areas receive healthcare from federally qualified health centers; half of these centers have lost their federal grants and are stopping some services or closing. Trump is currently planning to eliminate the Department of Education; the top six states that receive grants under the department—Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Nevada—all voted for Trump in 2024.
Tonight, Democratic senators, led by Chuck Schumer (NY), Jeff Merkley (OR), Patty Murray (WA), Gary Peters (MI), and Brian Schatz (HI), will hold the Senate floor all night in a filibuster to stop the confirmation of Russell Vought, a key right-wing author of Project 2025, to direct the Office of Management and Budget. “Vought’s proposals to slash federal funding will threaten Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security,” the senators said. “Vought will also continue to carry out President Donald Trump’s illegal federal funding cuts, stopping taxpayer dollars from supporting local schools, police departments, community health centers, food pantries, firefighters, and other vital programs.”
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
fsm said:
I say let him do it.
He’ll probably screw it up, and take over Gaza province in Mozambique by mistake.
I like to spend some time in Mozambique.
The sunny sky is aqua blue
wait until they try to rip off the Palestinians in the West Bank and discover that it’sn’t a bank of finance
wait
wait
sarahs mum said:
Today journalist Gil Duran of The Nerd Reich noted that a thinker popular with the technological elite in 2022 laid out a plan to gut the U.S. government and replace it with a dictatorship. This would be a “reboot” of the country, Curtis Yarvin wrote, and it would require a “full power start,” a reference to restarting a stalled starship by jumping to full power, which risks destroying the ship. Yarvin called for “giving absolute sovereignty to a single organization,” headed by the equivalent of the rogue chief executive officer of a corporation who would destroy the public institutions of the democratic government. Trump—whom Yarvin dismissed as weak—would give power to that CEO, who would “run the executive branch without any interference from the Congress or courts.” “Most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut down and replaced with new and efficient systems.” Once loyalists have replaced civil servants in a new ideological “army,” the CEO “will throw it directly against the administrative state—not bothering with confirmed appointments, just using temporary appointments as needed. The job of this landing force is not to govern.” The new regime must take over the country and “perform the real functions of the old, and ideally perform them much better.” It must “seize all points of power, without respect for paper protections.” Duran noted that Vice President J.D. Vance has echoed Yarvin’s prescriptions and that Trump sidekick billionaire Elon Musk appears to be putting Yarvin’s blueprint into action. “Musk is taking a systematic approach,” Duran wrote, “one that has been outlined in public forums for years.”
Oh c’m‘on this is ridiculous now, all yous puerile wokists should wake up and grow up¡
Everyone knows that the wise men tell us that yous shouldn’t be looking at what people say they will do, or what people look like they’re about to do, or even what they’re in the process of doing; yous should look only at what they’ve already done longer ago than the statute of limitations, and if that isn’t outright fascist genocide then you have no business accusing them of being genocidal fascists or ethically challenged sociopathic cultists or far right extremists or even bad people with bad ideas.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 5, 2025 (Wednesday)
Ta.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Dumb as they are, they’re about to get even more dumb.
Like our federal department, their federal department has little to do with curriculum development or the logistics of education. Presumably savings here could be provided to the states for program delivery.
dv said:
Bless
Conflicts of interest are almost always managed/disclosed by the person or organisation that has the conflict (perceived or real). There is no “conflict of interest watchdog”…
As long as conflicts are disclosed, controls put in place to manage these conflicts and all parties agree with the solution, then issue it’s really a non-issue.
Musk is an interesting case though because presumable he has a detailed understanding of the nature and value of the any government contracts so if he’s able to access information pertaining to the contracts of other commercial entities that compete against his companies for those contracts, then I can only imagine that would be a very clear conflict. but is Chinese walls have been put in place to address this sort of information flow then he may be alright.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://youtu.be/uxODBQZAlxM?si=HqbM9ti4-K2IrThhLuke Beasley breaks down a story about the plan to abolish the Department of Education. The 15 states most reliant on Federal educational aid all voted for Trump.
Dumb as they are, they’re about to get even more dumb.
Like our federal department, their federal department has little to do with curriculum development or the logistics of education. Presumably savings here could be provided to the states for program delivery.
Like, ‘Creation Science’.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Dumb as they are, they’re about to get even more dumb.
Like our federal department, their federal department has little to do with curriculum development or the logistics of education. Presumably savings here could be provided to the states for program delivery.
Like, ‘Creation Science’.
that would be their prerogative I guess – maybe they could outsource to the Afghani government.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Like our federal department, their federal department has little to do with curriculum development or the logistics of education. Presumably savings here could be provided to the states for program delivery.
Like, ‘Creation Science’.
that would be their prerogative I guess – maybe they could outsource to the Afghani government.
The Christian Right’s vision of schooling: classrooms full of pupils, rocking back and forwards, reciting verses from the Bible.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Like, ‘Creation Science’.
that would be their prerogative I guess – maybe they could outsource to the Afghani government.
The Christian Right’s vision of schooling: classrooms full of pupils, rocking back and forwards, reciting verses from the Bible.
While their own children get a top level education in a private school.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:that would be their prerogative I guess – maybe they could outsource to the Afghani government.
The Christian Right’s vision of schooling: classrooms full of pupils, rocking back and forwards, reciting verses from the Bible.
While their own children get a top level education in a private school.
Sheep do need shepherds, don’t they?
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:The Christian Right’s vision of schooling: classrooms full of pupils, rocking back and forwards, reciting verses from the Bible.
While their own children get a top level education in a private school.
Sheep do need shepherds, don’t they?
Not since the invention of barbed wire fences.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:While their own children get a top level education in a private school.
Sheep do need shepherds, don’t they?
Not since the invention of barbed wire fences.
Not necessary, if you can brainwash the sheep into thinking that they’re in the best ofall possible paddocks.
Sheep existed for a long time before the first shepherds …
dv said:
Sheep existed for a long time before the first shepherds …
…and then someone realised that sheep could be shorn.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Sheep existed for a long time before the first shepherds …
…and then someone realised that sheep could be shorn.
What Is Domestication
Employees were reportedly told to “drop everything and get it done.”
The memo, which was signed by NASA acting administrator Janet Petro, stated diversity programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.” It also suggested that “some in government” were attempting to sneak in such programs, and directed employees to report any such instances. Employees who did not “report” violations were threatened with “adverse consequences.” In response to the memo, Petro eliminated NASA’s Diversity and Inclusion office. The space agency’s diversity and inclusion website also went dark.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Sheep existed for a long time before the first shepherds …
…and then someone realised that sheep could be shorn.
not all sheep are Shaun.
Boris said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Sheep existed for a long time before the first shepherds …
…and then someone realised that sheep could be shorn.
not all sheep are Shaun.
well that remains to be sean
aha
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
SCIENCE said:
aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
SCIENCE said:
Kingy said:
we mean we thought the E part of IED literally stood for fair
sorry quote fixed
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:
aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
nah but it’s not evil if the animals you’re murdering are communists or ethnics or those other kinds of inconveniences
SCIENCE said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:
aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
nah but it’s not evil if the animals you’re murdering are communists or ethnics or those other kinds of inconveniences
For all those whom follow the Bible. There is a commandment that states; Thou Shalt Not Kill.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:Kingy said:
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
nah but it’s not evil if the animals you’re murdering are communists or ethnics or those other kinds of inconveniences
For all those whom follow the Bible. There is a commandment that states; Thou Shalt Not Kill.
it’s way back there so it pertains to jews, muslims and christians.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:Kingy said:
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
nah but it’s not evil if the animals you’re murdering are communists or ethnics or those other kinds of inconveniences
For all those whom follow the Bible. There is a commandment that states; Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
Fair comment – “what’s the point?”.
I do believe there was a condition indicating that the terms and conditions could be changed by them at any time.
I suppose the point is this: that if they change the terms and conditions to something you don’t agree with, then you should stop using the service.
According to a White House official, US President Donald Trump has now signed the executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-07/donald-trump-live-blog-icc-sanction/104908034
kii said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:nah but it’s not evil if the animals you’re murdering are communists or ethnics or those other kinds of inconveniences
For all those whom follow the Bible. There is a commandment that states; Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Trump believes he was sent by God?
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
Fair comment – “what’s the point?”.
I do believe there was a condition indicating that the terms and conditions could be changed by them at any time.
I suppose the point is this: that if they change the terms and conditions to something you don’t agree with, then you should stop using the service.
If only there was some other search engine we could use.
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:aha
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons, surveillance
Tech giant says in updated ethics policy that it will use AI in line with ‘international law and human rights’.
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
Fair comment – “what’s the point?”.
I do believe there was a condition indicating that the terms and conditions could be changed by them at any time.
I suppose the point is this: that if they change the terms and conditions to something you don’t agree with, then you should stop using the service.
It is American law. They seem to like being able to take all the rights for themselves.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:For all those whom follow the Bible. There is a commandment that states; Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Trump believes he was sent by God?
Do you even know how to make sense?
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:
Trump believes he was sent by God?
Do you even know how to make sense?
with this petty vindictiveness you sound more like trump every day.
Boris said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Trump believes he was sent by God?
Do you even know how to make sense?
with this petty vindictiveness you sound more like trump every day.
Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
kii said:
Boris said:
kii said:Do you even know how to make sense?
with this petty vindictiveness you sound more like trump every day.
Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:
Trump believes he was sent by God?
Do you even know how to make sense?
Do you?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Boris said:with this petty vindictiveness you sound more like trump every day.
Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
If its Fox, its the path to the daft side
I have, and it makes me weep:
“Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC saying that the US would “impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions” that threaten the national security of the US and Israel.
The order includes financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their families who assist in ICC investigations of American citizens or allies.
For context, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant last November.
The court accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
It claimed Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare”.”
And he’s doubling down on taking over Gaza.
And totally gutting USAID. Apparently just 294 staff out of more than 10,000 will remain.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-07/donald-trump-live-blog-icc-sanction/104908034
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Boris said:with this petty vindictiveness you sound more like trump every day.
Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:Trump believes he was sent by God?
Do you even know how to make sense?
Do you?
Oooo….nice comeback!
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
Nope. I’ve got nothing about that.
Michael V said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
Nope. I’ve got nothing about that.
Anti-Christian bias.
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
Nope. I’ve got nothing about that.
Anti-Christian bias.
First hit on “atheists being hunted down” is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Cymek said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Facebook groups.
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Facebook groups.
So a bit of protection then as one can block comments and people
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
I recall google having a policy back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s about “do no evil” or something like that.
I don’t recall there being a line in their terms & conditions that state that all these agreements can be cancelled whenever we feel like it.
If so, what’s the point of an agreement or terms and conditions?
Fair comment – “what’s the point?”.
I do believe there was a condition indicating that the terms and conditions could be changed by them at any time.
I suppose the point is this: that if they change the terms and conditions to something you don’t agree with, then you should stop using the service.
If only there was some other search engine we could use.
Baidu.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
Fair comment – “what’s the point?”.
I do believe there was a condition indicating that the terms and conditions could be changed by them at any time.
I suppose the point is this: that if they change the terms and conditions to something you don’t agree with, then you should stop using the service.
If only there was some other search engine we could use.
Baidu.
Yeah, any search engine starting with B will be good.
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
Trying to avoid it. Saw something something about atheists being hunted down or something.
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Facebook groups.
also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
You’d think that the PRC could start to relax censorship concerning the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was 36 years ago: Li Peng is dead, Deng Xiaoping is dead, there has been a complete change in the political and economic culture in China since then and a bit of glasnost wouldn’t do any harm.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Cymek said:
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Facebook groups.
also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
You just have to be careful about how you answer.
If they’re ‘churchy’, and ask, ‘do you believe in God?’ , or ‘are you a Christian?’, just answer, in an earnest tone, ‘i believe!’.
You don’t have to tell them what you believe.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Cymek said:
How does that work over there
Do atheists tell people openly they are
Facebook groups.
also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
and I’m still waiting for the ABC to start their Ethics Without Religion report.
dv said:
You’d think that the PRC could start to relax censorship concerning the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was 36 years ago: Li Peng is dead, Deng Xiaoping is dead, there has been a complete change in the political and economic culture in China since then and a bit of glasnost wouldn’t do any harm.
The CCP fears nothing so much as it fears the Chinese people.
The CCP came to power through an armed revolution by ‘the masses’.
They’re not going to encourage those same ‘masses’ to have any negative reflections on the PRC, or its actions, because, if the people decide that the CCP isn’t heaven’s gift to China, they could lose power the same way.
And, besides, you never know when you might have to do something similar again. No point in giving the people an example of what to prepare for.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
Facebook groups.
also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
and I’m still waiting for the ABC to start their Ethics Without Religion report.
There’s plenty of stuff on the internet about Religion Without Ethics.
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
and I’m still waiting for the ABC to start their Ethics Without Religion report.
There’s plenty of stuff on the internet about Religion Without Ethics.
Its insulting that people think atheists aren’t moral
Some atheists of course but not all.
I help to be decent, I don’t want anything back
Attorney on Musk’s unlimited government access: “Not illegal, but it’s not wise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbOuMDJh6Y
dv said:
You’d think that the PRC could start to relax censorship concerning the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was 36 years ago: Li Peng is dead, Deng Xiaoping is dead, there has been a complete change in the political and economic culture in China since then and a bit of glasnost wouldn’t do any harm.
maybe if they can elevate all the Kent States and similar to a similar level of entertainment
diddly-squat said:
Attorney on Musk’s unlimited government access: “Not illegal, but it’s not wise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbOuMDJh6Y
I don’t think that ‘wisdom’ has been a valid concept in the US for some little time now.
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
Nope. I’ve got nothing about that.
Anti-Christian bias.
First hit on “atheists being hunted down” is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists
tldr but our understanding is that there is nothing that inspires religions to work together quite like being faced with the atheist peril
Michael V said:
I have, and it makes me weep:
“Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC saying that the US would “impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions” that threaten the national security of the US and Israel.
The order includes financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their families who assist in ICC investigations of American citizens or allies.
For context, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant last November.
The court accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
It claimed Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare”.”
And he’s doubling down on taking over Gaza.
And totally gutting USAID. Apparently just 294 staff out of more than 10,000 will remain.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-07/donald-trump-live-blog-icc-sanction/104908034
good that should keep inflation down
kii said:
roughbarked said:
kii said:Do you even know how to make sense?
Do you?
Oooo….nice comeback!
it’s like take that or some other group hey
diddly-squat said:
Attorney on Musk’s unlimited government access: “Not illegal, but it’s not wise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbOuMDJh6Y
Musk trying to see if they have information on his home planet
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Attorney on Musk’s unlimited government access: “Not illegal, but it’s not wise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbOuMDJh6Y
I don’t think that ‘wisdom’ has been a valid concept in the US for some little time now.
Most of its not his business regardless of whom he isn’t
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:Oh, I beg your pardon. I’m just getting hysterical.
You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
If its Fox, its the path to the daft side
What does the Fox say?
Boris said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:You’ve been reading the news again, haven’t you?
If its Fox, its the path to the daft side
What does the Fox say?
anyway look at this
Chief Justice of New South Wales Andrew Bell has criticised the actions of US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, warning democracy is at risk.
On Thursday night the chief justice gave his speech at a Sydney dinner for the Law Society of NSW, saying from a lawyer’s perspective “recent events both domestically and abroad have generated a sense of great disquiet and anxiety about the state of society and the rule of law”.
what genius
what foresight
what insight
what brilliance
nobody could have worked that out 8 years ago
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
Facebook groups.
also let’s not forget that in Australia they pass laws to protect places of worship but we’re still waiting on the laws to protect rejection of worship
You just have to be careful about how you answer.
If they’re ‘churchy’, and ask, ‘do you believe in God?’ , or ‘are you a Christian?’, just answer, in an earnest tone, ‘i believe!’.
You don’t have to tell them what you believe.
I tell them that my faith is my private business.
So it seems that the judge has paused Trump’s buyout offer for federal employees….
almost as if there is a functioning judicial process…
Hey look the arm is still twitching¡
SCIENCE said:
Boris said:
Cymek said:If its Fox, its the path to the daft side
What does the Fox say?
anyway look at this
Chief Justice of New South Wales Andrew Bell has criticised the actions of US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, warning democracy is at risk.
On Thursday night the chief justice gave his speech at a Sydney dinner for the Law Society of NSW, saying from a lawyer’s perspective “recent events both domestically and abroad have generated a sense of great disquiet and anxiety about the state of society and the rule of law”.
what genius
what foresight
what insight
what brilliance
nobody could have worked that out 8 years ago
PNG Courier
alleged
This is just so crass. And drips with the blood of children.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
alleged
A staffer connected to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency resigned on Thursday after now-deleted racist social media posts were resurfaced. The resignation was confirmed by a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, was working inside the Treasury Department to cut costs and root out fraud, as part of Musk’s DOGE effort. Elez, who formerly worked at Musk companies X and SpaceX, was one of two temporary appointees at Treasury connected to DOGE who have been granted access to a highly sensitive Treasury system that processes trillions of dollars in payments every year.
sarahs mum said:
please
anyway we guess the USSA has a long history of selfish greed and individual enrichment through harm to others
uh why don’t they just do what Australians do and limit purchases to N items per purchaser per shop per day
https://x.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1887580268061438176
Frantic customers are now panic buying massive amounts of eggs at Costco, just like they did with toilet paper during Trump’s last term. This is only the beginning of the chaos.
not sure how true
sarahs mum said:
Ooh-ah.
SCIENCE said:
not sure how true
I think that that’s a fair notion.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:not sure how true
I think that that’s a fair notion.
At one point I heard or saw, Elon write it as DIE.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
not sure how true
I think that that’s a fair notion.
At one point I heard or saw, Elon write it as DIE.
DEICE
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:not sure how true
I think that that’s a fair notion.
At one point I heard or saw, Elon write it as DIE.
It’s German for ‘the’
opus
sarahs mum said:
So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
At the rate shit is happening, that may be way too late.
But, I’ll take it if that’s all you have on offer.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
McKinley was shot, but not killed.
What killed him was the many doctors who wangled the opportunity to go and poke and prod the wounded President. Sanitary procedures being what there were (not) back then, all that sticking fingers in where they didn’t belong almost certainly caused infections which ultimately punched the Prez’s ticket.
Chances are that if the quacks had left him alone, mCkinley would have recovered.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
McKinley was shot, but not killed.
What killed him was the many doctors who wangled the opportunity to go and poke and prod the wounded President. Sanitary procedures being what there were (not) back then, all that sticking fingers in where they didn’t belong almost certainly caused infections which ultimately punched the Prez’s ticket.
Chances are that if the quacks had left him alone, mCkinley would have recovered.
Back before they learned to wash their hands?
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
McKinley was shot, but not killed.
What killed him was the many doctors who wangled the opportunity to go and poke and prod the wounded President. Sanitary procedures being what there were (not) back then, all that sticking fingers in where they didn’t belong almost certainly caused infections which ultimately punched the Prez’s ticket.
Chances are that if the quacks had left him alone, mCkinley would have recovered.
Back before they learned to wash their hands?
it was 1901. ‘Germ theory’ and the need for sanitary procedures were still a matter for debate in some quarters, especially among ‘senior’ docs, of the kind that would have been permitted to have a lash at the Prez.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:McKinley was shot, but not killed.
What killed him was the many doctors who wangled the opportunity to go and poke and prod the wounded President. Sanitary procedures being what there were (not) back then, all that sticking fingers in where they didn’t belong almost certainly caused infections which ultimately punched the Prez’s ticket.
Chances are that if the quacks had left him alone, mCkinley would have recovered.
Back before they learned to wash their hands?
it was 1901. ‘Germ theory’ and the need for sanitary procedures were still a matter for debate in some quarters, especially among ‘senior’ docs, of the kind that would have been permitted to have a lash at the Prez.
Yes I read that Freud visited a hospice where they were training in obstetrics on cadavers and thence going in to deliver babies. The simple act of washing hands solved those obvious problems.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Back before they learned to wash their hands?
it was 1901. ‘Germ theory’ and the need for sanitary procedures were still a matter for debate in some quarters, especially among ‘senior’ docs, of the kind that would have been permitted to have a lash at the Prez.
Yes I read that Freud visited a hospice where they were training in obstetrics on cadavers and thence going in to deliver babies. The simple act of washing hands solved those obvious problems.
That’s the story of Ignaz Semmelweis. Look him up. Sad tale. Despite overwhelming evidence to support his conclusions about transmission of germs, the medical establishment resisted him to the point where they had him committed to an insane asylum, because his claims were ‘obviously mad’.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 6, 2025 (Thursday)
The U.S. has seen high-profile immigration raids since Trump took office, but Dara Kerr of The Guardian today reported that the Trump administration “is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations.” On January 24, 2025, old online press releases from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from as much as a decade ago were updated to make Google prioritize them as new releases, thus creating the illusion that raids are taking place all over the country. When The Guardian asked ICE and Google about the changed dates, some of the new dates disappeared, dropping those stories out of the top of search results.
Since President Ronald Reagan, Republicans have won elections by convincing their voters that their opponents are not trying to use the federal government to help Americans like them but are instead trying to hand tax dollars and power to undeserving Black and Brown Americans, women, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Over the past 45 years, that rhetoric has created a population that believes the federal government is controlled by their enemies, now sometimes called the “Deep State,” whom they blame for destroying the country. Those Republican voters now appear to hate the federal government and to be willing, even eager, to dismantle it.
But the Republicans’ vision of the nation never reflected reality and now, under President Donald Trump, it is entirely made-up. Today, Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources recorded some of the disinformation in which MAGA voters are currently marinating. Trump lied that Elon Musk found that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent “$100 million on condoms to Hamas” and that last week’s fatal midair collision that took 67 lives was due to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Trump today claimed CBS “defrauded the public” in “the greatest broadcasting scandal in history” when it exercised normal editing procedures on a 60 Minutes interview with then–vice president Kamala Harris that he insisted—falsely—involved replacing her actual answers with others. Today, Trump called for CBS News and 60 Minutes to be “immediately terminated,” despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of the press.
MAGA is amplifying right-wing lies. Today, influencers—including Musk—claimed that USAID secretly bankrolled Politico, claiming that the media site had taken $8 million from USAID. In fact, that sum was not an annual grant, but rather years of subscriptions from across the government to Politico Pro, a pricey subscription service for data and legislative analyses for lobbyists and government officials. “Politico…has never taken a cent of government subsidies or state funding,” said the chief executive officer of its parent company. “eople are paying for… because they need the service,” he said. “It’s not subsidies, it’s capitalism.” When Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) joined the chorus parroting the lie, fact-checkers noted that her office is a subscriber: it paid $7,150 for a yearlong subscription starting last January.
Nonetheless, Trump posted in all-caps that it “LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A ‘PAYOFF’ FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS.”
Another story spreading disinformation appeared today after the State Department claimed that Panama had agreed to let U.S. government vessels transit the Panama Canal for free. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino told reporters that the story was “lies and falsehoods” and noted that he had told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he doesn’t have the legal authority to waive transit fees for anyone.
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump boasted that he had delivered water to California, saying: “The water comes down from the northwest parts of Canada, I guess, but the Pacific Northwest. And it comes down by millions and millions of barrels a day and uh, I opened it up. It wasn’t that easy to do. But I opened it up and it’s pouring down.” Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider of Politico talked to Trump supporters among California’s farmers. They reported today that the 2 billion gallons of water Trump dumped onto the ground last week was water for irrigation that could never make it to the Los Angeles fires, which were under control by the time he dumped the water, in any case. For now, the farmers are sticking with Trump despite the loss of the water intended for their fields in the dry summer, but called for “close coordination” over the “incredibly complex” California water system.
Brian Stelter posted a December 9, 2017, quote from the New York Times: “Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” Stelter wrote: “I think about this quote a lot.”
Performative victories over “the Libs” make MAGA voters happy, but to what end do political leaders distort reality in order to stay in power?
The current administration’s actions strengthen the hand of foreign nations, especially China, against the U.S. Yesterday, Pam Bondi, Trump’s second choice for attorney general—the first had to withdraw after the House Ethics Committee drew attention to his drug use and sexual behavior—took the oath of office.
Today, Bondi disbanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Then-director of the FBI Christopher Wray established FITF in 2017 to stop countries like Russia and China from interfering with American politics, as Russia had done in 2016 to help elect Trump. FARA required anyone accepting money from a foreign government to declare that connection, and was key in helping law enforcement agencies to dismantle foreign influence operations. Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort, for example, pleaded guilty to violating FARA when he didn’t disclose that he was being paid by those linked to the Russian government. (In December 2020, before he left office, Trump pardoned Manafort.)
Prioritizing human smuggling and drug cartels, the Justice Department under Bondi is scaling back white-collar crimes like bribery of foreign officials, kleptocracy, and money laundering. In the past few years, the Justice Department has recovered yachts, planes, and real estate from Russians sanctioned because of the attack on Ukraine. “Taken together these changes are an invitation to foreign actors to interfere in American affairs,” Aaron Zelinsky, a former national security prosecutor for the Justice Department, told Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law. “Even worse, it’s an invitation to Americans to help them do it.”
The assault against the United States Agency for International Development is tangled in foreign power struggles, too. Andrew Duehren, Alan Rappeport and Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times reported today that while Trump administration officials claimed they were conducting a general review of the Treasury Department’s payments system when they sought access to it, emails show that the plan all along was to freeze payments to USAID.
Daniel Wu of the Washington Post noted today that the destruction of USAID will take billions of dollars from American farmers, as well as other businesses, and Paul Sonne of the New York Times reported today that authoritarian leaders, including those of Russia, Hungary, and El Salvador are cheering on Musk’s boast that he was “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” USAID funding was less than 1% of the U.S. budget and focused on humanitarian assistance and healthcare for underserved populations. But it also promoted democracy. It has monitored elections in Russia, documenting extensive voting irregularities there. With the U.S. abandoning foreign aid, China can step in to fill the void.
China will also be able to step in at the G20 summit of the world’s largest economies to be held in November in Johannesburg, South Africa, if Secretary of State Marco Rubio keeps his vow not to attend. Rubio says he is walking away from the international table because Trump says he is unhappy that South Africa is “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.” Trump ally Elon Musk hails from South Africa and has agreed that “white South Africans are being persecuted for their race in their home country.” South Africa has also refused official approval of Musk’s Starlink satellite system because of a state requirement that 30% of a company must be owned locally, a requirement SpaceX has criticized.
Yesterday, a White House order signed by Trump required the Central Intelligence Agency to send over an unclassified email listing all the employees hired in the past two years. David Sanger and Julian Barnes of the New York Times reported that the list included the first names and first initial of the last name of those hires, including “a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, called the sharing of the information over unsecured channels “a disastrous national security development,” adding: “Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China.”
If there are advantages for foreign adversaries in the policies of the administration currently in power, there are also advantages to favored corporations. Musk’s team, along with Trump’s officials, is dismantling the government with the claim that it is inefficient and corrupt, but it appears their plan is to put Musk and his ilk in charge of the services Americans need.
In what sounds like an attempt to hand over air traffic control systems to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system and his AI company, Trump today said—and here are his words, as Aaron Rupar transcribed them—“We’re all gonna sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new. Not pieced together, obsolete, like it is, land-based. Trying to hook up a land based system to a satellite system. The first thing that some experts told me when this happened is you can’t hook up land to satellites and you can’t hook up satellites to land. It doesn’t work. We spend billions of billions of dollars trying to renovate an old, broken system, instead of just saying cut it loose, and let’s spend less money and build a great system one by two or three companies, very good companies, specialists, that’s all it is. They used 39 companies.
That means that 39 different hookups have to happen. And I don’t know how many people of you are good in terms of all the kinds of things necessary for that. And it’s very complex stuff. But when you have 39 different companies working on hooking up different cities at different people. You need one company. With one set of equipment. And there are some countries that have unbelievable air controller systems. And they would’ve, bells would’ve gone off when that helicopter literally even hit the same height. Because it traveled a long distance before it hit. It was just like, just wouldn’t stop. Follow the line. But bells and whistles would’ve gone off. They have ‘em where it actually could virtually turn the thing around. It would’ve just never happened if we had the right equipment . And one of things that’s gonna be, I’m gonna speaking to John and to Mike and to Chuck and everybody, we have to get together and just as a single bill just pass where we get the best control system. When I land in my plane, privately, I use a system from another country because my captain tells me, I’m landing in New York and I’m using a sys— I won’t tell you what country, but I use a system from another country because the captain says ‘This thing is so bad, it’s so obsolete.’ And we can’t have that.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted today that “the DOGE team” is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” saying that “‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling.”
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton pointed out that “US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes. Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs. Now there have been two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast.”
Critics of the idea of Musk taking over the nation’s air traffic control systems note that his Tesla electric vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America. The average fatal crash rate is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven; Tesla has a rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven. On social media, “God” posted: “Thou shalt not let the foreign billionaire whose rockets blow up all the time anywhere near the air traffic control system,” an apparent reference to the January 16 explosion of a SpaceX rocket over the Caribbean that scattered debris over the region led the Federal Aviation Administration to lock down airspace over Turks and Caicos.
There is apparently yet another reason that people will lie to gain power. Today, Katherine Long of the Wall Street Journal reported that one of Musk’s young team of engineers, Marko Elez, 25, abruptly resigned after Long linked him to a social-media account that championed racism and eugenics, the idea that human populations can be improved by selective breeding, an idea embraced in Nazi Germany.
Last night, Senate Democrats filibustered for 30 hours in an attempt to convince Republicans to join them in rejecting Trump’s right-wing religious extremist nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025. In the House, Democrats introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing personal financial data.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour indefinitely blocked Trump’s executive order altering birthright citizenship, calling it “clearly unconstitutional.” “It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” Coughenour said.
The Department of Justice under Attorney General Bondi immediately said it would appeal the ruling. And tonight, Senate Republicans confirmed Christian nationalist Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Stephen Groves of the Associated Press noted that Vought once described the budget director’s job as “a President’s air-traffic control system.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described his confirmation as a “triple-header of a disaster for hardworking Americans.”
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:it was 1901. ‘Germ theory’ and the need for sanitary procedures were still a matter for debate in some quarters, especially among ‘senior’ docs, of the kind that would have been permitted to have a lash at the Prez.
Yes I read that Freud visited a hospice where they were training in obstetrics on cadavers and thence going in to deliver babies. The simple act of washing hands solved those obvious problems.
That’s the story of Ignaz Semmelweis. Look him up. Sad tale. Despite overwhelming evidence to support his conclusions about transmission of germs, the medical establishment resisted him to the point where they had him committed to an insane asylum, because his claims were ‘obviously mad’.
That’s probably the friend that Freud visited. Though the story may have been written to include Freud. I’m not sure if it was an entirely factual account. It was in a book about Freud and Jung and their lives.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 6, 2025 (Thursday)The U.S. has seen high-profile immigration raids since Trump took office, but Dara Kerr of The Guardian today reported that the Trump administration “is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations.” On January 24, 2025, old online press releases from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from as much as a decade ago were updated to make Google prioritize them as new releases, thus creating the illusion that raids are taking place all over the country. When The Guardian asked ICE and Google about the changed dates, some of the new dates disappeared, dropping those stories out of the top of search results.
Since President Ronald Reagan, Republicans have won elections by convincing their voters that their opponents are not trying to use the federal government to help Americans like them but are instead trying to hand tax dollars and power to undeserving Black and Brown Americans, women, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Over the past 45 years, that rhetoric has created a population that believes the federal government is controlled by their enemies, now sometimes called the “Deep State,” whom they blame for destroying the country. Those Republican voters now appear to hate the federal government and to be willing, even eager, to dismantle it.
But the Republicans’ vision of the nation never reflected reality and now, under President Donald Trump, it is entirely made-up. Today, Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources recorded some of the disinformation in which MAGA voters are currently marinating. Trump lied that Elon Musk found that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent “$100 million on condoms to Hamas” and that last week’s fatal midair collision that took 67 lives was due to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Trump today claimed CBS “defrauded the public” in “the greatest broadcasting scandal in history” when it exercised normal editing procedures on a 60 Minutes interview with then–vice president Kamala Harris that he insisted—falsely—involved replacing her actual answers with others. Today, Trump called for CBS News and 60 Minutes to be “immediately terminated,” despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of the press.
MAGA is amplifying right-wing lies. Today, influencers—including Musk—claimed that USAID secretly bankrolled Politico, claiming that the media site had taken $8 million from USAID. In fact, that sum was not an annual grant, but rather years of subscriptions from across the government to Politico Pro, a pricey subscription service for data and legislative analyses for lobbyists and government officials. “Politico…has never taken a cent of government subsidies or state funding,” said the chief executive officer of its parent company. “eople are paying for… because they need the service,” he said. “It’s not subsidies, it’s capitalism.” When Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) joined the chorus parroting the lie, fact-checkers noted that her office is a subscriber: it paid $7,150 for a yearlong subscription starting last January.
Nonetheless, Trump posted in all-caps that it “LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A ‘PAYOFF’ FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS.”Another story spreading disinformation appeared today after the State Department claimed that Panama had agreed to let U.S. government vessels transit the Panama Canal for free. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino told reporters that the story was “lies and falsehoods” and noted that he had told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he doesn’t have the legal authority to waive transit fees for anyone.
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump boasted that he had delivered water to California, saying: “The water comes down from the northwest parts of Canada, I guess, but the Pacific Northwest. And it comes down by millions and millions of barrels a day and uh, I opened it up. It wasn’t that easy to do. But I opened it up and it’s pouring down.” Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider of Politico talked to Trump supporters among California’s farmers. They reported today that the 2 billion gallons of water Trump dumped onto the ground last week was water for irrigation that could never make it to the Los Angeles fires, which were under control by the time he dumped the water, in any case. For now, the farmers are sticking with Trump despite the loss of the water intended for their fields in the dry summer, but called for “close coordination” over the “incredibly complex” California water system.
Brian Stelter posted a December 9, 2017, quote from the New York Times: “Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” Stelter wrote: “I think about this quote a lot.”
Performative victories over “the Libs” make MAGA voters happy, but to what end do political leaders distort reality in order to stay in power?
The current administration’s actions strengthen the hand of foreign nations, especially China, against the U.S. Yesterday, Pam Bondi, Trump’s second choice for attorney general—the first had to withdraw after the House Ethics Committee drew attention to his drug use and sexual behavior—took the oath of office.
Today, Bondi disbanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Then-director of the FBI Christopher Wray established FITF in 2017 to stop countries like Russia and China from interfering with American politics, as Russia had done in 2016 to help elect Trump. FARA required anyone accepting money from a foreign government to declare that connection, and was key in helping law enforcement agencies to dismantle foreign influence operations. Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort, for example, pleaded guilty to violating FARA when he didn’t disclose that he was being paid by those linked to the Russian government. (In December 2020, before he left office, Trump pardoned Manafort.)
Prioritizing human smuggling and drug cartels, the Justice Department under Bondi is scaling back white-collar crimes like bribery of foreign officials, kleptocracy, and money laundering. In the past few years, the Justice Department has recovered yachts, planes, and real estate from Russians sanctioned because of the attack on Ukraine. “Taken together these changes are an invitation to foreign actors to interfere in American affairs,” Aaron Zelinsky, a former national security prosecutor for the Justice Department, told Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law. “Even worse, it’s an invitation to Americans to help them do it.”
The assault against the United States Agency for International Development is tangled in foreign power struggles, too. Andrew Duehren, Alan Rappeport and Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times reported today that while Trump administration officials claimed they were conducting a general review of the Treasury Department’s payments system when they sought access to it, emails show that the plan all along was to freeze payments to USAID.
Daniel Wu of the Washington Post noted today that the destruction of USAID will take billions of dollars from American farmers, as well as other businesses, and Paul Sonne of the New York Times reported today that authoritarian leaders, including those of Russia, Hungary, and El Salvador are cheering on Musk’s boast that he was “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” USAID funding was less than 1% of the U.S. budget and focused on humanitarian assistance and healthcare for underserved populations. But it also promoted democracy. It has monitored elections in Russia, documenting extensive voting irregularities there. With the U.S. abandoning foreign aid, China can step in to fill the void.
China will also be able to step in at the G20 summit of the world’s largest economies to be held in November in Johannesburg, South Africa, if Secretary of State Marco Rubio keeps his vow not to attend. Rubio says he is walking away from the international table because Trump says he is unhappy that South Africa is “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.” Trump ally Elon Musk hails from South Africa and has agreed that “white South Africans are being persecuted for their race in their home country.” South Africa has also refused official approval of Musk’s Starlink satellite system because of a state requirement that 30% of a company must be owned locally, a requirement SpaceX has criticized.Yesterday, a White House order signed by Trump required the Central Intelligence Agency to send over an unclassified email listing all the employees hired in the past two years. David Sanger and Julian Barnes of the New York Times reported that the list included the first names and first initial of the last name of those hires, including “a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, called the sharing of the information over unsecured channels “a disastrous national security development,” adding: “Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China.”
If there are advantages for foreign adversaries in the policies of the administration currently in power, there are also advantages to favored corporations. Musk’s team, along with Trump’s officials, is dismantling the government with the claim that it is inefficient and corrupt, but it appears their plan is to put Musk and his ilk in charge of the services Americans need.
In what sounds like an attempt to hand over air traffic control systems to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system and his AI company, Trump today said—and here are his words, as Aaron Rupar transcribed them—“We’re all gonna sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new. Not pieced together, obsolete, like it is, land-based. Trying to hook up a land based system to a satellite system. The first thing that some experts told me when this happened is you can’t hook up land to satellites and you can’t hook up satellites to land. It doesn’t work. We spend billions of billions of dollars trying to renovate an old, broken system, instead of just saying cut it loose, and let’s spend less money and build a great system one by two or three companies, very good companies, specialists, that’s all it is. They used 39 companies.
That means that 39 different hookups have to happen. And I don’t know how many people of you are good in terms of all the kinds of things necessary for that. And it’s very complex stuff. But when you have 39 different companies working on hooking up different cities at different people. You need one company. With one set of equipment. And there are some countries that have unbelievable air controller systems. And they would’ve, bells would’ve gone off when that helicopter literally even hit the same height. Because it traveled a long distance before it hit. It was just like, just wouldn’t stop. Follow the line. But bells and whistles would’ve gone off. They have ‘em where it actually could virtually turn the thing around. It would’ve just never happened if we had the right equipment . And one of things that’s gonna be, I’m gonna speaking to John and to Mike and to Chuck and everybody, we have to get together and just as a single bill just pass where we get the best control system. When I land in my plane, privately, I use a system from another country because my captain tells me, I’m landing in New York and I’m using a sys— I won’t tell you what country, but I use a system from another country because the captain says ‘This thing is so bad, it’s so obsolete.’ And we can’t have that.”Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted today that “the DOGE team” is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” saying that “‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling.”
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton pointed out that “US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes. Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs. Now there have been two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast.”Critics of the idea of Musk taking over the nation’s air traffic control systems note that his Tesla electric vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America. The average fatal crash rate is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven; Tesla has a rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven. On social media, “God” posted: “Thou shalt not let the foreign billionaire whose rockets blow up all the time anywhere near the air traffic control system,” an apparent reference to the January 16 explosion of a SpaceX rocket over the Caribbean that scattered debris over the region led the Federal Aviation Administration to lock down airspace over Turks and Caicos.
There is apparently yet another reason that people will lie to gain power. Today, Katherine Long of the Wall Street Journal reported that one of Musk’s young team of engineers, Marko Elez, 25, abruptly resigned after Long linked him to a social-media account that championed racism and eugenics, the idea that human populations can be improved by selective breeding, an idea embraced in Nazi Germany.
Last night, Senate Democrats filibustered for 30 hours in an attempt to convince Republicans to join them in rejecting Trump’s right-wing religious extremist nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025. In the House, Democrats introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing personal financial data.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour indefinitely blocked Trump’s executive order altering birthright citizenship, calling it “clearly unconstitutional.” “It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” Coughenour said.
The Department of Justice under Attorney General Bondi immediately said it would appeal the ruling. And tonight, Senate Republicans confirmed Christian nationalist Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Stephen Groves of the Associated Press noted that Vought once described the budget director’s job as “a President’s air-traffic control system.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described his confirmation as a “triple-header of a disaster for hardworking Americans.”
She doesn’t miss much.
I’ll leave this here for you peeps.
diddly-squat said:
I’ll leave this here for you peeps.
I wish you hadn’t. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 6, 2025 (Thursday)She doesn’t miss much.
she says her audience is a history student in 100 years time.
I appreciate all the shit she ignores.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 6, 2025 (Thursday)She doesn’t miss much.
she says her audience is a history student in 100 years time.
I appreciate all the shit she ignores.
Good.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given US President Donald Trump a golden pager in an apparent reference to Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon last year.
There were rumours that the USA helped Israel track these pagers but that would have been done under Biden’s command.
Spiny Norman said:
Heh.
:)
Spiny Norman said:
yeah.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
So…July 20th we might be celebrating?
McKinley was shot, but not killed.
What killed him was the many doctors who wangled the opportunity to go and poke and prod the wounded President. Sanitary procedures being what there were (not) back then, all that sticking fingers in where they didn’t belong almost certainly caused infections which ultimately punched the Prez’s ticket.
Chances are that if the quacks had left him alone, mCkinley would have recovered.
Back before they learned to wash their hands?
maybe they were the ones suffering under the tariffs
¿
Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub said she received a letter from President Donald Trump informing her that she was being removed from office, in a post on X where she questioned the legal validity of the move and signaled her intent to fight against the removal—amid a push by the Trump administration to purge several government officials.
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.
Grown-ups only allowed.
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.
st00pid irreverent idea.
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.
Nonsense. He wouldn’t add another face, he’d just remodel all 4 to his own visage.
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.
That side is recessed, while there might be room the face wouldn’t stick that far forward. The side next to Washington has more potential, but the best place to put trump is on the other side of the mountain.
Arts said:
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.That side is recessed, while there might be room the face wouldn’t stick that far forward. The side next to Washington has more potential, but the best place to put trump is on the other side of the mountain.
I’ll put that to the committee when we next meet at Rooty Hill RSL.
mrs california just posted this…
Reality Is Truth
29 January at 23:45 ·
Trump is Firing Government Employees, but He Learned from the Master: Bill Clinton and the Birth of the Deep State
As President Donald Trump announces plans to restructure the federal government and remove entrenched left-wing activist bureaucrats , the Left has reacted with outrage. Many claimed that such firings are an unprecedented attack on the civil service. However, history tells a different story. The blueprint for mass firings in the federal government was not drafted by Trump—it was authored by President Bill Clinton.
The Creation of Bill Clinton’s Deep State
For the record, President Bill Clinton took drastic action upon entering office, firing all federal appointees and those reporting directly to them, reaching three levels deep into the management hierarchy. This included upper-level, middle-level, and lower-level managers. Such sweeping dismissals were unprecedented in modern history.
The stated reason for these actions was to reform government and make it more efficient. Under the guise of the 1993 “Reinventing Government Initiative,” Clinton oversaw the termination of 377,000 federal employees. This initiative, led by then-Vice President Al Gore, was marketed as an effort to cut bureaucratic bloat. Clinton publicized that his administration reduced the government payroll from 2.15 million employees to 1.79 million by the end of his term (U.S. Office of Personnel Management). However, while he claimed to be trimming the size of government, he was in reality expanding it dramatically.
Rather than actually reducing the government’s reach, Clinton tripled its size by shifting millions of jobs to government contractors. This maneuver allowed his administration to hide the true expansion of government within the bureaucracy. The federal workforce, under his administration, effectively grew from 2.15 million to a staggering 9.1 million (Project On Government Oversight), all hired by liberal activist managers.
This restructuring was the foundation for what has become the “deep state”—an unelected bureaucratic class that exercises significant influence over government operations, often in opposition to elected leaders who challenge the status quo. The same entity that Trump is now attempting to confront was a product of Clinton’s drastic reshaping of the federal workforce.
Setting the Precedent for Trump’s Actions
The Democrats are framing Trump’s efforts to remove government employees as radical and dangerous. Yet, Clinton, a Democrat, set the precedent for such dismissals. The key difference is that while Clinton’s actions were aimed at consolidating power within a left-leaning bureaucracy, Trump’s efforts have been directed at reducing that bureaucracy’s grip on governance and returning government to the people.
Trump’s battle against the entrenched federal workforce is not an attack on democracy—it is an attempt to undo a system that was carefully crafted over decades to resist conservative leadership. The idea that federal employees should be immune from accountability is a modern invention, and Clinton himself showed that mass firings could be justified in the name of reform.
As the debate over federal employment rages on, it is important to remember who first wielded the axe. Trump may be making headlines for firing government employees, but he is merely following in the footsteps of the master—Bill Clinton.
sarahs mum said:
mrs california just posted this…Reality Is Truth
29 January at 23:45 ·
Trump is Firing Government Employees, but He Learned from the Master: Bill Clinton and the Birth of the Deep State
As President Donald Trump announces plans to restructure the federal government and remove entrenched left-wing activist bureaucrats , the Left has reacted with outrage. Many claimed that such firings are an unprecedented attack on the civil service. However, history tells a different story. The blueprint for mass firings in the federal government was not drafted by Trump—it was authored by President Bill Clinton.
The Creation of Bill Clinton’s Deep State
For the record, President Bill Clinton took drastic action upon entering office, firing all federal appointees and those reporting directly to them, reaching three levels deep into the management hierarchy. This included upper-level, middle-level, and lower-level managers. Such sweeping dismissals were unprecedented in modern history.
The stated reason for these actions was to reform government and make it more efficient. Under the guise of the 1993 “Reinventing Government Initiative,” Clinton oversaw the termination of 377,000 federal employees. This initiative, led by then-Vice President Al Gore, was marketed as an effort to cut bureaucratic bloat. Clinton publicized that his administration reduced the government payroll from 2.15 million employees to 1.79 million by the end of his term (U.S. Office of Personnel Management). However, while he claimed to be trimming the size of government, he was in reality expanding it dramatically.
Rather than actually reducing the government’s reach, Clinton tripled its size by shifting millions of jobs to government contractors. This maneuver allowed his administration to hide the true expansion of government within the bureaucracy. The federal workforce, under his administration, effectively grew from 2.15 million to a staggering 9.1 million (Project On Government Oversight), all hired by liberal activist managers.
This restructuring was the foundation for what has become the “deep state”—an unelected bureaucratic class that exercises significant influence over government operations, often in opposition to elected leaders who challenge the status quo. The same entity that Trump is now attempting to confront was a product of Clinton’s drastic reshaping of the federal workforce.
Setting the Precedent for Trump’s Actions
The Democrats are framing Trump’s efforts to remove government employees as radical and dangerous. Yet, Clinton, a Democrat, set the precedent for such dismissals. The key difference is that while Clinton’s actions were aimed at consolidating power within a left-leaning bureaucracy, Trump’s efforts have been directed at reducing that bureaucracy’s grip on governance and returning government to the people.
Trump’s battle against the entrenched federal workforce is not an attack on democracy—it is an attempt to undo a system that was carefully crafted over decades to resist conservative leadership. The idea that federal employees should be immune from accountability is a modern invention, and Clinton himself showed that mass firings could be justified in the name of reform.
As the debate over federal employment rages on, it is important to remember who first wielded the axe. Trump may be making headlines for firing government employees, but he is merely following in the footsteps of the master—Bill Clinton.
No, I haven’t fact checked the fact check.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california just posted this…Reality Is Truth
29 January at 23:45 ·
Trump is Firing Government Employees, but He Learned from the Master: Bill Clinton and the Birth of the Deep State
As President Donald Trump announces plans to restructure the federal government and remove entrenched left-wing activist bureaucrats , the Left has reacted with outrage. Many claimed that such firings are an unprecedented attack on the civil service. However, history tells a different story. The blueprint for mass firings in the federal government was not drafted by Trump—it was authored by President Bill Clinton.
The Creation of Bill Clinton’s Deep State
For the record, President Bill Clinton took drastic action upon entering office, firing all federal appointees and those reporting directly to them, reaching three levels deep into the management hierarchy. This included upper-level, middle-level, and lower-level managers. Such sweeping dismissals were unprecedented in modern history.
The stated reason for these actions was to reform government and make it more efficient. Under the guise of the 1993 “Reinventing Government Initiative,” Clinton oversaw the termination of 377,000 federal employees. This initiative, led by then-Vice President Al Gore, was marketed as an effort to cut bureaucratic bloat. Clinton publicized that his administration reduced the government payroll from 2.15 million employees to 1.79 million by the end of his term (U.S. Office of Personnel Management). However, while he claimed to be trimming the size of government, he was in reality expanding it dramatically.
Rather than actually reducing the government’s reach, Clinton tripled its size by shifting millions of jobs to government contractors. This maneuver allowed his administration to hide the true expansion of government within the bureaucracy. The federal workforce, under his administration, effectively grew from 2.15 million to a staggering 9.1 million (Project On Government Oversight), all hired by liberal activist managers.
This restructuring was the foundation for what has become the “deep state”—an unelected bureaucratic class that exercises significant influence over government operations, often in opposition to elected leaders who challenge the status quo. The same entity that Trump is now attempting to confront was a product of Clinton’s drastic reshaping of the federal workforce.
Setting the Precedent for Trump’s Actions
The Democrats are framing Trump’s efforts to remove government employees as radical and dangerous. Yet, Clinton, a Democrat, set the precedent for such dismissals. The key difference is that while Clinton’s actions were aimed at consolidating power within a left-leaning bureaucracy, Trump’s efforts have been directed at reducing that bureaucracy’s grip on governance and returning government to the people.
Trump’s battle against the entrenched federal workforce is not an attack on democracy—it is an attempt to undo a system that was carefully crafted over decades to resist conservative leadership. The idea that federal employees should be immune from accountability is a modern invention, and Clinton himself showed that mass firings could be justified in the name of reform.
As the debate over federal employment rages on, it is important to remember who first wielded the axe. Trump may be making headlines for firing government employees, but he is merely following in the footsteps of the master—Bill Clinton.
No, I haven’t fact checked the fact check.
Peak Warming Man said:
Arts said:
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.That side is recessed, while there might be room the face wouldn’t stick that far forward. The side next to Washington has more potential, but the best place to put trump is on the other side of the mountain.
I’ll put that to the committee when we next meet at Rooty Hill RSL.
West HQ now…
Spiny Norman said:
It is all making sense now.
Felon trump reacts to fElon *Must’s Time magazine cover.
*as in “musty”
I think he’s a terrible sci-fi author, but I approve of this post.
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Arts said:That side is recessed, while there might be room the face wouldn’t stick that far forward. The side next to Washington has more potential, but the best place to put trump is on the other side of the mountain.
I’ll put that to the committee when we next meet at Rooty Hill RSL.
West HQ now…
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
https://www.theverge.com/policy/608278/ncmec-removes-reports-lgbtq-transgender-children-government-funding-threats
sarahs mum said:
Peak Warming Man said:
An artists impression of what Mt Rushmore is going to look like.
I personally think the cap is over the top and not in line with the original concept.
I think they should lose the cap.
What do youse think.st00pid irreverent idea.
diversionary tactic
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:I’ll put that to the committee when we next meet at Rooty Hill RSL.
West HQ now…
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
Mount Rushmore before it was destroyed.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
West HQ now…
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
Mount Rushmore before it was destroyed.
anything for a bit of capitalism
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
Mount Rushmore before it was destroyed.
anything for a bit of capitalism
I’ve mentioned it here before about knowing a local man who was trying to raise interest in having Obama added to Mount Rushmore. He was a bookstore regular, wannabe Casanova.
“We don’t know if they can still travel to Bangkok for heart surgery,” she told the ABC from Mae Sot. “You have a kid who couldn’t breathe, couldn’t walk, and then after heart surgery, they have a new life. “Isn’t that money well spent? To get a human being back on their feet?”
idiots got this the wrong way round, the correct thing is a life well spent is one that gets more money in the bank for our soul billionaires
kii said:
so they mean Canadian made humans
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:I’ll put that to the committee when we next meet at Rooty Hill RSL.
West HQ now…
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
It went through a phase of being called “Rooty Hill RSL and Resort”, which my late son thought was hilarious, when he emphasised the And Resort”. He lived nearby, and we went there for meals a few times – they were cheap and very tasty. There were several restaurants, IIRC, and conference rooms, and lots of accommodation. And whole floors of poker machines. He contested the NSW Darts championship there one time.
kii said:
pwned
Michael V said:
kii said:
pwned
yeah but why would you want to live longer in a pile of Canadian stuff that isn’t better than American stuff
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:West HQ now…
yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
It went through a phase of being called “Rooty Hill RSL and Resort”, which my late son thought was hilarious, when he emphasised the And Resort”. He lived nearby, and we went there for meals a few times – they were cheap and very tasty. There were several restaurants, IIRC, and conference rooms, and lots of accommodation. And whole floors of poker machines. He contested the NSW Darts championship there one time.
we’ll have to check it out next time we’re in
just listened to a long rant by heather cox richardson about what has been happening and what is worrying her. Again articulate.
She was saying her hubby is a commercial fisherman and how worried she is about the privatising of weather info. she did her normal thing and referred to when the wires were down, and Galveston was wiped out by a hurricane.
sarahs mum said:
just listened to a long rant by heather cox richardson about what has been happening and what is worrying her. Again articulate.She was saying her hubby is a commercial fisherman and how worried she is about the privatising of weather info. she did her normal thing and referred to when the wires were down, and Galveston was wiped out by a hurricane.
I watched it and tried to check comments for useful input from others. A whole lot of wankery from people saying where they are from and waving to each other and blah blah. Fuck it. Americans are so up themselves.
I’m pretty sure there’s a Facebook group for chit chat.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
just listened to a long rant by heather cox richardson about what has been happening and what is worrying her. Again articulate.She was saying her hubby is a commercial fisherman and how worried she is about the privatising of weather info. she did her normal thing and referred to when the wires were down, and Galveston was wiped out by a hurricane.
I watched it and tried to check comments for useful input from others. A whole lot of wankery from people saying where they are from and waving to each other and blah blah. Fuck it. Americans are so up themselves.
I’m pretty sure there’s a Facebook group for chit chat.
noted. i tried to ignore it.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
just listened to a long rant by heather cox richardson about what has been happening and what is worrying her. Again articulate.She was saying her hubby is a commercial fisherman and how worried she is about the privatising of weather info. she did her normal thing and referred to when the wires were down, and Galveston was wiped out by a hurricane.
I watched it and tried to check comments for useful input from others. A whole lot of wankery from people saying where they are from and waving to each other and blah blah. Fuck it. Americans are so up themselves.
I’m pretty sure there’s a Facebook group for chit chat.
noted. i tried to ignore it.
So did I, but it seems that all the superfluous posts just add to the comments scrolling too fast.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:yeah our souls are over the hill but still clinging to relevance
It went through a phase of being called “Rooty Hill RSL and Resort”, which my late son thought was hilarious, when he emphasised the And Resort”. He lived nearby, and we went there for meals a few times – they were cheap and very tasty. There were several restaurants, IIRC, and conference rooms, and lots of accommodation. And whole floors of poker machines. He contested the NSW Darts championship there one time.
we’ll have to check it out next time we’re in
It’s like every club you’ve ever been to, but all at once and then on steroids, with added accommodation. It’s exhaustingly crass.
Our Sports Club has been taken over by a club based in Hervey Bay.
dv said:
we do note that this is the kind of goal that the pandemic freedom fighters were pushing for so yeah
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
we do note that this is the kind of goal that the pandemic freedom fighters were pushing for so yeah
Completely eliminate workplace safety protections.
That should save some money.
Completely eliminating greedy CEOs should save money too.
dv said:
Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
we do note that this is the kind of goal that the pandemic freedom fighters were pushing for so yeah
Completely eliminate workplace safety protections.
That should save some money.
Completely eliminating greedy CEOs should save money too.
fortunately our souls who are rich and in charge don’t need to spend time in the tunnels or working the machines so they won’t be at risk of those fatal injuries
dv said:
How many days until the Nazis start burning artworks that are considered “woke”?
The Obamas’ portraits will be first in the pyre.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
There is nothing “woke” about workplace health and safety regulations.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
There is nothing “woke” about workplace health and safety regulations.
what about wokeplace health and safety regulations
The Rev Dodgson said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
There is nothing “woke” about workplace health and safety regulations.
And interestingly, done properly, we are more productive with the regulations and risk management.
kii said:
dv said:
How many days until the Nazis start burning artworks that are considered “woke”?
The Obamas’ portraits will be first in the pyre.
https://x.com/VaughnHillyard/status/1885360625754255475
removed USAID imagery of its various global missions from office walls was found stacked on a cart. It’s been indicated to employees that the agency’s removal of artwork is part of its agenda to ensure its new ‘America first’ posture
The Rev Dodgson said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
There is nothing “woke” about workplace health and safety regulations.
You know that, and i know that, but…
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Peak Warming Man said:Your jobs safe unless you are overtly woke.
There is nothing “woke” about workplace health and safety regulations.
You know that, and i know that, but…
I suspect that even PWM knows that.
Some numbers on life expectancy:
USA:
Canada:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Some numbers on life expectancy:
USA:
Canada:
based on mechanics or on statistics
or on statistical mechanics
The Rev Dodgson said:
Some numbers on life expectancy:USA:
Canada:
This is why the Trump mob want to get rid of WH&s.
Those people are going to be dead soon, anyway.
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Some numbers on life expectancy:
USA:
Canada:
This is why the Trump mob want to get rid of WH&s.
Those people are going to be dead soon, anyway.
that’s the beauty of it, make the problem multifactorial and then the simple minded voting public can only handle one issue at a time and see survival as too difficult so they can fold instantly
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
That’s why all the Chinese want to be in Hong Kong.
Step over the boundary, and bam! you live five years longer.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
wait is this some paradox again, HK being number 1 for each but not for both together
also wouldn’t that be because all the young people left because it was CHINA bad
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
That’s why all the Chinese want to be in Hong Kong.
Step over the boundary, and bam! you live five years longer.
just the old ones
dv said:
I can’t wait for the exhibition of degenerate art.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
That’s why all the Chinese want to be in Hong Kong.
Step over the boundary, and bam! you live five years longer.
just the old ones
But not the Young Ones?
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
I can’t wait for the exhibition of degenerate art.
And the plans for a new capital city!
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
That’s why all the Chinese want to be in Hong Kong.
Step over the boundary, and bam! you live five years longer.
just the old ones
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
That’s why all the Chinese want to be in Hong Kong.
Step over the boundary, and bam! you live five years longer.
just the old ones
HK residents have to wait until the CCCP gives them a Permit To Die.
Lois Ann Lowry Calls It Release
Apart from anything else, Hong Kong is not a country…
furious said:
Apart from anything else, Hong Kong is not a country…
Oh Yeah ¿ You Try Telling West Taiwan That
SCIENCE said:
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
just the old ones
HK residents have to wait until the CCCP gives them a Permit To Die.
Lois Ann Lowry Calls It Release
that’s what they tell the democracy protesters when they put them against the wall e.g. ‘sorry, Wang, it looks like we’re going to have to let you go’.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Some numbers on life expectancy:
USA:
Canada:
This is why the Trump mob want to get rid of WH&s.
Those people are going to be dead soon, anyway.
that’s the beauty of it, make the problem multifactorial and then the simple minded voting public can only handle one issue at a time and see survival as too difficult so they can fold instantly
There might be something in that.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
wait is this some paradox again, HK being number 1 for each but not for both together
also wouldn’t that be because all the young people left because it was CHINA bad
Ummm.
SCIENCE said:
Chemicals Ban
WTAF???
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
Guess which country is No. 2 for male life expectancy:
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
(Hong Kong is No. 1 for male and female, which I find a bit surprising).
wait is this some paradox again, HK being number 1 for each but not for both together
also wouldn’t that be because all the young people left because it was CHINA bad
Ummm.
Yeah, not sure what SCIENCE was getting at there.
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
I can’t wait for the exhibition of degenerate art.
Soft pornography featuring FLOTUS.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Chemicals Ban
WTAF???
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
Boris said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Chemicals Ban
WTAF???
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
furious said:
Boris said:
Michael V said:WTAF???
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
fair cop, guv.
Boris said:
furious said:
Boris said:https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
fair cop, guv.
Tesla sales have tanked in Europe. Over 60% down in Germany and France. Even EV sales overall are up 50%.
Time for Wall St to stop backing the hype and start seeing Tesla for what it is, a poorly run car business.
party_pants said:
Tesla sales have tanked in Europe. Over 60% down in Germany and France. Even EV sales overall are up 50%.
Time for Wall St to stop backing the hype and start seeing Tesla for what it is, a poorly run car business.
but that shouldn’t matter if the product is good surely
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
wait is this some paradox again, HK being number 1 for each but not for both together
also wouldn’t that be because all the young people left because it was CHINA bad
Ummm.
Yeah, not sure what SCIENCE was getting at there.
sorry we thought The Rev Dodgson was drawing our attention to it because they were saying it was paradoxical, not because they were pointing out that it was not a country, but we were mistaken
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
Tesla sales have tanked in Europe. Over 60% down in Germany and France. Even EV sales overall are up 50%.
Time for Wall St to stop backing the hype and start seeing Tesla for what it is, a poorly run car business.
but that shouldn’t matter if the product is good surely
There is a consumer boycott happening in Europe.
Boris said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Chemicals Ban
WTAF???
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
Oh, it’s not a ban on mRNA. (Naturally in most or all organisms. – That was what my exclamation was about.)
It’s a ban on using or administering mRNA VACCINES.
Still bloody stupid.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
Tesla sales have tanked in Europe. Over 60% down in Germany and France. Even EV sales overall are up 50%.
Time for Wall St to stop backing the hype and start seeing Tesla for what it is, a poorly run car business.
but that shouldn’t matter if the product is good surely
There is a consumer boycott happening in Europe.
Good.
Michael V said:
Boris said:
Michael V said:WTAF???
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
Oh, it’s not a ban on mRNA. (Naturally in most or all organisms. – That was what my exclamation was about.)
It’s a ban on using or administering mRNA VACCINES.
Still bloody stupid.
The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
Oh, it’s not a ban on mRNA. (Naturally in most or all organisms. – That was what my exclamation was about.)
It’s a ban on using or administering mRNA VACCINES.
Still bloody stupid.
The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
And bare footed and pregnant.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Michael V said:
Ummm.
Yeah, not sure what SCIENCE was getting at there.
sorry we thought The Rev Dodgson was drawing our attention to it because they were saying it was paradoxical, not because they were pointing out that it was not a country, but we were mistaken
I was just surprised that HK had a higher life expectancy than Japan, or anywhere in Europe, that’s all.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Boris said:https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB371/id/3094816
the bill
Oh, it’s not a ban on mRNA. (Naturally in most or all organisms. – That was what my exclamation was about.)
It’s a ban on using or administering mRNA VACCINES.
Still bloody stupid.
The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
But then they won’t be able to afford to consume stuff.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Oh, it’s not a ban on mRNA. (Naturally in most or all organisms. – That was what my exclamation was about.)
It’s a ban on using or administering mRNA VACCINES.
Still bloody stupid.
The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
But then they won’t be able to afford to consume stuff.
That’s all right, the government will bail out your company.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
but that shouldn’t matter if the product is good surely
There is a consumer boycott happening in Europe.
Good.
^
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Yeah, not sure what SCIENCE was getting at there.
sorry we thought The Rev Dodgson was drawing our attention to it because they were saying it was paradoxical, not because they were pointing out that it was not a country, but we were mistaken
I was just surprised that HK had a higher life expectancy than Japan, or anywhere in Europe, that’s all.
Fair.
Plenty of Japanese in HK before the youngsters left too.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
But then they won’t be able to afford to consume stuff.
That’s all right, the government will bail out your company.
exactly, anyone remember how much a preventative shot of mRNA costs compared to a treatment course of nirmatrelvir
$$$ ahahahahaha $$$
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:The pursuit of the three controls:
keep ‘em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick.
But then they won’t be able to afford to consume stuff.
That’s all right, the government will bail out your company.
I’ll bet they don’t look after the very many companies that are now going bust after killing USAID and many other Government Departments.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
But then they won’t be able to afford to consume stuff.
That’s all right, the government will bail out your company.
I’ll bet they don’t look after the very many companies that are now going bust after killing USAID and many other Government Departments.
All acceptable losses on the road to the biggest concentration of wealth you’ve ever seen.
mrs california…
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
I sometimes check out a former friend’s Facebook page. She’s local. She’s ultra religious. She hates Fauci. She loves trump. She’s the perfect very low income cult member. She loves her guns.
A few years before mr kii died I told her that she and her latest husband weren’t welcome in our home, but we could meet them in a restaurant. Her husband had pulled a gun on her one night and she reciprocated. She’s everything that white trash is. She is just so awful and blames everything that is wrong in her life on liberals.
And other stuff.
kii said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
I sometimes check out a former friend’s Facebook page. She’s local. She’s ultra religious. She hates Fauci. She loves trump. She’s the perfect very low income cult member. She loves her guns.
A few years before mr kii died I told her that she and her latest husband weren’t welcome in our home, but we could meet them in a restaurant. Her husband had pulled a gun on her one night and she reciprocated. She’s everything that white trash is. She is just so awful and blames everything that is wrong in her life on liberals.
And other stuff.
People like that are better than serfs, in a kinda way.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
I sometimes check out a former friend’s Facebook page. She’s local. She’s ultra religious. She hates Fauci. She loves trump. She’s the perfect very low income cult member. She loves her guns.
A few years before mr kii died I told her that she and her latest husband weren’t welcome in our home, but we could meet them in a restaurant. Her husband had pulled a gun on her one night and she reciprocated. She’s everything that white trash is. She is just so awful and blames everything that is wrong in her life on liberals.
And other stuff.
People like that are better than serfs, in a kinda way.
+no
= no better than serfs
kii said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
I sometimes check out a former friend’s Facebook page. She’s local. She’s ultra religious. She hates Fauci. She loves trump. She’s the perfect very low income cult member. She loves her guns.
A few years before mr kii died I told her that she and her latest husband weren’t welcome in our home, but we could meet them in a restaurant. Her husband had pulled a gun on her one night and she reciprocated. She’s everything that white trash is. She is just so awful and blames everything that is wrong in her life on liberals.
And other stuff.
Nup. Don’t need those types in my life or near me.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
mrs california is a real person unlike Mrs ohio. she does read my links. i think she does get confused on state and federal roles. she just knows her california is shittier than it was. at some point this is going to hit her hard. she’s a single working middle class woman.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california…
Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
mrs california is a real person unlike Mrs ohio. she does read my links. i think she does get confused on state and federal roles. she just knows her california is shittier than it was. at some point this is going to hit her hard. she’s a single working middle class woman.
What does she do for a living?
Heather Cox Richardson
Just now ·
February 7, 2024 (Friday)
Maya Miller of the New York Times reported today that the congressional phone system has been jammed with tens of millions of calls from outraged constituents contacting their representatives to demand that they stand against President Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk as they unilaterally dismantle the United States government and gain access to Americans’ private information. The Senate phone system usually gets about 40 calls a minute; now it is up to 1,600.
On Wednesday, Nicole Lafond of Talking Points Memo reported that Senate Republicans were not especially concerned about Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team rampaging through the federal government, figuring that Musk won’t last long and that the courts will eventually stop him. Today, Musk posted on X: “CFPB RIP,” with a tombstone emoji. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recovered more than $17 billion for consumers from fraudulent or predatory practices since it began in 2011.
Trump seems willing to let Musk continue to run amok through the government while he becomes a figurehead. Today he posted on his social media site that he has fired the chair and members of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center, saying they “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” He promised to announce a new board, “with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” “For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” he wrote.
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, is less impressed with the direction of the Trump administration. Today, he blocked it from placing more than 2,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave. Trump and his allies have claimed—without evidence—that USAID is corrupt, but Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson of the New York Times reported today that the disinformation making those claims on social media posts, for example, comes from Russia.
Senator Angus King (I-ME) took his Republican colleagues to task yesterday for their willingness to overlook the Trump administration’s attack on the U.S. Constitution. King took the floor as the Senate was considering the confirmation of Christian Nationalist Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought, a key author of Project 2025, believes the powers of the president should be virtually unchecked.
King reminded his colleagues that they had taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” and noted that the Framers recognized there could be domestic enemies to the Constitution. “Our oath was not to the Republican Party, not to the Democratic Party, not to Joe Biden, not to Donald Trump,” King said, “but…to defend the Constitution.”
“And…right now—literally at this moment—that Constitution is under the most direct and consequential assault in our nation’s history,” King said. “An assault not on a particular provision but on the essential structure of the document itself.”
Why do we have a Constitution, King asked. He read the Preamble and said: “There it is. There’s the list—ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” But, he pointed out, there is a paradox: the essence of a government is to give it power, but that power can be abused to hurt the very citizens who granted it. “Who will guard the guardians?” King asked.
The Framers were “deep students of history and…human nature. And they had just won a lengthy and brutal war against the abuses inherent in concentrated governmental power,” King said. “The universal principle of human nature they understood was this: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
How did the Framers answer the question of who will guard the guardians? King explained that they built into our system regular elections to return the control of the government to the people on a regular basis. They also deliberately divided power between the different branches and levels of government.
“This is important,” King said. “The cumbersomeness, the slowness, the clumsiness is built into our system. The framers were so fearful of concentrated power that they designed a system that would be hard to operate. And the heart of it was the separation of power between various parts of the government. The whole idea, the whole idea was that no part of the government, no one person, no one institution had or could ever have a monopoly on power.”
“Why? Because it’s dangerous. History and human nature tells us that. This division of power, as annoying and inefficient as it can be,… is an essential feature of the system, not a bug. It’s an essential, basic feature of the system, designed to protect our freedoms.”
The system of government “contrasts with the normal structure of a private business, where authority is purposefully concentrated, allowing swift and sometimes arbitrary action. But a private business does not have the army, and the President of the United States is not the CEO of America.”
In the government, “ower is shared, principally between the president and this body, this Congress, both houses…. his herky-jerkiness…this unwieldy structure is the whole idea,… designed to protect us from the…inevitable abuse of an authoritarian state.”
Vought, King said, is “one of the ringleaders of the assault on our Constitution. He believes in a presidency of virtually unlimited powers.” He “espouses the discredited and illegal theory that the president has the power to selectively impound funds appropriated by Congress, thereby rendering the famous power of the purse a nullity.” King said he was “really worried about…the structural implications for our freedom and government of what’s happening here…. Project 2025 is nothing less than a blueprint for the shredding of the Constitution and the transition of our country to authoritarian rule. He’s the last person who should be put in the job at the heart of the operation of our government.”
“his isn’t about politics. This isn’t about policy. This isn’t about Republican versus Democrat. This is about tampering with the structure of our government, which will ultimately undermine its ability to protect the freedom of our citizens. If our defense of the Constitution is gone, there’s nothing left to us.”
King asked his Republican colleagues to “say no to the undermining and destruction of our constitutional system.” “re there no red lines?” he asked them. “Are there no limits?”
King looked at USAID and said: “The Constitution does not give to the President or his designee the power to extinguish a statutorily established agency. I can think of no greater violation of the strictures of the Constitution or usurpation of the power of this body. None. I can think of none. Shouldn’t this be a red line?”
Trump’s “executive order freezing funding…selectively, for programs the administration doesn’t like or understand” is, King said, “a fundamental violation of the whole idea of the Constitution, the separation of powers.” King said his “office is hearing calls every day, we can hardly handle the volume. This again, to underline, is a frontal assault of our power, your power, the power to decide where public funds should be spent. Isn’t this an obvious red line? Isn’t this an obvious limit?”
King turned to “the power seemingly assumed by DOGE to burrow into the Treasury’s payment system” as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with “zero oversight.” “Do these people have clearance?” King, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked. “Are the doors closed? Are they going to leave open doors into these? What are the opportunities for our adversaries to hack into the systems?… Remember, there’s no transparency or oversight. Access to social security numbers seem to be in the mix. All the government’s personnel files, personal financial data, potentially everyone’s tax returns and medical records. That can’t be good…. That’s data that should be protected with the highest level of security and consideration of Americans’ privacy. And we don’t know who these people are. We don’t know what they’re taking out with them. We don’t know whether they’re walking out with laptops or thumb drives. We don’t know whether they’re leaving back doors into the system. There is literally no oversight. The government of the United States is not a private company. It is fundamentally at odds with how this system is supposed to work.”
“Shouldn’t this be an easy red line?” he asked.
“e’re experiencing in real time exactly what the framers most feared. When you clear away the smoke, clear away the DOGE, the executive orders, foreign policy pronouncements, more fundamentally what’s happening is the shredding of the constitutional structure itself. And we have a profound responsibility…to stop it.”
King’s appeal to principle and the U.S. Constitution did not convince his Republican colleagues, who confirmed Vought.
But today, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker took a different approach, trolling Trump’s claim that the Gulf of Mexico would now be called “the Gulf of America.” Standing behind a lectern and flanked by flags of the United States and Illinois, Pritzker solemnly declared he was about to make an important announcement.
“The world’s finest geographers, experts who study the Earth’s natural environment, have concluded a decades-long council and determined that a Great Lake deserves to be named after a great state. So today, I’m issuing a proclamation declaring that hereinafter Lake Michigan shall be known as Lake Illinois. The proclamation has been forwarded to Google to ensure the world’s maps reflect this momentous change. In addition, the recent announcement that to protect the homeland, the United States will be purchasing Greenland, Illinois will now be annexing Green Bay to protect itself against enemies foreign and domestic. I’ve also instructed my team to work diligently to prepare for an important announcement next week regarding the Mississippi River. God bless America, and Bear Down ”
sarahs mum said:
just listened to a long rant by heather cox richardson about what has been happening and what is worrying her. Again articulate.She was saying her hubby is a commercial fisherman and how worried she is about the privatising of weather info. she did her normal thing and referred to when the wires were down, and Galveston was wiped out by a hurricane.
Privatising te weather? What the fuck is wrong with the world?
Well i am aware.
It is that some smart arsed accountant has worked out that money can be made from it rather than spending money on it.
dv said:
So they are going to drag out Mary Tyler Moore and Lucille Ball again?
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Corresponding with those types would do my head in. My head is bad enough without dealing with ultra-right-wing, welded on, conservative liars.
mrs california is a real person unlike Mrs ohio. she does read my links. i think she does get confused on state and federal roles. she just knows her california is shittier than it was. at some point this is going to hit her hard. she’s a single working middle class woman.
What does she do for a living?
something clerical i believe.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:mrs california is a real person unlike Mrs ohio. she does read my links. i think she does get confused on state and federal roles. she just knows her california is shittier than it was. at some point this is going to hit her hard. she’s a single working middle class woman.
What does she do for a living?
something clerical i believe.
A lot of companies are going to go to the wall due to the Trump-Musk partnership. Things may become awfully difficult soon.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:What does she do for a living?
something clerical i believe.
A lot of companies are going to go to the wall due to the Trump-Musk partnership. Things may become awfully difficult soon.
was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 6, 2025 (Thursday)The U.S. has seen high-profile immigration raids since Trump took office, but Dara Kerr of The Guardian today reported that the Trump administration “is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations.” On January 24, 2025, old online press releases from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from as much as a decade ago were updated to make Google prioritize them as new releases, thus creating the illusion that raids are taking place all over the country. When The Guardian asked ICE and Google about the changed dates, some of the new dates disappeared, dropping those stories out of the top of search results.
Since President Ronald Reagan, Republicans have won elections by convincing their voters that their opponents are not trying to use the federal government to help Americans like them but are instead trying to hand tax dollars and power to undeserving Black and Brown Americans, women, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Over the past 45 years, that rhetoric has created a population that believes the federal government is controlled by their enemies, now sometimes called the “Deep State,” whom they blame for destroying the country. Those Republican voters now appear to hate the federal government and to be willing, even eager, to dismantle it.
But the Republicans’ vision of the nation never reflected reality and now, under President Donald Trump, it is entirely made-up. Today, Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources recorded some of the disinformation in which MAGA voters are currently marinating. Trump lied that Elon Musk found that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent “$100 million on condoms to Hamas” and that last week’s fatal midair collision that took 67 lives was due to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Trump today claimed CBS “defrauded the public” in “the greatest broadcasting scandal in history” when it exercised normal editing procedures on a 60 Minutes interview with then–vice president Kamala Harris that he insisted—falsely—involved replacing her actual answers with others. Today, Trump called for CBS News and 60 Minutes to be “immediately terminated,” despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of the press.
MAGA is amplifying right-wing lies. Today, influencers—including Musk—claimed that USAID secretly bankrolled Politico, claiming that the media site had taken $8 million from USAID. In fact, that sum was not an annual grant, but rather years of subscriptions from across the government to Politico Pro, a pricey subscription service for data and legislative analyses for lobbyists and government officials. “Politico…has never taken a cent of government subsidies or state funding,” said the chief executive officer of its parent company. “eople are paying for… because they need the service,” he said. “It’s not subsidies, it’s capitalism.” When Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) joined the chorus parroting the lie, fact-checkers noted that her office is a subscriber: it paid $7,150 for a yearlong subscription starting last January.
Nonetheless, Trump posted in all-caps that it “LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A ‘PAYOFF’ FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS.”Another story spreading disinformation appeared today after the State Department claimed that Panama had agreed to let U.S. government vessels transit the Panama Canal for free. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino told reporters that the story was “lies and falsehoods” and noted that he had told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he doesn’t have the legal authority to waive transit fees for anyone.
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump boasted that he had delivered water to California, saying: “The water comes down from the northwest parts of Canada, I guess, but the Pacific Northwest. And it comes down by millions and millions of barrels a day and uh, I opened it up. It wasn’t that easy to do. But I opened it up and it’s pouring down.” Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider of Politico talked to Trump supporters among California’s farmers. They reported today that the 2 billion gallons of water Trump dumped onto the ground last week was water for irrigation that could never make it to the Los Angeles fires, which were under control by the time he dumped the water, in any case. For now, the farmers are sticking with Trump despite the loss of the water intended for their fields in the dry summer, but called for “close coordination” over the “incredibly complex” California water system.
Brian Stelter posted a December 9, 2017, quote from the New York Times: “Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” Stelter wrote: “I think about this quote a lot.”
Performative victories over “the Libs” make MAGA voters happy, but to what end do political leaders distort reality in order to stay in power?
The current administration’s actions strengthen the hand of foreign nations, especially China, against the U.S. Yesterday, Pam Bondi, Trump’s second choice for attorney general—the first had to withdraw after the House Ethics Committee drew attention to his drug use and sexual behavior—took the oath of office.
Today, Bondi disbanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Then-director of the FBI Christopher Wray established FITF in 2017 to stop countries like Russia and China from interfering with American politics, as Russia had done in 2016 to help elect Trump. FARA required anyone accepting money from a foreign government to declare that connection, and was key in helping law enforcement agencies to dismantle foreign influence operations. Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort, for example, pleaded guilty to violating FARA when he didn’t disclose that he was being paid by those linked to the Russian government. (In December 2020, before he left office, Trump pardoned Manafort.)
Prioritizing human smuggling and drug cartels, the Justice Department under Bondi is scaling back white-collar crimes like bribery of foreign officials, kleptocracy, and money laundering. In the past few years, the Justice Department has recovered yachts, planes, and real estate from Russians sanctioned because of the attack on Ukraine. “Taken together these changes are an invitation to foreign actors to interfere in American affairs,” Aaron Zelinsky, a former national security prosecutor for the Justice Department, told Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law. “Even worse, it’s an invitation to Americans to help them do it.”
The assault against the United States Agency for International Development is tangled in foreign power struggles, too. Andrew Duehren, Alan Rappeport and Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times reported today that while Trump administration officials claimed they were conducting a general review of the Treasury Department’s payments system when they sought access to it, emails show that the plan all along was to freeze payments to USAID.
Daniel Wu of the Washington Post noted today that the destruction of USAID will take billions of dollars from American farmers, as well as other businesses, and Paul Sonne of the New York Times reported today that authoritarian leaders, including those of Russia, Hungary, and El Salvador are cheering on Musk’s boast that he was “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” USAID funding was less than 1% of the U.S. budget and focused on humanitarian assistance and healthcare for underserved populations. But it also promoted democracy. It has monitored elections in Russia, documenting extensive voting irregularities there. With the U.S. abandoning foreign aid, China can step in to fill the void.
China will also be able to step in at the G20 summit of the world’s largest economies to be held in November in Johannesburg, South Africa, if Secretary of State Marco Rubio keeps his vow not to attend. Rubio says he is walking away from the international table because Trump says he is unhappy that South Africa is “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.” Trump ally Elon Musk hails from South Africa and has agreed that “white South Africans are being persecuted for their race in their home country.” South Africa has also refused official approval of Musk’s Starlink satellite system because of a state requirement that 30% of a company must be owned locally, a requirement SpaceX has criticized.Yesterday, a White House order signed by Trump required the Central Intelligence Agency to send over an unclassified email listing all the employees hired in the past two years. David Sanger and Julian Barnes of the New York Times reported that the list included the first names and first initial of the last name of those hires, including “a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, called the sharing of the information over unsecured channels “a disastrous national security development,” adding: “Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China.”
If there are advantages for foreign adversaries in the policies of the administration currently in power, there are also advantages to favored corporations. Musk’s team, along with Trump’s officials, is dismantling the government with the claim that it is inefficient and corrupt, but it appears their plan is to put Musk and his ilk in charge of the services Americans need.
In what sounds like an attempt to hand over air traffic control systems to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system and his AI company, Trump today said—and here are his words, as Aaron Rupar transcribed them—“We’re all gonna sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new. Not pieced together, obsolete, like it is, land-based. Trying to hook up a land based system to a satellite system. The first thing that some experts told me when this happened is you can’t hook up land to satellites and you can’t hook up satellites to land. It doesn’t work. We spend billions of billions of dollars trying to renovate an old, broken system, instead of just saying cut it loose, and let’s spend less money and build a great system one by two or three companies, very good companies, specialists, that’s all it is. They used 39 companies.
That means that 39 different hookups have to happen. And I don’t know how many people of you are good in terms of all the kinds of things necessary for that. And it’s very complex stuff. But when you have 39 different companies working on hooking up different cities at different people. You need one company. With one set of equipment. And there are some countries that have unbelievable air controller systems. And they would’ve, bells would’ve gone off when that helicopter literally even hit the same height. Because it traveled a long distance before it hit. It was just like, just wouldn’t stop. Follow the line. But bells and whistles would’ve gone off. They have ‘em where it actually could virtually turn the thing around. It would’ve just never happened if we had the right equipment . And one of things that’s gonna be, I’m gonna speaking to John and to Mike and to Chuck and everybody, we have to get together and just as a single bill just pass where we get the best control system. When I land in my plane, privately, I use a system from another country because my captain tells me, I’m landing in New York and I’m using a sys— I won’t tell you what country, but I use a system from another country because the captain says ‘This thing is so bad, it’s so obsolete.’ And we can’t have that.”Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted today that “the DOGE team” is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” saying that “‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling.”
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton pointed out that “US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes. Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs. Now there have been two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast.”Critics of the idea of Musk taking over the nation’s air traffic control systems note that his Tesla electric vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America. The average fatal crash rate is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven; Tesla has a rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven. On social media, “God” posted: “Thou shalt not let the foreign billionaire whose rockets blow up all the time anywhere near the air traffic control system,” an apparent reference to the January 16 explosion of a SpaceX rocket over the Caribbean that scattered debris over the region led the Federal Aviation Administration to lock down airspace over Turks and Caicos.
There is apparently yet another reason that people will lie to gain power. Today, Katherine Long of the Wall Street Journal reported that one of Musk’s young team of engineers, Marko Elez, 25, abruptly resigned after Long linked him to a social-media account that championed racism and eugenics, the idea that human populations can be improved by selective breeding, an idea embraced in Nazi Germany.
Last night, Senate Democrats filibustered for 30 hours in an attempt to convince Republicans to join them in rejecting Trump’s right-wing religious extremist nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025. In the House, Democrats introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing personal financial data.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour indefinitely blocked Trump’s executive order altering birthright citizenship, calling it “clearly unconstitutional.” “It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” Coughenour said.
The Department of Justice under Attorney General Bondi immediately said it would appeal the ruling. And tonight, Senate Republicans confirmed Christian nationalist Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Stephen Groves of the Associated Press noted that Vought once described the budget director’s job as “a President’s air-traffic control system.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described his confirmation as a “triple-header of a disaster for hardworking Americans.”
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:something clerical i believe.
A lot of companies are going to go to the wall due to the Trump-Musk partnership. Things may become awfully difficult soon.
was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
It’s sad that there are a lot of people out there that can’t see much beyond the end of their noses.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:A lot of companies are going to go to the wall due to the Trump-Musk partnership. Things may become awfully difficult soon.
was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
It’s sad that there are a lot of people out there that can’t see much beyond the end of their noses.
People are often persuaded to vote against their own best interests through lies and misinformation. They are often too naive to understand the nuances and flow-on effects of following the lies.
Same happened in Brexit. The farmering and the fishing communities voted strongly in favour of it, and ended up being some of the hardest hit.
I think that the Republicans are jealous, because if ‘the media was being paid millions of dollars to create good stories about the Democrats’, it would have really rankled the Republican party, which was busily creating bad stories about the Republican party, all for free.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:A lot of companies are going to go to the wall due to the Trump-Musk partnership. Things may become awfully difficult soon.
was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
It’s sad that there are a lot of people out there that can’t see much beyond the end of their noses.
the guys that have corn and/or soybeans in silos waiting for the best time to sell are probably kicking themselves that they didn’t sell last month. still they do have time before the silos need to be emptied for the next crop.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
It’s sad that there are a lot of people out there that can’t see much beyond the end of their noses.
the guys that have corn and/or soybeans in silos waiting for the best time to sell are probably kicking themselves that they didn’t sell last month. still they do have time before the silos need to be emptied for the next crop.
All this type of scenario is way beyond Trump’s ken.
He probably has heard of trickle down before but hasn’t thought about what that portends.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:was talking to NH Chris about farmers being screwed in the USaid closure this morning. Lots of them voted for this shit.
It’s sad that there are a lot of people out there that can’t see much beyond the end of their noses.
People are often persuaded to vote against their own best interests through lies and misinformation. They are often too naive to understand the nuances and flow-on effects of following the lies.
Same happened in Brexit. The farmering and the fishing communities voted strongly in favour of it, and ended up being some of the hardest hit.
Snake oil still sells.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
Just now ·
February 7, 2024 (Friday)
Ta.
https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/s/F68f9c5xmi
sarahs mum said:
Excellent news,.
If only they could drop a bit further and a bit faster…
Elon’s purchase of Twitter was financed by loans using his Tesla shares as collateral. If the shares of both companies could crash at the same time it would wipe out a lot of his personal wealth.
He may then be forced to sell off his last major assets: SPACE X, to cover his debts.
As a worst case scenario for him of course. Let’s hope it happens.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Excellent news,.
If only they could drop a bit further and a bit faster…
Elon’s purchase of Twitter was financed by loans using his Tesla shares as collateral. If the shares of both companies could crash at the same time it would wipe out a lot of his personal wealth.
He may then be forced to sell off his last major assets: SPACE X, to cover his debts.
As a worst case scenario for him of course. Let’s hope it happens.
he does seem to be doing an ace job of trashing his own brands but still raking it in.
dv said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/s/F68f9c5xmi
Ooo…I have a box of those bandaids! Flowers and happy happy colours. I bought them for a smidgen of joy.
This is an edited transcript of an audio essay on the New York Times’s “Ezra Klein Show.”
https://insidestory.org.au/dont-believe-him/
Opinion | Don’t Believe Him
Ezra Klein, Feb. 7, 2025
Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.
If you want to understand the first few weeks of the second Trump administration, you should listen to what Steve Bannon told PBS’s “Frontline” in 2019: Steve Bannon: The opposition party is the media. And the media can only, because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time.
All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity. So it’s got to start, and it’s got to hammer, and it’s got to —Muzzle velocity. Bannon’s insight here is real. Focus is the fundamental substance of democracy. It is particularly the substance of opposition. People largely learn of what the government is doing through the media — be it mainstream media or social media. If you overwhelm the media — if you give it too many places it needs to look, all at once, if you keep it moving from one thing to the next — no coherent opposition can emerge. It is hard to even think coherently.
Donald Trump’s first two weeks in the White House have followed Bannon’s strategy like a script. The flood is the point. The overwhelm is the point. The message wasn’t in any one executive order or announcement. It was in the cumulative effect of all of them. The sense that this is Trump’s country now. This is his government now. It follows his will. It does what he wants. If Trump tells the state to stop spending money, the money stops. If he says that birthright citizenship is over, it’s over.
Or so he wants you to think. In Trump’s first term, we were told: Don’t normalize him. In his second, the task is different: Don’t believe him.
Trump knows the power of marketing. If you make people believe something is true, you make it likelier that it becomes true. Trump clawed his way back to great wealth by playing a fearsome billionaire on TV; he remade himself as a winner by refusing to admit he had ever lost. The American presidency is a limited office. But Trump has never wanted to be president, at least not as defined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. He has always wanted to be king. His plan this time is to first play king on TV. If we believe he is already king, we will be likelier to let him govern as a king.
Don’t believe him. Trump has real powers — but they are the powers of the presidency. The pardon power is vast and unrestricted, and so he could pardon the Jan. 6 rioters. Federal security protection is under the discretion of the executive branch, and so he could remove it from Anthony Fauci and Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and Mark Milley and even Brian Hook, a largely unknown former State Department official under threat from Iran who donated time to Trump’s transition team. It was an act of astonishing cruelty and callousness from a man who nearly died by an assassin’s bullet — as much as anything ever has been, this, to me, was an X-ray of the smallness of Trump’s soul — but it was an act that was within his power.
But the president cannot rewrite the Constitution. Within days, the birthright citizenship order was frozen by a judge — a Reagan appointee — who told Trump’s lawyers, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.” A judge froze the spending freeze before it was even scheduled to go into effect, and shortly thereafter, the Trump administration rescinded the order, in part to avoid the court case.
What Bannon wanted — what the Trump administration wants — is to keep everything moving fast. Muzzle velocity, remember. If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one. The impression of Trump’s power remains; the fact that he keeps stepping on rakes is missed. The projection of strength obscures the reality of weakness. Don’t believe him.
You could see this a few ways: Is Trump playing a part, making a bet or triggering a crisis? Those are the options. I am not certain he knows the answer. Trump has always been an improviser. But if you take it as calculated, here is the calculation: Perhaps this Supreme Court, stocked with his appointees, gives him powers no peacetime president has ever possessed. Perhaps all of this becomes legal now that he has asserted its legality. It is not impossible to imagine that bet paying off.
But Trump’s odds are bad. So what if the bet fails and his arrogations of power are soundly rejected by the courts? Then comes the question of constitutional crisis: Does he ignore the court’s ruling? To do that would be to attempt a coup. I wonder if they have the stomach for it. The withdrawal of the Office of Management and Budget’s order to freeze spending suggests they don’t. Bravado aside, Trump’s political capital is thin. Both in his first and second terms, he has entered office with approval ratings below that of any president in the modern era. Gallup has Trump’s approval rating at 47 percent — about 10 points beneath Joe Biden’s in January 2021.
There is a reason Trump is doing all of this through executive orders rather than submitting these same directives as legislation to pass through Congress. A more powerful executive could persuade Congress to eliminate the spending he opposes or reform the civil service to give himself the powers of hiring and firing that he seeks. To write these changes into legislation would make them more durable and allow him to argue their merits in a more strategic way. Even if Trump’s aim is to bring the civil service to heel — to rid it of his opponents and turn it to his own ends — he would be better off arguing that he is simply trying to bring the high-performance management culture of Silicon Valley to the federal government. You never want a power grab to look like a power grab.
But Republicans have a three-seat edge in the House and a 53-seat majority in the Senate. Trump has done nothing to reach out to Democrats. If Trump tried to pass this agenda as legislation, it would most likely fail in the House, and it would certainly die before the filibuster in the Senate. And that would make Trump look weak. Trump does not want to look weak. He remembers John McCain humiliating him in his first term by casting the deciding vote against Obamacare repeal.
That is the tension at the heart of Trump’s whole strategy: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.
The flurry of activity is meant to suggest the existence of a plan. The Trump team wants it known that they’re ready this time. They will control events rather than be controlled by them. The closer you look, the less true that seems. They are scrambling and flailing already. They are leaking against one another already. We’ve learned, already, that the O.M.B. directive was drafted, reportedly, without the input or oversight of key Trump officials — “it didn’t go through the proper approval process,” an administration official told The Washington Post. For this to be the process and product of a signature initiative in the second week of a president’s second term is embarrassing.
But it’s not just the O.M.B. directive. The Trump administration is waging an immediate war on the bureaucracy, trying to replace the “deep state” it believes hampered it in the first term. A big part of this project seems to have been outsourced to Elon Musk, who is bringing the tactics he used at Twitter to the federal government. He has longtime aides at the Office of Personnel Management, and the email sent to nearly all federal employees even reused the subject line of the email he sent to Twitter employees: “Fork in the Road.” Musk wants you to know it was him.
The email offers millions of civil servants a backdoor buyout: Agree to resign and in theory, at least, you can collect your paycheck and benefits until the end of September without doing any work. The Department of Government Efficiency account on X described it this way: “Take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits.” The Washington Post reported that the email “blindsided” many in the Trump administration who would normally have consulted on a notice like that.
I suspect Musk thinks of the federal work force as a huge mass of woke ideologues. But most federal workers have very little to do with politics. About 16 percent of the federal work force is in health care. These are, for instance, nurses and doctors who work for the Veterans Affairs department. How many of them does Musk want to lose? What plans does the V.A. have for attracting and training their replacements? How quickly can he do it?
The Social Security Administration has more than 59,000 employees. Does Musk know which ones are essential to operations and unusually difficult to replace? One likely outcome of this scheme is that a lot of talented people who work in nonpolitical jobs and could make more elsewhere take the lengthy vacation and leave government services in tatters. Twitter worked poorly after Musk’s takeover, with more frequent outages and bugs, but its outages are not a national scandal. When V.A. health care degrades, it is. To have sprung this attack on the civil service so loudly and publicly and brazenly is to be assured of the blame if anything goes wrong.
What Trump wants you to see in all this activity is command. What is really in all this activity is chaos. They do not have some secret reservoir of focus and attention the rest of us do not. They have convinced themselves that speed and force is a strategy unto itself — that it is, in a sense, a replacement for a real strategy. Don’t believe them.
I had a conversation a couple months ago with someone who knows how the federal government works about as well as anyone alive. I asked him what would worry him most if he saw Trump doing it. What he told me is that he would worry most if Trump went slowly. If he began his term by doing things that made him more popular and made his opposition weaker and more confused. If he tried to build strength for the midterms while slowly expanding his powers and chipping away at the deep state where it was weakest.
But he didn’t. And so the opposition to Trump, which seemed so listless after the election, is beginning to rouse itself.
There is a subreddit for federal employees where one of the top posts reads: “This non ‘buyout’ really seems to have backfired. I’ll be honest, before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out of this fresh hell. But now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible.” As I write this, it’s been upvoted more than 39,000 times and civil servant after civil servant is echoing the initial sentiment.
In Iowa this week, Democrats flipped a State Senate seat in a district that Trump won easily in 2024. The attempted spending freeze gave Democrats their voice back, as they zeroed in on the popular programs Trump had imperiled. Trump isn’t building support; he’s losing it. Trump isn’t fracturing his opposition; he’s uniting it.
This is the weakness of the strategy that Bannon proposed and Trump is following. It is a strategy that forces you into overreach. To keep the zone flooded, you have to keep acting, keep moving, keep creating new cycles of outrage or fear. You overwhelm yourself. And there’s only so much you can do through executive orders. Soon enough, you have to go beyond what you can actually do. And when you do that, you either trigger a constitutional crisis or you reveal your own weakness.
Trump may not see his own fork in the road coming. He may believe he has the power he is claiming. That would be a mistake on his part — a self-deception that could doom his presidency. But the real threat is if he persuades the rest of us to believe he has power he does not have.
The first two weeks of Trump’s presidency have not shown his strength. He is trying to overwhelm you. He is trying to keep you off-balance. He is trying to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.
AussieDJ said:
This is an edited transcript of an audio essay on the New York Times’s “Ezra Klein Show.”
https://insidestory.org.au/dont-believe-him/
Opinion | Don’t Believe Him
Ezra Klein, Feb. 7, 2025Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.
If you want to understand the first few weeks of the second Trump administration, you should listen to what Steve Bannon told PBS’s “Frontline” in 2019: Steve Bannon: The opposition party is the media. And the media can only, because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time.
All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity. So it’s got to start, and it’s got to hammer, and it’s got to —
Michael Kirk: What was the word?
Bannon: Muzzle velocity.Muzzle velocity. Bannon’s insight here is real. Focus is the fundamental substance of democracy. It is particularly the substance of opposition. People largely learn of what the government is doing through the media — be it mainstream media or social media. If you overwhelm the media — if you give it too many places it needs to look, all at once, if you keep it moving from one thing to the next — no coherent opposition can emerge. It is hard to even think coherently.
Donald Trump’s first two weeks in the White House have followed Bannon’s strategy like a script. The flood is the point. The overwhelm is the point. The message wasn’t in any one executive order or announcement. It was in the cumulative effect of all of them. The sense that this is Trump’s country now. This is his government now. It follows his will. It does what he wants. If Trump tells the state to stop spending money, the money stops. If he says that birthright citizenship is over, it’s over.
Or so he wants you to think. In Trump’s first term, we were told: Don’t normalize him. In his second, the task is different: Don’t believe him.
Trump knows the power of marketing. If you make people believe something is true, you make it likelier that it becomes true. Trump clawed his way back to great wealth by playing a fearsome billionaire on TV; he remade himself as a winner by refusing to admit he had ever lost. The American presidency is a limited office. But Trump has never wanted to be president, at least not as defined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. He has always wanted to be king. His plan this time is to first play king on TV. If we believe he is already king, we will be likelier to let him govern as a king.
Don’t believe him. Trump has real powers — but they are the powers of the presidency. The pardon power is vast and unrestricted, and so he could pardon the Jan. 6 rioters. Federal security protection is under the discretion of the executive branch, and so he could remove it from Anthony Fauci and Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and Mark Milley and even Brian Hook, a largely unknown former State Department official under threat from Iran who donated time to Trump’s transition team. It was an act of astonishing cruelty and callousness from a man who nearly died by an assassin’s bullet — as much as anything ever has been, this, to me, was an X-ray of the smallness of Trump’s soul — but it was an act that was within his power.
But the president cannot rewrite the Constitution. Within days, the birthright citizenship order was frozen by a judge — a Reagan appointee — who told Trump’s lawyers, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.” A judge froze the spending freeze before it was even scheduled to go into effect, and shortly thereafter, the Trump administration rescinded the order, in part to avoid the court case.
What Bannon wanted — what the Trump administration wants — is to keep everything moving fast. Muzzle velocity, remember. If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one. The impression of Trump’s power remains; the fact that he keeps stepping on rakes is missed. The projection of strength obscures the reality of weakness. Don’t believe him.
You could see this a few ways: Is Trump playing a part, making a bet or triggering a crisis? Those are the options. I am not certain he knows the answer. Trump has always been an improviser. But if you take it as calculated, here is the calculation: Perhaps this Supreme Court, stocked with his appointees, gives him powers no peacetime president has ever possessed. Perhaps all of this becomes legal now that he has asserted its legality. It is not impossible to imagine that bet paying off.
But Trump’s odds are bad. So what if the bet fails and his arrogations of power are soundly rejected by the courts? Then comes the question of constitutional crisis: Does he ignore the court’s ruling? To do that would be to attempt a coup. I wonder if they have the stomach for it. The withdrawal of the Office of Management and Budget’s order to freeze spending suggests they don’t. Bravado aside, Trump’s political capital is thin. Both in his first and second terms, he has entered office with approval ratings below that of any president in the modern era. Gallup has Trump’s approval rating at 47 percent — about 10 points beneath Joe Biden’s in January 2021.
There is a reason Trump is doing all of this through executive orders rather than submitting these same directives as legislation to pass through Congress. A more powerful executive could persuade Congress to eliminate the spending he opposes or reform the civil service to give himself the powers of hiring and firing that he seeks. To write these changes into legislation would make them more durable and allow him to argue their merits in a more strategic way. Even if Trump’s aim is to bring the civil service to heel — to rid it of his opponents and turn it to his own ends — he would be better off arguing that he is simply trying to bring the high-performance management culture of Silicon Valley to the federal government. You never want a power grab to look like a power grab.
But Republicans have a three-seat edge in the House and a 53-seat majority in the Senate. Trump has done nothing to reach out to Democrats. If Trump tried to pass this agenda as legislation, it would most likely fail in the House, and it would certainly die before the filibuster in the Senate. And that would make Trump look weak. Trump does not want to look weak. He remembers John McCain humiliating him in his first term by casting the deciding vote against Obamacare repeal.
That is the tension at the heart of Trump’s whole strategy: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.
The flurry of activity is meant to suggest the existence of a plan. The Trump team wants it known that they’re ready this time. They will control events rather than be controlled by them. The closer you look, the less true that seems. They are scrambling and flailing already. They are leaking against one another already. We’ve learned, already, that the O.M.B. directive was drafted, reportedly, without the input or oversight of key Trump officials — “it didn’t go through the proper approval process,” an administration official told The Washington Post. For this to be the process and product of a signature initiative in the second week of a president’s second term is embarrassing.
But it’s not just the O.M.B. directive. The Trump administration is waging an immediate war on the bureaucracy, trying to replace the “deep state” it believes hampered it in the first term. A big part of this project seems to have been outsourced to Elon Musk, who is bringing the tactics he used at Twitter to the federal government. He has longtime aides at the Office of Personnel Management, and the email sent to nearly all federal employees even reused the subject line of the email he sent to Twitter employees: “Fork in the Road.” Musk wants you to know it was him.
The email offers millions of civil servants a backdoor buyout: Agree to resign and in theory, at least, you can collect your paycheck and benefits until the end of September without doing any work. The Department of Government Efficiency account on X described it this way: “Take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits.” The Washington Post reported that the email “blindsided” many in the Trump administration who would normally have consulted on a notice like that.
I suspect Musk thinks of the federal work force as a huge mass of woke ideologues. But most federal workers have very little to do with politics. About 16 percent of the federal work force is in health care. These are, for instance, nurses and doctors who work for the Veterans Affairs department. How many of them does Musk want to lose? What plans does the V.A. have for attracting and training their replacements? How quickly can he do it?
The Social Security Administration has more than 59,000 employees. Does Musk know which ones are essential to operations and unusually difficult to replace? One likely outcome of this scheme is that a lot of talented people who work in nonpolitical jobs and could make more elsewhere take the lengthy vacation and leave government services in tatters. Twitter worked poorly after Musk’s takeover, with more frequent outages and bugs, but its outages are not a national scandal. When V.A. health care degrades, it is. To have sprung this attack on the civil service so loudly and publicly and brazenly is to be assured of the blame if anything goes wrong.
What Trump wants you to see in all this activity is command. What is really in all this activity is chaos. They do not have some secret reservoir of focus and attention the rest of us do not. They have convinced themselves that speed and force is a strategy unto itself — that it is, in a sense, a replacement for a real strategy. Don’t believe them.
I had a conversation a couple months ago with someone who knows how the federal government works about as well as anyone alive. I asked him what would worry him most if he saw Trump doing it. What he told me is that he would worry most if Trump went slowly. If he began his term by doing things that made him more popular and made his opposition weaker and more confused. If he tried to build strength for the midterms while slowly expanding his powers and chipping away at the deep state where it was weakest.
But he didn’t. And so the opposition to Trump, which seemed so listless after the election, is beginning to rouse itself.
There is a subreddit for federal employees where one of the top posts reads: “This non ‘buyout’ really seems to have backfired. I’ll be honest, before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out of this fresh hell. But now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible.” As I write this, it’s been upvoted more than 39,000 times and civil servant after civil servant is echoing the initial sentiment.
In Iowa this week, Democrats flipped a State Senate seat in a district that Trump won easily in 2024. The attempted spending freeze gave Democrats their voice back, as they zeroed in on the popular programs Trump had imperiled. Trump isn’t building support; he’s losing it. Trump isn’t fracturing his opposition; he’s uniting it.
This is the weakness of the strategy that Bannon proposed and Trump is following. It is a strategy that forces you into overreach. To keep the zone flooded, you have to keep acting, keep moving, keep creating new cycles of outrage or fear. You overwhelm yourself. And there’s only so much you can do through executive orders. Soon enough, you have to go beyond what you can actually do. And when you do that, you either trigger a constitutional crisis or you reveal your own weakness.
Trump may not see his own fork in the road coming. He may believe he has the power he is claiming. That would be a mistake on his part — a self-deception that could doom his presidency. But the real threat is if he persuades the rest of us to believe he has power he does not have.
The first two weeks of Trump’s presidency have not shown his strength. He is trying to overwhelm you. He is trying to keep you off-balance. He is trying to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.
nah same with first time around as well
Did we see this one – ABC news:
US judge temporarily blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing payment systems
buffy said:
Did we see this one – ABC news:US judge temporarily blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing payment systems
Any chance he can block the DOGE kids from ever leaving thir houses again?
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 8, 2025 (Saturday)
Yesterday the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration announced a new policy that will dramatically change the way the United States funds medical research. Now, when a researcher working at a university receives a federal grant for research, that money includes funds to maintain equipment and facilities and to pay support staff that keep labs functioning. That indirect funding is built into university budgets for funding expensive research labs, and last year reached about 26% of the grant money distributed. Going forward, the administration says it will cap the permitted amount of indirect funding at 15%.
NIH is the nation’s primary agency for research in medicine, health, and behavior. NIH grants are fiercely competitive; only about 20% of applications succeed. When a researcher applies for one, their proposal is evaluated first by a panel of their scholarly peers and then, if it passes that level, an advisory council, which might ask for more information before awarding a grant. Once awarded and accepted, an NIH grant carries strict requirements for reporting and auditing, as well as record retention.
In 2023, NIH distributed about $35 billion through about 50,000 grants to over 300,000 researchers at universities, medical schools, and other research institutions. Every dollar of NIH funding generated about $2.46 in economic activity. For every $100 million of funding, research supported by NIH generates 76 patents, which produce 20% more economic value than other U.S. patents and create opportunities for about $600 million in future research and development.
As Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times explained, the authors of Project 2025 called for the cuts outlined in the new policy, claiming those cuts would “reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.” Dr. David A. Baltrus of the University of Arizona told Jewett and Stolberg that the new policy is “going to destroy research universities in the short term, and I don’t know after that. They rely on the money. They budget for the money. The universities were making decisions expecting the money to be there.”
Although Baltrus works in agricultural research, focusing on keeping E. coli bacteria out of crops like sprouts and lettuce, cancer research is the top area in which NIH grants are awarded.
Anthropologist Erin Kane figured out what the new NIH policy would mean for states by looking at institutions that received more than $10 million in grants in 2024 and figuring out what percentage of their indirect costs would not be eligible for grant money under the new formula. Six schools in New York won $2.4 billion, including $953 million for indirect costs. The new indirect rate would allow only $220 million for overhead, a loss of $723 million.
States across the country will experience significant losses. Eight Florida schools received about $673 million, $231 million for indirect costs. The new indirect rate would limit that funding to $66 million, a loss of $165 million. Six schools in Ohio received a total of about $700 million; they would lose $194 million. Four schools in Missouri received a total of about $830 million; they would lose $212 million.
Lawmakers from Republican-dominated states are now acknowledging what those of us who study the federal budget have pointed out for decades: the same Republican-dominated states that complain bitterly about the government’s tax policies are also the same states that take most federal tax money. Dana Nickel of Politico reported yesterday that Republican leaders in the states claim to be enthusiastic about the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency but are mobilizing to make sure those cuts won’t hurt their own state programs that depend on federal money. Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt told Nickel that governors can provide advice about what cuts will be most effective. “Instead of just across the board cutting, we thought, man, they need some help from the governors to say, ‘We can be more efficient in this area or this area, or if you allow block grants in this area, you can reduce our expenditures by 10 percent.’ And so that’s our goal.”
Yesterday, Tim Carpenter of the Kansas Reflector reported that Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) is concerned about the Trump administration’s freeze on food distributions through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID buys about $2 billion in U.S. agricultural products a year, and farmers are already struggling with rising costs, low prices, and concern with tariffs.
Their spokespeople urge the continuation of USAID: the senior director of government affairs at the American Farm Bureau Federation said that “USAID plays a critical role in reducing hunger around the world while sourcing markets for the surplus foods America’s farmers and ranchers grow.” Moran added: “Food stability is essential to political stability, and our food aid programs help feed the hungry, bolster our national security and provide an important market for our farmers, especially when commodity prices are low.”
Meanwhile, federal employees are telling the stories of the work they’ve done for the country. Yesterday, a public letter whose author claimed to be an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation whose job is at risk in Trump’s purge of the agency wrote an amalgamation of the FBI agents being purged: “I am the coach of your child’s soccer team,” the letter read. “I sit next to you on occasion in religious devotion. I am a member of the PTA. With friends, you celebrated my birthday. I collected your mail and took out your trash while you were away from home. I played a round of golf with you. I am a veteran. I am the average neighbor in your community.”
But there is another side to that person, the author wrote. “I orchestrated a clandestine operation to secure the release of an allied soldier held captive by the Taliban. I prevented an ISIS terrorist from boarding a commercial aircraft. I spent 3 months listening to phone intercepts in real time to gather evidence needed to dismantle a violent drug gang. I recruited a source to provide critical intelligence on Russian military activities in Africa. I rescued a citizen being tortured to near death by members of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. I interceded and stopped a juvenile planning to conduct a school shooting. I spent multiple years monitoring the activities of deep cover foreign intelligence officers, leading to their arrest and deportation. I endured extensive hardship to infiltrate a global child trafficking organization. I have been shot in the line of duty.”
“hen I am gone,” they wrote, “who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor?”
Less publicly, Joseph Grzymkowski expressed on Facebook his pride in 38 years of service “with utmost dedication, integrity, and passion. I was not waste, fraud, and abuse,” he wrote. “Nor was I the “Deep State…. We are the faces of your Government: ordinary and diverse Americans, your friends and neighbors, working behind the scenes in the interest of the people we serve. We are not the enemy.”
Wth his statement, Grzymkowski posted a magazine clipping from 1996, when he was a Marine Analyst working in the Marine Navigation Department for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), located in Bethesda, Maryland—now known as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Springfield, Virginia. That office provides maritime intelligence for navigation, international obligations, and joint military operations.
On January 6, 1996, a historic blizzard dumped snowfalls of 19 to 31 inches on the East Coast. Stranded alone in the station when his relief couldn’t get through the snow to work, Grzymkowsky stayed at the radio. “I realized there were mariners who needed navigation safety messages delivered, and I wasn’t about to jeopardize the safety of life or cargo at sea simply because we were experiencing a blizzard,” he told a journalist. “One doesn’t leave a watch on a ship until properly relieved, and I felt my responsibility at the watch desk as keenly as I would have felt my responsibility for the navigation on the bridge of a ship.”
For 33 hours, he stayed at his desk and sent out navigation safety messages. “I had a job to do and I did it,” he recalled.
“There were ships at sea relying on me, and I wasn’t going to let them down. It’s nothing that any other member of this department wouldn’t do.”sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 8, 2025 (Saturday)Yesterday the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration announced a new policy that will dramatically change the way the United States funds medical research. Now, when a researcher working at a university receives a federal grant for research, that money includes funds to maintain equipment and facilities and to pay support staff that keep labs functioning. That indirect funding is built into university budgets for funding expensive research labs, and last year reached about 26% of the grant money distributed. Going forward, the administration says it will cap the permitted amount of indirect funding at 15%.
NIH is the nation’s primary agency for research in medicine, health, and behavior. NIH grants are fiercely competitive; only about 20% of applications succeed. When a researcher applies for one, their proposal is evaluated first by a panel of their scholarly peers and then, if it passes that level, an advisory council, which might ask for more information before awarding a grant. Once awarded and accepted, an NIH grant carries strict requirements for reporting and auditing, as well as record retention.
In 2023, NIH distributed about $35 billion through about 50,000 grants to over 300,000 researchers at universities, medical schools, and other research institutions. Every dollar of NIH funding generated about $2.46 in economic activity. For every $100 million of funding, research supported by NIH generates 76 patents, which produce 20% more economic value than other U.S. patents and create opportunities for about $600 million in future research and development.
As Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times explained, the authors of Project 2025 called for the cuts outlined in the new policy, claiming those cuts would “reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.” Dr. David A. Baltrus of the University of Arizona told Jewett and Stolberg that the new policy is “going to destroy research universities in the short term, and I don’t know after that. They rely on the money. They budget for the money. The universities were making decisions expecting the money to be there.”
Although Baltrus works in agricultural research, focusing on keeping E. coli bacteria out of crops like sprouts and lettuce, cancer research is the top area in which NIH grants are awarded.
Anthropologist Erin Kane figured out what the new NIH policy would mean for states by looking at institutions that received more than $10 million in grants in 2024 and figuring out what percentage of their indirect costs would not be eligible for grant money under the new formula. Six schools in New York won $2.4 billion, including $953 million for indirect costs. The new indirect rate would allow only $220 million for overhead, a loss of $723 million.
States across the country will experience significant losses. Eight Florida schools received about $673 million, $231 million for indirect costs. The new indirect rate would limit that funding to $66 million, a loss of $165 million. Six schools in Ohio received a total of about $700 million; they would lose $194 million. Four schools in Missouri received a total of about $830 million; they would lose $212 million.
Lawmakers from Republican-dominated states are now acknowledging what those of us who study the federal budget have pointed out for decades: the same Republican-dominated states that complain bitterly about the government’s tax policies are also the same states that take most federal tax money. Dana Nickel of Politico reported yesterday that Republican leaders in the states claim to be enthusiastic about the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency but are mobilizing to make sure those cuts won’t hurt their own state programs that depend on federal money. Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt told Nickel that governors can provide advice about what cuts will be most effective. “Instead of just across the board cutting, we thought, man, they need some help from the governors to say, ‘We can be more efficient in this area or this area, or if you allow block grants in this area, you can reduce our expenditures by 10 percent.’ And so that’s our goal.”
Yesterday, Tim Carpenter of the Kansas Reflector reported that Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) is concerned about the Trump administration’s freeze on food distributions through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID buys about $2 billion in U.S. agricultural products a year, and farmers are already struggling with rising costs, low prices, and concern with tariffs.
Their spokespeople urge the continuation of USAID: the senior director of government affairs at the American Farm Bureau Federation said that “USAID plays a critical role in reducing hunger around the world while sourcing markets for the surplus foods America’s farmers and ranchers grow.” Moran added: “Food stability is essential to political stability, and our food aid programs help feed the hungry, bolster our national security and provide an important market for our farmers, especially when commodity prices are low.”
Meanwhile, federal employees are telling the stories of the work they’ve done for the country. Yesterday, a public letter whose author claimed to be an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation whose job is at risk in Trump’s purge of the agency wrote an amalgamation of the FBI agents being purged: “I am the coach of your child’s soccer team,” the letter read. “I sit next to you on occasion in religious devotion. I am a member of the PTA. With friends, you celebrated my birthday. I collected your mail and took out your trash while you were away from home. I played a round of golf with you. I am a veteran. I am the average neighbor in your community.”
But there is another side to that person, the author wrote. “I orchestrated a clandestine operation to secure the release of an allied soldier held captive by the Taliban. I prevented an ISIS terrorist from boarding a commercial aircraft. I spent 3 months listening to phone intercepts in real time to gather evidence needed to dismantle a violent drug gang. I recruited a source to provide critical intelligence on Russian military activities in Africa. I rescued a citizen being tortured to near death by members of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. I interceded and stopped a juvenile planning to conduct a school shooting. I spent multiple years monitoring the activities of deep cover foreign intelligence officers, leading to their arrest and deportation. I endured extensive hardship to infiltrate a global child trafficking organization. I have been shot in the line of duty.”
“hen I am gone,” they wrote, “who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor?”
Less publicly, Joseph Grzymkowski expressed on Facebook his pride in 38 years of service “with utmost dedication, integrity, and passion. I was not waste, fraud, and abuse,” he wrote. “Nor was I the “Deep State…. We are the faces of your Government: ordinary and diverse Americans, your friends and neighbors, working behind the scenes in the interest of the people we serve. We are not the enemy.”
Wth his statement, Grzymkowski posted a magazine clipping from 1996, when he was a Marine Analyst working in the Marine Navigation Department for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), located in Bethesda, Maryland—now known as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Springfield, Virginia. That office provides maritime intelligence for navigation, international obligations, and joint military operations.
On January 6, 1996, a historic blizzard dumped snowfalls of 19 to 31 inches on the East Coast. Stranded alone in the station when his relief couldn’t get through the snow to work, Grzymkowsky stayed at the radio. “I realized there were mariners who needed navigation safety messages delivered, and I wasn’t about to jeopardize the safety of life or cargo at sea simply because we were experiencing a blizzard,” he told a journalist. “One doesn’t leave a watch on a ship until properly relieved, and I felt my responsibility at the watch desk as keenly as I would have felt my responsibility for the navigation on the bridge of a ship.”
For 33 hours, he stayed at his desk and sent out navigation safety messages. “I had a job to do and I did it,” he recalled.
“There were ships at sea relying on me, and I wasn’t going to let them down. It’s nothing that any other member of this department wouldn’t do.”
Looks like they are putting the pork sword through lots of people. This continued, will like cause a severe economic downturn.
alleged Cincinnati
They complain when fossils run the cuntry, they
complain when maggots run the cuntry, what is to be done¿
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
Notice that “toxic felon” isn’t on the list. Also “lying piece of shit”. Or “rapist”.
SCIENCE said:
They complain when fossils run the cuntry, they
complain when maggots run the cuntry, what is to be done¿
If you left them together in a roomwith a loaded revolver for 15 mins, you’d come back and find six corpses.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
Notice that “toxic felon” isn’t on the list. Also “lying piece of shit”. Or “rapist”.
And, people can still be referred to as ‘space Nazis’.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
oh fuck him.
Notice that “toxic felon” isn’t on the list. Also “lying piece of shit”. Or “rapist”.
And, people can still be referred to as ‘space Nazis’.
seems pretty easy to circumvent with just a sprinkling of French or Chinese or some other alternative language
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
They complain when fossils run the cuntry, they
complain when maggots run the cuntry, what is to be done¿
If you left them together in a roomwith a loaded revolver for 15 mins, you’d come back and find six corpses.
why are they so diverse anyway we thought rainbows were banned
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is optional I see
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
party_pants said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
oh c’m‘on at least be poetic about it and call it a destitution
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
Arts said:
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
oh c’m‘on at least be poetic about it and call it a destitution
Oh come on mate “the Big C document” is poetic.
party_pants said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
Yeah, he just pissed all over it last time and there was no punishment so now it’s just a free for all.
This is the time that the gun nuts should be trying to reign in a feral government.
It’s hard to not be disappointed with the whole legal system over there. When it matters most, they just rolled over.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
Notice that “toxic felon” isn’t on the list. Also “lying piece of shit”. Or “rapist”.
free speech.
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
Pharque!
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
oh fuck him.
Notice that “toxic felon” isn’t on the list. Also “lying piece of shit”. Or “rapist”.
Good-oh. People will still be able discuss and write about those issues and topics. Nice one.
:)
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is optional I see
Seems so.
party_pants said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
Ha!
party_pants said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Have we discussed this yet?
“Here’s the FULL LIST:
activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented”
The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
Remember that even if Trump is doing an illegal act, he’s doing it as President, so he cannot be prosecuted. Hence all the signed documents ordering illegal stuff to be done.
Kingy said:
party_pants said:
Arts said:The first amendment is
optionalI see
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
Yeah, he just pissed all over it last time and there was no punishment so now it’s just a free for all.
This is the time that the gun nuts should be trying to reign in a feral government.
It’s hard to not be disappointed with the whole legal system over there. When it matters most, they just rolled over.
The NRA “forgot” to do that…
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.
These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
Kingy said:
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
It is a real estate deal to him.
I don’t think he understands anything much else about anything much.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
I’d suggest ‘obsolete’
.. as is the whole rest of the Big C document
oh c’m‘on at least be poetic about it and call it a destitution
Oh come on mate “the Big C document” is poetic.
poetic lie sense
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
It is a real estate deal to him.
I don’t think he understands anything much else about anything much.
^
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
It is a real estate deal to him.
I don’t think he understands anything much else about anything much.
^
It’s what I said to mr kii in 2016 before the election. That and the reality TV show aspect. We were at the traffic lights at a high point overlooking the valley.
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
Kingy said:
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
I’m beginning to think that there are no surprises as to what comes out of the orange shitgibbon.
Michael V said:
Kingy said:
I was busy this past week and didn’t get a chance to talk about the potential takeover of Gaza by big business and the lack of the term “ethnic cleansing” by the media. They may have mentioned it, but I didn’t hear it.These families have lived there for millennia. I was amazed that the orange fucktard could casually bring this up in conversation like it’s a real estate deal instead of actual genocide.
It is a real estate deal to him.
I don’t think he understands anything much else about anything much.
Yeah. All his real estate is the best anywhere in the world. In fact he’s the best in the whole world at everything, often things that other people actually did.
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
I believe it could well be the latter.
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
All three together sounds like a reasonable explanation.
This lady wants the Nazi symbol put on her Hitler Youth knife, shop owner says …nope. She looks somewhat stunned.
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
coincides with bigger bits of paper…
Kingy said:
well the good news is that we shouldn’t have to wait much longer
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
coincides with bigger bits of paper…
Looking at my (ultra-fine tip) Sharpies, they are “assembled in the USA”, so maybe he’s getting some kind of fee to promote them.
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, Trump said he disliked using the pens traditionally used by presidents, NYT and Business Insider reported.
“I was signing documents with a very expensive pen, and it didn’t write well,” Trump said in the documentary. “It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive. And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, ‘Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.’”
He added he then “called up the folks at Sharpie” and said, “‘Do me a favor, can you make the pen in black? Make it look rich?’”
However, Trump’s relationship with the Sharpie didn’t begin when he stepped into the White House. It precedes his presidency, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump regularly used the pens to “sign autographs, write notes and mark up printed news articles.”
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/01/29/donald-trump-art-of-the-sharpie/
Bubblecar said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
coincides with bigger bits of paper…
Looking at my (ultra-fine tip) Sharpies, they are “assembled in the USA”, so maybe he’s getting some kind of fee to promote them.
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Something occurred to me the other day…what is it with the Sharpie? Can’t Trump manage a proper pen? Or is it that he doesn’t have to put glasses on to see his signature when he writes it that big? Or is it like “give the kid some crayons and some butchers paper and let him sit at the big desk. That should keep him occupied for a bit.”
All three together sounds like a reasonable explanation.
Old El Paso
Bogsnorkler said:
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, Trump said he disliked using the pens traditionally used by presidents, NYT and Business Insider reported.
“I was signing documents with a very expensive pen, and it didn’t write well,” Trump said in the documentary. “It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive. And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, ‘Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.’”
He added he then “called up the folks at Sharpie” and said, “‘Do me a favor, can you make the pen in black? Make it look rich?’”
However, Trump’s relationship with the Sharpie didn’t begin when he stepped into the White House. It precedes his presidency, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump regularly used the pens to “sign autographs, write notes and mark up printed news articles.”
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/01/29/donald-trump-art-of-the-sharpie/
fuck what a genius who would have come up with the idea to make black pens deity damn
Tamb said:
Bubblecar said:
sarahs mum said:
coincides with bigger bits of paper…
Looking at my (ultra-fine tip) Sharpies, they are “assembled in the USA”, so maybe he’s getting some kind of fee to promote them.
Being left handed I prefer ultra-fine tip Sharpies as they don’t smear.
neither does rtl script
Bogsnorkler said:
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, Trump said he disliked using the pens traditionally used by presidents, NYT and Business Insider reported.“I was signing documents with a very expensive pen, and it didn’t write well,” Trump said in the documentary. “It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive. And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, ‘Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.’”
He added he then “called up the folks at Sharpie” and said, “‘Do me a favor, can you make the pen in black? Make it look rich?’”
However, Trump’s relationship with the Sharpie didn’t begin when he stepped into the White House. It precedes his presidency, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump regularly used the pens to “sign autographs, write notes and mark up printed news articles.”
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/01/29/donald-trump-art-of-the-sharpie/
Even in that quote there appears to be Trump “loose truth”.
I mean, I have been using Sharpies on and off for around 20 years – and they were all black. (I used them mainly for marking geologic sample bags.)
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, Trump said he disliked using the pens traditionally used by presidents, NYT and Business Insider reported.“I was signing documents with a very expensive pen, and it didn’t write well,” Trump said in the documentary. “It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive. And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, ‘Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.’”
He added he then “called up the folks at Sharpie” and said, “‘Do me a favor, can you make the pen in black? Make it look rich?’”
However, Trump’s relationship with the Sharpie didn’t begin when he stepped into the White House. It precedes his presidency, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump regularly used the pens to “sign autographs, write notes and mark up printed news articles.”
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/01/29/donald-trump-art-of-the-sharpie/
Even in that quote there appears to be Trump “loose truth”.
I mean, I have been using Sharpies on and off for around 20 years – and they were all black. (I used them mainly for marking geologic sample bags.)
I suspect the comment was about the colour of the casing rather than the colour of the ink.
buffy said:
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, Trump said he disliked using the pens traditionally used by presidents, NYT and Business Insider reported.“I was signing documents with a very expensive pen, and it didn’t write well,” Trump said in the documentary. “It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive. And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, ‘Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.’”
He added he then “called up the folks at Sharpie” and said, “‘Do me a favor, can you make the pen in black? Make it look rich?’”
However, Trump’s relationship with the Sharpie didn’t begin when he stepped into the White House. It precedes his presidency, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump regularly used the pens to “sign autographs, write notes and mark up printed news articles.”
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/01/29/donald-trump-art-of-the-sharpie/
Even in that quote there appears to be Trump “loose truth”.
I mean, I have been using Sharpies on and off for around 20 years – and they were all black. (I used them mainly for marking geologic sample bags.)
I suspect the comment was about the colour of the casing rather than the colour of the ink.
Ah.
I didn’t think of that.
that’s right they’re charging yous that’s right
Mr Trump on Friday announced he would impose reciprocal tariffs — raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners — on many countries this week. “If they are charging us 130 per cent and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
Jim Wright wrote a good post on this…brb
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
wait who is the judge of what is legal or illegal, would it be the judge
wait
wait
wait
wait
kii said:
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
Jim Wright wrote a good post on this…brb
“JD Vance is both a veteran AND has a law degree, but he doesn’t seem to know much about either the military OR the law.
Every branch of the US Military has an entire Corps of lawyers that advise Flag Officers (Generals and Admirals) on what they can and cannot do in a military operation. I was a war planner for part of my career, we were required by law to run the plans through the JAG, a lawyer who was specifically cleared for the information — that’s literally their job. RON DESANTIS and LINDSEY GRAHAM both served in this capacity. DeSantis for example: He wasn’t a SEAL though he likes to tell people he was. He was a JAG, a lawyer, assigned to a SEAL unit specifically to advise the commander on the legalities of any potential action. That was his entire job. He wasn’t a trigger-puller, hell, JAGs don’t even go to boot camp or OCS. They’re Direct Commissions, most of them barely know how to put on their uniform correctly. They sure as hell aren’t jumping out of airplanes or carrying out SPECOPS missions. They don’t go around carrying guns and commandeering your car for national security. They weren’t feeding him and hauling his dead weight ass around on deployment because they needed someone to fill out powers of attorney. The ONLY reason for a rear echelon job like JAG to be in the war zone is specifically to provide legal advice to the commanders. That’s their ONLY job.
If an Attorney General were to abuse their position or engage in misconduct as a prosecutor, you bet they’d face a judge. And more than one has and you don’t have to look very far to find examples. I imagine they teach a few such at Yale Law.
But it’s that last one that shows just how far from his military oath and his Yale Law degree Vance has wandered.
The Court, along with Congress, is LITERALLY the check on Executive power.
This system of Checks and Balances between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches is LITERALLY the fundamental basis of our Constitutional Government.
Yale Law should demand Vance’s degree back.”
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
kii said:
kii said:
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
Jim Wright wrote a good post on this…brb
“JD Vance is both a veteran AND has a law degree, but he doesn’t seem to know much about either the military OR the law.
Every branch of the US Military has an entire Corps of lawyers that advise Flag Officers (Generals and Admirals) on what they can and cannot do in a military operation. I was a war planner for part of my career, we were required by law to run the plans through the JAG, a lawyer who was specifically cleared for the information — that’s literally their job. RON DESANTIS and LINDSEY GRAHAM both served in this capacity. DeSantis for example: He wasn’t a SEAL though he likes to tell people he was. He was a JAG, a lawyer, assigned to a SEAL unit specifically to advise the commander on the legalities of any potential action. That was his entire job. He wasn’t a trigger-puller, hell, JAGs don’t even go to boot camp or OCS. They’re Direct Commissions, most of them barely know how to put on their uniform correctly. They sure as hell aren’t jumping out of airplanes or carrying out SPECOPS missions. They don’t go around carrying guns and commandeering your car for national security. They weren’t feeding him and hauling his dead weight ass around on deployment because they needed someone to fill out powers of attorney. The ONLY reason for a rear echelon job like JAG to be in the war zone is specifically to provide legal advice to the commanders. That’s their ONLY job.
If an Attorney General were to abuse their position or engage in misconduct as a prosecutor, you bet they’d face a judge. And more than one has and you don’t have to look very far to find examples. I imagine they teach a few such at Yale Law.
But it’s that last one that shows just how far from his military oath and his Yale Law degree Vance has wandered.
The Court, along with Congress, is LITERALLY the check on Executive power.
This system of Checks and Balances between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches is LITERALLY the fundamental basis of our Constitutional Government.
Yale Law should demand Vance’s degree back.”
pwned.
kii said:
kii said:
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
Jim Wright wrote a good post on this…brb
“JD Vance is both a veteran AND has a law degree, but he doesn’t seem to know much about either the military OR the law.
Every branch of the US Military has an entire Corps of lawyers that advise Flag Officers (Generals and Admirals) on what they can and cannot do in a military operation. I was a war planner for part of my career, we were required by law to run the plans through the JAG, a lawyer who was specifically cleared for the information — that’s literally their job. RON DESANTIS and LINDSEY GRAHAM both served in this capacity.
oh so there really is a deep state now is there, see we told yous so, those elites control everything, we told yous
kii said:
kii said:
dv said:
I do believe these folks believe in supreme, unchecked presidential authority.
BtW judges rule on military conduct all the time.
Jim Wright wrote a good post on this…brb
I imagine they teach a few such at Yale Law.
But it’s that last one that shows just how far from his military oath and his Yale Law degree Vance has wandered.
The Court, along with Congress, is LITERALLY the check on Executive power.
This system of Checks and Balances between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches is LITERALLY the fundamental basis of our Constitutional Government.
Yale Law should demand Vance’s degree back.”
lies, wise old cisgender white males told us that there were checks and balances for this kind of thing, the checks and balances were strong, the checks and balances would control the executive’s power
dv said:
Nice dog whistle to the early video gamers, lichen¡
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Nice dog whistle to the early video gamers, lichen¡
Don’t forget to lichen subscribe
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
With his stoopid little thumb. Such a fuckwit.
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
Looks like a few DEIA appointments there.
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
Nobody looks very happy.
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
With his stoopid little thumb. Such a fuckwit.
Actually, I wondered where his left hand was.
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
With his stoopid little thumb. Such a fuckwit.
Is a nuke and its collateral damage considered a reasonable response to take him out.
kii said:
Is that………….is that the desk that Bill Clinton made famous?
Phoaw.
buffy said:
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
With his stoopid little thumb. Such a fuckwit.
Actually, I wondered where his left hand was.
probably 癌degenned out
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Nice dog whistle to the early video gamers, lichen¡
Don’t forget to lichen subscribe
it’s all shaping up to be a pretty epiphyte
Peak Warming Man said:
kii said:
Is that………….is that the desk that Bill Clinton made famous?
Phoaw.
If you look closely you can seen the bum prints
They were going to get it bronzed but that’s was considered weird
Cymek said:
Peak Warming Man said:
kii said:
Is that………….is that the desk that Bill Clinton made famous?
Phoaw.
If you look closely you can seen the bum prints
They were going to get it bronzed but that’s was considered weird
man that poor Bruce Lehrmann charmer must be kicking himself now, if only he’d picked the right bench to fuck around and find out on
buffy said:
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
Nobody looks very happy.
IDK, Trump looks pretty happy
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:
Peak Warming Man said:
He’s arrived, he’s arrived at the Superbowl.
Nobody looks very happy.
IDK, Trump looks pretty happy
How about when you heard he won
Did you have a cousin to do the dance of joy with ?
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:Nobody looks very happy.
IDK, Trump looks pretty happy
How about when you heard he won
Did you have a cousin to do the dance of joy with ?
IDK, maybe you don’t follow closely, I don’t actually support Trump in anyway and found the result disappointing… but hey, this is the way democracy works so with any luck people will realize the folly of their way in four years time.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:IDK, Trump looks pretty happy
How about when you heard he won
Did you have a cousin to do the dance of joy with ?
IDK, maybe you don’t follow closely, I don’t actually support Trump in anyway and found the result disappointing… but hey, this is the way democracy works so with any luck people will realize the folly of their way in four years time.
I’m stirring
I apologise
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:IDK, Trump looks pretty happy
How about when you heard he won
Did you have a cousin to do the dance of joy with ?
IDK, maybe you don’t follow closely, I don’t actually support Trump in anyway and found the result disappointing… but hey, this is the way democracy works so with any luck people will realize the folly of their way in four years time.
You’ve always displayed such obvious glee about the situation in the US, with a notable disregard for the people who are vulnerable.
Trump declares Feb. 9 ‘Gulf of America Day’ on flight to Super Bowl
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:How about when you heard he won
Did you have a cousin to do the dance of joy with ?
IDK, maybe you don’t follow closely, I don’t actually support Trump in anyway and found the result disappointing… but hey, this is the way democracy works so with any luck people will realize the folly of their way in four years time.
I’m stirring
I apologise
all good..
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)
On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”
After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.
Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.
But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.
Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.
After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that whether acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”
The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.
Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.
Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.
Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.
According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.
But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people.
Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center. The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.
But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.
The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.
The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”
After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.
Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.
But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.
Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.
After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that whether acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”
The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.
Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.
Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.
Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.
According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people.
Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center. The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.
But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.
The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
Hmm, I wonder how long even the Republicans are going to continue allowing Trump and Musk to ride roughshod?
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”
After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.
Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.
But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.
Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.
After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that whether acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”
The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.
Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.
Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.
Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.
According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people.
Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center. The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.
But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.
The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
Hmm, I wonder how long even the Republicans are going to continue allowing Trump and Musk to ride roughshod?
or when they will shut down Heather.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Un-civil war coming up?
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
———————————————————————-CUT———————————————————
The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
Hmm, I wonder how long even the Republicans are going to continue allowing Trump and Musk to ride roughshod?
or when they will shut down Heather.
Only takes one MAGA bullet.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
kii said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Another way to do this.
kii said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
kii said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Another way to do this.
I don’t use Facebork.
Would this be suitable for what is just seven posts down?
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
I’m thankful for the trimming. Not that there’s anything interesting about a roughbarked response.
Arts said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
anarchist!
Michael V said:
kii said:
kii said:Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Another way to do this.
I don’t use Facebork.
Would this be suitable for what is just seven posts down?
I might be wrong but as the post is set to public you should be able to view it without a fb account.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 9, 2025 (Sunday)On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”
In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.
The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”
After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.
Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.
Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.
But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.
Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.
After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that whether acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”
The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.
Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.
Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.
Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.
According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people.
Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center. The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.
But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.
The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
Hmm, I wonder how long even the Republicans are going to continue allowing Trump and Musk to ride roughshod?
or when they will shut down Heather.
Hopefully not.
Bogsnorkler said:
Arts said:
Michael V said:Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
anarchist!
Sometimes I just like to watch the world burn.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:Un-civil war coming up?
Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
I would never damn you for snipping. It makes one actually read a reply rather than can’t be arsed scrolling down to just get an answer that doesn’t add to the discussion. means one might miss a good answer but then someone might post it in a reply.
Arts said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Arts said:Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
anarchist!
Sometimes I just like to watch the world burn.
Just use homemade marshmellows not those plastic ones.
Arts said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Thanks for trimming the fucking post.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
:)
Michael V said:
Arts said:
Michael V said:Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, it seems.
Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
:)
i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
Arts said:Just do you, five, Whatever you want. No one here is the boss of you.
:)
i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said::)
i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.
Arts said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.
^
Arts said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.
I just make logical and sensible suggestions, imo. whether people want to enact them is up to them. I realise everybody doesn’t butter their toast on the same side as me.
SCIENCE said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.^
bad.
😎
Bogsnorkler said:
Arts said:
kii said:Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.I just make logical and sensible suggestions, imo. whether people want to enact them is up to them. I realise everybody doesn’t butter their toast on the same side as me.
who the fuck uses butter anyway
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Arts said:I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.I just make logical and sensible suggestions, imo. whether people want to enact them is up to them. I realise everybody doesn’t butter their toast on the same side as me.
who the fuck uses butter anyway
normal people.
Arts said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:i’ll keep on posting the same then. I prefer to read it here than on facebook. I give it a scan on facebook but most days these days what she is saying is worth the posting here.
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.
I’m on a tablet and can manage edits. I don’t click on every post, or feel the need to respond to every post. If I want to I just read through until I find something that is worthy of a meme or snarky comment. It’s my new hobby.
I might resurrect a previous technique I used years ago…random positivity quotes from a generator thingy.
kii said:
Arts said:
kii said:
Maybe when people respond they could trim the original post. Especially when it’s a “+1” type of comment.
It’s common sense and a courtesy.
I disagree with you that it’s common sense… I don’t get to read every post or every poster. So if I click on a responding post it’s nice to see the original in its entirety without having to scroll back.
It’s also more difficult to edit on the iPad ime.
But That’s just me, and I will find work arounds as needed.. I really don’t care how people post.I’m on a tablet and can manage edits. I don’t click on every post, or feel the need to respond to every post. If I want to I just read through until I find something that is worthy of a meme or snarky comment. It’s my new hobby.
I might resurrect a previous technique I used years ago…random positivity quotes from a generator thingy.
hi 爱, how’s‘t going
Taylor Swift has been booed by some fans at the Super Bowl when the cameras cut to her. The pop superstar was at the game in support of boyfriend Travis Kelce, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. US President Donald Trump received cheers, and mocked Swift’s reception on social media.
Taylor Swift is no stranger to being booed at NFL games, but it is not every day the US president joins in on the pile-on.
enlightened leadership of the USSA, focusing on the important issues
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
pity he is pennywise but dollar foolish.
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
pity he is pennywise but dollar foolish.
better than the transfetishising wokist cancelcultists and their obsession with eliminating penis
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
pity he is pennywise but dollar foolish.
How will the dollars look after themselves if we can no longer look after the pennies?
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
We did it ages ago.
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
That’ll upset the old farts.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
kii said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
yes we eliminated scents
wait we mean sense
kii said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
On the 14th of February, 1966.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:
We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
yes we eliminated scents
wait we mean sense
Nods.
https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/DF6WuA0AqxZ?xmt=AQGzwTBU_Bf7IkknYTBNuXFh_OXfVyHu_nyftvFo4nAPKA
DJT on Ukrainians
“They may be Russian some day, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re gonna have all this money in there, and I say I want it back.”
Michael V said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
On the 14th of February, 1966.
Americans call 1 cent pieces “pennies”
I know about the 14th of February 1966. I can sing the song.
Michael V said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:We did it ages ago.
wE diD?!
On the 14th of February, 1966.
We also eliminated the one cent piece in 1992. Canada did in 2013, NZ in 1990.
OTOH the 1 Eurocent piece and the British 1 pence are still in circulation.
dv said:
We also eliminated the one cent piece in 1992. Canada did in 2013, NZ in 1990.OTOH the 1 Eurocent piece and the British 1 pence are still in circulation.
1 & 2 cent pieces.
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
pity he is pennywise but dollar foolish.
dv said:
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
pity he is pennywise but dollar foolish.
We had a dog called Penny.
Tamb said:
dv said:
We also eliminated the one cent piece in 1992. Canada did in 2013, NZ in 1990.OTOH the 1 Eurocent piece and the British 1 pence are still in circulation.
1 & 2 cent pieces.
and 5 cent pieces hopefully sometime in the future.
dv said:
I’m currently rewatching from the start
Bogsnorkler said:
Tamb said:
dv said:
We also eliminated the one cent piece in 1992. Canada did in 2013, NZ in 1990.OTOH the 1 Eurocent piece and the British 1 pence are still in circulation.
1 & 2 cent pieces.
and 5 cent pieces hopefully sometime in the future.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
I’m currently rewatching from the start
Fair
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
I’m currently rewatching from the start
Fair
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
I’m currently rewatching from the start
Fair
That image is totally lost on me.
(Even after having looked it up)
Tamb said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I’m currently rewatching from the start
Fair
NFI what you are on about.
(4,8,15,16,23,42)
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I’m currently rewatching from the start
Fair
That image is totally lost on me.
(Even after having looked it up)
nailed it
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
dv said:Fair
NFI what you are on about.(4,8,15,16,23,42)
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
But what will happen to all the ‘leave a penny take a penny’ trays?
Tamb said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Tamb said:1 & 2 cent pieces.
and 5 cent pieces hopefully sometime in the future.
Yes. They are an endangered species.
I can’t remember the last time I handled actual Australian money. I did take about $500 in NZ money on my trip (thank goodness because I forgot about the fact that my phone wouldn’t work there – I mean how dare iiNet not stretch across the ditch)
Arts said:
Tamb said:
Bogsnorkler said:and 5 cent pieces hopefully sometime in the future.
Yes. They are an endangered species.I can’t remember the last time I handled actual Australian money. I did take about $500 in NZ money on my trip (thank goodness because I forgot about the fact that my phone wouldn’t work there – I mean how dare iiNet not stretch across the ditch)
when you bought my 3d printer.
Arts said:
I can’t remember the last time I handled actual Australian money. I did take about $500 in NZ money on my trip (thank goodness because I forgot about the fact that my phone wouldn’t work there – I mean how dare iiNet not stretch across the ditch)
When i last went to NZ, i took about $5,000 in NZ money.
And the fuss they made! Chased me down the street, yelling ‘stop, thief!’.
You all everybody
Grey is happy
Arts said:
dv said:
As you know I’m a very fair man and I’m always happy to give credit where credit is due, and Trump’s proposal to eliminate pennies is sound.
But what will happen to all the ‘leave a penny take a penny’ trays?
I guess they’ll have to lay nickels
Good grief. If someone wrote this as a novel they wouldn’t be able to find a publisher.
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.
420 exa-electronvolts (EeV) of smug detected.
Coming from Whitehouse in bursts.
Erases everything in its path.
buffy said:
Good grief. If someone wrote this as a novel they wouldn’t be able to find a publisher.
When asked how he would convince King Abdullah to take in Palestinians, Mr Trump told reporters: “I do think he’ll take, and I think other countries will take also. They have good hearts.”
-
But you don’t want to be saying immigration very loudly in Washington.
Jordan already hosts 700000 refugees.
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.
Are we still at war with Eurasia?
dv said:
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.Are we still at war with Eurasia?
The US is going quite well with the Oligarchal and will work on the Collectivism in the coming months.
dv said:
You all everybody
???
dv said:
You all everybody
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.Are we still at war with Eurasia?
The US is going quite well with the Oligarchal and will work on the Collectivism in the coming months.
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
You all everybody
Nup. IDGI.
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.
Mine currently says:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.Mine currently says:
Maybe because I’m in this shithole country?
kii said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.Mine currently says:
Maybe because I’m in this shithole country?
Could well be.
I guess for an international company based in USA, doing Trumps wishes for the US version only is a reasonable compromise.
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
You all everybody
Nup. IDGI.
it is a yawl.
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
You all everybody
Nup. IDGI.
Yawl.
Two-masted sailing vessel.
Mizzen boom extends beyond the counter (the extremity of the stern).
kii said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
kii said:
Google Maps has updated. Gulf of Mexico is now gone.Mine currently says:
Maybe because I’m in this shithole country?
What Google says:
https://blog.google/products/maps/united-states-geographic-name-change-feb-2025/
Michael V said:
dv said:
You all everybody
???
Popular culture reference m’lud
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Nup. IDGI.
it is a yawl.
OK. Ta.
So what was dv’s comment about again?
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
You all everybody
???
Popular culture reference m’lud
So should I ignore it?
kii said:
I don’t like that stuff either.
captain_spalding said:
Arts said:I can’t remember the last time I handled actual Australian money. I did take about $500 in NZ money on my trip (thank goodness because I forgot about the fact that my phone wouldn’t work there – I mean how dare iiNet not stretch across the ditch)
When i last went to NZ, i took about $5,000 in NZ money.
And the fuss they made! Chased me down the street, yelling ‘stop, thief!’.
:)
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:???
Popular culture reference m’lud
So should I ignore it?
Well I can’t tell you what to do but it’s just not very interesting.
We were talking about the abolition of pennies so I put up a frame from the television show called Lost, in which Charlie is holding up his hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it.
d-s then mentioned he is rewatching. Rev made a little joke including the word “lost”. d-s posted the arc numbers from Lost (4,8,15,16,23,42). I mentioned the name of Charlie’s famous song (You all everybody). It’s not very deep, we were just swapping Lost references in a nostalgic way.
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Popular culture reference m’lud
So should I ignore it?
Well I can’t tell you what to do but it’s just not very interesting.
We were talking about the abolition of pennies so I put up a frame from the television show called Lost, in which Charlie is holding up his hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it.
d-s then mentioned he is rewatching. Rev made a little joke including the word “lost”. d-s posted the arc numbers from Lost (4,8,15,16,23,42). I mentioned the name of Charlie’s famous song (You all everybody). It’s not very deep, we were just swapping Lost references in a nostalgic way.
Oh.
I watched some of Lost, but became bored with it as it seemed to be going nowhere in a deliberately obfuscatory way. The Hawaiian scenery was nice for a while.
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)
As soon as President Donald Trump took office, his administration froze great swaths of government funding, apparently to test the theory popular with Project 2025 authors that the 1974 law forbidding the president from “impounding” money Congress had appropriated was unconstitutional. The loss of funding has hurt Americans across the country. Today, Daniel Wu, Gaya Gupta, and Anumita Kaur of the Washington Post reported that farmers who had signed contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve infrastructure and who had paid up front to put in fences, plant different crops, and install renewable energy systems with the promise the government would provide financial assistance are now left holding the bag.
With Republicans in Congress largely mum about this and other power grabs by the administration, the courts are holding the line. Chief Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island today found that the Trump administration has refused to disburse federal funding despite the court’s “clear and unambiguous” temporary restraining order saying it must do so. McConnell said the administration “must immediately restore frozen funding” and clear any hurdles to that funding until the court hears arguments about the case. This includes the monies withheld from the farmers.
This evening, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley blocked the Trump appointees at the National Institutes of Health from implementing the rate change they wanted to apply to NIH grants. But, as legal analyst Joyce White Vance notes, the only relief sought is for the twenty-two Democratic-led states that have sued, keeping Republican-dominated states from freeloading on their Democratic counterparts. As Josh Marshall noted today in Talking Points Memo, it appears a pattern is emerging in which Democratic-led states are suing the administration while officials from Republican-led states, which are even harder hit by Trump’s cuts than their Democratic-led counterparts, are asking Trump directly for help or exceptions.
As soon as he took office, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, who was a key author of Project 2025 and who is also acting as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced he was shuttering the agency. That closure was a recommendation of Project 2025, which called the consumer protection agency “a shakedown mechanism to provide unaccountable funding to leftist nonprofits.” Immediately, the National Treasury Employees Union sued him, saying that Vought’s directive to employees to stop working “reflects an unlawful attempt to thwart Congress’s decision to create the CFPB to protect American consumers.”
MAGA loyalists, particularly Vice President J.D. Vance, have begun to suggest they will not abide by the rule of law, but before Trump and Vance took office, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called out Vance’s hints that he would be willing to defy the rulings of federal courts as “dangerous suggestions” that “must be soundly rejected.”
Today the American Bar Association took a stand against the Trump administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself” as it attacks the Constitution and tries to dismantle departments and agencies created by Congress “without seeking the required congressional approval to change the law.”
“The American Bar Association supports the rule of law,” president of the organization William R. Bay said in a statement. “That means holding governments, including our own, accountable.” He cheered on the courts that “are treating these cases with the urgency they require.”
“efusing to spend money appropriated by Congress under the euphemism of a pause is a violation of the rule of law and suggests that the executive branch can overrule the other two co-equal branches of government,” Bay wrote. “This is contrary to the constitutional framework and not the way our democracy works. The money appropriated by Congress must be spent in accordance with what Congress has said. It cannot be changed or paused because a newly elected administration desires it. Our elected representatives know this. The lawyers of this country know this. It must stop.”
He called on “elected representatives to stand with us and to insist upon adherence to the rule of law…. The administration cannot choose which law it will follow or ignore. These are not partisan or political issues. These are rule of law and process issues. We cannot afford to remain silent…. We urge every attorney to join us and insist that our government, a government of the people, follow the law.”
Today, five former Treasury secretaries wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that also reinforced the legal lines of our constitutional system, warning that “our democracy is under siege.” Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers, who served under President Bill Clinton; Timothy F. Geithner and Jacob J. Lew, who served under President Barack Obama; and Janet L. Yellen, who served under President Joe Biden, spoke up about the violation of the United States Treasury’s nonpartisan payment system by political actors working in Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”
That DOGE team “lack training and experience to handle private, personal data,” they note, “like Social Security numbers and bank account information.” Their involvement risks exposing highly sensitive information and even risks the failure of critical infrastructure as they muck around with computer codes. The former Treasury secretaries noted that on Saturday morning, a federal judge had temporarily stopped those DOGE workers from accessing the department’s payment and data systems, warning that that access could cause “irreparable harm.”
“While significant data privacy, cybersecurity and national security threats are gravely concerning,” the former secretaries wrote, “the constitutional issues are perhaps even more alarming.” The executive branch must respect that Congress controls the nation’s money, they wrote, reiterating the key principle outlined in the Constitution: “The legislative branch has the sole authority to pass laws that determine where and how federal dollars should be spent.”
The Treasury Department cannot decide “which promises of federal funding made by Congress it will keep, and which it will not,” the letter read. “The Trump administration may seek to change the law and alter what spending Congress appropriates, as administrations before it have done as well. And should the law change, it will be the role of the executive branch to execute those changes. But it is not for the Treasury Department or the administration to decide which of our congressionally approved commitments to fulfill and which to cast aside.”
That warning appears as Trump indicates that he is willing to undermine the credit of the United States. Yesterday, on Air Force One, he told reporters that the members of the administration trying to find wasteful spending have suggested that they have found fraud in Treasury bonds and that the United States might “have less debt than we thought.” The suggestion that the U.S. might not honor its debt is a direct attack on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that “he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” That amendment was written under similar circumstances, when former Confederates sought to avoid debt payments and undermine the power of the federal government.
Lauren Thomas, Ben Drummett, and Chip Cutter of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that “for CEOs and bankers, the Trump euphoria is fading fast.” Consumers are losing confidence in the economy, and observers expect inflation, while business leaders find that trying to navigate Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs is taking all their attention.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued his purge of government employees he considers insufficiently loyal to him. On Friday he tried to get rid of Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Elections Commission, who contended that her removal was illegal. He also fired Colleen Shogan, the Archivist of the United States, head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government agency that handles presidential records. The archivist is the official responsible for receiving and validating the certified electoral ballots for presidential elections—a process Trump’s people tried to corrupt after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
It was NARA that first discovered Trump’s retention of classified documents and demanded their return, although Shogan was not the archivist in charge at the time.
The courts happened to weigh in on the case of the retained classified documents today, when U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the FBI must search its records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from journalist Jason Leopold after Leopold learned that Trump had allegedly flushed presidential records down the toilet when he was president, and later brought classified documents to Florida. The judge noted that the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States that the president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his official duties and is “at least presumptive immune from criminal prosecution for…acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility” means that there is no reason to hold back information to shield him from prosecution. Indeed, Howell notes, that decision means that the FOIA request is now the only way for the American public to “know what its government is up to.”
Howell highlighted that the three Supreme Court justices who dissented from the Trump v. United States decision described it as “mak a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.” In a footnote, Howell also called attention to the fact that presumptive immunity for the president does not “extend to those who aid, abet and execute criminal acts on behalf of a criminally immune president. The excuse offered after World War II by enablers of the fascist Nazi regime of ‘just following orders’ has long been rejected in this country’s jurisprudence.”
Today, Trump fired David Huitema, director of the Office of Government Ethics, the department that oversees political appointments and helps nominees avoid conflicts of interest.
On Friday, Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. That office enforces federal whistleblower laws as well as the law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in most political activity: the Hatch Act. Congress provided that the special counsel can be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” and today Dellinger sued, calling his removal illegal.
Tonight, Judge Amy Berman Jackson blocked Dellinger’s firing through Thursday as she hears arguments in the case.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248120/
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Popular culture reference m’lud
So should I ignore it?
Well I can’t tell you what to do but it’s just not very interesting.
We were talking about the abolition of pennies so I put up a frame from the television show called Lost, in which Charlie is holding up his hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it.
d-s then mentioned he is rewatching. Rev made a little joke including the word “lost”. d-s posted the arc numbers from Lost (4,8,15,16,23,42). I mentioned the name of Charlie’s famous song (You all everybody). It’s not very deep, we were just swapping Lost references in a nostalgic way.
well, you lost me. i didn’t watch that show on my non-existing TV.
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
Michael V said:So should I ignore it?
Well I can’t tell you what to do but it’s just not very interesting.
We were talking about the abolition of pennies so I put up a frame from the television show called Lost, in which Charlie is holding up his hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it.
d-s then mentioned he is rewatching. Rev made a little joke including the word “lost”. d-s posted the arc numbers from Lost (4,8,15,16,23,42). I mentioned the name of Charlie’s famous song (You all everybody). It’s not very deep, we were just swapping Lost references in a nostalgic way.
well, you lost me. i didn’t watch that show on my non-existing TV.
Some may think it is popular culture but there are many who have no idea that it is.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248120/
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
buffy said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248120/
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
The perps don’t seem to care and continue to mash-up the system.
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
The perps don’t seem to care and continue to mash-up the system.
don’t worry they can just appeal all the way up to the supreme totally not captured highest court in the land and
wait
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248120/
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Yeah.
I am over the USA now. They are just foreigners now. I am not one of them.
buffy said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
55m ·
February 10, 2025 (Monday)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CUT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248120/
Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
The perps don’t seem to care and continue to mash-up the system.
It remains to be seen how far they get.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
buffy said:Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
The perps don’t seem to care and continue to mash-up the system.
It remains to be seen how far they get.
Already way, way too far.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:The perps don’t seem to care and continue to mash-up the system.
It remains to be seen how far they get.
Already way, way too far.
Yes. But surely that is awakening resistance to these changes.
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:Ta.
FMD I wonder how much more of this FMD stuff I can stand. It’s clear that the rule of law has been forced out the window.
Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
buffy said:Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Well yes.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Well yes.
In essence however, impartial and lawful could only see DJT’s approach as confronting.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Well yes.
Law Is Justice
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
buffy said:Actually, I’m a bit cheered by the fact the courts are putting stays on pretty much all of these things. Hopefully they stand firm.
It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Yeah , like overturning Roe vs Wade and granting presidential immunity.
tauto said:
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:It is time for all those whose job it is to keep to the law, to stand up against his nonsense
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Yeah , like overturning Roe vs Wade and granting presidential immunity.
That’s called branch stacking in the Australian vernacular.
roughbarked said:
tauto said:
diddly-squat said:
well no.. we don’t actually want judges acting in partisan ways, we want them to execute their duties in an impartial and lawful manner.
Yeah , like overturning Roe vs Wade and granting presidential immunity.
That’s called branch stacking in the Australian vernacular.
it’s all fair it’s team sports
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
tauto said:
Yeah , like overturning Roe vs Wade and granting presidential immunity.
That’s called branch stacking in the Australian vernacular.
it’s all fair it’s team sports
It isn’t the Olympics.
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.
“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
Bogsnorkler said:
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
unexpected
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
unexpected
I predict unhappy customers.
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
unexpected
Yeah. After the FTX fiasco and Scam Bankrupt-Fraud trial, it’s a wonder anyone would invest a cent into any new crypto scheme.
Yet here we are…
Probably not competely in the correct thread but Four Corners on the conflict. is on my teev at present.
Trump wants it to stop where Russia have gained a fifth of Ukraine.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:Bogsnorkler said:
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
unexpected
Yeah. After the FTX fiasco and Scam Bankrupt-Fraud trial, it’s a wonder anyone would invest a cent into any new crypto scheme.
Yet here we are…
Apparently it is the human condition.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:unexpected
Yeah. After the FTX fiasco and Scam Bankrupt-Fraud trial, it’s a wonder anyone would invest a cent into any new crypto scheme.
Yet here we are…
Apparently it is the human condition.
Well it fucking shouldn’t be.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:Yeah. After the FTX fiasco and Scam Bankrupt-Fraud trial, it’s a wonder anyone would invest a cent into any new crypto scheme.
Yet here we are…
Apparently it is the human condition.
Well it fucking shouldn’t be.
Agreed but I recall a conversation with a bloke from Amsterdam as we were cycling across western NSW, when he clearly became agitated with my use of the words should have or shouldn’t have been.
He said, “Should have simply means that it didn’t happen”.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:Bogsnorkler said:
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: A humiliating new report reveals that investors have lost billions of dollars on Donald Trump’s $Trump cryptocurrency as its value crashes — and some VERY shady details emerge.
This is turning into a nightmare for these gullible MAGA supporters…
The opening price for one of the 5,971,750 coins was $0.18 and it quickly climbed to $75 — allowing those who got in fast to flip a quick profit — and then tanked down to roughly $16 a coin.
An analysis performed by crypto forensics firm Chainalysis forThe New York Times discovered that over 810,000 crypto wallets have lost money by investing in Trump’s coin. An estimated $2 billion in investments have been lost.
Trump announced the coin just three days before his inauguration, urging his followers to purchase it in a Truth Social post.“Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he wrote. Clearly, he and his cronies were just looking to fleece clueless investors.
The most suspicious part of the entire saga was the crypto wallet — a unique, anonymous account for trading digital currency — that dumped $1,096,109 into buying 5,971,750 $Trump coins just two minutes after Trump announced. That trader then sold within two days, raking in a staggering $109 million.
Because of the anonymous nature of crypto wallets, that trader could theoretically have been Donald Trump himself or perhaps one of his close allies with insider knowledge of the announcement.
On top of that, the Trump family and their associates have made over $100 million off trading fees alone despite the president’s obvious conflict of interest since he is in control of cryptocurrency regulations.
“The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement,” former crypto advisor to the SEC Corey Frayer told The New York Times.
unexpected
I predict unhappy customers.
i thought it was bad but it worse than I thought.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:unexpected
I predict unhappy customers.
i thought it was bad but it worse than I thought.
It can get worse and even Trump admitted there may be some pain.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:unexpected
I predict unhappy customers.
i thought it was bad but it worse than I thought.
I remember a football coach being fond of saying that things are never as bad or as good as they seem right now.
I think he was wrong.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:I predict unhappy customers.
i thought it was bad but it worse than I thought.
I remember a football coach being fond of saying that things are never as bad or as good as they seem right now.
I think he was wrong.
The shit may still have to hit the fan.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-biggest-corruption-yet
Trump’s biggest corruption yet
Robert Reich
Feb 11, 2025
Friends,
Connect the dots.
Last week, Trump’s social media corporation — Trump Media and Technology Group, in which Trump personally owns a majority of shares — announced plans to sell financial products, including a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), aimed at what Trump calls the “patriotic economy.” Its shares jumped 6 percent on the news.
Devin Nunes, Trump Media’s CEO, said the Trump ETFs give investors a chance to put money into “American energy, manufacturing and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market.”
Woke funds? Debanking problems?
Two weeks ago, Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to direct the FBI, was given 25,946 shares in Trump Media, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. They are now worth about $840,000. What was this a payoff for?
Last weekend, the Trump-Musk regime shuttered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The federal government is no longer protecting consumers of financial products. Trump-Musk ordered all work to stop at the CFPB. Its X account was deleted and its homepage unplugged. CFPB employees who went to the building Sunday to retrieve things they needed to work remotely were turned away by security.
Keep connecting the dots.
The shutting of the CFPB was welcomed by the crypto crowd, including Musk, and by those issuing Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, such as Trump.
Besides his financial interest in crypto, Musk has stated publicly he’s seeking to create an “everything app” that could be used for all financial transactions. Mark Zuckerberg and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are aiming for the same thing.
The CFPB had proposed that such apps be supervised the same way banks are supervised. Well, scratch that now. No supervision. And no insurance by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Brace yourselves for fraud and bank runs.
Musk, Zuckerberg, and Andreessen — all Trump backers and lapdogs — had claimed that the CFPB was trying to “debank” or remove them and other Trumpers from the banking system. In fact, the CFPB proposed the first-ever rule to block debanking.
Andreessen is invested in companies like Synapse, which have cost many people’s life savings. Some firms in his portfolio were shut down by the CFPB for scamming people. Zuckerberg says Meta is not a bank, although it has a payments business and Zuck wants to start a currency.
Now, connect all the dots and what do you see? An oligarchy unleashed and in the open. Their extraordinary wealth is buying the power to make them even wealthier.
It’s bad enough that Trump and Musk are making room for their own personal financial products and those of their major backers.
Trump’s financial products also invite people and corporations seeking to curry favor with him to invest in his products. Outright bribery.
Who will be left holding the bag? Surely anyone gullible enough to put their savings into one of these initiatives. Worst case, all of us if the stock market crashes and pulls the economy down with it.
This, my friends, is pure corruption. Mark my words: It will blow up in Trump’s and Musk’s faces. I just hope it doesn’t blow up in ours.
https://stopproject2025comic.org/
A comic book version of 2025
For ‘co-President’ Musk, the early days of Trump are already paying off
MSNBC: Rachel Maddow points out how policies and firings in the first few weeks of the Trump administration are turning out to be very beneficial to the business interests of Trump’s biggest campaign donor and co-president, Elon Musk.
Quite possibly someone having a laugh here, but these days it can be difficult to tell if they are or not.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/08/measles-west-texas-vaccine-outbreak/
What a f’king sack of shit he is.
Spiny Norman said:
What a f’king sack of shit he is.
Likely he got that info from the DOGE files recently stolen from government departments.
I bet he doesn’t take responsibility when some MAGA RWNJ shoots her.
In fact it’s probable that that’s the outcome he is after – intimidate judge by daughter’s murder…
Spiny Norman said:
Quite possibly someone having a laugh here, but these days it can be difficult to tell if they are or not.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
I’m waiting for them to rename New Mexico.
Bogsnorkler said:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6613553/
99% fatal.
Great.
Why do people do this shit?
kii said:
I’m waiting for them to rename New Mexico.
Ha!
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6613553/
99% fatal.
Great.
Why do people do this shit?
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle Station…
This is exactly it. This is the cruel mean bitter little heart of MAGA. I don’t care if Trump screws me too, so long as it makes YOU mad hahahahahaha!
Republicans will squat in the dark and shit on their own shoes and call it freedom, just so long as no one else gets any light.
One comment on this post.
“I wrote this to a friend yesterday about the Gulf of Mexico unpleasantness: “This is a very good description of the reality you and I inhabit. The actual Gulf of Mexico doesn’t care what we call it. It was here before most of our ancestors arrived and it will be here long after certain needy goofballs are dead and forgotten. This kind of thing is designed by odious worms like Stephen Miller and Dinesh D’Souza to irritate people they don’t like. I’m not going to take the bait. They can call it “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” if they want. It doesn’t alter reality. Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.”:
Yep, don’t give them the satisfaction of getting upset about a name change.
dv said:
Wait…what?
Lololol 😆
kii said:
dv said:
Wait…what?
Lololol 😆
Rep Luna-tic…
dv said:
Like Inês De Castro, with the gender roles reversed?
Due possibly to some campaign in the US circulating the ‘information’ that ‘sharks aren’t real!!!!!!’?
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Like Inês De Castro, with the gender roles reversed?
Thanks for that. Interesting read about her – I’d not heard of her before.
captain_spalding said:
Due possibly to some campaign in the US circulating the ‘information’ that ‘sharks aren’t real!!!!!!’?
LOL
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
What a f’king sack of shit he is.
Likely he got that info from the DOGE files recently stolen from government departments.
I bet he doesn’t take responsibility when some MAGA RWNJ shoots her.
In fact it’s probable that that’s the outcome he is after – intimidate judge by daughter’s murder…
It’s All Right The Courts Will Protect The Checks And Balances
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6613553/
99% fatal.
Great.
Why do people do this shit?
Because The Master 1% Genetically Superior People Will Survive
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Due possibly to some campaign in the US circulating the ‘information’ that ‘sharks aren’t real!!!!!!’?
LOL
so Australians are 3 times worse per capita
kii said:
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle Station…
This is exactly it. This is the cruel mean bitter little heart of MAGA. I don’t care if Trump screws me too, so long as it makes YOU mad hahahahahaha!Republicans will squat in the dark and shit on their own shoes and call it freedom, just so long as no one else gets any light.
One comment on this post.
“I wrote this to a friend yesterday about the Gulf of Mexico unpleasantness: “This is a very good description of the reality you and I inhabit. The actual Gulf of Mexico doesn’t care what we call it. It was here before most of our ancestors arrived and it will be here long after certain needy goofballs are dead and forgotten. This kind of thing is designed by odious worms like Stephen Miller and Dinesh D’Souza to irritate people they don’t like. I’m not going to take the bait. They can call it “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” if they want. It doesn’t alter reality. Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.”:
Yep, don’t give them the satisfaction of getting upset about a name change.
so it really was a diversionary tactic damn surprise
why get upset when yous can ridicule
foolish
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Due possibly to some campaign in the US circulating the ‘information’ that ‘sharks aren’t real!!!!!!’?
LOL
so Australians are 3 times worse per capita
I want the numbers for provoked shark bites.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
LOL
so Australians are 3 times worse per capita
I want the numbers for provoked shark bites.
not immediately
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-12/shark-attack-bite-report/104919174
obvious where
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/
to find all that sadly
Trump blasts WFH policies: ‘Nobody is gonna work from home. They are gonna be going out, playing tennis, playing golf’
President Donald Trump has delivered a harsh blow in the battle for flexible work, saying federal workers who log on from home are only working 10% of the time and are likely to have two jobs.
When signing a host of executive orders on Monday the commander-in-chief was asked for his response to a Boston judge blocking Elon Musk’s plan to use buyouts to incentivize federal workers to leave the government’s ranks.
The president said he didn’t know how the plan could be declared illegal, saying, “I got elected on making government better, more efficient and smaller. That’s what we’re doing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-blasts-wfh-policies-nobody-113035695.html
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
so Australians are 3 times worse per capita
I want the numbers for provoked shark bites.
not immediately
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-12/shark-attack-bite-report/104919174
obvious where
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/
to find all that sadly
Thanks, all QI.
I didn’t realise that shark provocation was so prevalent.
dv said:
Trump blasts WFH policies: ‘Nobody is gonna work from home. They are gonna be going out, playing tennis, playing golf’President Donald Trump has delivered a harsh blow in the battle for flexible work, saying federal workers who log on from home are only working 10% of the time and are likely to have two jobs.
When signing a host of executive orders on Monday the commander-in-chief was asked for his response to a Boston judge blocking Elon Musk’s plan to use buyouts to incentivize federal workers to leave the government’s ranks.
The president said he didn’t know how the plan could be declared illegal, saying, “I got elected on making government better, more efficient and smaller. That’s what we’re doing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-blasts-wfh-policies-nobody-113035695.html
Just like Malcolm Fraser, all those years ago.
Some bloke who’s never had a proper job, working for someone who isn’t his dad, feels quite qualified to talk about what people who got to work for someone else on most days of their lives do or don’t do or should or shouldn’t do in their jobs.
Reporter: You said an example of fraud that you have cited was $50 million of condoms was sent to Gaza but after a fact-check apparently it was Gaza in Mozambique meant to protect them against HIV.
Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect and should be corrected.
From Mindy Fischer
kii said:
Reporter: You said an example of fraud that you have cited was $50 million of condoms was sent to Gaza but after a fact-check apparently it was Gaza in Mozambique meant to protect them against HIV.Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect and should be corrected.
From Mindy Fischer
It’s like the student who gets upset at answering the wrong question on the exam because they didn’t read the question…but expect to still get the marks for that question.
buffy said:
kii said:
Reporter: You said an example of fraud that you have cited was $50 million of condoms was sent to Gaza but after a fact-check apparently it was Gaza in Mozambique meant to protect them against HIV.Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect and should be corrected.
From Mindy Fischer
It’s like the student who gets upset at answering the wrong question on the exam because they didn’t read the question…but expect to still get the marks for that question.
He also changed it from or to $100 million, and mentioned Hamas.
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
Reporter: You said an example of fraud that you have cited was $50 million of condoms was sent to Gaza but after a fact-check apparently it was Gaza in Mozambique meant to protect them against HIV.Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect and should be corrected.
From Mindy Fischer
It’s like the student who gets upset at answering the wrong question on the exam because they didn’t read the question…but expect to still get the marks for that question.
He also changed it from or to $100 million, and mentioned Hamas.
What is the vibe over there ?
The entire saga with these self serving fuckers is disgusting and I’m not even a US citizen.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/1/15726292/elon-musk-trump-advisory-council-paris-climate-decision
Elon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision
Trump’s approval rating is at an all time high.
Bogsnorkler said:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/1/15726292/elon-musk-trump-advisory-council-paris-climate-decisionElon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision
So we have reached the toddlers swatting at each other stage now have we?
buffy said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/1/15726292/elon-musk-trump-advisory-council-paris-climate-decisionElon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision
So we have reached the toddlers swatting at each other stage now have we?
don’t worry it’s another diversion, they were fucking the place up now they’re forking the opponents
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/
GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland’
—-
“This is a satire news piece, right?”
No.
“But the man was kidding, right?”
No.
“Okay but this is just some thought balloon, not a legislative prososal, right “
The Red White and Blueland Act 2025 has been introduced to Congress and will need to be debated and voted on therein.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
“Okay but this is just some edgy young kid trying to get on the radar by being outrageous, right?”
Mr Carter has held various elected offices for the GOP for 20 years and this is his 6th term in Congress. He is on the Congressional Budget Committee and the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Peak Warming Man said:
Trump’s approval rating is at an all time high.
And no wonder
dv said:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland’
—-
“This is a satire news piece, right?”
No.
“But the man was kidding, right?”
No.
“Okay but this is just some thought balloon, not a legislative prososal, right “
The Red White and Blueland Act 2025 has been introduced to Congress and will need to be debated and voted on therein.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
“Okay but this is just some edgy young kid trying to get on the radar by being outrageous, right?”
Mr Carter has held various elected offices for the GOP for 20 years and this is his 6th term in Congress. He is on the Congressional Budget Committee and the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Head injuries from running into things must be very high in the USA, like one in 3 ?
The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
dv said:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland’
—-
“This is a satire news piece, right?”
No.
“But the man was kidding, right?”
No.
“Okay but this is just some thought balloon, not a legislative prososal, right “
The Red White and Blueland Act 2025 has been introduced to Congress and will need to be debated and voted on therein.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
“Okay but this is just some edgy young kid trying to get on the radar by being outrageous, right?”
Mr Carter has held various elected offices for the GOP for 20 years and this is his 6th term in Congress. He is on the Congressional Budget Committee and the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Given the modern era of supposed-adults never leaving adolescence, welcome to the team sports USSA¡
diddly-squat said:
The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
diddly-squat said:
The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
Cymek said:
dv said:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/
GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland’
—-
“This is a satire news piece, right?”
No.
“But the man was kidding, right?”
No.
“Okay but this is just some thought balloon, not a legislative prososal, right “
The Red White and Blueland Act 2025 has been introduced to Congress and will need to be debated and voted on therein.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
“Okay but this is just some edgy young kid trying to get on the radar by being outrageous, right?”
Mr Carter has held various elected offices for the GOP for 20 years and this is his 6th term in Congress. He is on the Congressional Budget Committee and the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Head injuries from running into things must be very high in the USA, like one in 3 ?
also apparently there was that presidents can serve three terms act introduced as well but conveniently nobody remembers that either ahahahahaha
Cymek said:
kii said:
buffy said:It’s like the student who gets upset at answering the wrong question on the exam because they didn’t read the question…but expect to still get the marks for that question.
He also changed it from or to $100 million, and mentioned Hamas.
What is the vibe over there ?
The entire saga with these self serving fuckers is disgusting and I’m not even a US citizen.
I don’t go anywhere, get my groceries etc delivered and I’m always really nice to the delivery people.
I occasionally see the gardener and he’s really scared (I’ve mentioned him before, but it wasn’t seen as relevant because he’s just one guy…or something.)
My young Mormon friend from jewellery class is worried about her daughter’s health care access as she’s now a preteen.
I speak to a few US women and LGBTQI people online who are terrified.
I’m not a citizen, I have permanent residency…green card. I keep my passport, and other important documents in my bag.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
Lololol 😆 are you insane?
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
Lololol 😆 are you insane?
maybe they’re geniuses and they mean it’s going to be no contest
Kings get shit done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdygrcFcyyY&t=176s
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:The best thing about all this is that at least it sets the president for when the next POTUS comes in and decides that, for instance, ICE no longer needs to exist, the GOP will be OK with the constutionality of Executive action.
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
Peak Warming Man said:
Trump’s approval rating is at an all time high.
In America or in the world?
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
2244736
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
If Trump can get a constitutional amendment through Congress and ratified by the states, then he deserves a third term.
Just a side note we reckon that if VladiPu can hold Crimea and Donbas until VoloZel dies then Russia deserves to keep Ukraine.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decent
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
If Trump can get a constitutional amendment through Congress and ratified by the states, then he deserves a third term.
What about by force ?
It could happen
It is set up with bases all over the nation and they could easily capture all major cities
I don’t think its likely but the world is heading down a bad path
diddly-squat said:
The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decent
People who crave power are the ones who least deserve it.
I assume it’s an addiction and ones needs to fuel it with ego boosts by being a bully
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
If Trump can get a constitutional amendment through Congress and ratified by the states, then he deserves a third term.
Same energy
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I’m not.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
They made a come back didn’t they
Usually a two pack with a pipe cleaner and a little bag
Cymek said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
They made a come back didn’t they
Usually a two pack with a pipe cleaner and a little bag
The comeback didn’t take the world by storm.
Apparently even back in the day, cleaning them was a whole deal. Indeed that’s an issue with any reusable straw.
Of course … the other option is to just not use a straw? I suppose it’s good for thickshakes or something but you don’t need it to consume a non viscous beverage.
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decent
This is the p[rocess that would need to be followed in order for Trump to serve a third (or more) term.
1. The House would need to pass a proposal for a Constitutional Amendment, this would require a two thirds majority (this would require all 218 GOP votes and the votes of 137 Dems)
2. The Senate would then need to approve the proposed Constitutional Amendment, again requiring a super majority (in effect this would require all 53 GOP votes, the vote of the 2 independents and the votes of 11 Dems).
3. The Amendment would need to be ratified by three quatres of all states (at the moment there are 23 states that have a GOP trifecta of house, senate and Governor so assuming all these states vote yes, then they would need an additional 15 states to agree to the proposal).
it aint gonna happen
Bogsnorkler said:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/1/15726292/elon-musk-trump-advisory-council-paris-climate-decisionElon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision
2017, for late-breaking news of the Trump-Musk bromance.
dv said:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/GOP lawmaker proposes renaming Greenland ‘Red, White, and Blueland’
—-
“This is a satire news piece, right?”
No.
“But the man was kidding, right?”
No.
“Okay but this is just some thought balloon, not a legislative prososal, right “
The Red White and Blueland Act 2025 has been introduced to Congress and will need to be debated and voted on therein.
https://buddycarter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=15398
“Okay but this is just some edgy young kid trying to get on the radar by being outrageous, right?”
Mr Carter has held various elected offices for the GOP for 20 years and this is his 6th term in Congress. He is on the Congressional Budget Committee and the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Heh!
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:You can bet that he has some people working on that.
If Trump can get a constitutional amendment through Congress and ratified by the states, then he deserves a third term.
What about by force ?
It could happen
It is set up with bases all over the nation and they could easily capture all major cities
I don’t think its likely but the world is heading down a bad path
well if a civil war breaks out, then I suppose anything is possible… but you know, there a lot of people in the US that are kind of against the idea of a tyrannical Government.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I have some with removable silicon sleeves and a nifty little brush. I bought them for mr kii when he was sick.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Assuming Trump doesn’t do a Putin and become a quasi-fascist leader who is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick and won’t leave.
Even Blain won’t be able to remove him
I’m being silly but the worry would be to what lengths will Trump go to if he loses then next election.
Trump can’t contest the next election – individual presidents can only serve for two terms
You can bet that he has some people working on that.
Yes, so he doesn’t need to.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:You can bet that he has some people working on that.
The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decentThis is the p
Without detracting from your central point, I mention there is a path to a Constitutional Convention initiated by state governments (Article V convention) but 38 out of 50 is still a big ask.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:You can bet that he has some people working on that.
The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decentThis is the p
Not legally
Stranger things have happened in history though
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decentThis is the p
Without detracting from your central point, I mention there is a path to a Constitutional Convention initiated by state governments (Article V convention) but 38 out of 50 is still a big ask.
yes, but either way you need three quarters of all states to rarity… and let’s face it, Canada is gonna be a hard nut to crack in this regard.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:If Trump can get a constitutional amendment through Congress and ratified by the states, then he deserves a third term.
What about by force ?
It could happen
It is set up with bases all over the nation and they could easily capture all major cities
I don’t think its likely but the world is heading down a bad path
well if a civil war breaks out, then I suppose anything is possible… but you know, there a lot of people in the US that are kind of against the idea of a tyrannical Government.
Which is so ironic as all the freedom nonsense is surface level and the real freedom doesn’t exist.
The user pays health system what a way to control your population.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:The nature of his campaigns and especially his character would suggest strongly he would find a way to become permanent.
The USA is set up in a manner were it is somewhat fascist in nature and the almighty dollar is more important than its citizens
Patriotism is very dangerous when it overrides common sense and decency.
The USA is top dog in ways that don’t actually mean its decentThis is the process that would need to be followed in order for Trump to serve a third (or more) term.
1. The House would need to pass a proposal for a Constitutional Amendment, this would require a two thirds majority (this would require all 218 GOP votes and the votes of 137 Dems)
2. The Senate would then need to approve the proposed Constitutional Amendment, again requiring a super majority (in effect this would require all 53 GOP votes, the vote of the 2 independents and the votes of 11 Dems).
3. The Amendment would need to be ratified by three quatres of all states (at the moment there are 23 states that have a GOP trifecta of house, senate and Governor so assuming all these states vote yes, then they would need an additional 15 states to agree to the proposal).it aint gonna happen
Not legally
Stranger things have happened in history though
my point is that at a time of hyper-partisans it broadly unlikely that you would see in essence one third of all Dems (across the country, not just in Washington) siding with the GOP.
and as I said, if he were to manage of something like this, then he would be a bonified political grand master and all the power to him…
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:What about by force ?
It could happen
It is set up with bases all over the nation and they could easily capture all major cities
I don’t think its likely but the world is heading down a bad path
well if a civil war breaks out, then I suppose anything is possible… but you know, there a lot of people in the US that are kind of against the idea of a tyrannical Government.
Which is so ironic as all the freedom nonsense is surface level and the real freedom doesn’t exist.
The user pays health system what a way to control your population.
I don’t like trump much, but it’s not all bad, the evolution of culture in the west has gone to denial of the state, which is probably pathological, the thing is some process that impedes cavalier stupid is a good idea, some bureaucracy even, lets hope it turns out alright, no mushroom clouds
you know every day is made up from the fortuitousness of a lot of bad that was prevented from happening, that’s work, not an accident
Fun fact:
The Nixon era Equal Rights Amendment passed both houses of Congress by 1972 with President Nixon’s support but did not get past ratification by 35 states before the 1982 deadline.
Since then three more states have ratified (Nevada 2017, Illinois 2018, Virginia 2020), but because of the deadline lapse the amendment would need to get through both houses of Congress again with two thirds majorities, and somehow modern Republicans are much more conservative than 1970s Republicans so that’s not going to happen.
It’s hard to get Amendments up without really widespread bipartisan support.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:This is the p
Without detracting from your central point, I mention there is a path to a Constitutional Convention initiated by state governments (Article V convention) but 38 out of 50 is still a big ask.
yes, but either way you need three quarters of all states to rarity… and let’s face it, Canada is gonna be a hard nut to crack in this regard.
Yeah but Panama and Gaza will each get 2 senators so maybe they can be won around.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I find it hard to remember the last time I used a straw.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Without detracting from your central point, I mention there is a path to a Constitutional Convention initiated by state governments (Article V convention) but 38 out of 50 is still a big ask.
yes, but either way you need three quarters of all states to rarity… and let’s face it, Canada is gonna be a hard nut to crack in this regard.
Yeah but Panama and Gaza will each get 2 senators so maybe they can be won around.
Greenland won’t be so easily bought…
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:yes, but either way you need three quarters of all states to rarity… and let’s face it, Canada is gonna be a hard nut to crack in this regard.
Yeah but Panama and Gaza will each get 2 senators so maybe they can be won around.
Greenland won’t be so easily bought…
By 2061 all of the world will be made up of US states except Puerto Rico
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I find it hard to remember the last time I used a straw.
If the tea is really hot it’s alright to drink it out of the saucer.
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The other thing is that paper straws are objectively terrible…
I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I find it hard to remember the last time I used a straw.
Somebody used one to fix a bouquet.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Yeah but Panama and Gaza will each get 2 senators so maybe they can be won around.
Greenland won’t be so easily bought…
By 2061 all of the world will be made up of US states except Puerto Rico
and DC
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
dv said:I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
I find it hard to remember the last time I used a straw.
Somebody used one to fix a bouquet.
I could never work out how a straw could fix a hole in a bucket and why you would need an axe.
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:I find it hard to remember the last time I used a straw.
Somebody used one to fix a bouquet.
I could never work out how a straw could fix a hole in a bucket and why you would need an axe.
Axe? What axe?
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:Somebody used one to fix a bouquet.
I could never work out how a straw could fix a hole in a bucket and why you would need an axe.
A piece of straw that you shove into the hole. to jam it up, I’d imagine.Axe? What axe?
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?
With an ax, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With an ax, dear Henry, an ax.
But the ax is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The ax is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.
some versions use a knife.
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:I could never work out how a straw could fix a hole in a bucket and why you would need an axe.
A piece of straw that you shove into the hole. to jam it up, I’d imagine.Axe? What axe?
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?With an ax, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With an ax, dear Henry, an ax.But the ax is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The ax is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.some versions use a knife.
I guess I learnt the knife version, which is what’s in Wikipedia. He need a sharp knife (or axe) to cut the straw.
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:A piece of straw that you shove into the hole. to jam it up, I’d imagine.
Axe? What axe?
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?With an ax, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With an ax, dear Henry, an ax.But the ax is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The ax is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.some versions use a knife.
I guess I learnt the knife version, which is what’s in Wikipedia. He need a sharp knife (or axe) to cut the straw.
I think he’s a lazy sob and is using any excuse to get out of doing some work. his missus is onto him though. it will not end well.
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Michael V said:A piece of straw that you shove into the hole. to jam it up, I’d imagine.
Axe? What axe?
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?With an ax, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With an ax, dear Henry, an ax.But the ax is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The ax is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.some versions use a knife.
I guess I learnt the knife version, which is what’s in Wikipedia. He need a sharp knife (or axe) to cut the straw.
How odd.
If I have heard the knife version, I can’t have been listening.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Greenland won’t be so easily bought…
By 2061 all of the world will be made up of US states except Puerto Rico
and DC
Lol right
dv said:
Cymek said:
dv said:I’m old enough to remember stainless steel straws.
They made a come back didn’t they
Usually a two pack with a pipe cleaner and a little bag
The comeback didn’t take the world by storm.
Apparently even back in the day, cleaning them was a whole deal. Indeed that’s an issue with any reusable straw.Of course … the other option is to just not use a straw? I suppose it’s good for thickshakes or something but you don’t need it to consume a non viscous beverage.
Just need to soak them in a bleach solution for a few hours and then rinse them. I suppose you could get organized to do it. I bought a couple of reuseable straws for Mr buffy recently, but he doesn’t use them. I might seriously think about using them myself when I go to the bakery for an iced coffee/chocolate. I don’t much like the paper straws they’ve got at the moment, I get an unpleasant taste from the paper.
buffy said:
dv said:
Cymek said:They made a come back didn’t they
Usually a two pack with a pipe cleaner and a little bag
The comeback didn’t take the world by storm.
Apparently even back in the day, cleaning them was a whole deal. Indeed that’s an issue with any reusable straw.Of course … the other option is to just not use a straw? I suppose it’s good for thickshakes or something but you don’t need it to consume a non viscous beverage.
Just need to soak them in a bleach solution for a few hours and then rinse them. I suppose you could get organized to do it. I bought a couple of reuseable straws for Mr buffy recently, but he doesn’t use them. I might seriously think about using them myself when I go to the bakery for an iced coffee/chocolate. I don’t much like the paper straws they’ve got at the moment, I get an unpleasant taste from the paper.
Bleach solution, little bottle brush, a run through the dishwasher. mr kii needed them when he wasn’t well enough to sit up. Plus I had to be extra careful about germs.
eather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 11, 2025 (Tuesday)
On February 12, 1809, Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to her second child, a son: Abraham.
Abraham Lincoln grew up to become the nation’s sixteenth president, leading the country from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865, a little over a month into his second term. He piloted the country through the Civil War, preserving the concept of American democracy. It was a system that had never been fully realized but that he still saw as “the last, best hope of earth” to prove that people could govern themselves.
Lincoln grew up in rural poverty as wealthy enslavers took over prime land in his family’s home state of Kentucky and pushed them across the Ohio River to Indiana, where Nancy Lincoln died. From there, they moved on to the frontier state of Illinois, where Abraham sowed seed, hoed fields, grubbed roots, cut trees, made fences, and harvested crops both at home and for farmers to whom his father hired him out for wages, for the elder Lincoln never managed to get his feet under him after leaving Kentucky.
In 1831, finally an adult, Abraham set out to make his mark in the world, as did thousands of other young men in his dynamic era. But making it on his own wasn’t much easier for the young Lincoln than it had been for his father. He settled in the town of New Salem, a village of about a hundred people on a bluff above the Sangamon River, where he failed as a storekeeper, then cobbled together various jobs, eking out a living splitting rails and making deliveries. Government appointments, first as a postmaster and then as a surveyor, kept him afloat and made him well enough known that in 1834, voters elected him to the state legislature, and he was on his way to prominence.
Lincoln’s time as a young man on the make had made him think hard about the relationship between Americans and their government. In his era, elite southern enslavers insisted that government had no role to play in the country except in protecting property, a concept of government that permitted them to amass fortunes thanks to the labor of their Black neighbors. But Lincoln had watched his town of New Salem die because its settlers—hard workers, eager to make the town succeed—could not dredge the Sangamon River to promote trade by themselves.
Lincoln later mused, “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,’… as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.”
Once elected to the presidency, Lincoln joined with members of his new Republican Party to make the government work for the American people. They created national money and the income tax. They took land from speculators and gave it to men willing to farm it. They established public colleges to enable poor men to get an education, the Department of Agriculture to make sure poor men had access to good seeds, and transcontinental railroads so poor men could both get to western lands and get their products back to eastern markets. And they used the power of the federal government to end human enslavement in the United States except as punishment for crime.
A generation later, under Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, progressives at the turn of the twentieth century expanded on Lincoln’s understanding of the role of government in supporting the American people. In that era, corrupt industrialists increased their profits by abusing their workers, adulterating milk with formaldehyde and painting candies with lead paint, dumping toxic waste into neighborhoods, and paying legislators to let them do whatever they wished.
Those concerned about the survival of democracy worried that individuals were not actually free when their lives were controlled by the corporations that poisoned their food and water while making it impossible for individuals to get an education or make enough money ever to become independent.
To restore the rights of individuals, progressives of both parties argued that individuals needed a strong, active government to protect them from the excesses and powerful industrialists of the modern world. Under the new governmental system that Theodore Roosevelt pioneered, the government cleaned up the sewage systems and tenements in cities, protected public lands, invested in public health and education, raised taxes, and called for universal health insurance, all to protect the ability of individuals to live freely without being crushed by outside influences.
Reformers sought, as Roosevelt said, to return to “an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.”
In the 1920s, the idea that the government should be run as a business eclipsed Roosevelt’s progressive government, but after the Great Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s offered a “new deal for the American people.” That New Deal meant that the government would no longer work simply to promote business, but would also regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, and promote infrastructure. World War II accelerated the construction of that active government, and by the time it was over, Americans quite liked the new system.
After the war, Republican Dwight Eisenhower embraced the active government. He explained that in the modern world, the government must protect people from disasters created by forces outside their control, and it must provide social services that would protect people from unemployment, old age, illness, accidents, unsafe food and drugs, homelessness, and disease.
He called his version of the New Deal “a middle way between untrammeled freedom of the individual and the demands of the welfare of the whole Nation.” One of his supporters echoed Lincoln when he explained, “If a job has to be done to meet the needs of the people, and no one else can do it, then it is the proper function of the federal government.” Both Republicans and Democrats embraced this idea, which became known as the “liberal consensus.” In the second half of the twentieth century, they expanded the role of government to protect civil rights, the environment, access to healthcare and education, equal opportunity in employment, and so on.
But those who objected to the liberal consensus rejected the idea that the government had any role to play in the economy or in social welfare and made no distinction between the liberal consensus and international communism. They insisted that the country was made up of “liberals,” who were pushing the nation toward socialism, and “conservatives” like themselves, who were standing alone against the Democrats and Republicans who made up a majority of the country and liked the new business regulations, safety net, infrastructure, and protection of civil rights.
That reactionary mindset came to dominate the Republican Party after Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980. Republicans began to insist that anyone who embraced the liberal consensus of the past several decades was un-American and had no right to govern, no matter how many Americans supported that ideology. And now, forty-five years later, we are watching as a group of reactionaries dismantle the government that serves the needs of ordinary Americans and work, once again, to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of an elite.
The idea of a small government that serves the needs of a few wealthy people, Lincoln warned in his era, is “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.”
sarahs mum said:
eather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 11, 2025 (Tuesday)………………………………….CUT………………………………………
https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=https%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/2248444/
Thanks.
kii said:
buffy said:
dv said:
The comeback didn’t take the world by storm.
Apparently even back in the day, cleaning them was a whole deal. Indeed that’s an issue with any reusable straw.Of course … the other option is to just not use a straw? I suppose it’s good for thickshakes or something but you don’t need it to consume a non viscous beverage.
Just need to soak them in a bleach solution for a few hours and then rinse them. I suppose you could get organized to do it. I bought a couple of reuseable straws for Mr buffy recently, but he doesn’t use them. I might seriously think about using them myself when I go to the bakery for an iced coffee/chocolate. I don’t much like the paper straws they’ve got at the moment, I get an unpleasant taste from the paper.
Bleach solution, little bottle brush, a run through the dishwasher. mr kii needed them when he wasn’t well enough to sit up. Plus I had to be extra careful about germs.
what yous need is a reusable scroll up silicone or double semicircle clip together metal straw
We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
SCIENCE said:
We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I wonder how all those isolationists who voted for Trump now feel about this plan to entrench the US in the very centre of Middle Eastern turmoil for generations to come.
Bubblecar said:
SCIENCE said:
We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I wonder how all those isolationists who voted for Trump now feel about this plan to entrench the US in the very centre of Middle Eastern turmoil for generations to come.
shrug they have the Philippines so why not sink a few more haustoria into diversified hosts
Bubblecar said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I wonder how all those isolationists who voted for Trump now feel about this plan to entrench the US in the very centre of Middle Eastern turmoil for generations to come.
Going by his current approval polls: just great!
It’s a weird country and hard for outsiders to understand.
SCIENCE said:
We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Bubblecar said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I wonder how all those isolationists who voted for Trump now feel about this plan to entrench the US in the very centre of Middle Eastern turmoil for generations to come.
Getting Americans killed in large numbers, alongside large numbers of indigenes, is part of the American heritage, and therefore necessary to Make America Great Again.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
captain_spalding said:
Bubblecar said:
SCIENCE said:
We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I wonder how all those isolationists who voted for Trump now feel about this plan to entrench the US in the very centre of Middle Eastern turmoil for generations to come.
Getting Americans killed in large numbers, alongside large numbers of indigenes, is part of the American heritage, and therefore necessary to Make America Great Again.
look some cuntries tell their people to have smaller families so that they can rise out of poverty, other cuntries aren’t shitholes so they tell their women to keep popping them out in the kitchen and so the only way to keep that wealth concentrated trickling down is to make sure plenty of those NPCs get wasted on the front line collecting more oil and other riches
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
but there is gas.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
Somebody has to pick the goddamn cotton.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
Somebody has to pick the goddamn cotton.
That’s obsolete thinking
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
That’s sorted (settled) then. Well done.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
That’s sorted (settled) then. Well done.
As near to Mar-a-Lago as possible.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
But….but it’s full of gaga wrinkles, if your go to buy a bottle of milk it takes an hour at the check-out while some old codger rifles through his wallet looking for the correct money.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
Yeah, you’re probably right about all that.
But, think of the opportunities it presents for milking money out of the the Trump fanatics!
‘Come and live in Trump’s Own Country! Your own beachside condominium apartment! Right next to the Holy Land! Visit all the places you’ve heard about in the Bible!
Own all the guns you want! Employ Palestinian servants for peanuts (and get them deported, no trouble, if they get at all uppity). Live in a country that’s run how a country should be run! Never again be bothered by elections and voting!’ etc. etc.
You take their buy-off-the-plan money, and then drop ‘em like hot potatoes. They’re so stupid that they’ll never come after you.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza…We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it
I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
Yeah, you’re probably right about all that.
But, think of the opportunities it presents for milking money out of the the Trump fanatics!
‘Come and live in Trump’s Own Country! Your own beachside condominium apartment! Right next to the Holy Land! Visit all the places you’ve heard about in the Bible!
Own all the guns you want! Employ Palestinian servants for peanuts (and get them deported, no trouble, if they get at all uppity). Live in a country that’s run how a country should be run! Never again be bothered by elections and voting!’ etc. etc.
You take their buy-off-the-plan money, and then drop ‘em like hot potatoes. They’re so stupid that they’ll never come after you.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
Somebody has to pick the goddamn cotton.
That’s obsolete thinking
Yeah, but, if you do it right, you can import the Palestinians at no cost (except to the US taxpayer), and work ‘em without pay.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:And, as part of the deal, there will be no more Gazan Palestinians. They will have been shuffled off to other countries, never to come back.
Nobody will take them.
There’s between 2 – 3 million of them. No country in the region can absorb immigrants on that sort of scale.
They’ll have to be resettled in Florida.
But….but it’s full of gaga wrinkles, if your go to buy a bottle of milk it takes an hour at the check-out while some old codger rifles through his wallet looking for the correct money.
You really should be more patient of old codgers. You will be here soon enough.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:I think that perhaps he sees it as his retirement plan.
He can own the whole place, appoint himself as an absolute monarch, with a line of succession, and just have his own little country.
At the very least, a Plan B bolt-hole to run to if similar plans forthe US don’t work out, with Israel to protect him from extradition and consequences.
Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
but there is gas.
Yes!
Gaz-a-Lago may be one thing, but it is the large gas field off the coast which is believed to be the attraction for Trump’s interest in that part of the Middle East.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/trumps-gaza-takeover-all-about-natural-gas/#
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
but there is gas.
Yes!
Gaz-a-Lago may be one thing, but it is the large gas field off the coast which is believed to be the attraction for Trump’s interest in that part of the Middle East.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/trumps-gaza-takeover-all-about-natural-gas/#
i read somewhere sometime of a Chaney corp/Murdoch/Rothschild interest…
The racist family legacy of Elon Musk
AussieDJ said:
The racist family legacy of Elon Musk
there was a time when if your thesis contained the word multiculturalism it was bonus points. but then it was bad,
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:Blah.
Gaza is a dump, and will stay that way for decades, even if real efforts are made to rebuild it. It can’t be done overnight. Trump will be long dead by the time it comes to fruition. He is not the sort who will leave his mansions and his golf courses and fine restaurants and blah, to go and live in a war-ravaged hellscape. Nor will his wife.
but there is gas.
Yes!
Gaz-a-Lago may be one thing, but it is the large gas field off the coast which is believed to be the attraction for Trump’s interest in that part of the Middle East.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/trumps-gaza-takeover-all-about-natural-gas/#
Drill baby Drill. is his catch phrase that he probably stole from somewhere else.
Read Jeff Tiedrich’s piece on yesterday’s Oval Office press conference.
Watched the child known as The Human Shield pick his nose, stare at the old man snoozing at the desk, and perch like a trained monkey on fElon Musk’s shoulders.
Random thought…fElon is trump’s new Russian handler.
Anyway…
19m ago
‘God bless the people of Russia’
Riley Stuart in Washington DC profile image
By Riley Stuart in Washington DC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is speaking right now, and says it’s time to end “this ridiculous war”. Admittedly she added God Bless Ukraine as well.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-live-updates/104930150
Easy breezy Resistance task: Flood Google with this:
1. Google Gulf of Mexico.
2. it says Gulf of America
3. Click three little dots to the right of it
4. hit “Send Feedback”
5. hit “Gulf Of America”
6. hit “Inaccurate content”.
7. hit “Incorrect”, then tell them its name: ‘This body of water is the Gulf of Mexico’
8. Repeat task often.
kii said:
Easy breezy Resistance task: Flood Google with this:
1. Google Gulf of Mexico.
2. it says Gulf of America
3. Click three little dots to the right of it
4. hit “Send Feedback”
5. hit “Gulf Of America”
6. hit “Inaccurate content”.
7. hit “Incorrect”, then tell them its name: ‘This body of water is the Gulf of Mexico’
8. Repeat task often.
Pffft. AI will put that in the bin quickly enough.
kii said:
Musk’s son, X, caught telling trump to “shut the fuck up” and saying “you’re not the president”
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
Lololol
Michael V said:
kii said:
Musk’s son, X, caught telling trump to “shut the fuck up” and saying “you’re not the president”
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
we got redirected to https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF-wjbyOoX4/ which is sounded
roughbarked said:
19m ago
‘God bless the people of Russia’
Riley Stuart in Washington DC profile imageBy Riley Stuart in Washington DC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is speaking right now, and says it’s time to end “this ridiculous war”. Admittedly she added God Bless Ukraine as well.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-live-updates/104930150
so the media are fanning flames again
kii said:
Lololol
LOLOL
Love it!
:)
captain_spalding said:
Yeah.
I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
diddly-squat said:
I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
For example?
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
Thank you.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
Thank you.
Tamb said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
Thank you.
I’m surprised that there has not been a proliferation of Trumpvilles.
Certainly a lot of Trumpviles around now.
Tamb said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
Thank you.
I’m surprised that there has not been a proliferation of Trumpvilles.
Perhaps you speak too soon:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/11/from-hoovervilles-to-trumpvilles-homeless-crisis-deepens/
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
Thank you.
Well the welcome to country is frowned upon by our conservatives and Dutton has indicated that it will be gone when he gets elected. He’ll be ranting about giving things aboriginal names too if he stays in long enough.
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:
Michael V said:Thank you.
I’m surprised that there has not been a proliferation of Trumpvilles.Certainly a lot of Trumpviles around now.
Hegseth has said that a return to the pre-2014 Ukrainian border is an unrealistic objective and that NATO membership is off the table for the country.
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:I’m surprised that there has not been a proliferation of Trumpvilles.
Certainly a lot of Trumpviles around now.
With emphasis on the vile?
looks that way.
roughbarked said:
19m ago
‘God bless the people of Russia’
Riley Stuart in Washington DC profile imageBy Riley Stuart in Washington DC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is speaking right now, and says it’s time to end “this ridiculous war”. Admittedly she added God Bless Ukraine as well.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-live-updates/104930150
They should offer to give Alaska back
diddly-squat said:
Hegseth has said that a return to the pre-2014 Ukrainian border is an unrealistic objective and that NATO membership is off the table for the country.
About time the US was kicked out of NATO.
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I find it interesting that when the left insisted that names of things be changed the right were outraged, now the right are doing it and the left appear to be outraged…
For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
You really like to stir the shit, don’t you?
Michael V said:
kii said:
Musk’s son, X, caught telling trump to “shut the fuck up” and saying “you’re not the president”
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
I’d need to check with a lip reader.
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:Hegseth has said that a return to the pre-2014 Ukrainian border is an unrealistic objective and that NATO membership is off the table for the country.
About time the US was kicked out of NATO.
I’m not sure that would be a very good idea… Hegseth also said that the US wants European countries to increased their defense spend commitment from 2% of GDP to 5%.
dv said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Musk’s son, X, caught telling trump to “shut the fuck up” and saying “you’re not the president”
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
I’d need to check with a lip reader.
Fine. You have fun with that.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
19m ago
‘God bless the people of Russia’
Riley Stuart in Washington DC profile imageBy Riley Stuart in Washington DC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is speaking right now, and says it’s time to end “this ridiculous war”. Admittedly she added God Bless Ukraine as well.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-live-updates/104930150
They should offer to give Alaska back
Alaska was purchased, IIRC.
As is proposed for Greenland (Red White and Blue Land).
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:Hegseth has said that a return to the pre-2014 Ukrainian border is an unrealistic objective and that NATO membership is off the table for the country.
About time the US was kicked out of NATO.
I’m not sure that would be a very good idea… Hegseth also said that the US wants European countries to increased their defense spend commitment from 2% of GDP to 5%.
We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
For example?
the removal of confederate names from halls and schools etc… (left changing names) and the Trump administration changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico…
I just find it interesting given that names of things change all the time..
You really like to stir the shit, don’t you?
‘sif, everyone knows that being anti-fascist is as bad as being fascist¡
kii said:
dv said:
Michael V said:
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
I’d need to check with a lip reader.
Fine. You have fun with that.
we will
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Musk’s son, X, caught telling trump to “shut the fuck up” and saying “you’re not the president”
I’ll look at that after Mrs V wakes up. I don’t want to wake her with computer file noises.
we got redirected to https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF-wjbyOoX4/ which is sounded
Same here.
:)
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:About time the US was kicked out of NATO.
I’m not sure that would be a very good idea… Hegseth also said that the US wants European countries to increased their defense spend commitment from 2% of GDP to 5%.
We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not sure that would be a very good idea… Hegseth also said that the US wants European countries to increased their defense spend commitment from 2% of GDP to 5%.
We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not sure that would be a very good idea… Hegseth also said that the US wants European countries to increased their defense spend commitment from 2% of GDP to 5%.
We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
MAD mk II
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
That seems like a very bad idea to me.
Except it has near zero chance of being implemented.
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:We really need a new military alliance of all Western countries and current NATO members excluding the USA, formed urgently and massively re-armed, to counter the Russian threat and beyond.
This new alliance should include nuclear weapons for all members, forming an arsenal that dwarfs the combined arsenals of Russia and USA, who may well be joining forces against us eventually.
I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
MAD mk II
MAD Max
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
Kingy said:
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:I’m not sure a less strong version of NATO along with a proliferation of nuclear weapons as a particularly good way to increase security of the Continent
MAD mk II
MAD Max
:)
Well, Trump keeps yammering about withdrawing the US from NATO, and that might not be an entirely bad thing.
captain_spalding said:
Well, Trump keeps yammering about withdrawing the US from NATO, and that might not be an entirely bad thing.
- US withdraws from NATO
- Ukraine applies to join NATO.
- US can’t veto Ukraine’s joining NATO, because the US is not in NATO any more.
- A reasonably sane government gets elected in the US.
- US rejoins NATO.
- Cake had, and eaten, too.
he’s so altruistic
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
I doubt that – even now there’s not a whole heap that the administration can do change up the underlying makeup of the current military complex
Michael V said:
dv said:
roughbarked said:
19m ago
‘God bless the people of Russia’
Riley Stuart in Washington DC profile imageBy Riley Stuart in Washington DC
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is speaking right now, and says it’s time to end “this ridiculous war”. Admittedly she added God Bless Ukraine as well.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-live-updates/104930150
They should offer to give Alaska back
Alaska was purchased, IIRC.
As is proposed for Greenland (Red White and Blue Land).
trade
captain_spalding said:
Well, Trump keeps yammering about withdrawing the US from NATO, and that might not be an entirely bad thing.
- US withdraws from NATO
- Ukraine applies to join NATO.
- US can’t veto Ukraine’s joining NATO, because the US is not in NATO any more.
- A reasonably sane government gets elected in the US.
- US rejoins NATO.
- Cake had, and eaten, too.
the US withdrawing from NATO would be a terrible thing – and to be clear Hegseth today reconfirmed the US’s commitment to it’s membership in NATO
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
Bubblecar said:Not less strong – the aim would be to make it massively stronger than the current NATO, asap.
hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and money
Cymek said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:
hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and money
well who doesn’t
diddly-squat said:
– and to be clear Hegseth today reconfirmed the US’s commitment to it’s membership in NATO
…and Donny could wake up tomorrow with some bee in his bonnet, and bam! another ‘Executive Order’ signed.
Cymek said:
Bubblecar said:
diddly-squat said:hard to imagine that it could be stronger without the US.. this administration is just a blip.. things like the NATO alliance are bigger than just one term of government.
I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and money
AUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
inconvenient truth: CHINA is a geopolitical safeguard
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.
OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
or humiliation
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
Bubblecar said:I think you’ll find that nutcase administrations are likely to become the new US normal for quite some time, maybe forever.
Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and moneyAUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
LOL
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
I’m not saying that changing the names of things is a bad idea, or even not warranted… I’m just saying that both sides of the isle have done their fair share of name changing.
To be clear, I have no inherent objection to the US changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in the same way I have no inherent objection to the decision to change the names of schools or military bases, etc…
I just find the politics of it interesting
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and moneyAUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
China are actively asserting territorial claims in the South China Sea and have their gaze set squarely on Taiwan.. they are by far the largest geo-political threat in the Pacific.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Australia should distance itself from the USA.
This them and us concept for who are the bad guys in the world.
The USA has more blood on its hands as China and Russia combined and they are the good guys.
They are exploitative and bullies and with Trump, FMD what a piece of shit.
By a metric of decency they rank so very low to almost be a fascist dictatorship.
They are great if you like military might and moneyAUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:AUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
We are all humans and until we think of everyone as deserving of being treated decency the world will fall further into the abyss.
Too many vested interests compromise our humanity
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:AUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
dude.. don’t in any way be fooled… China are the actual bad guys.. they have very clear and very specific objectives and they mean to execute them.
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
That isn’t acceptable at all.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
AUKUS is a good thing, China are a real geo-political threat and we (Australia in of itself) are not equipped to go it alone. It’s in everyone’s best interest to cooperate.
China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
we don’t believe in these comparisons “Nazi Germany was the worst, Israel are trying to emulate them, USSA are pretty much the same as the successor USSR, CHINA same same” it’s all whataboutery and imperialist Europe fucking all of Africa doesn’t mean we’re all good as long as we only fuck 77% of Africa, just consider what is being done in the current setting and call it like it is
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
that was yesterday unless wait you’re in the USSA aren’t you
Cymek said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.That isn’t acceptable at all.
note that the USSA are the actual bad guys who have very clear and very specific objectives and who mean to execute them
SCIENCE said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.that was yesterday unless wait you’re in the USSA aren’t you
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
That isn’t acceptable at all.
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
that was yesterday unless wait you’re in the USSA aren’t you
It hit the TV news this morning.
yeah fair call we agree with yous that intolerance is not tolerable
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
I’m not saying that changing the names of things is a bad idea, or even not warranted… I’m just saying that both sides of the aisle* have done their fair share of name changing.
To be clear, I have no inherent objection to the US changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in the same way I have no inherent objection to the decision to change the names of schools or military bases, etc…
I just find the politics of it interesting
*fixed
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:China isn’t doing anything others haven’t done before.
How many people have they murdered in the name of security in the last 50 years
Far less than Western nations have in Iraq and Afghanistan, two places they completely fucked up.
The USA uses other nations and would chuck us away in heartbeat if we are no longer useful.
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
FA & FO.
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
LOL
Point well made.
:)
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
I’m not pro-China, they are shits craving power
I don’t buy them as being the bad guys that is all
Western nations aren’t the good guys.
Sure we might allow more freedom but no way can we claim we haven’t done abhorrent things to maintain power.
I am astonished people buy into all this crap.
Can people not think for themselves.
Like at the moment with Israel, the government may as well be Nazi Germany for their programme of genocide.
Fuck them.
Anti semite behaviour fair enough its disgusting
Call Israel out, but no politics get in the way, hundreds of thousands of people dead who cares as long as we don’t upset them.
Don’t mention the war
Today’s news: Sydney — Two Australian nurses have been removed from their jobs over a video that appears to show them bragging they would kill Israeli patients in their hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
FA & FO.
why were they spamming social media while at work anyway
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
I’m not saying that changing the names of things is a bad idea, or even not warranted… I’m just saying that both sides of the isle have done their fair share of name changing.
To be clear, I have no inherent objection to the US changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in the same way I have no inherent objection to the decision to change the names of schools or military bases, etc…
I just find the politics of it interesting
Okay but you seem to have skipped my central distinction between stuff that the USA renaming stuff it owns, and renaming stuff it shares.
Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
On one hand, the renaming of the GOM is not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. It’s kind of funny and pathetic but I wouldn’t include it in the top 1000 things troubling me about the USA rn.OTOH I do think d-s is drawing a false comparison, even if we imagine there is a “Left” in the USA.
Fort Lee was named after one of the USA’s sworn enemies, General Lee, and that was always kind of weird. I mean they didn’t name any of their bases in Okinawa after Tojo did they? But more to the point: Fort Lee was the USA’s to name. It is ultimately their business. Whereas the GOM is an international body of water. If Australia remames the Pacific Ocean to the Shane Warne Memorial Baths we can expect some pushback.
I’m not saying that changing the names of things is a bad idea, or even not warranted… I’m just saying that both sides of the isle have done their fair share of name changing.
To be clear, I have no inherent objection to the US changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in the same way I have no inherent objection to the decision to change the names of schools or military bases, etc…
I just find the politics of it interesting
Okay but you seem to have skipped my central distinction between stuff that the USA renaming stuff it owns, and renaming stuff it shares.
not really.. I mean it’s not changing the name of the GOM for everyone else, it’s just for them.
diddly-squat said:
Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
diddly-squat said:
Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
Hey here’s something to consider, if Nazi Israel ethnically cleanses Palestine so effectively that no further Islamic terrorists come out of the occupied liberated territories, that’s a good thing, no¿
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
and that’s a bad thing, right?
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Then revert to my first sentence
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I’d assume a smaller government is about control and not reducing waste
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Then revert to my first sentence
why do that when one can hide bad things by giving them hypothetical cover, and manufacture and flaunt good things by hiding the bad things
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Seems like Yes Minister’s ideal hospital with no patients or medics.
But it was a state of the art spiffing hospital with machines that went beep and everything.
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Seems like Yes Minister’s ideal hospital with no patients or medics.
Most government workers would try to do their best I’d assume.
Pride and work ethic (or is that laughable, I’d hope not)
Of course bloat will exist but likely far less than is claimed.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Surely to know that we would need to weigh that against any negative effects.
At the moment it seems to be focused not on eliminating waste but on eliminating vital functions, so I think your question is somewhat outlandisly hypothetical.
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Then revert to my first sentence
I’d suggest then we probably also need to consider where the money associated with the funding goes
I mean review of government spending is hardly a new thing.. the US military has an annual budget of $820B
Cymek said:
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:
I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Seems like Yes Minister’s ideal hospital with no patients or medics.
Most government workers would try to do their best I’d assume.
Pride and work ethic (or is that laughable, I’d hope not)
Of course bloat will exist but likely far less than is claimed.
imagine if there was a solution to inefficient and low grade work which could turn lower grade workers into higher grade workers and turn lesser efficiencies to greater efficiencies and transform poor productivity into good productivity and imagine if that solution was called education
fucking damn
Peak Warming Man said:
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Seems like Yes Minister’s ideal hospital with no patients or medics.But it was a state of the art spiffing hospital with machines that went beep and everything.
One of the US’s main problem is that the federal government’s revenue is so low, only about 18% of GDP.
This compares to around 26% for Australia.
It just doesn’t leave them enough money to do what a modern government needs to do … not even allowing for their high military budget. Successive governments since the 1980s have had the idea that cutting taxes on the extremely wealthy is a great way to balance the budget.
There were some budget surpluses under Clinton but before that the previous administration to see a string of surpluses was Eisenhower, and he managed to carry out major infrastructure programs and expanded welfare and education programs along with it. You don’t often hear modern Republicans reflecting on Eisenhower’s legacy as the last fiscally responsible Republican president, because he did it by having top tax rates of 90%.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
and that’s a bad thing, right?
It is, if the employees already have enough to do, and are doing it.
And if the ‘efficiency drive’ isn’t motivated just by the cupidity of those behind it.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
and that’s a bad thing, right?
It is, if the employees already have enough to do, and are doing it.
And if the ‘efficiency drive’ isn’t motivated just by the cupidity of those behind it.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
and that’s a bad thing, right?
It is, if the employees already have enough to do, and are doing it.
And if the ‘efficiency drive’ isn’t motivated just by the cupidity of those behind it.
‘…is just motivated…’
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I mean it was intended as a hypothetical question
Then revert to my first sentence
I’d suggest then we probably also need to consider where the money associated with the funding goes
I mean review of government spending is hardly a new thing.. the US military has an annual budget of $820B
Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
and that’s a bad thing, right?
It is, if the employees already have enough to do, and are doing it.
And if the ‘efficiency drive’ isn’t motivated just by the cupidity of those behind it.
‘…is just motivated…’
look if he promised to cut inefficiencies then he’ll be cutting inefficiency
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/hate-speech-bots-twitter-report/104923196
wait
LOL all you believers
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:To quote (more or less) from a Dilbert comic:
Manager: We look forward to increased efficiency and productivity in the coming year.
Employee: That’s because there’ll be fewer of us, with more work to do, right?
and that’s a bad thing, right?
It is, if the employees already have enough to do, and are doing it.
And if the ‘efficiency drive’ isn’t motivated just by the cupidity of those behind it.
but checking to see if there is any excess is ok, right?
diddly-squat said:
Question: if DOGE ends up reshaping federal government in a way that reduces waste and increases the efficiency of spending, will it have been be bad thing?
Establishing that working outside the laws of a country is a good thing?
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Then revert to my first sentence
I’d suggest then we probably also need to consider where the money associated with the funding goes
I mean review of government spending is hardly a new thing.. the US military has an annual budget of $820B
Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
World War Is Good
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Then revert to my first sentence
I’d suggest then we probably also need to consider where the money associated with the funding goes
I mean review of government spending is hardly a new thing.. the US military has an annual budget of $820B
Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
It depends a lot on if its done fairly or just a way to get rid of workers with no consideration for it running properly.
We had someone high-up decide to restrict our ability to access information to do our job.
It now means more delays slowing everything down.
It was supposedly as people misused it, we already have means to track this.
They don’t have any idea of the impact as they don’t know how the various processes work
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I’d suggest then we probably also need to consider where the money associated with the funding goes
I mean review of government spending is hardly a new thing.. the US military has an annual budget of $820B
Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
LOL pretty sure the playing field is clear here so see yous all in a bit
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
With Trump and Musk I’d assume its for vested interests, pure spite and an absolute lack of care for anyone not a rich white man
Here’s a summary of the conversation.
d-s “Spending reviews are normal, but The Left is complaining about DOGE”
dv “People aren’t criticising the fact that there’s a spending review which are indeed normal. The fact that spending reviews are normal doesn’t mean DOGE is.”
d-s “oh so you think people aren’t criticising DOGE??”
Fuck me ragged and sideways
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Dude, no one is criticising the fact that there is a “review of government spending”, something that occurs under every administration. What possible point could you be making? That reviews of government spending are normal, and therefore there must be nothing wrong with this one? You’re sounding a bit silly today. “I notice you didn’t complain when something good was done, but now something bad is being done you suddenly complain! Curious!”
are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
shrug I mean you win elections and you get to enact your idea of government I suppose; I’m not failing to comprehend anything.
and to be clear, I think people have been very critical of this spending review for no other reason than because it was brought about by Trump and is being managed by Musk. Now some of those reasons are valid and some are just silly.
I guess I just don’t really mind the notion of the cards all being thrown in the air every now and then – we’ve seen the courts step in and we’ll continue to do so.. there are guard rails in place, even if people think there aren’t.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
shrug I mean you win elections and you get to enact your idea of government I suppose; I’m not failing to comprehend anything.
and to be clear, I think people have been very critical of this spending review for no other reason than because it was brought about by Trump and is being managed by Musk. Now some of those reasons are valid and some are just silly.
I guess I just don’t really mind the notion of the cards all being thrown in the air every now and then – we’ve seen the courts step in and we’ll continue to do so.. there are guard rails in place, even if people think there aren’t.
I suggest people are critical because it is being not being done in the way it is supposed to be done – in consultation with Congress. And many aspects appear to be outright illegal, with people accessing information they are not cleared to access.
SCIENCE said:
LOL pretty sure the playing field is clear here so see yous all in a bit
Same, out
dv said:
Here’s a summary of the conversation.d-s “Spending reviews are normal, but The Left is complaining about DOGE”
dv “People aren’t criticising the fact that there’s a spending review which are indeed normal. The fact that spending reviews are normal doesn’t mean DOGE is.”
d-s “oh so you think people aren’t criticising DOGE??”
Fuck me ragged and sideways
IKD dv.. it just feels like whenever one side says black, the other says white.. and I know that both sides suck arse at working colabroatively.. in a lot of ways that is what makes me so certian that there will be no changes like third terms etc…
diddly-squat said:
but checking to see if there is any excess is ok, right?
I worked in an office where they were keen to cut the operating budget, mostly so that the office management could hand back some money, and score some brownie points upstairs.
So, it was scrimp and save and cut and reduce everywhere. And, we got through the year, just barely, and some money was given back, and a pat on the head was given to a couple of people.
The money saved and handed back was used to balance the bottom line in the big book, helpingto cover overruns by offices which had overspent their budgets.
As we had demonstrated that we didn’t need all that money, our next year’s budget was reduced, accordingly. The offices which overspent did not have their budgets reduced.
In the following year, we found ourselves struggling (and, in some cases, failing) to find the funds to cover cost increases or new initiatives in the work.
By all means, save money where it can be found to be saved. Just be careful about what the roll-on effects of those savings might be.
buffy said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
shrug I mean you win elections and you get to enact your idea of government I suppose; I’m not failing to comprehend anything.
and to be clear, I think people have been very critical of this spending review for no other reason than because it was brought about by Trump and is being managed by Musk. Now some of those reasons are valid and some are just silly.
I guess I just don’t really mind the notion of the cards all being thrown in the air every now and then – we’ve seen the courts step in and we’ll continue to do so.. there are guard rails in place, even if people think there aren’t.
I suggest people are critical because it is being not being done in the way it is supposed to be done – in consultation with Congress. And many aspects appear to be outright illegal, with people accessing information they are not cleared to access.
the information access isn’t what has been questioned as legal or illegal, it’s things like labor laws and appropriation that are being litigated.
That said, how is a spending review supposed to be undertaken?
dv said:
dv “People aren’t criticising the fact that there’s a spending review which are indeed normal. The fact that spending reviews are normal doesn’t mean DOGE is.”
I may be wrong, but I believe its the US Government Accountability Office that usually tackles this stuff.
People were laughing about the fact Trump created a duplicate of the USGAO in DOGE; having two departments doing the same thing is the very model of inefficiency
“GAO provides Congress, the heads of executive agencies, and the public with timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
“Our work is done at the request of congressional committees or subcommittees or is statutorily required by public laws or committee reports, per our Congressional Protocols.
“In 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office celebrated a century of service as a source of objective, non-partisan information on government operations. GAO plays a key role in helping Congress improve the performance of government, ensuring transparency and saving money.”
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:are you really suggesting that people aren’t criticising what DOGE are doing?
I’ll be clear, I think the way they are approaching this is fraught with danger because it opens up any number of legal questions and will ultimately call into question any findings.. but I’m not sure that disruption is all that bad of an idea even few decades
What the actual fuck. Please read what I said.
No one is criticising the fact that there is a review of finances. This is a normal thing.
People including me are criticising the specific things that DOGE is doing. Honestly I think I’ve made my point 100% clearly and your failure to comprehend is baffling.
Every government runs regular efficiency drives, that’s accepted.
DOGE’s elimination of whole departments whose role is to protect consumers or public health or communications or education warrants criticism.
These are easy concepts.
shrug I mean you win elections and you get to enact your idea of government I suppose; I’m not failing to comprehend anything.
and to be clear, I think people have been very critical of this spending review for no other reason than because it was brought about by Trump and is being managed by Musk. Now some of those reasons are valid and some are just silly.
I guess I just don’t really mind the notion of the cards all being thrown in the air every now and then – we’ve seen the courts step in and we’ll continue to do so.. there are guard rails in place, even if people think there aren’t.
What’s wrong with you?
diddly-squat said:
I guess I just don’t really mind the notion of the cards all being thrown in the air every now and then – we’ve seen the courts step in and we’ll continue to do so.. there are guard rails in place, even if people think there aren’t.
Mr Stonekettle put it quite aptly…
“Trump has signed HUNDREDS of executive orders in the three weeks he’s been in office.
Not one of those orders has lowered the cost of groceries, energy, gas, housing, medicine, medical care, or the price of goods. None were intended to. Just the opposite. In point of fact, every action Trump takes has RAISES the cost of living for every American, even billionaires.
But tell me again how you voted for this assclown because you were mad about eggs and trans people existing.”
Neophyte said:
Mr Stonekettle put it quite aptly…“Trump has signed HUNDREDS of executive orders in the three weeks he’s been in office.
Not one of those orders has lowered the cost of groceries, energy, gas, housing, medicine, medical care, or the price of goods. None were intended to. Just the opposite. In point of fact, every action Trump takes has RAISES the cost of living for every American, even billionaires.
But tell me again how you voted for this assclown because you were mad about eggs and trans people existing.”
Eggs in the US were $7.86 per dozen on 06 Feb. Their price plummeted to $7.34 on 07 Feb, but has steaily climbed again to $7.55 on 12 Feb.
Petrol was $3.04 per gallon on 13 Jan (under Biden) but rose to $3.11 on 20 Jan. As at 10 Feb, it’s $3.13.
captain_spalding said:
Neophyte said:
Mr Stonekettle put it quite aptly…“Trump has signed HUNDREDS of executive orders in the three weeks he’s been in office.
Not one of those orders has lowered the cost of groceries, energy, gas, housing, medicine, medical care, or the price of goods. None were intended to. Just the opposite. In point of fact, every action Trump takes has RAISES the cost of living for every American, even billionaires.
But tell me again how you voted for this assclown because you were mad about eggs and trans people existing.”
Eggs in the US were $7.86 per dozen on 06 Feb. Their price plummeted to $7.34 on 07 Feb, but has steaily climbed again to $7.55 on 12 Feb.
Petrol was $3.04 per gallon on 13 Jan (under Biden) but rose to $3.11 on 20 Jan. As at 10 Feb, it’s $3.13.
Has Trump affected the number of trans people?
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
Neophyte said:
Mr Stonekettle put it quite aptly…“Trump has signed HUNDREDS of executive orders in the three weeks he’s been in office.
Not one of those orders has lowered the cost of groceries, energy, gas, housing, medicine, medical care, or the price of goods. None were intended to. Just the opposite. In point of fact, every action Trump takes has RAISES the cost of living for every American, even billionaires.
But tell me again how you voted for this assclown because you were mad about eggs and trans people existing.”
Eggs in the US were $7.86 per dozen on 06 Feb. Their price plummeted to $7.34 on 07 Feb, but has steaily climbed again to $7.55 on 12 Feb.
Petrol was $3.04 per gallon on 13 Jan (under Biden) but rose to $3.11 on 20 Jan. As at 10 Feb, it’s $3.13.
Has Trump affected the number of trans people?
Stayed the same, that’s something he cannot change.
Making so many changes in such short time is unsound I think.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Making so many changes in such short time is unsound I think.
It was Steve Bannon’s advice to Trump, advice that Trump remembered: ‘flood the scene with shit’.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘executive orders’ so as to create chaos and confusion, to create an atmosphere where no-one knows from day to day what is, and what isn’t, they way to go about doing things, and in which Trump and the Space Nazi can pursue their individual agendas of revenge without interference, while courts and authorities are running in a hundred directions to try to rein in or make sense of all of the orders issued.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Making so many changes in such short time is unsound I think.It was Steve Bannon’s advice to Trump, advice that Trump remembered: ‘flood the scene with shit’.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘executive orders’ so as to create chaos and confusion, to create an atmosphere where no-one knows from day to day what is, and what isn’t, they way to go about doing things, and in which Trump and the Space Nazi can pursue their individual agendas of revenge without interference, while courts and authorities are running in a hundred directions to try to rein in or make sense of all of the orders issued.
Smoke screens are not to be trusted.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
Eggs in the US were $7.86 per dozen on 06 Feb. Their price plummeted to $7.34 on 07 Feb, but has steaily climbed again to $7.55 on 12 Feb.
Petrol was $3.04 per gallon on 13 Jan (under Biden) but rose to $3.11 on 20 Jan. As at 10 Feb, it’s $3.13.
Has Trump affected the number of trans people?
Stayed the same, that’s something he cannot change.
The number will slowly go down, as they lose their jobs and either starve to death or suicide.
:(
Michael V said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Has Trump affected the number of trans people?
Stayed the same, that’s something he cannot change.
The number will slowly go down, as they lose their jobs and either starve to death or suicide.
:(
Hopefully not.
But yes they could be persecuted.
That’s grim.
https://youtu.be/GaZ7g0mPhLA?si=XMCu6JRNS3H3_HBP
Legal Eagles breaks down the legal consequences of Musk’s hijack of federal govt’s departments
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 12, 2025 (Wednesday)
Yesterday afternoon, in a bizarre performance, President Donald Trump hosted reporters in the Oval Office, the formal working space of the President of the United States. As Trump sat quietly behind the Resolute Desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to the United States as a symbol of international friendship, billionaire Elon Musk held center stage. Musk talked to the reporters, wearing a jacket over a T-shirt, and a “Make America Great Again” ball cap—a likely violation of the Hatch Act, which Trump’s people routinely ignore—while his young son X wandered around the room, at one point exchanging a look with a downcast Trump that observers immediately captioned: “You’re sitting in my daddy’s chair.”
The event was Trump signing another executive order, this one essentially putting Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) in charge of the U.S. government. The executive order, titled “Implementing The President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” provides for an operative from DOGE to be assigned to every agency, where that operative will be in charge of all hiring and firing. It also puts downsizing in DOGE’s hands and establishes that only one new employee can be hired to replace four who leave.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo noted that these operatives report to Musk, who is “clearly operating here as an independent actor whose actions the President blesses after he’s found out what’s happened. This is a parallel overlaying of authority over the entire structure of the U.S. government.”
Trump said that Musk had found “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse,” but in fact they have produced no evidence of such waste. Today Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said Congress has had no information from Musk or DOGE, and when asked to produce evidence of fraud, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt simply listed things that seemed to be “against the president’s policies and his America-first agenda.”
As both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported today, the big winner from all the cuts to the government has been Musk himself, who has eliminated the agencies that were scrutinizing his businesses.
On the floor of Congress today, Moskowitz pointed out that Musk’s claims to have uncovered waste, fraud, and abuse present a problem for Congress. Led by House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the Republicans have not yet managed to fund the government for 2025, but rather than trying to pass the 12 appropriations bills necessary before the March 14 deadline for a government shutdown, Johnson is hoping to pass a continuing resolution that will extend funding as a comprehensive package. Moskowitz pointed out that if, in fact, the government is full of waste, fraud, and abuse, Congress should debate each appropriations bill in detail rather than use a continuing resolution that would perpetuate what the Republicans say is billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Long gone is any pretense that the administration will work to lower prices for ordinary Americans. The Consumer Price Index report out today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation surged in January, gaining a half a point as the cost of gas, rents, and groceries went up. Egg prices rose 15.2%. On Monday, Trump levied a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, raising concerns that prices for cars and trucks, as well as appliances and rebar for construction, will also rise.
Today Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) published an op-ed in the Louisville Courier Journal warning that “Kentuckians can’t afford the high cost of Trump’s tariffs,” which could cost the average Kentucky resident $1,200 a year. “reserving the long-term prosperity of American industry and workers requires working with our allies, not against them,” McConnell wrote, and he called for “strengthen our friendships abroad.”
Trump responded to today’s report by posting on social media: “BIDEN INFLATION UP!”
The Republicans submitted their budget resolution for funding the government today. It called for cuts of $2 trillion to mandatory spending, a category that includes Social Security and Medicare. Two Republican lawmakers told Meredith Lee Hill of Politico that Republicans expect to cut food aid for more than 40 million low-income Americans; Hill’s colleague Grace Yarrow reports the House Agriculture Committee is eyeing about $150 billion in cuts to supplemental nutrition programs. The proposal also calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and an increase of $4 trillion in the debt ceiling.
Today saw a landmark shift in the foreign policy of the United States. Since World War II, the U.S. has stood behind the international organizations that worked to stabilize the globe by creating spaces for countries to work out their differences without resorting to war. Among the principles of those organizations was that bigger countries couldn’t simply take over other, smaller countries, and one of the ways countries enforced that principle was through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the collective security agreement in which signatories agreed that an attack on one would be an attack on all.
In 2016, Trump’s people weakened the U.S. stance against Russia’s incursions on Ukraine by softening the language of that year’s Republican platform, and Russia worked to help Trump get elected, apparently because Putin believed Trump would look the other way as Russia took not only Ukraine’s Crimea but also significant territory in eastern Ukraine. Then, in his first term in office, Trump often took Putin’s side and threatened to take the U.S. out of NATO.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked hard to strengthen NATO and pulled together a strong coalition to back Ukraine when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. But when he took office just three weeks ago, Trump alarmed observers by suddenly talking about taking over other countries like Panama and Canada, and Denmark’s territory of Greenland. Such moves would directly undermine the post–World War II international organizations the U.S. has always championed. They would destroy NATO and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint U.S.-Canadian organization that protects North America from aerospace threats, and would also rip apart the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that has joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States since World War II.
Today it appears Trump is making good on this threat to turn away from the longstanding policy of the U.S. and toward the foreign policy advocated by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Trump has been talking about demanding $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s mineral resources in exchange for continued U.S. support, but today, at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a group put together under Biden to coordinate assistance to Ukraine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested a new U.S. position. Hegseth echoed Putin’s demands, saying that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective” and that the U.S. will not support NATO membership for Ukraine, thus giving up two key issues without apparently getting anything in return. He said that Europe must take over assistance for Ukraine as the U.S. focuses on its own borders. He wanted, he said, to “directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”
Trump’s social media account—it did not sound like his own words—posted today that he “just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia…. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations,” thus offering a White House visit to Putin, who has been isolated from other nations since his attacks on Ukraine. And, the post said, they had agreed to start negotiations over Ukraine, although it also specified they had not included Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in their talk. The post said that Trump “feel strongly, will be successful.”
The Russian government’s readout of the call added that “bilateral economic relations between Russia and the United States were also brought up during the conversation,” language that almost certainly means Putin wants Trump to lift the economic sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine that have wreaked havoc on the Russian economy.
The Trump administration also swapped U.S. teacher Marc Fogel for Alexander Vinnik, a kingpin of Russian cybercrime who operated one of the world’s largest currency exchanges, facilitating drug trafficking, ransomware, and money laundering. When announcing Fogel’s release, Trump was asked if Russia had given anything in exchange. He answered: “Not much, no. They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually.” Russia refused to include Fogel, who was wrongfully detained in 2021, in the large prisoner swap of June 2024.
Today, the Senate approved Tulsi Gabbard, who has often made comments sympathetic to Russia and who has defended former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia after the Syrian people ousted him, as the U.S. director of national intelligence. All Democrats voted against Gabbard and all Republicans voted in favor of her, with the important exception of Senator Mitch McConnell, who said: “The ODNI wields significant authority over how the intelligence community allocates its resources, conducts its collection and analysis, and manages the classification and declassification of our nation’s most sensitive secrets. In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust.”
Tonight, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom released a joint statement vowing to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and making it clear that “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
Cutting Gov’t spending on everything other than Musk?
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
Can’t you give it a rest for even one day?
PermeateFree said:
Why? Musk doesn’t.
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
Can’t you give it a rest for even one day?
PermeateFree said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
Can’t you give it a rest for even one day?
Ain’t me doing this, sunshine.
dv said:
PermeateFree said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
Can’t you give it a rest for even one day?
Ain’t me doing this, sunshine.
There is something very abnormal about you and your fixation on certain things….
PermeateFree said:
dv said:
PermeateFree said:Can’t you give it a rest for even one day?
Ain’t me doing this, sunshine.
There is something very abnormal about you and your fixation on certain things….
It ain’t him, it’s you.
Kingy said:
PermeateFree said:
dv said:Ain’t me doing this, sunshine.
There is something very abnormal about you and your fixation on certain things….
It ain’t him, it’s you.
There must be a limit as to how much shit you can tip on someone without some also sticking to you.
PermeateFree said:
Kingy said:
PermeateFree said:There is something very abnormal about you and your fixation on certain things….
It ain’t him, it’s you.
There must be a limit as to how much shit you can tip on someone without some also sticking to you.
Least self aware post ever.
PF, please don’t stay in denial.
dv said:
PF, please don’t stay in denial.
Maybe he is staying in De Grey, which is a river in NW Australia.
Probably soon to be an unstoppable torrent
dv said:
PF, please don’t stay in denial.
I am so pleased I am not like you and your similar minded friends; you must lead such miserable lives in order to monotonously criticise at every opportunity a person whether they be right or wrong, fair or unjust in order to satisfy some primitive urge that drives you. You people really need to get a life!
PermeateFree said:
dv said:
PF, please don’t stay in denial.
I am so pleased I am not like you and your similar minded friends; you must lead such miserable lives in order to monotonously criticise at every opportunity a person whether they be right or wrong, fair or unjust in order to satisfy some primitive urge that drives you. You people really need to get a life!
Contrarily, I’m going to go ahead with my life anyway.
Donald Trump enjoys massive support, but some of his voters could be turning on Elon Musk
so it really is a wrestling game as they say
“Rachel Maddow looks at growing public anger at Donald Trump’s war on the U.S. government, and looks at how cuts in the federal workforce, slashed funding to the NIH for medical research, and the decimation of USAID is having a profoundly negative economic effect in places that were previously supportive of Trump“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nPTHiPPCak
A federal judge has blocked executive orders signed by Trump that target transgender people and their health care. The government is expected to appeal the decision, which legal experts said could ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
The stories about this are variable.
Go-ogle: cybertruck military contract
Trump fulfilling his campaign promises:
…
Ask Trump supporters why they like the president, and chances are good you’ll hear something like: He tells it like it is and says what he means. The question, then, is why so many of them refused to take him at his word. Over the first three weeks of the second Trump presidency, a recurrent motif is that Trump does exactly what he said he would, and then people who backed him react with shock and dismay.
If you’re surprised, you weren’t paying attention—and judging from recent examples, many people weren’t. When Trump announced his plan (I’m using the word generously) to occupy the Gaza Strip and convert it into an international real-estate development, the chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, which formed to back him during the election, expressed shock and betrayal, and announced that the group would rename itself Arab Americans for Peace. Some Arab American voters may have felt compelled to lodge a protest vote against Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, even if it meant contributing to Trump’s win, but no one should have been surprised that a guy who used Palestinian as an insult during the campaign was not a sincere champion for the people of Gaza.
Some Venezuelan Americans in Florida are feeling similar outrage. Trump continued to make gains with Hispanic voters in 2024, but this month he ended Temporary Protected Status, a designation that allows noncitizens to stay in the country, for about 300,000 Venezuelans, with more TPS designees likely to lose their status later. “They used us,” the Venezuelan activist Adelys Ferro told NPR. “During the campaign, the elected officials from the Republican Party, they actually told us that he was not going to touch the documented people. They said, ‘No, it is with undocumented people.’” In fact, both Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance said they wanted to deport people legally allowed in the country, such as Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Some voters just convinced themselves that their own groups wouldn’t become targets.
They’re not alone. Some Kentucky educators who voted for Trump are aghast that his administration is trying to cut off federal funding that they need to keep their schools functioning, despite his campaign-trail promises to abolish the Department of Education. “I did not vote for that,” one principal told CNN. “I voted for President Trump to make America first again and to improve our lives.” The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, endorsed Trump for president, then decried Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 rioters who attacked police officers—never mind that he had promised pardons while campaigning. CEOs and bankers who decided they liked Trump better because he favors low taxes and less regulation are suddenly chagrined to learn that he was serious about tariffs. A Missouri farmer who voted for Trump is horrified that the administration is freezing federal funding for conservation programs, even though Trump promised to eliminate environmental programs and slash government spending.
All of this was foreseeable. In a 2015 tweet that remains depressingly relevant a decade later, Adrian Bott joked: “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.” But I don’t want to single out ordinary citizens. Even Republican members of Congress are doing the same dance—cheering on Trump cuts in general but scrambling to protect their own states from losing any federal money. They ran for office with the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party, but they never expected the leopards to eat their faces too.
Other Trump promises were pretty dubious if you listened to the rest of his plans. “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” he said. But Trump’s signature campaign ideas were large tariffs and mass deportation. Both of these are inflationary: Tariffs raise the price of goods, and mass deportation makes labor scarcer, raising salaries, which in turn drives prices higher. Today, the Federal Reserve released the first Consumer Price Index update of Trump’s term, finding 3 percent inflation. That’s a hair above economists’ expectations but in line with last month’s figures. Persistent inflation shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, and not only because of the sharp rise in egg prices, driven by bird flu, that my colleague Lora Kelley covered last week.
You don’t need an economics degree to predict this. You just had to heed the many warnings about it, which even Fox News covered. Or you could just listen to what Trump said, as when he suggested that tariffs would pay for child care or that Biden’s encouragement of wind power was responsible for inflation. These aren’t just the kinds of comforting nonsense all politicians sometimes peddle; they’re incoherent. Since winning the election, he has downplayed his inflation promises and announced a set of tariffs that, although not fully felt yet, may already be edging prices higher. Now Trump wants the Fed to drop interest rates, which would stimulate the economy—and likely increase inflation.
When Trump ran for president in 2016, uncertainty about his seriousness was understandable. He was a legendary merchant of hyperbole, and no one was sure where his persona ended and his real political intentions began. No such excuse applies anymore—as I pointed out in September, Trump was president once, and he tried to keep most of his big promises, albeit often ineffectively. This time around, Trump said he was going to do these things—and hey, he tells it like it is.
The Atlantic email newsletter.
Michael V said:
Pharque!
(From Justin.)
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Pharque!
(From Justin.)
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
Fkn incredible
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
The stories about this are variable.
Go-ogle: cybertruck military contract
Those Rockets Really Are For Taking People To Mars
We Mean Mars Is A God Of
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-tesla-musk-cybertruck.html
Bless
The stories about this are variable.
Go-ogle: cybertruck military contract
Those Rockets Really Are For Taking People To Mars
We Mean Mars Is A God Of
Doesn’t USA have any laws about public servants not being allowed to have vested interests?
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
The stories about this are variable.
Go-ogle: cybertruck military contract
Those Rockets Really Are For Taking People To Mars
We Mean Mars Is A God Of
Doesn’t USA have any laws about public servants not being allowed to have vested interests?
I think they have carefully made sure he is not a public servant.
buffy said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:Those Rockets Really Are For Taking People To Mars
We Mean Mars Is A God Of
Doesn’t USA have any laws about public servants not being allowed to have vested interests?
I think they have carefully made sure he is not a public servant.
OK, so what about persons receiving money from the government, for services provided to the government?
buffy said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:Those Rockets Really Are For Taking People To Mars
We Mean Mars Is A God Of
Doesn’t USA have any laws about public servants not being allowed to have vested interests?
I think they have carefully made sure he is not a public servant.
He’s a “Special Government Employee” which I think is a result of him not taking a salary, but there are still disclosure requirements in regard to conflicts of interest.
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Doesn’t USA have any laws about public servants not being allowed to have vested interests?
I think they have carefully made sure he is not a public servant.
He’s a “Special Government Employee” which I think is a result of him not taking a salary, but there are still disclosure requirements in regard to conflicts of interest.
SGE Explained
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5293124/special-government-employee-trump-musk-doge
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:I think they have carefully made sure he is not a public servant.
He’s a “Special Government Employee” which I think is a result of him not taking a salary, but there are still disclosure requirements in regard to conflicts of interest.
SGE Explained
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5293124/special-government-employee-trump-musk-doge
Thanks.
“On top of that, criminal law prevents SGEs (as well as federal workers) from participating in any government matter that could impact their finances. When a conflict arises, SGEs can either recuse themselves from the matter or divest from the relevant financial interest.”
So it seems that Musk is not just breaking the law, it’s a criminal offence.
But he’ll just be pardoned by the boss, so no problem.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:He’s a “Special Government Employee” which I think is a result of him not taking a salary, but there are still disclosure requirements in regard to conflicts of interest.
SGE Explained
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5293124/special-government-employee-trump-musk-doge
Thanks.
“On top of that, criminal law prevents SGEs (as well as federal workers) from participating in any government matter that could impact their finances. When a conflict arises, SGEs can either recuse themselves from the matter or divest from the relevant financial interest.”
So it seems that Musk is not just breaking the law, it’s a criminal offence.
But he’ll just be pardoned by the boss, so no problem.
I think at arms length, it’s a bit hard to say if he is technically breaking the law ort not. Although I expect that will be tested in the courts at some point – most likely by one of his competitors.
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:SGE Explained
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5293124/special-government-employee-trump-musk-doge
Thanks.
“On top of that, criminal law prevents SGEs (as well as federal workers) from participating in any government matter that could impact their finances. When a conflict arises, SGEs can either recuse themselves from the matter or divest from the relevant financial interest.”
So it seems that Musk is not just breaking the law, it’s a criminal offence.
But he’ll just be pardoned by the boss, so no problem.
I think at arms length, it’s a bit hard to say if he is technically breaking the law ort not. Although I expect that will be tested in the courts at some point – most likely by one of his competitors.
If it’s true that he’s had any involvement with a decision of the government to buy vehicles from Tesla, how can that not be a case of direct vested interest?
Three senior Justice Department officials in New York and Washington resigned instead of complying with orders from the Trump administration to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Thanks.
“On top of that, criminal law prevents SGEs (as well as federal workers) from participating in any government matter that could impact their finances. When a conflict arises, SGEs can either recuse themselves from the matter or divest from the relevant financial interest.”
So it seems that Musk is not just breaking the law, it’s a criminal offence.
But he’ll just be pardoned by the boss, so no problem.
I think at arms length, it’s a bit hard to say if he is technically breaking the law ort not. Although I expect that will be tested in the courts at some point – most likely by one of his competitors.
If it’s true that he’s had any involvement with a decision of the government to buy vehicles from Tesla, how can that not be a case of direct vested interest?
I haven’t read anything on that particular claim, but yes, if he did have a hand in the decision, then it’s clearly a conflict of interest.
diddly-squat said:
Three senior Justice Department officials in New York and Washington resigned instead of complying with orders from the Trump administration to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Danielle Sassoon (a conservative lawyer and member of the Federalist Society) acting US Attorney for the Southern District of NY (the district where the case against Adams was being tried) has said that Eric Adams’ lawyers offered “what amounted to a quid pro quo” in order to have the charges dropped.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Thanks.
“On top of that, criminal law prevents SGEs (as well as federal workers) from participating in any government matter that could impact their finances. When a conflict arises, SGEs can either recuse themselves from the matter or divest from the relevant financial interest.”
So it seems that Musk is not just breaking the law, it’s a criminal offence.
But he’ll just be pardoned by the boss, so no problem.
I think at arms length, it’s a bit hard to say if he is technically breaking the law ort not. Although I expect that will be tested in the courts at some point – most likely by one of his competitors.
If it’s true that he’s had any involvement with a decision of the government to buy vehicles from Tesla, how can that not be a case of direct vested interest?
why would he have any involvement in something like that, it’s the others who can see the implied benefits of doing it for him but as long as he doesn’t ask them to to it how is he involved
Hate speech on X rose by 50% after Musk’s acquisition, analysis suggests
A new analysis suggests that the rate of hate speech on X was about 50% higher for several months after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform than in prior months, and the amount of bot and bot-like accounts did not decline. Daniel Hickey of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on February 12, 2025.
More…
Tau.Neutrino said:
Hate speech on X rose by 50% after Musk’s acquisition, analysis suggestsA new analysis suggests that the rate of hate speech on X was about 50% higher for several months after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform than in prior months, and the amount of bot and bot-like accounts did not decline. Daniel Hickey of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on February 12, 2025.
More…
surprise
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Pharque!
(From Justin.)
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
embrace it
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
To be crude the yanks have a hard on for the Kennedys
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
To be crude the yanks have a hard on for the Kennedys
you mean for hereditary transfers of power, the kind of thing they had a revolutionary war a… wait
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
embrace it
You want me to, give it a hug?
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Pharque!
(From Justin.)
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires. If he carries on with his ratbaggery, he may find out just how much power and influence they can wield.
They shouldn’t have to wield power and influence.
I met an old acquantance in town and not a minute into thhe conversation he was on about how RFK was going to shake up the corrupted pharmaceutical industry. I had to leave quickly.
embrace it
You want me to, give it a hug?
sure although we admit we were lazy and we meant this bit
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires …
find outembrace just how much power and influence they can wield.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
embrace it
You want me to, give it a hug?
sure although we admit we were lazy and we meant this bit
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires …
find outembrace just how much power and influence they can wield.
I’m waiting for the swell of opposition.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
You want me to, give it a hug?
sure although we admit we were lazy and we meant this bit
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires …
find outembrace just how much power and influence they can wield.I’m waiting for the swell of opposition.
where, we thought the approval for all this shit was like 164% or higher
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
sure although we admit we were lazy and we meant this bit
Well, Bobby Junior is now going to have to deal with the American health/hospital industry, and the pharmaceutical empires …
find outembrace just how much power and influence they can wield.I’m waiting for the swell of opposition.
where, we thought the approval for all this shit was like 164% or higher
This was posted earlier, Rachel Maddow
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
I’m waiting for the swell of opposition.
where, we thought the approval for all this shit was like 164% or higher
This was posted earlier, Rachel Maddow
seems pretty unsurprising, you’ve got our souls with a history of confidence tricks, why wouldn’t they screw the idiots who buy in, in contrast to their tendency to cave and capitulate to opponents who stand their ground
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Musk, Trump yank $80m from NYC bank account over migrant lies
FMD!
people are gonna be putting their money under their mattresses again.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Musk, Trump yank $80m from NYC bank account over migrant lies
FMD!
people are gonna be putting their money under their mattresses again.
Many of the comments say something like that.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
FMD!
people are gonna be putting their money under their mattresses again.
Many of the comments say something like that.
so with this enlightened leadership the currency will be strong and inflation will be low it’s win win win
Only one Republican senator voted against the confirmation of RFK Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary: former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Which is great and all but he could have prevented all of this nonsense by pursuing a conviction of DJT in the senate in 2021.
As for the rest, including supposed moderates such as Collins and Murkowski, I can only assume that literally nothing matters to them now other than party loyalty.
Senator King, an independent, said:
“This man is not only unqualified, he is anti-qualified. He is a danger. We have physicians in the Senate. I believe the Hippocratic oath should also apply to Senate votes. You should not be voting for someone who you know will do harm to the public health.”
dv said:
Only one Republican senator voted against the confirmation of RFK Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary: former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Which is great and all but he could have prevented all of this nonsense by pursuing a conviction of DJT in the senate in 2021.
As for the rest, including supposed moderates such as Collins and Murkowski, I can only assume that literally nothing matters to them now other than party loyalty.
Senator King, an independent, said:
“This man is not only unqualified, he is anti-qualified. He is a danger. We have physicians in the Senate. I believe the Hippocratic oath should also apply to Senate votes. You should not be voting for someone who you know will do harm to the public health.”
it’s the USSA not the Health Republic Of North America so
dv said:
Only one Republican senator voted against the confirmation of RFK Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary: former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Which is great and all but he could have prevented all of this nonsense by pursuing a conviction of DJT in the senate in 2021.As for the rest, including supposed moderates such as Collins and Murkowski, I can only assume that literally nothing matters to them now other than party loyalty.
Senator King, an independent, said:
“This man is not only unqualified, he is anti-qualified. He is a danger. We have physicians in the Senate. I believe the Hippocratic oath should also apply to Senate votes. You should not be voting for someone who you know will do harm to the public health.”
They are fucked.
I am expecting life expectancy in the USA to drop to the lowest in the OECD. They are already in the bottom 10 of around 40 countries, after COVID.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Only one Republican senator voted against the confirmation of RFK Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary: former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Which is great and all but he could have prevented all of this nonsense by pursuing a conviction of DJT in the senate in 2021.
As for the rest, including supposed moderates such as Collins and Murkowski, I can only assume that literally nothing matters to them now other than party loyalty.
Senator King, an independent, said:
“This man is not only unqualified, he is anti-qualified. He is a danger. We have physicians in the Senate. I believe the Hippocratic oath should also apply to Senate votes. You should not be voting for someone who you know will do harm to the public health.”
it’s the USSA not the Health Republic Of North America so
Mitch McConnell is a polio survivor. Whatever his other faults may be, not understanding the value of vaccines is not one of them.
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
February 13, 2025 (Thursday)
Four years ago today, on February 13, 2021, Senate Republicans acquitted former president Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial. Although 57 senators, including 7 Republicans, voted to convict Trump for launching the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, that vote did not reach the threshold of 67 votes—two thirds of the Senate—necessary to convict a president in an impeachment trial.
After the trial, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) explained his refusal to convict by saying he did not believe the Senate could convict an ex-president, although McConnell had been instrumental in delaying the impeachment trial until Trump was out of office, perhaps out of concern about dividing the Republican Party between pro-Trump MAGAs and his own establishment wing. McConnell acquitted Trump but, after the vote, blamed Trump alone for the events of January 6, calling his behavior “unconscionable” but adding: “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.”
Four years later, Trump is back in the White House, and today McConnell provided the only Republican vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become the secretary of health and human services, just as yesterday he provided the only Republican vote against the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Of Kennedy’s confirmation, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said to his colleagues: “It’s truly astounding that the Senate stands on the brink of confirming Mr. Kennedy to lead America’s public health agencies. And if the Senate weren’t gripped in this soon-to-be infamous period of total capitulation, I don’t think this nominee would have made it as far as a hearing…. If I’d told you a couple of years ago, ‘There’s a guy who’s been nominated to run public health nationwide. His job will be to protect American families from death and disease. He’s going to run the whole public health system: Medicare, Medicaid, the C for D C, the N I H—all of it. He’ll decide how we protect the country from infectious disease, he’ll set the rules for every hospital in the country, he’ll decide what healthcare and medicines get covered by Medicare, he’ll manage our response in the event of a pandemic.’ And then I told you,… ‘Well,… there are a few concerns about this nominee. First of all, zero relevant experience. He’s a trial lawyer, a politician from a famous family. No medical or scientific background, he’s never run a hospital or a health system or anything like that. Second of all… he’s said some pretty wild stuff about public health, over and over and over again, like: he proposed that Covid-19 might be ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews. Ethnically targeted to spare Jews. He said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon. For years he’s been persuading American families against routine childhood immunizations. He’s compared the work of the CDC to ‘Nazi death camps.’… If a couple of years ago I told you all that, and I told you that the Senate was about to put America’s health in this man’s hands, you’d probably tell me the Senate has lost its mind.”
All the Senate Republicans but McConnell voted to confirm Kennedy.
But while Senate Republicans are enabling the Trump administration, a significant revolt against it took place today in New York City and Washington, D.C., when at least six prosecutors resigned in protest after Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice, ordered them to dismiss corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams.
In September 2024, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted Adams on five counts of wire fraud, campaign finance offenses, and bribery. According to then–U.S. attorney Damian Williams, “Adams abused his position as this City’s highest elected official…to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions. By allegedly taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals—including to allow a Manhattan skyscraper to open without a fire inspection—Adams put the interests of his benefactors, including a foreign official, above those of his constituents.”
But on February 10, 2025, Bove directed acting interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon, who was elevated by the Trump administration just last month, to dismiss the charges against Adams. That same day, Adams told top New York City officials to stay out of the way of immigration enforcement and to refrain from criticizing President Trump.
Yesterday, February 12, Sassoon wrote an 8-page letter of protest to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the order to drop charges against Adams, but to keep open the possibility of future prosecution. She noted that “the evidence against Adams…proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes” and suggested that Bove and the Trump administration proposed “dismissing the charges against Adams in return for his assistance in enforcing the federal immigration laws.” “he rule of law depends upon the evenhanded administration of justice,” Sassoon wrote, and the “legal judgments of the Department of Justice must be impartial and insulated from political influence.”
“But Adams has argued in substance—and Mr. Bove appears prepared to concede—that Adams should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the Administration’s policy priorities.” Sassoon called Adams’s offer of help to the Trump administration “an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for the dismissal of his case.” She recounted a meeting on January 31 with Bove, Adams’s lawyers, and members of her office, in which Adams’s lawyers repeatedly offered an exchange, “indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Bove ordered the confiscation of notes of the meeting taken by a member of Sassoon’s team.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged,” Sassoon wrote, “I cannot agree to seek a dismissal.” She continued: “I remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached, in seeming collaboration with Adams’s counsel….” But if Attorney General Bondi was unwilling to meet or reconsider the dismissal, Sassoon wrote, she was “prepared to offer my resignation.”
Today, in a defensive 8-page letter, Bove attacked Sassoon and accepted her resignation, claiming she was “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution,” and dismissed her suggestion “that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the politics of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.”
Bove transferred the Adams case to the Public Integrity Section (PIN) in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Rather than dismiss the case, the chief of the Public Integrity Section and the senior career official in the Criminal Division, as well as three of the deputy chiefs at PIN, also resigned. A fourth was giving birth, but Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News reported that she was expected to resign when she was able.
Today, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro sued the Trump administration to guarantee the release of more than $3 billion allocated to Pennsylvania’s state agencies. Shapiro noted that multiple federal judges have ordered administration officials to release the funding they have impounded, but that funding has not been restored. The lawsuit details the programs funded with federal money, including repairing abandoned mining lands and contaminated waterways, plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, upgrading energy efficiency for up to 28,000 low-income households to lower utility bills, and so on.
The lawsuit reiterates that “unilaterally suspending funds…violates the U.S. Constitution,” which gives Congress alone the power to write the laws that appropriate funding.
Also today, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the Trump administration to disburse the foreign aid it has impounded. As Lindsay Whitehurst and Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press note, the judge rejected the administration’s argument that it impounded funds to review each program. He said officials “have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Only one Republican senator voted against the confirmation of RFK Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary: former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Which is great and all but he could have prevented all of this nonsense by pursuing a conviction of DJT in the senate in 2021.
As for the rest, including supposed moderates such as Collins and Murkowski, I can only assume that literally nothing matters to them now other than party loyalty.
Senator King, an independent, said:
“This man is not only unqualified, he is anti-qualified. He is a danger. We have physicians in the Senate. I believe the Hippocratic oath should also apply to Senate votes. You should not be voting for someone who you know will do harm to the public health.”
it’s the USSA not the Health Republic Of North America so
Mitch McConnell is a polio survivor. Whatever his other faults may be, not understanding the value of vaccines is not one of them.
right but what we’re saying is clearly the USSA have other higher priorities (like enriching our souls who are rich, and advancing fascism) than health, to the extent that what one idiot in the senate thinks of vaccines is not very relevant
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
February 13, 2025 (Thursday)——————————————————————-
But while Senate Republicans are enabling the Trump administration, a significant revolt against it took place today in New York City and Washington, D.C., when at least six prosecutors resigned in protest after Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice, ordered them to dismiss corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams.
In September 2024, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted Adams on five counts of wire fraud, campaign finance offenses, and bribery. According to then–U.S. attorney Damian Williams, “Adams abused his position as this City’s highest elected official…to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions. By allegedly taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals—including to allow a Manhattan skyscraper to open without a fire inspection—Adams put the interests of his benefactors, including a foreign official, above those of his constituents.”
But on February 10, 2025, Bove directed acting interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon, who was elevated by the Trump administration just last month, to dismiss the charges against Adams. That same day, Adams told top New York City officials to stay out of the way of immigration enforcement and to refrain from criticizing President Trump.
Yesterday, February 12, Sassoon wrote an 8-page letter of protest to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the order to drop charges against Adams, but to keep open the possibility of future prosecution. She noted that “the evidence against Adams…proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes” and suggested that Bove and the Trump administration proposed “dismissing the charges against Adams in return for his assistance in enforcing the federal immigration laws.” “he rule of law depends upon the evenhanded administration of justice,” Sassoon wrote, and the “legal judgments of the Department of Justice must be impartial and insulated from political influence.”
“But Adams has argued in substance—and Mr. Bove appears prepared to concede—that Adams should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the Administration’s policy priorities.” Sassoon called Adams’s offer of help to the Trump administration “an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for the dismissal of his case.” She recounted a meeting on January 31 with Bove, Adams’s lawyers, and members of her office, in which Adams’s lawyers repeatedly offered an exchange, “indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Bove ordered the confiscation of notes of the meeting taken by a member of Sassoon’s team.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged,” Sassoon wrote, “I cannot agree to seek a dismissal.” She continued: “I remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached, in seeming collaboration with Adams’s counsel….” But if Attorney General Bondi was unwilling to meet or reconsider the dismissal, Sassoon wrote, she was “prepared to offer my resignation.”
Today, in a defensive 8-page letter, Bove attacked Sassoon and accepted her resignation, claiming she was “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution,” and dismissed her suggestion “that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the politics of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.”
Bove transferred the Adams case to the Public Integrity Section (PIN) in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Rather than dismiss the case, the chief of the Public Integrity Section and the senior career official in the Criminal Division, as well as three of the deputy chiefs at PIN, also resigned. A fourth was giving birth, but Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News reported that she was expected to resign when she was able.
——————————————————-
So does that mean the corruption charges stand?
¿¿¿
sheesh it’s just a name
SCIENCE said:
¿¿¿
sheesh it’s just a name
Hold up there, SKIENCE
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:
¿¿¿
sheesh it’s just a name
Hold up there, SKIENCE
we mean cuntries and other cultural stereotypics do have names and they have names in foreign languages which don’t always match
you don’t need a lawsuit to tell people that our souls are stupid for calling this thing that thing
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:
¿¿¿
sheesh it’s just a name
Hold up there, SKIENCE
we mean cuntries and other cultural stereotypics do have names and they have names in foreign languages which don’t always match
you don’t need a lawsuit to tell people that our souls are stupid for calling this thing that thing
Imagine a lawsuit over K’Gari / Fraser Island.
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.
Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
Being a satirist in the US right now must be the toughest gig of them all.
Doncha hate it when big government tries to tell private companies how toi run their business3es:
…
Missouri AG sues Starbucks, says workforce is ‘more female and less white’
Attorney General Andrew Bailey takes aim at the coffee giant’s diversity policies, accusing the company of racist and discriminatory hiring practices.
February 13, 2025 at 9:47 a.m. ESTToday at 9:47 a.m. EST
By Vivian Ho
Missouri’s attorney general has sued Starbucks, accusing it of engaging in discrimination with its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and alleging that such initiatives have made the coffee giant’s workforce “more female and less white.”
The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Andrew Bailey, a Republican, accuses Starbucks of engaging in “systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination” through hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership.
Such practices force Missouri consumers to “pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services,” he argued, because making hiring decisions “on non-merit considerations will skew the hiring pool towards people who are less qualified to perform their work.” He did not provide evidence for how costs would increase for consumers.
In a statement to news outlets, the Seattle-based chain disputed the allegations as “inaccurate.”
“Our programs and benefits are open to everyone and lawful,” it said. “Our hiring practices are inclusive, fair and competitive and designed to ensure the strongest candidate for every job every time.”
The federal lawsuit comes as corporations across the country are rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs as the Trump administration moves to shut down all federal DEI programs.
President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders targeting federal DEI initiatives, including one that reversed a landmark executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that directed federal contractors to take “affirmative action” to end discrimination at their firms.
Starbucks employs about 211,000 people in the United States and operates about 200 locations in Missouri.
As of August 2020, the company’s U.S. workforce was 69.2 percent female and 30.8 percent male, according to the company. It was 46.5 percent Black, Indigenous, people of color or unspecified, and 53.5 percent White. As of September 2024, the workforce was 70.9 percent women and 28.4 percent men, and 47.8 percent White.
Citing the same statistics, Bailey said in the lawsuit: “In other words, since 2020, Starbuck’s workface has become more female and less white.”
Starbucks began rolling out a number of diversity and sensitivity programs in 2018, after the high-profile arrest of two African American men at a Philadelphia store. The company closed 8,000 U.S. stores for a day for employees to undergo racial-bias training.
After George Floyd’s murder prompted a racial justice movement in 2020, the company made a commitment to have people of color in least 30 percent of all corporate jobs and at least 40 percent of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025. The company also committed to having female representation in at least 55 percent of all retail roles, 50 percent of all corporate roles and 30 percent of all manufacturing roles within that same time frame.
In October 2020, Starbucks announced that it would link executive bonus compensation to “success in achieving the Company’s Environmental Social Governance (ESG) goals” as an effort to hold senior leadership more accountable for inclusion and sustainability — moves that the lawsuit called discriminatory.
Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon, Meta, Walmart and McDonald’s are among the latest major U.S. companies to have scaled back on DEI programs in recent months. Many of these changes had been underway since the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling to overturn affirmative action in university admissions, also cited by Bailey in his lawsuit. Trump has also directed federal agencies to draw up lists of public companies to investigate over their DEI policies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/13/starbucks-dei-diversity-missouri-hiring-andrew-bailey/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Doncha hate it when big government tries to tell private companies how toi run their business3es:…
Missouri AG sues Starbucks, says workforce is ‘more female and less white’
Attorney General Andrew Bailey takes aim at the coffee giant’s diversity policies, accusing the company of racist and discriminatory hiring practices.February 13, 2025 at 9:47 a.m. ESTToday at 9:47 a.m. EST
By Vivian Ho
Missouri’s attorney general has sued Starbucks, accusing it of engaging in discrimination with its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and alleging that such initiatives have made the coffee giant’s workforce “more female and less white.”
Like i said, satire is a difficult task in the US today.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Doncha hate it when big government tries to tell private companies how toi run their business3es:…
Missouri AG sues Starbucks, says workforce is ‘more female and less white’
Attorney General Andrew Bailey takes aim at the coffee giant’s diversity policies, accusing the company of racist and discriminatory hiring practices.February 13, 2025 at 9:47 a.m. ESTToday at 9:47 a.m. EST
By Vivian Ho
Missouri’s attorney general has sued Starbucks, accusing it of engaging in discrimination with its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and alleging that such initiatives have made the coffee giant’s workforce “more female and less white.”The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Andrew Bailey, a Republican, accuses Starbucks of engaging in “systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination” through hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership.
Such practices force Missouri consumers to “pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services,” he argued, because making hiring decisions “on non-merit considerations will skew the hiring pool towards people who are less qualified to perform their work.” He did not provide evidence for how costs would increase for consumers.
In a statement to news outlets, the Seattle-based chain disputed the allegations as “inaccurate.”
“Our programs and benefits are open to everyone and lawful,” it said. “Our hiring practices are inclusive, fair and competitive and designed to ensure the strongest candidate for every job every time.”
The federal lawsuit comes as corporations across the country are rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs as the Trump administration moves to shut down all federal DEI programs.
President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders targeting federal DEI initiatives, including one that reversed a landmark executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that directed federal contractors to take “affirmative action” to end discrimination at their firms.
Starbucks employs about 211,000 people in the United States and operates about 200 locations in Missouri.
As of August 2020, the company’s U.S. workforce was 69.2 percent female and 30.8 percent male, according to the company. It was 46.5 percent Black, Indigenous, people of color or unspecified, and 53.5 percent White. As of September 2024, the workforce was 70.9 percent women and 28.4 percent men, and 47.8 percent White.
Citing the same statistics, Bailey said in the lawsuit: “In other words, since 2020, Starbuck’s workface has become more female and less white.”
Starbucks began rolling out a number of diversity and sensitivity programs in 2018, after the high-profile arrest of two African American men at a Philadelphia store. The company closed 8,000 U.S. stores for a day for employees to undergo racial-bias training.
After George Floyd’s murder prompted a racial justice movement in 2020, the company made a commitment to have people of color in least 30 percent of all corporate jobs and at least 40 percent of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025. The company also committed to having female representation in at least 55 percent of all retail roles, 50 percent of all corporate roles and 30 percent of all manufacturing roles within that same time frame.
In October 2020, Starbucks announced that it would link executive bonus compensation to “success in achieving the Company’s Environmental Social Governance (ESG) goals” as an effort to hold senior leadership more accountable for inclusion and sustainability — moves that the lawsuit called discriminatory.
Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon, Meta, Walmart and McDonald’s are among the latest major U.S. companies to have scaled back on DEI programs in recent months. Many of these changes had been underway since the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling to overturn affirmative action in university admissions, also cited by Bailey in his lawsuit. Trump has also directed federal agencies to draw up lists of public companies to investigate over their DEI policies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/13/starbucks-dei-diversity-missouri-hiring-andrew-bailey/?
FMD
The right doesn’t care about you unless you’re a rich, white male.
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
The editor should talk to people not in his own office/church.
Divine Angel said:
The right doesn’t care about you unless you’re a rich, white male.
PWM merely aspires to be rich.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
The rot has been setting in for 20 years.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
The rot has been setting in for 20 years.
Since Reagan got in.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
The rot has been setting in for 20 years.
Since Reagan got in.
Him and Maggie ended the cold war, God bless them.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:The rot has been setting in for 20 years.
Since Reagan got in.
Him and Maggie ended the cold war, God bless them.
Nah that was Polish unions.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:Since Reagan got in.
Him and Maggie ended the cold war, God bless them.
Nah that was Polish unions.
Maggie, for one, was among the last to believe that Gorbachev was serious about quitting the Cold War.
Reagan, who’d done so much to provide Gorbachev with justification for doing so, could hardly believe that his ploys and bluffs had been so ‘successful’.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:Him and Maggie ended the cold war, God bless them.
Nah that was Polish unions.
Maggie, for one, was among the last to believe that Gorbachev was serious about quitting the Cold War.
Reagan, who’d done so much to provide Gorbachev with justification for doing so, could hardly believe that his ploys and bluffs had been so ‘successful’.
Though I have to admit at least those two stood for something however unpalatable. Today’s conservatives, in the US especially, are a bunch of spineless, hypocritical sycophants. PWM must be so proud.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Nah that was Polish unions.
Maggie, for one, was among the last to believe that Gorbachev was serious about quitting the Cold War.
Reagan, who’d done so much to provide Gorbachev with justification for doing so, could hardly believe that his ploys and bluffs had been so ‘successful’.
Though I have to admit at least those two stood for something however unpalatable. Today’s conservatives, in the US especially, are a bunch of spineless, hypocritical sycophants. PWM must be so proud.
Ending the cold war was arguably good.
But they are also known for deregulation and free market reforms. Which to be fair, were probably needed up to a point at the time. They didn’t go much beyond that point, but they spawned a whole breed on new politicians who took on those ideas as a core ideology and kept pushing that barrow long after it had reached the limits of pragmatic utility. What you see in the “all government spending is bad” and “all government regulation is bad” is the good idea at the time taken to extremes to the point where it becomes bad.
I am over every political -ism these days, except for pragmatism.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Maggie, for one, was among the last to believe that Gorbachev was serious about quitting the Cold War.
Reagan, who’d done so much to provide Gorbachev with justification for doing so, could hardly believe that his ploys and bluffs had been so ‘successful’.
Though I have to admit at least those two stood for something however unpalatable. Today’s conservatives, in the US especially, are a bunch of spineless, hypocritical sycophants. PWM must be so proud.
Ending the cold war was arguably good.
But they are also known for deregulation and free market reforms. Which to be fair, were probably needed up to a point at the time. They didn’t go much beyond that point, but they spawned a whole breed on new politicians who took on those ideas as a core ideology and kept pushing that barrow long after it had reached the limits of pragmatic utility. What you see in the “all government spending is bad” and “all government regulation is bad” is the good idea at the time taken to extremes to the point where it becomes bad.
I am over every political -ism these days, except for pragmatism.
Certainly the fall of the USSR and the Iron Curtain was a good thing but it had a lot less to do with Thatcher or Reagan than PWM thinks.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Though I have to admit at least those two stood for something however unpalatable. Today’s conservatives, in the US especially, are a bunch of spineless, hypocritical sycophants. PWM must be so proud.
Ending the cold war was arguably good.
But they are also known for deregulation and free market reforms. Which to be fair, were probably needed up to a point at the time. They didn’t go much beyond that point, but they spawned a whole breed on new politicians who took on those ideas as a core ideology and kept pushing that barrow long after it had reached the limits of pragmatic utility. What you see in the “all government spending is bad” and “all government regulation is bad” is the good idea at the time taken to extremes to the point where it becomes bad.
I am over every political -ism these days, except for pragmatism.
Certainly the fall of the USSR and the Iron Curtain was a good thing but it had a lot less to do with Thatcher or Reagan than PWM thinks.
Yes. Nothing is ever so simple.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Nah that was Polish unions.
Maggie, for one, was among the last to believe that Gorbachev was serious about quitting the Cold War.
Reagan, who’d done so much to provide Gorbachev with justification for doing so, could hardly believe that his ploys and bluffs had been so ‘successful’.
Though I have to admit at least those two stood for something however unpalatable. Today’s conservatives, in the US especially, are a bunch of spineless, hypocritical sycophants. PWM must be so proud.
Maggie, yes, deluded and misguided as she was, she firmly believed in what she believed in. Ruined any chance of a future for the UK,but she was committed to it.
Reagan, i don’t think so much. Always seemed to be acting in the role of a movie President, and was happy to run interference for the first of the serious measures to widen the wealth gap in the US.
The fall of the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold War had less to do with western politicians than it had to do with simple economics.
Whereas the US economy could, at some cost to social development, maintain innovation for and expenditure on a large military, the Soviet system had only been able to compete with that at vast cost to social development and standards of living. They were just barely able to stay in the race.
In the mid-1980s, the Soviets had to face the prospect of a massive re-equipment programme for their military, to improve on the 1950s-1970s technology that was in place. Their economy would have faced enormous strain to do it.
Reagan came into the picture when the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI/‘Star Wars’) became part of the scene. SDI changed the whole game, with a nuclear war suddenly becoming something where there could be a winner. The Soviets were never entirely sure that the US could actually make it work (even the US wasn’t certain!), but they couldn’t take the chance that it just might turn out to be a goer.
The Soviets realised that they just could not produce anything competitive with SDI. Trying to do that, as well as trying to simply maintain the military that they had, let alone re-vamp it, would collapse their economy altogether.
So, a school of thought in the Kremlin, which included Gorbachev, concluded that the only way to stop the US developing a trump card was to quit the game. Forget about blowing all the money on the military, let the expensive-to-keep ‘satellite’ countries go their own way, and just stick to trying to run Russia for a while.
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”
—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
Dickheads will probably start fires and leave then unattended or not or abandoned and burn the place down.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
Dickheads will probably start fires and leave then unattended or not or abandoned and burn the place down.
that and more.
But so many opportunities for documentary makers.
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
I watched a video of Asian tourists doing selfies right next to a bear. The bear was eating something at the edge of the water. The numbnut tourists, male tourists, literally 1 or 2 feet away from the pointy end of the bear. The main idiot actually tried to touch the bears head.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
I watched a video of Asian tourists doing selfies right next to a bear. The bear was eating something at the edge of the water. The numbnut tourists, male tourists, literally 1 or 2 feet away from the pointy end of the bear. The main idiot actually tried to touch the bears head.
ooo. maybe I don’t want to watch that.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
I watched a video of Asian tourists doing selfies right next to a bear. The bear was eating something at the edge of the water. The numbnut tourists, male tourists, literally 1 or 2 feet away from the pointy end of the bear. The main idiot actually tried to touch the bears head.
Darwin once had something to say about this.
A local teacher I know is posting warnings about the measles virus in our area, West Texas is experiencing a worrying outbreak.
Before the election she was considering a vote for RFK Jr. She actually wrote…Who else is there to vote for?
kii said:
A local teacher I know is posting warnings about the measles virus in our area, West Texas is experiencing a worrying outbreak.
Before the election she was considering a vote for RFK Jr. She actually wrote…Who else is there to vote for?
so little makes any sense any more.
party_pants said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
I watched a video of Asian tourists doing selfies right next to a bear. The bear was eating something at the edge of the water. The numbnut tourists, male tourists, literally 1 or 2 feet away from the pointy end of the bear. The main idiot actually tried to touch the bears head.
Darwin once had something to say about this.
What’s the précis¿
“There’s a reason the world is being overrun by ASIANS and they’re Great Replacing everyone else¡“¿
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
The editor should talk to people not in his own office/church.
uh they’ve already been paid out to keep the scam running and all the customers happy
Divine Angel said:
The right doesn’t care about you unless you’re a rich, white male.
oh it cares very much if you aren’t
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
People around the world still look to the United States as a model and champion of good government.Washington Post Editorial
…
Nah I don’t feel like reading satire today.
Not any more. Not for at least the last 3-4 months.
Being a satirist in the US right now must be the toughest gig of them all.
what, plenty of other cuntries to point and laugh at, you’re not at the bottom of the ratings until you’re at the bottom
disclaimer just copied from elsewhere
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Yosemite was the first to fall. The park, a crown jewel of the National Park Service, is now preparing for what park employees are diplomatically referring to as “a complete and total clusterfuck.” The problem? Nobody works there anymore.
Trump’s hiring freeze has decimated the workforce, with seasonal rangers, EMTs, and the people who scrape idiot tourists off cliffs all getting their job offers yanked. The superintendent has bailed. The reservation system is dead. And summer is coming, which means tens of thousands of visitors are about to flood into the park, totally unregulated, like a zombie horde made of Midwestern dads in cargo shorts.
If you thought the 2018 government shutdown was bad—when Yosemite turned into a Mad Max-style garbage dump—just wait. This time, there won’t even be a skeleton crew to stop tourists from using Sequoia groves as parking lots or barbecuing endangered species over open flames. Bears are about to learn how to hotwire SUVs. Desperate hikers will go missing and be found weeks later, sunburned and insane, muttering about how they “just wanted to take a selfie on Half Dome.”—-
Sounds entertaining. I wanna watch.
Dickheads will probably start fires and leave then unattended or not or abandoned and burn the place down.
that and more.
But so many opportunities for documentary makers.
Seems to unfortunately be true.
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
Divine Angel said:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
I’ve been a supporter of AltNPS since they started in 2017. Still got the t-shirt.This time I’ve got the stickers.
kii said:
Divine Angel said:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
I’ve been a supporter of AltNPS since they started in 2017. Still got the t-shirt.This time I’ve got the stickers.
I’ve only just discovered them 😍
Apparently posted on X, so it’s real.
kii said:
Apparently posted on X, so it’s real.
Use “criminal” instead…
Michael V said:
kii said:
Apparently posted on X, so it’s real.
Use “criminal” instead…
Idiot criminal.
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
Divine Angel said:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
I’ve been a supporter of AltNPS since they started in 2017. Still got the t-shirt.This time I’ve got the stickers.
I’ve only just discovered them 😍
I started following them after kii talked about how good they are, back in the first iteration of the Trumpian era. Now that shit’s getting real I have been dedicatedly following and recommending AltNPS for a behind the scenes peek at what is happening.
kii said:
Apparently posted on X, so it’s real.
Is ‘convicted criminal’ still ok?
kii said:
Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
don’t worry as long as it’s done legally it’s good
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
I like this notion.
ruby said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:I’ve been a supporter of AltNPS since they started in 2017. Still got the t-shirt.This time I’ve got the stickers.
I’ve only just discovered them 😍
I started following them after kii talked about how good they are, back in the first iteration of the Trumpian era. Now that shit’s getting real I have been dedicatedly following and recommending AltNPS for a behind the scenes peek at what is happening.
I quite like the post at that link which suggests people are protesting at the Tesla showrooms. And taking the cars out for test drives just to waste the time of the employees.
buffy said:
ruby said:
Divine Angel said:I’ve only just discovered them 😍
I started following them after kii talked about how good they are, back in the first iteration of the Trumpian era. Now that shit’s getting real I have been dedicatedly following and recommending AltNPS for a behind the scenes peek at what is happening.
I quite like the post at that link which suggests people are protesting at the Tesla showrooms. And taking the cars out for test drives just to waste the time of the employees.
:)
Tamb said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
party_pants said:
Tamb said:
party_pants said:We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Tamb said:It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Dutton is modeling himself on trump.
Tamb said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Add one thingto the mantra:
keep’ em poor, keep ‘em dumb, keep ‘em sick, keep ‘em depressed.
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
FFS! Stop using their nicknames!
There men are two of the most dangerous people on earth.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Tamb said:It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Not immune to any global economic shocks, since we participate in the global economy.
But immune to invasion and military attacks. We are self-sufficient in food and energy and most minerals from within our own borders, so we can’t be economically coerced by foreign powers threatening to starve us.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Tamb said:It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Occupy Democrats
Yesterday at 09:24 ·
BREAKING: Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center implodes in humiliating fashion as droves of talented celebrities abandon the legendary performing arts center in protest.
Trump is radioactive with the people he wants to impress most…
Actress Issa Rae announced on Instagram in a brief statement that she is cancelling her “An Evening With Issa Rae” event slated for next month. Tickets will be refunded.
“Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” she wrote.
Trump made himself chairman of the center on Wednesday. Earlier this week he removed Biden appointees from the board and rammed in unqualified cronies including Second Lady Usha Vance and White House Chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Mega-successful television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes — the woman behind hit shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, and Scandal among others — resigned as treasurer of the center’s board yesterday.
She posted a quote from JFK on her Instagram: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
Legendary soprano Renée Fleming resigned as artistic advisor to the center and while she avoided naming Trump, she praised David M. Rubenstein — the center’s former chairman who was ousted.
Singer and songwriter Ben Folds stepped down from his role as advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, which the Kennedy Center oversees.
“Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic adviser to the N.S.O. Mostly, and above all, I will miss the musicians of our nation’s symphony orchestra — just the best!” Folds wrote on Instagram.
Adam Weiner of the band Low Cut Connie has also canceled an appearance at the center next month.
“Upon learning that this institution that has run nonpartisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime, I decided I will not perform there,” he wrote on social media, adding that friends and fans were going to be “directly negatively affected by this administration’s policies and messaging.”
This is the kind of rejection that infuriates Donald Trump more than anything. He has long wanted to be accepted by America’s cultural elites. Instead, they see him for the cruel, fascist, incompetent failure he truly is.
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
Yesterday at 09:24 ·
BREAKING: Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center implodes in humiliating fashion as droves of talented celebrities abandon the legendary performing arts center in protest.
Trump is radioactive with the people he wants to impress most…
Actress Issa Rae announced on Instagram in a brief statement that she is cancelling her “An Evening With Issa Rae” event slated for next month. Tickets will be refunded.
“Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” she wrote.
Trump made himself chairman of the center on Wednesday. Earlier this week he removed Biden appointees from the board and rammed in unqualified cronies including Second Lady Usha Vance and White House Chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Mega-successful television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes — the woman behind hit shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, and Scandal among others — resigned as treasurer of the center’s board yesterday.
She posted a quote from JFK on her Instagram: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
Legendary soprano Renée Fleming resigned as artistic advisor to the center and while she avoided naming Trump, she praised David M. Rubenstein — the center’s former chairman who was ousted.
Singer and songwriter Ben Folds stepped down from his role as advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, which the Kennedy Center oversees.
“Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic adviser to the N.S.O. Mostly, and above all, I will miss the musicians of our nation’s symphony orchestra — just the best!” Folds wrote on Instagram.
Adam Weiner of the band Low Cut Connie has also canceled an appearance at the center next month.
“Upon learning that this institution that has run nonpartisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime, I decided I will not perform there,” he wrote on social media, adding that friends and fans were going to be “directly negatively affected by this administration’s policies and messaging.”
This is the kind of rejection that infuriates Donald Trump more than anything. He has long wanted to be accepted by America’s cultural elites. Instead, they see him for the cruel, fascist, incompetent failure he truly is.
Good!
Arts said:
party_pants said:
Tamb said:It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
We won’t get away scott free, that’s for sure.
kii said:
Arts said:
party_pants said:Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Dutton is modeling himself on trump.
He’s one of a lot of politicians, mostly ‘conservatives’, who are watching Trump and his shenanigans closely, and trying to identify what aspects of Trump’s ‘method’ (and i use that term in its loosest sense) they might appropriate and adapt to their own purposes.
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/14/doges-genius-coders-launch-website-so-full-of-holes-anyone-can-write-to-it/
Bogsnorkler said:
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/14/doges-genius-coders-launch-website-so-full-of-holes-anyone-can-write-to-it/
FMD
Musk et al are such disruptors.
I wonder how much money will get stolen. And who will have to pay it back…
Divine Angel said:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
I did get on the bloosk but it seems relatively quiet.
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
I did get on the bloosk but it seems relatively quiet.
Far fewer bots
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Arts said:You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
Dutton is modeling himself on trump.
He’s one of a lot of politicians, mostly ‘conservatives’, who are watching Trump and his shenanigans closely, and trying to identify what aspects of Trump’s ‘method’ (and i use that term in its loosest sense) they might appropriate and adapt to their own purposes.
Murdoch sharing the playbook.
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 14, 2025 (Friday)
On this day, I always like to tell the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s terrible 1884 Valentine’s Day and how it led to the Progressive Era. But things are happening too fast these days to leave a gap in the record, so you’ll have to look back at last year—or forward to next—for that story. For this year, here goes:
The administration’s order to drop federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sparked a crisis in the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, led by President Trump’s own appointees.
Yesterday that crisis led to multiple resignations from the department as acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned rather than drop the corruption charges. When the acting deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice, Emil Bove III, tried to do an end run around the Southern District of New York by taking the case to the Public Integrity Section in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and getting lawyer there to dismiss the case, at least five of them resigned as well.
This crisis is really over whether the Department of Justice will defend the rule of law or declare loyalty to Trump alone. And the crisis is growing.
Bove claims that administration officials did not make an arrangement with Adams to dismiss charges in exchange for his political support. But this morning, Adams and Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan undermined that assertion when they appeared together on the Fox News Channel. “If he doesn’t come through,” Homan said of Adams, “I’ll be back in New York City and we won’t be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?‘”
Today, Hagan Scotten, the acting assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned in a blistering letter to Bove, calling his justification for dropping the charges against Adams “transparently pretextual.” “o system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives,” he wrote.
Scotten was awarded two bronze stars as a troop commander in Iraq and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. He pointed out to Bove that “here is a tradition in public service of resigning in a last-ditch effort to head off a serious mistake…. ny assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
He continued: “If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion . But it was never going to be me. Please consider this my resignation.”
Also this morning, legal analyst Barb McQuade reported that “DOJ leadership has put all Public Integrity Section lawyers into a room with 1 hour to decide who will dismiss Adams indictment or else all will be fired.” “Sending them strength to stand by their oath, which is to support the Constitution, not the president’s political agenda,” she added. According to Jeremy Roebuck, Shayna Jacobs, Mark Berman, and Carol D. Leonnig of the Washington Post, one lawyer at the meeting said the discussion was “gut-wrenching” and “not anything any of us expected to see in America.”
At first, they all agreed to resign together, but then Edward Sullivan, a career federal prosecutor approaching retirement, said he would sign the motion to dismiss the case in a bid to save the jobs of his colleagues.
The crisis was reminiscent of the “Saturday Night Massacre” of October 20, 1973, when President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox after Cox subpoenaed a number of the tapes Nixon had recorded in the Oval Office concerning the break-in to the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C., Watergate complex. Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, refused to execute Nixon’s order and resigned in protest; it was only the third man at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, who was willing to carry out the order firing Cox.
In that case, popular outrage at the resignations and firing forced Nixon to ask Bork—now acting attorney general—to appoint a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, a Democrat who had voted for Nixon, on November 1. On November 17, Nixon assured the American people: “I am not a crook.”
The administration’s determination to impose its will on the United States is behind its insistence that Trump can rename the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Denali, the highest peak in North America, by executive order. In 2017, Trump pushed hard to make Americans accept that the crowds at his inauguration were bigger than those at President Barack Obama’s, an immediately disprovable lie that seemed unimportant at the time but was key to establishing the primacy of Trump’s vision over reality, an acceptance that led, eventually, to the Big Lie that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and now, apparently, to the lie that Elon Musk is cutting “waste and fraud” from the government when, in fact, he appears simply to be cutting programs he and Trump dislike.
Although tech companies and various media outlets have accepted Trump’s language, the Associated Press has continued to use the internationally accepted, historic name: the Gulf of Mexico. The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative founded in 1846 that produces and distributes news reports across the country and the world. White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich today claimed that the AP’s use of “Gulf of Mexico” showed its “commitment to misinformation,” and announced that the AP would be barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One.
In the Senate, Alaska’s senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, are pushing back on Trump’s name change for Denali, sponsoring a bill to require the mountain to be designated “Denali” on maps, documents, and any official U.S. records.
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) pushed back today on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “rookie mistake” on Wednesday when he offered that the U.S. would not support Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to demand a return to its borders before Russia invaded in 2014, essentially offering to let Russia keep Crimea.
Wicker said he was “puzzled” and “disturbed” by Hegseth’s comments and added: “I don’t know who wrote the speech—it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool.” Joe Gould and Jamie Dettmer of Politico identified Carlson as a “pro-Putin broadcaster.”
“There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys,” Wicker said. “They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated. And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to it.”
Hackers pushed back today on Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” website, launched earlier this week after Musk claimed that the group was posting its actions on the DOGE website. At the time, the website was essentially blank. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported that the website was built out on Wednesday and Thursday. It appears not to be on government servers, is not secure, and pulls information from an open database that anyone could edit. Coders promptly added: “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN-roro.” One coder told Koebler that the website “eels like it was completely slapped together. Tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”
Indeed, Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost pointed out that one of the errors on the page is that it appears to have posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency. Security clearance lawyer Bradley Moss posted: “If you’re a clearance holder, stay away from the DOGE site. These ignorant virgins are going to find themselves prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act before all is said and done.”
Protesters today packed Christopher Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village near the Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration erased “TQ+” from the LGBTQ+ on the monument’s website. The Stonewall Uprising of 1969, six days of conflict between police and LGBTQ+ protesters after police raided the Stonewall Inn, brought the longstanding efforts of LGBTQ+ activists for civil rights to popular attention, making Stonewall a symbol of LGBTQ+ rights.
Trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera were key figures in the Stonewall Uprising. Acknowledging their contribution, one protester held a sign that read, “NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: YOU CAN’T SPELL HISTORY WITHOUT A ‘T’”
Former Republican operative Stuart Stevens had a different take. He posted: “When I see the sexual orientation hate come out of the Republican party under the pretext of just being anti-Trans, I am very tempted to name the Republican operatives and elected officials who are closeted gays. It’s not a short list.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 14, 2025 (Friday)Hackers pushed back today on Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” website, launched earlier this week after Musk claimed that the group was posting its actions on the DOGE website. At the time, the website was essentially blank. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported that the website was built out on Wednesday and Thursday. It appears not to be on government servers, is not secure, and pulls information from an open database that anyone could edit. Coders promptly added: “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN-roro.” One coder told Koebler that the website “eels like it was completely slapped together. Tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”
Indeed, Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost pointed out that one of the errors on the page is that it appears to have posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency. Security clearance lawyer Bradley Moss posted: “If you’re a clearance holder, stay away from the DOGE site. These ignorant virgins are going to find themselves prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act before all is said and done.”
I posted an article earlier about this that goes into more detail.
Bogsnorkler said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 14, 2025 (Friday)Hackers pushed back today on Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” website, launched earlier this week after Musk claimed that the group was posting its actions on the DOGE website. At the time, the website was essentially blank. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported that the website was built out on Wednesday and Thursday. It appears not to be on government servers, is not secure, and pulls information from an open database that anyone could edit. Coders promptly added: “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN-roro.” One coder told Koebler that the website “eels like it was completely slapped together. Tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”
Indeed, Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost pointed out that one of the errors on the page is that it appears to have posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency. Security clearance lawyer Bradley Moss posted: “If you’re a clearance holder, stay away from the DOGE site. These ignorant virgins are going to find themselves prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act before all is said and done.”
I posted an article earlier about this that goes into more detail.
but is it a competition
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
I did get on the bloosk but it seems relatively quiet.
Far fewer bots
exactly what’s wrong with peace and quiet and nonfascism
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 14, 2025 (Friday)Hackers pushed back today on Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” website, launched earlier this week after Musk claimed that the group was posting its actions on the DOGE website. At the time, the website was essentially blank. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported that the website was built out on Wednesday and Thursday. It appears not to be on government servers, is not secure, and pulls information from an open database that anyone could edit. Coders promptly added: “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN-roro.” One coder told Koebler that the website “eels like it was completely slapped together. Tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”
Indeed, Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost pointed out that one of the errors on the page is that it appears to have posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency. Security clearance lawyer Bradley Moss posted: “If you’re a clearance holder, stay away from the DOGE site. These ignorant virgins are going to find themselves prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act before all is said and done.”
I posted an article earlier about this that goes into more detail.
but is it a competition
Not in my book it isn’t. But if people want a more detailed insight then my link may help.
I am here to serve.
Michael V said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/14/doges-genius-coders-launch-website-so-full-of-holes-anyone-can-write-to-it/
FMD
Musk et al are such disruptors.
I wonder how much money will get stolen. And who will have to pay it back…
is that like how the prophecy is that Anakin will bring balance to the force but then you realise that at the time of the prophecy the force was mostly good so balance would mean wait oh crap
Bogsnorkler said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
February 14, 2025 (Friday)Hackers pushed back today on Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” website, launched earlier this week after Musk claimed that the group was posting its actions on the DOGE website. At the time, the website was essentially blank. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported that the website was built out on Wednesday and Thursday. It appears not to be on government servers, is not secure, and pulls information from an open database that anyone could edit. Coders promptly added: “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN-roro.” One coder told Koebler that the website “eels like it was completely slapped together. Tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”
Indeed, Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost pointed out that one of the errors on the page is that it appears to have posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency. Security clearance lawyer Bradley Moss posted: “If you’re a clearance holder, stay away from the DOGE site. These ignorant virgins are going to find themselves prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act before all is said and done.”
I posted an article earlier about this that goes into more detail.
i shall look…
roughbarked said:
Arts said:
party_pants said:Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
We won’t get away scott free, that’s for sure.
fuck Morrison
party_pants said:
Tamb said:
party_pants said:
We need to start a big recruitment drive for American medical specialists to move to Australia to maintain their professional integrity and freedoms.
Let the brain drain commence.
It’s worrying that two of the world’s most powerful people (The Donald and the Vlad) are arguably certifiable.
Yeah. But I think we are far enough away from both of them.
agree and furthermore we agree that there is an even closer and more sensible alternative
Bogsnorkler said:
SCIENCE said:
Bogsnorkler said:
I posted an article earlier about this that goes into more detail.
but is it a competition
Not in my book it isn’t. But if people want a more detailed insight then my link may help.
I am here to serve.
¿ref
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Arts said:You seem fairly confident that Australia will be immune to any shit, that’s admirable, but I don’t have the same confidence.
We won’t get away scott free, that’s for sure.
fuck Morrison
I wonder how long it will be before ScoMo slithers back into Australian politics, and renews his slimy activities.
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
dv said:
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
so what are the rules against foreign interference or export of terrorism again
dv said:
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
FMD.
Nazis, Nazis everywhere.
Michael V said:
dv said:
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
FMD.
Nazis, Nazis everywhere.
Needed expansion.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
FMD.
Nazis, Nazis everywhere.
Needed expansion.
that’s what they said about the empire
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
FMD.
Nazis, Nazis everywhere.
Needed expansion.
that’s what they said about the empire
Greenland = Ostland/lebensraum?
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
JD Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
At the meeting in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president and AfD leader, Alice Weidel, reportedly discussed the war in Ukraine, German domestic politics and the so-called brandmauer, or “firewall against the right”, that prevents ultra-nationalist parties like AfD from joining ruling coalitions in Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/jd-vance-alice-weidel-meeting-germany-far-right
so what are the rules against foreign interference or export of terrorism again
(CHECKS NOTES)
It’s very profitable?
https://www.facebook.com/abcplanetamerica/videos/977145800610721
Planet America speaks with Professor Kate Shaw
“I do think we’ve entered constitutional crisis territory” – Professor Kate Shaw tells Planet America that Trump’s Executive Orders have pushed the United States into a constitutional crisis.
But who is defending the Constitution?
sarahs mum said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/nuclear-nnsa-firings-trump/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5298190/nuclear-agency-trump-firings-nnsa
Bogsnorkler said:
sarahs mum said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/nuclear-nnsa-firings-trump/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5298190/nuclear-agency-trump-firings-nnsa
Schemozzle springs to mind. And a potentially very dangerous schemozzle.
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/attn-hhs-employees
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFD3Zx2yLA7/?igsh=MXR3bnZtbHp0a2Q0ZQ==
New nickname dropping
sarahs mum said:
FMD
dv said:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFD3Zx2yLA7/?igsh=MXR3bnZtbHp0a2Q0ZQ==New nickname dropping
Batman-: Could it be……….could it be that The Penguin is going to try and rig the election
Robin-: Holy gerrymander Batman!!
Batman-: Quick Boy Wonder, we’ve got no time to lose, slide down this pole.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Next week: 5-year-olds turned loose with flame-throwers.
dv said:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFD3Zx2yLA7/?igsh=MXR3bnZtbHp0a2Q0ZQ==New nickname dropping
:)
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Next week: 5-year-olds turned loose with flame-throwers.
I’ll say FMD in advance, in case I miss it amongst all the other shit.
Bogsnorkler said:
Man who knows nothing about anything quotes man who knows nothing about the subject he’s talking about, as advised by people who know nothing about the things that they’re looking at.
Bogsnorkler said:
And nobody would have known had Musk not hacked into that data…
Divine Angel said:
Bogsnorkler said:
And nobody would have known had Musk not hacked into that data…
to be fair we know some genius coders and we’re relatively sure they never used COBOL so shrug
Bogsnorkler said:
Oh dear.
On February 4, Huntsville Utilities in Alabama sent some of its customers a letter alerting them that a grant they previously received was no longer valid. The grant was distributed by the Community Action Partnership of Huntsville/Madison & Limestone Counties.
In a photo of one such letter posted on Facebook, the utility company told its customer that the grant they had received “for $100 on January 23, 2025, is no longer valid due to President Trump’s Executive Order to rescind the funding behind the grant.”
https://www.newsweek.com/surprise-electric-bill-alabama-trump-executive-order-2030874
Winning
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/02/13/nazi-flags-can-fly-utah-school-not/
Measles outbreak in west Texas, centred around a Mennonite community, and now a magnitude 5 earthquake in the same area. Coincidence? I think not.
kii said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
Bogsnorkler said:
And nobody would have known had Musk not hacked into that data…
to be fair we know some genius coders and we’re relatively sure they never used COBOL so shrug
Oh dear.
to be fair we know some genius coders and we’re relatively sure they never used COBOL so shrug
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
Oh dear.
to be fair we know some genius coders and we’re relatively sure they never used COBOL so shrug
but if they had to use a system that used cobol then surely they are genius enough to know they should learn something about how it operates?
Bogsnorkler said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
to be fair we know some genius coders and we’re relatively sure they never used COBOL so shrug
but if they had to use a system that used cobol then surely they are genius enough to know they should learn something about how it operates?
maybe they’re focusing on scraping as much other stuff as they can first
dv said:
these antefa shits are all the same
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
these antefa shits are all the same
then we’d be mad to be any different.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
these antefa shits are all the same
That’s a bit clever. golf clap
captain_spalding said:
Who’d‘ve thought criminals would piggy-back on other illegal activity?
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Who’d‘ve thought criminals would piggy-back on other illegal activity?
yes but the smart billionaires offer enough payment to their lawyers to make it legal
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Who’d‘ve thought criminals would piggy-back on other illegal activity?
yes but the smart billionaires offer enough payment to their lawyers to make it legal
Heather Cox Richardson
·
February 15, 2025 (Saturday)
After World War II, the vast majority of Americans—Democrats and Republicans alike—agreed that the federal government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. But not everyone was on board. Some big businessmen hated regulations and the taxes necessary for social welfare programs and infrastructure, and racists and religious traditionalists who opposed women’s rights wanted to tear that “liberal consensus” apart.
They had no luck convincing voters to abandon the government that was overseeing unprecedented prosperity until the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision permitted them to turn back to an old American trope. That ruling, which declared segregation in the public schools unconstitutional, enabled opponents of the liberal consensus to resurrect the post–Civil War argument of former Confederates that a government protecting Black rights was simply redistributing wealth from hardworking white taxpayers to undeserving Black Americans.
That argument began to take hold, and in 1980, Republican president Ronald Reagan rode it to the White House with the story of the “welfare queen,” identified as a Cadillac-driving, unemployed moocher from Chicago’s South Side (to signal that the woman was Black). “She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veteran’s benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands,” Reagan claimed. “And she is collecting Social Security on her cards.
She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names.” The woman was real, but not typical—she was a dangerous criminal rather than a representative welfare recipient—but the story illustrated perfectly the idea that government involvement in the economy bled individual enterprise and handed tax dollars to undeserving
Black Americans.
Republicans expanded that trope to denigrate all “liberals” of both parties, who supported an active government, claiming they were all wasting government monies. Deregulation and tax cuts meant that between 1981, when Reagan took office, and 2021, when Democratic president Joe Biden did, about $50 trillion moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. But rather than convincing Republican voters to return to a robust system of business regulation and restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations, that transfer of wealth seemed to make them hate the government even more, as they apparently were convinced it benefited only nonwhite Americans and women.
That hatred has led to a skewed idea of the actions and the size of the federal government. For example, Americans think the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid because they think it spends about 25% of the federal budget on such aid while they say it should only spend about 10%. In fact, it spends only about 1% on foreign aid. Similarly, while right-wing leaders insist that the government is bloated, in fact, as Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution noted last month, the U.S. population has grown by about 68% in the last 50 years while the size of the federal government’s workforce has actually shrunk.
What has happened is that federal spending has expanded by five times as the U.S. has turned both to technology and to federal contractors, who outnumber federal workers by more than two to one. Those contractors are concentrated in the Department of Defense. At the same time, budget deficits have been driven by tax cuts under Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump as well as the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Treasury actually ran a surplus when Democratic president Bill Clinton was in office in the 1990s.
When asked, Americans say they don’t actually want to get rid of government programs. A late January poll from the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research—a gold-standard pollster for public attitudes—found that only about 29% of Americans wanted to see the elimination of a large number of federal jobs, with 40% opposed (29% had no opinion). Instead, 67% of adults believed the U.S. is spending too little on Social Security, 65% thought it was spending too little on education, 62% thought there is too little aid for the poor, 61% thought there is too little spending on Medicare, and 55% thought there is too little spending on Medicaid. Fifty-one percent thought the U.S. should spend more on border security.
Nonetheless, Trump is echoing forty years of Republican rhetoric when he claims to have a “mandate” to slash government and to purge it of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that hold the playing field level for Black Americans, women, people of color, and ethnic, religious, and gender minorities.
On February 11, Trump signed an executive order putting billionaire Elon Musk in charge of “large-scale reductions in force,” and yesterday, Musk and his allies began purging the federal government of career employees, beginning with employees still in their probationary period, typically those with less than a year in the job. The Department of Veterans Affairs lost 1,000 people, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau lost more than 100 people, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lost more than 2,400, the U.S. Forest Service lost more than 3,000, the Environmental Protection Agency lost 400, the Small Business Administration lost more than 100, and the Interior Department lost 2,300, including workers at national parks. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to lose nearly all of its 5,200 workers in their probationary period, including 1,300 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—10% of its workforce—while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lost 1,500. “I am heartbroken, more than anything, for the future of science in this country as we gut this institution that has for so long been intentionally shielded as much as possible from politics,” an NIH employee told Will Stone, Pien Huang, and Rob Stein of NPR.
Five government employees’ unions have sued, saying the mass firings violate the formal procedures for reductions in force. Employees say they were already understaffed and there is no way they will be able to keep up the level of their performance under the cuts. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) points out that rather than saving money, “it is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars to fire employees the department just invested months into recruiting, vetting and training.”
On Reddit, federal employees shared their experience. One wrote: “The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my f*cking firing. I make $50K a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”
It certainly appears that those in charge of the firings didn’t know what they were doing: on Thursday they fired more than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, apparently not aware that they were the people who oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons. Today, Peter Alexander and Alexandra Marquez of NBC News reported that officials are now trying to rehire them but can’t figure out how to reach them because the workers lost access to their work email when they were fired.
The firings of federal employees come after the Trump administration instituted a “freeze” on federal spending. This impoundment of funds is illegal—the Constitution, Congress, and the courts have all established that once Congress has established a program, the president must implement it. But the truth is that Congress implemented these programs for a reason, and members would not kill them because they recognize they are important for all Americans.
Now MAGA voters are now discovering that much of what billionaire Elon Musk is cutting as “waste, fraud, and corruption” is programs that benefit them, often more than they benefit Democratic-dominated states. Dramatically, farmers, who backed Trump by a margin of three to one, are badly hit by the freeze on funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for conservation of land, soil, and water. “This isn’t just hippie-dippy stuff,” Wisconsin cattle, pig, and poultry farmer Aaron Pape told Linda Qiu and Julie Creswell of the New York Times. “This is affecting mainstream farmers.”
Similarly, the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a blow to the agricultural sector: USAID buys about $2 billion in agricultural products from U.S. farmers every year. It has also supported funding for research at state universities like the University of Tennessee, the University of Missouri, and the University of Louisiana.
Cuts to indirect spending in grants from the National Institutes of Health will also hit hard across the country, and states where Trump won more than 55% of the 2024 vote are no exception. Former college president Michael Nietzel noted in Forbes that Texas stands to lose more than $300 million; Ohio, more than $170 million; and Tennessee, Missouri, and Florida, more than $130 million apiece. These losses will cause thousands of layoffs and, as the Association of American Medical Colleges said, “diminish the nation’s research capacity, slow scientific progress and deprive patients, families and communities across the country of new treatments, diagnostics and preventive interventions.”
Trump said Wednesday he wanted to shutter the Department of Education immediately, calling it “a big con job.” That Department provides grants for schools in low-income communities as well as money for educating students with special needs: eight of the ten states receiving the most federal money for their K–12 schools are dominated by Republicans.
Trump has called the Federal Emergency Management Agency a “disaster” and said states should handle natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes on their own. But states do not have the resilience they need for such short-term emergencies. Once again, while all states receive FEMA money, Republican-dominated states get slightly more of that money than Democratic-dominated states do.
Before the 2024 election, Aaron Zitner, Jon Kamp, and Brian McGill of the Wall Street Journal noted that by 2022, 53% of the counties in the U.S. received at least a quarter of their income from government programs—primarily through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those counties heavily support Republicans, including Trump.
On Friday the Republican-dominated House Budget Committee presented its budget proposal to the House. It calls for adding $4.5 trillion to the budget deficit in order to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. It also calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and supplemental nutrition programs. Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said: “The era of wasteful, woke, and weaponized government is over.”
For forty years, Republican politicians could win elections by insisting that government spending redistributed wealth from hardworking taxpayers to the undeserving because they did not entirely purge the federal programs that their own voters liked. Now Trump, Musk, and the Republicans are purging funds for cancer research, family farms, national parks, food, nuclear security, and medical care—all programs his supporters care about—and threatening to throw the country into an economic tailspin that will badly hurt Republican-dominated states.
A January AP/NORC poll found that only 12% of U.S. adults thought it would be good for billionaires to advise presidents, while 60% thought it would be bad.
Forty years of ideology is under pressure now from reality, and the outcome remains uncertain.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson ·
February 15, 2025 (Saturday)After World War II, the vast majority of Americans—Democrats and Republicans alike—agreed that the federal government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. But not everyone was on board. Some big businessmen hated regulations and the taxes necessary for social welfare programs and infrastructure, and racists and religious traditionalists who opposed women’s rights wanted to tear that “liberal consensus” apart.
They had no luck convincing voters to abandon the government that was overseeing unprecedented prosperity until the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision permitted them to turn back to an old American trope. That ruling, which declared segregation in the public schools unconstitutional, enabled opponents of the liberal consensus to resurrect the post–Civil War argument of former Confederates that a government protecting Black rights was simply redistributing wealth from hardworking white taxpayers to undeserving Black Americans.
That argument began to take hold, and in 1980, Republican president Ronald Reagan rode it to the White House with the story of the “welfare queen,” identified as a Cadillac-driving, unemployed moocher from Chicago’s South Side (to signal that the woman was Black). “She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veteran’s benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands,” Reagan claimed. “And she is collecting Social Security on her cards.
She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names.” The woman was real, but not typical—she was a dangerous criminal rather than a representative welfare recipient—but the story illustrated perfectly the idea that government involvement in the economy bled individual enterprise and handed tax dollars to undeserving
Black Americans.Republicans expanded that trope to denigrate all “liberals” of both parties, who supported an active government, claiming they were all wasting government monies. Deregulation and tax cuts meant that between 1981, when Reagan took office, and 2021, when Democratic president Joe Biden did, about $50 trillion moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. But rather than convincing Republican voters to return to a robust system of business regulation and restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations, that transfer of wealth seemed to make them hate the government even more, as they apparently were convinced it benefited only nonwhite Americans and women.
That hatred has led to a skewed idea of the actions and the size of the federal government. For example, Americans think the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid because they think it spends about 25% of the federal budget on such aid while they say it should only spend about 10%. In fact, it spends only about 1% on foreign aid. Similarly, while right-wing leaders insist that the government is bloated, in fact, as Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution noted last month, the U.S. population has grown by about 68% in the last 50 years while the size of the federal government’s workforce has actually shrunk.
What has happened is that federal spending has expanded by five times as the U.S. has turned both to technology and to federal contractors, who outnumber federal workers by more than two to one. Those contractors are concentrated in the Department of Defense. At the same time, budget deficits have been driven by tax cuts under Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump as well as the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Treasury actually ran a surplus when Democratic president Bill Clinton was in office in the 1990s.
When asked, Americans say they don’t actually want to get rid of government programs. A late January poll from the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research—a gold-standard pollster for public attitudes—found that only about 29% of Americans wanted to see the elimination of a large number of federal jobs, with 40% opposed (29% had no opinion). Instead, 67% of adults believed the U.S. is spending too little on Social Security, 65% thought it was spending too little on education, 62% thought there is too little aid for the poor, 61% thought there is too little spending on Medicare, and 55% thought there is too little spending on Medicaid. Fifty-one percent thought the U.S. should spend more on border security.
Nonetheless, Trump is echoing forty years of Republican rhetoric when he claims to have a “mandate” to slash government and to purge it of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that hold the playing field level for Black Americans, women, people of color, and ethnic, religious, and gender minorities.
On February 11, Trump signed an executive order putting billionaire Elon Musk in charge of “large-scale reductions in force,” and yesterday, Musk and his allies began purging the federal government of career employees, beginning with employees still in their probationary period, typically those with less than a year in the job. The Department of Veterans Affairs lost 1,000 people, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau lost more than 100 people, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lost more than 2,400, the U.S. Forest Service lost more than 3,000, the Environmental Protection Agency lost 400, the Small Business Administration lost more than 100, and the Interior Department lost 2,300, including workers at national parks. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to lose nearly all of its 5,200 workers in their probationary period, including 1,300 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—10% of its workforce—while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lost 1,500. “I am heartbroken, more than anything, for the future of science in this country as we gut this institution that has for so long been intentionally shielded as much as possible from politics,” an NIH employee told Will Stone, Pien Huang, and Rob Stein of NPR.
Five government employees’ unions have sued, saying the mass firings violate the formal procedures for reductions in force. Employees say they were already understaffed and there is no way they will be able to keep up the level of their performance under the cuts. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) points out that rather than saving money, “it is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars to fire employees the department just invested months into recruiting, vetting and training.”
On Reddit, federal employees shared their experience. One wrote: “The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my f*cking firing. I make $50K a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”It certainly appears that those in charge of the firings didn’t know what they were doing: on Thursday they fired more than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, apparently not aware that they were the people who oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons. Today, Peter Alexander and Alexandra Marquez of NBC News reported that officials are now trying to rehire them but can’t figure out how to reach them because the workers lost access to their work email when they were fired.
The firings of federal employees come after the Trump administration instituted a “freeze” on federal spending. This impoundment of funds is illegal—the Constitution, Congress, and the courts have all established that once Congress has established a program, the president must implement it. But the truth is that Congress implemented these programs for a reason, and members would not kill them because they recognize they are important for all Americans.
Now MAGA voters are now discovering that much of what billionaire Elon Musk is cutting as “waste, fraud, and corruption” is programs that benefit them, often more than they benefit Democratic-dominated states. Dramatically, farmers, who backed Trump by a margin of three to one, are badly hit by the freeze on funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for conservation of land, soil, and water. “This isn’t just hippie-dippy stuff,” Wisconsin cattle, pig, and poultry farmer Aaron Pape told Linda Qiu and Julie Creswell of the New York Times. “This is affecting mainstream farmers.”
Similarly, the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a blow to the agricultural sector: USAID buys about $2 billion in agricultural products from U.S. farmers every year. It has also supported funding for research at state universities like the University of Tennessee, the University of Missouri, and the University of Louisiana.
Cuts to indirect spending in grants from the National Institutes of Health will also hit hard across the country, and states where Trump won more than 55% of the 2024 vote are no exception. Former college president Michael Nietzel noted in Forbes that Texas stands to lose more than $300 million; Ohio, more than $170 million; and Tennessee, Missouri, and Florida, more than $130 million apiece. These losses will cause thousands of layoffs and, as the Association of American Medical Colleges said, “diminish the nation’s research capacity, slow scientific progress and deprive patients, families and communities across the country of new treatments, diagnostics and preventive interventions.”Trump said Wednesday he wanted to shutter the Department of Education immediately, calling it “a big con job.” That Department provides grants for schools in low-income communities as well as money for educating students with special needs: eight of the ten states receiving the most federal money for their K–12 schools are dominated by Republicans.
Trump has called the Federal Emergency Management Agency a “disaster” and said states should handle natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes on their own. But states do not have the resilience they need for such short-term emergencies. Once again, while all states receive FEMA money, Republican-dominated states get slightly more of that money than Democratic-dominated states do.Before the 2024 election, Aaron Zitner, Jon Kamp, and Brian McGill of the Wall Street Journal noted that by 2022, 53% of the counties in the U.S. received at least a quarter of their income from government programs—primarily through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those counties heavily support Republicans, including Trump.
On Friday the Republican-dominated House Budget Committee presented its budget proposal to the House. It calls for adding $4.5 trillion to the budget deficit in order to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. It also calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and supplemental nutrition programs. Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said: “The era of wasteful, woke, and weaponized government is over.”
For forty years, Republican politicians could win elections by insisting that government spending redistributed wealth from hardworking taxpayers to the undeserving because they did not entirely purge the federal programs that their own voters liked. Now Trump, Musk, and the Republicans are purging funds for cancer research, family farms, national parks, food, nuclear security, and medical care—all programs his supporters care about—and threatening to throw the country into an economic tailspin that will badly hurt Republican-dominated states.
A January AP/NORC poll found that only 12% of U.S. adults thought it would be good for billionaires to advise presidents, while 60% thought it would be bad.
Forty years of ideology is under pressure now from reality, and the outcome remains uncertain.
A quick lesson on how to destroy a country.
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
“fuck off cunt, you got what you voted for”
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Bloody. Times thousands…
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Was about to post this.
No care for others who have lost their jobs.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson ·
February 15, 2025 (Saturday)It certainly appears that those in charge of the firings didn’t know what they were doing: on Thursday they fired more than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, apparently not aware that they were the people who oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons. Today, Peter Alexander and Alexandra Marquez of NBC News reported that officials are now trying to rehire them but can’t figure out how to reach them because the workers lost access to their work email when they were fired.
we mean two (2) things
one (1) this is how those jokers work, if you don’t understand something then try to reverse engineer it by undertaking destructive testing, just cut out parts of it and see what effect it has, sometimes it’s actually a valid move, alternatively consider how particle physicists do their thing
two (2) this smells like a honeypot for geopolitical rivals to overstep and get their paws stuck into
audible boos for the US National Anthem in Montreal before the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game
wait is that because Taylor Swift was singing it
SCIENCE said:
audible boos for the US National Anthem in Montreal before the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game
wait is that because Taylor Swift was singing it
No. Everybody loves Tay-Tay.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:audible boos for the US National Anthem in Montreal before the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game
wait is that because Taylor Swift was singing it
No. Everybody loves Tay-Tay.
audible booze? That’s just the drink talkin’
“I encourage people to read the below declaration, which is part of a suit brought by USAID workers overseas (here, in Congo) against this Administration. The Declaration describes the life-threatening chaos that ensued when USAID was suddenly shuttered, without warning, by Elon Musk.
If you’re incllined to dismiss all foreign aid as unncessary and are applauding the closure of USAID, realize that these are US lives Musk has endangered, and quite unlawfully for that matter, for no other reason than because he can.”
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION, et al.,
v
DONALD TRUMP, et al.,
Civil Action No. 1:25-CV-352
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
DECLARATION OF MARCUS DOE
I, Marcus Doe, declare the following under penalties of perjury:
1. I am over 18 years of age and competent to give this declaration. This declaration is based on my personal knowledge, information, and belief.
2. I am a member of the American Foreign Service Association.
3. I am a USAID Foreign Service Officer assigned to USAID/Democratic Republic of the Congo in Kinshasa.
4. On January 20, 2025, the President of the United States issued an Executive Order imposing a 90-day “pause” on all U.S. foreign assistance. The scope of this Executive Order was unclear at first, given ambiguities and inconsistencies in the language used.
5. Beginning January 21, 2025, the first workday after the Executive Order was issued, USAID staff immediately set about determining how to interpret and implement the Executive Order. This effort continued zealously and in good faith by all employees of USAID DRC that I was able to observe in Kinshasa and in the United States. I observed no instances of insubordination or opposition to efforts to implement the Order.
6. Over the weekend of January 25–26, 2025, M23 rebels in eastern DRC took control of the city of Goma. Many Congolese citizens view western nations, including the United States, as having culpability for M23’s ongoing war in eastern DRC. The fall of Goma led to rumors of protest in the capital city of Kinshasa the following week. On Monday, January 27, however, protests in Kinshasa were relatively limited.
7. Over the course of the evening of Monday, January 27 in the DRC, dozens of USAID senior leaders were placed on administrative leave without notice or explanation and were cut off from USAID information systems. I learned of these actions first thing upon waking up and checking messages on January 28. I was deeply shaken by the sudden removal of nearly all USAID leadership without explanation. The Agency eventually issued a notice to all staff that these leaders were placed on administrative leave for allegedly circumventing Trump Administration Executive Orders. I have never read or heard of any specific allegations supporting this, nor have I ever seen anyone attempt to circumvent or subvert any of the January 20, 2025 Executive Orders.
8. Given the minimal protests in Kinshasa on January 27, many U.S. Embassy staff, including me, prepared to go to the office the morning of Tuesday, January 28. Likewise, my children prepared to go to school. The children boarded the school bus to go to school and I boarded the shuttle bound for the office. Each departed around the same time that morning, heading in different directions.
9. Shortly after leaving, the Embassy drivers received word that they should turn around and return employees back to their homes, as demonstrations began to form and the security situation near the U.S. Embassy began to deteriorate. Employees and children en route to their destinations were immediately returned home. All staff received messages through the Embassy’s “SAFE Alert” system regarding the change in operational posture, and providing instructions to shelter in place. Some U.S. Embassy staff, including some from USAID, had already made it to work early, and could not leave the Embassy.
10. I continued to telework throughout the morning, focused primarily on understanding and implementing the foreign assistance “pause,” while monitoring the Embassy-issued radios for information and instructions on security. At some point later that morning, I, along with others at USAID, learned via messages from another USAID employee that there were protesters outside his house setting fires and causing damage. He also described the situation over the radio.
11. Eventually, I heard this USAID employee describe over the radio that protesters had breached the gate of his home, and I heard him request an evacuation. I learned later that he and his family had been safely extracted from the situation by armed security working for the U.S. Embassy, but had lost all their belongings to looting. Videos of the looting of his home circulated on local social media. Shortly thereafter, around mid-day, I began to hear protesters chanting and shouting outside the walls of my home. My children were playing outside, so I called them in, and my spouse and I set about locking all doors and gates of our home. We were scared. Mercifully, the protesters never attempted to breach our gate.
12. Within a few hours, Embassy leadership convened a meeting to discuss the security situation and determine whether the Embassy should evacuate and go on ordered departure, often referred to as “OD.” Leadership determined in that meeting that we would evacuate and go on ordered departure, though a small number of staff would stay behind to maintain operations.
13. After learning of the impending ordered departure, I along with others from USAID/DRC communicated with colleagues in Washington about what was happening. My Washington colleagues were still reeling from the removal of multiple layers of leadership, and were unsure of who held what position.
14. I mentioned to these remaining Washington staff that the executive order pausing foreign assistance prevented USAID from obligating money to fund travel, and therefore USAID would be unable to fund the cost of the evacuation of its staff out of Kinshasa. Throughout the preceding week, USAID had been losing access to and control of its payment systems, as various standard payments for travel vouchers and cost of living allowances (COLA) were not successfully processed. It seemed that no one in Washington had yet considered the problem of funding the evacuation. It was unclear at the time who should have responsibility for resolving it, or what process existed for getting approval to spend money to save American lives. I began to worry that USAID staff would have to fund their own evacuations, and communicated this concern to multiple Washington staff. I began to feel an intense sense of panic that my government might fully abandon Americans working for USAID in Kinshasa.
15. Washington staff, concerned that any spending not directly approved by then-acting Administrator Jason Gray would be met with accusations of subverting the executive order and swift retribution, determined that they needed to process a “waiver request” with approval from Acting Administrator Gray. Thankfully, the career staff took up this effort despite perceived risks that they may suffer retaliation for attempting to spend money to save lives. The Acting Administrator did not approve the waiver request until January 29, well after the evacuation had already begun.
16. Despite the lack of an approved waiver, USAID staff and their families participated in the evacuation from Kinshasa, and boarded small boats alongside friends and colleagues from other foreign affairs agencies to cross the Congo River to Brazzaville. Each individual was able to take only what would fit in their lap. For most families, this was one carry-on-sized bag per person. Staff remained in a hotel in Brazzaville for about two days before flying from Brazzaville to Dulles International Airport, landing in Dulles the afternoon of January 31.
17. By the time we landed in Dulles, news reports were swirling that President Trump and Elon Musk were actively planning to shutter USAID. While State Department and USAID staff welcomed us home and offered us food and warm clothing, we were being aggressively maligned by Musk and Trump as a “criminal organization” composed of “marxists” who “hate America” that “needs to die.” Musk bragged about missing parties to “feed USAID into the woodchipper.” The President called USAID staff “radical lunatics;” both repeatedly and publicly asserted their intent to close the Agency.
18. After landing in Dulles, all evacuees were allowed two nights in the airport hotel in which to figure out what we would do next. This involved figuring out where we would live, how we would get around, where our children would go to school, and all other aspects of daily life in the United States. This is a stressful endeavor under the best of circumstances, but for USAID families, we did not know whether we would ever receive the housing allowances and other support payments that would normally be owed to evacuated families, as we did not know how long our Agency would exist.
19. To date we have still not received any of these payments, and USAID systems for processing and issuing such payments remain unavailable to USAID staff trained to use them. At the time of writing we have not yet even received the standard cost of living allowance (COLA) for Kinshasa that would normally have been paid to us weeks ago, before the evacuation.
20. As part of the evacuation instructions, staff were informed they must locate in the Washington, DC area so they could go to the office for in-person work—a supposed priority for the Administration. While family members could separate and go to alternative safe haven locations, employees were mandated to appear in the office. However, on February 3, the first workday after we arrived in the United States, the USAID building was closed to staff. As of the time of this writing, it has never reopened. Despite being forced to take on expensive DC-area leases and costs, USAID staff have never been allowed to go to the office. Again, despite significant efforts by USAID administrative staff, thus far no evacuation support payments have yet been made to anyone from USAID/DRC.
21. The evening of February 4, after most USAID/DRC staff had already taken on leases and made longer-term life decisions such as where children would attend school, all USAID staff received an email indicating they would be placed on administrative leave effective Friday, February 7. The unsigned email provided no reason for the decision nor any information on the longer-term implications. No one at USAID or the State Department could answer how this would affect eligibility for evacuation support payments. Even as of the morning of Friday, February 7, USAID evacuees did not know how they would live the next day.
22. For my part, I have taken on a month-to-month lease of a furnished 2-bedroom corporate apartment for my 4-person family. I will not be able to afford to continue this lease if I do not eventually receive evacuation support payments. If USAID is shuttered, I would lose those payments and my salary, and my family would have no home to live in and no income to procure one. We have already left nearly all our belongings in Kinshasa, save our four carry-on-sized suitcases. Even if those belongings were returned to us as part of the proposed mass repatriation of USAID Foreign Service Officers, we would have to pay to store them because we presently have no place to keep them.
23. The chaos of the Trump administration’s haphazard and extra-Constitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa. My family has left behind our home and all our belongings as a result of our service to the United States of America overseas, and we have been harassed through a combination of malignant, violent rhetoric and threats of financial ruin from the officials effecting this shutdown.
24. Trump administration officials have cut off my Agency’s capacity to pay me what I am owed. I have undertaken significant costs and liabilities in good faith reliance on the government’s obligations to my family and me for my service. These obligations, including Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), Special Evacuation Allowance (SEA), Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE), and hotel costs have not yet been paid or reimbursed, and it is unclear at the time of writing whether they will ever be paid. Despite my need to make long-term financial and other commitments regarding my life and lifestyle, the Agency that employs me makes unexplained short-term threats to my employment with no indication of any plan for what I can expect in the coming days, let alone in the coming months.
25. USAID/DRC staff are patriots who are proud of our service and have risked our lives and our family’s lives to serve our country overseas in one of the most difficult environments on Earth. We deserve respect and dignity, or at least the payments promised to us for our sacrifices. To date, we have received none of those things.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on February 9, 2025.
/s/ Marcus Doe
Marcus Doe
That ^ was from Scott Pilutik’s Facebook page.
kii said:
“I encourage people to read the below declaration, which is part of a suit brought by USAID workers overseas (here, in Congo) against this Administration. The Declaration describes the life-threatening chaos that ensued when USAID was suddenly shuttered, without warning, by Elon Musk.If you’re incllined to dismiss all foreign aid as unncessary and are applauding the closure of USAID, realize that these are US lives Musk has endangered, and quite unlawfully for that matter, for no other reason than because he can.”
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIAAMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION, et al.,
v
DONALD TRUMP, et al.,Civil Action No. 1:25-CV-352
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=DECLARATION OF MARCUS DOE
I, Marcus Doe, declare the following under penalties of perjury:
1. I am over 18 years of age and competent to give this declaration. This declaration is based on my personal knowledge, information, and belief.
2. I am a member of the American Foreign Service Association.
3. I am a USAID Foreign Service Officer assigned to USAID/Democratic Republic of the Congo in Kinshasa.
4. On January 20, 2025, the President of the United States issued an Executive Order imposing a 90-day “pause” on all U.S. foreign assistance. The scope of this Executive Order was unclear at first, given ambiguities and inconsistencies in the language used.
5. Beginning January 21, 2025, the first workday after the Executive Order was issued, USAID staff immediately set about determining how to interpret and implement the Executive Order. This effort continued zealously and in good faith by all employees of USAID DRC that I was able to observe in Kinshasa and in the United States. I observed no instances of insubordination or opposition to efforts to implement the Order.
6. Over the weekend of January 25–26, 2025, M23 rebels in eastern DRC took control of the city of Goma. Many Congolese citizens view western nations, including the United States, as having culpability for M23’s ongoing war in eastern DRC. The fall of Goma led to rumors of protest in the capital city of Kinshasa the following week. On Monday, January 27, however, protests in Kinshasa were relatively limited.
7. Over the course of the evening of Monday, January 27 in the DRC, dozens of USAID senior leaders were placed on administrative leave without notice or explanation and were cut off from USAID information systems. I learned of these actions first thing upon waking up and checking messages on January 28. I was deeply shaken by the sudden removal of nearly all USAID leadership without explanation. The Agency eventually issued a notice to all staff that these leaders were placed on administrative leave for allegedly circumventing Trump Administration Executive Orders. I have never read or heard of any specific allegations supporting this, nor have I ever seen anyone attempt to circumvent or subvert any of the January 20, 2025 Executive Orders.
8. Given the minimal protests in Kinshasa on January 27, many U.S. Embassy staff, including me, prepared to go to the office the morning of Tuesday, January 28. Likewise, my children prepared to go to school. The children boarded the school bus to go to school and I boarded the shuttle bound for the office. Each departed around the same time that morning, heading in different directions.
9. Shortly after leaving, the Embassy drivers received word that they should turn around and return employees back to their homes, as demonstrations began to form and the security situation near the U.S. Embassy began to deteriorate. Employees and children en route to their destinations were immediately returned home. All staff received messages through the Embassy’s “SAFE Alert” system regarding the change in operational posture, and providing instructions to shelter in place. Some U.S. Embassy staff, including some from USAID, had already made it to work early, and could not leave the Embassy.
10. I continued to telework throughout the morning, focused primarily on understanding and implementing the foreign assistance “pause,” while monitoring the Embassy-issued radios for information and instructions on security. At some point later that morning, I, along with others at USAID, learned via messages from another USAID employee that there were protesters outside his house setting fires and causing damage. He also described the situation over the radio.
11. Eventually, I heard this USAID employee describe over the radio that protesters had breached the gate of his home, and I heard him request an evacuation. I learned later that he and his family had been safely extracted from the situation by armed security working for the U.S. Embassy, but had lost all their belongings to looting. Videos of the looting of his home circulated on local social media. Shortly thereafter, around mid-day, I began to hear protesters chanting and shouting outside the walls of my home. My children were playing outside, so I called them in, and my spouse and I set about locking all doors and gates of our home. We were scared. Mercifully, the protesters never attempted to breach our gate.
12. Within a few hours, Embassy leadership convened a meeting to discuss the security situation and determine whether the Embassy should evacuate and go on ordered departure, often referred to as “OD.” Leadership determined in that meeting that we would evacuate and go on ordered departure, though a small number of staff would stay behind to maintain operations.
13. After learning of the impending ordered departure, I along with others from USAID/DRC communicated with colleagues in Washington about what was happening. My Washington colleagues were still reeling from the removal of multiple layers of leadership, and were unsure of who held what position.
14. I mentioned to these remaining Washington staff that the executive order pausing foreign assistance prevented USAID from obligating money to fund travel, and therefore USAID would be unable to fund the cost of the evacuation of its staff out of Kinshasa. Throughout the preceding week, USAID had been losing access to and control of its payment systems, as various standard payments for travel vouchers and cost of living allowances (COLA) were not successfully processed. It seemed that no one in Washington had yet considered the problem of funding the evacuation. It was unclear at the time who should have responsibility for resolving it, or what process existed for getting approval to spend money to save American lives. I began to worry that USAID staff would have to fund their own evacuations, and communicated this concern to multiple Washington staff. I began to feel an intense sense of panic that my government might fully abandon Americans working for USAID in Kinshasa.
15. Washington staff, concerned that any spending not directly approved by then-acting Administrator Jason Gray would be met with accusations of subverting the executive order and swift retribution, determined that they needed to process a “waiver request” with approval from Acting Administrator Gray. Thankfully, the career staff took up this effort despite perceived risks that they may suffer retaliation for attempting to spend money to save lives. The Acting Administrator did not approve the waiver request until January 29, well after the evacuation had already begun.
16. Despite the lack of an approved waiver, USAID staff and their families participated in the evacuation from Kinshasa, and boarded small boats alongside friends and colleagues from other foreign affairs agencies to cross the Congo River to Brazzaville. Each individual was able to take only what would fit in their lap. For most families, this was one carry-on-sized bag per person. Staff remained in a hotel in Brazzaville for about two days before flying from Brazzaville to Dulles International Airport, landing in Dulles the afternoon of January 31.
17. By the time we landed in Dulles, news reports were swirling that President Trump and Elon Musk were actively planning to shutter USAID. While State Department and USAID staff welcomed us home and offered us food and warm clothing, we were being aggressively maligned by Musk and Trump as a “criminal organization” composed of “marxists” who “hate America” that “needs to die.” Musk bragged about missing parties to “feed USAID into the woodchipper.” The President called USAID staff “radical lunatics;” both repeatedly and publicly asserted their intent to close the Agency.
18. After landing in Dulles, all evacuees were allowed two nights in the airport hotel in which to figure out what we would do next. This involved figuring out where we would live, how we would get around, where our children would go to school, and all other aspects of daily life in the United States. This is a stressful endeavor under the best of circumstances, but for USAID families, we did not know whether we would ever receive the housing allowances and other support payments that would normally be owed to evacuated families, as we did not know how long our Agency would exist.
19. To date we have still not received any of these payments, and USAID systems for processing and issuing such payments remain unavailable to USAID staff trained to use them. At the time of writing we have not yet even received the standard cost of living allowance (COLA) for Kinshasa that would normally have been paid to us weeks ago, before the evacuation.
20. As part of the evacuation instructions, staff were informed they must locate in the Washington, DC area so they could go to the office for in-person work—a supposed priority for the Administration. While family members could separate and go to alternative safe haven locations, employees were mandated to appear in the office. However, on February 3, the first workday after we arrived in the United States, the USAID building was closed to staff. As of the time of this writing, it has never reopened. Despite being forced to take on expensive DC-area leases and costs, USAID staff have never been allowed to go to the office. Again, despite significant efforts by USAID administrative staff, thus far no evacuation support payments have yet been made to anyone from USAID/DRC.
21. The evening of February 4, after most USAID/DRC staff had already taken on leases and made longer-term life decisions such as where children would attend school, all USAID staff received an email indicating they would be placed on administrative leave effective Friday, February 7. The unsigned email provided no reason for the decision nor any information on the longer-term implications. No one at USAID or the State Department could answer how this would affect eligibility for evacuation support payments. Even as of the morning of Friday, February 7, USAID evacuees did not know how they would live the next day.
22. For my part, I have taken on a month-to-month lease of a furnished 2-bedroom corporate apartment for my 4-person family. I will not be able to afford to continue this lease if I do not eventually receive evacuation support payments. If USAID is shuttered, I would lose those payments and my salary, and my family would have no home to live in and no income to procure one. We have already left nearly all our belongings in Kinshasa, save our four carry-on-sized suitcases. Even if those belongings were returned to us as part of the proposed mass repatriation of USAID Foreign Service Officers, we would have to pay to store them because we presently have no place to keep them.
23. The chaos of the Trump administration’s haphazard and extra-Constitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa. My family has left behind our home and all our belongings as a result of our service to the United States of America overseas, and we have been harassed through a combination of malignant, violent rhetoric and threats of financial ruin from the officials effecting this shutdown.
24. Trump administration officials have cut off my Agency’s capacity to pay me what I am owed. I have undertaken significant costs and liabilities in good faith reliance on the government’s obligations to my family and me for my service. These obligations, including Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), Special Evacuation Allowance (SEA), Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE), and hotel costs have not yet been paid or reimbursed, and it is unclear at the time of writing whether they will ever be paid. Despite my need to make long-term financial and other commitments regarding my life and lifestyle, the Agency that employs me makes unexplained short-term threats to my employment with no indication of any plan for what I can expect in the coming days, let alone in the coming months.
25. USAID/DRC staff are patriots who are proud of our service and have risked our lives and our family’s lives to serve our country overseas in one of the most difficult environments on Earth. We deserve respect and dignity, or at least the payments promised to us for our sacrifices. To date, we have received none of those things.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on February 9, 2025.
/s/ Marcus Doe
Marcus Doe
FMD!
kii said:
That ^ was from Scott Pilutik’s Facebook page.
fk. that isn’t ‘great’.
Hmmmm.
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
Mainly America Isn’t Great Anymore. MAIGA
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
So by this logic, someone who has been convicted of dozens of felonies will not save the country.
dv said:
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
So by this logic, someone who has been convicted of dozens of felonies will not save the country.
or someone who has a shot at him will not be violating the law, as long as they don’t miss.
dv said:
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
So by this logic, someone who has been convicted of dozens of felonies will not save the country.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
So by this logic, someone who has been convicted of dozens of felonies will not save the country.
or someone who has a shot at him will not be violating the law, as long as they don’t miss.
Now, there’s an interesting take on the notion…
Did I post this already?
dv said:
They’re such victims.
The ABC has caught up with the firing of the nuclear workers in the US.
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
ruby said:
Hmmmm.
So by this logic, someone who has been convicted of dozens of felonies will not save the country.
or someone who has a shot at him will not be violating the law, as long as they don’t miss.
:))))
Heather Cox Richardson
·
February 16, 2025 (Sunday)
The sixty-first Munich Security Conference, the world’s leading forum for talking about international security policy, took place from February 14 to February 16 this year. Begun in 1963, it was designed to be an independent venue for experts and policymakers to discuss the most pressing security issues around the globe.
At the conference on Friday, February 14, Vice President J.D. Vance launched what The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour called “a brutal ideological assault” against Europe, attacking the values the United States used to share with Europe but which Vance and the other members of the Trump administration are now working to destroy.
Vance and MAGA Christian nationalists reject the principles of secular democracy and instead align with leaders like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. They claim that the equal rights central to democracy undermine nations by treating women and racial, religious, and gender minorities as equal to white Christian men. They want to see an end to the immigration that they believe weakens a nation’s people, and for government to reinforce traditional religious and patriarchal values.
Vance attacked current European values and warned that the crisis for the region was not external actors like Russia or China, but rather “the threat from within.” He accused Europe of censoring free speech, but it was clear—especially coming from the representative of a regime that has erased great swaths of public knowledge because it objects to words like “gender”—that what he really objected to was restrictions on the speech of far-right ideologues.
After the rise and fall of German dictator Adolf Hitler, Germany banned Nazi propaganda and set limits on hate speech, banning attacks on people based on racial, national, religious, or ethnic background, as these forms of speech are central to fascism and similar ideologies. That hampers the ability of Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to recruit before upcoming elections on February 23.
After calling for Europe to “change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction,” Vance threw his weight behind AfD. He broke protocol to refuse a meeting with current German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and instead broke a taboo in German politics by meeting with the leader of AfD. Trump called Vance’s speech “very brilliant.”
Bill Kristol of The Bulwark posted: “It’s heartening that today the leaders of the two major parties in Germany are unequivocally anti-Nazi and anti-fascist. It’s horrifying that today the president and vice-president of the United States of America are not.” German defense minister Boris Pistorius called Vance’s speech “unacceptable,” and on Saturday, Scholz said: “Never again fascism, never again, racism, never again aggressive war…. oday’s democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realization that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats.”
Vance and the Trump administration have the support of billionaire Elon Musk in their attempt to shift the globe toward the rejection of democracy in favor of far-right authoritarianism. David Ingram and Bruna Horvath of NBC News reported today that Musk has “encouraged right-wing political movements, policies and administrations in at least 18 countries in a global push to slash immigration and curtail regulation of business.”
Musk, who cast apparent Nazi salutes before crowds on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, wrote an op-ed in favor of AfD and recently spoke by video at an AfD rally, calling it “the best hope for Germany.” In addition to his support for Germany’s AfD, Ingram and Horvath identified Musk’s support for far-right movements in Brazil, Ireland, Argentina, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, the Netherlands, and other countries. Last month, before Trump took office, French president Emmanuel Macron accused Musk of backing a global reactionary movement and of intervening directly in elections, including Germany’s.
Musk’s involvement in international politics appears to have coincided with his purchase of Twitter in 2022. And indeed, social media has been key to the project of undermining democracy. Russian operatives are now pushing the rise of the far-right in Europe through social media as they did in the United States. Russian president Vladimir Putin has long sought to weaken the democratic alliances of the United States and Europe to enable Russia to take at least parts of Ukraine and possibly other neighboring countries without the formidable resistance that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would present.
Russian state television praised Vance’s speech. One headline read: “Humiliated Europe out for the count. Its American master flogged its old vassals.” Russian pundits recognized that Vance’s turn away from Europe meant a victory for Russia.
Vance’s speech came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told other countries’ defense ministers on Wednesday, February 12, that he wanted to “directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Since 1949, the United States has stood firmly behind the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that said any attack on one of the signatories to that agreement would be an attack on all. Now, it appears, the U.S. is backing away.
In that speech, Hegseth seemed to move the U.S. toward the ideology of Russian president Vladimir Putin that larger countries can scoop up their smaller neighbors. He echoed Putin’s demands for ending its war against Ukraine, saying that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective” and that the U.S. will not support NATO membership for Ukraine, thus conceding to Russia two key issues without apparently getting anything in return. He also said that Europe must take over assistance for Ukraine as the U.S. focuses on its own borders.
On Wednesday, Trump spoke to Putin for nearly an hour and a half and came out echoing Putin’s rationale for his attack on Ukraine. Trump’s social media account posted that the call had been “highly productive,” and said the two leaders would visit each other’s countries, offering a White House visit to Putin, who has been isolated from other nations since his attacks on Ukraine.
Also on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and offered U.S. support for Ukraine in exchange for half the country’s mineral resources, although it was unclear if the deal the U.S. offered meant future support or only payment for past support. The offer did not, apparently, contain guarantees for future support, and Zelensky rejected it.
On Saturday, while the Munich conference was still underway, the Trump administration announced it was sending a delegation to Saudi Arabia to begin peace talks with Russia. Ukrainian officials said they had not been informed and had no plans to attend. European negotiators have not been invited either. While the talks are being billed as “early-stage,” the United States is sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Michael Waltz, suggesting haste.
After Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday, the Russian readout of the call suggested that Russia urgently needs relief from the economic sanctions that are crushing the Russian economy. It said the call had focused on “removing unilateral barriers inherited from the previous U.S. administration, aiming to restore mutually beneficial trade, economic, and investment cooperation.” On Friday, Russia’s central bank warned that the economy is faltering, while Orbán, an ally of both Putin and Trump, assured Hungarian state radio on Friday that Russia will be “reintegrated” into the world economy and the European energy system as soon as “the U.S. president comes and creates peace.”
But the U.S. is not speaking with one voice. Republican leaders who support Ukraine are trying to smooth over Trump’s apparent coziness with Russia. Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “rookie mistake” when he offered that the U.S. would not support Ukraine’s membership in NATO and that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to demand a return to its borders before Russia invaded in 2014, essentially offering to let Russia keep Crimea. Wicker said he was “puzzled” and “disturbed” by Hegseth’s comments and added: “I don’t know who wrote the speech—it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool.” Carlson, a former Fox News Channel personality, has expressed admiration for Orbán and Putin.
“There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys,” Wicker said. “They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated. And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to it.”
Today on Face the Nation, Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said: “There is absolutely no way that Donald Trump will be seen—he will not let himself go down in history as having sold out to Putin. He will not let that happen.” Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark said: “I guess Republicans think this is how they manipulate Trump into doing the right thing. But Trump’s been selling out to Putin since Helsinki when he publicly sided with Putin over America’s intelligence community. And he hasn’t stopped selling out since. And the lets him.”
European leaders reported being blindsided by Trump’s announcement. German leader Scholz on Friday asked Germany’s parliament to declare a state of emergency to support Ukraine, and on Sunday, European leaders met for an impromptu breakfast to discuss European security and Ukraine. Macron invited leaders to Paris on Monday to continue discussions. Representatives of Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark will attend, as will the secretary-general of NATO and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission.
After the Munich conference, in Writing from London, British journalist Nick Cohen wrote that those Americans trying to find an excuse for the betrayal of Ukraine are deluding themselves. He wrote: “he radical right in the US is not engaged in a grand geopolitical strategy. It is pursuing an ideological campaign against its true enemy, which is not China or Russia but liberalism. The US culture war has gone global. The Trump administration hates liberals at home and liberal democracies abroad.”
Proving his point, on Saturday after Vance’s speech, Trump’s social media account posted: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” This message, attributed to French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, not only claims that the president is above all laws, but also signals to supporters that they should support Trump with violence. And that is how they took it. Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec responded, “America will be saved What must be done will be done,” to which Elon Musk responded: “Yes”
Political scientist Stathis Kalyvas posted: “There is now total clarity, no matter how unimaginable things might seem. And they amount to this: The U.S. government has been taken over by a clique of extremists who have embarked on a process of regime change in the world’s oldest democracy…. The arrogance on display is staggering. They think their actions will increase U.S. power, but they are in fact wrecking their own country and, in the process everyone else.”
He continued: “The only hope lies in the sheer enormity of the threat: it might awake us out of our slumber before it is too late.”
A year ago today, on February 16, 2024, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died at the hands of Russian authorities in the prison where he was being held on trumped-up charges.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson ·
February 16, 2025 (Sunday)———————————————————-CUT————————————————————
Sigh.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson ·
February 16, 2025 (Sunday)———————————————————-CUT————————————————————
Sigh.
Yeah. The USA are no longer the leaders of the free world.
You’re not a leader if nobody is following you.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson ·
February 16, 2025 (Sunday)———————————————————-CUT————————————————————
Sigh.
Yeah. The USA are no longer the leaders of the free world.
You’re not a leader if nobody is following you.
free like free speech
In a deeply emotional closing to the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC), Christoph Heusgen, the chairman since 2022, addressed the conference’s conclusion on February 16.
https://youtu.be/SNwx3tb0By4?si=Y76dbAxbm8v7qaqj
buffy said:
The ABC has caught up with the firing of the nuclear workers in the US.The NNSA staff who had been reinstated could not all be reached after they were fired, with some reconsidering whether to return to work due to the uncertainty created by DOGE.
That’s ok. Musk and his DOGE team can come in and repair the nuclear warheads. They wouldn’t need to learn COBOL to do that.
Authorities have yet to rule if this was a hate crime or not. Possibly because two of these evil people are trans.
Anyway, there are many reports available, including the NYTimes.
kii said:
Authorities have yet to rule if this was a hate crime or not. Possibly because two of these evil people are trans.
Anyway, there are many reports available, including the NYTimes.
were they Republicans or Democrats then
KJW said:
buffy said:
The ABC has caught up with the firing of the nuclear workers in the US.The NNSA staff who had been reinstated could not all be reached after they were fired, with some reconsidering whether to return to work due to the uncertainty created by DOGE.That’s ok. Musk and his DOGE team can come in and repair the nuclear warheads. They wouldn’t need to learn COBOL to do that.
:)
Michael V said:
KJW said:
buffy said:
The ABC has caught up with the firing of the nuclear workers in the US.The NNSA staff who had been reinstated could not all be reached after they were fired, with some reconsidering whether to return to work due to the uncertainty created by DOGE.That’s ok. Musk and his DOGE team can come in and repair the nuclear warheads. They wouldn’t need to learn COBOL to do that.
:)
what language are the warheads coded in
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
KJW said:
That’s ok. Musk and his DOGE team can come in and repair the nuclear warheads. They wouldn’t need to learn COBOL to do that.
:)
what language are the warheads coded in
Cobalt
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
:)
what language are the warheads coded in
Cobalt
dirty
SCIENCE said:
what language are the warheads coded in
FORTRAN ?
KJW said:
SCIENCE said:
what language are the warheads coded in
FORTRAN ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck
alleged
dv said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
:)
what language are the warheads coded in
Cobalt
Ha!
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Heck!
LOL told yous they love to be “North” (DPR) Korea
SCIENCE said:
LOL told yous they love to be “North” (DPR) Korea
And what about those the military reject? eg: people with flat feet.
Seems a very bad idea to me.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
LOL told yous they love to be “North” (DPR) Korea
And what about those the military reject? eg: people with flat feet.
Seems a very bad idea to me.
maybe but we had a similar thought to those contributors there that wrote that and we think they meant, keep the young men hungry angry ignorant jealous and you suddenly have a bunch of ready recruits who can’t wait to get into fights with anyone else they come across so let’s go grab some land and subjugate some people
Interesting Legal Eagle video on what is going on the Justice Department
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jehv5qXQAD8
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Sigh.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
hey, it’s not as though they were maintaining the US’s nuclear arsenal or anything…
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
hey, it’s not as though they were maintaining the US’s nuclear arsenal or anything…
d’n‘o’ about that, we’v‘n’t seen them use the nuclear arsenal before but certainly have seen them fly air traffic
Dunno which thread this fits in with so I’ll leave it here.
https://www.luigimangioneinfo.com/
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
hey, it’s not as though they were maintaining the US’s nuclear arsenal or anything…
d’n‘o’ about that, we’v‘n’t seen them use the nuclear arsenal before but certainly have seen them fly air traffic
nuc’l’ ars’l
Divine Angel said:
Dunno which thread this fits in with so I’ll leave it here.
are yous seeking donations or correspondence
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Live, money, none of that matters, as long as Donny Convict and the Space Nazi have their fun/revenge on ‘the deep state’ (which is, apparently, comprised of anyone and everyone who worked for the Federal government prior to the 2020 election).
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Live, money, none of that matters, as long as Donny Convict and the Space Nazi have their fun/revenge on ‘the deep state’ (which is, apparently, comprised of anyone and everyone who worked for the Federal government prior to the 2020 election).
The Deep State is anyone who has said ‘no’ to Trump, Musk and any of the wealthy bros. The ones who have enforced rules, safety and fairness.
I guess they are creating (have created?) the Shallow State where only money and a lack of morals matter.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Live, money, none of that matters, as long as Donny Convict and the Space Nazi have their fun/revenge on ‘the deep state’ (which is, apparently, comprised of anyone and everyone who worked for the Federal government prior to the 2020 election).
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2201920/
Space Nazi Musk DEI
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Sigh.
hey, it’s not as though they were maintaining the US’s nuclear arsenal or anything…
d’n‘o’ about that, we’v‘n’t seen them use the nuclear arsenal before but certainly have seen them fly air traffic
nuc’l’ ars’l
hey these things aren’t meant to be stored in this position are they
disclaimer we haven’t fact checked
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
.
SCIENCE said:
hey these things aren’t meant to be stored in this position are they
disclaimer we haven’t fact checked
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The tyres last longer that way.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
hey these things aren’t meant to be stored in this position are they
disclaimer we haven’t fact checked
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The tyres last longer that way.
another win for government efficiency
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:hey these things aren’t meant to be stored in this position are they
disclaimer we haven’t fact checked
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The tyres last longer that way.
The Norwegian Blue prefers kippin’ on its back.
btm said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
hey these things aren’t meant to be stored in this position are they
disclaimer we haven’t fact checked
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The tyres last longer that way.
another win for government efficiency
The Norwegian Blue prefers kippin’ on its back.
oh here we go yousr ABC has finally caught up again
Seriously, though, to hell with all those people saying we were exaggerating the danger of a Trump presidency. I would never have been so pessimistic as to predict some of the shit that has already happened. I now realise I was a dewy eyed Pollyanna in my optimism.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/panic-in-ukraine-as-leaked-confidential-trump-peace-plan-astounds-report/ar-AA1zeDFo
As the Telegraph writes, the plan delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week would “amount to the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.”
In sum the plan would guarantee the United States half of the revenues generated by the extraction of resources in Ukraine going forward, as well as half of revenues generated by “all new licenses issued to third parties” in the country.
According to the Telegraph, “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.” At the same time, Trump plans to entirely let Russia off the hook for its invasion of Ukraine three years ago that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in both countries.
dv said:
Seriously, though, to hell with all those people saying we were exaggerating the danger of a Trump presidency. I would never have been so pessimistic as to predict some of the shit that has already happened. I now realise I was a dewy eyed Pollyanna in my optimism.https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/panic-in-ukraine-as-leaked-confidential-trump-peace-plan-astounds-report/ar-AA1zeDFo
As the Telegraph writes, the plan delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week would “amount to the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.”
In sum the plan would guarantee the United States half of the revenues generated by the extraction of resources in Ukraine going forward, as well as half of revenues generated by “all new licenses issued to third parties” in the country.
According to the Telegraph, “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.” At the same time, Trump plans to entirely let Russia off the hook for its invasion of Ukraine three years ago that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in both countries.
FMD
Michael V said:
dv said:
Seriously, though, to hell with all those people saying we were exaggerating the danger of a Trump presidency. I would never have been so pessimistic as to predict some of the shit that has already happened. I now realise I was a dewy eyed Pollyanna in my optimism.https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/panic-in-ukraine-as-leaked-confidential-trump-peace-plan-astounds-report/ar-AA1zeDFo
As the Telegraph writes, the plan delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week would “amount to the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.”
In sum the plan would guarantee the United States half of the revenues generated by the extraction of resources in Ukraine going forward, as well as half of revenues generated by “all new licenses issued to third parties” in the country.
According to the Telegraph, “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.” At the same time, Trump plans to entirely let Russia off the hook for its invasion of Ukraine three years ago that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in both countries.
FMD
I wonder if Trump has an idea in his head to see if he can instigate WW3 just to watch the world burn
dv said:
Seriously, though, to hell with all those people saying we were exaggerating the danger of a Trump presidency. I would never have been so pessimistic as to predict some of the shit that has already happened. I now realise I was a dewy eyed Pollyanna in my optimism.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/panic-in-ukraine-as-leaked-confidential-trump-peace-plan-astounds-report/ar-AA1zeDFo
As the Telegraph writes, the plan delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week would “amount to the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.”
In sum the plan would guarantee the United States half of the revenues generated by the extraction of resources in Ukraine going forward, as well as half of revenues generated by “all new licenses issued to third parties” in the country.
According to the Telegraph, “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.” At the same time, Trump plans to entirely let Russia off the hook for its invasion of Ukraine three years ago that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in both countries.
well maybe not some of the other stuff but we expected opportunistic attempts at colonial imperialism
diddly-squat said:
Interesting Legal Eagle video on what is going on the Justice Department
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jehv5qXQAD8
Absolutely incredible
In any normal country, this would be THE news story for a year. In the USA today, it’s like the fifth worst story this week.
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Seriously, though, to hell with all those people saying we were exaggerating the danger of a Trump presidency. I would never have been so pessimistic as to predict some of the shit that has already happened. I now realise I was a dewy eyed Pollyanna in my optimism.https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/panic-in-ukraine-as-leaked-confidential-trump-peace-plan-astounds-report/ar-AA1zeDFo
As the Telegraph writes, the plan delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week would “amount to the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.”
In sum the plan would guarantee the United States half of the revenues generated by the extraction of resources in Ukraine going forward, as well as half of revenues generated by “all new licenses issued to third parties” in the country.
According to the Telegraph, “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.” At the same time, Trump plans to entirely let Russia off the hook for its invasion of Ukraine three years ago that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in both countries.
FMD
I wonder if Trump has an idea in his head to see if he can instigate WW3 just to watch the world burn
it’s what some of those fundamentalist Christians are praying for.
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
Michael V said:FMD
I wonder if Trump has an idea in his head to see if he can instigate WW3 just to watch the world burn
it’s what some of those fundamentalist Christians are praying for.
I’d believe that as well, damn scary
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
I wonder if Trump has an idea in his head to see if he can instigate WW3 just to watch the world burn
it’s what some of those fundamentalist Christians are praying for.
I’d believe that as well, damn scary
wait we thought the Jews were behind all this with their Islamic terrorist puppets
Rep Stansbury and the Oversight Committee
Really worth listening to.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Rep Stansbury and the Oversight CommitteeReally worth listening to.
she was good.
I like her a lot.
“MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains how Elon Musk, whose only mission in government is to cut payments, has gained control over Social Security and put those payments in jeopardy for the first time, proving that President Roosevelt was right when he said, No damn politician can ever scrap my social security program
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Interesting Legal Eagle video on what is going on the Justice Department
Absolutely incredible
In any normal country, this would be THE news story for a year. In the USA today, it’s like the fifth worst story this week.
so are they going to check and balance like we’re told they will
sarahs mum said:
“MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains how Elon Musk, whose only mission in government is to cut payments, has gained control over Social Security and put those payments in jeopardy for the first time, proving that President Roosevelt was right when he said, No damn politician can ever scrap my social security program
They really do believe any government help is communist or bad.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Interesting Legal Eagle video on what is going on the Justice Department
Absolutely incredible
In any normal country, this would be THE news story for a year. In the USA today, it’s like the fifth worst story this week.
so are they going to check and balance like we’re told they will
the judicial system is more than just the DoJ
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
Absolutely incredible
In any normal country, this would be THE news story for a year. In the USA today, it’s like the fifth worst story this week.
so are they going to check and balance like we’re told they will
the judicial system is more than just the DoJ
Prisons and the courts as well.
Who should cooperate with each other mostly or else it makes everything so much harder.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
so are they going to check and balance like we’re told they will
the judicial system is more than just the DoJ
Prisons and the courts as well.
Who should cooperate with each other mostly or else it makes everything so much harder.
so no
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
the judicial system is more than just the DoJ
Prisons and the courts as well.
Who should cooperate with each other mostly or else it makes everything so much harder.
so no
well they have shut down all the drug rehabilitation programs so there is that. and if they shut down social security payments…
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
LOL told yous they love to be “North” (DPR) Korea
And what about those the military reject? eg: people with flat feet.
Seems a very bad idea to me.
maybe but we had a similar thought to those contributors there that wrote that and we think they meant, keep the young men hungry angry ignorant jealous and you suddenly have a bunch of ready recruits who can’t wait to get into fights with anyone else they come across so let’s go grab some land and subjugate some people
well yous interfering ASIANS would say that
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/18/us-energy-secretary-says-australia-should-get-in-the-game-of-supplying-uranium
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/18/us-energy-secretary-says-australia-should-get-in-the-game-of-supplying-uranium
Reckon there’s uranium in space.
from this Rachel Maddow
link
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DElOyHxpgZ3/?igsh=MnBhNzNkbWQ0OTJq
Golden Girls
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
yeah heard people expressing their concerns about this over most of past 5 years
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
well good how else can yous ensure The Economy Must Grow c’m‘on
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
“…. and you said he was worse than Hitler so Godwin’s Law says you just lost the argument!”
The likely response these days is “hold mah beeer!”
:(
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
criminalizing queerness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
erasure of transness: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
mass deportations: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
slave labor in prisons: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️
eugenics and criminalization of disability: Trump: ✔️ 1930-40s Germany: ✔️Donald J Trump is a Nazi.
We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
When I worked at the bookstore I’d often joke about the minimum wage being paid to the majority of workers. I called it “paid slavery”. Most people spent their wages in the store. Staff discounts were meaningless when you saw the mark-ups on everything. Booksellers could get cheaper prices on Amazon.
kii said:
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
When I worked at the bookstore I’d often joke about the minimum wage being paid to the majority of workers. I called it “paid slavery”. Most people spent their wages in the store. Staff discounts were meaningless when you saw the mark-ups on everything. Booksellers could get cheaper prices on Amazon.
Is it accepted as normal ?
I find it astonishing what they accept as that’s how its done as some anti communists way of life.
Insurance based health care is the worst.
I mean c’mon talk about fucking your population over both ways.
No insurance no health care and have it profit making so its so overpriced its criminal.
Tamb said:
btm said:
Spiny Norman said:We’re well past the point where Godwin’s Law negates the point.
It’s real and it’s here.
Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
IMO it’s not slave labour. It’s in exchange for food, accommodation, clothing, medical etc.
Lololol 😆
kii said:
Tamb said:
btm said:Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
IMO it’s not slave labour. It’s in exchange for food, accommodation, clothing, medical etc.Lololol 😆
Cymek said:
kii said:
btm said:Slave labour in prisons is explicitly authorised by the U.S. constitution (13th amendment.)
When I worked at the bookstore I’d often joke about the minimum wage being paid to the majority of workers. I called it “paid slavery”. Most people spent their wages in the store. Staff discounts were meaningless when you saw the mark-ups on everything. Booksellers could get cheaper prices on Amazon.
Is it accepted as normal ?
I find it astonishing what they accept as that’s how its done as some anti communists way of life.
Insurance based health care is the worst.
I mean c’mon talk about fucking your population over both ways.
No insurance no health care and have it profit making so its so overpriced its criminal.
Yep, accepted as normal. I need too many words to respond to that properly.
Sorry.
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:When I worked at the bookstore I’d often joke about the minimum wage being paid to the majority of workers. I called it “paid slavery”. Most people spent their wages in the store. Staff discounts were meaningless when you saw the mark-ups on everything. Booksellers could get cheaper prices on Amazon.
Is it accepted as normal ?
I find it astonishing what they accept as that’s how its done as some anti communists way of life.
Insurance based health care is the worst.
I mean c’mon talk about fucking your population over both ways.
No insurance no health care and have it profit making so its so overpriced its criminal.
Yep, accepted as normal. I need too many words to respond to that properly.
Sorry.
No is OK
Tamb said:
kii said:
Tamb said:IMO it’s not slave labour. It’s in exchange for food, accommodation, clothing, medical etc.
Lololol 😆
Thank you kii.
It made me think of this, US prison populations.
They can be very controlled prisons by the supernintendo of the prison
It would be very hard to get in there if they said no even if you were far higher up the food chain than them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study
A federal judge has declined to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data systems at a slew of executive branch agencies. The decision by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan (an Obama appointee) is an early blow to efforts by a group of Democratic state attorneys general to hamstring Musk and DOGE as they undertake efforts to upend the federal workforce. But the judge also indicated she was skeptical about the Trump administration’s statements about Musk and his powers in DOGE. Musk and DOGE’s access to closely guarded government data – including sensitive information it has collected about and from the American public – has become a battleground in the legal fight against the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
diddly-squat said:
A federal judge has declined to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data systems at a slew of executive branch agencies. The decision by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan (an Obama appointee) is an early blow to efforts by a group of Democratic state attorneys general to hamstring Musk and DOGE as they undertake efforts to upend the federal workforce. But the judge also indicated she was skeptical about the Trump administration’s statements about Musk and his powers in DOGE. Musk and DOGE’s access to closely guarded government data – including sensitive information it has collected about and from the American public – has become a battleground in the legal fight against the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
(shakes fist at Obama)
dv said:
diddly-squat said:A federal judge has declined to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data systems at a slew of executive branch agencies. The decision by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan (an Obama appointee) is an early blow to efforts by a group of Democratic state attorneys general to hamstring Musk and DOGE as they undertake efforts to upend the federal workforce. But the judge also indicated she was skeptical about the Trump administration’s statements about Musk and his powers in DOGE. Musk and DOGE’s access to closely guarded government data – including sensitive information it has collected about and from the American public – has become a battleground in the legal fight against the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
(shakes fist at Obama)
IKR – the core of the Judge’s decision was the states bringing the case simply don’t have standing.
Tamb said:
kii said:
Tamb said:IMO it’s not slave labour. It’s in exchange for food, accommodation, clothing, medical etc.
Lololol 😆
Thank you kii.
LOLOLOLOL 😆
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary and one of the president’s attorneys, said the order that limits only the president and attorney general to interpret laws “reestablishes a long-standing norm” in the U.S. It comes as Mr. Trump’s critics fight his agenda in court and raise accusations that he’ll ignore judicial orders.
—-
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/18/trump-signs-executive-order-allowing-attorney-gene/
What
dv said:
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary and one of the president’s attorneys, said the order that limits only the president and attorney general to interpret laws “reestablishes a long-standing norm” in the U.S. It comes as Mr. Trump’s critics fight his agenda in court and raise accusations that he’ll ignore judicial orders.—-
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/18/trump-signs-executive-order-allowing-attorney-gene/What
I reject your reality laws and substitute my own.
From Mindy Fischer on Facebook…
So President Elmo and his felon sidepiece did an interview with Hannity tonight. I watched so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome.
The beginning of the interview was all Hannity going on and on about how amazing and brilliant Elmo is. The felon sat there slumped over in his chair looking miserable listening to the praise like he was in pain.
Elmo whined that everyone hates him and shuns him in public since he declared his love for saggy yam tits. Poor sad Elmo.
Then he said, “They keep accusing us of all these crimes. But they are the ones who are committing crimes. The left is guilty of what they accuse us of.”
All throughout the interview, Elmo kept interrupting and talking over the rapist who sat there with a deep angry scowl on his face.
When Hannity asked about all of Elmo’s conflicts of interest, the felon insisted there were no conflicts and if there were he said Elmo would recuse himself. To which Elmo replied, “Yeah. Right, right.”
Overall it was an embarrassing interview where the orange piece of shit gave up all of his power and dignity. The best part of the show was how clearly miserable he was. May his misery continue. And may he never know another moment of peace.
Cheers to the resistance!
https://buymeacoffee.com/mindyfischer
Saggy yam tits 😂
dv said:
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary and one of the president’s attorneys, said the order that limits only the president and attorney general to interpret laws “reestablishes a long-standing norm” in the U.S. It comes as Mr. Trump’s critics fight his agenda in court and raise accusations that he’ll ignore judicial orders.—-
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/18/trump-signs-executive-order-allowing-attorney-gene/What
FMD
Heather Cox Richardson
57m ·
February 18, 2025 (Tuesday)
In a court filing last night, the Director of the Office of Administration in the Trump administration, Joshua Fisher, clarified the government position of billionaire Elon Musk. In a sworn declaration to the court, Fisher identified Musk as “a Senior Advisor to the President.” He explained: “In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors. Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
Fisher’s statement went on to say that Musk is neither an employee nor the service administrator—that is, the leader—of the Department of Government Efficiency.
The statement is in response to a lawsuit filed by 14 states—New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—contending that Musk’s role is unconstitutional because he has such sweeping power in his role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that the Constitution requires that his position be confirmed by the Senate.
President Trump has routinely referred to Musk as DOGE’s leader, and the media routinely refer to “Elon Musk’s DOGE.” Musk has flooded his social media site with claims that DOGE is cutting programs that he claims are wasteful or fraudulent, although so far he has yet to provide any proof of his extravagant claims. In the early hours of Monday, he reposted a picture of a leaner, meaner version of himself dressed as a Roman gladiator with the caption: “I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.” Musk added: “And I am.”
Beginning on Friday, the Trump administration began mass purges of federal government employees. As Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein, and Emily Davies reported in the Washington Post, the firings were haphazard and riddled with errors, but apparently most of those firings were of employees in the probationary period of employment, typically the first year of service but a status that’s triggered by promotions and lateral transfers as well. About 20 FDA employees who review neurological and physical medical devices were fired, hampering the agency’s ability to evaluate the devices produced by Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink. Employment lawyers say the mass firings are illegal because they ignore employee protections.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, had noted: “This is essentially a private citizen directing an organization that’s not a federal agency that has access to the entire workings of the federal government to hire, fire, slash contracts, terminate programs, all without any congressional oversight.” Now the Trump administration is attempting to protect Musk by saying he is simply an advisor.
Department of Justice lawyer Joshua Gardner told Chutkan that he could not independently confirm the firings of thousands of federal employees last week, prompting her to note that his ignorance seemed willful: “The firing of thousands of federal employees is not a small thing,” she said. “You haven’t been able to learn if that’s true?”
Peter Charalambous of ABC News noted that lawyers from the Department of Justice are also unable to explain what, exactly, DOGE is. They won’t say it’s an “agency,” which, as U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote, would be “subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.” On Friday, Charalambous points out, when reporters asked senior advisor to the Treasury Department’s general counsel Christopher Healy, who runs DOGE, he answered: “I don’t know the answer to that.”
What is clear, though, is that the DOGE team is vacuuming up data from government agencies. It began its run shortly after Trump took office by accessing the Treasury Department payment system, prompting the resignation of career civil servant David Lebryk. Then on February 2 the DOGE people moved on to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where they struggled with security officers trying to stop them from accessing classified information. By February 12 they were at the General Services Agency, which oversees the government’s real estate.
That pattern has continued. Over the weekend, Fatima Hussein of the Associated Press reported that DOGE was trying to get access to taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), specifically the Integrated Data Retrieval System that enables examinations of tax returns, deep troves of information about hundreds of millions of American citizens and businesses. Access to individuals’ bank account numbers and private information has, in the past, been tightly guarded. Indeed, compromising access to that information is a felony.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the top Democrat on the Committee on Finance, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the top Democrat on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, wrote to Douglas O’Donnell, acting commissioner of the IRS, demanding information about DOGE’s access to taxpayer information and noting that the request for access raises “serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.”
DOGE worked over the weekend to get access to Social Security Administration databases as well. Amanda Becker of The 19th notes that these records contain information about individuals’ income, addresses, children, retirement benefits, and even medical records. Lisa Rein, Holly Bailey, Jeff Stein, and Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post reported that acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration Michelle King, who had been with the agency for decades before Trump elevated her to acting commissioner last month, resigned after a clash over access to the data.
Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported today that workers at the General Services Administration resigned in protest after Musk ally Thomas Shedd, who now runs the group of coders DOGE has embedded in that agency, requested access to “all components of the Notifygov system.” That system is used to send mass text messages to the public. Information about it is highly sensitive and gives anyone with access “unilateral, private access to the personal data of members of the public,” according to Koebler. That includes not just names and phone numbers, but information about, for example, whether individuals are enrolled in public benefit programs that are based on financial status.
A White House spokesperson defended DOGE’s access to the IRS by saying that “waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” adding: “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.” But DOGE has been unable to document what it claims are cost-saving measures. On Monday it listed what it said were $16 billion in canceled contracts, but Aatish Bhatia, Josh Katz, Margot Sanger-Katz, and Ethan Singer of the New York Times corrected the record, noting that a contract DOGE valued at $8 billion was actually closer to $8 million. Further, they noted, claims of $55 billion in savings lacked documentation.
Musk’s recent claims that the Social Security Administration is sending out payments to tens of millions of dead people more than 100 years old—a claim echoed by President Trump—were wrong: the software system defaults missing birthdates to more than 150 years ago and the Social Security Administration decided not to spend more than $9 million on upgrading its system to include death information. Right-wing podcaster Trish Regan warned DOGE that “it’s critical to present the math CORRECTLY” and noted: “Looks like the team got out over its skis on this one.”
Aside from the many legal problems with the argument that the opaque DOGE can alter programs established by Congress, and the problems with documenting its actual work, it is undeniable that Musk’s team has had access to a treasure trove of information about Americans and American businesses and the ways in which they interact with the government. This information can feed the AI projects that Musk envisions putting at the center of American life. It also opens the way for Musk and his cronies to weaponize private information against business competitors as well as political enemies.
In addition, it can also feed a larger technological project for controlling politics.
The story of how Cambridge Analytica used information harvested from about 87 million Facebook users to target political ads in 2016 is well known, but the misuse of data was back in the news earlier this month when Corey G. Johnson and Byard Duncan of ProPublica reported that the gun industry also shared data with Cambridge Analytica to influence the 2016 election.
Johnson and Duncan reported that after a spate of gun violence, including the attempted assassination of then-representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and the mass shootings at Fort Hood in Texas, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, had increased public pressure for commonsense gun safety legislation, the gun industry’s chief lobbying group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, worked with gun makers and retailers to collect data on gun owners without their knowledge or consent. That data included names, ages, addresses, income, debts, religious affiliations, and even details like which charities people supported, shopping habits, and “whether they liked the work of the painter Thomas Kinkade and whether the underwear women had purchased was plus size or petite.”
Analysts ran that information through an algorithm that created a psychological profile of an individual to enable precise targeting of potential voters. Ads based on these profiles reached almost 378 million views on social media and sent more than 60 million visitors to the National Shooting Sports Foundation website. When Trump won in 2016, the NSSF took partial credit for the results. Not only was Trump in office, it reported, but also, “thanks in part to our efforts, there is a pro-gun majority in the U.S. House and Senate.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
57m ·
February 18, 2025 (Tuesday)It also opens the way for Musk and his cronies to weaponize private information against business competitors as well as political enemies.
In addition, it can also feed a larger technological project for controlling politics.
The story of how Cambridge Analytica used information harvested from about 87 million Facebook users to target political ads in 2016 is well known, but the misuse of data was back in the news earlier this month when Corey G. Johnson and Byard Duncan of ProPublica reported that the gun industry also shared data with Cambridge Analytica to influence the 2016 election.
no way
surely not
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
57m ·
February 18, 2025 (Tuesday)————————————————CUT————————————————
More FMD stuff.
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
nobody could have foreseen this
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZctFull implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
they’re in a pile of shit.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
nobody could have foreseen this
they’re in a pile of shit.
apologies if direct link posted before but here just for everyone to be up to date
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies/
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
nobody could have foreseen this
Except people who actually read Project 2025. It was all there.
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZctFull implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZctFull implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
careful there you might get protestations that this is all an exaggeration and scare mongering and we can’t call it until it’s happened you can’t predict the future innocent until proven guilty
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
Here as in Australia or here as in Nazi America¿
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
Feudalism and serfdom/slavery. A global elite class who have all the money and control all the resources and live large, while everyone else is reduced to a hand-to-mouth constant struggle – because that is what they see as the “natural order of things”.
Until they end up blindfolded on the scaffold… and even then they won’t see the end coming.
Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZctFull implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
Is that legit?
Seems even too insane for the already very insane orange shitstain.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
nobody could have foreseen this
they’re in a pile of shit.
apologies if direct link posted before but here just for everyone to be up to date
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies/
Fantastic.
Not.
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:they’re in a pile of shit.
And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:Divine Angel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/uFJeqalZct
Full implications of the EO, including organisations such as the SEC and the election people, are no longer independent and controlled by the White House.
nobody could have foreseen this
Except people who actually read Project 2025. It was all there.
(I suspect SCIENCE wrote that with his tongue firmly placed in his cheek.)
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.
I’ll believe that when I see it
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.I’ll believe that when I see it
Believe what? The panic?
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
How do we know this?
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.I’ll believe that when I see it
Believe what? The panic?
yep.. it seems to me that the GOP are pretty dam happy with the state of play at the moment and so are the overwhelming majority of their supporters..
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.I’ll believe that when I see it
I can make a point of highlighting Trump’s policies causing suffering to his voter base if you’re going to be too pig-headed to believe it is happening. Lots of farmers are in tears already over the end of USAID and the expected drop in demand 9and prices) for their produce, just as an example.
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
aside from those in the EU who got upset with Vance’s speech.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
How do we know this?
sorry… that was my facetious take on the overuse of the terms nazi and fascist
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
aside from those in the EU who got upset with Vance’s speech.
apparently Vance’s speech has seen a fall in support for the german neo-nazis.
SCIENCE said:
we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.I’ll believe that when I see it
I can make a point of highlighting Trump’s policies causing suffering to his voter base if you’re going to be too pig-headed to believe it is happening. Lots of farmers are in tears already over the end of USAID and the expected drop in demand 9and prices) for their produce, just as an example.
that wasn’t actually what I was suggesting, I think it’s clear that cuts to government will impact a great number of MAGA voters, but again, most of these people would sooner blame Big Foot than Trump; and remember that in a great number of these districts, Trump out performed the down ballot candidates… so Trump has political capital to burn at the moment.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
pretty sure Toronto is in Canadialand which sadly isn’t the 51st state-annexe yet so this is on those dumb canucks please don’t blame totally innocent country-saving stable geniuses
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I’ll believe that when I see it
Believe what? The panic?
yep.. it seems to me that the GOP are pretty dam happy with the state of play at the moment and so are the overwhelming majority of their supporters..
Ta.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
Rachel Maddow looks at Trump voters realizing that what they thought they were voting for is quite distant from what they are getting, and Republican politicians are panicking as they’re too afraid to stand up to Trump even as they see their constituents, whose votes they need, suffering under Trump’s policies.I’ll believe that when I see it
I can make a point of highlighting Trump’s policies causing suffering to his voter base if you’re going to be too pig-headed to believe it is happening. Lots of farmers are in tears already over the end of USAID and the expected drop in demand 9and prices) for their produce, just as an example.
Fair.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
pretty sure Toronto is in Canadialand which sadly isn’t the 51st state-annexe yet so this is on those dumb canucks please don’t blame totally innocent country-saving stable geniuses
but it took off from the usa so it sort of counts.
diddly-squat said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:apparently it’s taking over Europe
How do we know this?
sorry… that was my facetious take on the overuse of the terms nazi and fascist
Ta.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:apparently it’s taking over Europe
aside from those in the EU who got upset with Vance’s speech.
apparently Vance’s speech has seen a fall in support for the german neo-nazis.
That’d be good, if true.
bump
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
I’m not sure Trump can be blamed for these.
It’s a fine observation though.
SCIENCE said:
anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjs7JtcF-Cs
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
57m ·
February 18, 2025 (Tuesday)… it is undeniable that Musk’s team has had access to a treasure trove of information about Americans and American businesses …
It also opens the way for Musk and his cronies to weaponize private information against business competitors as well as political enemies.
That, I believe, was always the aim – get in to the records to learn about and, possibly, neutralise Musk’s business competitors.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
I’m not sure Trump can be blamed for these.
It’s a fine observation though.
As Trump noted, they’re doing it to make him look bad.
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
Yes, lets not say anything until it is imminent and too late…
furious said:
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
Yes, lets not say anything until it is imminent and too late…
well at least you’ll never be confirmed wrong
SCIENCE said:
Roflmfao
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
Interesting.
Almost incomprehensible, badly transcribed, unattributed.
But, interesting.
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjs7JtcF-Cs
Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
Interesting.
Almost incomprehensible, badly transcribed, unattributed.
But, interesting.
¿
this is literally directly from the linked
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
thanks
- What do you say to your critics who are saying
that you’re being light on the fascist message recently?
- Oh, I tell my critics, “Shut up.
(audience laughing)
You’re a fascist.”
No.
So, I do appreciate that
because I understand the desire, but like, I’m very big on,
and I know it’s annoying, but specificity and nuance.
And I think if you cry fascism at every administrative
overreach, even the ones that are constitutionally okay,
you’ll find yourself out of fascism bullets
when the time really comes to remind people of,
because you will, I think what the media has done
over the last 10 years is cry wolf
to the point where they numbed everybody,
it was an anesthetic.
And it got to where, what was the thing they litigated
throughout this campaign?
He’s a fascist, he’s a terrible person.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Guess what lost at the ballot?
If you told us democracy is on the ballot.
Well, democracy got its kicked
by a majority vote.
So I am very cautious about when to know, like, yeah,
hopefully I won’t do it the night after crystal knocked,
I’ll get it like, but it’s like,
when do you put your dog down?
Like, it’s one of those things like, you’re not quite sure,
but I do understand how annoying that is.
Interesting.
Almost incomprehensible, badly transcribed, unattributed.
But, interesting.
¿
this is literally directly from the linked
Ah.
In which case…my apologies.
SCIENCE said:
I previously suggest that Eldrad should get involved in the battery powered trains but on second thoughts maybe not
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:anyway the wise ones are correct that national socialist fascism is inappropriate terminology as it is an understatement and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was just a pissweak lamearse failed shitty practice run for hypercapitalist surveillance techbroligarchy
This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjs7JtcF-Cs
Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjs7JtcF-Cs
Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:This kind of sums up my feelings on this matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjs7JtcF-Cs
Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Surely you know better than us whether that is correct.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
Better not say it, then.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Surely you know better than us whether that is correct.
I mean I was just wondering if there was an incorrect answer to the question.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Surely you know better than us whether that is correct.
I mean I was just wondering if there was an incorrect answer to the question.
There is, but we don’t know you well enough to know which answer is incorrect.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
In general I tend to get my news and op-eds via a range of sources and through a variety of media formats.
Most days I’ll watch some short form videos and I’ll typically listen to a podcast (or part thereof depending upon the length). I subscribe to Apple News and I have an Atlantic subscription as well. I also subscribe to a few different independent Substacks.
I’m less engaged on social media as I don’t have a Facebook account or an X account, but I like Reddit.
Is that a suitable mix?
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Do you ever read anything or is it all youtube videos with you?
Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
Ah…
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
they barely have any
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
In general I tend to get my news and op-eds via a range of sources and through a variety of media formats.
Most days I’ll watch some short form videos and I’ll typically listen to a podcast (or part thereof depending upon the length). I subscribe to Apple News and I have an Atlantic subscription as well. I also subscribe to a few different independent Substacks.
I’m less engaged on social media as I don’t have a Facebook account or an X account, but I like Reddit.
Is that a suitable mix?
Well if anything, besides ‘The Atlantic’ it’s a bit low-brow. I just can’t fathom spending ten minutes watching a video when I could read it in two.
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:Would it be wrong if I did say that my only source of news was via short form video content?
Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
We all already knew you were a RWNJ.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
We all already knew you were a RWNJ.
Besides it’s a bit incongruous to support a media empire that is so bereft of journalistic integrity, and so responsible for the cesspool that is US politics when you would claim to not be a Trump supporter.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Yes.
In general I tend to get my news and op-eds via a range of sources and through a variety of media formats.
Most days I’ll watch some short form videos and I’ll typically listen to a podcast (or part thereof depending upon the length). I subscribe to Apple News and I have an Atlantic subscription as well. I also subscribe to a few different independent Substacks.
I’m less engaged on social media as I don’t have a Facebook account or an X account, but I like Reddit.
Is that a suitable mix?
Well if anything, besides ‘The Atlantic’ it’s a bit low-brow. I just can’t fathom spending ten minutes watching a video when I could read it in two.
I’m still not sure if I passed the the acceptability test or not
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:In general I tend to get my news and op-eds via a range of sources and through a variety of media formats.
Most days I’ll watch some short form videos and I’ll typically listen to a podcast (or part thereof depending upon the length). I subscribe to Apple News and I have an Atlantic subscription as well. I also subscribe to a few different independent Substacks.
I’m less engaged on social media as I don’t have a Facebook account or an X account, but I like Reddit.
Is that a suitable mix?
Well if anything, besides ‘The Atlantic’ it’s a bit low-brow. I just can’t fathom spending ten minutes watching a video when I could read it in two.
I’m still not sure if I passed the the acceptability test or not
Am I too high-brow for you?
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Well if anything, besides ‘The Atlantic’ it’s a bit low-brow. I just can’t fathom spending ten minutes watching a video when I could read it in two.
I’m still not sure if I passed the the acceptability test or not
Am I too high-brow for you?
You were the one setting the brow limits, not me…
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I’m still not sure if I passed the the acceptability test or not
Am I too high-brow for you?
You were the one setting the brow limits, not me…
I note you are still confused.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Am I too high-brow for you?
You were the one setting the brow limits, not me…
I note you are still confused.
Clearly.. I will await the list of acceptable news sources and amend accordingly.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:You were the one setting the brow limits, not me…
I note you are still confused.
Clearly.. I will await the list of acceptable news sources and amend accordingly.
Aren’t you old enough to be able to work that out for yourself? I’m sure there’s a TED talk to help you out…
Witty Rejoinder said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Yes.
I get most of my news from Sky News Australia.
We all already knew you were a RWNJ.
Get the net ready Leroy I think I’ve got one.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I note you are still confused.
Clearly.. I will await the list of acceptable news sources and amend accordingly.
Aren’t you old enough to be able to work that out for yourself? I’m sure there’s a TED talk to help you out…
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I note you are still confused.
Clearly.. I will await the list of acceptable news sources and amend accordingly.
Aren’t you old enough to be able to work that out for yourself? I’m sure there’s a TED talk to help you out…
Thanks for advice.. I’ll add them to the watch list .
Neophyte said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:we’re up to six plane crashes since trump killed whatever the org is that looks after air safety and such.
I’m not sure Trump can be blamed for these.
It’s a fine observation though.
As Trump noted, they’re doing it to make him look bad.
What?
Did Trump really say that?
SCIENCE said:
FMD
:(
SCIENCE said:
Ha!
dv said:
LOLOL
dv said:
I’m glad that my husband didn’t live to see this. He provided a lot of support to his 2 veteran friends. Always available for long talks on the phone, especially for the guy I call Mr PTSD (Gulf War National Guard). His other friend is a retired Airborne Ranger, a sniper stationed in various central and south American countries dealing with drug cartels. Both men avoided using VA services because they feared being labeled by the system. mr kii helped both of them get comfortable with the idea of using the services provided by military specialists.
kii said:
dv said:
I’m glad that my husband didn’t live to see this. He provided a lot of support to his 2 veteran friends. Always available for long talks on the phone, especially for the guy I call Mr PTSD (Gulf War National Guard). His other friend is a retired Airborne Ranger, a sniper stationed in various central and south American countries dealing with drug cartels. Both men avoided using VA services because they feared being labeled by the system. mr kii helped both of them get comfortable with the idea of using the services provided by military specialists.
I’ve been doing a lot of ‘what would dad have thought?’
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
dv said:
I’m glad that my husband didn’t live to see this. He provided a lot of support to his 2 veteran friends. Always available for long talks on the phone, especially for the guy I call Mr PTSD (Gulf War National Guard). His other friend is a retired Airborne Ranger, a sniper stationed in various central and south American countries dealing with drug cartels. Both men avoided using VA services because they feared being labeled by the system. mr kii helped both of them get comfortable with the idea of using the services provided by military specialists.
I’ve been doing a lot of ‘what would dad have thought?’
Some of mr kii’s family and former associates still support the draft-dodging felon. It is a vile insult to his memory, he volunteered for Vietnam, he saw his military service as an honour.
They make me want to punch their stupid faces.
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
captain_spalding said:And, this is how the Republicans, and Trump, cement themselves into power.
As i suggested some time back they wouldd o, and as some believed to be ‘impossible’.
And, in line with the method i suggested, which is just as the Nazis did, by using the ‘democratic’ avenues of power and authority that were already in place.
Remember, the Nazis came to control Germany not by any violent ‘putsch’, but by using the laws and mechanisms that were already in place, and by actions that were entirely legal.
So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
Well, the actions taken by the Nazis were quasi-legal at best. They did what Trump is doing. Take-over by force and claiming it is legal.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
So what’s the end game here?
apparently it’s taking over Europe
Well, the actions taken by the Nazis were quasi-legal at best. They did what Trump is doing. Take-over by force and claiming it is legal.
ah but we always knew Ukrainians were Nazis that’s the whole
Donald Trump describes Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a ‘dictator’ who’s ‘doing a terrible job’ in social post
uh
point
Michael V said:
dv said:
LOLOL
yeah we remember when funeral directors and casket makers were doing the rounds in the early years of the recently started pandemic
poikilotherm said:
It’s good to see they check regularly if they are still capable of mad.
well it has to be mutual so why aren’t we celebrating the DPRK ones if we celebrate the DPRNA ones
SCIENCE said:
poikilotherm said:
It’s good to see they check regularly if they are still capable of mad.
well it has to be mutual so why aren’t we celebrating the DPRK ones if we celebrate the DPRNA ones
Strangely, they don’t publish their launches on an easily accessible website.
The new world order is taking shape nicely.
https://apnews.com/article/catholic-bishops-lawsuit-refugee-resettlement-trump-administration-09477d766651a940ae53840ce3bd9c6e
Catholic bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its abrupt halt to funding of refugee resettlement, calling the action unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees and to the nation’s largest private resettlement program.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the administration, by withholding millions even for reimbursements of costs incurred before the sudden cut-off of funding, violates various laws as well as the constitutional provision giving the power of the purse to Congress, which already approved the funding.
The conference’s Migration and Refugee Services has sent layoff notices to 50 workers, more than half its staff, with additional cuts expected in local Catholic Charities offices that partner with the national office, the lawsuit said.
roughbarked said:
Well, the actions taken by the Nazis were quasi-legal at best. They did what Trump is doing. Take-over by force and claiming it is legal.
Oh, no, what the Nazis, that is, Hitler and his inside staff, did was entirely legal. They’d tried ‘revolution’ (the Beer Hall Putsch), and that had got them nowhere. So, they used the system to seizethe system.
They worked out how to propagandise, produce scapegoats, and leverage the electoral system. It was a classic example of ‘thin end of the wedge’.
Once they had representation in the Reichstag, they nibbled away at the structure and function of government, gradually persuading and prompting others to give them more power, all the time within the laws and rules that existed, exploiting ambiguities and opportunities, and the personalities of people in power, and pushing their own interpretations of the ‘loopholes’.
When they’d got what they wanted, they’d make it clear to those who’d helped them that the only way those people could continue was by maintaining their support for the Nazis.
Aided by more propagandising, sometimes on a large scale (the Reichstag fire), they eventually pushed through to the point where they didn’t need anyone’s approval any more, and the rest is, as they say, history, although a lot of their actions even after that were dressed up in a cloak of legality.
And, they were aided in no small degree by the weakness of the Weimar government, which was still labouring under the punitive settlement of WW1, largely due to the recalcitrance of the French, who were still very much in a vengeful state of mind.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Well, the actions taken by the Nazis were quasi-legal at best. They did what Trump is doing. Take-over by force and claiming it is legal.
Oh, no, what the Nazis, that is, Hitler and his inside staff, did was entirely legal. They’d tried ‘revolution’ (the Beer Hall Putsch), and that had got them nowhere. So, they used the system to seizethe system.
They worked out how to propagandise, produce scapegoats, and leverage the electoral system. It was a classic example of ‘thin end of the wedge’.
Once they had representation in the Reichstag, they nibbled away at the structure and function of government, gradually persuading and prompting others to give them more power, all the time within the laws and rules that existed, exploiting ambiguities and opportunities, and the personalities of people in power, and pushing their own interpretations of the ‘loopholes’.
When they’d got what they wanted, they’d make it clear to those who’d helped them that the only way those people could continue was by maintaining their support for the Nazis.
Aided by more propagandising, sometimes on a large scale (the Reichstag fire), they eventually pushed through to the point where they didn’t need anyone’s approval any more, and the rest is, as they say, history, although a lot of their actions even after that were dressed up in a cloak of legality.
And, they were aided in no small degree by the weakness of the Weimar government, which was still labouring under the punitive settlement of WW1, largely due to the recalcitrance of the French, who were still very much in a vengeful state of mind.
Yes but it was still akin to branch stacking and then killing off any opposing individuals. In general the people were led astray.
roughbarked said:
In general the people were led astray.
Politics, in a nutshell.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:In general the people were led astray.Politics, in a nutshell.
Except in democracies we don’t murder the strongest opposition.
Mary trump has brought my attention to the floods in Kentucky. Disasters are low on the news cycle list these days.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Well, the actions taken by the Nazis were quasi-legal at best. They did what Trump is doing. Take-over by force and claiming it is legal.
Oh, no, what the Nazis, that is, Hitler and his inside staff, did was entirely legal. They’d tried ‘revolution’ (the Beer Hall Putsch), and that had got them nowhere. So, they used the system to seizethe system.
They worked out how to propagandise, produce scapegoats, and leverage the electoral system. It was a classic example of ‘thin end of the wedge’.
Once they had representation in the Reichstag, they nibbled away at the structure and function of government, gradually persuading and prompting others to give them more power, all the time within the laws and rules that existed, exploiting ambiguities and opportunities, and the personalities of people in power, and pushing their own interpretations of the ‘loopholes’.
When they’d got what they wanted, they’d make it clear to those who’d helped them that the only way those people could continue was by maintaining their support for the Nazis.
Aided by more propagandising, sometimes on a large scale (the Reichstag fire), they eventually pushed through to the point where they didn’t need anyone’s approval any more, and the rest is, as they say, history, although a lot of their actions even after that were dressed up in a cloak of legality.
And, they were aided in no small degree by the weakness of the Weimar government, which was still labouring under the punitive settlement of WW1, largely due to the recalcitrance of the French, who were still very much in a vengeful state of mind.
so what we’re saying is that evil is banal and despite the best efforts of wise men to convince us otherwise the epithet of “Nazi” or “fascist” really does validly apply to any banal character who even if not actively vivisecting andor genociding designated enemies of the state is supporting the advancement of national socialist andor fascist ideologies
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-attorney-heated-exchange-pronouns-trump-transgender-military-ban-rcna192728
Hegseth calls for increase and decrease to defence spending
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-major-budget-cuts/index.html
The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
—-
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-attorney-heated-exchange-pronouns-trump-transgender-military-ban-rcna192728
Excellent one.
But then we must not forget that the US has, in places, legislated that science is wrong. And that the biobull is always correct.
dv said:
look if they can legislate the ratio of circumference to diameter and all that woke whatnot then what’s a little sex anyway
dv said:
Hegseth calls for increase and decrease to defence spending
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-major-budget-cuts/index.html
The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
—-
Hegseth was appointed by Trump. Say no more.
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Cymek said:
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Yet we have Chinese ships just outside Aust waters, in line with Sydney. I’m sure they’re just whale watching.
Divine Angel said:
Well that’s good
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/jan-6-released-aftermath-7e8a57a4
Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn
Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot
Cymek said:
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
Divine Angel said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Yet we have Chinese ships just outside Aust waters, in line with Sydney. I’m sure they’re just whale watching.
They are up to no good I’m sure
Michael V said:
dv said:Hegseth calls for increase and decrease to defence spending
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-major-budget-cuts/index.html
The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
—-
Hegseth was appointed by Trump. Say no more.
He wants an increase in budget, but a decrease in spending, the difference left over is for champagne and supermodels…
dv said:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/jan-6-released-aftermath-7e8a57a4Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn
Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot
Shocking that these people fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have committed other crimes.
furious said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Hegseth calls for increase and decrease to defence spending
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-major-budget-cuts/index.html
The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
—-
Hegseth was appointed by Trump. Say no more.
He wants an increase in budget, but a decrease in spending, the difference left over is for champagne and supermodels…
Brilliant
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
You have no idea what I do or don’t do to make the world better.
Divine Angel said:
Dutton – vote sensing.
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
Then be proactive and try change it.
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
You have no idea what I do or don’t do to make the world better.
All nations have committed horrendous acts in the name of security most of which are a result on their own meddling’s.
We are supposed to choose sides of who is less of a prick it seems.
I don’t agree
The USA makes out it is fantastic they aren’t
They use their own people for self serving purposes and then chuck them away.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
Then be proactive and try change it.
I do
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
Then be proactive and try change it.
I do
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Then be proactive and try change it.
I do
How?
At night I dress up and fight against the soulless minions of orthodoxy
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Australia used our spy agency to get inside information about Timor Lester’s internal government decision making over a few billion dollars worth of LPG revenue so I don’t know if we are any better. The problem isn’t countries but people who can be both good and bad. And when it does come to countries the US is better than most.
As usual you are absurdly cynical when I don’t see you trying to make the world a better place in any way.
I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
You have no idea what I do or don’t do to make the world better.
All nations have committed horrendous acts in the name of security most of which are a result on their own meddling’s.
We are supposed to choose sides of who is less of a prick it seems.
I don’t agree
The USA makes out it is fantastic they aren’t
They use their own people for self serving purposes and then chuck them away.
Knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
furious said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Hegseth calls for increase and decrease to defence spending
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-major-budget-cuts/index.html
The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
—-
Hegseth was appointed by Trump. Say no more.
He wants an increase in budget, but a decrease in spending, the difference left over is for champagne and supermodels…
Or to be divided up between the accomplices.
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:I do
How?At night I dress up and fight against the soulless minions of orthodoxy
….that is not the answer I was expecting.
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/jan-6-released-aftermath-7e8a57a4Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn
Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riotShocking that these people fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have committed other crimes.
It sure is.
/TIC
sarahs mum said:
LOL
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:I think the entire way the world works is wrong.
You have no idea what I do or don’t do to make the world better.
All nations have committed horrendous acts in the name of security most of which are a result on their own meddling’s.
We are supposed to choose sides of who is less of a prick it seems.
I don’t agree
The USA makes out it is fantastic they aren’t
They use their own people for self serving purposes and then chuck them away.Knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
Based on facts
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
:)
a-c-f-s-s
Seems good. Now to remember…
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Cymek said:All nations have committed horrendous acts in the name of security most of which are a result on their own meddling’s.
We are supposed to choose sides of who is less of a prick it seems.
I don’t agree
The USA makes out it is fantastic they aren’t
They use their own people for self serving purposes and then chuck them away.Knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
Based on facts
You could say the same about any country but you are fixated on America because it suits your ego to be a misanthropist.
Divine Angel said:
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:How?
At night I dress up and fight against the soulless minions of orthodoxy
….that is not the answer I was expecting.
I go without my own needs to help others
I dont use people for any reason as its wrong.
I complain as I think the world has its principles wrong and the status quo will do anything to maintain it.
Life is cheap and I don’t agree that we can justify killing people because they are the supposed enemy.
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
This is, it seems, genuine post from Trump on ‘Truth Social’.
He’s not even trying to hide it any more.
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
Trump is kind of a King Ralph
Pence speaks
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-attorney-heated-exchange-pronouns-trump-transgender-military-ban-rcna192728
Excellent one.
But then we must not forget that the US has, in places, legislated that science is wrong. And that the biobull is always correct.
fuck themselves
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-attorney-heated-exchange-pronouns-trump-transgender-military-ban-rcna192728
Excellent one.
But then we must not forget that the US has, in places, legislated that science is wrong. And that the biobull is always correct.
fuck themselves
It is weird anti-science
Everything is science of some description
dv said:
furious said:
Michael V said:Hegseth was appointed by Trump. Say no more.
He wants an increase in budget, but a decrease in spending, the difference left over is for champagne and supermodels…
Brilliant
+1
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
Weird.
But typical DJT.
kii said:
Pence speaks
Agree.
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-attorney-heated-exchange-pronouns-trump-transgender-military-ban-rcna192728
Excellent one.
But then we must not forget that the US has, in places, legislated that science is wrong. And that the biobull is always correct.
fuck themselves
Yes, well they do.
fsm said:
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
They could do Hutt River Province, ie declare Mar-A-Lago an independent principality and throw King Donald in there for the rest of his unnatural life
Cymek said:
dv said:
Here’s something I posted on FB 7 years ago.
I always though when push comes to shove the USA thinks of allies as disposable.
Australia especially
We paint targets on ourselves by siding with the USA and they don’t care.
We suck up to them so much its embarrassing
Never ever make a moral stand and say these are people lives we are talking about not your dick waving games.
historically, defense relationships have been very important to the US and they have treated them with a great deal of care.
The whole five eyes platform is based on information sharing between allied countries
Neophyte said:
fsm said:
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
They could do Hutt River Province, ie declare Mar-A-Lago an independent principality and throw King Donald in there for the rest of his unnatural life
I like your thinking.
US appeals court rejects Trump’s emergency bid to curtail birthright citizenship
Feb 19 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday let stand an order blocking President Donald Trump, opens new tab from curtailing automatic birthright citizenship nationwide as part of the Republican’s hardline crackdown on immigration and illegal border crossings.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected, opens new tab the Trump administration’s request for an emergency order putting on hold a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Seattle blocking the president’s executive order.
It was the first time an appellate court had weighed in on Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, whose fate may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have likewise blocked it, and appeals are underway already in two of those cases.
Trump’s order, signed on his first day back in the White House on January 20, directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States after Wednesday if neither their mother nor father was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Trump’s U.S. Justice Department had asked the 9th Circuit to by Thursday largely stay a ruling by Seattle-based U.S. District Judge John Coughenour declaring the policy unconstitutional, saying he went too far by issuing a nationwide injunction at the behest of four Democratic-led states.
But a three-judge panel declined to do so and instead set the case down for arguments in June.
U.S. Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest, who Trump appointed during his first term, in a concurring opinion said a rapid ruling would risk eroding public confidence in judges who must “reach their decisions apart from ideology or political preference.”
“Nor do the circumstances themselves demonstrate an obvious emergency where it appears that the exception to birthright citizenship urged by the Government has never been recognized by the judiciary,” she wrote.
The other judges on the panel included U.S. Circuit Judge William Canby, an appointee of Democratic former President Jimmy Carter, and U.S. Circuit Judge Milan Smith, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.
—-
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-rejects-trumps-bid-curtail-birthright-citizenship-2025-02-20/
An 11 year old Texas girl killed herself after being bullied by students about her family’s immigration status.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/jocelynn-rojo-carranza-gainesville-texas-death/index.html
kii said:
An 11 year old Texas girl killed herself after being bullied by students about her family’s immigration status.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/jocelynn-rojo-carranza-gainesville-texas-death/index.html
aha they complied in advance
kii said:
An 11 year old Texas girl killed herself after being bullied by students about her family’s immigration status.https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/jocelynn-rojo-carranza-gainesville-texas-death/index.html
Imagine having to cope with that as well as whatever else is going on
kii said:
An 11 year old Texas girl killed herself after being bullied by students about her family’s immigration status.https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/us/jocelynn-rojo-carranza-gainesville-texas-death/index.html
Bloody.
:(
:(
:(
Heather Cox Richardson
11m ·
February 19, 2025 (Wednesday)
The past week has solidified a sea change in American—and global—history.
A week ago, on Wednesday, February 12, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Belgium, that President Donald Trump intended to back away from support for Ukraine in its fight to push back Russia’s invasions of 2014 and 2022.
Hegseth said that Trump wanted to negotiate peace with Russia, and he promptly threw on the table three key Russian demands. He said that it was “unrealistic” to think that Ukraine would get back all its land—essentially suggesting that Russia could keep Crimea, at least—and that the U.S. would not back Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the mutual security agreement that has kept Russian incursions into Europe at bay since 1949.
Hegseth’s biggest concession to Russia, though, was his warning that “stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Also on Wednesday, President Donald Trump spoke to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, for nearly an hour and a half and came out echoing Putin’s rationale for his attack on Ukraine. Trump’s social media account posted that the call had been “highly productive,” and said the two leaders would visit each other’s countries, offering a White House visit to Putin, who has been isolated from other nations since his attacks on Ukraine.
In a press conference on Thursday, the day after his speech in Brussels, Hegseth suggested again that the U.S. military did not have the resources to operate in more than one arena and was choosing to prioritize China rather than Europe, a suggestion that observers of the world’s most powerful military found ludicrous.
Then, on Friday, at the sixty-first Munich Security Conference, where the U.S. and allies and partners have come together to discuss security issues since 1963, Vice President J.D. Vance attacked the U.S.A.’s European allies. He warned that they were threatened not by Russia or China, but rather by “the threat from within,” by which he meant the democratic principles of equality before the law that right-wing ideologues believe weaken a nation by treating women and racial, religious, and gender minorities as equal to white Christian men. After Vance told Europe to “change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction,” he refused to meet with Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz and instead met with the leader of the far-right German political party that has been associated with neo-Nazis.
While the Munich conference was still underway, the Trump administration on Saturday announced it was sending a delegation to Saudi Arabia to begin peace talks with Russia. Ukrainian officials said they had not been informed and had no plans to attend. European negotiators were not invited either. When U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday, the Russian readout of the call suggested that Russia urgently needs relief from the economic sanctions that are crushing the Russian economy. The day before, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of both Putin and Trump, assured Hungarian state radio on Friday that Russia will be “reintegrated” into the world economy and the European energy system as soon as “the U.S. president comes and creates peace.”
Talks began yesterday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In a four-and-a half-hour meeting, led by Rubio and Lavrov, and including national security advisor Mike Waltz, the U.S. and Russia agreed to restaff the embassies in each other’s countries, a key Russian goal as part of its plan to end its isolation. Lavrov blamed the Biden administration for previous “obstacles” to diplomatic efforts and told reporters that now that Trump is in power, he had “reason to believe that the American side has begun to better understand our position.”
Yesterday evening, from his Florida residence, Trump parroted Russian propaganda when he blamed Ukraine for the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine’s sovereign territory. When reporters asked about the exclusion of Ukraine from the talks, Trump answered: “Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years ago. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” He also said that Zelensky holds only a 4% approval rating, when in fact it is about 57%.
Today, Trump posted that Zelensky is a dictator and should hold elections, a demand Russia has made in hopes of installing a more pro-Russia government. As Laura Rozen pointed out in Diplomatic, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev posted: “If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US President, I would have laughed out loud.”
“Be clear about what’s happening,” Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark posted. “Trump and his administration, and thus America, is siding with Putin and Russia against a United States ally.”
To be even clearer: under Trump, the United States is abandoning the post–World War II world it helped to build and then guaranteed for the past 80 years.
The struggle for Ukraine to maintain its sovereignty, independence, and territory has become a fight for the principles established by the United Nations, organized in the wake of World War II by the allied countries in that war, to establish international rules that would, as the U.N. charter said, prevent “the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights.” Central to those principles and rules was that members would not attack the “territorial integrity or political independence” of any other country. In 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) came together to hold back growing Soviet aggression under a pact that an attack on any of the member states would be considered an attack on all.
The principle of national sovereignty is being tested in Ukraine. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine held about a third of the USSR’s nuclear weapons but gave them up in exchange for payments and security assurances from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom that they would respect Ukraine’s sovereignty within its existing borders. But Ukraine sits between Russia and Europe, and as Ukraine increasingly showed an inclination to turn toward Europe rather than Russia, Russian leader Putin worked to put his own puppets at the head of the Ukrainian government with the expectation that they would keep Ukraine, with its vast resources, tethered to Russia.
In 2004 it appeared that Russian-backed politician Viktor Yanukovych had won the presidency of Ukraine, but the election was so full of fraud, including the poisoning of a key rival who wanted to break ties with Russia and align Ukraine with Europe, that the U.S. government and other international observers did not recognize the election results. The Ukrainian government voided the election and called for a do-over.
To rehabilitate his image, Yanukovych turned to American political consultant Paul Manafort, who was already working for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. With Manafort’s help, Yanukovych won the presidency in 2010 and began to turn Ukraine toward Russia. When Yanukovych suddenly reversed Ukraine’s course toward cooperation with the European Union and instead took a $3 billion loan from Russia, Ukrainian students protested. On February 18, 2014, after months of popular protests, Ukrainians ousted Yanukovych from power in the Maidan Revolution, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, and he fled to Russia.
Shortly after Yanukovych’s ouster, Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimea and annexed it. The invasion prompted the United States and the European Union to impose economic sanctions on Russia and on specific Russian businesses and oligarchs, prohibiting them from doing business in U.S. territories. E.U. sanctions froze assets, banned goods from Crimea, and banned travel of certain Russians to Europe.
Yanukovych’s fall had left Manafort both without a patron and with about $17 million worth of debt to Deripaska. Back in the U.S., in 2016, television personality Donald Trump was running for the presidency, but his campaign was foundering. Manafort stepped in to help. He didn’t take a salary but reached out to Deripaska through one of his Ukrainian business partners, Konstantin Kilimnik, immediately after landing the job, asking him, “How do we use to get whole? Has OVD operation seen?”
Journalist Jim Rutenberg established that in 2016, Russian operatives presented Manafort a plan “for the creation of an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving Putin effective control of the country’s industrial heartland.” In exchange for weakening NATO and U.S. support for Ukraine, looking the other way as Russia took eastern Ukraine, and removing U.S. sanctions from Russian entities, Russian operatives were willing to help Trump win the White House. The Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 established that Manafort’s Ukrainian business partner Kilimnik, whom it described as a “Russian intelligence officer,” acted as a liaison between Manafort and Deripaska while Manafort ran Trump’s campaign.
Government officials knew that something was happening between the Trump campaign and Russia. By the end of July 2016, FBI director James Comey opened a counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. After Trump won, the FBI caught Trump national security advisor Lieutenant General Michael Flynn assuring Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak that the new administration would change U.S. policy toward Russia. Shortly after Trump took office, Flynn had to resign, and Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn. When Comey refused, Trump fired him. The next day, he told a Russian delegation he was hosting in the Oval Office: “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job…. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
Trump swung U.S. policy toward Russia, but that swing hit him. In 2019, with the help of ally Rudy Giuliani, Trump planned to invite Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Petro Poroshenko, to the White House to boost his chances of reelection. In exchange, Poroshenko would announce that he was investigating Hunter Biden for his work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, thus weakening Trump’s chief rival, Democrat Joe Biden, in the 2020 presidential election.
But then, that April, voters in Ukraine elected Volodymyr Zelensky rather than Poroshenko. Trump withheld money Congress had appropriated for Ukraine’s defense against Russia and suggested he would release it only after Zelensky announced an investigation into Hunter Biden. That July 2019 phone call launched Trump’s first impeachment, which, after the Senate acquitted him in February 2020, launched in turn his revenge tour and then the Big Lie that he had won the 2020 election. The dramatic break from the democratic traditions of the United States when Trump and his cronies tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election was in keeping with his increasing drift toward the political tactics of Russia.
When Biden took office, he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked feverishly to strengthen NATO and other U.S. alliances and partnerships. In February 2022, Putin launched another invasion of Ukraine, attempting a lightning strike to take the rich regions of the country for which his people had negotiated with Manafort in 2016. But rather than a quick victory, Putin found himself bogged down. Zelensky refused to leave the country and instead backed resistance, telling the Americans who offered to evacuate him, “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.” With the support of Biden and Blinken, NATO allies and other partners stood behind Ukraine to stop Putin from dismantling the postwar rules-based international order and spreading war further into Europe.
When he left office just a month ago, Biden said he was leaving the Trump administration with a “strong hand to play” in foreign policy, leaving it “an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” than when he took office.
Now, on the anniversary of the day the Ukrainian people ousted Victor Yanukovych in 2014—Putin is famous for launching attacks on anniversaries—the United States has turned its back on Ukraine and 80 years of peacetime alliances in favor of support for Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “We now have an alliance between a Russian president who wants to destroy Europe and an American president who also wants to destroy Europe,” a European diplomat said. “The transatlantic alliance is over.”
This shift appears to reflect the interests of Trump, rather than the American people. Trump’s vice president during his first term, Mike Pence, posted: “Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” Senate Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) said, “Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.” Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee of NBC News reported that intelligence officials and congressional officials told them that Putin feels “empowered” by Trump’s recent support and is not interested in negotiations; he is interested in controlling Ukraine.
A Quinnipiac poll released today shows that only 9% of Americans think we should trust Putin; 81% say we shouldn’t. For his part, Putin complained today that Trump was not moving fast enough against Europe and Ukraine.
In The Bulwark, Mark Hertling, who served as the Commanding General of the United States Army Europe, commanded the 1st Armored Division in Germany, and the Multinational Division-North in Iraq, underlined the dramatic shift in American alignment. In an article titled “We’re Negotiating with War Criminals,” he listed the crimes: nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped and taken to Russia; the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and energy facilities; the execution of prisoners of war; torture of detainees; sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians and detainees; starvation; forcing Ukrainians to join pro-Russian militias.
“And we are negotiating with them,” Hertling wrote. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo points out that the talks appear to be focused on new concessions for American companies in the Russian oil industry, including a deal for American companies to participate in Russian oil exploration in the Arctic.
For years, Putin has apparently believed that driving a wedge between the U.S. and Europe would make NATO collapse and permit Russian expansion. But it’s not clear that’s the only possible outcome. Ukraine’s Zelensky and the Ukrainians are not participating in the destruction of either their country or European alliances, of course. And European leaders are coming together to strengthen European defenses. Emergency meetings with 18 European countries and Canada have netted a promise to stand by Ukraine and protect Europe. “Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said today. Also today, rather than dropping sanctions against Russia, European Union ambassadors approved new ones.
For his part, Trump appears to be leaning into his alliance with dictators. This afternoon, he posted on social media a statement about how he had killed New York City’s congestion pricing and “saved” Manhattan, adding “LONG LIVE THE KING!” White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich reposted the statement with an image of Trump in the costume of an ancient king, with a crown and an ermine robe. Later, the White House itself shared an image that imitated a Time magazine cover with the word “Trump” in place of “Time,” a picture of Trump with a crown, and the words “LONG LIVE THE KING.”
The British tabloid The Daily Star interprets the changes in American politics differently. Its cover tomorrow features Vladimir Putin walking “PUTIN’S POODLE”: the president of the United States.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
11m ·
February 19, 2025 (Wednesday)The past week has solidified a sea change in American—and global—history.
A week ago, on Wednesday, February 12, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Belgium, that President Donald Trump intended to back away from support for Ukraine in its fight to push back Russia’s invasions of 2014 and 2022.
———————————————————————————CUT———————————————————————-
The British tabloid The Daily Star interprets the changes in American politics differently. Its cover tomorrow features Vladimir Putin walking “PUTIN’S POODLE”: the president of the United States.
Ha!
Steve Gadd
51m ·
Malcolm Turnbull just said on Channel 7; Our relationship with the US is over. We will never get those three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines and we will never get back the $800,000,000 down payment that was recently paid back.
Virtually every conservative and formerly pro-Trump politician in Australia has now condemned Trump.
sarahs mum said:
Steve Gadd
51m ·
Malcolm Turnbull just said on Channel 7; Our relationship with the US is over. We will never get those three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines and we will never get back the $800,000,000 down payment that was recently paid back.
Virtually every conservative and formerly pro-Trump politician in Australia has now condemned Trump.
Depends on how quickly the FSA can remove the unfit orange turd from office.
Bernie Sanders on Trump and Putin (5 min 26 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBM2kS6B8o”
It’s such a pleasant change to hear an American politician speak in a rational way. He says more in five minutes than most ofthem say in five years.
captain_spalding said:
Bernie Sanders on Trump and Putin (5 min 26 sec)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBM2kS6B8o”
It’s such a pleasant change to hear an American politician speak in a rational way. He says more in five minutes than most ofthem say in five years.
Yeah, it’s fine words.
captain_spalding said:
Bernie Sanders on Trump and Putin (5 min 26 sec)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBM2kS6B8o”
It’s such a pleasant change to hear an American politician speak in a rational way. He says more in five minutes than most ofthem say in five years.
good egg, that Bernie
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Bernie Sanders on Trump and Putin (5 min 26 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBM2kS6B8o”
It’s such a pleasant change to hear an American politician speak in a rational way. He says more in five minutes than most ofthem say in five years.
good egg, that Bernie
Transcript
thanks everybody for joining me to
discuss a very very serious
issue yesterday we witnessed an
extremely sad moment in American
history we saw the president of the
United States aligning himself with the
dictator of Russia Vladimir Putin to
undermine the independence of Ukraine
and its
democracy let’s be clear Trump is
showing us that he sees one of the wor
world’s most brutal dictators as his
friend and our longtime Democratic
allies in Europe as his enemies he wants
a world that is safe for authoritarians
and oligarchs but extremely dangerous
for
democracies it will not surprise you
when I tell you that Trump is lying as
he so often does yesterday Trump said
that Ukraine started the war that’s not
true Russia invaded Ukraine Twice first
in 2014 then again in 2022 right now
Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine
since Putin’s horrific Invasion over 1
million people have been killed or
injured every single day Russia
continues to rain down hundreds of
missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities
Putin’s forces have massacred civilians
and kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian
children bringing them back to Russian
re-education
camps these atrocities led the
international criminal court to issue an
arrest warrant for Putin in
2023 as a war criminal a war
criminal further Trump called Ukrainian
president zalinski a dictator that’s not
true either zalinski won 75% of the vote
in free elections in fact his approval
rating is higher than Trump’s in the
midst of a brutal War a brutal War
Ukraine’s Parliament continues to
function and free and unfed political
debate takes
place Trump claimed that our European
allies have done little to support
Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s
Invasion he said the United States has
contributed three times more than Europe
but that’s another lie in fact Europe
has provided more Aid to Ukraine than
the United States
but it’s not just that Trump is lying
again that’s not new it’s what this all
reveals about where he wants to take our
country and in fact the entire world
Trump is coing up to Vladimir Putin so
who is Putin and what kind of world does
he want to
build Putin is a dictator who crushed
Russia’s movement toward democracy after
to the end of the Cold War Russia holds
sham elections every 6 years where Putin
wins 90% of the vote and authorities
don’t even try to hide their ballot
stuffing there is no freedom of speech
or free media in Putin’s Russia protests
are violently suppressed tens of
thousands of people are in prisoned for
protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
political dissidents are harassed or
thrown into jail the bravest people like
Alexi nalni are killed outright hundreds
of thousands of Russians have fled
Putin’s brutal regime since his invasion
of
Ukraine but Putin has maintained control
in his country by offering Russia’s
oligarchs a simple deal if you give me
absolute power I’ll let you steal as
much as you want from the Russian people
and that’s why in a country where many
are struggling economically Russian
oligarchs have stashed trillions of
dollars in offshore tax
accounts that is the Russian leader that
Trump admires that is the Russian
oligarchy that he
supports but that is not not the
perspective of the American people we
know and we are proud of the fact that
the United States of America is the
longest standing democracy in the world
we know that many hundreds of thousands
of Brave Americans over the years have
fought and died to defend democracy we
also know that our allies in the world
are those countries that believe in
democracy not auth
authoritarianism in this critical moment
in our history I hope that every
American regardless of political
perspective will stand tall and say yes
to
democracy no to oligarchy and no to
authoritarianism thank you very much
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:It is very slow off the mark to react to a president overstepping his executive authority. If the Congress does nothing soon to reclaim their proper power and authority, or if the courts quietly acquiesce – then there comes a point where “incredibly flawed democracy” becomes “not a democracy”.
in fairness to the US, there really aren’t too many Constitutional recourses for Congress to remove a President in the case where he/she is just “doing a bad job”
In all seriousness I think there’s a decent chance that DJT will commit an impeachable offence or ten so if they really want him gone, there’ll be a pretext.
just shifting this
that doesn’t sound unreasonable or even unlikely… it does however feel unlikely that articles of impeachment would be brought while the GOP have control of Congress
\
diddly-squat said:
that doesn’t sound unreasonable or even unlikely… it does however feel unlikely that articles of impeachment would be brought while the GOP
have control of Congressare generally having fun, goofing off, rorting the system, doing shady deals amid the confusion and distraction, and just not giviing shit.
Fixed.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
that doesn’t sound unreasonable or even unlikely… it does however feel unlikely that articles of impeachment would be brought while the GOP
have control of Congressare generally having fun, goofing off, rorting the system, doing shady deals amid the confusion and distraction, and just not giviing shit.My understanding they’ve got a fairly broad scope for misdemeanors. they might even have scope for treason if he gets too friendly with Russia. Or they can go for the mental incompetence. Really there’s a hundred things they could go after him on, he is not squeaky clean on anything. Just have a good look into his campaign financing and some crime is bound to come up.
Fixed.
wait so we all agree that there will be crimes for which someone could be called out, but the checks and balances that exist to do the calling won’t check and balance because whatever, and this is the system working as intended, so
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:that doesn’t sound unreasonable or even unlikely… it does however feel unlikely that articles of impeachment would be brought while the GOP
have control of Congressare generally having fun, goofing off, rorting the system, doing shady deals amid the confusion and distraction, and just not giviing shit.Fixed.
Trump out performed the vast majority of down ballot candidates in the last election… people will just want to keep their jobs… it’s entirely predictable behavior.
I mean if you had a job where you earned really good money, it gave great perks and you knew that upon leaving this job you had a really good chance of picking up another job that was likely even better paying and had better perks and all you had to do was put up with an sociopath for a boss that you know punishes non-loyalty, would you rock the boat, or would keep you head down and just ride things out?
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
My understanding they’ve got a fairly broad scope for misdemeanors. they might even have scope for treason if he gets too friendly with Russia. Or they can go for the mental incompetence. Really there’s a hundred things they could go after him on, he is not squeaky clean on anything. Just have a good look into his campaign financing and some crime is bound to come up.
Fixed.
wait so we all agree that there will be crimes for which someone could be called out, but the checks and balances that exist to do the calling won’t check and balance because whatever, and this is the system working as intended, so
No, We are not all agreed on this. That is why there is ongoing discussion.
remain calm
SCIENCE said:
remain calm
Fuck off. I’ll get as angry as I damn well please.
too late
SCIENCE said:
too late
Now what’s happened?
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
This is, it seems, genuine post from Trump on ‘Truth Social’.
He’s not even trying to hide it any more.
He’s on a roll. He’s made it back to the big time and this time he’s gonna hit all holes in one.
dv said:
well you’re wrong you can’t call them national socialists until they turn the showers on
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
well you’re wrong you can’t call them national socialists until they turn the showers on
Honestly though, everyone whose downplayed DJT’s Putin commections for the last 10 years needs to sit down and be humble forever. Anyone who’s said it’s been an overreaction, everyone who has said that talking about the threat of Trump has just built him up… just shut up. Learn something from all this.
We already knew about this. The Mueller investigation found over 100 points of contact between Trump’s team and Putin’s. He was found to have performed ten acts of obstruction of justice to thwart the investigation: this doesn’t point strongly to innocence. He held up nearly half a billion dollars in aid that had been approved by Congress in order to lean on VZ to manufacture phony evidence. The impeachment happened but even moderate Republicans in the Senate were like “oh well
It’s 7 years since he stood up at Helsinki and read out Putin’s talking points. Everyone across the political spectrum was shocked and there was no alternative explication other than executive capture but after a little while the Right were like Oh well that’s our whacky Trump.
Do people even remember this? How was it not the end? The Commander in Chief of the biggest country in the alliance is fully compromised. Even now, in America, there are voices on the centre right saying “oh well this is a negotiating tactic”. How the shit is it a negotiating tactic to concede to all your opponent’s demands before you even sit down?
There’s some comfort in the fact that Conservatives outside the US are finally being honest about the situation, except for the Babet and Farage types.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
well you’re wrong you can’t call them national socialists until they turn the showers on
Honestly though, everyone whose downplayed DJT’s Putin commections for the last 10 years needs to sit down and be humble forever. Anyone who’s said it’s been an overreaction, everyone who has said that talking about the threat of Trump has just built him up… just shut up. Learn something from all this.
We already knew about this. The Mueller investigation found over 100 points of contact between Trump’s team and Putin’s. He was found to have performed ten acts of obstruction of justice to thwart the investigation: this doesn’t point strongly to innocence. He held up nearly half a billion dollars in aid that had been approved by Congress in order to lean on VZ to manufacture phony evidence. The impeachment happened but even moderate Republicans in the Senate were like “oh well
It’s 7 years since he stood up at Helsinki and read out Putin’s talking points. Everyone across the political spectrum was shocked and there was no alternative explication other than executive capture but after a little while the Right were like Oh well that’s our whacky Trump.
Do people even remember this? How was it not the end? The Commander in Chief of the biggest country in the alliance is fully compromised. Even now, in America, there are voices on the centre right saying “oh well this is a negotiating tactic”. How the shit is it a negotiating tactic to concede to all your opponent’s demands before you even sit down?
There’s some comfort in the fact that Conservatives outside the US are finally being honest about the situation, except for the Babet and Farage types.
The meeting trump had with the Russian guys, in the Oval Office, with no transcript available. Was that day 2 of his last presidency?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/15/how-trump-walked-into-putins-web-luke
Steele’s collaborators offered salacious details. The memo said that Russian intelligence had sought to exploit “TRUMP’s personal obsessions and sexual perversion” during his 2013 stay at Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton hotel for the Miss Universe beauty pageant. The operation had allegedly worked. The tycoon had booked the presidential suite of the Ritz-Carlton hotel “where he knew President and Mrs OBAMA (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia”.
There, the memo said, Trump had deliberately “defiled” the Obamas’ bed. A number of prostitutes “had performed a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him”. The memo also alleged: “The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms to record anything they wanted to.”
As well as sex, there was another fascinating dimension to this alleged plot, categorically denied by Trump. According to Steele’s sources, associates of Trump had held a series of clandestine meetings in central Europe, Moscow and elsewhere with Russian spies. The Russians were very good at tradecraft.
dv said:
Yes.
TOPLINE
President Donald Trump is reportedly pressuring Romania to ease travel restrictions on controversial “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, who has been embroiled in a years-long legal fight in the country where he has been charged with rape and human trafficking—and who has also championed the president for months to his millions of social media followers.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/02/19/heres-why-trump-may-view-andrew-tate-as-an-ally-as-he-reportedly-pressures-romania-to-lift-his-travel-restrictions/
Because of course
dv said:
TOPLINE
President Donald Trump is reportedly pressuring Romania to ease travel restrictions on controversial “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, who has been embroiled in a years-long legal fight in the country where he has been charged with rape and human trafficking—and who has also championed the president for months to his millions of social media followers.https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/02/19/heres-why-trump-may-view-andrew-tate-as-an-ally-as-he-reportedly-pressures-romania-to-lift-his-travel-restrictions/
Because of course
I’m gonna throw up.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Kind of seems like overreach for the Monarch to get involved in municipal transport planning but okay
This is, it seems, genuine post from Trump on ‘Truth Social’.
He’s not even trying to hide it any more.
He’s on a roll. He’s made it back to the big time and this time he’s gonna hit all holes in one.
Via Jeff Tiedrich’s column:
Kash Patel was confirmed by the Senate as the next director of the FBI in a 51-49 vote Thursday. All Democrats and two Republicans voted against him. And no, the two Republicans did not include Mitch McConnell who opposed all prominent Trump picks like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr. McConnell, in fact, voted in favor of Kash Patel as the FBI director after announcing that he won’t be running for re-election.
dv said:
Kash Patel was confirmed by the Senate as the next director of the FBI in a 51-49 vote Thursday. All Democrats and two Republicans voted against him. And no, the two Republicans did not include Mitch McConnell who opposed all prominent Trump picks like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr. McConnell, in fact, voted in favor of Kash Patel as the FBI director after announcing that he won’t be running for re-election.
Well, you don’t want to get the FBI Director offside.
kii said:
FMD.
Was it the Haitians supposedly eating the pets?
Divine Angel said:
Was it the Haitians supposedly eating the pets?
I’ve lot track of all the odious lies.
Divine Angel said:
Was it the Haitians supposedly eating the pets?
Yes, in Springfield.
Apu, they’re looking to come after you next.
https://youtu.be/2HhAEyzRWA8?si=HfCshX7cg6ZXEo-C
The evolution of Rubio on Putin
Michael V said:
Divine Angel said:
Was it the Haitians supposedly eating the pets?
Yes, in Springfield.
Apu, they’re looking to come after you next.
Apu got retired.
WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: Donald Trump “looks forward to watching the game tonight — and we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”
Divine Angel said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/20/politics/doge-firing-low-performers-new-employees-reality/index.html
The incompetence is kind of funny but not unexpected given the Twitter experience. They appear to have just done a ctrl-x on anyone with “probationary” on their file, which includes very experienced staff who have just been promoted and whose promotion is thus probationary. If you have a bunch of staff with 5 years’ experience and one of them has performed best and just got promoted: that’s the one that got fired. I’m not sure how the US is supposed to afford all these payouts and rehires.
Like Twitter I suppose the country will lose 80% of its value and will be considering lowball offers.
SCIENCE said:
WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: Donald Trump “looks forward to watching the game tonight — and we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”
Canadians needs to stop being so nice, and arrange for scum underlings like this to get seriously hurt or killed. Until nobody wants the job.
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/20/politics/doge-firing-low-performers-new-employees-reality/index.html
The incompetence is kind of funny but not unexpected given the Twitter experience. They appear to have just done a ctrl-x on anyone with “probationary” on their file, which includes very experienced staff who have just been promoted and whose promotion is thus probationary. If you have a bunch of staff with 5 years’ experience and one of them has performed best and just got promoted: that’s the one that got fired. I’m not sure how the US is supposed to afford all these payouts and rehires.
Like Twitter I suppose the country will lose 80% of its value and will be considering lowball offers.
breaking news Danmark buys DPRNA ahahaha
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/20/politics/doge-firing-low-performers-new-employees-reality/index.html
The incompetence is kind of funny but not unexpected given the Twitter experience. They appear to have just done a ctrl-x on anyone with “probationary” on their file, which includes very experienced staff who have just been promoted and whose promotion is thus probationary. If you have a bunch of staff with 5 years’ experience and one of them has performed best and just got promoted: that’s the one that got fired. I’m not sure how the US is supposed to afford all these payouts and rehires.
Like Twitter I suppose the country will lose 80% of its value and will be considering lowball offers.
Payouts? There are payouts?
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 20, 2025 (Thursday)
On Monday, James Marriott of The Times, published in London, noted that the very stability and comfort of the post–World War II liberal order has permitted the seeds of its own destruction to flourish. A society with firm scientific and political guardrails that protect health and freedom, can sustain “an underbelly of madmen and extremists—medical sceptics, conspiracy types and anti-democratic fantasists.”
“Our society has been peaceful and healthy for so long that for many people serious disaster has become inconceivable,” Marriott writes. “Americans who parade around in amateur militia groups and brandish Nazi symbols do so partly because they are unable to conceive of what life would actually be like in a fascist state.” Those who attack modern medicine cannot really comprehend a society without it. And, Marriott adds, those who are cheering the rise of autocracy in the United States “have no serious understanding of what it means to live under an autocratic government.”
Marriott notes that five Texas counties that make up one of the least vaccinated areas in the U.S. are gripped by a measles outbreak that has infected at least 58 people and hospitalized 13. It may be, Marriot writes, that “he paradise of fools is coming to an end.”
The stability of the U.S.-backed international rules-based order apparently meant that few politicians could imagine that order ending. When President Trump threatened to take the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a key guarantor of global security, Congress responded by passing a law in December 2023 that prohibits a president from withdrawing the U.S. from NATO without the approval of two thirds of the Senate or separate legislation passed by Congress. Then-senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was a co-sponsor of the bill.
Now, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio overseeing the dismantling of U.S. support for our allies and a shift toward Russia, Republican senators appear to be discombobulated. As Joe Perticone reported Tuesday in The Bulwark, there appears to be consensus in Congress that “Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal, NATO is critical to European and global security, and the United States has led the common defense. But Republicans just backed a presidential candidate and voted to confirm several key cabinet officials who do not accept those realities. Confronted with the consequences of their support for Trump and votes for his nominees, Perticone notes, Republican lawmakers are apparently shocked.
At home, the relative stability of American democracy in the late twentieth century allowed politicians to win office with the narrative that the government was stifling individualism, taking money from hardworking taxpayers to provide benefits to the undeserving.
Although the actual size of the federal workforce has shrunk slightly in the last fifty years even while the U.S. population has grown by about 68%, the Republican Party insisted that the government was wasting tax dollars, usually on racial, religious, or gender minorities. That claim became an article of faith for MAGA voters and reliably turned them out to vote. Now, political scientist Adam Bonica’s research shows that the firings at DOGE are “a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as…left-leaning.”
But the Trump administration’s massive and random cuts to the federal workforce are revealing that the narrative of government waste does not line up with reality. According to Linda F. Hersey of Stars and Stripes, about one third of all federal workers are veterans, while veterans make up only about 5% of the civilian workforce. In fiscal year 2023, about 25% of the federal government’s new hires were veterans, and they have been hit hard by the firings that cut people who were in their first year or two of service. “Let’s call this what it is—it is a middle finger to our heroes and their lives of service,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) who sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services committees and is herself a disabled veteran.
Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported today that Republican lawmakers are panicked over this weekend’s firings, concerned about the fired veterans and the firings of USDA and CDC employees who were dealing with the spreading outbreak of bird flu that is threatening the nation’s poultry, cattle, house cats, and humans.
Since Trump took office just a month ago, cuts to government spending have also hit Republican voters hard, and those hits look to be continuing. In June 2024, Ella Nilsen and Renée Rigdon of CNN reported that nearly 78% of the announced investments from the Inflation Reduction Act in initiatives that address climate change went to Republican congressional districts. Today the Financial Times noted that House Republicans are in the position of cutting the law that brought more than $130 billion to their districts.
Now Republicans are talking about cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and supplemental food programs, although Republican-dominated counties rely on those programs more than Democratic-dominated counties do. Yesterday, on the Fox News Channel, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, praised the Department of Government Efficiency because it was “going to cut a trillion dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Lutnick told personality Jesse Watters, “You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicare and Medicaid is wrong, so he’s going to cut one trillion.”
The administration and the Department of Government Efficiency insist they are getting rid of “massive waste, fraud, and abuse” that they claim has lurked in the government for decades; House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that Congress has not been able to make those cuts in the past because “the deep state has hidden it from us.”
In fact, neither the administration nor DOGE has produced evidence for their claims of cutting waste. Instead, fact-checkers have pointed out so many errors and exaggerations in their claims that observers are questioning what they’re really doing. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who ran the Social Security Administration under Biden, told Jane C. Timm of NBC News: “There’s unelected people that are being given powers to go through and rummage through our personal data for reasons that nobody can quite figure out yet. It’s not for efficiency.”
Indeed, federal government spending since Trump took office is actually higher than it’s been in recent years.
Finally, it appears that the strength and stability of American democracy have also meant that lawmakers somehow cannot really believe that the U.S. is falling into authoritarianism. Today, in a 51–49 vote, all but two Republican senators voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with all the Democrats and Independents to oppose Patel’s confirmation. In a 2023 book, Patel published a list of more than 50 current or former U.S. officials that he claims are members of the “deep state” and are a “dangerous threat to democracy.” Opponents worry he will use the FBI to target those and other people he thinks are insufficiently loyal to Trump.
The reason Americans created the government that the Trump administration is now dismantling was that in the 1930s, they knew very well the dangers of authoritarianism. On February 20, 1939, in honor of President George Washington’s birthday, Nazis held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. More than 20,000 people showed up for the “true Americanism” event, which was held on a stage that featured a huge portrait of Washington in his Continental Army uniform flanked by swastikas.
Just two years later, Americans went to war against fascism.
Over the next century they worked to build a liberal order, one that had strong scientific and political guardrails.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/20/politics/doge-firing-low-performers-new-employees-reality/index.html
The incompetence is kind of funny but not unexpected given the Twitter experience. They appear to have just done a ctrl-x on anyone with “probationary” on their file, which includes very experienced staff who have just been promoted and whose promotion is thus probationary. If you have a bunch of staff with 5 years’ experience and one of them has performed best and just got promoted: that’s the one that got fired. I’m not sure how the US is supposed to afford all these payouts and rehires.
Like Twitter I suppose the country will lose 80% of its value and will be considering lowball offers.
breaking news Danmark buys DPRNA ahahaha
That would be funny.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: Donald Trump “looks forward to watching the game tonight — and we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”
Canadians needs to stop being so nice, and arrange for scum underlings like this to get seriously hurt or killed. Until nobody wants the job.
I’m really worried.
Zelensky Says Trump Should ‘Just Accept’ Deal for Canada To Take Over USA
Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky says Donald Trump is stupid for not accepting a deal that would see Canada take over the majority of American territory, as part of a peace deal.
In a Tweet today, Zelensky said he had brokered a peace deal between Canada and the USA during a summit to which the US was not invited.
“I was a very fruitful summit – we heard many different sides of the argument from Canada – and it became very clear that the best, most peaceful way forward is for Canada to assume ownership of 49 states. America can keep Florida”.
Zelensky labelled Trump a ‘moderately successful comedian’ who was ‘very low in the polls’. “He better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.
https://theshovel.com.au/2025/02/21/zelensky-says-trump-should-just-accept-deal-for-canada-to-take-over-usa
fsm said:
Zelensky Says Trump Should ‘Just Accept’ Deal for Canada To Take Over USAUkraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky says Donald Trump is stupid for not accepting a deal that would see Canada take over the majority of American territory, as part of a peace deal.
In a Tweet today, Zelensky said he had brokered a peace deal between Canada and the USA during a summit to which the US was not invited.
“I was a very fruitful summit – we heard many different sides of the argument from Canada – and it became very clear that the best, most peaceful way forward is for Canada to assume ownership of 49 states. America can keep Florida”.
Zelensky labelled Trump a ‘moderately successful comedian’ who was ‘very low in the polls’. “He better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.
https://theshovel.com.au/2025/02/21/zelensky-says-trump-should-just-accept-deal-for-canada-to-take-over-usa
:)
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana’s governor to reverse course on plans to do away with her popular “Imagination Library” program.
The country singer, who started the book gifting program to encourage early literacy, urged Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider the state’s proposed budget, which does not include the usual 50 percent matching funds provided to finance the initiative.
“We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
”The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Under the program, children receive a free book once a month until the age of 5 — almost like it’s coming directly from a fairy godmother named Dolly Parton. The country singer started the Imagination Library in 1995 to inspire “a love of reading,” according to the website.
Dolly Parton Turned Down Trump’s Medal of Freedom—Twice
NO, THANKS
Matt Wilstein, Martha Mercer
GettyImages-1187505990_vg56ej
Parton was inspired by her own father’s inability to read and write to launch the initiative. Although it started in the U.S., it now sends out over two million free books each month to children around the world.
The program runs via shared funding by Parton and local community partners in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Parton touted the program’s success in the Hoosier state, as she urged the state’s lawmakers to reconsider.
“For the past two years, the State of Indiana has been a proud partner in bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to over 125,000 Hoosier children each month,” Conyers continued. “Together, we’ve helped nurture a love of reading, given families precious moments of joy, and built a foundation for lifelong learning.”
According to research conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, early literacy significantly contributes to both academic and personal success.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-calls-out-indiana-gov-over-plan-to-dump-her-imagination-library/
sarahs mum said:
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana’s governor to reverse course on plans to do away with her popular “Imagination Library” program.The country singer, who started the book gifting program to encourage early literacy, urged Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider the state’s proposed budget, which does not include the usual 50 percent matching funds provided to finance the initiative.
“We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
”The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Under the program, children receive a free book once a month until the age of 5 — almost like it’s coming directly from a fairy godmother named Dolly Parton. The country singer started the Imagination Library in 1995 to inspire “a love of reading,” according to the website.
Dolly Parton Turned Down Trump’s Medal of Freedom—Twice
NO, THANKS
Matt Wilstein, Martha Mercer
GettyImages-1187505990_vg56ej
Parton was inspired by her own father’s inability to read and write to launch the initiative. Although it started in the U.S., it now sends out over two million free books each month to children around the world.The program runs via shared funding by Parton and local community partners in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Parton touted the program’s success in the Hoosier state, as she urged the state’s lawmakers to reconsider.
“For the past two years, the State of Indiana has been a proud partner in bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to over 125,000 Hoosier children each month,” Conyers continued. “Together, we’ve helped nurture a love of reading, given families precious moments of joy, and built a foundation for lifelong learning.”
According to research conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, early literacy significantly contributes to both academic and personal success.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-calls-out-indiana-gov-over-plan-to-dump-her-imagination-library/
The ABC had a great article about this program IIRC.
Sounded like a terrific thing Dolly Parton is doing.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana’s governor to reverse course on plans to do away with her popular “Imagination Library” program.The country singer, who started the book gifting program to encourage early literacy, urged Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider the state’s proposed budget, which does not include the usual 50 percent matching funds provided to finance the initiative.
“We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
”The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Under the program, children receive a free book once a month until the age of 5 — almost like it’s coming directly from a fairy godmother named Dolly Parton. The country singer started the Imagination Library in 1995 to inspire “a love of reading,” according to the website.
Dolly Parton Turned Down Trump’s Medal of Freedom—Twice
NO, THANKS
Matt Wilstein, Martha Mercer
GettyImages-1187505990_vg56ej
Parton was inspired by her own father’s inability to read and write to launch the initiative. Although it started in the U.S., it now sends out over two million free books each month to children around the world.The program runs via shared funding by Parton and local community partners in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Parton touted the program’s success in the Hoosier state, as she urged the state’s lawmakers to reconsider.
“For the past two years, the State of Indiana has been a proud partner in bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to over 125,000 Hoosier children each month,” Conyers continued. “Together, we’ve helped nurture a love of reading, given families precious moments of joy, and built a foundation for lifelong learning.”
According to research conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, early literacy significantly contributes to both academic and personal success.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-calls-out-indiana-gov-over-plan-to-dump-her-imagination-library/
The ABC had a great article about this program IIRC.
Sounded like a terrific thing Dolly Parton is doing.
Yeah, but, have you seen the books…
Note: this book is unlikely to have been included…
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 20, 2025 (Thursday)On Monday, James Marriott of The Times, published in London, noted that the very stability and comfort of the post–World War II liberal order has permitted the seeds of its own destruction to flourish. A society with firm scientific and political guardrails that protect health and freedom, can sustain “an underbelly of madmen and extremists—medical sceptics, conspiracy types and anti-democratic fantasists.”
“Our society has been peaceful and healthy for so long that for many people serious disaster has become inconceivable,” Marriott writes. “Americans who parade around in amateur militia groups and brandish Nazi symbols do so partly because they are unable to conceive of what life would actually be like in a fascist state.” Those who attack modern medicine cannot really comprehend a society without it. And, Marriott adds, those who are cheering the rise of autocracy in the United States “have no serious understanding of what it means to live under an autocratic government.”
Marriott notes that five Texas counties that make up one of the least vaccinated areas in the U.S. are gripped by a measles outbreak that has infected at least 58 people and hospitalized 13. It may be, Marriot writes, that “he paradise of fools is coming to an end.”
————————————————————————CUT—————————————————————————
Marriott seems to have provided some type of explanation for the deep shit we find ourselves in.
Thanks for bringing this to me.
Only Partly Free
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” then–CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves cackled in February 2016, as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign churned forward. “The money’s rolling in and this is fun … It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Go ahead. Keep going.”
Moonves appeared merely ghoulish then. He now looks both ghoulish and wrong. Trump has not been good for CBS, and the steps and statements he’s made since returning to the White House show that his campaign promises to restore and defend free speech were balderdash. His goal is to protect the speech that he likes and suppress what he doesn’t.
On Sunday, Unelected Bureaucrat in Chief Elon Musk attacked CBS’s flagship program. “60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world! They engaged in deliberate deception to interfere with the last election,” he posted on X. “They deserve a long prison sentence.” This would seem less threatening if Musk weren’t running roughshod over the federal government, or if the president disagreed. But earlier this month, Trump said that “CBS should lose its license” and 60 Minutes should be “terminated.”
The source of their anger is an interview that the program conducted with Kamala Harris—remember her?—during the presidential campaign last year. Trump alleges that 60 Minutes improperly edited the interview. CBS denies any wrongdoing and declined to comment on Musk’s post. CBS said in a filing this week that it intended to seek information on Trump’s finances if the lawsuit proceeds. Even so, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, is considering whether to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement with Trump to resolve a suit seeking $20 billion in damages. Interpreting such a move as anything other than paying off Trump to leave CBS alone is very difficult—in other words, it’s a protection racket. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal reports that executives are concerned they could be sued for bribery if they settle. (Moonves is long gone; he was forced out in 2018 over a series of accusations of sexual assault and harassment. He denies any wrongdoing.)
Trump initially filed his suit last October and has since amended it. The crux of the claim is that CBS aired two different snippets from the same Harris answer about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Like many past lawsuits from Trump, this one reads more like a political memo than a legal brief. He claims, without any evidence, that CBS edited the interview to help Harris’s electoral prospects. (Like other MAGA lawsuits, it was filed in a specific Texas court so as to draw Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has delivered sweeping fringe rulings in the past.) The suit doesn’t make a great deal of sense. If CBS was trying to hide something Harris said, why did it broadcast the clip?
The Federal Communications Commission initially rejected a complaint about the interview, but Brendan Carr—Trump’s newly appointed FCC chair—reopened it and demanded that CBS release the transcript of the interview. CBS did so, and to my read, the transcript establishes that CBS’s use of the clips was not manipulative. (Judicious editing is essential. I’ve interviewed many politicians, and much of what they say is incurably dull, nonsensical, or both, sometimes by design.)
The charge of “election interference” doesn’t make any sense, either—especially coming from Musk, who both is the owner of a major media platform and spent nearly $300 million to back Trump and other Republican candidates. The position of the Trump GOP appears to be that spending any amount of money on politics is free speech, but press outlets covering the campaign are interfering with it.
The bombardment of CBS is part of a wide-ranging assault on free speech. Last week, the White House barred an Associated Press reporter from the Oval Office because editors there have opted not to adopt Trump’s renaming of the body of water long known as the Gulf of Mexico. In December, ABC settled a defamation suit with Trump even though almost no media lawyers thought the network would have lost; critics charged that ABC was trying to curry favor with the president-elect. (ABC did not respond to a request for comment.)
Carr, the FCC chair, recently wrote a letter to NPR and PBS suggesting that by airing sponsors’ names, they may have violated rules against noncommercial stations accepting advertising, although the FCC has not objected to this practice in the past. He noted that the answer could help Congress in deciding whether to defund NPR and PBS. That’s a tight vise grip: Don’t take funding or we might take your funding.
Not all criticism of the press is media suppression. Politicians are free to criticize the press, just as all Americans are free to criticize their elected officials. And besides, if political leaders aren’t upset about at least some of the coverage they’re receiving, journalists probably aren’t holding them to account. At times during the Trump era, some members of the media have overreacted to flimsy provocations, like Trump’s posting a silly GIF that superimposed the CNN logo over someone being body slammed. Vice President J. D. Vance snarkily replied to the journalist Mehdi Hasan on Monday, “Yes dummy. I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”
Even if you’re willing to grant Vance’s premise that banishing the AP is no big deal—I am not—there’s a lot of territory between that and jailing people, and that’s the ground that Trump is occupying: using the power of the government to intimidate. Paramount, for example, is currently awaiting FCC approval for a merger with Skydance Media. A Paramount Global spokesperson told me the lawsuit is “separate from, and unrelated to” the merger, but the company’s leaders would be reasonable to be afraid that Trump might block the deal if they don’t cooperate. During his first term, Trump tried to block the acquisition of CNN’s parent company. Speaking about the AP’s banishment, one journalist told CNN’s Brian Stelter, “Everyone assumes they’re next.”
Threats to the press are not new for Trump, who has been critical of press freedom for years. But during his most recent campaign, he criticized “wokeness” and argued that he would be a voice for free speech by pushing back on what he characterized as attacks on constitutional rights from, for example, social-media companies that blocked or throttled content (such as suspending his accounts after January 6). On the first day of his new term, Trump signed an executive order purportedly “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.” Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and announced that he was a “free speech absolutist,” but quickly disproved that, suspending reporters who criticized him and cooperating with foreign governments to suppress speech.
A news outlet that is afraid of the government is an outlet whose speech is only partly free. When media companies are afraid that the president will use regulators to punish their business, owners are anxious to protect non-media commercial interests. When journalists are wary of becoming targets for petty retribution, they may pull punches or shape coverage in ways that do not—and are not intended to—serve the public interest. Jeff Bezos’s decision to spike a Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris and Patrick Soon-Shiong’s attacks on his own newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, both look a lot like this, though the two owners insist otherwise.
Over the past few years, Trump, Vance, and others complained loudly about the government studying mis- and disinformation or pointing out instances of disinformation to social-media companies. They charged that this was censorship because even if the government wasn’t requiring those companies to do anything, its power made this an implied threat. Now that they are in office, they’ve had a change of heart. They’re perfectly happy for the government to try to tell private companies what opinions are acceptable and which ones aren’t. They never believed in anyone’s free speech except their own.
‘The Atlantic’ Email Newsletter
sarahs mum said:
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana’s governor to reverse course on plans to do away with her popular “Imagination Library” program.The country singer, who started the book gifting program to encourage early literacy, urged Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider the state’s proposed budget, which does not include the usual 50 percent matching funds provided to finance the initiative.
“We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
”The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Under the program, children receive a free book once a month until the age of 5 — almost like it’s coming directly from a fairy godmother named Dolly Parton. The country singer started the Imagination Library in 1995 to inspire “a love of reading,” according to the website.
Dolly Parton Turned Down Trump’s Medal of Freedom—Twice
NO, THANKS
Matt Wilstein, Martha Mercer
GettyImages-1187505990_vg56ej
Parton was inspired by her own father’s inability to read and write to launch the initiative. Although it started in the U.S., it now sends out over two million free books each month to children around the world.The program runs via shared funding by Parton and local community partners in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Parton touted the program’s success in the Hoosier state, as she urged the state’s lawmakers to reconsider.
“For the past two years, the State of Indiana has been a proud partner in bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to over 125,000 Hoosier children each month,” Conyers continued. “Together, we’ve helped nurture a love of reading, given families precious moments of joy, and built a foundation for lifelong learning.”
According to research conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, early literacy significantly contributes to both academic and personal success.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-calls-out-indiana-gov-over-plan-to-dump-her-imagination-library/
FFS ! Is Trump picking on Dolly now as well?
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana’s governor to reverse course on plans to do away with her popular “Imagination Library” program.The country singer, who started the book gifting program to encourage early literacy, urged Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider the state’s proposed budget, which does not include the usual 50 percent matching funds provided to finance the initiative.
“We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
”The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Under the program, children receive a free book once a month until the age of 5 — almost like it’s coming directly from a fairy godmother named Dolly Parton. The country singer started the Imagination Library in 1995 to inspire “a love of reading,” according to the website.
Dolly Parton Turned Down Trump’s Medal of Freedom—Twice
NO, THANKS
Matt Wilstein, Martha Mercer
GettyImages-1187505990_vg56ej
Parton was inspired by her own father’s inability to read and write to launch the initiative. Although it started in the U.S., it now sends out over two million free books each month to children around the world.The program runs via shared funding by Parton and local community partners in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.
Parton touted the program’s success in the Hoosier state, as she urged the state’s lawmakers to reconsider.
“For the past two years, the State of Indiana has been a proud partner in bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to over 125,000 Hoosier children each month,” Conyers continued. “Together, we’ve helped nurture a love of reading, given families precious moments of joy, and built a foundation for lifelong learning.”
According to research conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, early literacy significantly contributes to both academic and personal success.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-calls-out-indiana-gov-over-plan-to-dump-her-imagination-library/
FFS ! Is Trump picking on Dolly now as well?
She probably didn’t let him grab her by the pussy.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
February 20, 2025 (Thursday)On Monday, James Marriott of The Times, published in London, noted that the very stability and comfort of the post–World War II liberal order has permitted the seeds of its own destruction to flourish. A society with firm scientific and political guardrails that protect health and freedom, can sustain “an underbelly of madmen and extremists—medical sceptics, conspiracy types and anti-democratic fantasists.”
“Our society has been peaceful and healthy for so long that for many people serious disaster has become inconceivable,” Marriott writes. “Americans who parade around in amateur militia groups and brandish Nazi symbols do so partly because they are unable to conceive of what life would actually be like in a fascist state.” Those who attack modern medicine cannot really comprehend a society without it. And, Marriott adds, those who are cheering the rise of autocracy in the United States “have no serious understanding of what it means to live under an autocratic government.”
Marriott notes that five Texas counties that make up one of the least vaccinated areas in the U.S. are gripped by a measles outbreak that has infected at least 58 people and hospitalized 13. It may be, Marriot writes, that “he paradise of fools is coming to an end.”
————————————————————————CUT—————————————————————————
Marriott seems to have provided some type of explanation for the deep shit we find ourselves in.
Thanks for bringing this to me.
It is very similar to the times 1928/33 That Hitler made best use of.
New Jonathan Pie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk0nUUqG_Ag
Neophyte said:
New Jonathan Piehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk0nUUqG_Ag
brutal.
love.
sarahs mum said:
Neophyte said:
New Jonathan Piehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk0nUUqG_Ag
brutal.
love.
What’s with the chainsaw? Was it running? If not, why not?
…sigh…
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/so-trump-really-was-a-russian-asset-all-along/id1265276064?i=1000507625444
sarahs mum said:
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
is it yes or is it no
Interesting push back from French Far-right. Bardella is gay so this could be a factor alongside French strategic interests in maintaining European security.
…
French far-right leader cancels speech after Bannon gives ‘Nazi salute’
By Michael Koziol
February 22, 2025 — 5.16am
National Harbor, Maryland: A French far-right leader cancelled his appearance at a major conservative gathering near Washington after former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon made an on-stage gesture which resembled a Nazi salute.
Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old leader of National Rally, which is headed in parliament by Marine Le Pen, was due to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday (US Eastern Standard Time).
Former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC.
French media led by Agence France-Presse reported Bardella withdrew from the program because of Bannon’s “gesture alluding to Nazi ideology” at the end of his speech on Thursday evening, local time. Bardella was not in the room when the gesture was made, his statement said.
Bannon denied it was a Nazi salute, saying he had made the “wave” at the end of numerous prior speeches as a way of thanking the audience.
It follows tech billionaire Elon Musk drawing condemnation for a similar salute at a rally accompanying Trump’s inauguration in January. Musk made light of the incident at the time, saying, “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired”, while some of his supporters suggested it was actually a Roman salute.
At the CPAC conference on Friday, Bannon responded to Bardella’s withdrawal by calling the French politician “a boy not a man” who was not worthy of leading France.
“If he cancelled it over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech. If that’s true, he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy not a man,” Bannon told Le Point magazine.
“I did that exact same wave at Front National seven years ago… if he’s that worried about it and wets himself like a little child, then he is unworthy and will never lead France. I want to be quoted – he’s a little boy not a man, and only men, only men – and women – of strength can lead France.”
CPAC was contacted for comment, and an interview was requested with Bannon.
The conference, billed as the largest conservative gathering in the world, heard from Vice President J. D. Vance on Thursday and is due to be attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
A multitude of cabinet members, prominent Republicans and senior White House officials have also appeared, including Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Attorney-General Pam Bondi, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
Far-right and alternative media figures also figure heavily on the program, such as My Pillow founder and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, YouTuber Benny Johnson and political activist Jack Posobiec.
Bannon, an influential figure in Trump’s first term, spent four months in jail last year for defying a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol.
In a podium-thumping speech, Bannon repeated calls for Trump to unconstitutionally run for a third term as president in 2028.
“We ain’t worried about 2028,” he said. “The future of America is MAGA, okay? And the future of MAGA is Donald J. Trump. We want Trump in ’28. A man like Trump comes along only once or twice in a nation’s history.”
Musk also spoke at the conference, appearing on stage in dark sunglasses, “Dark MAGA” cap and gold bling, and brandishing a chainsaw gifted to him by Argentinian President Javier Milei.
The chainsaw was a reference to the blitzkrieg of cuts being made to government agencies by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency razor gang, which has been scorned by Democrats, and is starting to concern some Republican Trump backers.
Musk claimed taxpayer money was being used to prop up left-wing media outlets and “anti-American” non-government organisations. “I’m not sure how much of the left is even real,” he said.
However, Musk’s claim that the government is funding media companies is based on money spent on news subscriptions, not donations or “funding”.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/french-far-right-leader-cancels-speech-after-bannon-gives-nazi-salute-20250222-p5le8d.html
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
is it yes or is it no
Don’t know. The commentary was all about diet. Didn’t bother listening any further.
sarahs mum said:
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/so-trump-really-was-a-russian-asset-all-along/id1265276064?i=1000507625444
From AltNP
Something odd just happened—an article that had been widely published on media sites has suddenly disappeared without any retraction or explanation. Many may have come across it on Reddit.
The article reported that a former senior Soviet KGB spy chief claimed Donald Trump was recruited as a spy by Russian intelligence 38 years ago and given the codename “Krasnov.”
We are not confirming its validity, only pointing out the unusual nature of its disappearance.
Here’s what we know:
A former Soviet intelligence officer, Alnur Mussayev, claims that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 under the codename “Krasnov.” He stated this occurred while he was serving in the KGB’s 6th Directorate, which specialized in recruiting Western businessmen. His post is available online.
However, Mussayev has not provided concrete evidence to support his claim. Some US media outlets initially reported on the story but later removed their articles without explanation, fueling further speculation.
We are actively investigating through our connections to gather more details.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
is it yes or is it no
Don’t know. The commentary was all about diet. Didn’t bother listening any further.
it starts after the ads.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:is it yes or is it no
Don’t know. The commentary was all about diet. Didn’t bother listening any further.
it starts after the ads.
Shh…don’t tell him that!
Whatever you do, don’t watch Zero Day.
Lolol…nightmares!
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:is it yes or is it no
Don’t know. The commentary was all about diet. Didn’t bother listening any further.
it starts after the ads.
OK.
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
Trump has fired the head of ICE.
roughbarked said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
Lololol and lololol 😆 🤣 😅 🤪
kii said:
Trump has fired the head of ICE.
I have probably mentioned before that I met President Clinton when he was head of the ICE.
I suspect a different ICE though.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
Lololol and lololol 😆 🤣 😅 🤪
so is it there or is it not
Just wanted to say that Trump is a traitorous, Putin-loving dipshit!
Goes double for Elon!
Trump signs TERRIFYING order to expand Presidential power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFg9hR6eEYA&t=577s
11 min 2 sec
Trump is now supreme executivefor a range of federal regulatory agencies.
They can no longer act in any way independent of Trump, their actions are subject to his instructions, they will apply the laws as, when, and how Trump decides that they will apply them.
Inspectors, monitors, and lawyers are now entirely redundant in those agencies. They will do what Trump says, legal or not, because what Trump says is the law, is the law.
The rule of law is erased entirely, and Trump has established himself as a dictator for those agencies, and that will soon be expanded to the entire government structure.
captain_spalding said:
Trump signs TERRIFYING order to expand Presidential powerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFg9hR6eEYA&t=577s
11 min 2 sec
Trump is now supreme executivefor a range of federal regulatory agencies.
They can no longer act in any way independent of Trump, their actions are subject to his instructions, they will apply the laws as, when, and how Trump decides that they will apply them.
Inspectors, monitors, and lawyers are now entirely redundant in those agencies. They will do what Trump says, legal or not, because what Trump says is the law, is the law.
The rule of law is erased entirely, and Trump has established himself as a dictator for those agencies, and that will soon be expanded to the entire government structure.
So much to do, so little time.
It may take more than 4 years to clean out the detritus and wastrels.
But I suppose Vance will keep them on to finsh their good work.
sarahs mum said:
if you have 57 minutes to spare…
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/so-trump-really-was-a-russian-asset-all-along/id1265276064?i=1000507625444
sarahs mum said:
Agent Orange.
roughbarked said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
well, I imagine they wouldn’t want live streaming of the security but not only that, how good is the wifi signal inside a vault?
It seems non-controversial that
1/
Alnur Mussayev was senior KGB official in the late 1980s and later Kazakh National Security head after the dissolution of the USSR.
and
2/
He has claimed that Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 under the name Krasnov.
But people claim things all the time and human motivation is often obscure so I think we can take it with a grain of salt until further evidence emerges.
Bogsnorkler said:
roughbarked said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
well, I imagine they wouldn’t want live streaming of the security but not only that, how good is the wifi signal inside a vault?
He should try to storm Area 51
captain_spalding said:
Trump signs TERRIFYING order to expand Presidential powerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFg9hR6eEYA&t=577s
11 min 2 sec
Trump is now supreme executivefor a range of federal regulatory agencies.
They can no longer act in any way independent of Trump, their actions are subject to his instructions, they will apply the laws as, when, and how Trump decides that they will apply them.
Inspectors, monitors, and lawyers are now entirely redundant in those agencies. They will do what Trump says, legal or not, because what Trump says is the law, is the law.
The rule of law is erased entirely, and Trump has established himself as a dictator for those agencies, and that will soon be expanded to the entire government structure.
Without watching the YouTube, my suspicions are quite alert to this one. I think I’ll relegate that to “leave alone” unless something else shows up.
dv said:
Bogsnorkler said:
roughbarked said:Won’t security put a stop to that?
well, I imagine they wouldn’t want live streaming of the security but not only that, how good is the wifi signal inside a vault?
He should try to storm Area 51
welease the aliens. and then deport them.
By the way, I found the register of Executive Orders. It’s a little behind because of processing time, but it’s here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025
dv said:
It seems non-controversial that1/
Alnur Mussayev was senior KGB official in the late 1980s and later Kazakh National Security head after the dissolution of the USSR.and
2/
He has claimed that Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 under the name Krasnov.But people claim things all the time and human motivation is often obscure so I think we can take it with a grain of salt until further evidence emerges.
Also he is alleged to have made the same or similar claims before in 2018. (didn’t save the link where I saw that)
captain_spalding said:
Trump signs TERRIFYING order to expand Presidential powerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFg9hR6eEYA&t=577s
11 min 2 sec
Trump is now supreme executivefor a range of federal regulatory agencies.
They can no longer act in any way independent of Trump, their actions are subject to his instructions, they will apply the laws as, when, and how Trump decides that they will apply them.
Inspectors, monitors, and lawyers are now entirely redundant in those agencies. They will do what Trump says, legal or not, because what Trump says is the law, is the law.
The rule of law is erased entirely, and Trump has established himself as a dictator for those agencies, and that will soon be expanded to the entire government structure.
Taking control of the SEC directly affects Mr Mutant’s company as his work is not only funded by the price of ETH, but his company is in a constant battle with the SEC over things I don’t understand.
When Trump was elected, stock rose in both crypto and the company, which was the only good thing about him winning the election.
https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/yellowhammer-news-tuberville-on-defense-spending-cuts-i-wouldnt-be-against-them-taking-it-from-a-pentagon-to-a-trigon/
I suppose I should support the regularisation of English.
And because I then went and looked at NBC pollitical news, I found that the Supreme Court is now in the fray.
Supreme Court maintains pause on Trump bid to immediately fire watchdog agency head
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
roughbarked said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
Lololol and lololol 😆 🤣 😅 🤪
so is it there or is it not
Well, it is only 237.3 cubic metres. My living area to <2 m depth.
Could be easily overlooked.
buffy said:
And because I then went and looked at NBC pollitical news, I found that the Supreme Court is now in the fray.Supreme Court maintains pause on Trump bid to immediately fire watchdog agency head
Also this is kind of good news in that it is not disastrous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihvSwJT0rLU
Legal Eagles: what is DOGE?
captain_spalding said:
Trump signs TERRIFYING order to expand Presidential powerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFg9hR6eEYA&t=577s
11 min 2 sec
Trump is now supreme executive for a range of federal regulatory agencies.
They can no longer act in any way independent of Trump, their actions are subject to his instructions, they will apply the laws as, when, and how Trump decides that they will apply them.
Inspectors, monitors, and lawyers are now entirely redundant in those agencies. They will do what Trump says, legal or not, because what Trump says is the law, is the law.
The rule of law is erased entirely, and Trump has established himself as a dictator for those agencies, and that will soon be expanded to the entire government structure.
Yep.
fsm said:
sarahs mum said:
Agent Orange.
LOL
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
It seems non-controversial that1/
Alnur Mussayev was senior KGB official in the late 1980s and later Kazakh National Security head after the dissolution of the USSR.and
2/
He has claimed that Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 under the name Krasnov.But people claim things all the time and human motivation is often obscure so I think we can take it with a grain of salt until further evidence emerges.
Also he is alleged to have made the same or similar claims before in 2018. (didn’t save the link where I saw that)
Someone else made those claims in a book in 2018. More grains of salt. ie: Anybody can claim anything in a book in the USA – freedom of speech.
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
That’s my thinking, too.
Evidence. Proper evidence.
People saying stuff on their socials, newspaper articles, YouTubes etc, aren’t necessarily evidence.
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
What if I have confirmed it with my own research?
Michael V said:
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
That’s my thinking, too.
Evidence. Proper evidence.
People saying stuff on their socials, newspaper articles, YouTubes etc, aren’t necessarily evidence.
(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
What if I have confirmed it with my own research?
Well you should have led with that.
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
Lololol 😆
Okay.
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
We don’t want to end up being like conservative intellectuals, believing any random claim that pops through the transom if it supports our preconceived ideas.
That’s my thinking, too.
Evidence. Proper evidence.
People saying stuff on their socials, newspaper articles, YouTubes etc, aren’t necessarily evidence.
(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
I’d be more than happy for the claim to be proven true.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:That’s my thinking, too.
Evidence. Proper evidence.
People saying stuff on their socials, newspaper articles, YouTubes etc, aren’t necessarily evidence.
(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
I’d be more than happy for the claim to be proven true.
But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
I’d be more than happy for the claim to be proven true.
But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Waiting for suicide a la Hitler takes too long.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
I’d be more than happy for the claim to be proven true.
But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
But, the problem persists.
All of the mechanisms of a democratic state (as far as one can be thought of as practical) have been eliminated.
If one dictator is removed, then there’s no means to install any other kind of government, even if the will exists.
All that can be done is to appoint another dictator.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
But, the problem persists.
All of the mechanisms of a democratic state (as far as one can be thought of as practical) have been eliminated.
If one dictator is removed, then there’s no means to install any other kind of government, even if the will exists.
All that can be done is to appoint another dictator.
Well Germany didn’t. Perhaps all the US troops stationed there post-Hitler helped.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
But, the problem persists.
All of the mechanisms of a democratic state (as far as one can be thought of as practical) have been eliminated.
If one dictator is removed, then there’s no means to install any other kind of government, even if the will exists.
All that can be done is to appoint another dictator.
To be shot, and so on it goes.
Perhaps another civil war is in the wings for the USA.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
But, the problem persists.
All of the mechanisms of a democratic state (as far as one can be thought of as practical) have been eliminated.
If one dictator is removed, then there’s no means to install any other kind of government, even if the will exists.
All that can be done is to appoint another dictator.
To be shot, and so on it goes.
Perhaps another civil war is in the wings for the USA.
Yeah I saw that movie.
have we done this yet??
Pretty funny when the NY Post is the paragon of truth
Bogsnorkler said:
roughbarked said:
Bogsnorkler said:
Won’t security put a stop to that?
well, I imagine they wouldn’t want live streaming of the security but not only that, how good is the wifi signal inside a vault?
not very good. Have trouble in the dugout. Mate of mine hangs his phone on the screen door so that it can pick up the signal.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:(Having said that I wouldn’t exactly fall off my chair if it turned out to be true)
I’d be more than happy for the claim to be proven true.
But, by then it may be too late.
How do you depose a dictator, even one who’s known to be a lackey of another country’s dictator, after they’ve put an end to any mechanisms that could possibly depose them?
Maybe the next shooter won’t miss?
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Plenty of privately owned guns in the USA.
But, the problem persists.
All of the mechanisms of a democratic state (as far as one can be thought of as practical) have been eliminated.
If one dictator is removed, then there’s no means to install any other kind of government, even if the will exists.
All that can be done is to appoint another dictator.
Well Germany didn’t. Perhaps all the US troops stationed there post-Hitler helped.
….. and then there was Bony Part.
…… and whatever happened to Idi Amin?
diddly-squat said:
have we done this yet??Pretty funny when the NY Post is the paragon of truth
Trump will put them on the list.
diddly-squat said:
have we done this yet??Pretty funny when the NY Post is the paragon of truth
Rupert doesn’t want to be out-oligarched.
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/pushback
Pushback
Nationwide protests, overflowing town halls, and Republican cold feet indicate that Trump’s aggressive actions are finally facing a public reckoning.
Jay Kuo
Feb 22, 2025
Bogsnorkler said:
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/pushbackPushback
Nationwide protests, overflowing town halls, and Republican cold feet indicate that Trump’s aggressive actions are finally facing a public reckoning.
Jay Kuo
Feb 22, 2025
Good.
Bogsnorkler said:
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/pushbackPushback
Nationwide protests, overflowing town halls, and Republican cold feet indicate that Trump’s aggressive actions are finally facing a public reckoning.
Jay Kuo
Feb 22, 2025
Even if the Republican party concedes that Trump has gone too far, and decides to join with the Democrats to do something about him and Musk, and they still have avenues of action left to them, how willing will they be to roll back all those astonishing new powers that might be so useful to whatever more tractable Republican (JD Vance) replaces Trump?
captain_spalding said:
Bogsnorkler said:
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/pushbackPushback
Nationwide protests, overflowing town halls, and Republican cold feet indicate that Trump’s aggressive actions are finally facing a public reckoning.
Jay Kuo
Feb 22, 2025
Even if the Republican party concedes that Trump has gone too far, and decides to join with the Democrats to do something about him and Musk, and they still have avenues of action left to them, how willing will they be to roll back all those astonishing new powers that might be so useful to whatever more tractable Republican (JD Vance) replaces Trump?
You mean the 25th Amendment?
Coca Cola may use more plastic in response to Trump’s tariffs.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3vp4dp90qqo
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
King Donald should take a lesson from King Canute
Komrade King Krasnov…
The minion of Putin.
https://youtu.be/WE8JGCNJYmA?si=xo4KjpMh1_Bki38k
Brooks and Capehart
Actual Conservative Intellectual (not sarcastic this time) David Brooks explains the Trumpian worldview
dv said:
buffy said:
And because I then went and looked at NBC pollitical news, I found that the Supreme Court is now in the fray.Supreme Court maintains pause on Trump bid to immediately fire watchdog agency head
Also this is kind of good news in that it is not disastrous
so they’re resetting the thermostat too
guess we know who the real holders of power are
Just wait until yous hear the conversations about armpit hair¡
“A 20-minute press conference over facial hair? I mean, what a disgrace. I couldn’t believe it,” star broadcaster Stephen A Smith said on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
nah this is important shit, gotta keep your slave class well and truly ostriched while you fascism away their institutions
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 21, 2025 (Friday)
In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina’s president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”
While attendees cheered Musk on, outside CPAC there appears to be a storm brewing. While Trump and his team have claimed they have a mandate, in fact more people voted for someone other than Trump in 2024, and his early approval ratings were only 47%, the lowest of any president going back to 1953, when Gallup began checking them. His approval has not grown as he has called himself a “king” and openly mused about running for a third term.
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that even that “honeymoon” is over. Only 45% approve of the “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” while 53% disapprove. Forty-three percent of Americans say they support what Trump has done since he took office; 48% oppose his actions. The number of people who strongly support his actions sits at 27%; the number who strongly oppose them is twelve points higher, at 39%. Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president.
Americans especially dislike his attempts to end USAID, his tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and his firing of large numbers of government workers. Even Trump’s signature issue of deporting undocumented immigrants receives 51% approval only if respondents think those deported are “criminals.” Fifty-seven percent opposed deporting those who are not accused of crimes, 70% oppose deporting those brought to the U.S. as children, and 66% oppose deporting those who have children who are U.S. citizens. Eighty-three percent of Americans oppose Trump’s pardon of the violent offenders convicted for their behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent.
As Aaron Blake points out in the Washington Post, a new CNN poll, also released yesterday, shows that Musk is a major factor in Trump’s declining ratings. By nearly two to one, Americans see Musk having a prominent role in the administration as a “bad thing.” The ratio was 54 to 28. The Washington Post/Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove of Musk “shutting down federal government programs that he decides are unnecessary” by the wide margin of 52 to 26. Sixty-three percent of Americans are worried about Musk’s team getting access to their data.
Meanwhile, Jessica Piper of Politico noted that 62% of Americans in the CNN poll said that Trump has not done enough to try to reduce prices, and today’s economic news bears out that concern: not only are egg prices at an all-time high, but also consumer sentiment dropped to a 15-month low as people worry that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices. White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement: “he American people actually feel great about the direction of the country…. What’s to hate? We are undoing the widely unpopular agenda of the previous office holder, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse, and chugging along on the great American Comeback.”
Phone calls swamping the congressional switchboards and constituents turning out for town halls with House members disprove Fields’s statement. In packed rooms with overflow spaces, constituents have shown up this week both to demand that their representatives take a stand against Musk’s slashing of the federal government and access to personal data, and to protest Trump’s claim to be a king. In an eastern Oregon district that Trump won by 68%, constituents shouted at Representative Cliff Bentz: “tax Elon,” “tax the wealthy,” “tax the rich,” and “tax the billionaires.” In a solid-red Atlanta suburb, the crowd was so angry at Representative Richard McCormick that he has apparently gone to ground, bailing on a CNN interview about the disastrous town hall at the last minute.
That Trump is feeling the pressure from voters showed this week when he appeared to offer two major distractions: a pledge to consider using money from savings found by the “Department of Government Efficiency” to provide rebates to taxpayers—although so far it hasn’t shown any savings and economists say the promise of checks is unrealistic—and a claim that he would release a list of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.
Trump is also under pressure from the law.
The Associated Press sued three officials in the Trump administration today for blocking AP journalists from presidential events because the AP continues to use the traditional name “Gulf of Mexico” for the gulf that Trump is trying to rename. The AP is suing over the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Today, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction to stop Musk and the DOGE team from accessing Americans’ private information in the Treasury Department’s central payment system. Eighteen states had filed the lawsuit.
Tonight, a federal court granted a nationwide injunction against Trump’s executive orders attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion, finding that they violate the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.
Trump is also under pressure from principled state governors.
In his State of the State Address on Wednesday, February 19, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker noted that “it’s in fashion at the federal level right now to just indiscriminately slash school funding, healthcare coverage, support for farmers, and veterans’ services. They say they’re doing it to eliminate inefficiencies. But only an idiot would think we should eliminate emergency response in a natural disaster, education and healthcare for disabled children, gang crime investigations, clean air and water programs, monitoring of nursing home abuse, nuclear reactor regulation, and cancer research.”
He recalled: ““Here in Illinois, ten years ago we saw the consequences of a rampant ideological gutting of government. It genuinely harmed people. Our citizens hated it. Trust me—I won an entire election based in part on just how much they hated it.”
Pritzker went on to address the dangers of the Trump administration directly. “We don’t have kings in America,” he said, “and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one…. If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.”
He recalled how ordinary Illinoisans outnumbered Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978 by about 2,000 to 20, and noted: “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our country needs us the most.”
Today, Maine governor Janet Mills took the fight against Trump’s overreach directly to him. At a meeting of the nation’s governors, in a rambling speech in which he was wandering through his false campaign stories about transgender athletes, Trump turned to his notes and suddenly appeared to remember his executive order banning transgender student athletes from playing on girls sports teams.
The body that governs sports in Maine, the Maine Principals’ Association, ruled that it would continue to allow transgender students to compete despite Trump’s executive order because the Maine state Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.
Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room.
“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Governor Mills.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she said.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t….”
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not going to get any federal funding,” he said.
Mills answered: “We’ll see you in court.”
As Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times put it: “Something happened at the White House Friday afternoon that almost never happens these days. Somebody defied President Trump. Right to his face.”
Hours later, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Maine’s Department of Education, specifically its policy on transgender athletes. Maine attorney general Aaron Frey said that any attempt to cut federal funding for the states over the issue “would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders…. Fortunately,” he said in a statement, “the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”
“hat is at stake here the rule of law in our country,” Mills said in a statement. “No President…can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws.”
“Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end? In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it—and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so.”
“o not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”
Americans’ sense that Musk has too much power is likely to be heightened by tonight’s report from Andrea Shalal and Joey Roulette of Reuters that the United States is trying to force Ukraine to sign away rights to its critical minerals by threatening to cut off access to Musk’s Starlink satellite system. Ukraine turned to that system after the Russians destroyed its communications services.
And Americans’ concerns about Trump acting like a dictator are unlikely to be calmed by tonight’s news that Trump has abruptly purged the leadership of the military in apparent unconcern over the message that such a sweeping purge sends to adversaries. He has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a “DEI hire.”
The vice chief of the Air Force, General James Slife, has also been fired, and Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the judge advocates general, or JAGs—the military lawyers who administer the military code of justice—for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Trump has indicated he intends to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky of CNN call this “an extraordinary move,” since Caine is retired and is not a four-star general, a legal requirement, and will need a presidential waiver to take the job. Trump has referred to Caine as right out of “central casting.”
Defense One, which covers U.S. defense and international security, called the firings a “bloodbath.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/21/trump-scientific-research-climate
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 21, 2025 (Friday)In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina’s president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”
I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 21, 2025 (Friday)In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina’s president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”
I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 21, 2025 (Friday)In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina’s president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”
I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
PWM’s quote is the monthly inflation rate. The Reuters article from which it came agrees that: “12-month rate neared 300% early last year but has come down since, clocking in at 84.5% in January, data from the official INDEC statistics agency showed.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-rate-seen-hitting-milei-era-low-2025-02-13/
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
I can’t confirm the veracity of the 2.2% figure but that would be the monthly rate ie. approximately 25% pa.
Bubblecar said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
PWM’s quote is the monthly inflation rate. The Reuters article from which it came agrees that: “12-month rate neared 300% early last year but has come down since, clocking in at 84.5% in January, data from the official INDEC statistics agency showed.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-rate-seen-hitting-milei-era-low-2025-02-13/
Yeah. If inflation had been falling at an even rate it is quite possible that the figure for this past year is 85% but the latest monthly figure is 2.2%.
Bubblecar said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
PWM’s quote is the monthly inflation rate. The Reuters article from which it came agrees that: “12-month rate neared 300% early last year but has come down since, clocking in at 84.5% in January, data from the official INDEC statistics agency showed.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-rate-seen-hitting-milei-era-low-2025-02-13/
Makes sense.
Since Milei’s election in 2023 there was a massive peak in inflation rate last year
dv said:
Bubblecar said:
dv said:Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
PWM’s quote is the monthly inflation rate. The Reuters article from which it came agrees that: “12-month rate neared 300% early last year but has come down since, clocking in at 84.5% in January, data from the official INDEC statistics agency showed.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-rate-seen-hitting-milei-era-low-2025-02-13/
Makes sense.
Since Milei’s election in 2023 there was a massive peak in inflation rate last year
Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
Reuters have always been infamous for their propensity for bullshit.
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
Bubblecar said:PWM’s quote is the monthly inflation rate. The Reuters article from which it came agrees that: “12-month rate neared 300% early last year but has come down since, clocking in at 84.5% in January, data from the official INDEC statistics agency showed.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-rate-seen-hitting-milei-era-low-2025-02-13/
Makes sense.
Since Milei’s election in 2023 there was a massive peak in inflation rate last year
Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
We need to be careful what we’re looking at here. The graph shows the 3 year inflation rate. So for January 2025 it is from January 2022. So the current rate of 2.2% is probably true. The 85% annual rate is probably correct too, but that is not what is displayed on the graph.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:Makes sense.
Since Milei’s election in 2023 there was a massive peak in inflation rate last year
Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
We need to be careful what we’re looking at here. The graph shows the 3 year inflation rate.
No, this is the annual inflation rate.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:Makes sense.
Since Milei’s election in 2023 there was a massive peak in inflation rate last year
Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
We need to be careful what we’re looking at here. The graph shows the 3 year inflation rate. So for January 2025 it is from January 2022. So the current rate of 2.2% is probably true. The 85% annual rate is probably correct too, but that is not what is displayed on the graph.
Ta.
dv said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Hmmm… looks like Reuters is just making shit up.
We need to be careful what we’re looking at here. The graph shows the 3 year inflation rate.
No, this is the annual inflation rate.
top left – the 3Y tab is highlighted.
party_pants said:
dv said:
party_pants said:We need to be careful what we’re looking at here. The graph shows the 3 year inflation rate.
No, this is the annual inflation rate.
top left – the 3Y tab is highlighted.
That’s because I’m displaying 3 years of the annual inflation rate.
dv said:
party_pants said:
dv said:No, this is the annual inflation rate.
top left – the 3Y tab is highlighted.
That’s because I’m displaying 3 years of the annual inflation rate.
OK. Disregard all that then.
party_pants said:
dv said:
party_pants said:top left – the 3Y tab is highlighted.
That’s because I’m displaying 3 years of the annual inflation rate.
OK. Disregard all that then.
Here, for comparison, is the same chart with 10 years shown. 2024 was the worst year of inflation since 1990 under Menem.
Regardless of what the actual inflation rate is Milei didn’t cause the hike in inflation from mismanagement. The surge in inflation was the expected and predictable result of the devaluation of the peso and the surge in prices of imported goods. You might hate the Chicago School but they make no qualms about the difficult short-term pain when trying to beat rampant inflation and end economic mismanagement in basket-case economies like Argentina.
Witty Rejoinder said:
. You might hate the Chicago School
cheers
The real slim shady…
Witty Rejoinder said:
Regardless of what the actual inflation rate is Milei didn’t cause the hike in inflation from mismanagement. The surge in inflation was the expected and predictable result of the devaluation of the peso and the surge in prices of imported goods. You might hate the Chicago School but they make no qualms about the difficult short-term pain when trying to beat rampant inflation and end economic mismanagement in basket-case economies like Argentina.
Milej did promise that things would get worse before they got better, and that the first year would tough.
Whether he has ruined the country in that year or not it is too early to tell.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:I’m shocked but I guess not that shocked that rwnjs are still looking to Milei as an example. Argentina’s inflation rate is 85%.
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s monthly inflation rate dropped to 2.2% in January, its lowest since mid-2020 after libertarian President Javier Milei took office just over a year ago ushering in austerity measures that have helped stabilize the embattled economy.
The consumer price index rise came in just below analyst forecasts of 2.3% and down from 2.7% in December, a win for Milei as he looks to maintain positive momentum on the economy amid talks over a new International Monetary Fund deal.
Trading Economics has it as “ Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January, “ rather than 2.2%.
Which seems like quite a discrepancy.
Inflation Rate in Argentina eased to 84.5% in January,
the 2.2% is the MoM rate.
Divine Angel said:
https://youtu.be/Je64iNiPzQk?si=V0eDZ65EzoQ52i21
Maddow details Musk’s efforts to shut down investigations into him and his companies.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
3h ·
February 21, 2025 (Friday)—————————————————————————CUT——————————————————————————
Ta.
Not satire
dv said:
Not satire
they don’t deserve eggs.
dv said:
Not satire
they’re doing it so bill gates can control egg production
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
kii said:
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
People,.. who needs ‘em?!?
kii said:
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
I feel like one of those old people who cannot understand what is happening anymore.
dv said:
Not satire
‘…MAKE SOME NOISE! You know, grunts and squeals, like the barnyard animals that you are.’
dv said:
Not satire
IME anyone who starts with “riddle me this” isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with.
kii said:
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
Today a saw an old guy peeing in a carpark. I made sure I said, “people are so disgusting, look at that guy pissing in a carpark” loud enough for everyone to hear.
dv said:
Not satire
Gosh.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
Not satire
they don’t deserve eggs.
Even expensive ones…
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
I feel like one of those old people who cannot understand what is happening anymore.
I’m with you there.
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
dv said:
Not satire
Every day I hate people more.
Today a saw an old guy peeing in a carpark. I made sure I said, “people are so disgusting, look at that guy pissing in a carpark” loud enough for everyone to hear.
Gosh. Shaming a man with medical issues.
:(
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
Not satire
they don’t deserve eggs.
Even expensive ones…
The price of eggs continues to rise to new heights, day by day.
$7.95 on Feb 18. $7.99 on Feb 19, $8.03 on Feb 20.
‘Gasoline’ also continues a seemingly-inexorable rise:
$3.08 on Feb 3, $3.13 on Feb 10, $3.15 on Feb 17.
Apparently, these prices are much more trivial than some people thought just a little while back, as no-one seems to be remarking on them now.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
Not satire
they don’t deserve eggs.
Even expensive ones…
…and their own so they can’t reproduce!
Michael V said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:Every day I hate people more.
Today a saw an old guy peeing in a carpark. I made sure I said, “people are so disgusting, look at that guy pissing in a carpark” loud enough for everyone to hear.
Gosh. Shaming a man with medical issues.
:(
I also shamed people for leaving a half eaten sausage sandwich on a shelf in Bunnings, turns out they were standing right behind me.
Some days I can be so judgey. In fact, today I judge myself 9/10 for shaming.
dv said:
https://youtu.be/Je64iNiPzQk?si=V0eDZ65EzoQ52i21
Maddow details Musk’s efforts to shut down investigations into him and his companies.
plot twist our poor boy Adolf and his band of merry men were just chasing likes and trying to get cover for their business investments when the cult thing got out of hand and they ended up on the wrong side of history
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
they don’t deserve eggs.
Even expensive ones…
The price of eggs continues to rise to new heights, day by day.
$7.95 on Feb 18. $7.99 on Feb 19, $8.03 on Feb 20.
‘Gasoline’ also continues a seemingly-inexorable rise:
$3.08 on Feb 3, $3.13 on Feb 10, $3.15 on Feb 17.
Apparently, these prices are much more trivial than some people thought just a little while back, as no-one seems to be remarking on them now.
What a legend, Trump continues to use free market pricing mechanisms to save the world from animal cruelty and fossil fuels¡
My sister has gone political on her Facebook. I was wondering how long it would take. She has linked this:
Explanation for Americans of how their Government works
Her comment is: “Love the way she shares information – maybe this should be in the U.S Gov classes….”
alleged
alleged
“The number one enemy to the people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA,” Bannon said, referring to the “Make America Great Again” movement of Trump supporters.
The guy who had to sticky tape official documents together during Trump’s previous administration, was he rehired for the same job this time?
SCIENCE said:
alleged
If they do all respond:
There’s approximately 3 million federal employees in the US
Who’s going to read every last one of those e-mail replies, and assess the value of all of the 15 million points that employees nominate?
And, are they likely to get all of those e-mails and points reviewed before the 3 million e-mails for the following week are received?
If they can’t, how many new federal employees will be required to monitor these 3 million e-mails each week?
And who’s going to monitor the e-mail responses lodged by all of those new federal employees?
SCIENCE said:
alleged
If they do all respond:
There’s approximately 3 million federal employees in the US
Who’s going to read every last one of those e-mail replies, and assess the value of all of the 15 million points that employees nominate?
And, are they likely to get all of those e-mails and points reviewed before the 3 million e-mails for the following week are received?
If they can’t, how many new federal employees will be required to monitor these 3 million e-mails each week?
And who’s going to monitor the e-mail responses lodged by all of those new federal employees?
Man I hope Tesla shareholders are sending their CEO emails asking him what he did last week because I don’t think they are getting value for money.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
If they do all respond:
There’s approximately 3 million federal employees in the US
Who’s going to read every last one of those e-mail replies, and assess the value of all of the 15 million points that employees nominate?
And, are they likely to get all of those e-mails and points reviewed before the 3 million e-mails for the following week are received?
If they can’t, how many new federal employees will be required to monitor these 3 million e-mails each week?
And who’s going to monitor the e-mail responses lodged by all of those new federal employees?
ai
I say, do as Elon says.
In fact, all federal employees do it every Monday. Wednesday, and Friday. Be supportive of Elon’s initiative, enthusiastic, even.
Give Elon 9 million e-mails to deal with each week, 45 million ‘bullet points’ to assess.
Every week.
captain_spalding said:
I say, do as Elon says.In fact, all federal employees do it every Monday. Wednesday, and Friday. Be supportive of Elon’s initiative, enthusiastic, even.
Give Elon 9 million e-mails to deal with each week, 45 million ‘bullet points’ to assess.
Every week.
and everybody send them at the exact same time.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
I say, do as Elon says.In fact, all federal employees do it every Monday. Wednesday, and Friday. Be supportive of Elon’s initiative, enthusiastic, even.
Give Elon 9 million e-mails to deal with each week, 45 million ‘bullet points’ to assess.
Every week.
and everybody send them at the exact same time.
Nice touch.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:And who’s going to monitor the e-mail responses lodged by all of those new federal employees?
ai
Even better.
Everyone sends in the exact same 5 crappy ‘bullet points’.
AI assesses them, and says ‘sack all three million employees’.
Even if Elon doesn’t replace 2 out of every 3 of them, he’s still got to come up with 1 million people pretty much overnight to run whatever federal government suits his ideas .
Have fun , Elon.
Zachary Radcliffe has been denied bail after it was discovered he left several threatening messages for one of his victims.
Radcliffe is a youth pastor who performed at the Conservative Political Action Committee and has been charged with 33 felonies related to the sexual abuse of children.
dv said:
Zachary Radcliffe has been denied bail after it was discovered he left several threatening messages for one of his victims.
Radcliffe is a youth pastor who performed at the Conservative Political Action Committee and has been charged with 33 felonies related to the sexual abuse of children.
He’ll get a pardon. Or something.
Trump knows what it’s like (‘so unfair’) to be on more than 30 felony charges.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:And who’s going to monitor the e-mail responses lodged by all of those new federal employees?
ai
Even better.
Everyone sends in the exact same 5 crappy ‘bullet points’.
AI assesses them, and says ‘sack all three million employees’.
Even if Elon doesn’t replace 2 out of every 3 of them, he’s still got to come up with 1 million people pretty much overnight to run whatever federal government suits his ideas .
Have fun , Elon.
He doesn’t want any Federal employees. None. None whatsoever. Nil. Zilch.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:ai
Even better.
Everyone sends in the exact same 5 crappy ‘bullet points’.
AI assesses them, and says ‘sack all three million employees’.
Even if Elon doesn’t replace 2 out of every 3 of them, he’s still got to come up with 1 million people pretty much overnight to run whatever federal government suits his ideas .
Have fun , Elon.
He doesn’t want any Federal employees. None. None whatsoever. Nil. Zilch.
Apparently 30% of federal public servants are veterans compared to them comprising only 5% of the private sector workforce. A vital constituency you wouldn’t want to piss off.
captain_spalding said:
I say, do as Elon says.In fact, all federal employees do it every Monday. Wednesday, and Friday. Be supportive of Elon’s initiative, enthusiastic, even.
Give Elon 9 million e-mails to deal with each week, 45 million ‘bullet points’ to assess.
Every week.
.. and make them all in meaningless corporate-speak gibberish.
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)
(Long read)
Go to the substack site to see the links within the article.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-157052044
……………….
Democracy Is Done: The Rise of Corporate Monarchy
The Real Agenda Behind Elon’s Coup & Trump’s Chaotic First 3 Weeks
By Shane Almgren
………………..
Alright, it’s finally time to answer the million-dollar question that’s on everyone’s mind: WHY IS ALL THIS INSANITY HAPPENING IN OUR GOVERNMENT ALL OF A SUDDEN???
If you don’t know what the ultimate agenda is, this first 3 weeks of Trump’s presidency sure looks like a chaotic, haphazard, nonsensical 3-ring circus dumpster fire.
Absolutely none of it makes any sense.
Only it actually does…in a terrifying sort of way.
The first thing to remember is that real life isn’t like a movie where the bad guys are all part of the same unified organization trying to take over the world. There are a number of bad actors with secret goals, and the one thing we may have working in our favor is that the ones we do know about clearly have different objectives, so it’s entirely possible they sabotage each other before any of them successfully pull off their own batty agendas.
First, we’ve got Project 2025, whose long game seems to be implementing a sort of far-right extremist, quasi-authoritarian political regime within the current American political structure, where Conservative ideologies are shoved down everyone’s throats whether they like it or not. The current immigrant roundup is part of this agenda, as was the ending of Roe v Wade, banning trans people, dismantling gay marriage (coming soon), insisting climate change isn’t real, and waging non-stop culture war issues on mostly non-existent problems (see: CRT, cat litter in classrooms, and anything involving pronouns. Most of Trump’s more controversial Executive Orders not involving Elon and DOGE are part of the Project 2025 agenda.
Then we’ve got the Christian Reconstructionists (see also: Dominionists and the New Apostolic Reformation), whose long game is re-jiggering the Constitution to make America less of a democratic republic and more of a Christian theocracy. Based on the teachings of R.J. Rushdoony—whose chief disciple Mike Johnson currently sits third in line for the presidency as Speaker of the House—this agenda acknowledges that
1. the secularists are actually correct that the Founding Fathers never set America up as a “Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and
2. the Founding Fathers got it wrong in that regard. America was SUPPOSED to be a Christian nation, and it’s their God-given duty to “fix” what the Founders screwed up.
This group wants to install Christian Nationalism and legislate Biblical morality (according to their very narrow interpretation of it). Project 2025 wants to outlaw gays. The Reconstructionists want to execute them. They’re basically the American Taliban for Jesus. Thankfully, they remain on the fringe and haven’t had much success implementing their backwards agenda, other than minor victories like mandating the Ten Commandments and Bibles in every classroom in places like Louisiana and Oklahoma where no one knows how to read anyway.
Finally, we’ve got a third group—the one that’s responsible for all the chaos Elon and DOGE are causing. Their agenda is actually FAR MORE extreme than either Project 2025 or the Reconstructionists. And the scary thing is, they’re already implementing their freakish plan at warp speed while most of the country is busy bickering about all the quaint Project 2025 garbage (and Trump’s usual unending fire hose of idiotic nonsense).
There’s a few key players we’re gonna have to cover some backstory for, namely Elon Musk, JD Vance, a guy you might’ve heard of by the name of Peter Thiel, and a guy you almost certainly haven’t, Curtis Yarvin. These guys are all connected in a mildly horrifying way and we’re about to unpack it all…
Once upon a time in the 90’s, Elon Musk founded a small company called X.com (No, not Twitter—a different X.com. Dude just has an inexplicable fixation with the letter X). X was a fledgling digital banking service that allowed people to transact with vendors and each other without cash, checks, or plastic.
At the same time Musk was building out X, another young entrepreneur, a German immigrant named Peter Thiel, was building a very similar money-transfer service right across town called Confinity. Rather than compete with each other, Musk and Thiel decided to merge their two companies in 1999, with Musk named CEO of the new company. Shortly after the merger, Musk was fired as CEO by the board, who replaced him with Thiel. After Thiel took over, the company’s name was changed to “PayPal.” You may have heard of it.
PayPal attracted some of the most promising young talent in Silicon Valley, and its early members wielded so much power and influence in the tech space that they became collectively known as the “PayPal Mafia.”
Besides Musk and Thiel, the PayPal Mafia included:
• Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (co-founders of YouTube)
• Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman (co-founders of Yelp)
• Max Levchin (current CEO of Affirm)
• Roelof Botha (partner at Sequoia Capital)
• David Sacks (Founder of Geni.com and Yammer, Trump’s new “AI/Crypto Czar”)
• Reed Hoffman (founder of Linkedin, early investor in Facebook, currently on the board at Microsoft)
• Jack Selby (co-founder of Clarium Capital with Peter Thiel)
• Yishan Wong (CEO of Reddit, founder of Terraformation Inc)
• Premal Shah (founder of Kiva, on the board at Change.org)
Plus a dozen others. The PayPal Mafia churned out a Who’s Who in the Big Tech space, with nearly everyone involved becoming billionaires many times over. Today, it’s one of the wealthiest and most influential collection of individuals, not just in America, but in the entire world.
In 2002, eBay acquired Paypal for $1.5 billion. Although no longer officially with PayPal after being ousted, Elon still held around 10% of the company shares and netted roughly $160 million in the sale.
So that’s the Peter Thiel-Elon Musk connection–they co-founded PayPal together.
Now let’s see how JD Vance is tied into this crew.
In 2011, Peter Thiel gave a talk at Yale where JD Vance was attending law school, changing the course of Vance’s life, as JD recounts it. Vance called Thiel “possibly the smartest person” he ever met, and decided to pivot from a career in law to one in venture capitol. In 2015, JD joined the Thiel-founded Mithril Capital, with Thiel as his personal mentor.
In 2016, Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” thrusting his name into the national spotlight for the first time. It was at this same time that Vance, unencumbered by any political aspirations or pretense and therefore free to speak his actual mind, sent his Yale roommate an email regarding America’s leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, that read: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?”)
Vance left Thiel’s firm in 2017 and joined a D.C.-based investment firm. Then he launched his own VC firm, Narya Capital, in 2019 with financial backing from Thiel, billionaire VC capitalist Mark Andreessen, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
For reasons we’ll get to in just a minute, around the time the pandemic was starting to wind down, Peter Thiel decided it was finally time for him to own a U.S. Senator and start pulling some long-awaited political strings. He figured that since he’d funded Vance’s VC firm and essentially owned Vance already, he’d just migrate that ownership from the private sector to the public.
Because JD Vance had been an open critic of Donald Trump during Trump’s entire first term, Thiel invited Vance down to Mar A Lago to smooth things over in hopes of getting an endorsement from Orange Jesus. Thiel informed Vance of his plans to make him a Senator, so Vance scrapped all his previous principles, decided power was “more gooder” than having any convictions, kissed Trump’s ring, and earned the endorsement.
Thiel, for his part, poured an ungodly amount of his own money into Vance’s Senate campaign—about $15 million—marking the largest donation to a single Senate candidate in American history. In addition to his personal $15 mil, Thiel also recruited 10 major donors for Vance, including a couple old tech buddies from the PayPal Mafia who chipped in a million each.
So, if you ever found yourself wondering how the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a lawyer-turned-venture capitalist with no political experience or aspirations and a vocal critic of Donald Trump came out of nowhere and managed to snag Trump’s endorsement and win a Senate seat in his first foray into politics, there’s your explanation: Peter Thiel orchestrated, arranged, and funded the entire thing. A tech billionaire bought himself a Senator.
Now, the next question is: WHY?
This is where it starts to get scary.
It’s time to meet the final character in our story, Curtis Yarvin.
Yarvin is a software developer and tech entrepreneur who started the Unqualified Reservations blog in 2003 under the pen name Mencius Moldbug. He’s perhaps best known for founding the anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).
Like most people, Yarvin sees a ton of problems in society. But unlike most people, the problems he sees—and his solutions to those problems—are dystopian fringe at best, and democracy-ending suicide at worst.
In a nutshell, Yarvin’s Dark Enlightenment political worldview is that the REAL power in the U.S. resides in an informal collaboration of universities and the mainstream media (that he calls “the Cathedral”) which collude to sway public opinion. He admires the former Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping for his “pragmatic and market-oriented authoritarianism,” believes America’s commitment to equality and justice “erodes social order,” and advocates for an American “monarch” to dissolve elite academic institutions and media outlets asap.
A regular speaker at various Libertarian and techno-fascist conferences, Yarvin’s position is that democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful and should be replaced with sovereign corporations whose “shareholders” elect an executive with total power over the country/corporation. As Yarvin explains it, “Unencumbered by liberal-democratic procedures, the executive could rule like a CEO-Monarch.”
And just in case it still isn’t abundantly clear what Curtis Yarvin thinks is the solution to what ails America, here it is in his most straightforward phrasing: “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator-phobia.”
Yes, Curtis Yarvin is an unapologetic proponent of dictatorships since “there’s no real difference between a dictator and a CEO, and corporations under the rule of a CEO appear to work just fine.” As he puts it, “Nations like the United States are outdated software systems” that need to be “broken up into smaller entities called ‘patchworks’ which would be controlled by tech corporations.”
As he put it in an interview with the NY Times on Jan 18, “Democracy is done.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
“Shane, this Yarvin dude is clearly off his rocker. Nobody in their right mind would take this “Corporate Monarchy” nonsense seriously. Why are you wasting everyone’s time explaining in detail the techno-fascist-manifesto ramblings of some internet pop philosopher who calls himself ‘Mencius Moldbug?’ Dude sounds like he’s living in some Matrix-meets-Hunger-Games dystopian fantasy world. Surely NOBODY takes this dude’s crazy ideas seriously!”
That’s where you would be wrong.
Perilously wrong.
Two of Curtis Yarvin’s biggest disciples and advocates for his technocratic ideas are…
Peter Thiel and Vice President JD Vance, the MAGA heir apparent.
The three of them have been friends since at least 2009 after Yarvin’s writings and ideologies became super popular within the PayPal Mafia circle. (If you’ve got an hour and a half to waste, here’s Vance on the Jack Murphy Live Podcast – https://www.youtube.com/live/PMq1ZEcyztY?t=1407s – name-dropping Yarvin and spewing a few of his more sinister ideas.)
See, people forget that billionaires have political ideologies just like everyone else. And remember, most peoples’ political ideologies are generally tailored to improve the life of the person holding them. Democracy sounds great if you’re a peasant living under a king with no say in how things are run. But in what way would democracy improve your life if you’re a multi-billionaire who can buy politicians? Once you’re up that high on the food chain, democracy is no longer a step UP, it’s a step DOWN.
So, all these filthy rich, filthy powerful tech bros have jumped on board with turning America into a corporation run by a CEO with authoritarian power. According to them, the masses don’t need to be voting – the masses are idiots. (Or as Yarvin puts it, “The masses are asses.”) The PayPal Mafia has no interest in becoming beholden to the whims of a bunch of blue collar workers from Appalachia. If they’re gonna be free to live their best lives, they’re gonna need to unshackle themselves from the “masses who can’t even figure life out enough to afford groceries.”
Put bluntly, those who can write a check for a few $billion and not even notice it’s gone are not interested in the opinions of those whining about the cost of 12 eggs.
As Peter Thiel once wrote in a Cato essay, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Now, supposing they were actually going to attempt to pull this techno-coup off, what would that look like in practice?
Thankfully, Yarvin has had the plan mapped out for years with a little strategy he’s given the acronym RAGE: Retire All Government Employees.
It would look exactly like what we’re all looking at.
Elon’s “haphazard, chaotic coup” of federal agencies is anything but. This has been the plan all along by these Yarvin acolytes: gut the federal workforce—either by mass firings or incentivizing them to resign—crippling the entire government in the process, at which point Big Tech corporate solutions that just so happen to already be on hand can step in and take over the reigns of running our government.
Since you could never get away with doing this as a blatant hostile takeover, you just frame the entire exercise as an “audit to weed out fraud and corruption,” then watch the gatekeepers roll out the red carpets and cheer the whole takeover on!
I know it sounds like tin-foil-hat conspiracy, but LOOK at what’s happening in front of your eyes.
Isn’t it a little weird that JD Vance came out of nowhere to win a Senate seat? And weirder still that Peter Thiel managed to convince Trump to make this virtual nobody his running mate even though Vance was the most unpopular VP pick in polling history?
Wasn’t it a bit strange that Donald Trump told a bunch of Evangelicals at a rally, “Vote for me this one time and I’ll make sure you never have to vote again?” What the hell did that mean?
Isn’t it slightly too coincidental that Peter Thiel’s original business partner Elon Musk is currently running roughshod through the American government doing EXACTLY what Curtis Yarvin said needs to happen?
This isn’t conspiracy land at this point. These dudes told everyone what they wanted to do, and then they started doing it while we all watch dumbfounded. The Left is going, “Surely they can’t be doing what it sure as hell looks like they’re doing—taking over the government!” and the Right is just…cheering them on because it “makes the libtard snowflakes cry.”
So there’s your explanation.
Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..
Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
This has reminded me of the Time and Motion studies from the late 1970s.
I worked at a child care centre in Artarmon, under Willoughby Council’s administration. Some bright spark decided to have every person working for the council keep records of their activities whilst at work. The proforma we were given was in set up in 5 minute blocks. Theory was sit at your desk, answer the phone, write down the task on your form.
Anyone who has observed the staff in these centres knows that the workers are doing multiple things at once, in the space of 5 minutes.
Supervising children at activities and doing observations for their developmental charts. Making notes etc. At the same time you might be wiping noses and/or bums, moping the floor because of an accident etc, etc. Answering the phone, tying shoelaces, discussing dinosaurs or what’s for lunch. Singing a song about dinosaurs doing poops in the loo.
So, I filled out my five minute allotments just like that ^ when I had the time to do it. Then I’d allocate 5 minutes to write up the previous 5 minute allotments and write it up as “writing out previous tasks”.
I convinced a few of the other workers to do the same thing.
We never heard back from the HR department about our productivity.
AussieDJ said:
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)(Long read)
/////////
So there’s your explanation.Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..
Yeah. It reads like the list of super rich idealistic terrorists.
roughbarked said:
AussieDJ said:
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)(Long read)
/////////
So there’s your explanation.Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..Yeah. It reads like the list of super rich idealistic terrorists.
Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
AussieDJ said:
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)(Long read)
/////////
So there’s your explanation.Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..Yeah. It reads like the list of super rich idealistic terrorists.
Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
He was involved with Elon in his PayPal days.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
AussieDJ said:
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)(Long read)
/////////
So there’s your explanation.Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..Yeah. It reads like the list of super rich idealistic terrorists.
Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
They both met at Paypal.
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:Yeah. It reads like the list of super rich idealistic terrorists.
Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
They both met at Paypal.
Both of them?
What a coincidence.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
They both met at Paypal.
Both of them?
What a coincidence.
Ummm they both pioneered online commerce. Unlike Tesla, Musk, and Thiel were actually pivotal in the creation of what became Paypal.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Looks up Peter Thiel.
He is only the 101st richest person in the World.
I wonder what such an impoverished nobody did to get in Musk’s good books.
They both met at Paypal.
Both of them?
What a coincidence.
LOLOLOLOL
Witty Rejoinder said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:They both met at Paypal.
Both of them?
What a coincidence.
Ummm they both pioneered online commerce. Unlike Tesla, Musk, and Thiel were actually pivotal in the creation of what became Paypal.
How come everyone has got their sarcasm detectors turned off this morning?
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
LOLOLOL
Excellent.
:)
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
This has reminded me of the Time and Motion studies from the late 1970s.
I worked at a child care centre in Artarmon, under Willoughby Council’s administration. Some bright spark decided to have every person working for the council keep records of their activities whilst at work. The proforma we were given was in set up in 5 minute blocks. Theory was sit at your desk, answer the phone, write down the task on your form.
Anyone who has observed the staff in these centres knows that the workers are doing multiple things at once, in the space of 5 minutes.
Supervising children at activities and doing observations for their developmental charts. Making notes etc. At the same time you might be wiping noses and/or bums, moping the floor because of an accident etc, etc. Answering the phone, tying shoelaces, discussing dinosaurs or what’s for lunch. Singing a song about dinosaurs doing poops in the loo.
So, I filled out my five minute allotments just like that ^ when I had the time to do it. Then I’d allocate 5 minutes to write up the previous 5 minute allotments and write it up as “writing out previous tasks”.
I convinced a few of the other workers to do the same thing.
We never heard back from the HR department about our productivity.
I’m very glad the Time and Motion crap disappeared.
Michael V said:
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
LOLOLOL
Excellent.
:)
Only 48 hours?!
Crikey, i’d better get on with drafting the first of my many responses right away!
Don’t want to let Elon down. After all, i was a ‘federal’ employee, and the wording of his e-mail does not limit the reporting requirement to ‘current’ employees, or even to employees of the US government.
The nation’s biggest billboard company has been left reeling after it was caught publishing anti-climate lies from Liberal Party-funded disinformation outfit “Advance”.
ASX-listed oOh!media said it had run two billboards — which claim ‘renewables’, in quotation marks, “cost the earth” — in “error” and that it had since improved its “review processes”.
Yet the advertising giant has been caught out over its handling of the scandal after — amid public outcry — it made public statements that “incorrectly implied” it had taken down the billboards before their paid advertising period had ended.
“It was never our intention to mislead or deceive and we apologise for this confusion,” an oOh!media spokesman told The Klaxon.
“Two Advance Australia ads that ran on oOh classic billboards were done so in error”.
more…
https://theklaxon.com.au/uh-ooh-ad-giant-stung-over-liberal-party-lie-factory/
The Rev Dodgson said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Both of them?
What a coincidence.
Ummm they both pioneered online commerce. Unlike Tesla, Musk, and Thiel were actually pivotal in the creation of what became Paypal.
How come everyone has got their sarcasm detectors turned off this morning?
Sorry that was more directed at Roughy who seemed to be downplaying Musk’s role at Paypal.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
LOLOLOL
Excellent.
:)
Only 48 hours?!
Crikey, i’d better get on with drafting the first of my many responses right away!
Don’t want to let Elon down. After all, i was a ‘federal’ employee, and the wording of his e-mail does not limit the reporting requirement to ‘current’ employees, or even to employees of the US government.
:)
I was a state employee two thirds of a lifetime ago. Can I make that work somehow?
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:LOLOLOL
Excellent.
:)
Only 48 hours?!
Crikey, i’d better get on with drafting the first of my many responses right away!
Don’t want to let Elon down. After all, i was a ‘federal’ employee, and the wording of his e-mail does not limit the reporting requirement to ‘current’ employees, or even to employees of the US government.
:)
I was a state employee two thirds of a lifetime ago. Can I make that work somehow?
States make up a federation, so you can consider yourself to be a ‘second-tier’ federal employee.
If anyone asks, tell ‘em i said it’s o.k.
I’ve just sent my first report to Elon:
Hi elon,
My 5 things that i did last week:
I drank a whiskey drink
I drank a Vodka drink
I drank a Lager drink
I drank a cider drink
I sang the songs that reminded me of the good times
I sang the songs that reminded me of the better times
I’m not sure if that last bit counts as one thing or two things, but i don’t mind you have a bonus thing.
Yours,
Gus Gallifrey
Politics
3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed
The AfD party scored historic numbers, but won’t be a part of government.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/
sarahs mum said:
Politics
3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed
The AfD party scored historic numbers, but won’t be a part of government.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/
so they actually partially succeeded
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Politics
3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed
The AfD party scored historic numbers, but won’t be a part of government.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/
so they actually partially succeeded
Just as the Titanic partially succeeded in transiting the Atlantic.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Politics
3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed
The AfD party scored historic numbers, but won’t be a part of government.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/
so they actually partially succeeded
Just as the Titanic partially succeeded in transiting the Atlantic.
well that’s optimistic but we don’t feel like increasing fascist party numbers quite qualifies as them sinking though we’d be very happy to be wrong about that
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
so they actually partially succeeded
Just as the Titanic partially succeeded in transiting the Atlantic.
well that’s optimistic but we don’t feel like increasing fascist party numbers quite qualifies as them sinking though we’d be very happy to be wrong about that
Hopefully, the CDU/CSU led government will take serious note of the rise in AfD support, and devote proper and considerable energy to addressing the social unrest that produces that support.
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
This has reminded me of the Time and Motion studies from the late 1970s.
I worked at a child care centre in Artarmon, under Willoughby Council’s administration. Some bright spark decided to have every person working for the council keep records of their activities whilst at work. The proforma we were given was in set up in 5 minute blocks. Theory was sit at your desk, answer the phone, write down the task on your form.
Anyone who has observed the staff in these centres knows that the workers are doing multiple things at once, in the space of 5 minutes.
Supervising children at activities and doing observations for their developmental charts. Making notes etc. At the same time you might be wiping noses and/or bums, moping the floor because of an accident etc, etc. Answering the phone, tying shoelaces, discussing dinosaurs or what’s for lunch. Singing a song about dinosaurs doing poops in the loo.
So, I filled out my five minute allotments just like that ^ when I had the time to do it. Then I’d allocate 5 minutes to write up the previous 5 minute allotments and write it up as “writing out previous tasks”.
I convinced a few of the other workers to do the same thing.
We never heard back from the HR department about our productivity.
+5
captain_spalding said:
Time for a deep dive into the qualification problem.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Time for a deep dive into the qualification problem.
Hey, you get money from the gub’mint, they’re paying you to do something, even if it’s just to exist.
You workin’ for The Man.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Time for a deep dive into the qualification problem.
Hey, you get money from the gub’mint, they’re paying you to do something, even if it’s just to exist.
You workin’ for The Man.
sorry we meant this thing
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualification_problem
but we’ll settle for the shittiest most minimal lowest level task decomposition for that opm thing to deal with
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Jeff Tiedrich’s latest email ..Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face the consequences
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
If you’ve ever had a shitty boss, you know that this is the kind of crap they pull — emailing you on a Saturday to give you some bullshit task guaranteed to ruin your weekend. and everyone knows that these emails will be used by Elon’s posse of pimply teenage incels as a pretext to indiscriminately fire the shit out of everybody.
But the beauty part is that Elon’s missive has only served to intensify the power struggle that’s been brewing below the surface among the Sewer Clowns.
The State Department was all yeah, no, nice try.
The NOAA and NSA also told Elon to piss straight off.
Even Krazee Eyes Kash Patel was all ‘eat a bowl of fuck, Leon,’ telling everyone at the FBI to ignore the email:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote.
By the way, the email address to which all federal employees have been ordered to respond is hr@opm.gov.
It would be very wrong if millions of people around the world abused that inbox by flooding it with nonsense — so please don’t do this:
Or this …
Or this …
This has reminded me of the Time and Motion studies from the late 1970s.
I worked at a child care centre in Artarmon, under Willoughby Council’s administration. Some bright spark decided to have every person working for the council keep records of their activities whilst at work. The proforma we were given was in set up in 5 minute blocks. Theory was sit at your desk, answer the phone, write down the task on your form.
Anyone who has observed the staff in these centres knows that the workers are doing multiple things at once, in the space of 5 minutes.
Supervising children at activities and doing observations for their developmental charts. Making notes etc. At the same time you might be wiping noses and/or bums, moping the floor because of an accident etc, etc. Answering the phone, tying shoelaces, discussing dinosaurs or what’s for lunch. Singing a song about dinosaurs doing poops in the loo.
So, I filled out my five minute allotments just like that ^ when I had the time to do it. Then I’d allocate 5 minutes to write up the previous 5 minute allotments and write it up as “writing out previous tasks”.
I convinced a few of the other workers to do the same thing.
We never heard back from the HR department about our productivity.
+5
Nods. If you think so.
Heather Cox Richardson
18h ·
February 22, 2025 (Saturday)
Last night’s Friday Night News Dump was a doozy: Trump has purged the country’s military leadership. He has fired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a “DEI hire.” As soon as he took office, Trump fired U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, giving her just three hours to vacate her home on base. Last night, Trump also fired the Air Force vice chief of staff, General James Slife.
In place of Brown, Trump has said he will nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin”—as in “Razin Caine”—to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the body of the eight most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense. It advises the president, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and is the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense.
Caine has held none of the assignments that are required for elevation to this position. His military biography says he was a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard. Before he retired, he was the associate director for military affairs at the CIA. The law prohibits the elevation of someone at his level to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff unless the president waives the law because “such action is necessary in the national interest.”
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes that Trump is “reaching far down the pecking order to someone who isn’t even on active duty in the military for the critical position not only as the chief military advisor to the President…but the key person at the contact point of civilian control over the military.” In Trump’s telling, his support for Caine comes from the military officer’s support for him. “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir,” Trump claims Caine said to him. Trump went on to claim that Caine put on a Make America Great Again hat, despite rules against political messaging on the clothing of active-duty troops.
Trump appears to be purging military officers with the intent of replacing them with loyalists while intimidating others to bow to his demands. It seems worth recalling here that Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) stalled the nominations of 451 senior military officers for close to a year in 2023. On February 10, Trump purged the advisory bodies of the military academies for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard, saying: “Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years…. We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards. We must make the Military Academies GREAT AGAIN!”
The purge of military leaders wasn’t the only news last night. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the judge advocates general, or JAGs—the military lawyers who administer the military code of justice—for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. “Among many other things it’s the military lawyers who determine what is a legal order and what’s not,” Talking Points Memo’s Marshall pointed out. “If you’re planning to give illegal orders they are an obvious obstacle.” “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI,” military specialist Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic, “the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”
National Security Leaders for America, a bipartisan organization of people who served in senior leadership positions in all six military branches, elected federal and state offices, and various government departments and agencies, strongly condemned the firings, and urged “policymakers, elected officials, and the American public to reject efforts to politicize our military.”
Observers point out how the purging of an independent, rules-based military in favor of a military loyal to a single leader is a crystal clear step toward authoritarianism. They note that Trump expressed frustration with military leaders during his first term when they resisted illegal orders, saying, as then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley did, that in America “e don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator…. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
Observers note that during his first term, Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” apparently unaware that Hitler’s generals tried to kill him and instead imagining they were all fiercely loyal. They also note that authoritarian leader Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union purged his officer corps to make sure it was commanded by those loyal to him.
While the pattern is universal, this is a homegrown version of that universal pattern.
In order to undermine the liberal consensus that supported government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, promotion of infrastructure, and protection of civil rights, reactionaries in the 1950s began to insist that such a government was socialism. A true American, they claimed, was an individual man who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone to provide for himself and his family.
In contrast to what they believed was the “socialism” of the government, they took as their symbol the mythologized version of the western American cowboy. In the mid-1950s, Americans tuned in to Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Bonanza, Wagon Train, and The Lone Ranger to see hardworking white men fighting off evil, seemingly without help from the government. In 1959 there were twenty-six westerns on TV, and in a single week in March 1959, eight of the top shows were westerns.
When Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, in his white cowboy hat, won the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, the cowboy image became entwined with the reactionary faction in the party, and Ronald Reagan quite deliberately nurtured that image. Under Reagan, Republicans emphasized that an individual man should run his life however he wished, had a right to use a gun to defend his way of life, and that his way of life was under attack by Black Americans, people of color, and women.
It was an image that fit well with American popular culture, but their cowboy was always a myth: it didn’t reflect the reality that one third of cowboys were Black or men of color, or that cowboys were low-wage workers whose lives mirrored those of eastern factory workers. The real West was a network of family ties and communities, where women won the right to vote significantly before eastern women did, in large part because of their importance to the economy and the education that western people prized.
In the 1990s that individualist cowboy image spurred the militia movement, and over the past forty years it has become tightly bound to the reactionary Republican project to get rid of the government Americans constructed after 1933 to serve the public good. Now it is driving both the purge of women, people of color, and Black Americans from public life and the growing idea that leadership means domination. Trump and Hegseth’s concept of “warfighters” in an American military that doesn’t answer to the law but simply asserts power is the American cowboy hideously warped into fascism.
In a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters: “We can talk all we want about values. Values are important. But you can’t shoot values. You can’t shoot flags and you can’t shoot strong speeches. There is no replacement for hard power. As much as we may not want to like the world we live in, in some cases, there’s nothing like hard power.”
That statement came after a troubling exchange between Hegseth and Senator Angus King (I-ME) during Hegseth’s nomination hearings. King noted that in one of his books, Hegseth had said that soldiers—he referred to them as “our boys”—“should not fight by rules written by dignified men in mahogany rooms 80 years ago.” King noted that Hegseth was referring to “the Geneva Conventions,” a set of international rules that try to contain the barbarity of war and outlawed torture, and he wanted Hegseth to explain what he meant when he wrote: “America should fight by its own rules, and we should fight to win or not go in at all.”
Hegseth explained that “there are the rules we swear an oath to defend, which are incredibly important, and…then there are those echelons above reality from, you know, corps to division to brigade, to battalion. And by the time it trickles down to a company or a platoon or a squad level, you have a rules of engagement that nobody recognizes.” “So you are saying that the Geneva Convention should not be observed?” King asked. “We follow rules,” Hegseth said. “But we don’t need burdensome rules of engagement that make it impossible for us to win these wars. And that’s what President Trump understands.”
Hegseth refused to say he would abide by the Geneva Conventions. He refused to condemn torture.
This idea that modern warfare requires torture shines a harsh light on Trump’s January 29 order to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a 30,000-bed detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to detain migrants Trump called “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Rather than simply deporting them, he said, “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo.”
Now it appears the White House is moving even beyond turning the military into cowboys with unlimited powers. On Thursday the White House posted on X a 40-second video that purported to be of migrants, in shackles and chains, faceless as the chains clank, with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” As Andrew Egger explained in The Bulwark, ASMR videos use audio cues to create feelings of relaxation and euphoria, or “tingles.”
No longer is the cruelty of utter domination a necessity for safety, it appears. Now it is a form of sensual pleasure for its own sake. As Jeff Sharlet wrote in Scenes from a Slow Civil War: “Listen to this, the White House is saying. This will make you feel good.” It is, he points out, “a bondage video” in which “he sound of other people’s pain is the intended pleasure.”
Elon Musk posted over the video: “Haha wow,” with an emoji of a troll and a gold medal.
While MAGA seems to have turned an American icon into the basis for a fascist fantasy, President Theodore Roosevelt, who took office in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, had actually worked as a cowboy and deliberately applied what he believed to be the values of the American West to the country as a whole. He insisted that all Americans must have a “Square Deal”—the equal protection of the laws—that the government must clean up the cities, protect the environment, provide education and healthcare, and stop the wealthy from controlling the government.
And, when Roosevelt learned that American soldiers had engaged in torture in the Philippines, he deplored those acts. He promised that “determined and unswerving effort” was “being made, to find out every instance of barbarity on the part of our troops, to punish those guilty of it, and to take, if possible, even stronger measures than have already been taken to minimize or prevent the occurrence of all such acts in the future.”
I have an update for Elon:
1. entered the room
2. tried to remember why i entered that room
3. seemed to remember that i would need my glasses for whatever it was
4. wondered where my glasses were
5. left the room
Ukraine is under a bus and they have only themselves to blame for invading Russia.
Peak Warming Man said:
Ukraine is under a bus and they have only themselves to blame for invading Russia.
Pretty dumb of the Ukrainians to have expanded their borders so far, and so quickly, that large chunks ofthe Russian military suddenly found themselves within Ukraine, with no choice but to fight their way out.
Although it is odd that they chose to head towards Poland to effect their escape.
Witty Rejoinder said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Ummm they both pioneered online commerce. Unlike Tesla, Musk, and Thiel were actually pivotal in the creation of what became Paypal.
How come everyone has got their sarcasm detectors turned off this morning?
Sorry that was more directed at Roughy who seemed to be downplaying Musk’s role at Paypal.
Did I?
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Ukraine is under a bus and they have only themselves to blame for invading Russia.
Pretty dumb of the Ukrainians to have expanded their borders so far, and so quickly, that large chunks ofthe Russian military suddenly found themselves within Ukraine, with no choice but to fight their way out.
Although it is odd that they chose to head towards Poland to effect their escape.
wait
Mr Hughes said US President Donald Trump was prepared to support Israel in “whatever course of action it chooses regarding Hamas”.
ah that’d be right
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
February 23, 2025 (Sunday)
Something is shifting,” scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday. “They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. Nervous Musk, Trump, Vance have all been outclassed in public arguments these last few days. Government failure, stock market crash, and dictatorial alliances are not popular. People are starting to realize that there is no truth here beyond the desire for personal wealth and power.”
Rather than backing down on their unpopular programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans are intensifying their behavior as if trying to grab power before it slips away.
Trump’s blanket pardons of the people convicted for violent behavior in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were highly unpopular, with 83% of Americans opposed to those pardons. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent. And yet, on February 20, the Trump Justice Department expanded those pardons to cover gun and drug charges against two former January 6 defendants that were turned up during Federal Bureau of Investigation searches related to the January 6 attack.
Then, on February 21, a number of people pardoned after committing violent crimes, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio—who was sentenced to 22 years in prison—and Proud Boy Ethan Nordean (18 years) and Dominic Pezzola (10 years), as well as Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes (18 years) and Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who sat with his feet on a desk in then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office (four and a half years), held a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to announce they were going to sue the Justice Department for prosecuting them.
Kyle Cheney of Politico reported that the group followed the route they took around the Capitol on January 6, 2021, then posed for photos chanting as they had that day: “Whose house? Our house.” Protesters nearby heckled the group, and when one of them put her phone near Tarrio’s face while he was talking to a photographer, he batted her arm away. Capitol Police officers promptly arrested him for assault.
A number of the January 6 rioters were visiting the Capitol from the nearby Conservative Political Action Conference being held in Maryland. There, MAGA participants continued to normalize Nazi imagery as both Steve Bannon and Mexican actor Eduardo Verástegui threw fascist-style salutes to the crowd.
Yesterday, Tarrio posted a video of himself following officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 though the lobby of a Washington hotel where the anti-Trump Principles First conference was taking place. According to Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, Tarrio followed officers Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges, and Aquilino Gonell, saying: “You guys were brave at my sentencing when you sat there and laughed when I got 22 f*cking years. Now you don’t want to look in my eyes, you f*cking cowards.” Fanone turned and told him: “You’re a traitor to this country.”
Today, the hotel had to be evacuated after someone claiming to be “MAGA” emailed a threat claiming to have rigged four bombs: two in the hotel, one in Fanone’s mother’s mailbox, and one in the mailbox of John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor turned critic. After listing the names of several of the conference attendees—and singling out Fanone—the email said they “all deserve to die.” The perpetrator claimed to be acting “o honor the J6 hostages recently released by Emperor Trump.”
Billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are also ramping up their behavior even as the public is starting to turn against the government cuts that are badly hurting American veterans, American farmers, and U.S. medical research. The courts keep ruling against their efforts and their claims of finding “waste, fraud, and abuse” are being widely debunked. Rather than rethinking their course in the face of opposition, they seem to be becoming more belligerent.
On Saturday, Trump urged Musk to be “more aggressive” in cutting the government, although the White House has told a court that Musk has no authority and is only a presidential advisor. “Will do, Mr. President,” Musk replied. He then posted a command to federal employees: “Consistent with instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Shortly after, emails went out giving workers 48 hours to list five things they had accomplished in the past week.
This sparked outrage among Americans who noted that Musk has spent 24 hours tweeting more than 220 times and engaged in public fights with two of the mothers of his children while allegedly running companies and overhauling the government, while Trump spent at least 12 nights at Mar-a-Lago in his first 29 days in office. S.V. Date of HuffPost noted on February 18 that Trump has played golf at one of his own properties on 9 of his first 30 days in office and that Trump’s golf outings had already cost the American taxpayer $10.7 million.
Reddit was flooded with potential responses to Musk’s demand, scorching it and Musk. The demand also exposed a rift in the administration, as department heads—including Kash Patel, the newly confirmed head of the FBI, as well as officials at the State Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of the Navy—asserted their authority to review the workers in their own departments, telling them not to respond to Musk’s demand.
Then users pointed out that the new government employee email system the Department of Government Efficiency team set up explicitly says that using it is voluntary, and that resignations of federal employees must be voluntary. Musk responded by sending out a poll on X asking whether X users think federal employees should be “required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished” in the past week.
The entire exercise made it look as if the lug nuts on the wheels of the Musk-Trump government bus are dangerously loose. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo commented: “Drunk on power and ketamine.”
Historian Johann Neem, a specialist in the American Revolution, turned to political theorist John Locke to explore the larger meaning of Trump’s destructive course. The founders who threw off monarchy and constructed our constitutional government looked to Locke for their guiding principles. In his 1690 Second Treatise on Government, Locke noted that when a leader disregards constitutional order, he gives up legitimacy and the people are justified in treating him as a “thief and a robber.” “hosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law and makes use of the force he has under his command…ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another,” Locke wrote.
Neem notes that Trump won the election and his party holds majorities in both chambers of Congress. He could have used his legitimate constitutional authority but instead, “with the aid of Elon Musk, has consistently violated the Constitution and willingly broken laws.” Neem warned that courts move too slowly to rein Trump in. He urged Congress to perform its constitutional duty to remove Trump from office, and urged voters to make it clear to members of Congress that we expect them to “uphold their obligations and protect our freedom.”
“Otherwise,” Neem writes, “Americans will be subject to a pretender who claims the power but not the legitimate authority of the presidency.” He continues: “Trump’s actions threaten the legitimacy of government itself.”
In the Senate, on Thursday, February 20, Angus King (I-ME) also reached back to the framers of the Constitution when he warned—again—that permitting Trump to take over the power of Congress is “grossly unconstitutional.” Trump’s concept that he can alter laws by refusing to fund them, so-called impoundment, is “absolutely straight up unconstitutional,” King said, “and it’s illegal.”
“he reason the framers designed our Constitution the way they did was that they were afraid of concentrated power,” King said. “They had just fought a brutal eight-year war with a king. They didn’t want a king. They wanted a constitutional republic, where power was divided between the Congress and the president and the courts, and we are collapsing that structure,” King said. “he people cheering this on I fear, in a reasonably short period of time, are going to say where did this go? How did this happen? How did we make our president into a monarch? How did this happen? How it happened,” he said to his Senate colleagues, “is we gave it up! James Madison thought we would fight for our power, but no. Right now we’re just sitting back and watching it happen.”
“This is the most serious assault on our Constitution in the history of this country,” King said. “It’s the most serious assault on the very structure of our Constitution, which is designed to protect our freedoms and liberty, in the history of this country. It is a constitutional crisis…. Many of my friends in this body say it will be hard, we don’t want to buck the President, we’ll let the courts take care of it…. hat’s a copout. It’s our responsibility to protect the Constitution. That’s what we swear to when we enter this body.”
“What’s it going to take for us to wake up…I mean this entire body, to wake up to what’s going on here? Is it going to be too late? Is it going to be when the President has secreted all this power and the Congress is an afterthought? What’s it going to take?”
“his a constitutional crisis, and we’ve got to respond to it. I’m just waiting for this whole body to stand up and say no, no, we don’t do it this way. We don’t do it this way. We do things constitutionally. hat’s what the framers intended. They didn’t intend to have an efficient dictatorship, and that’s what we’re headed for…. We’ve got to wake up, protect this institution, but much more importantly protect the people of the United States of America.”
Senator King, along with Maine governor Janet Mills, who stood up to Trump in person earlier this week, are following in the tradition of their state.
On June 1, 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) delivered her famous Declaration of Conscience, standing up to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who was smearing Democrats as communists. “I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges,” she said. “I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
On July 28, 1974, Representative Bill Cohen (R-ME), who went on to a long Senate career but was at the time a junior member on the House Judiciary Committee, voted along with five other Republican members of the committee and the Democratic majority to draw up articles of impeachment against Republican president Richard Nixon, fully expecting that the death threats and hate mail he was receiving proved that that vote would destroy his political career. But, Cohen told the Bangor Daily News, “I would never compromise what I think is the right thing to do for the sake of an office; it’s just not that important. Only time will tell if the people will accept that judgment.”
Days later, the tape proving Nixon had been part of the Watergate coverup came to light. “Suddenly there was a switch in the people who had been defending the president,” Cohen recalled. “That’s when people back in Maine, Republicans, started to turn around and said, ‘We were wrong, and you were right, and we’ll support this.’ ”
It’s a good week to remember that politicians used to use as a yardstick the saying: “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”
Trump Didn’t Know What Pearl Harbor Was And Couldn’t Read The Constitution
According to a new book, Donald Trump is way dumber than anyone could have imagined. The book explains countless different scenarios where Donald Trump didn’t understand historical events like Pearl Harbor, basic geography about different parts of the country, and at one point, he was physically unable to read from the actual Constitution because he couldn’t understand the big words that were used in the document. Farron Cousins explains why all of this should send shivers down your spine.
sarahs mum said:
Politics
3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed
The AfD party scored historic numbers, but won’t be a part of government.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/
Excellent news.
Really excellent.
captain_spalding said:
:)
captain_spalding said:
I have an update for Elon:1. entered the room
2. tried to remember why i entered that room
3. seemed to remember that i would need my glasses for whatever it was
4. wondered where my glasses were
5. left the room
:)
So it seems that a while support for Trump has fallen, the majority of Americans approve of the Trump’s administration efforts to reduce the cost and size of government… this notwithstanding, a majority of Americans disapprove of the manner in which it is being done.
diddly-squat said:
So it seems that a while support for Trump has fallen, the majority of Americans approve of the Trump’s administration efforts to reduce the cost and size of government… this notwithstanding, a majority of Americans disapprove of the manner in which it is being done.
in addition, a majority (almost two thirds) of Americans believe that Trump hasn’t done enough to lower prices.
diddly-squat said:
So it seems that a while support for Trump has fallen, the majority of Americans approve of the Trump’s administration efforts to reduce the cost and size of government… this notwithstanding, a majority of Americans disapprove of the manner in which it is being done.
I wonder if it is oversized.
I suppose they will see in the years to come if government services grind to a holt due to lack of staff.
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:So it seems that a while support for Trump has fallen, the majority of Americans approve of the Trump’s administration efforts to reduce the cost and size of government… this notwithstanding, a majority of Americans disapprove of the manner in which it is being done.
in addition, a majority (almost two thirds) of Americans believe that Trump hasn’t done enough to lower prices.
To be honest what can he do
I imagine a lot is out of government control
They seems to stretch the trust in regards to what they can do.
I suppose its about saving face than being honest and seeming to be weak.
Imagine prices if hard working entry level workers got a decent deal, no just pay but leave, etc.
Spiny Norman said:
Trump Didn’t Know What Pearl Harbor Was And Couldn’t Read The ConstitutionAccording to a new book, Donald Trump is way dumber than anyone could have imagined. The book explains countless different scenarios where Donald Trump didn’t understand historical events like Pearl Harbor, basic geography about different parts of the country, and at one point, he was physically unable to read from the actual Constitution because he couldn’t understand the big words that were used in the document. Farron Cousins explains why all of this should send shivers down your spine.
That book actually came out in 2020, although it may have just had a new release onto the market.
You can find it available for free download here:
Cymek said:
I suppose its about saving face than being honest and seeming to be weak.
bullshit everyone knows that only ASIANS live in shit hole countries and care about face
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
diddly-squat said:So it seems that a while support for Trump has fallen, the majority of Americans approve of the Trump’s administration efforts to reduce the cost and size of government… this notwithstanding, a majority of Americans disapprove of the manner in which it is being done.
in addition, a majority (almost two thirds) of Americans believe that Trump hasn’t done enough to lower prices.
To be honest what can he do
I imagine a lot is out of government control
They seems to stretch the trust in regards to what they can do.
I suppose its about saving face than being honest and seeming to be weak.
Imagine prices if hard working entry level workers got a decent deal, no just pay but leave, etc.
Biden was ripped to pieces for “allowing” inflation to rise.. I mean, it seems fair that the same yard stick is used
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:in addition, a majority (almost two thirds) of Americans believe that Trump hasn’t done enough to lower prices.
To be honest what can he do
I imagine a lot is out of government control
They seems to stretch the trust in regards to what they can do.
I suppose its about saving face than being honest and seeming to be weak.
Imagine prices if hard working entry level workers got a decent deal, no just pay but leave, etc.
Biden was ripped to pieces for “allowing” inflation to rise.. I mean, it seems fair that the same yard stick is used
International comparison is a fair yardstick.
There was a global inflation tick as the economies opened up following the Covid peak. The USA did better most similar economies in that regard, in that mean wages rose faster than inflation: probably Biden deserves some credit there because of his infrastructure program.
If there’s a spike in inflation in the US due to self-evidently inflationary federal policies, and the rest of the OECD remains low-inflation, it will be obvious that it is the fault of the US federal government.
Looks like DOGE is unpopular generally, not unsurprising. Like I said, govt efficiency drives are normal but DOGE is deeply ab.
Real Equivalence
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
Lol.
Not surprising.
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
More than 150,000 Canadians have signed a petition to revoke Elon Musk’s citizenship.
Musk has Canadian citizenship through his mother.
Kingy said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
Lol.
Not surprising.
Fair bit of discussion on Reddit on this –
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1ivjm9z/whats_up_with_us_websites_scrubbing_trump_as_kgb/
Witnesses…lololololololol…🤪
kii said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
‘twas fun while it lasted. It looks like Google has removed the reference – it was there earlier.
AussieDJ said:
kii said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
‘twas fun while it lasted. It looks like Google has removed the reference – it was there earlier.
Yeah. One group I got this from got lots of screen shots of the comments…people are so rude 😆 I love it.
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
kii said:
‘twas fun while it lasted. It looks like Google has removed the reference – it was there earlier.
Yeah. One group I got this from got lots of screen shots of the comments…people are so rude 😆 I love it.
Yep!
AussieDJ said:
kii said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
‘twas fun while it lasted. It looks like Google has removed the reference – it was there earlier.
I looked about three minute ago, as I type this, and the Kasnov (or whatever trump was called) was still there.
Spiny Norman said:
AussieDJ said:
kii said:
‘twas fun while it lasted. It looks like Google has removed the reference – it was there earlier.
I looked about three minute ago, as I type this, and the Kasnov (or whatever trump was called) was still there.
Yep still there.
kii said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
:)
Unfortunately they seem to have “fixed” that. It goes to some fancy place in Moscow for me.
kii said:
kii said:
Google “Kremlin Headquarters” in Google Maps.
Ha!
kii said:
Witnesses…lololololololol…🤪
It’s a junket…
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
sarahs mum said:
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
I was going to post something about that, but it just made me feel too nauseous.
The man at the podium ridiculing her….grrrr.
Fuck the fucking patriarchy.
ChrispenEvan said:
LOL
sarahs mum said:
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered at a town hall in Kootenai County, Idaho, to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about important issues affecting their community. What should have been a peaceful and productive event, where people exercised their right to voice their concerns, quickly turned into a violation of Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl’s constitutional rights.
In a shocking and unlawful turn of events, Dr. Borrenpohl was detained by an unmarked paramilitary squad—an unknown and unnamed group of individuals with no clear authority or justification for their actions. What’s even more alarming is that the local sheriff, who, instead of protecting Dr. Borrenpohl, stood by and filmed the incident on his phone after encouraging her violent removal.
This detainment wasn’t just an unfortunate moment—it was an illegal violation of Dr. Borrenpohl’s rights. She was denied her freedom of assembly, her freedom of speech, and most importantly, her right to be free from unlawful detention. This is not just an isolated event; it is a chilling reminder that, even in the United States, our civil liberties can be stripped away without warning.
Dr. Borrenpohl is now taking a stand to ensure this injustice does not go unchecked. She is committed to holding those responsible accountable and fighting for the protection of our fundamental rights. But to do so, she needs your help.
The legal costs to defend her rights and to ensure that no one else suffers a similar fate are significant. Dr. Borrenpohl is seeking funds to retain a skilled lawyer who can help her navigate this complex situation, challenge this unlawful detention, and protect citizens from future violations of their rights.
No American should fear being carted away by an unnamed paramilitary force without cause. The protection of our freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to be free from unlawful detention—should never be taken for granted. Dr. Borrenpohl is not just fighting for herself; she is fighting for every one of us.
Please consider donating to help Dr. Borrenpohl retain legal counsel and ensure that this injustice is properly addressed. Your support is crucial in defending our rights and ensuring that justice prevails.
Thank you for standing with Dr. Borrenpohl, for the protection of our civil liberties, and for the preservation of justice in America. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference in this fight.
Let’s stand together and ensure that no one’s rights are taken away without consequence.
okay wanted to do a quick update on Dr
Teresa baren Paul who um is the woman
that was assaulted in Idaho for speaking
up at a town hall we all saw that video
was very shocking and she is facing some
legal
troubles wrongly and she does have a
GoFundMe up so I think if you can and
you’re able to donate a dollar $5
$10 leg legal expenses are not
cheap what she raised
here if she were to go to trial we not
cover it so if you can donate please do
donate I’m going to have the link to the
GoFundMe in the description and in the
comments um so thank you so much and
Teresa
also uh posted on Instagram yesterday
and here’s what she had to say I could
have never imagined my right to free
speech in my right to assemble could be
stripped in such a violent way due to
the sensitivity and shock in the matter
I am unable to speak on the situation
immediately but I will make my voice
heard when the time is appropriate and I
totally get that and I think you know
legally speaking uh it might make sense
to just be very methodical about who who
you talk to and when but I know there
are going to be a lot of people wanting
to share her personal story when she
feels like it is the appropriate time
and again I just want to say I’m just so
overwhelmed by The Bravery she she
displayed and there’s another update
here good morning supporters Dr Teresa
is full of gratitude for the
overwhelming amount of personal and
financial support she’s receiving from
the community here in Idaho and across
the country thank you she has assistance
fighting the right lawyers for the right
fight ahead and feels supported by the
community there have been many requests
from media members who would like to
speak with Dr Baron Paul she has
designated three surrogates who were
with her during the town hall and can
speak speak to the media about the
incident please reach out to get
connected all right and then they share
the Instagram post and there is now
because of because of all the interest
the local news finally did a story on it
yesterday when this happened two days
ago and here’s a bit of that um of that
story and also I just want to say before
we into this
video I sent out a bat signal and the
Keith Edwards show Community
really showed up I got more than a
hundred emails either um just giving
support for this woman or giving me some
updates about what’s going on in Idaho
and I just want to say thank you all for
your interest this is not a one way
oneway relationship here and so uh this
only works because of you and I am here
because of you and so thank you so much
for everyone who reached out I do have a
couple of emails that I want to share
with you
um and before uh but first let’s get to
this video Saturday discussing topics
like Medicaid and school vouchers when
she was forcibly removed from the
meeting all of our elected officials in
coutney county and surrounding areas are
just so you know these are her friends
the I I don’t like how the reporter
doesn’t tell us ahead of time these are
her friends who are there at the meeting
okay all um Republican and so that is
why the Republican um party did the did
the town hall the auditorium was full
Bourne fall who has previously run for a
seat in the Idaho house as a Democrat
tried to ask a question during a
discussion about Reproductive
Rights her friends Megan C and Tamara
signs carelis tell
is this a lecture or a town hall there’s
an opportunity for Bourne fall was first
approached by Sheriff Bob
Morris my name is Robert Norris I’m
we’re asking you to leave on video
please get up or be escorted out Sheriff
Norris asked her to leave then grabbed
her don’t me come here Listen to I
justen to have a nice for I’m asking you
to
go then Norris called in three unmarked
security officers nobody knew who these
people
were that were assaulting her and
pulling her away are these guys are
these show your are you
don’t they pulled her out of her seat
and she wasn’t doing anything
threatening she was sitting in her seat
not doing anything threatening and into
the hallway Sheriff Norris film and
signs Caris say the MC of the event
spurred it on he called her a little
girl multiple times um also said you
know your voice is useless or it doesn’t
want to be heard here look at this this
little girl is afraid to
Boke up signs caralis as well as quter
Lane police say bnef fall was cited the
battery charge stems from allegations
that she bit one of the security
officers in my opinion that sounds like
self-defense Cy County Republican
Central Committee posted on Facebook
saying borf fall was arrested and that
she disrupted the town hall and vocally
cheered for any Dei
initiatives it was evident that dissent
was not being
tolerated I hate that they read only the
Republican statement so let’s just read
the statement from the Democrats shall
we our democracy these are the cruy
Democrats and I’m very sorry to everyone
who lives in Cy County who I butchered
the name of your your county yesterday
but Cy County our democracy rests on our
first amendment rights if we can’t
question leaders elected to represent us
without fear of reprisal we are not free
the town hall is a valued American
tradition that embodies these principles
providing a place for constituents to
ask questions and share their opinions
on the issues of the day at the recent
coutney County Republicans Town Hall it
was clear organizers not intend to allow
dialogue between legislators and the con
constituents they serve it is a very sad
day when a woman who voices dissent is
physically dragged out of a public venue
by unidentified men while the event
moderator belit belittles and taunts her
Idaho deserves better really wish the
reporter would have read that statement
too and here’s what I want to say before
we get into these emails go to these
town Halls make your voice heard on this
channel we have shown normal Americans
putting pressure on Republicans and
obviously they cannot take it the
slightest form of descent they can’t
fight back with their ideas they have to
fight back physically and if we keep
showing up we’re going to show the
problem and that’s what I love about uh
what um this Brave doctor did was she
put herself out there and made an
example of them by just speaking up it
doesn’t take much to make a difference
and I don’t think I don’t think she was
thinking she was going to show up and
Inspire tens of thousands and maybe
hundreds of thousands of people about
what it means to be an American in 2025
but for this
American she really did she really did
and so I am so inspired I think we all
just need to get local we need to get
organized and we need to show up and let
them know we don’t like the direction
where our country is headed
so okay we are hiding This Woman’s
um
identity H because she I don’t think she
you know I didn’t ask if I could share
this publicly but um I think I just want
you all to hear this I was there on
Saturday it was horrific it was full on
fascism on public display against the
public in a public high school if I can
help spread the word and correct the
lies the kcrc which is local Republican
party there is trying to spread in order
to cover their asses I’m happy be to be
of assistance I had attended to speak at
the Town Hall they denied any public
comment there was no chanting and
disorder which is what they said about
the mention of trump or the Bible as
they are claiming Trump in the Bible
were not even specifically discussed or
mentioned it was all about right-wing
Maga policies they’re trying to push
through the whole event is recorded
somewhere as they had their cameras
rolling there was no disorderly behavior
only brief calling out of opposition by
a handful of people as is their right as
is their right their reaction was
completely uncalled for and pure
tyrannical abuse of power thank you for
covering the story well thank you for
reaching out and I will be emailing you
separately um I would love to just hear
a little bit more about your perspective
so thank you for emailing me and then
and then a gentleman here said and I
think everyone shared this sentiment the
real tragedy of this video is the
absolute noninvolvement of the men to
stop the assault on that lady the guy
sitting next to her got up to allow the
mystery police to bodily harm her
without any empathy whatsoever for her
as a human regardless of the belief
system real men do not allow other
nonidentified bullies to assault any
woman ever is this the devolved state of
the Maga occults fear of its risal by
its own policing belief or else I am
mortified that other humans have totally
lost touch with their own Humanity in
favor of some savior of their inhumane
reality my God what Have We
Become okay well uh I agree that was
something very frightening me not that
she needs our protection but if I were
there I would not have been able to uh
stop myself
s from getting involved however I felt
appropriate at the
time so this story is ever moving we
will be following it on the channel um I
I hope we can get one of her friends on
if not her herself I just again want to
thank you all for supporting her again
the fun the GoFundMe is uh is here and
it will be in the description below if
you can donate anything it will make
such a difference because these legal
fights can be expensive and long if the
opposing side wants them to be and uh
anyone who speaks up for democracy and
our constitutional rights is a friend of
the channel and I’m sure a friend of the
community here and again thank you all
so much for uh for reaching out for
giving all your information about what’s
happening um in Idaho what sound
really just really scary to be frank and
um again thank you to Dr Teresa baren
Paul who uh showed us all what bravery
looks like and that
anyone can make a difference anyone can
make a difference you can make a
difference let’s just start showing up
and speaking out
https://www.instagram.com/harlowsmusings/reel/DGb70IiNkUI/
MUST WATCH: This is chilling! A woman attends a town-hall in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, peacefully speaks out, and gets hauled out by unmarked goons with zero authority. NO badges. This isn’t what freedom looks like, folks. Get ready—this ride is about to get WAY roughed. I found it so hard to understand how a room full of people chose not to help this young woman, her name is Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl. A photo of her and photos of the 3 security guards who dragged this young woman out of her seat. It’s quite disturbing! …”this little girl” – that’s a grown woman. And where the fck is anyone defending her. This is insane. “She spoke up, and now she doesn’t want to suffer the consequences.”A direct quote from the MAN directing this town hall meeting, when this brave WOMAN spoke up for a WOMAN’S right to choose what she does with her body. She is then attacked by multiple MEN, who despite her resisting, physically drag her out of the room. Some WOMEN try to stick up for her, but the MEN in the audience sit and watch. Ultimately, not a single person does a god damn thing. At today’s KCRCC event at CHS auditorium in Coeur d’Alene, ID, the public was not allowed to comment. Those with differing perspectives were repeatedly told to “shut up or get the hell out.” And when one woman simply asked if this was a lecture or an actual town hall, she was forcibly removed. 🔁 TT @tonyajean81
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is an advocate for education. She has dedicated her career to decreases the barriers of education for Idaho’s students. Teresa developed a region-wide education program to ensure the students of North Idaho can seek a higher education. In one year of the program, go-on rates increased by 25% with rural schools seeing the greatest impact.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
I was going to post something about that, but it just made me feel too nauseous.
The man at the podium ridiculing her….grrrr.
Fuck the fucking patriarchy.
On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered at a town hall in Kootenai County, Idaho, to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about important issues affecting their community. What should have been a peaceful and productive event, where people exercised their right to voice their concerns, quickly turned into a violation of Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl’s constitutional rights.
In a shocking and unlawful turn of events, Dr. Borrenpohl was detained by an unmarked paramilitary squad—an unknown and unnamed group of individuals with no clear authority or justification for their actions. What’s even more alarming is that the local sheriff, who, instead of protecting Dr. Borrenpohl, stood by and filmed the incident on his phone after encouraging her violent removal.
This detainment wasn’t just an unfortunate moment—it was an illegal violation of Dr. Borrenpohl’s rights. She was denied her freedom of assembly, her freedom of speech, and most importantly, her right to be free from unlawful detention. This is not just an isolated event; it is a chilling reminder that, even in the United States, our civil liberties can be stripped away without warning.
Dr. Borrenpohl is now taking a stand to ensure this injustice does not go unchecked. She is committed to holding those responsible accountable and fighting for the protection of our fundamental rights. But to do so, she needs your help.
The legal costs to defend her rights and to ensure that no one else suffers a similar fate are significant. Dr. Borrenpohl is seeking funds to retain a skilled lawyer who can help her navigate this complex situation, challenge this unlawful detention, and protect citizens from future violations of their rights.
No American should fear being carted away by an unnamed paramilitary force without cause. The protection of our freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to be free from unlawful detention—should never be taken for granted. Dr. Borrenpohl is not just fighting for herself; she is fighting for every one of us.
Please consider donating to help Dr. Borrenpohl retain legal counsel and ensure that this injustice is properly addressed. Your support is crucial in defending our rights and ensuring that justice prevails.
Thank you for standing with Dr. Borrenpohl, for the protection of our civil liberties, and for the preservation of justice in America. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference in this fight.
Let’s stand together and ensure that no one’s rights are taken away without consequence.
okay wanted to do a quick update on Dr
Teresa baren Paul who um is the woman
that was assaulted in Idaho for speaking
up at a town hall we all saw that video
was very shocking and she is facing some
legal
troubles wrongly and she does have a
GoFundMe up so I think if you can and
you’re able to donate a dollar $5
$10 leg legal expenses are not
cheap what she raised
here if she were to go to trial we not
cover it so if you can donate please do
donate I’m going to have the link to the
GoFundMe in the description and in the
comments um so thank you so much and
Teresa
also uh posted on Instagram yesterday
and here’s what she had to say I could
have never imagined my right to free
speech in my right to assemble could be
stripped in such a violent way due to
the sensitivity and shock in the matter
I am unable to speak on the situation
immediately but I will make my voice
heard when the time is appropriate and I
totally get that and I think you know
legally speaking uh it might make sense
to just be very methodical about who who
you talk to and when but I know there
are going to be a lot of people wanting
to share her personal story when she
feels like it is the appropriate time
and again I just want to say I’m just so
overwhelmed by The Bravery she she
displayed and there’s another update
here good morning supporters Dr Teresa
is full of gratitude for the
overwhelming amount of personal and
financial support she’s receiving from
the community here in Idaho and across
the country thank you she has assistance
fighting the right lawyers for the right
fight ahead and feels supported by the
community there have been many requests
from media members who would like to
speak with Dr Baron Paul she has
designated three surrogates who were
with her during the town hall and can
speak speak to the media about the
incident please reach out to get
connected all right and then they share
the Instagram post and there is now
because of because of all the interest
the local news finally did a story on it
yesterday when this happened two days
ago and here’s a bit of that um of that
story and also I just want to say before
we into this
video I sent out a bat signal and the
Keith Edwards show Community
really showed up I got more than a
hundred emails either um just giving
support for this woman or giving me some
updates about what’s going on in Idaho
and I just want to say thank you all for
your interest this is not a one way
oneway relationship here and so uh this
only works because of you and I am here
because of you and so thank you so much
for everyone who reached out I do have a
couple of emails that I want to share
with you
um and before uh but first let’s get to
this video Saturday discussing topics
like Medicaid and school vouchers when
she was forcibly removed from the
meeting all of our elected officials in
coutney county and surrounding areas are
just so you know these are her friends
the I I don’t like how the reporter
doesn’t tell us ahead of time these are
her friends who are there at the meeting
okay all um Republican and so that is
why the Republican um party did the did
the town hall the auditorium was full
Bourne fall who has previously run for a
seat in the Idaho house as a Democrat
tried to ask a question during a
discussion about Reproductive
Rights her friends Megan C and Tamara
signs carelis tell
is this a lecture or a town hall there’s
an opportunity for Bourne fall was first
approached by Sheriff Bob
Morris my name is Robert Norris I’m
we’re asking you to leave on video
please get up or be escorted out Sheriff
Norris asked her to leave then grabbed
her don’t me come here Listen to I
justen to have a nice for I’m asking you
to
go then Norris called in three unmarked
security officers nobody knew who these
people
were that were assaulting her and
pulling her away are these guys are
these show your are you
don’t they pulled her out of her seat
and she wasn’t doing anything
threatening she was sitting in her seat
not doing anything threatening and into
the hallway Sheriff Norris film and
signs Caris say the MC of the event
spurred it on he called her a little
girl multiple times um also said you
know your voice is useless or it doesn’t
want to be heard here look at this this
little girl is afraid to
Boke up signs caralis as well as quter
Lane police say bnef fall was cited the
battery charge stems from allegations
that she bit one of the security
officers in my opinion that sounds like
self-defense Cy County Republican
Central Committee posted on Facebook
saying borf fall was arrested and that
she disrupted the town hall and vocally
cheered for any Dei
initiatives it was evident that dissent
was not being
tolerated I hate that they read only the
Republican statement so let’s just read
the statement from the Democrats shall
we our democracy these are the cruy
Democrats and I’m very sorry to everyone
who lives in Cy County who I butchered
the name of your your county yesterday
but Cy County our democracy rests on our
first amendment rights if we can’t
question leaders elected to represent us
without fear of reprisal we are not free
the town hall is a valued American
tradition that embodies these principles
providing a place for constituents to
ask questions and share their opinions
on the issues of the day at the recent
coutney County Republicans Town Hall it
was clear organizers not intend to allow
dialogue between legislators and the con
constituents they serve it is a very sad
day when a woman who voices dissent is
physically dragged out of a public venue
by unidentified men while the event
moderator belit belittles and taunts her
Idaho deserves better really wish the
reporter would have read that statement
too and here’s what I want to say before
we get into these emails go to these
town Halls make your voice heard on this
channel we have shown normal Americans
putting pressure on Republicans and
obviously they cannot take it the
slightest form of descent they can’t
fight back with their ideas they have to
fight back physically and if we keep
showing up we’re going to show the
problem and that’s what I love about uh
what um this Brave doctor did was she
put herself out there and made an
example of them by just speaking up it
doesn’t take much to make a difference
and I don’t think I don’t think she was
thinking she was going to show up and
Inspire tens of thousands and maybe
hundreds of thousands of people about
what it means to be an American in 2025
but for this
American she really did she really did
and so I am so inspired I think we all
just need to get local we need to get
organized and we need to show up and let
them know we don’t like the direction
where our country is headed
so okay we are hiding This Woman’s
um
identity H because she I don’t think she
you know I didn’t ask if I could share
this publicly but um I think I just want
you all to hear this I was there on
Saturday it was horrific it was full on
fascism on public display against the
public in a public high school if I can
help spread the word and correct the
lies the kcrc which is local Republican
party there is trying to spread in order
to cover their asses I’m happy be to be
of assistance I had attended to speak at
the Town Hall they denied any public
comment there was no chanting and
disorder which is what they said about
the mention of trump or the Bible as
they are claiming Trump in the Bible
were not even specifically discussed or
mentioned it was all about right-wing
Maga policies they’re trying to push
through the whole event is recorded
somewhere as they had their cameras
rolling there was no disorderly behavior
only brief calling out of opposition by
a handful of people as is their right as
is their right their reaction was
completely uncalled for and pure
tyrannical abuse of power thank you for
covering the story well thank you for
reaching out and I will be emailing you
separately um I would love to just hear
a little bit more about your perspective
so thank you for emailing me and then
and then a gentleman here said and I
think everyone shared this sentiment the
real tragedy of this video is the
absolute noninvolvement of the men to
stop the assault on that lady the guy
sitting next to her got up to allow the
mystery police to bodily harm her
without any empathy whatsoever for her
as a human regardless of the belief
system real men do not allow other
nonidentified bullies to assault any
woman ever is this the devolved state of
the Maga occults fear of its risal by
its own policing belief or else I am
mortified that other humans have totally
lost touch with their own Humanity in
favor of some savior of their inhumane
reality my God what Have We
Become okay well uh I agree that was
something very frightening me not that
she needs our protection but if I were
there I would not have been able to uh
stop myself
s from getting involved however I felt
appropriate at the
time so this story is ever moving we
will be following it on the channel um I
I hope we can get one of her friends on
if not her herself I just again want to
thank you all for supporting her again
the fun the GoFundMe is uh is here and
it will be in the description below if
you can donate anything it will make
such a difference because these legal
fights can be expensive and long if the
opposing side wants them to be and uh
anyone who speaks up for democracy and
our constitutional rights is a friend of
the channel and I’m sure a friend of the
community here and again thank you all
so much for uh for reaching out for
giving all your information about what’s
happening um in Idaho what sound
really just really scary to be frank and
um again thank you to Dr Teresa baren
Paul who uh showed us all what bravery
looks like and that
anyone can make a difference anyone can
make a difference you can make a
difference let’s just start showing up
and speaking outhttps://www.instagram.com/harlowsmusings/reel/DGb70IiNkUI/
MUST WATCH: This is chilling! A woman attends a town-hall in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, peacefully speaks out, and gets hauled out by unmarked goons with zero authority. NO badges. This isn’t what freedom looks like, folks. Get ready—this ride is about to get WAY roughed. I found it so hard to understand how a room full of people chose not to help this young woman, her name is Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl. A photo of her and photos of the 3 security guards who dragged this young woman out of her seat. It’s quite disturbing! …”this little girl” – that’s a grown woman. And where the fck is anyone defending her. This is insane. “She spoke up, and now she doesn’t want to suffer the consequences.”A direct quote from the MAN directing this town hall meeting, when this brave WOMAN spoke up for a WOMAN’S right to choose what she does with her body. She is then attacked by multiple MEN, who despite her resisting, physically drag her out of the room. Some WOMEN try to stick up for her, but the MEN in the audience sit and watch. Ultimately, not a single person does a god damn thing. At today’s KCRCC event at CHS auditorium in Coeur d’Alene, ID, the public was not allowed to comment. Those with differing perspectives were repeatedly told to “shut up or get the hell out.” And when one woman simply asked if this was a lecture or an actual town hall, she was forcibly removed. 🔁 TT @tonyajean81
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is an advocate for education. She has dedicated her career to decreases the barriers of education for Idaho’s students. Teresa developed a region-wide education program to ensure the students of North Idaho can seek a higher education. In one year of the program, go-on rates increased by 25% with rural schools seeing the greatest impact.
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl, was at the town hall in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and was pulled out of the room by her arms for asking “is this a town hall or a lecture?”
The MC of the event, Ed Bejarana (a voice actor from Cali) taunted and scolded her for speaking up; Bejarana had been complaining to the crowd because of the occasional interjections to his ramblings about abortion bans.
Off-duty sheriff Robert Norris confronted Borrenpohl and asked her to leave, then attempted to pull her out her seat.
(He also threatened to pepper spray her)
The men dressed in black came up, refused to identify themselves, and pulled her down the middle aisle by her arms.
The men were later confirmed to be employees of LEAR Asset Management. Phone # below
Borrenpohl has received a citation for biting one of the men forcefully removing her.
Here Is her GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/…/justice-for-dr-borrenpohl…
The main (or background) image was taken as the mystery men attempted to zip-tie her wrists while she was being held down.
Anyways here’s the phone number to Norris’ sheriffs office pictured below, and here’s a picture of Ed Bejarana, the MC/voice actor for audible.
Unfortunately, Bejarana has appeared to have either deleted his account on instagram, or he blocked me after I visited his page. Y’all feel free to try it out tho https://www.instagram.com/edbejarana/
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered at a town hall in Kootenai County, Idaho, to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about important issues affecting their community. What should have been a peaceful and productive event, where people exercised their right to voice their concerns, quickly turned into a violation of Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl’s constitutional rights.
In a shocking and unlawful turn of events, Dr. Borrenpohl was detained by an unmarked paramilitary squad—an unknown and unnamed group of individuals with no clear authority or justification for their actions. What’s even more alarming is that the local sheriff, who, instead of protecting Dr. Borrenpohl, stood by and filmed the incident on his phone after encouraging her violent removal.
This detainment wasn’t just an unfortunate moment—it was an illegal violation of Dr. Borrenpohl’s rights. She was denied her freedom of assembly, her freedom of speech, and most importantly, her right to be free from unlawful detention. This is not just an isolated event; it is a chilling reminder that, even in the United States, our civil liberties can be stripped away without warning.
Dr. Borrenpohl is now taking a stand to ensure this injustice does not go unchecked. She is committed to holding those responsible accountable and fighting for the protection of our fundamental rights. But to do so, she needs your help.
The legal costs to defend her rights and to ensure that no one else suffers a similar fate are significant. Dr. Borrenpohl is seeking funds to retain a skilled lawyer who can help her navigate this complex situation, challenge this unlawful detention, and protect citizens from future violations of their rights.
No American should fear being carted away by an unnamed paramilitary force without cause. The protection of our freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to be free from unlawful detention—should never be taken for granted. Dr. Borrenpohl is not just fighting for herself; she is fighting for every one of us.
Please consider donating to help Dr. Borrenpohl retain legal counsel and ensure that this injustice is properly addressed. Your support is crucial in defending our rights and ensuring that justice prevails.
Thank you for standing with Dr. Borrenpohl, for the protection of our civil liberties, and for the preservation of justice in America. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference in this fight.
Let’s stand together and ensure that no one’s rights are taken away without consequence.
okay wanted to do a quick update on Dr
Teresa baren Paul who um is the woman
that was assaulted in Idaho for speaking
up at a town hall we all saw that video
was very shocking and she is facing some
legal
troubles wrongly and she does have a
GoFundMe up so I think if you can and
you’re able to donate a dollar $5
$10 leg legal expenses are not
cheap what she raised
here if she were to go to trial we not
cover it so if you can donate please do
donate I’m going to have the link to the
GoFundMe in the description and in the
comments um so thank you so much and
Teresa
also uh posted on Instagram yesterday
and here’s what she had to say I could
have never imagined my right to free
speech in my right to assemble could be
stripped in such a violent way due to
the sensitivity and shock in the matter
I am unable to speak on the situation
immediately but I will make my voice
heard when the time is appropriate and I
totally get that and I think you know
legally speaking uh it might make sense
to just be very methodical about who who
you talk to and when but I know there
are going to be a lot of people wanting
to share her personal story when she
feels like it is the appropriate time
and again I just want to say I’m just so
overwhelmed by The Bravery she she
displayed and there’s another update
here good morning supporters Dr Teresa
is full of gratitude for the
overwhelming amount of personal and
financial support she’s receiving from
the community here in Idaho and across
the country thank you she has assistance
fighting the right lawyers for the right
fight ahead and feels supported by the
community there have been many requests
from media members who would like to
speak with Dr Baron Paul she has
designated three surrogates who were
with her during the town hall and can
speak speak to the media about the
incident please reach out to get
connected all right and then they share
the Instagram post and there is now
because of because of all the interest
the local news finally did a story on it
yesterday when this happened two days
ago and here’s a bit of that um of that
story and also I just want to say before
we into this
video I sent out a bat signal and the
Keith Edwards show Community
really showed up I got more than a
hundred emails either um just giving
support for this woman or giving me some
updates about what’s going on in Idaho
and I just want to say thank you all for
your interest this is not a one way
oneway relationship here and so uh this
only works because of you and I am here
because of you and so thank you so much
for everyone who reached out I do have a
couple of emails that I want to share
with you
um and before uh but first let’s get to
this video Saturday discussing topics
like Medicaid and school vouchers when
she was forcibly removed from the
meeting all of our elected officials in
coutney county and surrounding areas are
just so you know these are her friends
the I I don’t like how the reporter
doesn’t tell us ahead of time these are
her friends who are there at the meeting
okay all um Republican and so that is
why the Republican um party did the did
the town hall the auditorium was full
Bourne fall who has previously run for a
seat in the Idaho house as a Democrat
tried to ask a question during a
discussion about Reproductive
Rights her friends Megan C and Tamara
signs carelis tell
is this a lecture or a town hall there’s
an opportunity for Bourne fall was first
approached by Sheriff Bob
Morris my name is Robert Norris I’m
we’re asking you to leave on video
please get up or be escorted out Sheriff
Norris asked her to leave then grabbed
her don’t me come here Listen to I
justen to have a nice for I’m asking you
to
go then Norris called in three unmarked
security officers nobody knew who these
people
were that were assaulting her and
pulling her away are these guys are
these show your are you
don’t they pulled her out of her seat
and she wasn’t doing anything
threatening she was sitting in her seat
not doing anything threatening and into
the hallway Sheriff Norris film and
signs Caris say the MC of the event
spurred it on he called her a little
girl multiple times um also said you
know your voice is useless or it doesn’t
want to be heard here look at this this
little girl is afraid to
Boke up signs caralis as well as quter
Lane police say bnef fall was cited the
battery charge stems from allegations
that she bit one of the security
officers in my opinion that sounds like
self-defense Cy County Republican
Central Committee posted on Facebook
saying borf fall was arrested and that
she disrupted the town hall and vocally
cheered for any Dei
initiatives it was evident that dissent
was not being
tolerated I hate that they read only the
Republican statement so let’s just read
the statement from the Democrats shall
we our democracy these are the cruy
Democrats and I’m very sorry to everyone
who lives in Cy County who I butchered
the name of your your county yesterday
but Cy County our democracy rests on our
first amendment rights if we can’t
question leaders elected to represent us
without fear of reprisal we are not free
the town hall is a valued American
tradition that embodies these principles
providing a place for constituents to
ask questions and share their opinions
on the issues of the day at the recent
coutney County Republicans Town Hall it
was clear organizers not intend to allow
dialogue between legislators and the con
constituents they serve it is a very sad
day when a woman who voices dissent is
physically dragged out of a public venue
by unidentified men while the event
moderator belit belittles and taunts her
Idaho deserves better really wish the
reporter would have read that statement
too and here’s what I want to say before
we get into these emails go to these
town Halls make your voice heard on this
channel we have shown normal Americans
putting pressure on Republicans and
obviously they cannot take it the
slightest form of descent they can’t
fight back with their ideas they have to
fight back physically and if we keep
showing up we’re going to show the
problem and that’s what I love about uh
what um this Brave doctor did was she
put herself out there and made an
example of them by just speaking up it
doesn’t take much to make a difference
and I don’t think I don’t think she was
thinking she was going to show up and
Inspire tens of thousands and maybe
hundreds of thousands of people about
what it means to be an American in 2025
but for this
American she really did she really did
and so I am so inspired I think we all
just need to get local we need to get
organized and we need to show up and let
them know we don’t like the direction
where our country is headed
so okay we are hiding This Woman’s
um
identity H because she I don’t think she
you know I didn’t ask if I could share
this publicly but um I think I just want
you all to hear this I was there on
Saturday it was horrific it was full on
fascism on public display against the
public in a public high school if I can
help spread the word and correct the
lies the kcrc which is local Republican
party there is trying to spread in order
to cover their asses I’m happy be to be
of assistance I had attended to speak at
the Town Hall they denied any public
comment there was no chanting and
disorder which is what they said about
the mention of trump or the Bible as
they are claiming Trump in the Bible
were not even specifically discussed or
mentioned it was all about right-wing
Maga policies they’re trying to push
through the whole event is recorded
somewhere as they had their cameras
rolling there was no disorderly behavior
only brief calling out of opposition by
a handful of people as is their right as
is their right their reaction was
completely uncalled for and pure
tyrannical abuse of power thank you for
covering the story well thank you for
reaching out and I will be emailing you
separately um I would love to just hear
a little bit more about your perspective
so thank you for emailing me and then
and then a gentleman here said and I
think everyone shared this sentiment the
real tragedy of this video is the
absolute noninvolvement of the men to
stop the assault on that lady the guy
sitting next to her got up to allow the
mystery police to bodily harm her
without any empathy whatsoever for her
as a human regardless of the belief
system real men do not allow other
nonidentified bullies to assault any
woman ever is this the devolved state of
the Maga occults fear of its risal by
its own policing belief or else I am
mortified that other humans have totally
lost touch with their own Humanity in
favor of some savior of their inhumane
reality my God what Have We
Become okay well uh I agree that was
something very frightening me not that
she needs our protection but if I were
there I would not have been able to uh
stop myself
s from getting involved however I felt
appropriate at the
time so this story is ever moving we
will be following it on the channel um I
I hope we can get one of her friends on
if not her herself I just again want to
thank you all for supporting her again
the fun the GoFundMe is uh is here and
it will be in the description below if
you can donate anything it will make
such a difference because these legal
fights can be expensive and long if the
opposing side wants them to be and uh
anyone who speaks up for democracy and
our constitutional rights is a friend of
the channel and I’m sure a friend of the
community here and again thank you all
so much for uh for reaching out for
giving all your information about what’s
happening um in Idaho what sound
really just really scary to be frank and
um again thank you to Dr Teresa baren
Paul who uh showed us all what bravery
looks like and that
anyone can make a difference anyone can
make a difference you can make a
difference let’s just start showing up
and speaking outhttps://www.instagram.com/harlowsmusings/reel/DGb70IiNkUI/
MUST WATCH: This is chilling! A woman attends a town-hall in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, peacefully speaks out, and gets hauled out by unmarked goons with zero authority. NO badges. This isn’t what freedom looks like, folks. Get ready—this ride is about to get WAY roughed. I found it so hard to understand how a room full of people chose not to help this young woman, her name is Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl. A photo of her and photos of the 3 security guards who dragged this young woman out of her seat. It’s quite disturbing! …”this little girl” – that’s a grown woman. And where the fck is anyone defending her. This is insane. “She spoke up, and now she doesn’t want to suffer the consequences.”A direct quote from the MAN directing this town hall meeting, when this brave WOMAN spoke up for a WOMAN’S right to choose what she does with her body. She is then attacked by multiple MEN, who despite her resisting, physically drag her out of the room. Some WOMEN try to stick up for her, but the MEN in the audience sit and watch. Ultimately, not a single person does a god damn thing. At today’s KCRCC event at CHS auditorium in Coeur d’Alene, ID, the public was not allowed to comment. Those with differing perspectives were repeatedly told to “shut up or get the hell out.” And when one woman simply asked if this was a lecture or an actual town hall, she was forcibly removed. 🔁 TT @tonyajean81
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is an advocate for education. She has dedicated her career to decreases the barriers of education for Idaho’s students. Teresa developed a region-wide education program to ensure the students of North Idaho can seek a higher education. In one year of the program, go-on rates increased by 25% with rural schools seeing the greatest impact.
I hope she wins but I have doubts. It is entirelyppossible that tthe nazis now believe they have full control and will attack anyone who speaks out against them.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
UPDATE: Woman VIOLENTLY ATTACKED At Idaho Town Hall SPEAKS OUT
link
On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered at a town hall in Kootenai County, Idaho, to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about important issues affecting their community. What should have been a peaceful and productive event, where people exercised their right to voice their concerns, quickly turned into a violation of Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl’s constitutional rights.
In a shocking and unlawful turn of events, Dr. Borrenpohl was detained by an unmarked paramilitary squad—an unknown and unnamed group of individuals with no clear authority or justification for their actions. What’s even more alarming is that the local sheriff, who, instead of protecting Dr. Borrenpohl, stood by and filmed the incident on his phone after encouraging her violent removal.
This detainment wasn’t just an unfortunate moment—it was an illegal violation of Dr. Borrenpohl’s rights. She was denied her freedom of assembly, her freedom of speech, and most importantly, her right to be free from unlawful detention. This is not just an isolated event; it is a chilling reminder that, even in the United States, our civil liberties can be stripped away without warning.
Dr. Borrenpohl is now taking a stand to ensure this injustice does not go unchecked. She is committed to holding those responsible accountable and fighting for the protection of our fundamental rights. But to do so, she needs your help.
The legal costs to defend her rights and to ensure that no one else suffers a similar fate are significant. Dr. Borrenpohl is seeking funds to retain a skilled lawyer who can help her navigate this complex situation, challenge this unlawful detention, and protect citizens from future violations of their rights.
No American should fear being carted away by an unnamed paramilitary force without cause. The protection of our freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to be free from unlawful detention—should never be taken for granted. Dr. Borrenpohl is not just fighting for herself; she is fighting for every one of us.
Please consider donating to help Dr. Borrenpohl retain legal counsel and ensure that this injustice is properly addressed. Your support is crucial in defending our rights and ensuring that justice prevails.
Thank you for standing with Dr. Borrenpohl, for the protection of our civil liberties, and for the preservation of justice in America. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference in this fight.
Let’s stand together and ensure that no one’s rights are taken away without consequence.
okay wanted to do a quick update on Dr
Teresa baren Paul who um is the woman
that was assaulted in Idaho for speaking
up at a town hall we all saw that video
was very shocking and she is facing some
legal
troubles wrongly and she does have a
GoFundMe up so I think if you can and
you’re able to donate a dollar $5
$10 leg legal expenses are not
cheap what she raised
here if she were to go to trial we not
cover it so if you can donate please do
donate I’m going to have the link to the
GoFundMe in the description and in the
comments um so thank you so much and
Teresa
also uh posted on Instagram yesterday
and here’s what she had to say I could
have never imagined my right to free
speech in my right to assemble could be
stripped in such a violent way due to
the sensitivity and shock in the matter
I am unable to speak on the situation
immediately but I will make my voice
heard when the time is appropriate and I
totally get that and I think you know
legally speaking uh it might make sense
to just be very methodical about who who
you talk to and when but I know there
are going to be a lot of people wanting
to share her personal story when she
feels like it is the appropriate time
and again I just want to say I’m just so
overwhelmed by The Bravery she she
displayed and there’s another update
here good morning supporters Dr Teresa
is full of gratitude for the
overwhelming amount of personal and
financial support she’s receiving from
the community here in Idaho and across
the country thank you she has assistance
fighting the right lawyers for the right
fight ahead and feels supported by the
community there have been many requests
from media members who would like to
speak with Dr Baron Paul she has
designated three surrogates who were
with her during the town hall and can
speak speak to the media about the
incident please reach out to get
connected all right and then they share
the Instagram post and there is now
because of because of all the interest
the local news finally did a story on it
yesterday when this happened two days
ago and here’s a bit of that um of that
story and also I just want to say before
we into this
video I sent out a bat signal and the
Keith Edwards show Community
really showed up I got more than a
hundred emails either um just giving
support for this woman or giving me some
updates about what’s going on in Idaho
and I just want to say thank you all for
your interest this is not a one way
oneway relationship here and so uh this
only works because of you and I am here
because of you and so thank you so much
for everyone who reached out I do have a
couple of emails that I want to share
with you
um and before uh but first let’s get to
this video Saturday discussing topics
like Medicaid and school vouchers when
she was forcibly removed from the
meeting all of our elected officials in
coutney county and surrounding areas are
just so you know these are her friends
the I I don’t like how the reporter
doesn’t tell us ahead of time these are
her friends who are there at the meeting
okay all um Republican and so that is
why the Republican um party did the did
the town hall the auditorium was full
Bourne fall who has previously run for a
seat in the Idaho house as a Democrat
tried to ask a question during a
discussion about Reproductive
Rights her friends Megan C and Tamara
signs carelis tell
is this a lecture or a town hall there’s
an opportunity for Bourne fall was first
approached by Sheriff Bob
Morris my name is Robert Norris I’m
we’re asking you to leave on video
please get up or be escorted out Sheriff
Norris asked her to leave then grabbed
her don’t me come here Listen to I
justen to have a nice for I’m asking you
to
go then Norris called in three unmarked
security officers nobody knew who these
people
were that were assaulting her and
pulling her away are these guys are
these show your are you
don’t they pulled her out of her seat
and she wasn’t doing anything
threatening she was sitting in her seat
not doing anything threatening and into
the hallway Sheriff Norris film and
signs Caris say the MC of the event
spurred it on he called her a little
girl multiple times um also said you
know your voice is useless or it doesn’t
want to be heard here look at this this
little girl is afraid to
Boke up signs caralis as well as quter
Lane police say bnef fall was cited the
battery charge stems from allegations
that she bit one of the security
officers in my opinion that sounds like
self-defense Cy County Republican
Central Committee posted on Facebook
saying borf fall was arrested and that
she disrupted the town hall and vocally
cheered for any Dei
initiatives it was evident that dissent
was not being
tolerated I hate that they read only the
Republican statement so let’s just read
the statement from the Democrats shall
we our democracy these are the cruy
Democrats and I’m very sorry to everyone
who lives in Cy County who I butchered
the name of your your county yesterday
but Cy County our democracy rests on our
first amendment rights if we can’t
question leaders elected to represent us
without fear of reprisal we are not free
the town hall is a valued American
tradition that embodies these principles
providing a place for constituents to
ask questions and share their opinions
on the issues of the day at the recent
coutney County Republicans Town Hall it
was clear organizers not intend to allow
dialogue between legislators and the con
constituents they serve it is a very sad
day when a woman who voices dissent is
physically dragged out of a public venue
by unidentified men while the event
moderator belit belittles and taunts her
Idaho deserves better really wish the
reporter would have read that statement
too and here’s what I want to say before
we get into these emails go to these
town Halls make your voice heard on this
channel we have shown normal Americans
putting pressure on Republicans and
obviously they cannot take it the
slightest form of descent they can’t
fight back with their ideas they have to
fight back physically and if we keep
showing up we’re going to show the
problem and that’s what I love about uh
what um this Brave doctor did was she
put herself out there and made an
example of them by just speaking up it
doesn’t take much to make a difference
and I don’t think I don’t think she was
thinking she was going to show up and
Inspire tens of thousands and maybe
hundreds of thousands of people about
what it means to be an American in 2025
but for this
American she really did she really did
and so I am so inspired I think we all
just need to get local we need to get
organized and we need to show up and let
them know we don’t like the direction
where our country is headed
so okay we are hiding This Woman’s
um
identity H because she I don’t think she
you know I didn’t ask if I could share
this publicly but um I think I just want
you all to hear this I was there on
Saturday it was horrific it was full on
fascism on public display against the
public in a public high school if I can
help spread the word and correct the
lies the kcrc which is local Republican
party there is trying to spread in order
to cover their asses I’m happy be to be
of assistance I had attended to speak at
the Town Hall they denied any public
comment there was no chanting and
disorder which is what they said about
the mention of trump or the Bible as
they are claiming Trump in the Bible
were not even specifically discussed or
mentioned it was all about right-wing
Maga policies they’re trying to push
through the whole event is recorded
somewhere as they had their cameras
rolling there was no disorderly behavior
only brief calling out of opposition by
a handful of people as is their right as
is their right their reaction was
completely uncalled for and pure
tyrannical abuse of power thank you for
covering the story well thank you for
reaching out and I will be emailing you
separately um I would love to just hear
a little bit more about your perspective
so thank you for emailing me and then
and then a gentleman here said and I
think everyone shared this sentiment the
real tragedy of this video is the
absolute noninvolvement of the men to
stop the assault on that lady the guy
sitting next to her got up to allow the
mystery police to bodily harm her
without any empathy whatsoever for her
as a human regardless of the belief
system real men do not allow other
nonidentified bullies to assault any
woman ever is this the devolved state of
the Maga occults fear of its risal by
its own policing belief or else I am
mortified that other humans have totally
lost touch with their own Humanity in
favor of some savior of their inhumane
reality my God what Have We
Become okay well uh I agree that was
something very frightening me not that
she needs our protection but if I were
there I would not have been able to uh
stop myself
s from getting involved however I felt
appropriate at the
time so this story is ever moving we
will be following it on the channel um I
I hope we can get one of her friends on
if not her herself I just again want to
thank you all for supporting her again
the fun the GoFundMe is uh is here and
it will be in the description below if
you can donate anything it will make
such a difference because these legal
fights can be expensive and long if the
opposing side wants them to be and uh
anyone who speaks up for democracy and
our constitutional rights is a friend of
the channel and I’m sure a friend of the
community here and again thank you all
so much for uh for reaching out for
giving all your information about what’s
happening um in Idaho what sound
really just really scary to be frank and
um again thank you to Dr Teresa baren
Paul who uh showed us all what bravery
looks like and that
anyone can make a difference anyone can
make a difference you can make a
difference let’s just start showing up
and speaking outhttps://www.instagram.com/harlowsmusings/reel/DGb70IiNkUI/
MUST WATCH: This is chilling! A woman attends a town-hall in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, peacefully speaks out, and gets hauled out by unmarked goons with zero authority. NO badges. This isn’t what freedom looks like, folks. Get ready—this ride is about to get WAY roughed. I found it so hard to understand how a room full of people chose not to help this young woman, her name is Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl. A photo of her and photos of the 3 security guards who dragged this young woman out of her seat. It’s quite disturbing! …”this little girl” – that’s a grown woman. And where the fck is anyone defending her. This is insane. “She spoke up, and now she doesn’t want to suffer the consequences.”A direct quote from the MAN directing this town hall meeting, when this brave WOMAN spoke up for a WOMAN’S right to choose what she does with her body. She is then attacked by multiple MEN, who despite her resisting, physically drag her out of the room. Some WOMEN try to stick up for her, but the MEN in the audience sit and watch. Ultimately, not a single person does a god damn thing. At today’s KCRCC event at CHS auditorium in Coeur d’Alene, ID, the public was not allowed to comment. Those with differing perspectives were repeatedly told to “shut up or get the hell out.” And when one woman simply asked if this was a lecture or an actual town hall, she was forcibly removed. 🔁 TT @tonyajean81
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is an advocate for education. She has dedicated her career to decreases the barriers of education for Idaho’s students. Teresa developed a region-wide education program to ensure the students of North Idaho can seek a higher education. In one year of the program, go-on rates increased by 25% with rural schools seeing the greatest impact.
the people cheering as she is man handled. damn. mob.
SCIENCE said:
—————————-CUT——————————-
Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl, was at the town hall in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and was pulled out of the room by her arms for asking “is this a town hall or a lecture?”
The MC of the event, Ed Bejarana (a voice actor from Cali) taunted and scolded her for speaking up; Bejarana had been complaining to the crowd because of the occasional interjections to his ramblings about abortion bans.
Off-duty sheriff Robert Norris confronted Borrenpohl and asked her to leave, then attempted to pull her out her seat.
(He also threatened to pepper spray her)
The men dressed in black came up, refused to identify themselves, and pulled her down the middle aisle by her arms.
The men were later confirmed to be employees of LEAR Asset Management. Phone # below
Borrenpohl has received a citation for biting one of the men forcefully removing her.
Here Is her GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/…/justice-for-dr-borrenpohl…
The main (or background) image was taken as the mystery men attempted to zip-tie her wrists while she was being held down.
Anyways here’s the phone number to Norris’ sheriffs office pictured below, and here’s a picture of Ed Bejarana, the MC/voice actor for audible.
Unfortunately, Bejarana has appeared to have either deleted his account on instagram, or he blocked me after I visited his page. Y’all feel free to try it out tho https://www.instagram.com/edbejarana/
Biting…
May not win this one.
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
The goalposts have been removed altogether?
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
Sorry, two left feet.
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
he’s toeing the lion
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
Sigh..
The video is obviously AI.
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
AI is really clever you know.
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
Sigh..
The video is obviously AI.
we suppose the blurb literally says that too but hey
Protest.
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
Sigh..
The video is obviously AI.
Sometimes, even AI gets it right.
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
better than two left feet.
buffy said:
buffy said:
kii said:
There is a video of the screens playing the video.
Two right feet?
Sorry, two left feet.
see, what could be worse?
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
:)
aha
and they say
we repeat ourselves ahahaha
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
aha
and they say
we repeat ourselves ahahaha
if it is worth posting once. then it is worth posting again. as long as someone different posts it. otherwise it would appear to a “look at me” post.
More information coming out about the town hall in Idaho.
The sheriff seen in the various videos is a corrupt piece of shit. Just remember, sheriffs are elected and don’t require anything other than popularity.
sarahs mum said:
https://youtu.be/MNzTHrJ0VMg?si=R1yh9g7Gqp3ZT8pd
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
aha so this is like the Postdam Division of Germany after all oh wait oh shit
then this
Even after that guidance was issued, some agencies nudged their employees to respond. A senior manager at the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal buildings, told employees that the agency was still encouraging workers to answer the email even if it was voluntary, according to a GSA source. Similarly, the acting director of OPM also sent an email to the agency’s staff that said responding with bullet points was voluntary “but strongly encouraged”.
we get that Yousr ABC like all other news media are slow off the mark and everything but pretty obvious they don’t really care about the firing and are instead measuring the response to see who they can rely on to execute the next stage of the fascist purge
ChrispenEvan said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
aha
and they say
we repeat ourselves ahahaha
if it is worth posting once. then it is worth posting again. as long as someone different posts it. otherwise it would appear to a “look at me” post.
Apologies if i repeated soemthing.
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
February 24, 2025 (Monday)
Three years ago today, a massive influx of Russian troops crossed into Ukraine to join the troops that had been there since the 2014 invasion. At the time, it seemed that Russian president Vladimir Putin thought victory would be a matter of days, and observers did not think he was wrong. But Ukraine government officials pointedly filmed themselves in Kyiv, and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky refused to leave. Rejecting the U.S. offer of evacuation, Zelensky replied: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”
For the past three years Ukraine has held off Russia. As Anne Applebaum noted today in The Atlantic, civilian society in Ukraine has volunteered for the war effort, and the defense industry has transformed to produce both hardware and software to hit Russian targets: indeed, Ukraine now leads the world in AI-enabled drone technology. The Ukraine army has become the largest in Europe, with a million people. Ukraine has suffered attacks on civilians, hospitals, and the energy sector, and at least 46,000 soldiers have died, with another 380,000 wounded.
At the same time, Russia’s economy is crumbling as its military production takes from the civilian economy and sanctions prevent other countries from taking up the slack. Inflation is through the roof, and more than 700,000 of those fighting for Russia have been killed or wounded. Applebaum notes that the Institute for the Study of War estimates that at the rate it’s moving, Russia would need 83 years to capture the remaining 80% of Ukraine.
“The only way Putin wins now,” Applebaum writes, “is by persuading Ukraine’s allies to be sick of the war…by persuading Trump to cut off Ukraine…and by convincing Europeans that they can’t win either.” And this appears to be the plan afoot, as U.S. president Donald Trump has directed U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, to negotiate an end to the war with Russian officials. Neither Ukrainian nor European leaders were invited to the talks that took place last Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Three years ago, President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were key to rallying allies and partners to stand against the invasion, providing war materiel, humanitarian aid, money, and crucial economic sanctions against Russia that began the process of dismantling the Russian economy. Today, Ukraine hosted European leaders, but U.S. officials did not attend.
In the past week, President Donald Trump has embraced Russian propaganda about its invasion. Trump blamed Ukraine for the war that Russia began by invading, called Zelensky a “dictator” for not holding elections during wartime (Russia hopes that it will be able to sway new elections, but Ukraine’s laws bar wartime elections), and lied that the U.S. has provided $350 billion to Ukraine and that half the money is “missing.” In fact, the U.S. has provided about $100 billion, which is less than Europe has contributed, and the U.S.
contributions have been mostly in the form of weapons from U.S. stockpiles that defense industries then replaced at home. None of that support is “missing.”
As Peter Baker of the New York Times points out, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said: “we have a pretty good accounting of where it’s going.” Baker’s piece explored how “in Trump’s alternate reality, lies and distortions” will make it easier for Trump to give Putin everything he wants in a peace agreement. For his part, Putin on Saturday launched 267 drones into Ukraine, the largest drone attack of the war.
Today, just a month into the second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States delegation to the United Nations voted against a resolution condemning Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and calling for it to end its occupation. That is, the U.S. voted against a resolution that reiterated that one nation must not invade another, one of the founding principles of the United Nations itself, an organization whose headquarters are actually in the United States. The U.S. voted with Russia, Israel, North Korea, Belarus, and fourteen other countries friendly to Russia against the measure, which passed overwhelmingly. China and India abstained.
On Google Maps, users changed the name of Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago to “Kremlin Headquarters.”
The editorial board of London’s Financial Times noted today that “n the past ten days, has all but incinerated 80 years of postwar American leadership.” Instead, it has become an “unabashed predator,” allied with Russia and other countries the U.S. formerly saw as adversaries. The board recalled important moments in which “the US displayed its character as global leader,” and those moments “defined the world’s idea of America.” But a new era has begun. Trump’s assertion that Ukraine “should have never started” the war with Russia, and J.D. Vance’s statement that the real danger in Europe is liberal democracy, are “the dark version of those” moments coming, as they did, “straight from Putin’s talking points.”
Each, the board said, “will live in infamy.” It added that “there should be no doubt that Trump’s contempt for allies and admiration for strongmen is real and will endure.” He is “instinctively committed to the idea that the world is a jungle in which the big players take what they want…. He divides the world into spheres of interest.”
“America,” the board concluded, “has turned.”
It appears Putin thought that breaking the U.S. away from Europe would leave Europe weak and adrift, especially with Germany about to hold elections that Russia hoped Germany’s far-right, pro-Russian party would win and with both Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance having demonstrated their support. But French president Emmanuel Macron, a staunch backer of Ukraine, appears to be stepping into the vacuum caused by the loss of the United States. After the U.S.’s reorientation became clear at the Munich Security Conference on February 14–16, Macron invited European leaders to Paris to discuss the U.S. change.
On Monday, February 17, eight European leaders and the heads of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union met; on Wednesday, Macron spoke with the leaders of 19 countries, including Canada, either in person or over videoconferencing. Leaders from Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden also joined the conversation.
The far-right German party made gains in yesterday’s election but did not win. Instead, the center-right party won and will form a government with the outgoing center-left party. The incoming party strongly supports Ukraine.
“I would never have thought that I would have to say something like this,” Germany’s next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said yesterday, but “it is clear that government does not care much about the fate of Europe.” He said that his “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”
Yesterday the European Union imposed more sanctions on Russia. Today the United Kingdom announced a sweeping package of sanctions rivaling those of the war’s early days. They include sanctions against companies in various countries that supply components like tools, electronics, and microprocessors for Russian munitions. The sanctions also include Russian oligarchs, ships transporting Russian oil, and North Korea’s defense minister No Kwang Chol, whom the U.K. holds responsible for deploying North Korean soldiers to help Russia.
Today, Macron visited Trump at the White House, where the visit got off to a poor start when Trump broke protocol by neglecting to greet Macron when he arrived. During the visit, the two men took questions from the press. Macron maintained a facade of camaraderie with Trump, but as Trump slumped in his chair and recited the inaccuracies that in the U.S. often go uncorrected, Macron seemed comfortable and in command. He interrupted Trump to contradict him in front of reporters and called out Russia for being the aggressor in the war.
John Simpson of the BBC noted that “there are years when the world goes through some fundamental, convulsive change” and that 2025 is on track to be one of them: “a time when the basic assumptions about the way our world works are fed into the shredder.”
sarahs mum said:
has it been 10 days yet
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
has it been 10 days yet
Too many more.
From the AP News article about the town hall in Idaho.
Videos show cheers and jeers were erupting throughout the crowd at times — including when one lawmaker mentioned legislation that he said protected doctors from “being forced to do abortions.”
“Women are dying,” one person in the audience shouted. “And doctors are leaving our state!” another yelled. A moderator tried to quiet the crowd, scolding people for “popping off with stupid remarks.”
That’s when Borrenpohl, a Democratic legislative candidate who has run unsuccessfully in the deeply Republican region, began to shout as well.
“Is this a town hall, or a lecture?” she asked, others in the audience echoing the question.
surely lectures have been given in town halls before
SCIENCE said:
surely lectures have been given in town halls before
Just stop it.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
surely lectures have been given in town halls before
Just stop it.
they did, they removed her
kii said:
Lisa Lee Curtis’s piece on the assault of a woman in Idaho.
Another angle, some people did stand up and speak out against the violence. ill. The standover men in the video make me feel iill.
https://youtu.be/wnBHQyUZiws?si=NzFq0663MzhXdKnP
The Trump administration plans to create a registry for immigrants in the U.S. illegally to submit their personal information or face fines and prison time.
diddly-squat said:
The Trump administration plans to create a registry for immigrants in the U.S. illegally to submit their personal information or face fines and prison time.
Reference? All immigrants?
Nomination of Dan Bongino as the new Deputy Director of the FBI has been seen as a failure of process by rank and file FBI agents. This will be the first time someone that has not served as an FBI agent will have been elevated to what is essentially the chief operational role in the agency.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:The Trump administration plans to create a registry for immigrants in the U.S. illegally to submit their personal information or face fines and prison time.
Reference? All immigrants?
I think dudley is ignoring me.
kii said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:The Trump administration plans to create a registry for immigrants in the U.S. illegally to submit their personal information or face fines and prison time.
Reference? All immigrants?
I think dudley is ignoring me.
They had that meme all ready to go ?
Cymek said:
kii said:
kii said:Reference? All immigrants?
I think dudley is ignoring me.
They had that meme all ready to go ?
I’ve been saving it.
diddly-squat said:
Nomination of Dan Bongino as the new Deputy Director of the FBI has been seen as a failure of process by rank and file FBI agents. This will be the first time someone that has not served as an FBI agent will have been elevated to what is essentially the chief operational role in the agency.
Absolute joke of a country now
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Nomination of Dan Bongino as the new Deputy Director of the FBI has been seen as a failure of process by rank and file FBI agents. This will be the first time someone that has not served as an FBI agent will have been elevated to what is essentially the chief operational role in the agency.
Absolute joke of a country now
I don’t see many people laughing.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Nomination of Dan Bongino as the new Deputy Director of the FBI has been seen as a failure of process by rank and file FBI agents. This will be the first time someone that has not served as an FBI agent will have been elevated to what is essentially the chief operational role in the agency.
Absolute joke of a country now
I don’t see many people laughing.
Government workers do a lot behind the scenes no ones is aware of including those high up in the government.
Only becomes apparent when they are fired and it all comes crashing down.
From what I have seen in nearly 25 years a very small percentage are slack and even less are incompetent.
They are usually internally managed
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:Absolute joke of a country now
I don’t see many people laughing.
Government workers do a lot behind the scenes no ones is aware of including those high up in the government.
Only becomes apparent when they are fired and it all comes crashing down.
From what I have seen in nearly 25 years a very small percentage are slack and even less are incompetent.
They are usually internally managed
The issue here is that the FBI Director is largely a political appointment, the role is designed to act as an intermediary between the Agency and the Government. The Deputy Director is an operational role and essentially requires that whomever sits there understands the Agency upside-down and back-to-front so that they can effectively run investigations and collect and assess intelligence. The guy that has been nominated for the job as Deputy Director, previously worked for for the Secret Service but has never actually worked for the FBI.
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:
Absolute joke of a country now
I don’t see many people laughing.
Government workers do a lot behind the scenes no ones is aware of including those high up in the government.
Only becomes apparent when they are fired and it all comes crashing down.
From what I have seen in nearly 25 years a very small percentage are slack and even less are incompetent.
They are usually internally managed
don’t worry the secret to success for failing imperialist nations is more colonisation and they’ve just put one in the bag
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/ukraine-agrees-to-minerals-deal-terms-with-us/104982856
Steve Gadd
1h ·
Please discuss.
My own thoughts on this question are still forming.
I’ve been thinking about the futures that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are each envisioning. Are they in accord or are they imagining different futures or pulling in different directions?
Looking at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its aggressive cost-cutting, it’s easy to think he’s simply anti-state. But what if we’re missing the point?
Musk is picturing a world where robots handle most of the work, AI manages administrative tasks, and people are linked to AI through brain implants. In fact he has companies working on all of these things.
Musk’s company Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface called “the Link,” which is a coin-sized chip implanted in the brain to record brain activity and transmit it to external devices via Bluetooth. Through Tesla, he’s also working on humanoid robots named Optimus that can perform a variety of tasks.
By the end of 2025, Tesla plans to produce thousands of these robots. Additionally, DOGE has been using AI to evaluate federal jobs, aiming to replace human workers with AI and smart robotics.
On another topic, Musk has often expressed support for a universal basic income as a way to address job displacement caused by automation and AI, believing it will be essential for economic and social stability.
Add these together and you get a picture of a technocratic and paternalistic future where many human jobs become unnecessary but the population is fed and housed by the state.
Trump, on the other hand, has a top-down vision for the state that leans more toward feudal libertarianism. In his vision, the poor (losers) are neglected and blamed for their poverty. Partnerships between the wealthy and successful create an entrenched oligarchy, with leadership based on Trump’s unchallenged will, approaching a hereditary monarchy. This ambition, influenced by thinkers like Curtis Yarvin, aims to establish a more hierarchical, authoritarian system, concentrating political power in a single executive figure.
Yarvin, also known as Mencius Moldbug, advocates replacing democracy with an accountable monarchy, similar to corporate governance. Some of Trump’s close associates, like Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance, have been influenced by Yarvin. There’s also some anecdotal evidence that Musk might be sympathetic to Yarvin’s vision.
So, my question is: Do Musk’s high-tech, sci-fi aspirations clash with Trump’s cult of personality and vision of an all-powerful monarch? Are these visions compatible or contradictory? What do you all think?
—-
kill me now.
Did we see this one?
Dozens quit Elon Musk’s DOGE citing security risks over US data
diddly-squat said:
Nomination of Dan Bongino as the new Deputy Director of the FBI has been seen as a failure of process by rank and file FBI agents. This will be the first time someone that has not served as an FBI agent will have been elevated to what is essentially the chief operational role in the agency.
Bloody!
https://www.facebook.com/peter.rowney.59/videos/1831468281011138
Skeptic Pete
The president of the United States’ vision for “Trump Gaza” involves luxury condos, yachts, and men in bikinis belly-dancing, while Elon Musk throws money around and feeds his face and Benjamin Netanyahu sips Pina Coladas by the pool. Totally normal stuff here.
And yes, he posted this himself on “Truth” Social.
ChrispenEvan said:
https://www.facebook.com/peter.rowney.59/videos/1831468281011138Skeptic Pete
The president of the United States’ vision for “Trump Gaza” involves luxury condos, yachts, and men in bikinis belly-dancing, while Elon Musk throws money around and feeds his face and Benjamin Netanyahu sips Pina Coladas by the pool. Totally normal stuff here.
And yes, he posted this himself on “Truth” Social.
Divine Angel said:
ChrispenEvan said:
https://www.facebook.com/peter.rowney.59/videos/1831468281011138Skeptic Pete
The president of the United States’ vision for “Trump Gaza” involves luxury condos, yachts, and men in bikinis belly-dancing, while Elon Musk throws money around and feeds his face and Benjamin Netanyahu sips Pina Coladas by the pool. Totally normal stuff here.
And yes, he posted this himself on “Truth” Social.
If you like pina coladas
And fancy yachts in the bay
If you’re into condos
And manly men who aren’t gay
If you like watching Musk throw money
And shadows where bombs once lay
Come with me into Gaza
Come with Trump and escape
lol.
I think my eldest niece (Professor in Houston Texas) has something on her mind.
buffy said:
I think my eldest niece (Professor in Houston Texas) has something on her mind.
yep. I’m with her.
buffy said:
I think my eldest niece (Professor in Houston Texas) has something on her mind.
Friday ?
buffy said:
I think my eldest niece (Professor in Houston Texas) has something on her mind.
“they’re so good at maths”
roughbarked said:
“https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/dozens-quit-elon-musk-s-doge-citing-security-risks-over-us-data/104983062
I wonder if one or both of them are Russian sleeps agents.
Activated by a number station and after they kill Nordberg
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
I wonder if one or both of them are Russian sleeps agents.
Activated by a number station and after they kill Nordberg
LOL neither are c’m‘on don’t be daft they’re agents but definitely not sleeper.
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
“https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/dozens-quit-elon-musk-s-doge-citing-security-risks-over-us-data/104983062
I wonder if one or both of them are Russian sleeps agents.
Activated by a number station and after they kill Nordberg
I doubt that either of them are.
Neither of them could resist ‘bragging’ about it, if they were.
Fark.
Apparently Shitler really did post this.
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨
——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
sarahs mum said:
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨
——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
yesterday just ushered in a new version of fafo you know F around and find out up until now it’s been a lot of trump voters finding out the hard way that their vote just bit them right in the Ace but now yesterday it came down on people who thought they were Untouchable right-wing law enforcement and private security thugs in the heart of DieHard Red State country and it’s coming down hard they thought they could put a stop to all the protests that have been happening at Republican town Town Halls by mostly Republican voters and they thought wrong cout County Republican Central Committee along with right-wing Sheriff Bob Norris thought they could throw out anyone who protested at their Town Hall but it got ugly Norris tried throwing out a woman for her behavior and he employed private security guards to do it it got ugly well new video has surfaced which I’m going to show and as you will see the violent actions by several private security thugs is not only outrageous but it’s going to cause several people to be subjected to fafo watch over talking you because your voice is meaningless right now and we’re just taking care of you’re not helping you’re not helping you are not helping your this gentleman is assaulting me this man is assaulting me this man is assaulting me is this your Deputy is this youry no is he youry is he auty Yes you heard that correctly the guy at the podium is Ed bejana and what he said is we’ve got to be a little aggressive with some of these folks here your voice is meaningless right now I can talk over all of you well good for you Ed then he went on to call Dr Teresa borole a little girl who spoke up and now doesn’t want to suffer the consequences can you be any more condescending there now keep watching as Dr borole is assaulted by private security who are you who are you show your B who are you yeah that’s what they RAC people are screaming at them to show identification to clarify if they are law enforcement they get no answer what this new video also shows is at least one man did try to intervene but he was forced out as well and in that process what this new video also shows is that there were more than two security guards and they were armed and they already had zip ties meaning this was planned well the city of cordelan is not putting up with it only a day after the assault the police department released a statement and local news covered it watch this and cheering at a legislative Town Hall in C Lane as it appears that cutney County Sheriff Bob Norris tells these two men to remove that woman you just heard from from the event being put on by the cotney County Republican Central Committee you can also see Sheriff Norris recording the incident on a phone while the woman asks if the two men were deputies thank you for joining us tonight I’m Kirsten oconor and I’m Dereck dice we now know those two men work for a private security company today the city of cordelan revoked that company’s license and cordelane police are recommending charges against the woman Teresa Boren pole be dropped so Lear Asset Management not only lost their license they’re going to get the pant suit off of them with a legal fund that has reached over $175,000 and what about Good Old Sheriff Bob well he’s being looked at too watch the board released a statement reading in par quote we ask that people consider allowing for the investigation to finish before drawing conclusions he’s not commenting and the County Board is telling everyone to be patient he’s definitely being investigated by the police and the county you in trouble Sheriff Bob and what about our cocky MC Who provided all the great commentary well social media has a special place just for him poster Amy McFly posted his LinkedIn page and others are reporting that he shut down his Twitter account one thing should be made clear Teresa borne pole was not dragged out because she was was out of line she was dragged out because she is a Democrat and one who has run for office before so all of that is going to come out in the investigation and we need to keep the heat on people should call the governor of Idaho’s office and put on pressure I don’t know where you can find the number but you know try and don’t just let them Palm you off on the mayor’s office apply some pressure but yes all also call the mayor’s office again I don’t know where you can find the number but it’s worth trying to look it up but it’s time to do more than just make phone calls first give money to the C County Democratic party because they are going to need it when they run their candidate for Sheriff and that’s the last thing we need to do run for local office School Board city council anything and everything local and let’s build from the bottom up but definitely if I were someone with a law enforcement background living in couta County I would start my campaign for Sheriff now you’ll have Financial backing from across the country and let’s face it your campaign video has already been made and I’m saving the most important action item for the end there was one count him one man who stood up for Teresa Barn pole and where were the rest of them well most of them were jering because she was a liberal fine let them we’ll see how they react when it’s their daughter or grandchild being dragged out of a young Republicans meeting but for the rest of you men this is the lesson we were supposed to have learned from the George Floyd murder it is not enough to record video of what is going on when law enforcement or in this case Renta thugs are acting out of line we have to intervene we have to lay our bodies on the line and we have to call out others to intervene with us that doesn’t mean assault them it means impeding what they’re trying to do and doing it with greater numbers that’s what being a citizen means and my final point if you see more than two people using their phones for video then use yours to call the police there were cordine police in the parking lot at this event and they had no idea what was going on inside they could have been summoned they would most likely have intervened because if there’s one thing cops don’t like it’s private security assaulting civilians but they stayed outside because not enough people called call get involved that’s how we save this country I’m Anthony Vincent Gallow for occupied Democrats
good
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨
——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
yesterday just ushered in a new version of fafo you know F around and find out up until now it’s been a lot of trump voters finding out the hard way that their vote just bit them right in the Ace but now yesterday it came down on people who thought they were Untouchable right-wing law enforcement and private security thugs in the heart of DieHard Red State country and it’s coming down hard they thought they could put a stop to all the protests that have been happening at Republican town Town Halls by mostly Republican voters and they thought wrong cout County Republican Central Committee along with right-wing Sheriff Bob Norris thought they could throw out anyone who protested at their Town Hall but it got ugly Norris tried throwing out a woman for her behavior and he employed private security guards to do it it got ugly well new video has surfaced which I’m going to show and as you will see the violent actions by several private security thugs is not only outrageous but it’s going to cause several people to be subjected to fafo watch over talking you because your voice is meaningless right now and we’re just taking care of you’re not helping you’re not helping you are not helping your this gentleman is assaulting me this man is assaulting me this man is assaulting me is this your Deputy is this youry no is he youry is he auty Yes you heard that correctly the guy at the podium is Ed bejana and what he said is we’ve got to be a little aggressive with some of these folks here your voice is meaningless right now I can talk over all of you well good for you Ed then he went on to call Dr Teresa borole a little girl who spoke up and now doesn’t want to suffer the consequences can you be any more condescending there now keep watching as Dr borole is assaulted by private security who are you who are you show your B who are you yeah that’s what they RAC people are screaming at them to show identification to clarify if they are law enforcement they get no answer what this new video also shows is at least one man did try to intervene but he was forced out as well and in that process what this new video also shows is that there were more than two security guards and they were armed and they already had zip ties meaning this was planned well the city of cordelan is not putting up with it only a day after the assault the police department released a statement and local news covered it watch this and cheering at a legislative Town Hall in C Lane as it appears that cutney County Sheriff Bob Norris tells these two men to remove that woman you just heard from from the event being put on by the cotney County Republican Central Committee you can also see Sheriff Norris recording the incident on a phone while the woman asks if the two men were deputies thank you for joining us tonight I’m Kirsten oconor and I’m Dereck dice we now know those two men work for a private security company today the city of cordelan revoked that company’s license and cordelane police are recommending charges against the woman Teresa Boren pole be dropped so Lear Asset Management not only lost their license they’re going to get the pant suit off of them with a legal fund that has reached over $175,000 and what about Good Old Sheriff Bob well he’s being looked at too watch the board released a statement reading in par quote we ask that people consider allowing for the investigation to finish before drawing conclusions he’s not commenting and the County Board is telling everyone to be patient he’s definitely being investigated by the police and the county you in trouble Sheriff Bob and what about our cocky MC Who provided all the great commentary well social media has a special place just for him poster Amy McFly posted his LinkedIn page and others are reporting that he shut down his Twitter account one thing should be made clear Teresa borne pole was not dragged out because she was was out of line she was dragged out because she is a Democrat and one who has run for office before so all of that is going to come out in the investigation and we need to keep the heat on people should call the governor of Idaho’s office and put on pressure I don’t know where you can find the number but you know try and don’t just let them Palm you off on the mayor’s office apply some pressure but yes all also call the mayor’s office again I don’t know where you can find the number but it’s worth trying to look it up but it’s time to do more than just make phone calls first give money to the C County Democratic party because they are going to need it when they run their candidate for Sheriff and that’s the last thing we need to do run for local office School Board city council anything and everything local and let’s build from the bottom up but definitely if I were someone with a law enforcement background living in couta County I would start my campaign for Sheriff now you’ll have Financial backing from across the country and let’s face it your campaign video has already been made and I’m saving the most important action item for the end there was one count him one man who stood up for Teresa Barn pole and where were the rest of them well most of them were jering because she was a liberal fine let them we’ll see how they react when it’s their daughter or grandchild being dragged out of a young Republicans meeting but for the rest of you men this is the lesson we were supposed to have learned from the George Floyd murder it is not enough to record video of what is going on when law enforcement or in this case Renta thugs are acting out of line we have to intervene we have to lay our bodies on the line and we have to call out others to intervene with us that doesn’t mean assault them it means impeding what they’re trying to do and doing it with greater numbers that’s what being a citizen means and my final point if you see more than two people using their phones for video then use yours to call the police there were cordine police in the parking lot at this event and they had no idea what was going on inside they could have been summoned they would most likely have intervened because if there’s one thing cops don’t like it’s private security assaulting civilians but they stayed outside because not enough people called call get involved that’s how we save this country I’m Anthony Vincent Gallow for occupied Democrats
good
That is unreadable.
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨
——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
yesterday just ushered in a new version of fafo you know F around and find out up until now it’s been a lot of trump voters finding out the hard way that their vote just bit them right in the Ace but now yesterday it came down on people who thought they were Untouchable right-wing law enforcement and private security thugs in the heart of DieHard Red State country and it’s coming down hard they thought they could put a stop to all the protests that have been happening at Republican town Town Halls by mostly Republican voters and they thought wrong cout County Republican Central Committee along with right-wing Sheriff Bob Norris thought they could throw out anyone who protested at their Town Hall but it got ugly Norris tried throwing out a woman for her behavior and he employed private security guards to do it it got ugly well new video has surfaced which I’m going to show and as you will see the violent actions by several private security thugs is not only outrageous but it’s going to cause several people to be subjected to fafo watch over talking you because your voice is meaningless right now and we’re just taking care of you’re not helping you’re not helping you are not helping your this gentleman is assaulting me this man is assaulting me this man is assaulting me is this your Deputy is this youry no is he youry is he auty Yes you heard that correctly the guy at the podium is Ed bejana and what he said is we’ve got to be a little aggressive with some of these folks here your voice is meaningless right now I can talk over all of you well good for you Ed then he went on to call Dr Teresa borole a little girl who spoke up and now doesn’t want to suffer the consequences can you be any more condescending there now keep watching as Dr borole is assaulted by private security who are you who are you show your B who are you yeah that’s what they RAC people are screaming at them to show identification to clarify if they are law enforcement they get no answer what this new video also shows is at least one man did try to intervene but he was forced out as well and in that process what this new video also shows is that there were more than two security guards and they were armed and they already had zip ties meaning this was planned well the city of cordelan is not putting up with it only a day after the assault the police department released a statement and local news covered it watch this and cheering at a legislative Town Hall in C Lane as it appears that cutney County Sheriff Bob Norris tells these two men to remove that woman you just heard from from the event being put on by the cotney County Republican Central Committee you can also see Sheriff Norris recording the incident on a phone while the woman asks if the two men were deputies thank you for joining us tonight I’m Kirsten oconor and I’m Dereck dice we now know those two men work for a private security company today the city of cordelan revoked that company’s license and cordelane police are recommending charges against the woman Teresa Boren pole be dropped so Lear Asset Management not only lost their license they’re going to get the pant suit off of them with a legal fund that has reached over $175,000 and what about Good Old Sheriff Bob well he’s being looked at too watch the board released a statement reading in par quote we ask that people consider allowing for the investigation to finish before drawing conclusions he’s not commenting and the County Board is telling everyone to be patient he’s definitely being investigated by the police and the county you in trouble Sheriff Bob and what about our cocky MC Who provided all the great commentary well social media has a special place just for him poster Amy McFly posted his LinkedIn page and others are reporting that he shut down his Twitter account one thing should be made clear Teresa borne pole was not dragged out because she was was out of line she was dragged out because she is a Democrat and one who has run for office before so all of that is going to come out in the investigation and we need to keep the heat on people should call the governor of Idaho’s office and put on pressure I don’t know where you can find the number but you know try and don’t just let them Palm you off on the mayor’s office apply some pressure but yes all also call the mayor’s office again I don’t know where you can find the number but it’s worth trying to look it up but it’s time to do more than just make phone calls first give money to the C County Democratic party because they are going to need it when they run their candidate for Sheriff and that’s the last thing we need to do run for local office School Board city council anything and everything local and let’s build from the bottom up but definitely if I were someone with a law enforcement background living in couta County I would start my campaign for Sheriff now you’ll have Financial backing from across the country and let’s face it your campaign video has already been made and I’m saving the most important action item for the end there was one count him one man who stood up for Teresa Barn pole and where were the rest of them well most of them were jering because she was a liberal fine let them we’ll see how they react when it’s their daughter or grandchild being dragged out of a young Republicans meeting but for the rest of you men this is the lesson we were supposed to have learned from the George Floyd murder it is not enough to record video of what is going on when law enforcement or in this case Renta thugs are acting out of line we have to intervene we have to lay our bodies on the line and we have to call out others to intervene with us that doesn’t mean assault them it means impeding what they’re trying to do and doing it with greater numbers that’s what being a citizen means and my final point if you see more than two people using their phones for video then use yours to call the police there were cordine police in the parking lot at this event and they had no idea what was going on inside they could have been summoned they would most likely have intervened because if there’s one thing cops don’t like it’s private security assaulting civilians but they stayed outside because not enough people called call get involved that’s how we save this country I’m Anthony Vincent Gallow for occupied Democrats
good
That is unreadable.
I tell people about formatting but they persist in posting crap. I wonder how all the experts in their respective fields would feel if people did it to them?
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨
——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
yesterday just ushered in a new version of fafo you know F around and find out up until now it’s been a lot of trump voters finding out the hard way that their vote just bit them right in the Ace but now yesterday it came down on people who thought they were Untouchable right-wing law enforcement and private security thugs in the heart of DieHard Red State country and it’s coming down hard they thought they could put a stop to all the protests that have been happening at Republican town Town Halls by mostly Republican voters and they thought wrong cout County Republican Central Committee along with right-wing Sheriff Bob Norris thought they could throw out anyone who protested at their Town Hall but it got ugly Norris tried throwing out a woman for her behavior and he employed private security guards to do it it got ugly well new video has surfaced which I’m going to show and as you will see the violent actions by several private security thugs is not only outrageous but it’s going to cause several people to be subjected to fafo watch over talking you because your voice is meaningless right now and we’re just taking care of you’re not helping you’re not helping you are not helping your this gentleman is assaulting me this man is assaulting me this man is assaulting me is this your Deputy is this youry no is he youry is he auty Yes you heard that correctly the guy at the podium is Ed bejana and what he said is we’ve got to be a little aggressive with some of these folks here your voice is meaningless right now I can talk over all of you well good for you Ed then he went on to call Dr Teresa borole a little girl who spoke up and now doesn’t want to suffer the consequences can you be any more condescending there now keep watching as Dr borole is assaulted by private security who are you who are you show your B who are you yeah that’s what they RAC people are screaming at them to show identification to clarify if they are law enforcement they get no answer what this new video also shows is at least one man did try to intervene but he was forced out as well and in that process what this new video also shows is that there were more than two security guards and they were armed and they already had zip ties meaning this was planned well the city of cordelan is not putting up with it only a day after the assault the police department released a statement and local news covered it watch this and cheering at a legislative Town Hall in C Lane as it appears that cutney County Sheriff Bob Norris tells these two men to remove that woman you just heard from from the event being put on by the cotney County Republican Central Committee you can also see Sheriff Norris recording the incident on a phone while the woman asks if the two men were deputies thank you for joining us tonight I’m Kirsten oconor and I’m Dereck dice we now know those two men work for a private security company today the city of cordelan revoked that company’s license and cordelane police are recommending charges against the woman Teresa Boren pole be dropped so Lear Asset Management not only lost their license they’re going to get the pant suit off of them with a legal fund that has reached over $175,000 and what about Good Old Sheriff Bob well he’s being looked at too watch the board released a statement reading in par quote we ask that people consider allowing for the investigation to finish before drawing conclusions he’s not commenting and the County Board is telling everyone to be patient he’s definitely being investigated by the police and the county you in trouble Sheriff Bob and what about our cocky MC Who provided all the great commentary well social media has a special place just for him poster Amy McFly posted his LinkedIn page and others are reporting that he shut down his Twitter account one thing should be made clear Teresa borne pole was not dragged out because she was was out of line she was dragged out because she is a Democrat and one who has run for office before so all of that is going to come out in the investigation and we need to keep the heat on people should call the governor of Idaho’s office and put on pressure I don’t know where you can find the number but you know try and don’t just let them Palm you off on the mayor’s office apply some pressure but yes all also call the mayor’s office again I don’t know where you can find the number but it’s worth trying to look it up but it’s time to do more than just make phone calls first give money to the C County Democratic party because they are going to need it when they run their candidate for Sheriff and that’s the last thing we need to do run for local office School Board city council anything and everything local and let’s build from the bottom up but definitely if I were someone with a law enforcement background living in couta County I would start my campaign for Sheriff now you’ll have Financial backing from across the country and let’s face it your campaign video has already been made and I’m saving the most important action item for the end there was one count him one man who stood up for Teresa Barn pole and where were the rest of them well most of them were jering because she was a liberal fine let them we’ll see how they react when it’s their daughter or grandchild being dragged out of a young Republicans meeting but for the rest of you men this is the lesson we were supposed to have learned from the George Floyd murder it is not enough to record video of what is going on when law enforcement or in this case Renta thugs are acting out of line we have to intervene we have to lay our bodies on the line and we have to call out others to intervene with us that doesn’t mean assault them it means impeding what they’re trying to do and doing it with greater numbers that’s what being a citizen means and my final point if you see more than two people using their phones for video then use yours to call the police there were cordine police in the parking lot at this event and they had no idea what was going on inside they could have been summoned they would most likely have intervened because if there’s one thing cops don’t like it’s private security assaulting civilians but they stayed outside because not enough people called call get involved that’s how we save this country I’m Anthony Vincent Gallow for occupied Democrats
good
That is unreadable.
shootthemessenger
Steve Shives – Voter’s Remorse Helpline
AussieDJ said:
Steve Shives – Voter’s Remorse Helpline
Voter’s Remorse Helpline.
State your remorse.
.
.
.
Okay.
And why do you
regret voting for Donald Trump?
The price of eggs.
Yeah — .
.
.
No, that’s a popular one.
So, if the price of eggs was of concern to
you, why did you vote for Donald Trump?
.
.
.
He promised to bring the
prices down.
Of course he did. How did you think that was going to work?
.
.
.
You weren’t sure.
Okay.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
Confess your failure.
.
.
.
And, why do you wish you
had not voted for Donald Trump?
.
.
.
The undocumented people who work for you
are too scared to come to work.
So, if you own a business that depends on undocumented
workers, why did you vote for Trump?
.
.
.
You didn’t think they’d deport your
people, because your people work hard.
Okay.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
.
.
.
And why do you regret voting for Trump?
Drugs are too expensive.
Makes sense,
he did sign an executive order to roll back initiatives to lower drug prices on
literally his first day in office .
.
.
.
.
.
You’re the child of undocumented
immigrants, you voted for Trump, and he deported your parents.
.
.
.
So, take me
through your decision making process when voting for Trump.
What was the most important
issue for you?
.
.
.
Immigration .
.
.
You regret voting for Trump — so,
why did you vote for him?
.
.
.
.
.
.
You didn’t like how the Black lady laughed.
What are you remorseful about?
.
.
.
You didn’t vote for Harris.
.
.
.
You couldn’t vote for Harris.
Why couldn’t
you vote for Harris.
.
.
.
The genocide in Gaza.
I definitely understand why you
could feel that way.
Let me ask you — what made you think the people of Gaza would
be better off with Trump as President?
.
.
.
Are you there?
Voter’s remorse helpline.
What are you crying about?
.
.
.
You regret voting for Trump
— let me write that one down.
Why do you regret voting for Trump?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Because he laid off so many
federal employees.
But he promised to do that during the campaign, so
isn’t that what you wanted?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh, you were a federal
employee and you got laid off, too.
So, kind of a “I didn’t think the
leopards would eat my face” situation.
.
.
.
You’ve never heard that phrase?
How
about “what goes around, comes around?” .
.
.
Uh huh — here’s another
one: “fuck around and find out.” Voter’s remorse helpline.
You
may now unburden your soul.
.
.
.
You’re sorry you voted for Trump — how
come?
.
.
.
Your family has shunned you.
Well, I mean, you know you deserve it, right?
Why would you vote for Trump if you
were on Medicaid?
Republicans hate Medicaid .
.
.
You didn’t like
how the laughing lady was Black.
.
.
.
You regret voting for Trump because you were just kicked off of disability.
.
.
.
Well, yeah, that’ll happen.
.
.
.
And why do you regret
supporting Trump?
.
.
.
Your constituents yelled at you during a town hall — .
.
.
No, it’s definitely not the first
time I’ve heard that.
Not even today.
What sin do you wish to confess?
.
.
.
.
.
.
You voted for Jill Stein.
And why do you regret that?
.
.
.
.
.
.
No, I think it speaks for itself, too, I
was just giving you the opportunity to elaborate, but — .
.
.
I agree, not necessary .
.
.
Congratulations for attaining a level of clarity that most people
in your position never will!
.
.
.
A leopard actually ate your face?
.
.
.
No, I believe you.
I mean, they fired
all those park rangers .
.
.
.
.
.
You cannot take back your vote,
no, especially not four months after the election .
.
.
The best you can do is
vote for the Democratic Party candidate next time.
Would you be willing to do that?
.
.
.
Sure you can think about it .
.
.
.
.
.
You’re right, it is too late
to make up for supporting Trump now, but at least you’re able to recognize that.
.
.
.
You have a good day, too, Senator McConnell.
.
.
.
How did I know it was you?
.
.
.
There were certain signs.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
.
.
.
You voted for Trump and now you
feel like a sucker.
Well, you are.
But, that’s why we’re here.
For the rest of the
month, anyway — our funding has been eliminated.
wait sorry we meant
Voter’sRemorseHelpline.Stateyourremorse….Okay.Andwhydoyou regretvotingforDonaldTrump?Thepriceofeggs.Yeah—.. .No,that’sapopularone.So, ifthepriceofeggswasofconcernto you,whydidyouvoteforDonaldTrump?…Hepromisedtobringthe pricesdown.Ofcoursehedid. Howdidyouthinkthatwasgoingtowork?…Youweren’tsure.Okay.Voter’sremorsehelpline.Confessyourfailure….And,whydoyouwishyou hadnotvotedforDonaldTrump?…Theundocumentedpeoplewhoworkforyou aretooscaredtocometowork.So,ifyouown abusinessthatdependsonundocumented workers,whydidyouvoteforTrump?…Youdidn’tthinkthey’ddeportyour people,becauseyourpeopleworkhard.Okay.Voter’sremorsehelpline….AndwhydoyouregretvotingforTrump?Drugsaretooexpensive.Makessense, hedidsignanexecutiveordertoroll backinitiativestolowerdrugpriceson literallyhisfirstdayinoffice……You’rethechildofundocumented immigrants,youvotedforTrump, andhedeportedyourparents….So,takeme throughyourdecisionmakingprocesswhenvoting forTrump.Whatwasthemostimportant issueforyou?…Immigration…YouregretvotingforTrump—so, whydidyouvoteforhim?……Youdidn’tlikehowtheBlackladylaughed.Whatareyouremorsefulabout?… Youdidn’tvoteforHarris….You couldn’tvoteforHarris.Whycouldn’t youvoteforHarris….Thegenocide inGaza.Idefinitelyunderstandwhyyou couldfeelthatway.Letmeaskyou—what madeyouthinkthepeopleofGazawould bebetteroffwithTrumpasPresident?…Areyouthere?Voter’sremorsehelpline. Whatareyoucryingabout?…YouregretvotingforTrump —letmewritethatonedown.WhydoyouregretvotingforTrump?……Becausehelaidoffsomany federalemployees.Buthepromised todothatduringthecampaign,so isn’tthatwhatyouwanted?……Oh,youwereafederal employeeandyougotlaidoff, too.So,kindofa“Ididn’tthinkthe leopardswouldeatmyface”situation….You’veneverheardthatphrase?How about“whatgoesaround,comesaround?”…Uhhuh—here’sanother one:“fuckaroundandfindout.”Voter’sremorsehelpline.You maynowunburdenyoursoul….You’resorryyouvotedforTrump—how come?…Yourfamilyhasshunnedyou.Well, Imean,youknowyoudeserveit,right?WhywouldyouvoteforTrumpifyou wereonMedicaid?Republicanshate Medicaid…Youdidn’tlike howthelaughingladywasBlack….YouregretvotingforTrumpbecauseyouwere justkickedoffofdisability.. ..Well,yeah,that’llhappen….Andwhydoyouregret supportingTrump?…Your constituentsyelledatyouduringatownhall—…No,it’sdefinitelynotthefirst timeI’veheardthat.Noteventoday.Whatsindoyouwishtoconfess?……YouvotedforJillStein. Andwhydoyouregretthat?……No,Ithinkitspeaksforitself,too,I wasjustgivingyoutheopportunitytoelaborate, but—…Iagree,notnecessary.. .Congratulationsforattainingalevel ofclaritythatmostpeople inyourpositionneverwill!…Aleopardactuallyateyourface?…No, Ibelieveyou.Imean,theyfired allthoseparkrangers……Youcannottakebackyourvote, no,especiallynotfourmonthsafter theelection…Thebestyoucandois votefortheDemocraticPartycandidatenext time.Wouldyoubewillingtodothat? …Sureyoucanthinkaboutit……You’reright,itistoolate tomakeupforsupportingTrumpnow, butatleastyou’reabletorecognizethat… .Youhaveagoodday,too,SenatorMcConnell….HowdidIknowitwasyou? …Therewerecertainsigns.Voter’sremorsehelpline….YouvotedforTrumpandnowyou feellikeasucker.Well,youare.But, that’swhywe’rehere.Fortherestofthe month,anyway—ourfundinghasbeeneliminated.
sarahs mum said:
Guards Who Attacked Woman At Town Hall Just PAID A BIG PRICE🚨——
Charges against the doctor have been dropped. Security co has had its license revoked.
Good.
SCIENCE said:
AussieDJ said:
Steve Shives – Voter’s Remorse Helpline
Voter’s Remorse Helpline.
State your remorse.
.
.
.
Okay.
And why do you
regret voting for Donald Trump?
The price of eggs.
Yeah — .
.
.
No, that’s a popular one.
So, if the price of eggs was of concern to
you, why did you vote for Donald Trump?
.
.
.
He promised to bring the
prices down.
Of course he did. How did you think that was going to work?
.
.
.
You weren’t sure.
Okay.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
Confess your failure.
.
.
.
And, why do you wish you
had not voted for Donald Trump?
.
.
.
The undocumented people who work for you
are too scared to come to work.
So, if you own a business that depends on undocumented
workers, why did you vote for Trump?
.
.
.
You didn’t think they’d deport your
people, because your people work hard.
Okay.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
.
.
.
And why do you regret voting for Trump?
Drugs are too expensive.
Makes sense,
he did sign an executive order to roll back initiatives to lower drug prices on
literally his first day in office .
.
.
.
.
.
You’re the child of undocumented
immigrants, you voted for Trump, and he deported your parents.
.
.
.
So, take me
through your decision making process when voting for Trump.
What was the most important
issue for you?
.
.
.
Immigration .
.
.
You regret voting for Trump — so,
why did you vote for him?
.
.
.
.
.
.
You didn’t like how the Black lady laughed.
What are you remorseful about?
.
.
.
You didn’t vote for Harris.
.
.
.
You couldn’t vote for Harris.
Why couldn’t
you vote for Harris.
.
.
.
The genocide in Gaza.
I definitely understand why you
could feel that way.
Let me ask you — what made you think the people of Gaza would
be better off with Trump as President?
.
.
.
Are you there?
Voter’s remorse helpline.
What are you crying about?
.
.
.
You regret voting for Trump
— let me write that one down.
Why do you regret voting for Trump?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Because he laid off so many
federal employees.
But he promised to do that during the campaign, so
isn’t that what you wanted?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh, you were a federal
employee and you got laid off, too.
So, kind of a “I didn’t think the
leopards would eat my face” situation.
.
.
.
You’ve never heard that phrase?
How
about “what goes around, comes around?” .
.
.
Uh huh — here’s another
one: “fuck around and find out.” Voter’s remorse helpline.
You
may now unburden your soul.
.
.
.
You’re sorry you voted for Trump — how
come?
.
.
.
Your family has shunned you.
Well, I mean, you know you deserve it, right?
Why would you vote for Trump if you
were on Medicaid?
Republicans hate Medicaid .
.
.
You didn’t like
how the laughing lady was Black.
.
.
.
You regret voting for Trump because you were just kicked off of disability.
.
.
.
Well, yeah, that’ll happen.
.
.
.
And why do you regret
supporting Trump?
.
.
.
Your constituents yelled at you during a town hall — .
.
.
No, it’s definitely not the first
time I’ve heard that.
Not even today.
What sin do you wish to confess?
.
.
.
.
.
.
You voted for Jill Stein.
And why do you regret that?
.
.
.
.
.
.
No, I think it speaks for itself, too, I
was just giving you the opportunity to elaborate, but — .
.
.
I agree, not necessary .
.
.
Congratulations for attaining a level of clarity that most people
in your position never will!
.
.
.
A leopard actually ate your face?
.
.
.
No, I believe you.
I mean, they fired
all those park rangers .
.
.
.
.
.
You cannot take back your vote,
no, especially not four months after the election .
.
.
The best you can do is
vote for the Democratic Party candidate next time.
Would you be willing to do that?
.
.
.
Sure you can think about it .
.
.
.
.
.
You’re right, it is too late
to make up for supporting Trump now, but at least you’re able to recognize that.
.
.
.
You have a good day, too, Senator McConnell.
.
.
.
How did I know it was you?
.
.
.
There were certain signs.
Voter’s remorse helpline.
.
.
.
You voted for Trump and now you
feel like a sucker.
Well, you are.
But, that’s why we’re here.
For the rest of the
month, anyway — our funding has been eliminated.wait sorry we meant
Voter’sRemorseHelpline.Stateyourremorse….Okay.Andwhydoyou regretvotingforDonaldTrump?Thepriceofeggs.Yeah—.. .No,that’sapopularone.So, ifthepriceofeggswasofconcernto you,whydidyouvoteforDonaldTrump?…Hepromisedtobringthe pricesdown.Ofcoursehedid. Howdidyouthinkthatwasgoingtowork?…Youweren’tsure.Okay.Voter’sremorsehelpline.Confessyourfailure….And,whydoyouwishyou hadnotvotedforDonaldTrump?…Theundocumentedpeoplewhoworkforyou aretooscaredtocometowork.So,ifyouown abusinessthatdependsonundocumented workers,whydidyouvoteforTrump?…Youdidn’tthinkthey’ddeportyour people,becauseyourpeopleworkhard.Okay.Voter’sremorsehelpline….AndwhydoyouregretvotingforTrump?Drugsaretooexpensive.Makessense, hedidsignanexecutiveordertoroll backinitiativestolowerdrugpriceson literallyhisfirstdayinoffice……You’rethechildofundocumented immigrants,youvotedforTrump, andhedeportedyourparents….So,takeme throughyourdecisionmakingprocesswhenvoting forTrump.Whatwasthemostimportant issueforyou?…Immigration…YouregretvotingforTrump—so, whydidyouvoteforhim?……Youdidn’tlikehowtheBlackladylaughed.Whatareyouremorsefulabout?… Youdidn’tvoteforHarris….You couldn’tvoteforHarris.Whycouldn’t youvoteforHarris….Thegenocide inGaza.Idefinitelyunderstandwhyyou couldfeelthatway.Letmeaskyou—what madeyouthinkthepeopleofGazawould bebetteroffwithTrumpasPresident?…Areyouthere?Voter’sremorsehelpline. Whatareyoucryingabout?…YouregretvotingforTrump —letmewritethatonedown.WhydoyouregretvotingforTrump?……Becausehelaidoffsomany federalemployees.Buthepromised todothatduringthecampaign,so isn’tthatwhatyouwanted?……Oh,youwereafederal employeeandyougotlaidoff, too.So,kindofa“Ididn’tthinkthe leopardswouldeatmyface”situation….You’veneverheardthatphrase?How about“whatgoesaround,comesaround?”…Uhhuh—here’sanother one:“fuckaroundandfindout.”Voter’sremorsehelpline.You maynowunburdenyoursoul….You’resorryyouvotedforTrump—how come?…Yourfamilyhasshunnedyou.Well, Imean,youknowyoudeserveit,right?WhywouldyouvoteforTrumpifyou wereonMedicaid?Republicanshate Medicaid…Youdidn’tlike howthelaughingladywasBlack….YouregretvotingforTrumpbecauseyouwere justkickedoffofdisability.. ..Well,yeah,that’llhappen….Andwhydoyouregret supportingTrump?…Your constituentsyelledatyouduringatownhall—…No,it’sdefinitelynotthefirst timeI’veheardthat.Noteventoday.Whatsindoyouwishtoconfess?……YouvotedforJillStein. Andwhydoyouregretthat?……No,Ithinkitspeaksforitself,too,I wasjustgivingyoutheopportunitytoelaborate, but—…Iagree,notnecessary.. .Congratulationsforattainingalevel ofclaritythatmostpeople inyourpositionneverwill!…Aleopardactuallyateyourface?…No, Ibelieveyou.Imean,theyfired allthoseparkrangers……Youcannottakebackyourvote, no,especiallynotfourmonthsafter theelection…Thebestyoucandois votefortheDemocraticPartycandidatenext time.Wouldyoubewillingtodothat? …Sureyoucanthinkaboutit……You’reright,itistoolate tomakeupforsupportingTrumpnow, butatleastyou’reabletorecognizethat… .Youhaveagoodday,too,SenatorMcConnell….HowdidIknowitwasyou? …Therewerecertainsigns.Voter’sremorsehelpline….YouvotedforTrumpandnowyou feellikeasucker.Well,youare.But, that’swhywe’rehere.Fortherestofthe month,anyway—ourfundinghasbeeneliminated.
:)
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
Apparently Shitler really did post this.
Cue Moses coming down the mount with tablets in his arms.
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
Apparently Shitler really did post this.
He is selling his shitty merch from behind the Resolute desk. Also the desk is being “re-finished” after Musk’s human shield wiped his nose pickings on it.
kii said:
Spiny Norman said:
Fark.
Apparently Shitler really did post this.He is selling his shitty merch from behind the Resolute desk. Also the desk is being “re-finished” after Musk’s human shield wiped his nose pickings on it.
Jeff Tiedrich’s remarks on the AI video:
“of all the megalomaniacal batshittery to have ever sluiced about in the murky depths of Donny Convict’s big, dumb sludge-filled head, this might be the batshittiest.
last night, Donny posted an AI-generated video depicting his vision of an ethnically-cleansed Gaza. it’s a narcissist’s wet dream. a fever-swamp nightmare. it checks every fucking crazypants box imaginable.”
Memeber of Congrees Jasmine Crockett hasa message for Elon (and it’s on Elon’s Twitter!):
kii said:
He is selling his shitty merch from behind the Resolute desk. Also the desk is being “re-finished” after Musk’s human shield wiped his nose pickings on it.
I like the kid.
Comes in to Trump’s office, tells him ‘you’re not the President, you need to go away’, and ‘ i need you to shut your fucking mouth’, and then wipes snot on his desk, and all that the Convicted Criminal can do is sit there and take it.
C’mon, isn’t that what we all want to do?!
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:He is selling his shitty merch from behind the Resolute desk. Also the desk is being “re-finished” after Musk’s human shield wiped his nose pickings on it.
I like the kid.
Comes in to Trump’s office, tells him ‘you’re not the President, you need to go away’, and ‘ i need you to shut your fucking mouth’, and then wipes snot on his desk, and all that the Convicted Criminal can do is sit there and take it.
C’mon, isn’t that what we all want to do?!
Yep. Little X is a cool dude. For now. Though, he’ll probably grow up to be a creepy monster like Barron. Have you seen Barron lately? The videos of him skulking around…he’s freaky tall.
fsm said:
Ah I see Senator Duckworth is already on it
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
This is him, right here, Fox Network’s own ‘Fox and Friends’, 06 March 2022:
Presumably, he’s saying, ‘i can’t tell if this is an invasion or not, and i probably won’t ever be able to do that’.
FFS ….
This admin serves as a solid reminder that the people who say “we need to help our own instead of giving aid overseas” have absolutely no intention of helping their own.
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle Station
President Musk met with his Cabinet today, Secretary of Famine Musk, Secretary of Tariffs Musk, Secretary of Wars Musk, Secretary of Slavery Musk, Secretary of Drill Baby Drill Musk, Secretary of Poverty Musk, Secretary of Papers Papers Please Musk, Secretary of Homelessness Musk, Secretary of Strip Mining and Fracking Musk, Secretary of Indentured Servitude Musk, Secretary of Belligerence Musk, and the Secretaries of Mars, Profit, and Suckers and Losers Affairs Musk.
A bunch of people watched and pretended to participate.
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
this is what they chose
kii said:
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle StationPresident Musk met with his Cabinet today, Secretary of Famine Musk, Secretary of Tariffs Musk, Secretary of Wars Musk, Secretary of Slavery Musk, Secretary of Drill Baby Drill Musk, Secretary of Poverty Musk, Secretary of Papers Papers Please Musk, Secretary of Homelessness Musk, Secretary of Strip Mining and Fracking Musk, Secretary of Indentured Servitude Musk, Secretary of Belligerence Musk, and the Secretaries of Mars, Profit, and Suckers and Losers Affairs Musk.
A bunch of people watched and pretended to participate.
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
Maybe Donnie’s dementia is contagious.
captain_spalding said:
Memeber of Congrees Jasmine Crockett hasa message for Elon (and it’s on Elon’s Twitter!):
Succint.
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
Maybe Donnie’s dementia is contagious.
it is, if you want to keep on being Secretary of Defence.
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
He’s new to this game. Cut him some slack.
Spiny Norman said:
FFS ….
FMD
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
Was he waving a piece of paper and saying peace in our time.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Hegseth, Sec of Defense, goes on Fox news and can’t answer a straight question about whether Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s a complicated issue.”
Dude literally covered the invasion day to day when he was a Fox news presenter.
He’s new to this game. Cut him some slack.
He was possibly waiting for an ad break so he could compose himself.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS ….
FMD
As if the average Joe can afford a $250 bill once Trump et al is finished.
kii said:
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle StationPresident Musk met with his Cabinet today, Secretary of Famine Musk, Secretary of Tariffs Musk, Secretary of Wars Musk, Secretary of Slavery Musk, Secretary of Drill Baby Drill Musk, Secretary of Poverty Musk, Secretary of Papers Papers Please Musk, Secretary of Homelessness Musk, Secretary of Strip Mining and Fracking Musk, Secretary of Indentured Servitude Musk, Secretary of Belligerence Musk, and the Secretaries of Mars, Profit, and Suckers and Losers Affairs Musk.
A bunch of people watched and pretended to participate.
LOLOL
kii said:
kii said:
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle StationPresident Musk met with his Cabinet today, Secretary of Famine Musk, Secretary of Tariffs Musk, Secretary of Wars Musk, Secretary of Slavery Musk, Secretary of Drill Baby Drill Musk, Secretary of Poverty Musk, Secretary of Papers Papers Please Musk, Secretary of Homelessness Musk, Secretary of Strip Mining and Fracking Musk, Secretary of Indentured Servitude Musk, Secretary of Belligerence Musk, and the Secretaries of Mars, Profit, and Suckers and Losers Affairs Musk.
A bunch of people watched and pretended to participate.
Heck!
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS ….
FMD
As if the average Joe can afford a $250 bill once Trump et al is finished.
Doesn’t matter; the billionaires can.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS ….
FMD
Credit where it’s due:
Republican inventiveness is opening new horizons in arse-kissing,
Michael V said:
kii said:
kii said:
Jim Wright aka Stonekettle StationPresident Musk met with his Cabinet today, Secretary of Famine Musk, Secretary of Tariffs Musk, Secretary of Wars Musk, Secretary of Slavery Musk, Secretary of Drill Baby Drill Musk, Secretary of Poverty Musk, Secretary of Papers Papers Please Musk, Secretary of Homelessness Musk, Secretary of Strip Mining and Fracking Musk, Secretary of Indentured Servitude Musk, Secretary of Belligerence Musk, and the Secretaries of Mars, Profit, and Suckers and Losers Affairs Musk.
A bunch of people watched and pretended to participate.
Heck!
Should start calling him ‘Noddy’.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Heck!
Should start calling him ‘Noddy’.
Toddlers need regular naps.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS ….
FMD
Credit where it’s due:
Republican inventiveness is opening new horizons in arse-kissing,
:)
Naturally I had my criticisms of Howard and Costello but they did achieve their stated objective of running budget surpluses and nearly eliminating the debt.
Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility all day but as soon as they are in a governing position they blow up the spending deficit. Every fkn time. Eisenhower was the last fiscally responsible Republican US president.
Republicans in the House of Reps just paved the way for 4.5 trillion dollars in tax cats that will primarily benefit the 1% over the next 10 years.
dv said:
Republicans in the House of Reps just paved the way for 4.5 trillion dollars in tax cats that will primarily benefit the 1% over the next 10 years.
Interesting typo there.
I had a vision of mega-rich people being inundated with $4.5 trillion worth of cats.
It was a pleasant thought.
It seems the new US / Ukraine critical minerals deal is, in essence, an agreement to make an agreement at some point in the future that include no details of reparations for the US and none relating to security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump gets to say he has a made a deal, Zelensky gets to placate Trump and not have to concede anything…
winner winner chicken dinner
dv said:
Naturally I had my criticisms of Howard and Costello but they did achieve their stated objective of running budget surpluses and nearly eliminating the debt.Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility all day but as soon as they are in a governing position they blow up the spending deficit. Every fkn time. Eisenhower was the last fiscally responsible Republican US president.
Republicans in the House of Reps just paved the way for 4.5 trillion dollars in tax cats that will primarily benefit the 1% over the next 10 years.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.
“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
It is their trip to get out of the sanctions put upon them.
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
would be interesting to understand how that managed to pay for that given the sanctions on Russian banks and Russians using western banks
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
Once upon a time that would have been an article from The Onion.
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
Once upon a time that would have been an article from The Onion.
Imagine what Russian billionaires would have done to become rich
Probably a few nukes sitting around waiting to be sold.
Cymek said:
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
Once upon a time that would have been an article from The Onion.
Imagine what Russian billionaires would have done to become rich
Probably a few nukes sitting around waiting to be sold.
And unused.
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.
The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
diddly-squat said:
It seems the new US / Ukraine critical minerals deal is, in essence, an agreement to make an agreement at some point in the future that include no details of reparations for the US and none relating to security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump gets to say he has a made a deal, Zelensky gets to placate Trump and not have to concede anything…
winner winner chicken dinner
Good.
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
don’t worry global warming and temperatures +10 K relative to human preindustrial era have happened before
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
Divine Angel said:
Once upon a time that would have been an article from The Onion.
Imagine what Russian billionaires would have done to become rich
Probably a few nukes sitting around waiting to be sold.
And unused.
so the DPRNA can get a cool USD5M as well as a free nuclear warhead, win win win
Supreme Court pauses a lower court’s order to unfreeze USAID funds, and pausing an unfreeze is like a triple negative so I’m going to need to think about it.
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.
The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
Free Press So Great
dv said:
Supreme Court pauses a lower court’s order to unfreeze USAID funds, and pausing an unfreeze is like a triple negative so I’m going to need to think about it.
totally not captured
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
Guess this means The Donald won’t be attending that gala Washington Press dinner they hold every year
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
Very annoying. I will have to consider ending my subscription.
Divine Angel said:
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
I never read their articles, I just do their (very easy) free daily cryptic crossword, which they get from an English source.
Many of the Anglocentric clues would leave their American readers completely clueless.
fsm said:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for a $5 million “gold card” via a new scheme that grants a pathway to American citizenship to wealthy foreigners.“Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” a jovial Trump said in response to a question about whether they would be eligible for the gold card, saying “it’s possible” they could obtain one.
“They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump joked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-russian-oligarchs-gold-card-scheme-american-citizenship/
FMD
ChrispenEvan said:
what does it mean
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
Anti-vaxxers, eh…
fsm said:
The White House plans to determine which news outlets have access to President Donald Trump, taking control from an association of journalists after more than a century.The changes, announced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, mean the White House will determine which outlets participate in the “pool” that covers presidential events and shares material with other media outlets.
The rotation of pool reporters was previously determined by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press”.
The surprise announcement comes as the Associated Press fights to restore its access to presidential events after it was blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce30n52e6p1o
Bloody!
dv said:
Supreme Court pauses a lower court’s order to unfreeze USAID funds, and pausing an unfreeze is like a triple negative so I’m going to need to think about it.
Bugger.
ChrispenEvan said:
Sigh.
Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday at 16:53 ·
February 25, 2025 (Tuesday)
On Friday, February 21, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg posted: “A defining policy battle is about to come to a head in this country. The Republican budget will force everyone—especially Congress and the White House—to make plain whether they are prepared to harm the rest of us in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest.”
Buttigieg was referring to the struggle at the heart of much of the political conflict going on right now: How should the U.S. raise money, and how should it spend money?
Generally, Democrats believe that the government should raise money by levying taxes according to people’s ability to pay them, and that the government should use the money raised to provide services to make sure that everyone has a minimum standard of living, the protection of the laws, and equal access to resources like education and healthcare. They think the government has a role to play in regulating business; making sure the elderly, disabled, poor, and children have food, shelter and education; maintaining roads and airports; and making sure the law treats everyone equally.
Generally, Republicans think individuals should be able to manage their money to make the best use of markets, thus creating economic growth more efficiently than the government can, and that the ensuing economic growth will help everyone to prosper. They tend to think the government should not regulate business and should impose few if any taxes, both of which hamper a person’s ability to run their enterprises as they wish. They tend to think churches or private philanthropy should provide a basic social safety net and that infrastructure projects are best left up to private companies. Civil rights protections, they think, are largely unnecessary.
But the Republicans are facing a crisis in their approach to the American economy. The tax cuts that were supposed to create extraordinarily high economic growth, which would in turn produce tax revenue equal to higher taxes on lower economic growth, never materialized. Since the 1990s, when the government ran surpluses under Democratic president Bill Clinton, tax cuts under Republican presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, along with unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have produced massive budget deficits that, in turn, have added trillions to the national debt.
Now the party is torn between those members whose top priority is more tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, and those who want more tax cuts but also recognize that further cuts to popular programs will hurt their chances of reelection.
That struggle is playing out very publicly right now in the Republicans’ attempt to pass a budget resolution, which is not a law but sets the party’s spending priorities, sometimes for as much as a decade, and is the first step toward passing a budget reconciliation bill which can pass the Senate without threat of a filibuster.
Under the control of Republicans, the House of Representatives was unable to pass the appropriations bills necessary to fund the government in fiscal year 2025. The government has stayed open because of “continuing resolutions,” measures that extend previous funding forward into the future to buy more time to negotiate appropriations. The most recent of those expires on March 14, putting pressure on the Republicans who now control both the House and the Senate to come up with a new funding package. But first, both chambers have to pass a budget resolution.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s top priority is extending his 2017 tax cuts for the next ten years, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates would add $4.6 trillion to the deficit. If he actually enacted the other tax cuts he promised on the campaign trail—including on tips, overtime, and Social Security payments—that deficit jumps closer to $11 trillion. During the campaign, he insisted that the tariffs he promised to levy would make foreign countries make up the money lost by the tax cuts. In addition to being wildly wishful thinking, Trump’s claim ignores the fact that tariffs are actually paid by U.S. consumers.
So Trump and the Republicans have a math problem. It was always incorrect to say it was the Democrats who were irresponsibly running up the debt, but it was a powerful myth, and Republicans have relied on it for at least 25 years. Now, though, there is a mechanical issue that belies that rhetoric: the debt ceiling, which requires Congress to raise the ceiling on the amount the Treasury can borrow.
On January 21, 2025, the U.S. Treasury had to begin using extraordinary measures to pay the debt obligations Congress has authorized. In order for Trump and the Republicans to get their tax cuts, that debt ceiling will have to be raised. But a number of MAGA Republicans are already furious at the growing debt and the budget deficits that feed it, and they say they will not raise that ceiling unless there are extreme cuts to the federal budget. Other Republicans realize that the cuts they are demanding will be enormously unpopular, not least because for all their rhetoric, it is actually Republican-dominated districts that receive the bulk of federal monies.
This is the mess that sits behind unelected billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) that is claiming to slash federal spending, although its claims have been so thoroughly debunked that early this morning it quietly deleted all five of the five-biggest ticket items it had touted on its “wall of receipts.”
As Democrats keep pointing out, Republicans have control of the government and could make any cuts they wanted through the normal course of legislation, but they are not doing so because they know those programs are popular. Instead, they are turning the project over to Musk.
They are making it a point to look the other way when people, including judges, ask under what authorization Musk and his team are operating. Today, once again, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to say who was in charge of DOGE, a day after Matt Bai reported in the Washington Post that two of Musk’s DOGE employees, Luke Farritor and Gavin Kliger, used their access to payment systems to override explicit orders from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and shut off funding to the United States Agency for International Development. Bai reports that Farritor is 23-year-old dropout from the University of Nebraska who interned at SpaceX; Kliger, 25, spreads conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” attended Berkeley, and is now installed at the Treasury Department.
This afternoon the White House said that Amy Gleason, a former official at the U.S. Digital Service, the agency that Trump’s executive order may have turned into the Department of Government Efficiency, is serving as the acting administrator of DOGE. Reporters reached her by phone in Mexico.
In an interview with NPR, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary under President Joe Biden, David Pressman, explained that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán turned Hungary’s democracy into “a system that’s designed to enrich a clique of elites to take public assets and put them in private pockets while talking about standing up for conservative values” in what became “a massive transfer of public assets to an oligarch class.” Trump and MAGAs see Orbán as a model, and it is notable that today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that manages civilian aviation and that Trump and DOGE gutted, announced it has agreed to use Musk’s Starlink internet system for its information technology networks.
But even if Musk is only providing the illusion of savings, Congress still has to figure out the budget. On Friday, the Senate voted 52–48 to advance a budget resolution that called for $175 billion in new funding for border security and immigration enforcement and told committees, including the committee that oversees Medicaid, to find at least $4 billion in spending cuts. All Democrats and Independents, along with Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted not to advance that resolution.
Today the House was supposed to vote on its own budget resolution, and it is here that the stark contrast Buttigieg identified shows most strongly. The House resolution calls for cutting $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations, while also adding $100 billion for immigration and border security, $90 billion for Homeland Security, and $100 billion in military spending. It enables those cuts and spending, at least in the short term, by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
The plan offsets those tax cuts with a goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts, including $880 billion over the next decade in cuts to the part of the budget that covers Medicare and Medicaid, and $230 billion in cuts to the part of the budget that covers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. House speaker Mike Johnson claimed that all the cuts would come from the same place Musk claims, without evidence, to be cutting: “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
As Buttigieg noted, this budget cuts benefits for the poorest Americans in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest, but the proposed cuts are not enough to get all MAGAs, many of whom want far more draconian cuts, on board. Johnson needed either to corral them or to get Democratic votes.
For their part, the Democrats rejected the proposal, concerned about the concentration of wealth in the U.S.: on Sunday, economist Robert Reich noted that “he top 0.1% of Americans control $22 trillion in wealth,” while “he bottom 50% control $3.8 trillion in wealth.”
Shauneen Miranda of the New Jersey Monitor reported the statement of Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) today that 24% of Americans get their healthcare from Medicaid, while the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say that two thirds of nursing home patients receive Medicaid. Cuts would devastate American families. “For what, because Elon Musk needs another billion dollars?” Murphy asked. “The scope of this greed is something that we have never, ever seen before in this country, and we should not accept it as normal in the United States of America.”
At a press conference, House Democrats called out what Representative Greg Casar (D-TX) called “this billionaire budget resolution.” “I know that I and my colleagues here today are ready to go to the mat and fight all the way until we stop this budget and finally demand that, instead of a tax break for greedy billionaires, that we actually tax those greedy billionaires and expand the programs that working people deserve,” Casar said.
It took pressure from Trump to get the House resolution across the line this evening. It ultimately passed by a vote of 217 to 215, with only one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), voting with all the Democrats against it. Earlier this year, Republicans killed a bipartisan push to enable representatives to vote remotely while on maternity leave, so Representative Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) flew across the country with her one-month-old son to “vote NO on this disastrous budget proposal.”
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
Anti-vaxxers, eh…
I expect that the rest of the story is just about some pigeons coming home to roost.
I wonder if RFKJr will explain to us about how this is the fault of Joe Biden and ‘the Left’?
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
Anti-vaxxers, eh…
I expect that the rest of the story is just about some pigeons coming home to roost.
I wonder if RFKJr will explain to us about how this is the fault of Joe Biden and ‘the Left’?
Likely.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday at 16:53 ·
February 25, 2025 (Tuesday)The House resolution calls for cutting $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations, while also adding $100 billion for immigration and border security, $90 billion for Homeland Security, and $100 billion in military spending. It enables those cuts and spending, at least in the short term, by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
LOL
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday at 16:53 ·
February 25, 2025 (Tuesday)The House resolution calls for cutting $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations, while also adding $100 billion for immigration and border security, $90 billion for Homeland Security, and $100 billion in military spending. It enables those cuts and spending, at least in the short term, by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
LOL
Fiscal responsibility, right there!
Ive seen a few comments about the sacrifice Musk has made to expose corruption in government
As in Tesla has lost value because of his asinine comments and actions.
Its interesting to note that sacrifice is only sacrifice to many people when large amounts of money are involved.
It does not matter the person/company is not in the least affected by the money lost.
Someone who gives money and goes without is a real sacrifice, even if its only 50 dollars
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday at 16:53 ·
February 25, 2025 (Tuesday)The House resolution calls for cutting $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations, while also adding $100 billion for immigration and border security, $90 billion for Homeland Security, and $100 billion in military spending. It enables those cuts and spending, at least in the short term, by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
LOL
Fiscal responsibility, right there!
Military fascist dictatorship moves
How much do the secret police get
Shhh its a secret
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday at 16:53 ·
February 25, 2025 (Tuesday)The House resolution calls for cutting $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations, while also adding $100 billion for immigration and border security, $90 billion for Homeland Security, and $100 billion in military spending. It enables those cuts and spending, at least in the short term, by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
LOL
Fiscal responsibility, right there!
Note that this isn’t the budget per se… it’s essentially a resolution of priorities.
The SCOTUS has sided with a death row inmate, Richard Glossip, in ruling his trial was unconstitutional.
In a 5-3 decision, the justices found that Glossip’s trial violated his “constitutional obligation to correct false testimony” and that “Glossip is entitled to a new trial,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Anti-vaxxers, eh…
I expect that the rest of the story is just about some pigeons coming home to roost.
I wonder if RFKJr will explain to us about how this is the fault of Joe Biden and ‘the Left’?
Likely.
well they should have communicated better and reached across the aisle to be more inclusive of the fascist base
Cymek said:
Ive seen a few comments about the sacrifice Musk has made to expose corruption in government
As in Tesla has lost value because of his asinine comments and actions.
Its interesting to note that sacrifice is only sacrifice to many people when large amounts of money are involved.
It does not matter the person/company is not in the least affected by the money lost.
Someone who gives money and goes without is a real sacrifice, even if its only 50 dollars
is this corruption exposé like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq thing, they sacrificed much to find that when they turned up with big bombs and massive missiles there really were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which somehow weren’t there before they turned up
wait
Have your say about the efficiency of DOGE. For your email address, you could put HR@opm.gov if you wanted to… just sayin
https://secured.heritage.org/the-heritage-doge-survey/
Divine Angel said:
Have your say about the efficiency of DOGE. For your email address, you could put HR@opm.gov if you wanted to… just sayinhttps://secured.heritage.org/the-heritage-doge-survey/
When you’re numbering 1-5, 1 is the HIGHEST priority for budget cuts.
I am fully supportive of $280,000 for birdwatchers, signed Eatmy Fatdick, hr@opm.gov
Heather Cox Richardson
6m ·
February 26, 2025 (Wednesday)
This morning, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management acting director Charles Ezell sent a memo to the heads of departments and agencies. The memo began: “The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens. The American people registered their verdict on the bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy on November 5, 2024 by voting for President Trump and his promises to sweepingly reform the federal government.”
Vought was a key author of Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration, and in July 2024, investigative reporters caught him on video saying that he and his group, the Center for Renewing America, were hard at work writing the executive orders and memos that Trump would use to put their vision into place. But his claim that voters backed his plan is false. An NBC News poll in September 2024 showed that only 4% of voters liked what was in Project 2025. It was so unpopular that Trump called parts of it “ridiculous and abysmal” and denied all knowledge of it.
But the policies coming out of the Trump White House are closely aligned with Project 2025 and, if anything, appear to be less popular now than they were last September. Under claims of ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been slashing through government programs that are popular with Republican voters like farmers, as well as with Democratic voters.
Yesterday, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins celebrated cuts to 875 contracts that he claimed would save nearly $2 billion. But, as Emily Davies and Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post reported, those contracts covered medical services, recruited doctors, and funded cancer programs, as well as providing burial services for veterans. The outcry was such that the VA rescinded the order today. Still on the chopping block, though, are another 1,400 jobs. Those cuts were announced Monday, on top of the 1,000 previous layoffs.
Despite the anger at the major cuts across the government, Vought announced that agency heads should prepare for large-scale reductions in force, or layoffs, and that by March 13 they should produce plans for the reorganization of their agencies to make them cost less and produce more with fewer people. Before Trump took office, the number of people employed by the U.S. government was at about the same level it was 50 years ago, although the U.S. population has increased by about two thirds. What has increased dramatically is spending on private contractors, who take profits from their taxpayer-funded contracts.
In his memo today, Vought instructed agency heads to “collaborate” with the DOGE team leads assigned to the agency, who presumably report to Elon Musk.
Also today, Trump signed an executive order putting the DOGE team in charge of creating new technological systems to review all payments from the U.S. government and then giving the head of DOGE the power to review all those payments. “This order commences a transformation in Federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure Government spending is transparent and Government employees are accountable to the American public,” the executive order says.
Make no mistake: This order transforms federal spending by taking it away from Congress, where the Constitution placed it, and moves it to the individual who sits atop the Department of Government Efficiency.
Yesterday the White House announced that the acting head of DOGE is Amy Gleason, who was hired on December 30, 2024, at the technology unit that Trump tried to transform into the Department of Government Efficiency. Nevertheless, members of the White House, including President Donald Trump, have repeatedly referred to Musk as “the head of .”
Musk appeared to be in charge of the first Cabinet meeting of the Trump administration today. As Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny of CNN reported: “If anyone was still in doubt where the power lies in President Donald Trump’s new administration, Wednesday’s first Cabinet meeting made clear it wasn’t in the actual Cabinet.” Katherine Doyle of NBC News described “Senate-confirmed department heads spending an hour as audience members.”
A photograph of the meeting in which Musk, wearing a Make America Great Again ball cap and a T-shirt that said “Tech Support,” appears to be holding court while Trump appears to be sleeping reinforced the idea that it is Musk rather than Trump who is running the government. When Trump did speak, CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted, his remarks were full of false claims.
Cabinet officers, who had brought notes for the statements they expected to make, sat silent, while Musk, the unelected billionaire from South Africa who put more than a quarter of a billion dollars into electing Trump, spoke more than anyone except Trump himself. Trump didn’t turn to Vice President J.D. Vance until 56 minutes into the meeting, and Vance spoke for only 36 seconds.
But Trump appeared to be aware of the popular anger at Musk’s power over the government and today dared the Cabinet members to suggest they weren’t happy with the arrangements. “ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON,” Trump wrote on his social media channel this morning. “The Media will see that at the Cabinet Meeting this morning!!!”
“Is anybody unhappy?” Trump asked the Cabinet officers during the meeting. When they applauded in response, he commented: “I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”
Divine Angel said:
Have your say about the efficiency of DOGE. For your email address, you could put HR@opm.gov if you wanted to… just sayinhttps://secured.heritage.org/the-heritage-doge-survey/
I sent my ’5 thingsdone’ report to Elon at hr@opm.gov :
Hi elon,
My 5 things that i did last week:
I drank a whiskey drink
I drank a Vodka drink
I drank a Lager drink
I drank a cider drink
I sang the songs that reminded me of the good times
I sang the songs that reminded me of the better times
I’m not sure if that last bit counts as one thing or two things, but i don’t mind you having a bonus thing.
Yours,
Gus Gallifrey
I already have this week’s report drafted:
1. Entered the room
2. Tried to remember why i entered the room.
3. Recalled that i might need my glasses for it.
4. Wondered where my glasses were.
5. Exited the room.
sarahs mum said:
Only light planes follow geodesics.
sarahs mum said:
‘Why is this plane not flying in a straight line?’
Because they want to go to Houston.
If they flew in a ‘straight line’, they’d probably end up in Dallas, or in Monterey.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Only light planes follow geodesics.
Via VFR rules (Visually Follow Roads), or IFR rules (I Follow Roads).
sarahs mum said:
*Imagines Elon arguing about a flight path to Mars.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
*Imagines Elon arguing about a flight path to Mars.
…and he ends up on Neptune!
Ooh, too delicious!
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
Haven’t read any further.
The whole story seems to be contained there.
don’t worry global warming and temperatures +10 K relative to human preindustrial era have happened before
alleged
sarahs mum said:
What did Leon Muck say?
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Gosh. Looks like kids have to carry proof of citizenship with them now. Adults, too. I guess the paperwork comes from some government agency. Except I guess Leon has sacked them all, and etc…
The United States doesn’t have a comprehensive welfare system like other developed countries. Social Security operates as an insurance scheme that employers can and employees pay into and if you draw on it it runs out after a number of weeks that deoends on what state you live in.
So conservatives instead go after SNAP, the food stamp program. It pays about $40 per week, which isn’t actually a lot of groceries these days, and the whole program makes up about 0.003 of GDP so even if you cancel the whole thing it is not going to make much of a dint in the budget.
dv said:
The United States doesn’t have a comprehensive welfare system like other developed countries. Social Security operates as an insurance scheme that employers can and employees pay into and if you draw on it it runs out after a number of weeks that deoends on what state you live in.
So conservatives instead go after SNAP, the food stamp program. It pays about $40 per week, which isn’t actually a lot of groceries these days, and the whole program makes up about 0.003 of GDP so even if you cancel the whole thing it is not going to make much of a dint in the budget.
that’s how you get young people to join the military. there’s no sitting around on the dole until a job comes along. at least that is what happened to Sarah’s dad.
dv said:
The United States doesn’t have a comprehensive welfare system like other developed countries. Social Security operates as an insurance scheme that employers can and employees pay into and if you draw on it it runs out after a number of weeks that deoends on what state you live in.
So conservatives instead go after SNAP, the food stamp program. It pays about $40 per week, which isn’t actually a lot of groceries these days, and the whole program makes up about 0.003 of GDP so even if you cancel the whole thing it is not going to make much of a dint in the budget.
SNAP is a political football that has been kicked around by both sides. Obama made cuts to SNAP.
sarahs mum said:
right after Donald Trump won the 2024
presidential election fresh data from
December showed something interesting
many countries started pulling back on
how much US Government debt they held
out of 20 major economies that usually
invest in US Treasury bonds 16 decided
to cut back some of the biggest drops
came from the United Kingdom which
reduced its Holdings by $ 44.1 billion
Japan by$ 27.3 billion and Saudi Arabia
by $15.1 billion
other countries trimmed their
Investments too though by smaller
amounts China by $9.6 billion
Switzerland by $9.7 billion and India by
$14.9 billion so why the sudden pullback
it seems many Global Investors and
central banks were feeling cautious they
were concerned about what Trump’s
policies might mean for the economy and
didn’t want to get caught off guard by
any surprises this isn’t a new strategy
countries that invest heavily in US debt
keep a close eye on things like trade
policies interest rates and diplomatic
moves if they sense anything
unpredictable or risky they often scale
back to avoid potential losses one big
concern is how much money the US
government plans to borrow if investors
think upcoming policies might weaken the
dollar or balloon the national debt they
might see us treasuries as less
appealing when lots of foreign investors
sell off these bonds it can push up
interest rates making it more expensive
for the US government to borrow money
this doesn’t just hit Washington it can
also mean higher costs for American
families and businesses like pricier
mortgage rates or more expensive
business loans and here’s the bigger
picture if this trend of selling off US
debt continues it might make people
question the strength of the US dollar
as the go-to currency for global trade
and savings for decades the US dollar
has been the king of global Finance but
when foreign countries start pulling
back from US Government debt it it
raises eyebrows if this keeps happening
it could signal a slow shift toward
other Safe Haven assets like Euro back
bonds different major currencies or even
old school gold but this isn’t just
about numbers on a spreadsheet the
selloff following Trump’s 2024 election
win might reflect deeper tensions
bubbling under the surface when trade
disagreements flare up or diplomatic
ties get strained big investors from
other countries often start moving their
money El elsewhere even if they don’t
make a big bus about it the thing is
these changes can happen quietly a
country doesn’t need to make a public
announcement to make an impact slowly
but surely as they cut back on US debt
it can chip away at the Dollar’s Global
dominance and if future policies stir up
more uncertainty or spark fresh
conflicts what started as a
post-election shuffle could grow into a
long-term trend of countries spreading
their Investments far and wide away from
us markets central banks usually stock
up on us treasuries because they’re
considered super safe kind of like a
financial safety net but lately many
countries are rethinking that strategy
they’re looking to balance their
reserves with other currencies or assets
especially gold to avoid putting all
their eggs in one basket this movement
often called
dollarization is about reducing Reliance
on the US dollar China for example has
been quietly trimming its stash of us
treasuries which dropped to $ 76.1
billion in October
2024 the lowest it’s been since
2009 it’s all part of China’s bigger
plan to diversify and reduce its
exposure to the US Financial system one
major reason countries want less
dependence on the dollar is because of
the power it gives the US in global
Finance the US can use its influence to
impose sanctions which has made some
Nations rethink their heavy Reliance on
dollar backed assets
this shift isn’t just talk the unhedged
podcast recently highlighted how central
banks and Sovereign wealth funds are
scooping up gold as a shield against
potential us sanctions countries like
Poland turkey India aeran and China have
been leading the charge in this gold
buying spree there’s also a more
tactical reason for some of these
sell-offs currency control Nations
sometimes sell off us treasuries to
strengthen their own currencies Japan
for example reduced its Holdings from
1.08 7 trillion in November 2024 to
1.06 trillion in December likely as part
of efforts to stabilize its currency
Japan’s recent move to trim its stash of
US dollar assets wasn’t random it was
part of a bigger plan to boost its own
currency the Yen by selling off us
treasuries and buying more Yen Japan
aimed to strengthen its currency and
stabilize its economy but there’s a
tradeoff when countries do this it often
means they end up holding fewer us Bonds
in their reserves meanwhile back in the
US Treasury yields have been climbing
why a mix of policy changes like tariffs
and shifts in Immigration rules under
Trump’s Administration has stirred up
expectations of stronger economic growth
and possibly Rising inflation when
inflation goes up interest rates tend to
follow pushing up the yields on
government bonds but here’s the catch
when yields rise the value of older
bonds those issued at lower rates drops
CS this forces investors to rethink
their strategies adding to the pressure
the Federal Reserve signaled that it
might slow down on cutting interest
rates in 2025 because of inflation
concerns which only reinforced the
upward Trend in yields zooming out
there’s been a bigger more strategic
shift unfolding over the past couple of
decades since the 9/11 attacks the US
has used its Financial system as a tool
of influence leveraging the Dollar’s
Global dominance
by controlling access to its banking
system and imposing sanctions the US has
been able to apply economic pressure on
countries like Iran North Korea and
Russia but this power play hasn’t gone
unnoticed countries on the receiving end
of these sanctions and even some allies
have started asking are we too dependent
on the US dollar this question has
fueled the global push toward what’s
known as
dollarization reducing Reliance on the
green back
one of the main ways countries are doing
this is by trading directly in their
local currencies China and Russia for
example have been ramping up trade deals
using when and rubles instead of dollars
India and Iran have also explored
similar setups making it easier to
bypass us controlled Financial channels
another big move has been building
alternative banking systems to get
around
swi the global messaging Network that
most banks use but one that’s heavily
influenced by Western powers in response
Russia developed its own system spfs and
China rolled out cips for crossb
transactions these systems give
countries more control over their
International payments and help them
Dodge potential us sanctions on top of
that Global alliances have been joining
the push the bricks group Brazil Russia
India China and South Africa has been
actively discussing creating a new
Reserve currency that could rival the
dollar Russia in particular has been
been urging its trade Partners to switch
to Alternative currencies especially
after facing waves of Western sanctions
even the oil Market long dominated by
dollar-based deals is seeing cracks
countries in the Gulf cooperation
Council GCC have started considering
accepting payments in other currencies
like the Japanese Yen hinting at big
changes in global trade habits central
banks aren’t sitting still either many
are shaking up their foreign exchange
reserves pulling back from us treasuries
and stocking up on gold a classic Safety
Net in uncertain times China Japan and
India have all been quietly shifting
their portfolios cutting their us Bond
Holdings while boosting investments in
other assets countries around the world
have been making quiet but deliberate
moves to Shield their economies from the
Ripple effects of us monetary policies
and potential economic pressure this
shift isn’t about ditching the dollar
overnight it’s about creating more
options and red reducing overreliance on
a single currency that holds immense
Global power the idea of the US dollar
losing its top spot as the world’s go-to
currency might seem far-fetched at least
for now but bit by bit nations are
finding new ways to gain Financial
Independence whether it’s trading in
local currencies stockpiling gold or
building alternative banking networks
the push for greater control over
National economies is gaining traction
this slow but steady shift depends on a
mix of factors global politics the
strength of new Financial systems and
how well countries can work together to
sidestep Dollar dominance while the
dollar still Reigns Supreme cracks are
starting to show in the foundation but
this isn’t the first time the world has
seen a major currency shift before the
US dollar took the throne it was the
British pound sterling that ruled Global
Finance the pound’s power was closely
tied to the British Empire’s vast
network of colonies and trade routes
making it the Top Choice for
international Commerce during the late
19th and early 20th centuries however
Britain’s dominance began to unravel
during World War One the war drained the
country’s gold reserves and left it
drowning in debt in an attempt to
restore stability Britain tried to bring
back the gold standard in 1925 but the
effort was shortlived the Great
Depression hit hard and by 1931 Britain
was forced to abandon the gold standard
altogether shaking Global confidence in
the pound mean meanwhile across the
Atlantic the United States was on the
rise the creation of the Federal Reserve
in 1913 gave the US a strong central
banking system bringing more stability
to its economy throughout the 1920s and
1930s New York city grew into a major
Financial Hub gradually challenging
London’s dominance but it wasn’t until
after World War II that the US dollar
truly took center stage in 1944 global
leaders met at the Breton Woods
conference and agreed on a new Financial
system the US with its massive gold
reserves and booming economy became the
anchor of this system the dollar was
pegged to gold and other currencies were
tied to the dollar creating a stable
Global exchange Network this setup made
the US dollar the world’s primary
Reserve currency and for a while it
worked countries trusted the dollar
because they knew it was backed by gold
but by the late 1960s crack started to
appear the US was dealing with Rising
inflation and a growing trade deficit
putting pressure on the Dollar’s
stability in
1971 something big happened that
completely changed how Global money
worked president Richard Nixon made a
surprise move later known as the Nixon
shock he cut the link between the US
dollar and gold before this countries
could trade their US dollars for gold
but Nixon put an end to that flipping
the script on how the world’s money
system worked this bold step ended the
Breton wood system which had been in
place since
1944 back then right after World War II
leaders from 44 Allied countries met in
a little town in New Hampshire called
Breton woods they had one big goal avoid
another global economic mess like the
one that had followed World War I the
solution create a stable money system
that would keep currencies steady and
encourage countries to work together not
a against each other out of that meeting
came two major Financial powerhouses the
international monetary fund
IMF designed to keep currency stable and
help countries in financial trouble the
International Bank for reconstruction
and development ibrd now part of the
World Bank it focused on rebuilding War
torn Europe and supporting economic
growth worldwide at the heart of this
new system was the US dollar pegged to
gold at a fixed rate since the US had
the biggest stash of gold after World
War II and a booming economy the world
trusted its currency this trust turned
the dollar into the backbone of global
Finance throughout the 1950s and 60s
countries everywhere filled their
reserves with US dollars but by the late
1960s cracks began to appear the US was
spending more money than it was making
especially with the cost of the Vietnam
War and foreign countries started asking
for their gold in exchange for dollars
faced with a potential economic disaster
Nixon took action his decision to break
the dollar gold link didn’t crash the
system as some feared instead it
launched a new era of floating exchange
rates where currency values were
determined by market forces not fixed to
Gold even without gold backing it the US
dollar stayed strong why because the US
economy was still one of the biggest and
most stable and the dollar was deeply
woven into global trade especially the
oil Market thanks to the Petro dollar
system where countries paid for oil in
US dollars fast forward to the
1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union
the us became the world’s only
superpower this was the Golden Age of
the dollar globalization was booming the
US tech industry was taking off and Wall
Street was the place to be investors
around around the world saw US Treasury
bonds as the safest bet and countries
kept stacking up dollars in their
reserves even when the Euro was
introduced in 1999 as a potential rival
it didn’t shake the Dollar’s dominance
by the early 2000s nearly 70% of global
foreign exchange reserves were held in
dollars but then came 2008 the global
financial crisis it started in the US
housing market but quickly spread
worldwide shaking trust in American
Banks and financial systems ironically
even as the US was the source of the
crisis investors rushed to the dollar as
a safe haven during the storm however
the cracks were now clear central banks
realized they had too many eggs in one
basket after the crisis many began to
diversify their reserves buying more
gold and other currencies to protect
themselves from future shocks enter
China as its economy skyrocketed China
pushed hard to get its currency the ren
Min
ermb more International recognition it
created new Financial networks like the
Asian infrastructure Investment Bank aib
to rival western-led institutions like
the World Bank giving countries an
alternative for development funding and
reducing Reliance on the US dollar China
has been playing a smart game to boost
its currency the ren Min RMB on the
world stage one big move pouring money
into a massive infrastructure projects
through its belt and Road initiative
BR think Railways in Africa ports in
Europe and highways in Asia all funded
in many cases using the
RMB this not only gets countries hooked
into China’s economic network but also
puts its currency into Global
circulation but China didn’t stop there
to make trading smoother without always
having to use US Dollars it set up
special deals called currency swap
agreements with multiple countries
these deals let countries trade directly
in their own currencies and R&B cutting
the dollar out of the equation and
making China an even bigger player in
global Finance now let’s talk about
something that’s shaking up money as we
know it blockchain and digital
currencies these Technologies are
rewriting the rulebook on how money
moves across borders central banks
around the world have noticed and are
jumping on board creating their own
Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to
keep up with this fast-paced change by
early 2024 over 130 countries including
the US were exploring or developing
their own digital currencies but China
it’s way ahead with its digital un also
called the
ecny it’s not just about making payments
faster it’s part of China’s bigger plan
to make the R&B more popular globally
meanwhile in the digital Finance world
the US dollar still holds its ground
thanks to stable coin
digital currencies tied to the Dollar’s
value these are used in international
trade and online transactions keeping
the dollar relevant even in the age of
crypto still the Dollar’s grip isn’t
what it used to be in 2022 its share of
global reserves slipped to around
58% while other currencies like the Euro
the Chinese Yan and even gold started
grabbing a bigger slice of the pie a
major clue to this shift the falling
demand for us treasuries especially from
China back in 2013 China owned a
whopping $1.3 trillion in US government
bonds but by the end of 2024 that number
had dropped to about $759 billion why
the big selloff it’s partly because
China used to buy tons of US dollars to
keep its own currency the R&B stable and
its exports cheap but as its trade Gap
with the US narrowed after 2018 there
was less need to stock pile dollars on
top of that Chinese officials started
worrying about having too many eggs in
the US dollar basket if something were
to shake the US economy or if tensions
between the two countries flared up
again China could take a hit so they
began spreading their Investments around
looking for safer and potentially more
profitable options and now it seems like
other countries are catching on and
following China’s lead gradually dialing
down their Reliance on us treasuries the
shift Global landscape especially the
growing tensions between the US and
China has pushed Beijing to rethink its
Financial strategies especially when it
comes to how much US debt it holds for
China cutting back on us treasuries
isn’t just about dollars and sents it’s
a smart move to reduce risk tied to
political friction by holding less US
debt China lowers its exposure to any
economic Fallout that could happen if
relations with the US take another turn
for the worse but here’s an interesting
twist some people believe that if China
were to dump a huge chunk of US debt it
might actually backfire instead of
hurting the US it could end up
strengthening the dollar while driving
up the value of China’s own currency
which isn’t exactly what Beijing wants
even though China has been trimming its
Holdings the overall US debt Market has
grown so much that China’s slice of the
pie has gotten smaller back in 2011
China held around 14% of all us
treasuries fast forward to 2024 and that
number has shrunk to less than 3% the
lowest it’s been in over two decades but
China isn’t the only one making moves
Japan has been tweaking its strategy too
in March 2024 Japan held about $1.17
trillion in US debt but by December that
number dipped to $1.06 trillion even
with that Japan still holds the title of
the largest foreign holder of us
treasuries why the pullback Japan’s been
busy trying to keep its currency the Yen
from sliding too far against the dollar
when the Yen weakens too much the bank
of Japan steps in selling off us
treasuries to buy yen and Prof it back
up plus Japan’s domestic policies like
managing interest rates and battling
inflation play a big role in how it
handles its foreign reserves meanwhile
over in the United king om there’s been
some action too after Donald Trump’s
re-election in November 2024 the UK
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
about
$767 billion to $723
billion why the cut it came down to a
mix of politics and Market Jitters
Trump’s plans for big tax cuts and
increased government spending had
investors on edge expecting higher
inflation and more US Government
borrowing that sent treasury yields
soaring since bond prices drop when
yields go up the UK’s existing Holdings
lost value leading them to rethink their
strategy and sell off a chunk this
wasn’t just a UK thing though Bond
markets around the world felt the heat
with fears of inflation and Rising
borrowing costs shaking up Global
finance and like China the UK is now
more focused on diversifying its
reserves spreading Risk by investing in
assets like gold and cutting back on US
dollar heavy Holdings
the stronger US dollar after Trump’s
reelection also played a role as the
dollar gained strength the relative
value of foreign held us assets shifted
nudging countries like the UK to adjust
their
portfolios over in India there’s been a
similar pattern the country scaled back
its US Treasury Holdings from $240
billion in March 2024 to about $29
billion The Reserve Bank of India has
been fine-tuning its foreign reserves
aiming for more balance and less
Reliance on US debt The Reserve Bank of
India RBI has been busy behind the
scenes stepping into to steady the
Indian rupee as it battles global
economic ups and downs Rising us
interest rates and investors pulling
money out of India haven’t helped
putting even more pressure on the
currency to keep things balanced the RBI
has been working hard to stop wild
swings in the exchange rate but India
isn’t just focused on quick fixes it’s
thinking longterm term the country has
been reshuffling its foreign reserves
putting more emphasis on gold and other
investment options this way it’s not
putting all its eggs in one basket
especially when it comes to assets tied
to the US dollar India is also looking
to strengthen its trade links with
emerging economies hoping to build a
more stable financial future over in the
Middle East Saudi Arabia has been making
its own strategic moves its US Treasury
holding slid from $142 billion to 37
billion over 6 months as a major oil
exporter Saudi Arabia’s reserves often
mirror the rise and fall of global oil
prices with recent dips in oil revenues
it’s no surprise the kingdom is
adjusting its Financial Playbook but
there’s more to it Saudi Arabia is
Thinking Beyond oil thanks to its
ambitious Vision 2030 plan the country
is pouring money into infrastructure
technology and green energy aiming to
transform its economy and reduce its
dependence on oil plus stronger trade
ties with countries like China may be
encouraging Saudi Arabia to shift some
of its reserves away from us treasuries
meanwhile Germany has also been tweaking
its Financial strategies the country
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
$14 billion to $97 billion in just half
a year Germany being the largest economy
in the Euro Zone Keeps Us treasuries in
its reserves to help manage risks and
balance its books but lately Germany has
been thinking Greener literally the
country has been investing more in green
bonds and other sustainable assets part
of its broader goal of promoting
long-term economic stability with
inflation concerns and changes in the
European Central bank’s policies Germany
is carefully adjusting its reserves plus
there’s a quiet push to give the Euro a
bigger role as an alternative to the US
dollar on the global stage Norway has
been moving pieces on its Financial
chest sport to between August and
December 2024 its US Treasury Holdings
dropped from $166 billion to $157
billion most of these Holdings are
managed through Norway’s massive
government pension fund Global one of
the world’s biggest Sovereign wealth
funds Norway likes to spread its
Investments around putting money into
everything from stocks to bonds and
alternative assets the recent dip in us
treasuries simply reflects a shift
toward higher yield Investments
especially as Global interest rates
continue to change Norway’s big picture
strategy balance risk while keeping its
long-term financial goals in sight but
here’s where things get even trickier
tariffs and Rising economic tensions are
shaking up the game a wave of new
tariffs 25% on all countries with extra
penalties on key sectors like cars
semiconductors and pharmaceuticals has
countries rethinking their exposure to
US debt
for Many Nations cutting back on us
treasuries isn’t just a reaction it’s
part of a bigger plan to reduce their
Reliance on the US Financial system by
shifting their reserves into other
assets countries can hit back at trade
restrictions and Safeguard their
economies This Global reshuffling is
also fueling the broader trend of
dollarization where countries are slowly
moving away from using the US dollar as
the world’s go-to currency the result a
highly unpredictable econ ecomic
landscape tensions between the Us and
other major economies are stirring up
Market volatility shaking Global Supply
chains and pushing up inflation in some
regions of course some argue that these
tough trade policies could eventually
lead to fairer practices and a more
balanced global economy but the big
question remains will this bring
stability or push the world deeper into
economic uncertainty one thing’s for
sure the world’s Financial system is at
a cross roads and what happens next
could reshape global trade shift Reserve
currencies and rewrite the rules of
international finance if you found this
video interesting be sure to hit that
like button and don’t forget to
subscribe
Fuck the patriarchy.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
They hate women.Fuck the patriarchy.
America is fucked.
Yeah. Thanks to the religious fanatics.
Grat job!
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
They hate women.Fuck the patriarchy.
America is fucked.
Every Woman in America Needs to Watch This and Understand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qmyRYekkQ
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
They hate women.Fuck the patriarchy.
America is fucked.
Every Woman in America Needs to Watch This and Understand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qmyRYekkQ
I can’t watch it, too stressful. That fuckhead who called her “a little girl”…someone needs to check his hard drive for child porn. He’s an arrogant creep.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
right after Donald Trump won the 2024
presidential election fresh data from
December showed something interesting
many countries started pulling back on
how much US Government debt they held
out of 20 major economies that usually
invest in US Treasury bonds 16 decided
to cut back some of the biggest drops
came from the United Kingdom which
reduced its Holdings by $ 44.1 billion
Japan by$ 27.3 billion and Saudi Arabia
by $15.1 billion
other countries trimmed their
Investments too though by smaller
amounts China by $9.6 billion
Switzerland by $9.7 billion and India by
$14.9 billion so why the sudden pullback
it seems many Global Investors and
central banks were feeling cautious they
were concerned about what Trump’s
policies might mean for the economy and
didn’t want to get caught off guard by
any surprises this isn’t a new strategy
countries that invest heavily in US debt
keep a close eye on things like trade
policies interest rates and diplomatic
moves if they sense anything
unpredictable or risky they often scale
back to avoid potential losses one big
concern is how much money the US
government plans to borrow if investors
think upcoming policies might weaken the
dollar or balloon the national debt they
might see us treasuries as less
appealing when lots of foreign investors
sell off these bonds it can push up
interest rates making it more expensive
for the US government to borrow money
this doesn’t just hit Washington it can
also mean higher costs for American
families and businesses like pricier
mortgage rates or more expensive
business loans and here’s the bigger
picture if this trend of selling off US
debt continues it might make people
question the strength of the US dollar
as the go-to currency for global trade
and savings for decades the US dollar
has been the king of global Finance but
when foreign countries start pulling
back from US Government debt it it
raises eyebrows if this keeps happening
it could signal a slow shift toward
other Safe Haven assets like Euro back
bonds different major currencies or even
old school gold but this isn’t just
about numbers on a spreadsheet the
selloff following Trump’s 2024 election
win might reflect deeper tensions
bubbling under the surface when trade
disagreements flare up or diplomatic
ties get strained big investors from
other countries often start moving their
money El elsewhere even if they don’t
make a big bus about it the thing is
these changes can happen quietly a
country doesn’t need to make a public
announcement to make an impact slowly
but surely as they cut back on US debt
it can chip away at the Dollar’s Global
dominance and if future policies stir up
more uncertainty or spark fresh
conflicts what started as a
post-election shuffle could grow into a
long-term trend of countries spreading
their Investments far and wide away from
us markets central banks usually stock
up on us treasuries because they’re
considered super safe kind of like a
financial safety net but lately many
countries are rethinking that strategy
they’re looking to balance their
reserves with other currencies or assets
especially gold to avoid putting all
their eggs in one basket this movement
often called
dollarization is about reducing Reliance
on the US dollar China for example has
been quietly trimming its stash of us
treasuries which dropped to $ 76.1
billion in October
2024 the lowest it’s been since
2009 it’s all part of China’s bigger
plan to diversify and reduce its
exposure to the US Financial system one
major reason countries want less
dependence on the dollar is because of
the power it gives the US in global
Finance the US can use its influence to
impose sanctions which has made some
Nations rethink their heavy Reliance on
dollar backed assets
this shift isn’t just talk the unhedged
podcast recently highlighted how central
banks and Sovereign wealth funds are
scooping up gold as a shield against
potential us sanctions countries like
Poland turkey India aeran and China have
been leading the charge in this gold
buying spree there’s also a more
tactical reason for some of these
sell-offs currency control Nations
sometimes sell off us treasuries to
strengthen their own currencies Japan
for example reduced its Holdings from
1.08 7 trillion in November 2024 to
1.06 trillion in December likely as part
of efforts to stabilize its currency
Japan’s recent move to trim its stash of
US dollar assets wasn’t random it was
part of a bigger plan to boost its own
currency the Yen by selling off us
treasuries and buying more Yen Japan
aimed to strengthen its currency and
stabilize its economy but there’s a
tradeoff when countries do this it often
means they end up holding fewer us Bonds
in their reserves meanwhile back in the
US Treasury yields have been climbing
why a mix of policy changes like tariffs
and shifts in Immigration rules under
Trump’s Administration has stirred up
expectations of stronger economic growth
and possibly Rising inflation when
inflation goes up interest rates tend to
follow pushing up the yields on
government bonds but here’s the catch
when yields rise the value of older
bonds those issued at lower rates drops
CS this forces investors to rethink
their strategies adding to the pressure
the Federal Reserve signaled that it
might slow down on cutting interest
rates in 2025 because of inflation
concerns which only reinforced the
upward Trend in yields zooming out
there’s been a bigger more strategic
shift unfolding over the past couple of
decades since the 9/11 attacks the US
has used its Financial system as a tool
of influence leveraging the Dollar’s
Global dominance
by controlling access to its banking
system and imposing sanctions the US has
been able to apply economic pressure on
countries like Iran North Korea and
Russia but this power play hasn’t gone
unnoticed countries on the receiving end
of these sanctions and even some allies
have started asking are we too dependent
on the US dollar this question has
fueled the global push toward what’s
known as
dollarization reducing Reliance on the
green back
one of the main ways countries are doing
this is by trading directly in their
local currencies China and Russia for
example have been ramping up trade deals
using when and rubles instead of dollars
India and Iran have also explored
similar setups making it easier to
bypass us controlled Financial channels
another big move has been building
alternative banking systems to get
around
swi the global messaging Network that
most banks use but one that’s heavily
influenced by Western powers in response
Russia developed its own system spfs and
China rolled out cips for crossb
transactions these systems give
countries more control over their
International payments and help them
Dodge potential us sanctions on top of
that Global alliances have been joining
the push the bricks group Brazil Russia
India China and South Africa has been
actively discussing creating a new
Reserve currency that could rival the
dollar Russia in particular has been
been urging its trade Partners to switch
to Alternative currencies especially
after facing waves of Western sanctions
even the oil Market long dominated by
dollar-based deals is seeing cracks
countries in the Gulf cooperation
Council GCC have started considering
accepting payments in other currencies
like the Japanese Yen hinting at big
changes in global trade habits central
banks aren’t sitting still either many
are shaking up their foreign exchange
reserves pulling back from us treasuries
and stocking up on gold a classic Safety
Net in uncertain times China Japan and
India have all been quietly shifting
their portfolios cutting their us Bond
Holdings while boosting investments in
other assets countries around the world
have been making quiet but deliberate
moves to Shield their economies from the
Ripple effects of us monetary policies
and potential economic pressure this
shift isn’t about ditching the dollar
overnight it’s about creating more
options and red reducing overreliance on
a single currency that holds immense
Global power the idea of the US dollar
losing its top spot as the world’s go-to
currency might seem far-fetched at least
for now but bit by bit nations are
finding new ways to gain Financial
Independence whether it’s trading in
local currencies stockpiling gold or
building alternative banking networks
the push for greater control over
National economies is gaining traction
this slow but steady shift depends on a
mix of factors global politics the
strength of new Financial systems and
how well countries can work together to
sidestep Dollar dominance while the
dollar still Reigns Supreme cracks are
starting to show in the foundation but
this isn’t the first time the world has
seen a major currency shift before the
US dollar took the throne it was the
British pound sterling that ruled Global
Finance the pound’s power was closely
tied to the British Empire’s vast
network of colonies and trade routes
making it the Top Choice for
international Commerce during the late
19th and early 20th centuries however
Britain’s dominance began to unravel
during World War One the war drained the
country’s gold reserves and left it
drowning in debt in an attempt to
restore stability Britain tried to bring
back the gold standard in 1925 but the
effort was shortlived the Great
Depression hit hard and by 1931 Britain
was forced to abandon the gold standard
altogether shaking Global confidence in
the pound mean meanwhile across the
Atlantic the United States was on the
rise the creation of the Federal Reserve
in 1913 gave the US a strong central
banking system bringing more stability
to its economy throughout the 1920s and
1930s New York city grew into a major
Financial Hub gradually challenging
London’s dominance but it wasn’t until
after World War II that the US dollar
truly took center stage in 1944 global
leaders met at the Breton Woods
conference and agreed on a new Financial
system the US with its massive gold
reserves and booming economy became the
anchor of this system the dollar was
pegged to gold and other currencies were
tied to the dollar creating a stable
Global exchange Network this setup made
the US dollar the world’s primary
Reserve currency and for a while it
worked countries trusted the dollar
because they knew it was backed by gold
but by the late 1960s crack started to
appear the US was dealing with Rising
inflation and a growing trade deficit
putting pressure on the Dollar’s
stability in
1971 something big happened that
completely changed how Global money
worked president Richard Nixon made a
surprise move later known as the Nixon
shock he cut the link between the US
dollar and gold before this countries
could trade their US dollars for gold
but Nixon put an end to that flipping
the script on how the world’s money
system worked this bold step ended the
Breton wood system which had been in
place since
1944 back then right after World War II
leaders from 44 Allied countries met in
a little town in New Hampshire called
Breton woods they had one big goal avoid
another global economic mess like the
one that had followed World War I the
solution create a stable money system
that would keep currencies steady and
encourage countries to work together not
a against each other out of that meeting
came two major Financial powerhouses the
international monetary fund
IMF designed to keep currency stable and
help countries in financial trouble the
International Bank for reconstruction
and development ibrd now part of the
World Bank it focused on rebuilding War
torn Europe and supporting economic
growth worldwide at the heart of this
new system was the US dollar pegged to
gold at a fixed rate since the US had
the biggest stash of gold after World
War II and a booming economy the world
trusted its currency this trust turned
the dollar into the backbone of global
Finance throughout the 1950s and 60s
countries everywhere filled their
reserves with US dollars but by the late
1960s cracks began to appear the US was
spending more money than it was making
especially with the cost of the Vietnam
War and foreign countries started asking
for their gold in exchange for dollars
faced with a potential economic disaster
Nixon took action his decision to break
the dollar gold link didn’t crash the
system as some feared instead it
launched a new era of floating exchange
rates where currency values were
determined by market forces not fixed to
Gold even without gold backing it the US
dollar stayed strong why because the US
economy was still one of the biggest and
most stable and the dollar was deeply
woven into global trade especially the
oil Market thanks to the Petro dollar
system where countries paid for oil in
US dollars fast forward to the
1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union
the us became the world’s only
superpower this was the Golden Age of
the dollar globalization was booming the
US tech industry was taking off and Wall
Street was the place to be investors
around around the world saw US Treasury
bonds as the safest bet and countries
kept stacking up dollars in their
reserves even when the Euro was
introduced in 1999 as a potential rival
it didn’t shake the Dollar’s dominance
by the early 2000s nearly 70% of global
foreign exchange reserves were held in
dollars but then came 2008 the global
financial crisis it started in the US
housing market but quickly spread
worldwide shaking trust in American
Banks and financial systems ironically
even as the US was the source of the
crisis investors rushed to the dollar as
a safe haven during the storm however
the cracks were now clear central banks
realized they had too many eggs in one
basket after the crisis many began to
diversify their reserves buying more
gold and other currencies to protect
themselves from future shocks enter
China as its economy skyrocketed China
pushed hard to get its currency the ren
Min
ermb more International recognition it
created new Financial networks like the
Asian infrastructure Investment Bank aib
to rival western-led institutions like
the World Bank giving countries an
alternative for development funding and
reducing Reliance on the US dollar China
has been playing a smart game to boost
its currency the ren Min RMB on the
world stage one big move pouring money
into a massive infrastructure projects
through its belt and Road initiative
BR think Railways in Africa ports in
Europe and highways in Asia all funded
in many cases using the
RMB this not only gets countries hooked
into China’s economic network but also
puts its currency into Global
circulation but China didn’t stop there
to make trading smoother without always
having to use US Dollars it set up
special deals called currency swap
agreements with multiple countries
these deals let countries trade directly
in their own currencies and R&B cutting
the dollar out of the equation and
making China an even bigger player in
global Finance now let’s talk about
something that’s shaking up money as we
know it blockchain and digital
currencies these Technologies are
rewriting the rulebook on how money
moves across borders central banks
around the world have noticed and are
jumping on board creating their own
Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to
keep up with this fast-paced change by
early 2024 over 130 countries including
the US were exploring or developing
their own digital currencies but China
it’s way ahead with its digital un also
called the
ecny it’s not just about making payments
faster it’s part of China’s bigger plan
to make the R&B more popular globally
meanwhile in the digital Finance world
the US dollar still holds its ground
thanks to stable coin
digital currencies tied to the Dollar’s
value these are used in international
trade and online transactions keeping
the dollar relevant even in the age of
crypto still the Dollar’s grip isn’t
what it used to be in 2022 its share of
global reserves slipped to around
58% while other currencies like the Euro
the Chinese Yan and even gold started
grabbing a bigger slice of the pie a
major clue to this shift the falling
demand for us treasuries especially from
China back in 2013 China owned a
whopping $1.3 trillion in US government
bonds but by the end of 2024 that number
had dropped to about $759 billion why
the big selloff it’s partly because
China used to buy tons of US dollars to
keep its own currency the R&B stable and
its exports cheap but as its trade Gap
with the US narrowed after 2018 there
was less need to stock pile dollars on
top of that Chinese officials started
worrying about having too many eggs in
the US dollar basket if something were
to shake the US economy or if tensions
between the two countries flared up
again China could take a hit so they
began spreading their Investments around
looking for safer and potentially more
profitable options and now it seems like
other countries are catching on and
following China’s lead gradually dialing
down their Reliance on us treasuries the
shift Global landscape especially the
growing tensions between the US and
China has pushed Beijing to rethink its
Financial strategies especially when it
comes to how much US debt it holds for
China cutting back on us treasuries
isn’t just about dollars and sents it’s
a smart move to reduce risk tied to
political friction by holding less US
debt China lowers its exposure to any
economic Fallout that could happen if
relations with the US take another turn
for the worse but here’s an interesting
twist some people believe that if China
were to dump a huge chunk of US debt it
might actually backfire instead of
hurting the US it could end up
strengthening the dollar while driving
up the value of China’s own currency
which isn’t exactly what Beijing wants
even though China has been trimming its
Holdings the overall US debt Market has
grown so much that China’s slice of the
pie has gotten smaller back in 2011
China held around 14% of all us
treasuries fast forward to 2024 and that
number has shrunk to less than 3% the
lowest it’s been in over two decades but
China isn’t the only one making moves
Japan has been tweaking its strategy too
in March 2024 Japan held about $1.17
trillion in US debt but by December that
number dipped to $1.06 trillion even
with that Japan still holds the title of
the largest foreign holder of us
treasuries why the pullback Japan’s been
busy trying to keep its currency the Yen
from sliding too far against the dollar
when the Yen weakens too much the bank
of Japan steps in selling off us
treasuries to buy yen and Prof it back
up plus Japan’s domestic policies like
managing interest rates and battling
inflation play a big role in how it
handles its foreign reserves meanwhile
over in the United king om there’s been
some action too after Donald Trump’s
re-election in November 2024 the UK
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
about
$767 billion to $723
billion why the cut it came down to a
mix of politics and Market Jitters
Trump’s plans for big tax cuts and
increased government spending had
investors on edge expecting higher
inflation and more US Government
borrowing that sent treasury yields
soaring since bond prices drop when
yields go up the UK’s existing Holdings
lost value leading them to rethink their
strategy and sell off a chunk this
wasn’t just a UK thing though Bond
markets around the world felt the heat
with fears of inflation and Rising
borrowing costs shaking up Global
finance and like China the UK is now
more focused on diversifying its
reserves spreading Risk by investing in
assets like gold and cutting back on US
dollar heavy Holdings
the stronger US dollar after Trump’s
reelection also played a role as the
dollar gained strength the relative
value of foreign held us assets shifted
nudging countries like the UK to adjust
their
portfolios over in India there’s been a
similar pattern the country scaled back
its US Treasury Holdings from $240
billion in March 2024 to about $29
billion The Reserve Bank of India has
been fine-tuning its foreign reserves
aiming for more balance and less
Reliance on US debt The Reserve Bank of
India RBI has been busy behind the
scenes stepping into to steady the
Indian rupee as it battles global
economic ups and downs Rising us
interest rates and investors pulling
money out of India haven’t helped
putting even more pressure on the
currency to keep things balanced the RBI
has been working hard to stop wild
swings in the exchange rate but India
isn’t just focused on quick fixes it’s
thinking longterm term the country has
been reshuffling its foreign reserves
putting more emphasis on gold and other
investment options this way it’s not
putting all its eggs in one basket
especially when it comes to assets tied
to the US dollar India is also looking
to strengthen its trade links with
emerging economies hoping to build a
more stable financial future over in the
Middle East Saudi Arabia has been making
its own strategic moves its US Treasury
holding slid from $142 billion to 37
billion over 6 months as a major oil
exporter Saudi Arabia’s reserves often
mirror the rise and fall of global oil
prices with recent dips in oil revenues
it’s no surprise the kingdom is
adjusting its Financial Playbook but
there’s more to it Saudi Arabia is
Thinking Beyond oil thanks to its
ambitious Vision 2030 plan the country
is pouring money into infrastructure
technology and green energy aiming to
transform its economy and reduce its
dependence on oil plus stronger trade
ties with countries like China may be
encouraging Saudi Arabia to shift some
of its reserves away from us treasuries
meanwhile Germany has also been tweaking
its Financial strategies the country
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
$14 billion to $97 billion in just half
a year Germany being the largest economy
in the Euro Zone Keeps Us treasuries in
its reserves to help manage risks and
balance its books but lately Germany has
been thinking Greener literally the
country has been investing more in green
bonds and other sustainable assets part
of its broader goal of promoting
long-term economic stability with
inflation concerns and changes in the
European Central bank’s policies Germany
is carefully adjusting its reserves plus
there’s a quiet push to give the Euro a
bigger role as an alternative to the US
dollar on the global stage Norway has
been moving pieces on its Financial
chest sport to between August and
December 2024 its US Treasury Holdings
dropped from $166 billion to $157
billion most of these Holdings are
managed through Norway’s massive
government pension fund Global one of
the world’s biggest Sovereign wealth
funds Norway likes to spread its
Investments around putting money into
everything from stocks to bonds and
alternative assets the recent dip in us
treasuries simply reflects a shift
toward higher yield Investments
especially as Global interest rates
continue to change Norway’s big picture
strategy balance risk while keeping its
long-term financial goals in sight but
here’s where things get even trickier
tariffs and Rising economic tensions are
shaking up the game a wave of new
tariffs 25% on all countries with extra
penalties on key sectors like cars
semiconductors and pharmaceuticals has
countries rethinking their exposure to
US debt
for Many Nations cutting back on us
treasuries isn’t just a reaction it’s
part of a bigger plan to reduce their
Reliance on the US Financial system by
shifting their reserves into other
assets countries can hit back at trade
restrictions and Safeguard their
economies This Global reshuffling is
also fueling the broader trend of
dollarization where countries are slowly
moving away from using the US dollar as
the world’s go-to currency the result a
highly unpredictable econ ecomic
landscape tensions between the Us and
other major economies are stirring up
Market volatility shaking Global Supply
chains and pushing up inflation in some
regions of course some argue that these
tough trade policies could eventually
lead to fairer practices and a more
balanced global economy but the big
question remains will this bring
stability or push the world deeper into
economic uncertainty one thing’s for
sure the world’s Financial system is at
a cross roads and what happens next
could reshape global trade shift Reserve
currencies and rewrite the rules of
international finance if you found this
video interesting be sure to hit that
like button and don’t forget to
subscribe
Another unreadable one.
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
right after Donald Trump won the 2024
presidential election fresh data from
December showed something interesting
many countries started pulling back on
how much US Government debt they held
out of 20 major economies that usually
invest in US Treasury bonds 16 decided
to cut back some of the biggest drops
came from the United Kingdom which
reduced its Holdings by $ 44.1 billion
Japan by$ 27.3 billion and Saudi Arabia
by $15.1 billion
other countries trimmed their
Investments too though by smaller
amounts China by $9.6 billion
Switzerland by $9.7 billion and India by
$14.9 billion so why the sudden pullback
it seems many Global Investors and
central banks were feeling cautious they
were concerned about what Trump’s
policies might mean for the economy and
didn’t want to get caught off guard by
any surprises this isn’t a new strategy
countries that invest heavily in US debt
keep a close eye on things like trade
policies interest rates and diplomatic
moves if they sense anything
unpredictable or risky they often scale
back to avoid potential losses one big
concern is how much money the US
government plans to borrow if investors
think upcoming policies might weaken the
dollar or balloon the national debt they
might see us treasuries as less
appealing when lots of foreign investors
sell off these bonds it can push up
interest rates making it more expensive
for the US government to borrow money
this doesn’t just hit Washington it can
also mean higher costs for American
families and businesses like pricier
mortgage rates or more expensive
business loans and here’s the bigger
picture if this trend of selling off US
debt continues it might make people
question the strength of the US dollar
as the go-to currency for global trade
and savings for decades the US dollar
has been the king of global Finance but
when foreign countries start pulling
back from US Government debt it it
raises eyebrows if this keeps happening
it could signal a slow shift toward
other Safe Haven assets like Euro back
bonds different major currencies or even
old school gold but this isn’t just
about numbers on a spreadsheet the
selloff following Trump’s 2024 election
win might reflect deeper tensions
bubbling under the surface when trade
disagreements flare up or diplomatic
ties get strained big investors from
other countries often start moving their
money El elsewhere even if they don’t
make a big bus about it the thing is
these changes can happen quietly a
country doesn’t need to make a public
announcement to make an impact slowly
but surely as they cut back on US debt
it can chip away at the Dollar’s Global
dominance and if future policies stir up
more uncertainty or spark fresh
conflicts what started as a
post-election shuffle could grow into a
long-term trend of countries spreading
their Investments far and wide away from
us markets central banks usually stock
up on us treasuries because they’re
considered super safe kind of like a
financial safety net but lately many
countries are rethinking that strategy
they’re looking to balance their
reserves with other currencies or assets
especially gold to avoid putting all
their eggs in one basket this movement
often called
dollarization is about reducing Reliance
on the US dollar China for example has
been quietly trimming its stash of us
treasuries which dropped to $ 76.1
billion in October
2024 the lowest it’s been since
2009 it’s all part of China’s bigger
plan to diversify and reduce its
exposure to the US Financial system one
major reason countries want less
dependence on the dollar is because of
the power it gives the US in global
Finance the US can use its influence to
impose sanctions which has made some
Nations rethink their heavy Reliance on
dollar backed assets
this shift isn’t just talk the unhedged
podcast recently highlighted how central
banks and Sovereign wealth funds are
scooping up gold as a shield against
potential us sanctions countries like
Poland turkey India aeran and China have
been leading the charge in this gold
buying spree there’s also a more
tactical reason for some of these
sell-offs currency control Nations
sometimes sell off us treasuries to
strengthen their own currencies Japan
for example reduced its Holdings from
1.08 7 trillion in November 2024 to
1.06 trillion in December likely as part
of efforts to stabilize its currency
Japan’s recent move to trim its stash of
US dollar assets wasn’t random it was
part of a bigger plan to boost its own
currency the Yen by selling off us
treasuries and buying more Yen Japan
aimed to strengthen its currency and
stabilize its economy but there’s a
tradeoff when countries do this it often
means they end up holding fewer us Bonds
in their reserves meanwhile back in the
US Treasury yields have been climbing
why a mix of policy changes like tariffs
and shifts in Immigration rules under
Trump’s Administration has stirred up
expectations of stronger economic growth
and possibly Rising inflation when
inflation goes up interest rates tend to
follow pushing up the yields on
government bonds but here’s the catch
when yields rise the value of older
bonds those issued at lower rates drops
CS this forces investors to rethink
their strategies adding to the pressure
the Federal Reserve signaled that it
might slow down on cutting interest
rates in 2025 because of inflation
concerns which only reinforced the
upward Trend in yields zooming out
there’s been a bigger more strategic
shift unfolding over the past couple of
decades since the 9/11 attacks the US
has used its Financial system as a tool
of influence leveraging the Dollar’s
Global dominance
by controlling access to its banking
system and imposing sanctions the US has
been able to apply economic pressure on
countries like Iran North Korea and
Russia but this power play hasn’t gone
unnoticed countries on the receiving end
of these sanctions and even some allies
have started asking are we too dependent
on the US dollar this question has
fueled the global push toward what’s
known as
dollarization reducing Reliance on the
green back
one of the main ways countries are doing
this is by trading directly in their
local currencies China and Russia for
example have been ramping up trade deals
using when and rubles instead of dollars
India and Iran have also explored
similar setups making it easier to
bypass us controlled Financial channels
another big move has been building
alternative banking systems to get
around
swi the global messaging Network that
most banks use but one that’s heavily
influenced by Western powers in response
Russia developed its own system spfs and
China rolled out cips for crossb
transactions these systems give
countries more control over their
International payments and help them
Dodge potential us sanctions on top of
that Global alliances have been joining
the push the bricks group Brazil Russia
India China and South Africa has been
actively discussing creating a new
Reserve currency that could rival the
dollar Russia in particular has been
been urging its trade Partners to switch
to Alternative currencies especially
after facing waves of Western sanctions
even the oil Market long dominated by
dollar-based deals is seeing cracks
countries in the Gulf cooperation
Council GCC have started considering
accepting payments in other currencies
like the Japanese Yen hinting at big
changes in global trade habits central
banks aren’t sitting still either many
are shaking up their foreign exchange
reserves pulling back from us treasuries
and stocking up on gold a classic Safety
Net in uncertain times China Japan and
India have all been quietly shifting
their portfolios cutting their us Bond
Holdings while boosting investments in
other assets countries around the world
have been making quiet but deliberate
moves to Shield their economies from the
Ripple effects of us monetary policies
and potential economic pressure this
shift isn’t about ditching the dollar
overnight it’s about creating more
options and red reducing overreliance on
a single currency that holds immense
Global power the idea of the US dollar
losing its top spot as the world’s go-to
currency might seem far-fetched at least
for now but bit by bit nations are
finding new ways to gain Financial
Independence whether it’s trading in
local currencies stockpiling gold or
building alternative banking networks
the push for greater control over
National economies is gaining traction
this slow but steady shift depends on a
mix of factors global politics the
strength of new Financial systems and
how well countries can work together to
sidestep Dollar dominance while the
dollar still Reigns Supreme cracks are
starting to show in the foundation but
this isn’t the first time the world has
seen a major currency shift before the
US dollar took the throne it was the
British pound sterling that ruled Global
Finance the pound’s power was closely
tied to the British Empire’s vast
network of colonies and trade routes
making it the Top Choice for
international Commerce during the late
19th and early 20th centuries however
Britain’s dominance began to unravel
during World War One the war drained the
country’s gold reserves and left it
drowning in debt in an attempt to
restore stability Britain tried to bring
back the gold standard in 1925 but the
effort was shortlived the Great
Depression hit hard and by 1931 Britain
was forced to abandon the gold standard
altogether shaking Global confidence in
the pound mean meanwhile across the
Atlantic the United States was on the
rise the creation of the Federal Reserve
in 1913 gave the US a strong central
banking system bringing more stability
to its economy throughout the 1920s and
1930s New York city grew into a major
Financial Hub gradually challenging
London’s dominance but it wasn’t until
after World War II that the US dollar
truly took center stage in 1944 global
leaders met at the Breton Woods
conference and agreed on a new Financial
system the US with its massive gold
reserves and booming economy became the
anchor of this system the dollar was
pegged to gold and other currencies were
tied to the dollar creating a stable
Global exchange Network this setup made
the US dollar the world’s primary
Reserve currency and for a while it
worked countries trusted the dollar
because they knew it was backed by gold
but by the late 1960s crack started to
appear the US was dealing with Rising
inflation and a growing trade deficit
putting pressure on the Dollar’s
stability in
1971 something big happened that
completely changed how Global money
worked president Richard Nixon made a
surprise move later known as the Nixon
shock he cut the link between the US
dollar and gold before this countries
could trade their US dollars for gold
but Nixon put an end to that flipping
the script on how the world’s money
system worked this bold step ended the
Breton wood system which had been in
place since
1944 back then right after World War II
leaders from 44 Allied countries met in
a little town in New Hampshire called
Breton woods they had one big goal avoid
another global economic mess like the
one that had followed World War I the
solution create a stable money system
that would keep currencies steady and
encourage countries to work together not
a against each other out of that meeting
came two major Financial powerhouses the
international monetary fund
IMF designed to keep currency stable and
help countries in financial trouble the
International Bank for reconstruction
and development ibrd now part of the
World Bank it focused on rebuilding War
torn Europe and supporting economic
growth worldwide at the heart of this
new system was the US dollar pegged to
gold at a fixed rate since the US had
the biggest stash of gold after World
War II and a booming economy the world
trusted its currency this trust turned
the dollar into the backbone of global
Finance throughout the 1950s and 60s
countries everywhere filled their
reserves with US dollars but by the late
1960s cracks began to appear the US was
spending more money than it was making
especially with the cost of the Vietnam
War and foreign countries started asking
for their gold in exchange for dollars
faced with a potential economic disaster
Nixon took action his decision to break
the dollar gold link didn’t crash the
system as some feared instead it
launched a new era of floating exchange
rates where currency values were
determined by market forces not fixed to
Gold even without gold backing it the US
dollar stayed strong why because the US
economy was still one of the biggest and
most stable and the dollar was deeply
woven into global trade especially the
oil Market thanks to the Petro dollar
system where countries paid for oil in
US dollars fast forward to the
1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union
the us became the world’s only
superpower this was the Golden Age of
the dollar globalization was booming the
US tech industry was taking off and Wall
Street was the place to be investors
around around the world saw US Treasury
bonds as the safest bet and countries
kept stacking up dollars in their
reserves even when the Euro was
introduced in 1999 as a potential rival
it didn’t shake the Dollar’s dominance
by the early 2000s nearly 70% of global
foreign exchange reserves were held in
dollars but then came 2008 the global
financial crisis it started in the US
housing market but quickly spread
worldwide shaking trust in American
Banks and financial systems ironically
even as the US was the source of the
crisis investors rushed to the dollar as
a safe haven during the storm however
the cracks were now clear central banks
realized they had too many eggs in one
basket after the crisis many began to
diversify their reserves buying more
gold and other currencies to protect
themselves from future shocks enter
China as its economy skyrocketed China
pushed hard to get its currency the ren
Min
ermb more International recognition it
created new Financial networks like the
Asian infrastructure Investment Bank aib
to rival western-led institutions like
the World Bank giving countries an
alternative for development funding and
reducing Reliance on the US dollar China
has been playing a smart game to boost
its currency the ren Min RMB on the
world stage one big move pouring money
into a massive infrastructure projects
through its belt and Road initiative
BR think Railways in Africa ports in
Europe and highways in Asia all funded
in many cases using the
RMB this not only gets countries hooked
into China’s economic network but also
puts its currency into Global
circulation but China didn’t stop there
to make trading smoother without always
having to use US Dollars it set up
special deals called currency swap
agreements with multiple countries
these deals let countries trade directly
in their own currencies and R&B cutting
the dollar out of the equation and
making China an even bigger player in
global Finance now let’s talk about
something that’s shaking up money as we
know it blockchain and digital
currencies these Technologies are
rewriting the rulebook on how money
moves across borders central banks
around the world have noticed and are
jumping on board creating their own
Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to
keep up with this fast-paced change by
early 2024 over 130 countries including
the US were exploring or developing
their own digital currencies but China
it’s way ahead with its digital un also
called the
ecny it’s not just about making payments
faster it’s part of China’s bigger plan
to make the R&B more popular globally
meanwhile in the digital Finance world
the US dollar still holds its ground
thanks to stable coin
digital currencies tied to the Dollar’s
value these are used in international
trade and online transactions keeping
the dollar relevant even in the age of
crypto still the Dollar’s grip isn’t
what it used to be in 2022 its share of
global reserves slipped to around
58% while other currencies like the Euro
the Chinese Yan and even gold started
grabbing a bigger slice of the pie a
major clue to this shift the falling
demand for us treasuries especially from
China back in 2013 China owned a
whopping $1.3 trillion in US government
bonds but by the end of 2024 that number
had dropped to about $759 billion why
the big selloff it’s partly because
China used to buy tons of US dollars to
keep its own currency the R&B stable and
its exports cheap but as its trade Gap
with the US narrowed after 2018 there
was less need to stock pile dollars on
top of that Chinese officials started
worrying about having too many eggs in
the US dollar basket if something were
to shake the US economy or if tensions
between the two countries flared up
again China could take a hit so they
began spreading their Investments around
looking for safer and potentially more
profitable options and now it seems like
other countries are catching on and
following China’s lead gradually dialing
down their Reliance on us treasuries the
shift Global landscape especially the
growing tensions between the US and
China has pushed Beijing to rethink its
Financial strategies especially when it
comes to how much US debt it holds for
China cutting back on us treasuries
isn’t just about dollars and sents it’s
a smart move to reduce risk tied to
political friction by holding less US
debt China lowers its exposure to any
economic Fallout that could happen if
relations with the US take another turn
for the worse but here’s an interesting
twist some people believe that if China
were to dump a huge chunk of US debt it
might actually backfire instead of
hurting the US it could end up
strengthening the dollar while driving
up the value of China’s own currency
which isn’t exactly what Beijing wants
even though China has been trimming its
Holdings the overall US debt Market has
grown so much that China’s slice of the
pie has gotten smaller back in 2011
China held around 14% of all us
treasuries fast forward to 2024 and that
number has shrunk to less than 3% the
lowest it’s been in over two decades but
China isn’t the only one making moves
Japan has been tweaking its strategy too
in March 2024 Japan held about $1.17
trillion in US debt but by December that
number dipped to $1.06 trillion even
with that Japan still holds the title of
the largest foreign holder of us
treasuries why the pullback Japan’s been
busy trying to keep its currency the Yen
from sliding too far against the dollar
when the Yen weakens too much the bank
of Japan steps in selling off us
treasuries to buy yen and Prof it back
up plus Japan’s domestic policies like
managing interest rates and battling
inflation play a big role in how it
handles its foreign reserves meanwhile
over in the United king om there’s been
some action too after Donald Trump’s
re-election in November 2024 the UK
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
about
$767 billion to $723
billion why the cut it came down to a
mix of politics and Market Jitters
Trump’s plans for big tax cuts and
increased government spending had
investors on edge expecting higher
inflation and more US Government
borrowing that sent treasury yields
soaring since bond prices drop when
yields go up the UK’s existing Holdings
lost value leading them to rethink their
strategy and sell off a chunk this
wasn’t just a UK thing though Bond
markets around the world felt the heat
with fears of inflation and Rising
borrowing costs shaking up Global
finance and like China the UK is now
more focused on diversifying its
reserves spreading Risk by investing in
assets like gold and cutting back on US
dollar heavy Holdings
the stronger US dollar after Trump’s
reelection also played a role as the
dollar gained strength the relative
value of foreign held us assets shifted
nudging countries like the UK to adjust
their
portfolios over in India there’s been a
similar pattern the country scaled back
its US Treasury Holdings from $240
billion in March 2024 to about $29
billion The Reserve Bank of India has
been fine-tuning its foreign reserves
aiming for more balance and less
Reliance on US debt The Reserve Bank of
India RBI has been busy behind the
scenes stepping into to steady the
Indian rupee as it battles global
economic ups and downs Rising us
interest rates and investors pulling
money out of India haven’t helped
putting even more pressure on the
currency to keep things balanced the RBI
has been working hard to stop wild
swings in the exchange rate but India
isn’t just focused on quick fixes it’s
thinking longterm term the country has
been reshuffling its foreign reserves
putting more emphasis on gold and other
investment options this way it’s not
putting all its eggs in one basket
especially when it comes to assets tied
to the US dollar India is also looking
to strengthen its trade links with
emerging economies hoping to build a
more stable financial future over in the
Middle East Saudi Arabia has been making
its own strategic moves its US Treasury
holding slid from $142 billion to 37
billion over 6 months as a major oil
exporter Saudi Arabia’s reserves often
mirror the rise and fall of global oil
prices with recent dips in oil revenues
it’s no surprise the kingdom is
adjusting its Financial Playbook but
there’s more to it Saudi Arabia is
Thinking Beyond oil thanks to its
ambitious Vision 2030 plan the country
is pouring money into infrastructure
technology and green energy aiming to
transform its economy and reduce its
dependence on oil plus stronger trade
ties with countries like China may be
encouraging Saudi Arabia to shift some
of its reserves away from us treasuries
meanwhile Germany has also been tweaking
its Financial strategies the country
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
$14 billion to $97 billion in just half
a year Germany being the largest economy
in the Euro Zone Keeps Us treasuries in
its reserves to help manage risks and
balance its books but lately Germany has
been thinking Greener literally the
country has been investing more in green
bonds and other sustainable assets part
of its broader goal of promoting
long-term economic stability with
inflation concerns and changes in the
European Central bank’s policies Germany
is carefully adjusting its reserves plus
there’s a quiet push to give the Euro a
bigger role as an alternative to the US
dollar on the global stage Norway has
been moving pieces on its Financial
chest sport to between August and
December 2024 its US Treasury Holdings
dropped from $166 billion to $157
billion most of these Holdings are
managed through Norway’s massive
government pension fund Global one of
the world’s biggest Sovereign wealth
funds Norway likes to spread its
Investments around putting money into
everything from stocks to bonds and
alternative assets the recent dip in us
treasuries simply reflects a shift
toward higher yield Investments
especially as Global interest rates
continue to change Norway’s big picture
strategy balance risk while keeping its
long-term financial goals in sight but
here’s where things get even trickier
tariffs and Rising economic tensions are
shaking up the game a wave of new
tariffs 25% on all countries with extra
penalties on key sectors like cars
semiconductors and pharmaceuticals has
countries rethinking their exposure to
US debt
for Many Nations cutting back on us
treasuries isn’t just a reaction it’s
part of a bigger plan to reduce their
Reliance on the US Financial system by
shifting their reserves into other
assets countries can hit back at trade
restrictions and Safeguard their
economies This Global reshuffling is
also fueling the broader trend of
dollarization where countries are slowly
moving away from using the US dollar as
the world’s go-to currency the result a
highly unpredictable econ ecomic
landscape tensions between the Us and
other major economies are stirring up
Market volatility shaking Global Supply
chains and pushing up inflation in some
regions of course some argue that these
tough trade policies could eventually
lead to fairer practices and a more
balanced global economy but the big
question remains will this bring
stability or push the world deeper into
economic uncertainty one thing’s for
sure the world’s Financial system is at
a cross roads and what happens next
could reshape global trade shift Reserve
currencies and rewrite the rules of
international finance if you found this
video interesting be sure to hit that
like button and don’t forget to
subscribe
Another unreadable one.
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
SCIENCE said:
right after Donald Trump won the 2024
presidential election fresh data from
December showed something interesting
many countries started pulling back on
how much US Government debt they held
out of 20 major economies that usually
invest in US Treasury bonds 16 decided
to cut back some of the biggest drops
came from the United Kingdom which
reduced its Holdings by $ 44.1 billion
Japan by$ 27.3 billion and Saudi Arabia
by $15.1 billion
other countries trimmed their
Investments too though by smaller
amounts China by $9.6 billion
Switzerland by $9.7 billion and India by
$14.9 billion so why the sudden pullback
it seems many Global Investors and
central banks were feeling cautious they
were concerned about what Trump’s
policies might mean for the economy and
didn’t want to get caught off guard by
any surprises this isn’t a new strategy
countries that invest heavily in US debt
keep a close eye on things like trade
policies interest rates and diplomatic
moves if they sense anything
unpredictable or risky they often scale
back to avoid potential losses one big
concern is how much money the US
government plans to borrow if investors
think upcoming policies might weaken the
dollar or balloon the national debt they
might see us treasuries as less
appealing when lots of foreign investors
sell off these bonds it can push up
interest rates making it more expensive
for the US government to borrow money
this doesn’t just hit Washington it can
also mean higher costs for American
families and businesses like pricier
mortgage rates or more expensive
business loans and here’s the bigger
picture if this trend of selling off US
debt continues it might make people
question the strength of the US dollar
as the go-to currency for global trade
and savings for decades the US dollar
has been the king of global Finance but
when foreign countries start pulling
back from US Government debt it it
raises eyebrows if this keeps happening
it could signal a slow shift toward
other Safe Haven assets like Euro back
bonds different major currencies or even
old school gold but this isn’t just
about numbers on a spreadsheet the
selloff following Trump’s 2024 election
win might reflect deeper tensions
bubbling under the surface when trade
disagreements flare up or diplomatic
ties get strained big investors from
other countries often start moving their
money El elsewhere even if they don’t
make a big bus about it the thing is
these changes can happen quietly a
country doesn’t need to make a public
announcement to make an impact slowly
but surely as they cut back on US debt
it can chip away at the Dollar’s Global
dominance and if future policies stir up
more uncertainty or spark fresh
conflicts what started as a
post-election shuffle could grow into a
long-term trend of countries spreading
their Investments far and wide away from
us markets central banks usually stock
up on us treasuries because they’re
considered super safe kind of like a
financial safety net but lately many
countries are rethinking that strategy
they’re looking to balance their
reserves with other currencies or assets
especially gold to avoid putting all
their eggs in one basket this movement
often called
dollarization is about reducing Reliance
on the US dollar China for example has
been quietly trimming its stash of us
treasuries which dropped to $ 76.1
billion in October
2024 the lowest it’s been since
2009 it’s all part of China’s bigger
plan to diversify and reduce its
exposure to the US Financial system one
major reason countries want less
dependence on the dollar is because of
the power it gives the US in global
Finance the US can use its influence to
impose sanctions which has made some
Nations rethink their heavy Reliance on
dollar backed assets
this shift isn’t just talk the unhedged
podcast recently highlighted how central
banks and Sovereign wealth funds are
scooping up gold as a shield against
potential us sanctions countries like
Poland turkey India aeran and China have
been leading the charge in this gold
buying spree there’s also a more
tactical reason for some of these
sell-offs currency control Nations
sometimes sell off us treasuries to
strengthen their own currencies Japan
for example reduced its Holdings from
1.08 7 trillion in November 2024 to
1.06 trillion in December likely as part
of efforts to stabilize its currency
Japan’s recent move to trim its stash of
US dollar assets wasn’t random it was
part of a bigger plan to boost its own
currency the Yen by selling off us
treasuries and buying more Yen Japan
aimed to strengthen its currency and
stabilize its economy but there’s a
tradeoff when countries do this it often
means they end up holding fewer us Bonds
in their reserves meanwhile back in the
US Treasury yields have been climbing
why a mix of policy changes like tariffs
and shifts in Immigration rules under
Trump’s Administration has stirred up
expectations of stronger economic growth
and possibly Rising inflation when
inflation goes up interest rates tend to
follow pushing up the yields on
government bonds but here’s the catch
when yields rise the value of older
bonds those issued at lower rates drops
CS this forces investors to rethink
their strategies adding to the pressure
the Federal Reserve signaled that it
might slow down on cutting interest
rates in 2025 because of inflation
concerns which only reinforced the
upward Trend in yields zooming out
there’s been a bigger more strategic
shift unfolding over the past couple of
decades since the 9/11 attacks the US
has used its Financial system as a tool
of influence leveraging the Dollar’s
Global dominance
by controlling access to its banking
system and imposing sanctions the US has
been able to apply economic pressure on
countries like Iran North Korea and
Russia but this power play hasn’t gone
unnoticed countries on the receiving end
of these sanctions and even some allies
have started asking are we too dependent
on the US dollar this question has
fueled the global push toward what’s
known as
dollarization reducing Reliance on the
green back
one of the main ways countries are doing
this is by trading directly in their
local currencies China and Russia for
example have been ramping up trade deals
using when and rubles instead of dollars
India and Iran have also explored
similar setups making it easier to
bypass us controlled Financial channels
another big move has been building
alternative banking systems to get
around
swi the global messaging Network that
most banks use but one that’s heavily
influenced by Western powers in response
Russia developed its own system spfs and
China rolled out cips for crossb
transactions these systems give
countries more control over their
International payments and help them
Dodge potential us sanctions on top of
that Global alliances have been joining
the push the bricks group Brazil Russia
India China and South Africa has been
actively discussing creating a new
Reserve currency that could rival the
dollar Russia in particular has been
been urging its trade Partners to switch
to Alternative currencies especially
after facing waves of Western sanctions
even the oil Market long dominated by
dollar-based deals is seeing cracks
countries in the Gulf cooperation
Council GCC have started considering
accepting payments in other currencies
like the Japanese Yen hinting at big
changes in global trade habits central
banks aren’t sitting still either many
are shaking up their foreign exchange
reserves pulling back from us treasuries
and stocking up on gold a classic Safety
Net in uncertain times China Japan and
India have all been quietly shifting
their portfolios cutting their us Bond
Holdings while boosting investments in
other assets countries around the world
have been making quiet but deliberate
moves to Shield their economies from the
Ripple effects of us monetary policies
and potential economic pressure this
shift isn’t about ditching the dollar
overnight it’s about creating more
options and red reducing overreliance on
a single currency that holds immense
Global power the idea of the US dollar
losing its top spot as the world’s go-to
currency might seem far-fetched at least
for now but bit by bit nations are
finding new ways to gain Financial
Independence whether it’s trading in
local currencies stockpiling gold or
building alternative banking networks
the push for greater control over
National economies is gaining traction
this slow but steady shift depends on a
mix of factors global politics the
strength of new Financial systems and
how well countries can work together to
sidestep Dollar dominance while the
dollar still Reigns Supreme cracks are
starting to show in the foundation but
this isn’t the first time the world has
seen a major currency shift before the
US dollar took the throne it was the
British pound sterling that ruled Global
Finance the pound’s power was closely
tied to the British Empire’s vast
network of colonies and trade routes
making it the Top Choice for
international Commerce during the late
19th and early 20th centuries however
Britain’s dominance began to unravel
during World War One the war drained the
country’s gold reserves and left it
drowning in debt in an attempt to
restore stability Britain tried to bring
back the gold standard in 1925 but the
effort was shortlived the Great
Depression hit hard and by 1931 Britain
was forced to abandon the gold standard
altogether shaking Global confidence in
the pound mean meanwhile across the
Atlantic the United States was on the
rise the creation of the Federal Reserve
in 1913 gave the US a strong central
banking system bringing more stability
to its economy throughout the 1920s and
1930s New York city grew into a major
Financial Hub gradually challenging
London’s dominance but it wasn’t until
after World War II that the US dollar
truly took center stage in 1944 global
leaders met at the Breton Woods
conference and agreed on a new Financial
system the US with its massive gold
reserves and booming economy became the
anchor of this system the dollar was
pegged to gold and other currencies were
tied to the dollar creating a stable
Global exchange Network this setup made
the US dollar the world’s primary
Reserve currency and for a while it
worked countries trusted the dollar
because they knew it was backed by gold
but by the late 1960s crack started to
appear the US was dealing with Rising
inflation and a growing trade deficit
putting pressure on the Dollar’s
stability in
1971 something big happened that
completely changed how Global money
worked president Richard Nixon made a
surprise move later known as the Nixon
shock he cut the link between the US
dollar and gold before this countries
could trade their US dollars for gold
but Nixon put an end to that flipping
the script on how the world’s money
system worked this bold step ended the
Breton wood system which had been in
place since
1944 back then right after World War II
leaders from 44 Allied countries met in
a little town in New Hampshire called
Breton woods they had one big goal avoid
another global economic mess like the
one that had followed World War I the
solution create a stable money system
that would keep currencies steady and
encourage countries to work together not
a against each other out of that meeting
came two major Financial powerhouses the
international monetary fund
IMF designed to keep currency stable and
help countries in financial trouble the
International Bank for reconstruction
and development ibrd now part of the
World Bank it focused on rebuilding War
torn Europe and supporting economic
growth worldwide at the heart of this
new system was the US dollar pegged to
gold at a fixed rate since the US had
the biggest stash of gold after World
War II and a booming economy the world
trusted its currency this trust turned
the dollar into the backbone of global
Finance throughout the 1950s and 60s
countries everywhere filled their
reserves with US dollars but by the late
1960s cracks began to appear the US was
spending more money than it was making
especially with the cost of the Vietnam
War and foreign countries started asking
for their gold in exchange for dollars
faced with a potential economic disaster
Nixon took action his decision to break
the dollar gold link didn’t crash the
system as some feared instead it
launched a new era of floating exchange
rates where currency values were
determined by market forces not fixed to
Gold even without gold backing it the US
dollar stayed strong why because the US
economy was still one of the biggest and
most stable and the dollar was deeply
woven into global trade especially the
oil Market thanks to the Petro dollar
system where countries paid for oil in
US dollars fast forward to the
1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union
the us became the world’s only
superpower this was the Golden Age of
the dollar globalization was booming the
US tech industry was taking off and Wall
Street was the place to be investors
around around the world saw US Treasury
bonds as the safest bet and countries
kept stacking up dollars in their
reserves even when the Euro was
introduced in 1999 as a potential rival
it didn’t shake the Dollar’s dominance
by the early 2000s nearly 70% of global
foreign exchange reserves were held in
dollars but then came 2008 the global
financial crisis it started in the US
housing market but quickly spread
worldwide shaking trust in American
Banks and financial systems ironically
even as the US was the source of the
crisis investors rushed to the dollar as
a safe haven during the storm however
the cracks were now clear central banks
realized they had too many eggs in one
basket after the crisis many began to
diversify their reserves buying more
gold and other currencies to protect
themselves from future shocks enter
China as its economy skyrocketed China
pushed hard to get its currency the ren
Min
ermb more International recognition it
created new Financial networks like the
Asian infrastructure Investment Bank aib
to rival western-led institutions like
the World Bank giving countries an
alternative for development funding and
reducing Reliance on the US dollar China
has been playing a smart game to boost
its currency the ren Min RMB on the
world stage one big move pouring money
into a massive infrastructure projects
through its belt and Road initiative
BR think Railways in Africa ports in
Europe and highways in Asia all funded
in many cases using the
RMB this not only gets countries hooked
into China’s economic network but also
puts its currency into Global
circulation but China didn’t stop there
to make trading smoother without always
having to use US Dollars it set up
special deals called currency swap
agreements with multiple countries
these deals let countries trade directly
in their own currencies and R&B cutting
the dollar out of the equation and
making China an even bigger player in
global Finance now let’s talk about
something that’s shaking up money as we
know it blockchain and digital
currencies these Technologies are
rewriting the rulebook on how money
moves across borders central banks
around the world have noticed and are
jumping on board creating their own
Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to
keep up with this fast-paced change by
early 2024 over 130 countries including
the US were exploring or developing
their own digital currencies but China
it’s way ahead with its digital un also
called the
ecny it’s not just about making payments
faster it’s part of China’s bigger plan
to make the R&B more popular globally
meanwhile in the digital Finance world
the US dollar still holds its ground
thanks to stable coin
digital currencies tied to the Dollar’s
value these are used in international
trade and online transactions keeping
the dollar relevant even in the age of
crypto still the Dollar’s grip isn’t
what it used to be in 2022 its share of
global reserves slipped to around
58% while other currencies like the Euro
the Chinese Yan and even gold started
grabbing a bigger slice of the pie a
major clue to this shift the falling
demand for us treasuries especially from
China back in 2013 China owned a
whopping $1.3 trillion in US government
bonds but by the end of 2024 that number
had dropped to about $759 billion why
the big selloff it’s partly because
China used to buy tons of US dollars to
keep its own currency the R&B stable and
its exports cheap but as its trade Gap
with the US narrowed after 2018 there
was less need to stock pile dollars on
top of that Chinese officials started
worrying about having too many eggs in
the US dollar basket if something were
to shake the US economy or if tensions
between the two countries flared up
again China could take a hit so they
began spreading their Investments around
looking for safer and potentially more
profitable options and now it seems like
other countries are catching on and
following China’s lead gradually dialing
down their Reliance on us treasuries the
shift Global landscape especially the
growing tensions between the US and
China has pushed Beijing to rethink its
Financial strategies especially when it
comes to how much US debt it holds for
China cutting back on us treasuries
isn’t just about dollars and sents it’s
a smart move to reduce risk tied to
political friction by holding less US
debt China lowers its exposure to any
economic Fallout that could happen if
relations with the US take another turn
for the worse but here’s an interesting
twist some people believe that if China
were to dump a huge chunk of US debt it
might actually backfire instead of
hurting the US it could end up
strengthening the dollar while driving
up the value of China’s own currency
which isn’t exactly what Beijing wants
even though China has been trimming its
Holdings the overall US debt Market has
grown so much that China’s slice of the
pie has gotten smaller back in 2011
China held around 14% of all us
treasuries fast forward to 2024 and that
number has shrunk to less than 3% the
lowest it’s been in over two decades but
China isn’t the only one making moves
Japan has been tweaking its strategy too
in March 2024 Japan held about $1.17
trillion in US debt but by December that
number dipped to $1.06 trillion even
with that Japan still holds the title of
the largest foreign holder of us
treasuries why the pullback Japan’s been
busy trying to keep its currency the Yen
from sliding too far against the dollar
when the Yen weakens too much the bank
of Japan steps in selling off us
treasuries to buy yen and Prof it back
up plus Japan’s domestic policies like
managing interest rates and battling
inflation play a big role in how it
handles its foreign reserves meanwhile
over in the United king om there’s been
some action too after Donald Trump’s
re-election in November 2024 the UK
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
about
$767 billion to $723
billion why the cut it came down to a
mix of politics and Market Jitters
Trump’s plans for big tax cuts and
increased government spending had
investors on edge expecting higher
inflation and more US Government
borrowing that sent treasury yields
soaring since bond prices drop when
yields go up the UK’s existing Holdings
lost value leading them to rethink their
strategy and sell off a chunk this
wasn’t just a UK thing though Bond
markets around the world felt the heat
with fears of inflation and Rising
borrowing costs shaking up Global
finance and like China the UK is now
more focused on diversifying its
reserves spreading Risk by investing in
assets like gold and cutting back on US
dollar heavy Holdings
the stronger US dollar after Trump’s
reelection also played a role as the
dollar gained strength the relative
value of foreign held us assets shifted
nudging countries like the UK to adjust
their
portfolios over in India there’s been a
similar pattern the country scaled back
its US Treasury Holdings from $240
billion in March 2024 to about $29
billion The Reserve Bank of India has
been fine-tuning its foreign reserves
aiming for more balance and less
Reliance on US debt The Reserve Bank of
India RBI has been busy behind the
scenes stepping into to steady the
Indian rupee as it battles global
economic ups and downs Rising us
interest rates and investors pulling
money out of India haven’t helped
putting even more pressure on the
currency to keep things balanced the RBI
has been working hard to stop wild
swings in the exchange rate but India
isn’t just focused on quick fixes it’s
thinking longterm term the country has
been reshuffling its foreign reserves
putting more emphasis on gold and other
investment options this way it’s not
putting all its eggs in one basket
especially when it comes to assets tied
to the US dollar India is also looking
to strengthen its trade links with
emerging economies hoping to build a
more stable financial future over in the
Middle East Saudi Arabia has been making
its own strategic moves its US Treasury
holding slid from $142 billion to 37
billion over 6 months as a major oil
exporter Saudi Arabia’s reserves often
mirror the rise and fall of global oil
prices with recent dips in oil revenues
it’s no surprise the kingdom is
adjusting its Financial Playbook but
there’s more to it Saudi Arabia is
Thinking Beyond oil thanks to its
ambitious Vision 2030 plan the country
is pouring money into infrastructure
technology and green energy aiming to
transform its economy and reduce its
dependence on oil plus stronger trade
ties with countries like China may be
encouraging Saudi Arabia to shift some
of its reserves away from us treasuries
meanwhile Germany has also been tweaking
its Financial strategies the country
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
$14 billion to $97 billion in just half
a year Germany being the largest economy
in the Euro Zone Keeps Us treasuries in
its reserves to help manage risks and
balance its books but lately Germany has
been thinking Greener literally the
country has been investing more in green
bonds and other sustainable assets part
of its broader goal of promoting
long-term economic stability with
inflation concerns and changes in the
European Central bank’s policies Germany
is carefully adjusting its reserves plus
there’s a quiet push to give the Euro a
bigger role as an alternative to the US
dollar on the global stage Norway has
been moving pieces on its Financial
chest sport to between August and
December 2024 its US Treasury Holdings
dropped from $166 billion to $157
billion most of these Holdings are
managed through Norway’s massive
government pension fund Global one of
the world’s biggest Sovereign wealth
funds Norway likes to spread its
Investments around putting money into
everything from stocks to bonds and
alternative assets the recent dip in us
treasuries simply reflects a shift
toward higher yield Investments
especially as Global interest rates
continue to change Norway’s big picture
strategy balance risk while keeping its
long-term financial goals in sight but
here’s where things get even trickier
tariffs and Rising economic tensions are
shaking up the game a wave of new
tariffs 25% on all countries with extra
penalties on key sectors like cars
semiconductors and pharmaceuticals has
countries rethinking their exposure to
US debt
for Many Nations cutting back on us
treasuries isn’t just a reaction it’s
part of a bigger plan to reduce their
Reliance on the US Financial system by
shifting their reserves into other
assets countries can hit back at trade
restrictions and Safeguard their
economies This Global reshuffling is
also fueling the broader trend of
dollarization where countries are slowly
moving away from using the US dollar as
the world’s go-to currency the result a
highly unpredictable econ ecomic
landscape tensions between the Us and
other major economies are stirring up
Market volatility shaking Global Supply
chains and pushing up inflation in some
regions of course some argue that these
tough trade policies could eventually
lead to fairer practices and a more
balanced global economy but the big
question remains will this bring
stability or push the world deeper into
economic uncertainty one thing’s for
sure the world’s Financial system is at
a cross roads and what happens next
could reshape global trade shift Reserve
currencies and rewrite the rules of
international finance if you found this
video interesting be sure to hit that
like button and don’t forget to
subscribe
Another unreadable one.
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
Fuck the patriarchy.
America is fucked.
Every Woman in America Needs to Watch This and Understand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qmyRYekkQ
can they read andor listen to it instead or is watching a requirement
hi if you’re a white woman I would love
for you not to scroll and if you are not
a white woman feel free to stay
obviously but be nice okay there’s a
goal I’m trying to achieve here and we
got to work together to do this all
right back to to the white women hi um
I’m going need y’all to stand up
business okay I really need y’all to do
it okay and I know I know for a fact
that a lot of y’all do okay I interact
with y’all every day okay cuz some of
y’all some down okay and I love
that but I’m going need y’all to not let
anything like that Idaho Town halt ever
happen hi I’m a down and I want to
talk about the Idaho Town Hall uh I
needed a few days to process it because
uh I had such a strong emotional
reaction and you know I talk a lot about
how if I have a really big reaction I
don’t want to have an immediate response
because I will sometimes do something
foolish that I that I should not because
my emotions are so high and so I took a
few days to read the news stories and to
watch videos from other creators like
that one which is in my reshares you
should go watch it for those that don’t
know what happened there was an Idaho
town hall with a republican congressman
and a woman Dr Teresa I’m going to
forget her last name um spoke out
against what was happening as you are
allowed to do in a town hall she is
exercising her right to free speech
trying to engage that’s the purpose of a
town hall is engaging as a constituent
with your elected official she was then
forcibly bodily removed from the venue
by three men who would not identify
themselves as and it later turned out
there were private security company this
company has lost its license she was
physically dragged from the building
Kicking and Screaming um the eyewitness
accounts were that her shirt had been
pulled up and her undergarments were
exposed as they dragged her out um which
obviously is completely illegal in her
attempt to defend herself allegedly she
bit one of these men and has been
charged for for it which I you know
they’ve raised over a quar million
dollars for her legal fund and I’m sure
that the case is going to get thrown out
I I hope but watching that footage
which can’t be get
out get up or be arrested so you know
folks when uh when our nation began
arrest there was some really really
you’re going to arrest her he’s not a
law enforcement by the way would you
like to do so yes we’re going to get to
him we’re going to
get CH but you know the problem is is
the
folks oh
look look at that oh he’s he’s showing
how intelligent he is
all came here to conru so that the
citizens can’t hear the reality is is
there’s a whole bunch of great things
that are happening the the problem is is
we got a bunch of Rabel rers who just
won’t allow it to be spoken so you know
the thing is what I’m doing up here is
I’m simply overt talking you because
your voice is meanless right now and
we’re just taking care of the Ratt
Rouses and eventually what’s going to
happen is everything going to settle
down and we’ll get back to the
legislators because a really you didn’t
come here to listen to me I just happen
to have a nice loud voice and a big
microphone I could talk over all of you
and I could really I can just talk for
on and on and on and look at this this
little girl is afraid to girl she spoke
up and now she doesn’t want to suffer
the consequences isn’t that the problem
the consequences of excising your
constitutional right or they you get
assaulted and dragged from a venue where
you have a legal right to be not
struggle with the consequences that is
shameful I think what we’ve got right
now is a shameful for exercis these
folks are trying to Fuster and shut this
whole program down unfortunately they’re
being successful to all of you who came
here to hear the legislators I applaud
you for sitting there and quietly
listening I promise we will get back to
you in the metime we’ve just got to be a
little aggressive to some of these folks
here should be to Street
EXC me
sheris is assaulting me this man is
assaulting me this man is assaulting me
is that
youry is this youry
no is
auty who the are these
hey
hey they not all the
who the are these guys who are
these guys show your who are you don’t
touch yeah that’s what
they you refuse toidentify
to come here today and I appla them for
do thank you for coming but the problem
is is this they didn’t come here to
listen came I had the same reaction that
a lot of black women creators had which
is how the did nobody stand up and
stop this and I understand this was
cordelan so it is kind of a Bastion of
white supremacy um and I understand why
a lot of the men there would do
absolutely all to help this woman
but she was not there alone my initial
reaction to the video is they’re
dragging her out is like why is every
woman in that place and any man who
considers himself an ally not standing
up and clogging the aisles so that they
cannot remove this woman just putting
your body in the way why are you not
doing that why did you all sit and just
watch this woman be assaulted by three
men and dragged out right so here is an
image from that event these three men
they’re not law enforcement this is
fascism on full display a woman bodily
forcibly removed for exercising her
constitutional rights by these three
chuds I don’t know who they were but
again the company that they worked for
has lost their license as the chief of
police encouraged this behavior and let
it happen
I saw this on the 5051 movements
Instagram this morning and um again this
is another picture of these men um
forcibly restraining assaulting this
woman and this tweet right here we are
under reacting I don’t understand how
people just watched this happen right so
the more I have been thinking about this
issue and then watching some other folks
reaction videos and especially black
women being like I would never let that
happen to another woman how how are
white women so inculturated to just sit
passively by and let men assault another
woman and we are we are raised to not
cause a fuss we are raised to uh
prioritize our own selves to not
experience any discomfort but definitely
not to put ourselves In Harm’s Way for
other women this is why we as white
women we are not safe in general so
every time I’ve gone to sit down over
the last day and a half and make a video
response about this I just feel such an
extreme level of Rage that I can’t
really talk about it is the level of
Rage of course of course these fascist
men are going to behave this way it’s
like yes I’m angry at what they did but
so much more am I angry that everybody
else stood by and let it happen right
but isn’t that the banality of evil it’s
not just the people who are committing
the atrocities it’s the multitudes who
stand by and let it happen knowing that
it is wrong and refusing to summon up
the courage to stand up and I like to
think that I believe in the goodness of
people that people will rise to the
occasion and do the right thing and so
every time I watched that video or saw a
video of somebody discussing it I um
felt really Bleak I felt really um
discouraged and then I saw sad beige
ladies video I’m going to play a little
bit of it here I’m seeing a lot of
tweets that are like it’s absolutely
chilling to watch this woman be dragged
out of a town hall for dissenting with
absolutely nobody coming to her Aid and
I completely agree about that but I also
think that this is going to be a
catalyst for white women who for the
first time see themselves as part of the
intended class of victims and not just
like an accidental inclusion and I hope
as many people see this as possible
because I want these people to Forever
remember what shriveling cowards they
were in the face of fascism at the end
of the day I think sad beig is correct I
think every white woman in America needs
to see this none of us are safe none of
us will be safe under fascism no man
will come to our Aid is up to us to
stand and fill the aisles to put our
bodies on the line for each other that
we have strengthen numbers that if we
don’t rise up and stop this this is what
the future looks like for every every
woman who thinks that she’s protected
this is what you’re in for let this
video be a wakeup call to you share it
with every woman that you know
kii said:
Dear-oh-dear.
Or in other words, ‘yes we are going to destroy the US to make us richer.’
Spiny Norman said:
Or in other words, ‘yes we are going to destroy the US to make us richer.’
Brought down by the Exhibitionist Mega Wealthy.
It’s almost like they have NFI what they’re doing.
Spiny Norman said:
It’s
almost likethey have NFI what they’re doing.
Fixed.
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’s almost like they have NFI what they’re doing.
Fixed.
Fixed
Spiny Norman said:
It’s almost like they have NFI what they’re doing.
most of the accidents that have happened have nothing to do with ATC.
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’s almost like they have NFI what they’re doing.
most of the accidents that have happened have nothing to do with ATC.
There is certainly a strong element of truth in that, but often when the crews make a mistake if there’s enough ATC staff in the tower, one of them will have the mental bandwidth to catch that mistake before it turns into an accident.
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’s almost like they have NFI what they’re doing.
most of the accidents that have happened have nothing to do with ATC.
There is certainly a strong element of truth in that, but often when the crews make a mistake if there’s enough ATC staff in the tower, one of them will have the mental bandwidth to catch that mistake before it turns into an accident.
Yep, it is really numbers rather than ability? It is a pretty rigorous training regime to become an ATC.
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:most of the accidents that have happened have nothing to do with ATC.
There is certainly a strong element of truth in that, but often when the crews make a mistake if there’s enough ATC staff in the tower, one of them will have the mental bandwidth to catch that mistake before it turns into an accident.
Yep, it is really numbers rather than ability? It is a pretty rigorous training regime to become an ATC.
It’s not entire an either/or thing. More of a blend of both. For sure the more people in the tower that are controlling ground & runway airspace the harder it’ll be to coordinate all the different areas but the easier it is to keep control of your own area.
For example if there is just one controller for both ground & tower they can easily be overloaded by pilots not doing a correct read-back of instructions and because a correct read-back is a requirement they have to focus on that instead of moving onto the next task.
Another example, in this accident the tower controller was getting overloaded with traffic and by not watching where the planes were going (no radar then, all procedural and visual control) two light aircraft had a mid-air collision and four people died. I lost three friends that day. I identified the body of one of them as I didn’t want his parents to have to do it. I could bring myself to do the other pilot in our plane though, I wasn’t strong enough.
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:There is certainly a strong element of truth in that, but often when the crews make a mistake if there’s enough ATC staff in the tower, one of them will have the mental bandwidth to catch that mistake before it turns into an accident.
Yep, it is really numbers rather than ability? It is a pretty rigorous training regime to become an ATC.
It’s not entire an either/or thing. More of a blend of both. For sure the more people in the tower that are controlling ground & runway airspace the harder it’ll be to coordinate all the different areas but the easier it is to keep control of your own area.
For example if there is just one controller for both ground & tower they can easily be overloaded by pilots not doing a correct read-back of instructions and because a correct read-back is a requirement they have to focus on that instead of moving onto the next task.Another example, in this accident the tower controller was getting overloaded with traffic and by not watching where the planes were going (no radar then, all procedural and visual control) two light aircraft had a mid-air collision and four people died. I lost three friends that day. I identified the body of one of them as I didn’t want his parents to have to do it. I could bring myself to do the other pilot in our plane though, I wasn’t strong enough.
Must have been a very difficult time for you. :(
Michael V said:
kii said:
Dear-oh-dear.
Americans Chose This
New economic data is showing an increase in the unemployment rate and that two-thirds of America’s GDP is currently be driven consumer spending. Unsurprisingly economists are warning of a possible slowing in the economy.
I think the Chap will put him right on what he can say to the King.
He’ll tell him not to ask the King if he can have Canada, things like that.
SCIENCE said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Another unreadable one.
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Seems to have been a good day at the office for Sir Kier
dv said:
Seems to have been a good day at the office for Sir Kier
The Chap handled himself spiffingly.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:Witty Rejoinder said:
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Kevin Bloody Wilson: ‘What’s Donald Gonna Do Today’?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TsKDO-r5STc
Witty Rejoinder said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Kevin Bloody Wilson: ‘What’s Donald Gonna Do Today’?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TsKDO-r5STc
Ooopps…. Sorry I didn’t mean to reply to kii’s post.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
right after Donald Trump won the 2024
presidential election fresh data from
December showed something interesting
many countries started pulling back on
how much US Government debt they held
out of 20 major economies that usually
invest in US Treasury bonds 16 decided
to cut back some of the biggest drops
came from the United Kingdom which
reduced its Holdings by $ 44.1 billion
Japan by$ 27.3 billion and Saudi Arabia
by $15.1 billion
other countries trimmed their
Investments too though by smaller
amounts China by $9.6 billion
Switzerland by $9.7 billion and India by
$14.9 billion so why the sudden pullback
it seems many Global Investors and
central banks were feeling cautious they
were concerned about what Trump’s
policies might mean for the economy and
didn’t want to get caught off guard by
any surprises this isn’t a new strategy
countries that invest heavily in US debt
keep a close eye on things like trade
policies interest rates and diplomatic
moves if they sense anything
unpredictable or risky they often scale
back to avoid potential losses one big
concern is how much money the US
government plans to borrow if investors
think upcoming policies might weaken the
dollar or balloon the national debt they
might see us treasuries as less
appealing when lots of foreign investors
sell off these bonds it can push up
interest rates making it more expensive
for the US government to borrow money
this doesn’t just hit Washington it can
also mean higher costs for American
families and businesses like pricier
mortgage rates or more expensive
business loans and here’s the bigger
picture if this trend of selling off US
debt continues it might make people
question the strength of the US dollar
as the go-to currency for global trade
and savings for decades the US dollar
has been the king of global Finance but
when foreign countries start pulling
back from US Government debt it it
raises eyebrows if this keeps happening
it could signal a slow shift toward
other Safe Haven assets like Euro back
bonds different major currencies or even
old school gold but this isn’t just
about numbers on a spreadsheet the
selloff following Trump’s 2024 election
win might reflect deeper tensions
bubbling under the surface when trade
disagreements flare up or diplomatic
ties get strained big investors from
other countries often start moving their
money El elsewhere even if they don’t
make a big bus about it the thing is
these changes can happen quietly a
country doesn’t need to make a public
announcement to make an impact slowly
but surely as they cut back on US debt
it can chip away at the Dollar’s Global
dominance and if future policies stir up
more uncertainty or spark fresh
conflicts what started as a
post-election shuffle could grow into a
long-term trend of countries spreading
their Investments far and wide away from
us markets central banks usually stock
up on us treasuries because they’re
considered super safe kind of like a
financial safety net but lately many
countries are rethinking that strategy
they’re looking to balance their
reserves with other currencies or assets
especially gold to avoid putting all
their eggs in one basket this movement
often called
dollarization is about reducing Reliance
on the US dollar China for example has
been quietly trimming its stash of us
treasuries which dropped to $ 76.1
billion in October
2024 the lowest it’s been since
2009 it’s all part of China’s bigger
plan to diversify and reduce its
exposure to the US Financial system one
major reason countries want less
dependence on the dollar is because of
the power it gives the US in global
Finance the US can use its influence to
impose sanctions which has made some
Nations rethink their heavy Reliance on
dollar backed assets
this shift isn’t just talk the unhedged
podcast recently highlighted how central
banks and Sovereign wealth funds are
scooping up gold as a shield against
potential us sanctions countries like
Poland turkey India aeran and China have
been leading the charge in this gold
buying spree there’s also a more
tactical reason for some of these
sell-offs currency control Nations
sometimes sell off us treasuries to
strengthen their own currencies Japan
for example reduced its Holdings from
1.08 7 trillion in November 2024 to
1.06 trillion in December likely as part
of efforts to stabilize its currency
Japan’s recent move to trim its stash of
US dollar assets wasn’t random it was
part of a bigger plan to boost its own
currency the Yen by selling off us
treasuries and buying more Yen Japan
aimed to strengthen its currency and
stabilize its economy but there’s a
tradeoff when countries do this it often
means they end up holding fewer us Bonds
in their reserves meanwhile back in the
US Treasury yields have been climbing
why a mix of policy changes like tariffs
and shifts in Immigration rules under
Trump’s Administration has stirred up
expectations of stronger economic growth
and possibly Rising inflation when
inflation goes up interest rates tend to
follow pushing up the yields on
government bonds but here’s the catch
when yields rise the value of older
bonds those issued at lower rates drops
CS this forces investors to rethink
their strategies adding to the pressure
the Federal Reserve signaled that it
might slow down on cutting interest
rates in 2025 because of inflation
concerns which only reinforced the
upward Trend in yields zooming out
there’s been a bigger more strategic
shift unfolding over the past couple of
decades since the 9/11 attacks the US
has used its Financial system as a tool
of influence leveraging the Dollar’s
Global dominance
by controlling access to its banking
system and imposing sanctions the US has
been able to apply economic pressure on
countries like Iran North Korea and
Russia but this power play hasn’t gone
unnoticed countries on the receiving end
of these sanctions and even some allies
have started asking are we too dependent
on the US dollar this question has
fueled the global push toward what’s
known as
dollarization reducing Reliance on the
green back
one of the main ways countries are doing
this is by trading directly in their
local currencies China and Russia for
example have been ramping up trade deals
using when and rubles instead of dollars
India and Iran have also explored
similar setups making it easier to
bypass us controlled Financial channels
another big move has been building
alternative banking systems to get
around
swi the global messaging Network that
most banks use but one that’s heavily
influenced by Western powers in response
Russia developed its own system spfs and
China rolled out cips for crossb
transactions these systems give
countries more control over their
International payments and help them
Dodge potential us sanctions on top of
that Global alliances have been joining
the push the bricks group Brazil Russia
India China and South Africa has been
actively discussing creating a new
Reserve currency that could rival the
dollar Russia in particular has been
been urging its trade Partners to switch
to Alternative currencies especially
after facing waves of Western sanctions
even the oil Market long dominated by
dollar-based deals is seeing cracks
countries in the Gulf cooperation
Council GCC have started considering
accepting payments in other currencies
like the Japanese Yen hinting at big
changes in global trade habits central
banks aren’t sitting still either many
are shaking up their foreign exchange
reserves pulling back from us treasuries
and stocking up on gold a classic Safety
Net in uncertain times China Japan and
India have all been quietly shifting
their portfolios cutting their us Bond
Holdings while boosting investments in
other assets countries around the world
have been making quiet but deliberate
moves to Shield their economies from the
Ripple effects of us monetary policies
and potential economic pressure this
shift isn’t about ditching the dollar
overnight it’s about creating more
options and red reducing overreliance on
a single currency that holds immense
Global power the idea of the US dollar
losing its top spot as the world’s go-to
currency might seem far-fetched at least
for now but bit by bit nations are
finding new ways to gain Financial
Independence whether it’s trading in
local currencies stockpiling gold or
building alternative banking networks
the push for greater control over
National economies is gaining traction
this slow but steady shift depends on a
mix of factors global politics the
strength of new Financial systems and
how well countries can work together to
sidestep Dollar dominance while the
dollar still Reigns Supreme cracks are
starting to show in the foundation but
this isn’t the first time the world has
seen a major currency shift before the
US dollar took the throne it was the
British pound sterling that ruled Global
Finance the pound’s power was closely
tied to the British Empire’s vast
network of colonies and trade routes
making it the Top Choice for
international Commerce during the late
19th and early 20th centuries however
Britain’s dominance began to unravel
during World War One the war drained the
country’s gold reserves and left it
drowning in debt in an attempt to
restore stability Britain tried to bring
back the gold standard in 1925 but the
effort was shortlived the Great
Depression hit hard and by 1931 Britain
was forced to abandon the gold standard
altogether shaking Global confidence in
the pound mean meanwhile across the
Atlantic the United States was on the
rise the creation of the Federal Reserve
in 1913 gave the US a strong central
banking system bringing more stability
to its economy throughout the 1920s and
1930s New York city grew into a major
Financial Hub gradually challenging
London’s dominance but it wasn’t until
after World War II that the US dollar
truly took center stage in 1944 global
leaders met at the Breton Woods
conference and agreed on a new Financial
system the US with its massive gold
reserves and booming economy became the
anchor of this system the dollar was
pegged to gold and other currencies were
tied to the dollar creating a stable
Global exchange Network this setup made
the US dollar the world’s primary
Reserve currency and for a while it
worked countries trusted the dollar
because they knew it was backed by gold
but by the late 1960s crack started to
appear the US was dealing with Rising
inflation and a growing trade deficit
putting pressure on the Dollar’s
stability in
1971 something big happened that
completely changed how Global money
worked president Richard Nixon made a
surprise move later known as the Nixon
shock he cut the link between the US
dollar and gold before this countries
could trade their US dollars for gold
but Nixon put an end to that flipping
the script on how the world’s money
system worked this bold step ended the
Breton wood system which had been in
place since
1944 back then right after World War II
leaders from 44 Allied countries met in
a little town in New Hampshire called
Breton woods they had one big goal avoid
another global economic mess like the
one that had followed World War I the
solution create a stable money system
that would keep currencies steady and
encourage countries to work together not
a against each other out of that meeting
came two major Financial powerhouses the
international monetary fund
IMF designed to keep currency stable and
help countries in financial trouble the
International Bank for reconstruction
and development ibrd now part of the
World Bank it focused on rebuilding War
torn Europe and supporting economic
growth worldwide at the heart of this
new system was the US dollar pegged to
gold at a fixed rate since the US had
the biggest stash of gold after World
War II and a booming economy the world
trusted its currency this trust turned
the dollar into the backbone of global
Finance throughout the 1950s and 60s
countries everywhere filled their
reserves with US dollars but by the late
1960s cracks began to appear the US was
spending more money than it was making
especially with the cost of the Vietnam
War and foreign countries started asking
for their gold in exchange for dollars
faced with a potential economic disaster
Nixon took action his decision to break
the dollar gold link didn’t crash the
system as some feared instead it
launched a new era of floating exchange
rates where currency values were
determined by market forces not fixed to
Gold even without gold backing it the US
dollar stayed strong why because the US
economy was still one of the biggest and
most stable and the dollar was deeply
woven into global trade especially the
oil Market thanks to the Petro dollar
system where countries paid for oil in
US dollars fast forward to the
1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union
the us became the world’s only
superpower this was the Golden Age of
the dollar globalization was booming the
US tech industry was taking off and Wall
Street was the place to be investors
around around the world saw US Treasury
bonds as the safest bet and countries
kept stacking up dollars in their
reserves even when the Euro was
introduced in 1999 as a potential rival
it didn’t shake the Dollar’s dominance
by the early 2000s nearly 70% of global
foreign exchange reserves were held in
dollars but then came 2008 the global
financial crisis it started in the US
housing market but quickly spread
worldwide shaking trust in American
Banks and financial systems ironically
even as the US was the source of the
crisis investors rushed to the dollar as
a safe haven during the storm however
the cracks were now clear central banks
realized they had too many eggs in one
basket after the crisis many began to
diversify their reserves buying more
gold and other currencies to protect
themselves from future shocks enter
China as its economy skyrocketed China
pushed hard to get its currency the ren
Min
ermb more International recognition it
created new Financial networks like the
Asian infrastructure Investment Bank aib
to rival western-led institutions like
the World Bank giving countries an
alternative for development funding and
reducing Reliance on the US dollar China
has been playing a smart game to boost
its currency the ren Min RMB on the
world stage one big move pouring money
into a massive infrastructure projects
through its belt and Road initiative
BR think Railways in Africa ports in
Europe and highways in Asia all funded
in many cases using the
RMB this not only gets countries hooked
into China’s economic network but also
puts its currency into Global
circulation but China didn’t stop there
to make trading smoother without always
having to use US Dollars it set up
special deals called currency swap
agreements with multiple countries
these deals let countries trade directly
in their own currencies and R&B cutting
the dollar out of the equation and
making China an even bigger player in
global Finance now let’s talk about
something that’s shaking up money as we
know it blockchain and digital
currencies these Technologies are
rewriting the rulebook on how money
moves across borders central banks
around the world have noticed and are
jumping on board creating their own
Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to
keep up with this fast-paced change by
early 2024 over 130 countries including
the US were exploring or developing
their own digital currencies but China
it’s way ahead with its digital un also
called the
ecny it’s not just about making payments
faster it’s part of China’s bigger plan
to make the R&B more popular globally
meanwhile in the digital Finance world
the US dollar still holds its ground
thanks to stable coin
digital currencies tied to the Dollar’s
value these are used in international
trade and online transactions keeping
the dollar relevant even in the age of
crypto still the Dollar’s grip isn’t
what it used to be in 2022 its share of
global reserves slipped to around
58% while other currencies like the Euro
the Chinese Yan and even gold started
grabbing a bigger slice of the pie a
major clue to this shift the falling
demand for us treasuries especially from
China back in 2013 China owned a
whopping $1.3 trillion in US government
bonds but by the end of 2024 that number
had dropped to about $759 billion why
the big selloff it’s partly because
China used to buy tons of US dollars to
keep its own currency the R&B stable and
its exports cheap but as its trade Gap
with the US narrowed after 2018 there
was less need to stock pile dollars on
top of that Chinese officials started
worrying about having too many eggs in
the US dollar basket if something were
to shake the US economy or if tensions
between the two countries flared up
again China could take a hit so they
began spreading their Investments around
looking for safer and potentially more
profitable options and now it seems like
other countries are catching on and
following China’s lead gradually dialing
down their Reliance on us treasuries the
shift Global landscape especially the
growing tensions between the US and
China has pushed Beijing to rethink its
Financial strategies especially when it
comes to how much US debt it holds for
China cutting back on us treasuries
isn’t just about dollars and sents it’s
a smart move to reduce risk tied to
political friction by holding less US
debt China lowers its exposure to any
economic Fallout that could happen if
relations with the US take another turn
for the worse but here’s an interesting
twist some people believe that if China
were to dump a huge chunk of US debt it
might actually backfire instead of
hurting the US it could end up
strengthening the dollar while driving
up the value of China’s own currency
which isn’t exactly what Beijing wants
even though China has been trimming its
Holdings the overall US debt Market has
grown so much that China’s slice of the
pie has gotten smaller back in 2011
China held around 14% of all us
treasuries fast forward to 2024 and that
number has shrunk to less than 3% the
lowest it’s been in over two decades but
China isn’t the only one making moves
Japan has been tweaking its strategy too
in March 2024 Japan held about $1.17
trillion in US debt but by December that
number dipped to $1.06 trillion even
with that Japan still holds the title of
the largest foreign holder of us
treasuries why the pullback Japan’s been
busy trying to keep its currency the Yen
from sliding too far against the dollar
when the Yen weakens too much the bank
of Japan steps in selling off us
treasuries to buy yen and Prof it back
up plus Japan’s domestic policies like
managing interest rates and battling
inflation play a big role in how it
handles its foreign reserves meanwhile
over in the United king om there’s been
some action too after Donald Trump’s
re-election in November 2024 the UK
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
about
$767 billion to $723
billion why the cut it came down to a
mix of politics and Market Jitters
Trump’s plans for big tax cuts and
increased government spending had
investors on edge expecting higher
inflation and more US Government
borrowing that sent treasury yields
soaring since bond prices drop when
yields go up the UK’s existing Holdings
lost value leading them to rethink their
strategy and sell off a chunk this
wasn’t just a UK thing though Bond
markets around the world felt the heat
with fears of inflation and Rising
borrowing costs shaking up Global
finance and like China the UK is now
more focused on diversifying its
reserves spreading Risk by investing in
assets like gold and cutting back on US
dollar heavy Holdings
the stronger US dollar after Trump’s
reelection also played a role as the
dollar gained strength the relative
value of foreign held us assets shifted
nudging countries like the UK to adjust
their
portfolios over in India there’s been a
similar pattern the country scaled back
its US Treasury Holdings from $240
billion in March 2024 to about $29
billion The Reserve Bank of India has
been fine-tuning its foreign reserves
aiming for more balance and less
Reliance on US debt The Reserve Bank of
India RBI has been busy behind the
scenes stepping into to steady the
Indian rupee as it battles global
economic ups and downs Rising us
interest rates and investors pulling
money out of India haven’t helped
putting even more pressure on the
currency to keep things balanced the RBI
has been working hard to stop wild
swings in the exchange rate but India
isn’t just focused on quick fixes it’s
thinking longterm term the country has
been reshuffling its foreign reserves
putting more emphasis on gold and other
investment options this way it’s not
putting all its eggs in one basket
especially when it comes to assets tied
to the US dollar India is also looking
to strengthen its trade links with
emerging economies hoping to build a
more stable financial future over in the
Middle East Saudi Arabia has been making
its own strategic moves its US Treasury
holding slid from $142 billion to 37
billion over 6 months as a major oil
exporter Saudi Arabia’s reserves often
mirror the rise and fall of global oil
prices with recent dips in oil revenues
it’s no surprise the kingdom is
adjusting its Financial Playbook but
there’s more to it Saudi Arabia is
Thinking Beyond oil thanks to its
ambitious Vision 2030 plan the country
is pouring money into infrastructure
technology and green energy aiming to
transform its economy and reduce its
dependence on oil plus stronger trade
ties with countries like China may be
encouraging Saudi Arabia to shift some
of its reserves away from us treasuries
meanwhile Germany has also been tweaking
its Financial strategies the country
trimmed its US Treasury Holdings from
$14 billion to $97 billion in just half
a year Germany being the largest economy
in the Euro Zone Keeps Us treasuries in
its reserves to help manage risks and
balance its books but lately Germany has
been thinking Greener literally the
country has been investing more in green
bonds and other sustainable assets part
of its broader goal of promoting
long-term economic stability with
inflation concerns and changes in the
European Central bank’s policies Germany
is carefully adjusting its reserves plus
there’s a quiet push to give the Euro a
bigger role as an alternative to the US
dollar on the global stage Norway has
been moving pieces on its Financial
chest sport to between August and
December 2024 its US Treasury Holdings
dropped from $166 billion to $157
billion most of these Holdings are
managed through Norway’s massive
government pension fund Global one of
the world’s biggest Sovereign wealth
funds Norway likes to spread its
Investments around putting money into
everything from stocks to bonds and
alternative assets the recent dip in us
treasuries simply reflects a shift
toward higher yield Investments
especially as Global interest rates
continue to change Norway’s big picture
strategy balance risk while keeping its
long-term financial goals in sight but
here’s where things get even trickier
tariffs and Rising economic tensions are
shaking up the game a wave of new
tariffs 25% on all countries with extra
penalties on key sectors like cars
semiconductors and pharmaceuticals has
countries rethinking their exposure to
US debt
for Many Nations cutting back on us
treasuries isn’t just a reaction it’s
part of a bigger plan to reduce their
Reliance on the US Financial system by
shifting their reserves into other
assets countries can hit back at trade
restrictions and Safeguard their
economies This Global reshuffling is
also fueling the broader trend of
dollarization where countries are slowly
moving away from using the US dollar as
the world’s go-to currency the result a
highly unpredictable econ ecomic
landscape tensions between the Us and
other major economies are stirring up
Market volatility shaking Global Supply
chains and pushing up inflation in some
regions of course some argue that these
tough trade policies could eventually
lead to fairer practices and a more
balanced global economy but the big
question remains will this bring
stability or push the world deeper into
economic uncertainty one thing’s for
sure the world’s Financial system is at
a cross roads and what happens next
could reshape global trade shift Reserve
currencies and rewrite the rules of
international finance if you found this
video interesting be sure to hit that
like button and don’t forget to
subscribeFuck the patriarchy.
America is fucked.
Yeah. Thanks to the religious fanatics.
Grat job!
Every Woman in America Needs to Watch This and Understand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qmyRYekkQ
I can’t watch it, too stressful. That fuckhead who called her “a little girl”…someone needs to check his hard drive for child porn. He’s an arrogant creep.
Another unreadable one.
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
¿¿¿
trash talking a contribution that might help others because someoneself can’t be bothered reading it is acceptable
but buffy identifying as a woman isn’t acceptable
¿¿¿
NBC News:
Yes, it can get to a point where even people in Texas begin to think that ‘maybe taking advice on potentially-catastrophic-but-easily-preventable diseases from a man who had his brain eaten by a worm, and who thinks that dumping dead animals in public parks is ‘fun’, is not such a good idea’.
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
captain_spalding said:
NBC News:
Yes, it can get to a point where even people in Texas begin to think that ‘maybe taking advice on potentially-catastrophic-but-easily-preventable diseases from a man who had his brain eaten by a worm, and who thinks that dumping dead animals in public parks is ‘fun’, is not such a good idea’.
so it was true after all it really was all part of the master plan to increase confidence in vaccines
¡
such American sacrifice for the good of the world
As the measles outbreak in Texas keeps spreading, parents who previously chose not to vaccinate their children are now lining up to get their kids the shots needed to protect them from the serious illness.
“People are more and more nervous” as they watch the highly contagious virus spread in their communities, mostly among children, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for Lubbock’s health department. “We’ve vaccinated multiple kids that have never been vaccinated before, some from families that didn’t believe in vaccines.”
About half of the approximately 100 doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) given at the health department last week were to kids who were unvaccinated, Wells said.
On Tuesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported that 124 cases of measles have been confirmed since late January, mostly in counties in West Texas, near the New Mexico border. So far, 18 patients have been hospitalized, often because they were having trouble breathing.
Of the 124 cases identified, 101 are babies, school-age kids or teenagers.
Nearly all were either unvaccinated or hadn’t received their second MMR shot, which is usually given around age 5. That dose, plus one given around a child’s first birthday, are 97% effective at preventing measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While that level of protection is extremely high, it’s not 100%. Five of the 124 people with measles in Texas said they’d had at least one dose of the MMR shot.
Measles is considered one of the most contagious viruses in the world. It’s spread through tiny respiratory particles that can live in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person was there.
That’s why a mobile health care unit offering measles testing and vaccines for people who are not sick enough to be hospitalized has set up shop in emergency department parking lots in Lubbock and surrounding areas.
“We’re using the bus to keep them out of the hospital because measles is so contagious and airborne,” Chad Curry, training chief for the University Medical Center EMS, who is overseeing the mobile unit’s operations during the outbreak, said in an interview Tuesday. “We’re trying to lessen the blow.”
Starting Wednesday, Curry’s crew will offer immunoglobulin shots or infusions to people who’ve had a confirmed measles exposure and who may be at risk for complications.
Immunoglobulin, or IG, is an antibody that helps the immune system fight off infections. It can be given up to six days after a person was exposed to measles.
Growing worries
The fast-moving outbreak is certain to expand, health authorities said.On Monday, the Texas Department of State Health Services alerted the public that a person infected with measles had traveled outside of the outbreak area to other parts of the state.
The person visited the University of Texas at San Antonio campus and a variety of restaurants and convenience stores like Buc-ee’s in other areas near the city.
Measles symptoms in the outbreak have been “textbook,” Wells said. Patients have had fevers up to 104 degrees, coughing, runny nose and red, irritated eyes. After that, they develop a rash that starts near the scalp and spreads down the body.
Symptoms may not appear until two weeks after a person is exposed.
It’s up to health officials now to do what’s called contact tracing. That means painstakingly tracking down anyone who was in those public spaces at the same time — or several hours afterward — to tell them about the exposure and give guidance on what they should do.
That’s on top of the ongoing investigations in the outbreak’s epicenter.
“My biggest concern right now is the manpower needed to do all of the contact tracing,” said Dr. Ronald Cook, chief health officer at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and health authority for the city.
“We’re managing right now, but if this grows any bigger, we’re going to need some more help.”
Completely off topic… “gift article”?
Hey I thought of you when I read this article about cancelling flu shots, so I’ve paid for you to read it.
Real mystery why DJT doesn’t want the Epstein documents released, real headscratcher that one.
Divine Angel said:
Completely off topic… “gift article”?
Hey I thought of you when I read this article about cancelling flu shots, so I’ve paid for you to read it.
fair point we mean buying books as gifts for people is also offensive
dv said:
Real mystery why DJT doesn’t want the Epstein documents released, real headscratcher that one.
wait we still remember when everyone demanded tax records and then they released a single year of records and everything was good
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
Completely off topic… “gift article”?
Hey I thought of you when I read this article about cancelling flu shots, so I’ve paid for you to read it.
fair point we mean buying books as gifts for people is also offensive
Give this to a sibling.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:Witty Rejoinder said:
It’s the transcript of the YouTube video. I think even unformatted it is good enough to help determine whether one should go back and watch the video.
exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Since we’re sharing – you know that it doesn’t exactly make men feel great to be told they are less trustworthy than a wild fucking bear, right?
dv said:
Real mystery why DJT doesn’t want the Epstein documents released, real headscratcher that one.
Wow…do we believe her outrage?
Hmmm…let me think.
esselte said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Since we’re sharing – you know that it doesn’t exactly make men feel great to be told they are less trustworthy than a wild fucking bear, right?
LOLOLOL……far out!!
You really don’t get it, do you?
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
Completely off topic… “gift article”?
Hey I thought of you when I read this article about cancelling flu shots, so I’ve paid for you to read it.
fair point we mean buying books as gifts for people is also offensive
Give this to a sibling.
right but if we had a sibling and our sibling were a special education teacher they may well be thankful though we acknowledge if they had just entitled it “teaching late children” or “education of children with intellectual disability” it may go down better
on a Forum where people discuss the DPRNA fucking up, it seems appropriate to gift them articles about the DPRNA fucking up
surely
esselte said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Since we’re sharing – you know that it doesn’t exactly make men feel great to be told they are less trustworthy than a wild fucking bear, right?
Noted.
esselte said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:exactly if a woman is too shit to read text then that woman can make a choice to not fucking read it
oh and they can blame youtube instead
disclaimer this applies to men andor other nonbinaries as well
i find that woman statement really really off.
Since we’re sharing – you know that it doesn’t exactly make men feel great to be told they are less trustworthy than a wild fucking bear, right?
There there… No one is going to make you feel bad ever again.
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
dv said:
Real mystery why DJT doesn’t want the Epstein documents released, real headscratcher that one.
/TIC
Added because you forgot to append it.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
pretty sure “can’t happen to us / here / when we do this” are typical famous last words
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
I hope so. I really do.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Personally I think a government should be able to do what it wants with it’s public service – I mean it’s shortsighted to just not do any preventative maintenance and then shrug when the engine breaks but that is a decision that government should be able to make if it wants.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
yeah, things are much harder to change thought executive decision alone because the power rests with the parliament
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
buffy said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.
Kind of prefer he doesn’t.
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Yes. I find that most odd, too.
And how undocumented immigrants and their children also voted for Trump.
Perhaps his weird voice mesmerises them.
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.Kind of prefer he doesn’t.
Particularly if he’s a drunk and easily influenced?
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.Kind of prefer he doesn’t.
I wasn’t born the last time that power was exercised
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Yes. I find that most odd, too.
And how undocumented immigrants and their children also voted for Trump.
Perhaps his weird voice mesmerises them.
He does drone on and in a sleep inducing tone.
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
that’s fine, but most small businesses rely on supply chains that are beyond their control and as such as subject to tariff related cost increases on imported goods and materials (even energy).
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Thanks for the heads up.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
No doubt ivory back-scratchers will not have a tariff imposed by this administration.
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
No doubt ivory back-scratchers will not have a tariff imposed by this administration.
Maybe if they are made from Mammoth Tusks.
sarahs mum said:
CHINA style making DPRNA great again
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
One thing that is odd is that IIRC around 60% of a Trump voters understand how tariffs work with the costs born by the businesses and consumers of the country which imposes them but these people still see no contradiction in supporting Trump as an economic manager despite his stupidity on this subject. Now either they really hate illegal immigrants or they’re just strangely complacent about bad policies.
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
regardless, it’s long-term genius Trump saving the DPRNA again when all those industries return onshore
sarahs mum said:
NGL, hard to argue against productivity improvements for employees that work more.. I mean get 50% more out of an employee that works 60hrs per week than an employee that works 40hrs per week.. bonus when they are salaried employees as well.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
regardless, it’s long-term genius Trump saving the DPRNA again when all those industries return onshore
earlier this week I learned that the peak manufacturing in the US was 2019…
buffy said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
so we’re playing a different sport but nobody wants to admit it’s still just a team sport
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
pretty sure “can’t happen to us / here / when we do this” are typical famous last words
although we have a constitution that is hard to change unless it is a really really popular thingy.
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
One thing about them is that they are relatively regressive as a form of taxation. Lower income people tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on goods: if your income is 100 million dollars a year then your grocery and materials bill tends to be a small % of your income. So swapping income taxation for tariffs is a way to move more of the tax burden onto the working class and less on the idle rich.
regardless, it’s long-term genius Trump saving the DPRNA again when all those industries return onshore
earlier this week I learned that the peak manufacturing in the US was 2019…
Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
pretty sure “can’t happen to us / here / when we do this” are typical famous last words
although we have a constitution that is hard to change unless it is a really really popular thingy.
Yeah, it’s a completely different system.
I’ll tell you what though, those Australian Republicans advocating for a Presidential system have shut all the way the hell up.
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
NGL, hard to argue against productivity improvements for employees that work more.. I mean get 50% more out of an employee that works 60hrs per week than an employee that works 40hrs per week.. bonus when they are salaried employees as well.
Make me work 50% more time, you’re not going to get 50% more productivity…
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:regardless, it’s long-term genius Trump saving the DPRNA again when all those industries return onshore
earlier this week I learned that the peak manufacturing in the US was 2019…
Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
furious said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
NGL, hard to argue against productivity improvements for employees that work more.. I mean get 50% more out of an employee that works 60hrs per week than an employee that works 40hrs per week.. bonus when they are salaried employees as well.
Make me work 50% more time, you’re not going to get 50% more productivity…
sounds like you need to work for google
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:Was listening to Mike Johnson talking the other day about how Trump’s tariff policies will bring in all the new tax revenue.. but.. you can’t really have it both ways with tariffs.. either they generate the tax revenue and increase the costs of good (thus leading to inflation) or they change behaviors and lead to local investment and creation of jobs..
I don’t see the US changing its consumer behavior all that much.
I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Thanks for the heads up.
in aus it should only apply to uS goods.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:earlier this week I learned that the peak manufacturing in the US was 2019…
Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
It kind of did seem that a lot of people missed the news of the USA’s economic resurgence over the past few years. The number of people employed in manufacturing increased by 700000 during the Biden admin. The CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge etc all contributed to high output and high employment levels. In a more sensible time the Biden era would mainly be remembered for the economic successes.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Thanks for the heads up.
in aus it should only apply to uS goods.
I kind of don’t think the Walmart heirs and Jeff Bezos much care whether people buy things on 1 Mar rather than 28 Feb.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:pretty sure “can’t happen to us / here / when we do this” are typical famous last words
although we have a constitution that is hard to change unless it is a really really popular thingy.
Yeah, it’s a completely different system.
I’ll tell you what though, those Australian Republicans advocating for a Presidential system have shut all the way the hell up.
Good.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
It kind of did seem that a lot of people missed the news of the USA’s economic resurgence over the past few years. The number of people employed in manufacturing increased by 700000 during the Biden admin. The CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge etc all contributed to high output and high employment levels. In a more sensible time the Biden era would mainly be remembered for the economic successes.
I suppose in the long run, it will.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
It kind of did seem that a lot of people missed the news of the USA’s economic resurgence over the past few years. The number of people employed in manufacturing increased by 700000 during the Biden admin. The CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge etc all contributed to high output and high employment levels. In a more sensible time the Biden era would mainly be remembered for the economic successes.
Meanwhile Germany and Angela’s legacy…
“ In March, they have plans for a week-long blackout against Amazon, urging participants not to buy from the retailer or Whole Foods, and to avoid brands owned by Nestlé due to issues of “water exploitation, child labor, and corporate greed.”
Another nationwide “economic blackout” is scheduled for March 28, also lasting 24 hours.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/27/nx-s1-5311972/economic-blackout-february-28-explainer
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Nope. Indeed the record manufacturing under Biden was rather famously one of their biggest achievements?
this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
It kind of did seem that a lot of people missed the news of the USA’s economic resurgence over the past few years. The number of people employed in manufacturing increased by 700000 during the Biden admin. The CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge etc all contributed to high output and high employment levels. In a more sensible time the Biden era would mainly be remembered for the economic successes.
They didn’t miss it, they believed it was fake news.
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.
Well, sort of…there are hoops to jump through. And he needs a co-conspirator.
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.Well, sort of…there are hoops to jump through. And he needs a co-conspirator.
Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.
Well, sort of…there are hoops to jump through. And he needs a co-conspirator.
Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Weekly jobless claims just hit their highest point in nearly a year – while coffee prices surge and could climb even higher. MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports on Trump’s economy and is joined by Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.
That was fast! Trump MIA as prices spike from coffee to eggs to gasoline
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:Well, sort of…there are hoops to jump through. And he needs a co-conspirator.
Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
construction=constitution.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
Of course he was. He had a lot he wanted to do and knew he would have limited time to do it.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
construction=constitution.
Ohhh I was thinking of the Reconstruction of the old South after the Civil War, and thinking, wow, Aussie politics were bad before I was born.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
Of course he was. He had a lot he wanted to do and knew he would have limited time to do it.
And his ego got the best of him.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Whitlam was playing political games as well. He wanted to establish that the Senate couldn’t block supply and all that would entail for the construction.
Of course he was. He had a lot he wanted to do and knew he would have limited time to do it.
And his ego got the best of him.
I suspect so. However…I doubt me and my sibs would all have been able to go to University without his arrangements.
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:this is interesting to me because it feels like there is a belief that manufacturing is in mortal decline in the US..
I guess output and employment are two different things
It kind of did seem that a lot of people missed the news of the USA’s economic resurgence over the past few years. The number of people employed in manufacturing increased by 700000 during the Biden admin. The CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge etc all contributed to high output and high employment levels. In a more sensible time the Biden era would mainly be remembered for the economic successes.
Meanwhile Germany and Angela’s legacy…
appeasement…
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:I don’t know how well publicised it is, but there’s a “No Purchase” movement scheduled for Feb 28 US time. Try not to buy anything, but if you do, use cash and support local businesses.
Thanks for the heads up.
in aus it should only apply to uS goods.
while some tariffs exist, Aust has not imposed any new tariffs on US imported goods
sarahs mum said:
FMD.
What a dick!
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
buffy said:
Michael V said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
49m ·
BREAKING: Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden ring the alarm that RFK Jr.‘s disastrous mass layoffs could threaten the modernization of the organ transplant system — keeping us locked in a MAGA medical Dark Age.
This administration’s catastrophes keep multiplying…
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Sanders and Wyden wrote in a letter to Kennedy.
They asked Trump’s Health Secretary to disclose which of the staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HHRSA) working on implementing improvements to the Organ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network have been affected by the firings.
According to disturbing reports, some of the personnel who were hired by the HHRSA to implement the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act” have been affected by the MAGA efforts to gut our federal government.
The National Kidney Foundation has already called for the rehiring of the workers, stating that the firings “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” Senators Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The went on to demand that Kennedy explain how he will provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
This is what happens when you elect criminals like Donald Trump and anti-science crackpots like RFK Jr. Crucial systems break down as these crooks loot the government for all its worth, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
It shows that the USA’s systems of government are not strong enough to hold off this serious onslaught.
Is Australia safe?
Australian democracy, like that of the British which we have largely inherited is much more robust.
I hope so. I really do.
I don’t think we have the same brand of “democracy” that they have got. I know we’ve managed to gerrymander before, but they have an artform of it. And we don’t elect a grand poohbah. We elect a party to government and the party provides a leader. And there can be infighting about this. The power is all smeared out here.
We also have a governor general who can kick out a PM if need be.
Kind of prefer he doesn’t.
I wasn’t born the last time that power was exercised
Well, sort of…there are hoops to jump through. And he needs a co-conspirator.
Not really. Kerr’s collusion with Fraser was not a requirement. The only real danger for a GG going rogue is to get push back from the monarch.
No, but it was necessary for the Opposition, holding the Senate, to block supply. The GG has to have a reason.
Wait are they saying that the Governor General is like another check and balance, a layer of checking and balancing like the layer of checking and balancing that signed off on Marketing’s Multiple Ministerial Magic¿
Working as intended then chef’s kiss¡
Notice now appearing on the earth wind map site:
Bubblecar said:
Notice now appearing on the earth wind map site:
FMD.
(Rubs temples)
dv said:
(Rubs temples)
Yeah.
Michael V said:
dv said:
(Rubs temples)
Yeah.
wait we thought 爱 could do all of this
Heather Cox Richardson
38m ·
February 27, 2025 (Thursday)
Yesterday an unvaccinated child in Texas died of measles as nearly 140 people in Texas and New Mexico have been reported ill with the disease. This is the country’s first measles death since 2015.
Measles cases appear almost every year, but usually the government works to suppress measles, as well as other contagious diseases. It’s not clear the Trump administration intends to do that. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting to select the strains of flu to be included in next season’s vaccines. This year’s flu season has been severe: according to NBC News health and medical reporter Berkeley Lovelace Jr., 86 children and 19,000 adults so far have died from the flu this year and 430,000 adults have been hospitalized. On February 20, Lovelace reported that a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scheduled for February 26–28, was cancelled.
Speaking earlier this month in favor of confirming anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and who is a doctor himself, assured his colleagues that Kennedy had promised to notify the Senate before making changes to vaccine programs and that “f confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without change.”
Cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have made it hard for the country to confront the bird flu that is sweeping the poultry industry and now infecting dairy herds, as well. Marcia Brown of Politico reported today that the Trump administration is trying to rehire government employees who were working on combating the disease after widespread cuts to employees in the Agriculture Department during the first purge of government workers gutted research on it. Now some of the employees in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network program, and so on, have been offered their jobs back, but those offers are haphazard, and not all employees are keen to take jobs that are clearly not secure.
Indeed, health does not seem to be a top priority of the administration. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times noted today that during his remarks at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk, who the administration has claimed in court is only an advisor to the president and neither leads nor is employed by DOGE, admitted that DOGE had made some initial mistakes, such as when it “accidentally canceled very briefly” efforts to contain an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. But Musk reassured his audience that mistaken decisions were quickly reversed. DOGE “restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption.” Except they didn’t: in theory, USAID workers could get a waiver to continue work, but in reality, money did not resume and much of the work was forced to stop.
The administration continues to insist it is cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” but the reality that it is cutting programs on which Americans depend is becoming clearer. During yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump indicated that the next major round of workforce cuts will be at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by Congress in 1970 at the urging of Republican president Richard M. Nixon to protect clean air, land, and water. Trump said that 65% of the 15,000 people who work there will be fired; an official later clarified that the president meant that the budget would be cut by 65%.
Today, three former heads of the EPA warned in a New York Times op-ed that Americans would miss the agency “when it’s gone.” William K. Reilly and Christine Todd Whitman, who headed the EPA under Republican presidents, and Gina McCarthy, who headed it under a Democratic president, recalled how between 1970 and 2019 the EPA “cut emissions of common air pollutants by 77 percent, while private sector jobs grew 223 percent and our gross domestic product grew almost 300 percent.” The EPA minimizes exposure to dangerous air during wildfires, cleans up contaminated lands, and tests for asbestos, lead, and copper in water,, delivering health benefits that outweigh its costs, the authors say, by more than 30 to 1.
Trump administration officials claim they are enacting the policies their voters demand, but Melanie Zanona, Jonathan Allen, and Matt Dixon of NBC News reported Tuesday that the blowback on Republican representatives willing to hold town halls during the House recess was so intense that House leaders are urging them simply to stop holding constituent events. If they want to continue to do so, leaders suggest making sure they vet attendees to make sure there won’t be altercations that go viral on social media, as several have done recently. Leadership wants to stop what they say is a developing narrative that paints Republicans in a bad light.
Republican National Committee senior advisor Danielle Alvarez told the NBC News reporters: “The president’s policies are incredibly popular, and the American people applaud his success in cutting the waste, fraud and abuse of their hard-earned taxpayer dollars…. Pathetic astroturf campaigns organized by out-of-touch, far-left groups are exactly why Democrats will keep losing.”
But today’s news is unlikely to quiet the blowback. The administration announced cuts of 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors ocean currents, atmospheric changes, and climate change and provides weather and ocean reports. It suggested further cuts tomorrow could bring the total to 1,000. NOAA’s weather reports and marine forecasts are vital to Americans. As climate scientist David Ho pointed out, for example, NOAA operates both of the U.S. tsunami warning centers. Employees from them were fired today.
Also in DOGE’s crosshairs is Social Security. Today the administration announced a major “organizational restructuring” of the Social Security Administration. This restructuring appears to mean large cuts to the agency, even though staffing is already at a 50-year low. It is not clear exactly how many positions will be cut; multiple outlets say half of the agency’s 57,000 employees will be let go, while an executive at the agency told Erich Wagner and Natalie Alms of Government Executive that the initial number of firings will be 7,000. At least five of the eight regional commissioners whose offices oversee and support the agency’s frontline offices across the country are leaving, and former Social Security administrator Martin O’Malley warned: “Social Security is being driven to a total system collapse.”
There are also rumblings of concern among business people about the Trump administration’s approach to the economy. Trump said today that the 25% tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada he paused for a month in early February will take effect on March 4. An additional 10% tariff on goods from China will also go into effect that day. Tariffs are expected to drive up prices, and Bloomberg reported that in this quarter’s earnings calls for 500 of the country’s most valuable businesses, when company managers, investors, and analysts discuss the company’s financial performance, mentions of tariffs reached an all-time high.
Selina Wang of ABC News reported the warning of economists that the mass firings and the Trump tariff threats are having a “chilling” effect on the economy. The tariffs make it hard to plan for future costs, so companies are holding back on investments, while people who lose their jobs or are afraid they’re going to lose their jobs stop spending money. A survey by the Conference Board, a nonpartisan nonprofit that provides insight for business, shows that consumer confidence is dropping dramatically.
When Stanford University announced today that “iven the uncertainty, we need to take prudent steps to limit spending,” adding that “we are implementing a freeze on staff hiring in the university,” Carl Quintanilla of CNBC posted: “‘Here come the multiplier effects.’”
Voters and business people are not the only ones pushing back against Trump’s policies. Rachel Bluth and Melanie Mason of Politico reported today that the country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general have been working together to stop Trump’s unconstitutional actions. Under the urging of then–attorney general Bob Ferguson of Washington state in February 2024, they began to prepare for cases based on Trump’s campaign statements, taking them seriously as potential policies, and on Project 2025, which they recognized would play a big part in a second Trump administration.
They worked together to figure out the most effective strategies for challenging the administration in court. As Trump issued executive orders at breakneck speed in his first few days in office, they were ready to respond.
Today, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the administration, specifically the Office of Personnel Management, to rescind the mass firing of government workers with probationary status, ruling that the firings were probably illegal. Alsup pointed out that Congress had given personnel decisions to the agencies themselves. “The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.”
“Probationary employees are the lifeblood of these agencies,” the judge added. “They come in at the low level and work their way up, and that’s how we renew ourselves and reinvent ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Trump and his team appear to be trying to undermine the rule of law in the United States. Today, Rebecca Crosby and Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission has stopped its prosecution of Justin Sun, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur who had been charged in March 2023 with securities fraud. After Trump was elected in 2024, Sun bought $30 million worth of Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto tokens, putting $18 million directly into Trump’s pockets. Since then, he has invested another $45 million in WLF. Altogether, Sun’s investments have netted Trump more than $50 million.
Crosby and Legum note that the SEC also appears to have dropped its case against the crypto trading platform Coinbase after the platform donated $75 million to a political action committee associated with Trump and donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
And, after Trump issued blanket pardons to those convicted of crimes associated with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those who attacked police officers, his administration now appears to have put pressure on Romania to lift a travel ban on social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate. The brothers were under investigation in Romania for rape, human trafficking, and money laundering and are under similar allegations in the U.K.
MAGA Republicans attracted followers by claiming they would stand up for law and order. So the arrival in the U.S. of the Tates was not universally popular among them. A number of MAGA Republicans rushed to distance themselves from the Tates. When news broke that they were headed for Florida, Florida’s attorney general said that Florida has “zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women,” and Florida governor Ron DeSantis appeared angry as he said he learned of the Tate brothers’ arrival through the media.
Bubblecar said:
Notice now appearing on the earth wind map site:
And also, from sm’s Heather Cox Richardson post:
>>But today’s news is unlikely to quiet the blowback. The administration announced cuts of 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors ocean currents, atmospheric changes, and climate change and provides weather and ocean reports. It suggested further cuts tomorrow could bring the total to 1,000. NOAA’s weather reports and marine forecasts are vital to Americans. As climate scientist David Ho pointed out, for example, NOAA operates both of the U.S. tsunami warning centers. Employees from them were fired today.<<
buffy said:
Bubblecar said:
Notice now appearing on the earth wind map site:
And also, from sm’s Heather Cox Richardson post:
>>But today’s news is unlikely to quiet the blowback. The administration announced cuts of 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors ocean currents, atmospheric changes, and climate change and provides weather and ocean reports. It suggested further cuts tomorrow could bring the total to 1,000. NOAA’s weather reports and marine forecasts are vital to Americans. As climate scientist David Ho pointed out, for example, NOAA operates both of the U.S. tsunami warning centers. Employees from them were fired today.<<
FMD
Back to the past.
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Bubblecar said:
Notice now appearing on the earth wind map site:
And also, from sm’s Heather Cox Richardson post:
>>But today’s news is unlikely to quiet the blowback. The administration announced cuts of 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors ocean currents, atmospheric changes, and climate change and provides weather and ocean reports. It suggested further cuts tomorrow could bring the total to 1,000. NOAA’s weather reports and marine forecasts are vital to Americans. As climate scientist David Ho pointed out, for example, NOAA operates both of the U.S. tsunami warning centers. Employees from them were fired today.<<
FMD
Back to the past.
Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
buffy said:And also, from sm’s Heather Cox Richardson post:
>>But today’s news is unlikely to quiet the blowback. The administration announced cuts of 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors ocean currents, atmospheric changes, and climate change and provides weather and ocean reports. It suggested further cuts tomorrow could bring the total to 1,000. NOAA’s weather reports and marine forecasts are vital to Americans. As climate scientist David Ho pointed out, for example, NOAA operates both of the U.S. tsunami warning centers. Employees from them were fired today.<<
FMD
Back to the past.
Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:FMD
Back to the past.
Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
Yes. I muse about this daily. I’m trying not to care, but somehow I still do. I must be a bad human.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
Yes. I muse about this daily. I’m trying not to care, but somehow I still do. I must be a bad human.
I worry about my young friend “The Rocket Scientist”. He’s working with DoD, afaik. Hired straight out of uni, and from what I can tell he was part of the “targeted” exceptional students for employment programme. He’s never really talked about any of it.
I met him when I was doing the silver-smithing classes at the local uni. Apart from his science brain he is also extremely artistic and very much on the spectrum of ND.
I recently asked him how things were and he said fine, he’s not allowed to talk about work, I do know he was involved with satellite stuff at uni.
mr kii and I were interviewed as part of his employment with DoD. He had put us down as employing him, he helped paint the house (terrible at house-painting).
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
dv said:
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
AG Bondi has written a stern letter to Patel. Could be performative bullshit.
I’m not sure how this couple owns and operates a business w/o a Green Card. There must be a different system for their application.
Still it pisses me off.
From my own process I couldn’t work, paid or voluntary’, until I had a card. Also owning a property.
“ICE took these wonderfully kind owners of Jersey Kebab yesterday, a local business and my favorite restaurant, my friends. This sign is in their window, and shows how they always help anyone who needs it. We need to help them! Here’s what happened:
During the morning hours of Tuesday, February 25, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) warrantlessly picked up members of the Emanet family, Celal and Emine Emanet, from Jersey Kebab, located at 150 Haddon Avenue, Haddon Township, NJ 08108.
The Emanet family has an open case with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and has been waiting since 2016 for a decision on their case. USCIS has not decided whether to approve or deny their green card application for the past 9 years. While waiting for their case to be decided upon, Celal and Emine Emanet were left without a status.
They are contributing members of society and taxpayers with a five-year valid business license. Celal and Emine own and operate Jersey Kebab, a beloved Mediterranean restaurant across from the Haddon Township Municipality and Police building. The husband-and-wife pair own and manage the restaurant together, a hub for the community, and regularly feed underprivileged members of the community – the sign on the door stating, “Free to anyone with a disability, homeless, or simply cannot afford it.” The couple start prep work together at 9 am and close up shop at 8:30 pm.
At the end of the night, Celal and Emine come back home where they live with their four children (Muhammed, Zeynep, Hamza, Hale), daughter-in-law (Hale), two grandchildren (Ali and Omer), and two cats (Oreo and Almond). Muhammed (25), the manager at Jersey Kebab, a graduate of Rutgers-Camden, is a husband and father to two children. Zeynep (23) is a Swarthmore College graduate and works at a local civil rights nonprofit organization. Their younger son, Hamza (15), and younger daughter, Hale (13), cannot imagine life without mom and dad together.
While Celal has been released from custody with an ankle monitor, Emine has been placed into the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, awaiting her bond trial. This situation is especially devastating for their 15-year-old son, Hamza, who has autism.
Deporting Emine would cause Hamza immense distress, as he only speaks limited Turkish and relies on the specialized services available to him here in New Jersey. Uprooting him from this support system would have severe consequences for his well-being.
Emine is not a flight risk – she is a mother, community member, and neighbor. Neither Celal nor Emine have criminal records or prior orders of removal by an immigration judge. She needs to be released on bond so she can return home. Until she is released, the restaurant, which is their main source of income, is closed. So please help out any way you can.”
from Kris Forrest on Facebook.
kii said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
Yes. I muse about this daily. I’m trying not to care, but somehow I still do. I must be a bad human.
I worry about my young friend “The Rocket Scientist”. He’s working with DoD, afaik. Hired straight out of uni, and from what I can tell he was part of the “targeted” exceptional students for employment programme. He’s never really talked about any of it.
I met him when I was doing the silver-smithing classes at the local uni. Apart from his science brain he is also extremely artistic and very much on the spectrum of ND.
I recently asked him how things were and he said fine, he’s not allowed to talk about work, I do know he was involved with satellite stuff at uni.
mr kii and I were interviewed as part of his employment with DoD. He had put us down as employing him, he helped paint the house (terrible at house-painting).
I do remember you talking about him. I hope things work out OK despite what the vandals are doing.
dv said:
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
Why “Damn”?
Isn’t it better that she knows she has been misled by her own side?
Maybe it will scratch her confected armour and start a festering sore in her beliefs.
kii said:
dv said:
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
AG Bondi has written a stern letter to Patel. Could be performative bullshit.
There is a veiled threat near the end.
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.
I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
FMD
Back to the past.
Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
back in primary school we learnt that this kind of thing happened to Rome before all good it’s not new
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
Exactly. It is a pre-modern medieval mindset. Maybe early-to-mid Renaissance, but from the side that opposed those new ideas.
It’s downright depressing. To think that all these amazing advances have been made, only to be destroyed by some latter-day ludditic vandals.
back in primary school we learnt that this kind of thing happened to Rome before all good it’s not new
We can only hope that it is over more quickly.
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
buffy said:
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
I just read that MTG’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn from Newsmax, asked this ridiculous question at that meeting:
GLENN: Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.
ZELENSKYY: I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.
buffy said:
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
Like Zelensky, I had to turn Trump off. It was just horrible listening to the man waffle. The voice from the crowd, “why aren’t you wearing a suit?” to Zelensky.
JD Vance attempting to tell Zelensky that Trump was being diplomatic and Zelensky simply said that nobody can trust Putin…
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.
I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
Like Zelensky, I had to turn Trump off. It was just horrible listening to the man waffle. The voice from the crowd, “why aren’t you wearing a suit?” to Zelensky.
JD Vance attempting to tell Zelensky that Trump was being diplomatic and Zelensky simply said that nobody can trust Putin…
it’s for the show, they don’t give a fuck about the face to face negotiation, they’re successfully solidifying the perception among their domestic supporters
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
Like Zelensky, I had to turn Trump off. It was just horrible listening to the man waffle. The voice from the crowd, “why aren’t you wearing a suit?” to Zelensky.
JD Vance attempting to tell Zelensky that Trump was being diplomatic and Zelensky simply said that nobody can trust Putin…
it’s for the show, they don’t give a fuck about the face to face negotiation, they’re successfully solidifying the perception among their domestic supporters
Zelensky was not going to give them that. I sincerely hope he keeps sticking to his guns on that.
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
I just read that MTG’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn from Newsmax, asked this ridiculous question at that meeting:
GLENN: Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.
ZELENSKYY: I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.
Smack.
“Back in your box, you fool!”
Brilliant – I love that smackdown.
:)
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Like Zelensky, I had to turn Trump off. It was just horrible listening to the man waffle. The voice from the crowd, “why aren’t you wearing a suit?” to Zelensky.
JD Vance attempting to tell Zelensky that Trump was being diplomatic and Zelensky simply said that nobody can trust Putin…
it’s for the show, they don’t give a fuck about the face to face negotiation, they’re successfully solidifying the perception among their domestic supporters
Zelensky was not going to give them that. I sincerely hope he keeps sticking to his guns on that.
it doesn’t matter what he says, to those sycophants it only matters what their idols say
remember back in the day when pseudoscience cracks were the worst disinformation one would regularly encounter, and simply getting a seat at debate gave them legitimacy
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
it’s for the show, they don’t give a fuck about the face to face negotiation, they’re successfully solidifying the perception among their domestic supporters
Zelensky was not going to give them that. I sincerely hope he keeps sticking to his guns on that.
it doesn’t matter what he says, to those sycophants it only matters what their idols say
remember back in the day when pseudoscience cracks were the worst disinformation one would regularly encounter, and simply getting a seat at debate gave them legitimacy
This game won’t stop the war and Zelensky is well aware of that.
Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats
Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’
The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cyber security threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security
FFS …
Spiny Norman said:
Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats
Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cyber security threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security
FFS …
Komrade King Krasnov sorted that out. No worries Mr Putin. No worries at all.
Spiny Norman said:
Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats
Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cyber security threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security
FFS …
The lack of pushback from other Republicans from Trump’s fantasies is truly astounding.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats
Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cyber security threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security
FFS …
Komrade King Krasnov sorted that out. No worries Mr Putin. No worries at all.
Hah. KKK. That is very good MV.
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
Trump and Vance have just bullied Zelenskyy in an Oval office meeting. Fucking disgrace.I can’t stomach watching the video.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump that promises of peace from Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, noting the Russian leader’s history of broken promises. Trump said Putin hasn’t broken agreements with him.
“You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump told Zelenskyy. He said the Ukrainian leader is “gambling with World War III.”
Trump chided Zelenskyy after Vice President JD Vance, one of the administration’s most skeptical voices on Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was being disrespectful for debating Trump in the Oval Office in front of the American media.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy. “
I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
I just read that MTG’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn from Newsmax, asked this ridiculous question at that meeting:
GLENN: Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.
ZELENSKYY: I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.
Trump-Zelenskyy talks cut short after heated exchanges in Oval Office – summary
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House has been cut short after he got into a heated exchange with US president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who accused him of “disrespectful” behaviour during their talks in the Oval Office.
In a social media update, Trump said he has determined that Zelenskyy “is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations”, and said the Ukrainian leader “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”. “He can come back when he is ready for peace,” he added.
In their earlier talks, Trump repeatedly told Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with the lives of millions, with the third world war”, and told him to stop holding out for further security guarantees saying “you’re either going to make a deal or we are out”.
Trump appeared to draw false equivalence between the two sides of the war and positioning himself “for both Ukraine and Russia” as he pursues a peace deal, in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s comments about Putin as a “killer” and “terrorist” who invaded Ukraine, and with whom he was not ready to compromise on the Ukrainian territory.
The pair repeatedly clashed over their view of Russia and the negotiations, as well as the extent of the European support for Ukraine.
JD Vance also falsely accused Zelenskyy for not thanking the US for its support and “campaigning for the opposition in October,” instead of showing “words of appreciation for the US and the president who is trying to save your country.”
Zelenskyy has left the White House moments ago, with the press conference between the two leaders, where they were expected to sign a deal on minerals, also cancelled.
—
Nice work Drumpf.
Ian said:
kii said:
buffy said:I’m a bit surprised this was done in front of the press. Did no one realize that someone like Zelenskyy, who has been hardened in real real life for the past three years was likely to stand up to Trump. And that Trump would have no idea how to deal with someone like that?
(I don’t think I want to watch it either. But I might)
I just read that MTG’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn from Newsmax, asked this ridiculous question at that meeting:
GLENN: Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.
ZELENSKYY: I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.
Trump-Zelenskyy talks cut short after heated exchanges in Oval Office – summary
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House has been cut short after he got into a heated exchange with US president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who accused him of “disrespectful” behaviour during their talks in the Oval Office.
In a social media update, Trump said he has determined that Zelenskyy “is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations”, and said the Ukrainian leader “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”. “He can come back when he is ready for peace,” he added.
In their earlier talks, Trump repeatedly told Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with the lives of millions, with the third world war”, and told him to stop holding out for further security guarantees saying “you’re either going to make a deal or we are out”.
Trump appeared to draw false equivalence between the two sides of the war and positioning himself “for both Ukraine and Russia” as he pursues a peace deal, in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s comments about Putin as a “killer” and “terrorist” who invaded Ukraine, and with whom he was not ready to compromise on the Ukrainian territory.
The pair repeatedly clashed over their view of Russia and the negotiations, as well as the extent of the European support for Ukraine.
JD Vance also falsely accused Zelenskyy for not thanking the US for its support and “campaigning for the opposition in October,” instead of showing “words of appreciation for the US and the president who is trying to save your country.”
Zelenskyy has left the White House moments ago, with the press conference between the two leaders, where they were expected to sign a deal on minerals, also cancelled.
—
Nice work Drumpf.
KKK: I tried, but Mr Z rejected my efforts.”
>> He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.
I’ll have more to say about disrespecting the cherished Oval Office at a later time.
And he wasn’t wearing a suit, sheesh.
dv said:
LOLOL
Peak Warming Man said:
And he wasn’t wearing a suit, sheesh.
He hasn’t put on a suit since the war started.
Michael V said:
Ian said:
kii said:I just read that MTG’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn from Newsmax, asked this ridiculous question at that meeting:
GLENN: Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.
ZELENSKYY: I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.
Trump-Zelenskyy talks cut short after heated exchanges in Oval Office – summary
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House has been cut short after he got into a heated exchange with US president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who accused him of “disrespectful” behaviour during their talks in the Oval Office.
In a social media update, Trump said he has determined that Zelenskyy “is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations”, and said the Ukrainian leader “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”. “He can come back when he is ready for peace,” he added.
In their earlier talks, Trump repeatedly told Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with the lives of millions, with the third world war”, and told him to stop holding out for further security guarantees saying “you’re either going to make a deal or we are out”.
Trump appeared to draw false equivalence between the two sides of the war and positioning himself “for both Ukraine and Russia” as he pursues a peace deal, in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s comments about Putin as a “killer” and “terrorist” who invaded Ukraine, and with whom he was not ready to compromise on the Ukrainian territory.
The pair repeatedly clashed over their view of Russia and the negotiations, as well as the extent of the European support for Ukraine.
JD Vance also falsely accused Zelenskyy for not thanking the US for its support and “campaigning for the opposition in October,” instead of showing “words of appreciation for the US and the president who is trying to save your country.”
Zelenskyy has left the White House moments ago, with the press conference between the two leaders, where they were expected to sign a deal on minerals, also cancelled.
—
Nice work Drumpf.
KKK: I tried, but Mr Z rejected my efforts.”
wait we thought Putin said the Nazis were Ukraine wait
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Ian said:Trump-Zelenskyy talks cut short after heated exchanges in Oval Office – summary
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House has been cut short after he got into a heated exchange with US president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who accused him of “disrespectful” behaviour during their talks in the Oval Office.
In a social media update, Trump said he has determined that Zelenskyy “is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations”, and said the Ukrainian leader “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”. “He can come back when he is ready for peace,” he added.
In their earlier talks, Trump repeatedly told Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with the lives of millions, with the third world war”, and told him to stop holding out for further security guarantees saying “you’re either going to make a deal or we are out”.
Trump appeared to draw false equivalence between the two sides of the war and positioning himself “for both Ukraine and Russia” as he pursues a peace deal, in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s comments about Putin as a “killer” and “terrorist” who invaded Ukraine, and with whom he was not ready to compromise on the Ukrainian territory.
The pair repeatedly clashed over their view of Russia and the negotiations, as well as the extent of the European support for Ukraine.
JD Vance also falsely accused Zelenskyy for not thanking the US for its support and “campaigning for the opposition in October,” instead of showing “words of appreciation for the US and the president who is trying to save your country.”
Zelenskyy has left the White House moments ago, with the press conference between the two leaders, where they were expected to sign a deal on minerals, also cancelled.
—
Nice work Drumpf.
KKK: I tried, but Mr Z rejected my efforts.”
wait we thought Putin said the Nazis were Ukraine wait
you do a lot of waiting.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
KKK: I tried, but Mr Z rejected my efforts.”
wait we thought Putin said the Nazis were Ukraine wait
you do a lot of waiting.
because we’re too weak to be weighting
but anyway
alleged
“The FBl is giving the President his property back that was taken during the unlawful and illegal raids. We are taking possession of the boxes today and loading them onto Air Force One. Boxes were loaded onto the plane ahead of takeoff.”
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Lindsey Graham: “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance…I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Russian State Media (TASS) was in the meeting. AP and Reuters were not. Get it yet?
Michael V said:
dv said:
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
Why “Damn”?
Isn’t it better that she knows she has been misled by her own side?
Maybe it will scratch her confected armour and start a festering sore in her beliefs.
I guess just like “damn, that’s how obvious it is”
SCIENCE said:
alleged
“The FBl is giving the President his property back that was taken during the unlawful and illegal raids. We are taking possession of the boxes today and loading them onto Air Force One. Boxes were loaded onto the plane ahead of takeoff.”
Well, ummm.
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Lindsey Graham: “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance…I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”
FMD
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Russian State Media (TASS) was in the meeting. AP and Reuters were not. Get it yet?
Which meeting are you referring to?
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Lindsey Graham: “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance…I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”
FMD
well at least they also said this
“What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful,” said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.
so we suppose stopped analogue clocks can be correct
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Loomer figured it out.
Damn.
Why “Damn”?
Isn’t it better that she knows she has been misled by her own side?
Maybe it will scratch her confected armour and start a festering sore in her beliefs.
I guess just like “damn, that’s how obvious it is”
Ah.
Ta.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
“The FBl is giving the President his property back that was taken during the unlawful and illegal raids. We are taking possession of the boxes today and loading them onto Air Force One. Boxes were loaded onto the plane ahead of takeoff.”
Well, ummm.
Much more difficult to load them onto the plane after takeoff.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:wait we thought Putin said the Nazis were Ukraine wait
you do a lot of waiting.
But, very little seems to arrive.
Zelenskyy apologised, saying as a visitor to Washington it was impolite of him not to vandalise any US Government property during his stay. “I lost track of the fact that I was in Washington, and I forgot how Trump expects people to act there. I didn’t break anything. No-one died. I wasn’t even wearing a stupid helmet with horns. What was I thinking?”
https://theshovel.com.au/2025/03/01/zelenskyy-traditional-method-of-showing-respect-to-washington/
sarahs mum said:
Zelenskyy apologised, saying as a visitor to Washington it was impolite of him not to vandalise any US Government property during his stay. “I lost track of the fact that I was in Washington, and I forgot how Trump expects people to act there. I didn’t break anything. No-one died. I wasn’t even wearing a stupid helmet with horns. What was I thinking?”https://theshovel.com.au/2025/03/01/zelenskyy-traditional-method-of-showing-respect-to-washington/
LOL
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
And he wasn’t wearing a suit, sheesh.
He hasn’t put on a suit since the war started.
mrs ohio is a lost cause.
sarahs mum said:
mrs ohio is a lost cause.
Hopefully she is severely impacted by President Musk’s DOGE cuts.
dv said:
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
And he wasn’t wearing a suit, sheesh.
He hasn’t put on a suit since the war started.
Nice, except these people can lie or infer with impunity.
sarahs mum said:
mrs ohio is a lost cause.
Yes. And someone left a word out…
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs ohio is a lost cause.
Yes. And someone left a word out…
Doesn’t say who the allowance wasn’t given to. May have been the lost cats home by the body language?
Michael V said:
dv said:
roughbarked said:He hasn’t put on a suit since the war started.
Nice, except these people can lie or
inferimply with impunity.
Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Nice, except these people can lie or
inferimply with impunity.
Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Michael V said:Nice, except these people can lie or
inferimply with impunity.
Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
captain_spalding said:
:)
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ikt2tdc1TM
Legal Eagles:
The Pardon of Ross Ulbrecht
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Michael V said:Nice, except these people can lie or
inferimply with impunity.
Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Phew.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Sorry, fixed.
I meant imply, not infer.
Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
I’m not sure I’d ask a person holding a gun that question. Maybe after they were well away from the weapon…
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
:)
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Well…OK, then.
(puts gun back in holster.)
Have you got a license for that?
I’m not sure I’d ask a person holding a gun that question. Maybe after they were well away from the weapon…
:) If they are trigger happy, what are my chances other than distraction?
https://youtu.be/pBhR99pdHps?si=qeOIfXNprL1NEL-S
John Bolton recommends Rubio and Waltz resign now to prevent their legacies be complete trash.
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge
There are moments in history where you can feel the tectonic plates of power shifting under your feet, the precise seconds when empires declare themselves rotten and ready to collapse. February 28, 2025, was one of those moments—a grotesque display of unchecked narcissism, geopolitical idiocy, and the full-throttle transformation of American foreign policy into a goddamn mafia shakedown.
Donald Trump, the world’s loudest and dumbest charlatan, decided to hold a public execution of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not with bullets, but with bullying. This was not diplomacy. This was not strategy. This was the kind of goonish humiliation typically reserved for reality television, except now the stakes were measured in millions of lives and the looming specter of World War III.
“YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR III”
Trump—flanked by his yes-man JD Vance and an eerily silent Marco Rubio—welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office only to berate, belittle, and ultimately dismiss him like a waiter who forgot to refill his Diet Coke. The Ukrainian president had made the grave mistake of advocating for his people, for his country, for his soldiers dying daily on the front lines against Russian invaders. But in Trump’s world, there is no room for dignity or resistance—only total submission to the Don.
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump barked at Zelenskyy, acting like a discount Tony Soprano shaking down a local shopkeeper. “You either make a deal, or we are out.” The message was crystal clear: Surrender to Putin, or America lets you rot.
When Zelenskyy pushed back—trying to explain, like a rational human being, that diplomacy requires more than rolling over and exposing your belly to a psychotic autocrat like Vladimir Putin—Vance chimed in, whining that it was “disrespectful” to discuss such things in front of the American media. Disrespectful! As if the real problem here was the optics, not the grotesque moral betrayal unfolding in real time.
TRUMP’S FIXATION WITH GRATITUDE: A MOB BOSS DEMANDING TRIBUTE
“Have you ever said thank you once?” Vance sneered at Zelenskyy, echoing his master’s worldview that all human interactions are transactional. “You have to be thankful,” Trump added, “you don’t have the cards. You’re buried there.”
This is what American diplomacy has become: an extortion racket.
Forget alliances, forget history, forget standing up to despots—Trump views everything through the lens of a cheap con artist running a rigged casino. Ukraine, in his mind, is a desperate gambler, and Trump is the pit boss deciding whether to extend another round of credit.
If Zelenskyy had gotten on his knees and kissed Trump’s golden slippers, maybe he’d have left with something. But instead, he left with nothing, because he had the audacity to act like the elected leader of a sovereign nation, rather than a groveling servant.
THE CANCELED PRESS CONFERENCE: WHEN THE HUMILIATION IS TOO MUCH TO SPIN
After the carnage, Trump did what he always does: He took to Truth Social to declare victory.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace,” he wrote, as if the real issue is Ukraine’s unwillingness to surrender, rather than Russia’s ongoing campaign of war crimes and territorial theft.
The joint press conference was canceled—which in diplomatic terms is the equivalent of overturning the table and storming out of the restaurant. Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House, no deal signed, no support secured. Just the bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador literally facepalmed in the middle of the meeting. She couldn’t even hide her disgust. This was the international equivalent of watching your boss drunkenly scream at a client in a meeting while you rub your temples and quietly plan your resignation.
TRUMP’S ‘PEACE’ PLAN IS A SURRENDER PLAN
This is all part of a deliberate pivot in American foreign policy. Trump has always sided with Russia, whether it’s calling Putin “a very smart guy,” ignoring his war crimes, or pretending Ukraine started the war. Now, his administration is pushing a so-called “peace plan” that amounts to a glorified land grab for Moscow.
The Wall Street Journal has already reported that Trump’s advisers are split on how exactly to force Ukraine to submit. Some want a “frozen conflict“—which translates to “Russia keeps what it stole“—while others are pushing for a formal deal that outright cedes Ukrainian land and resources to Putin. Either way, the outcome is the same: Ukraine loses, Russia wins, and Trump gets to preen about his ‘deal-making.’
THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S WORD
The entire world saw this Oval Office debacle. If you’re an ally of the United States, you just learned a very clear lesson: You cannot trust America under Donald Trump. Your security, your sovereignty, and your survival are all secondary to whether Trump personally feels flattered. If you are not groveling at his feet, you’re expendable.
Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him.
Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.
Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing looks like.
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”
“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.
They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
What’s really infuriating is that, back in the 1860s, there was some ratbag who was willing to shoot the best President the US has ever had, but, today, in country that’s bursting at the seams with modern, accurate, high-powered firearms, and with more than enough nutcases owning them, there seem to now be a dearth of people willing to shoot the worst President they’ve ever had.
ChrispenEvan said:
Occupy DemocratsBREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
The other leaders just need to stop talking to Trump.
Nothing hurts his pride more than being ignored. There needs to be some sort of conference of world leaders, even just a zoom metting, about the war in Ukraine, to which Trump is not invited.
Trump – “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me, he went through a phony witch hunt.”
A real band of brothers.
I don’t know much about military matters. The US was previously providing about a third of Ukraine’s military aid and so I suppose it means that the EU and other donors would need to increase the flow by 50% to cover the shortfall. Can Europe’s missile defence shield protect Ukraine? Can their airforces disable Russian assets in eastern Ukraine to the extent that Ukrainian groundtroops can regain control? I suppose the question is: if they can, why didn’t it already happen? Numerically Europe’s forces are stronger in every aspect except nuclear warheads but it is all going to hinge on Ukrainian groundtroops ultimately.
ChrispenEvan said:
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the EdgeThere are moments in history where you can feel the tectonic plates of power shifting under your feet, the precise seconds when empires declare themselves rotten and ready to collapse. February 28, 2025, was one of those moments—a grotesque display of unchecked narcissism, geopolitical idiocy, and the full-throttle transformation of American foreign policy into a goddamn mafia shakedown.
Donald Trump, the world’s loudest and dumbest charlatan, decided to hold a public execution of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not with bullets, but with bullying. This was not diplomacy. This was not strategy. This was the kind of goonish humiliation typically reserved for reality television, except now the stakes were measured in millions of lives and the looming specter of World War III.
“YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR III”
Trump—flanked by his yes-man JD Vance and an eerily silent Marco Rubio—welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office only to berate, belittle, and ultimately dismiss him like a waiter who forgot to refill his Diet Coke. The Ukrainian president had made the grave mistake of advocating for his people, for his country, for his soldiers dying daily on the front lines against Russian invaders. But in Trump’s world, there is no room for dignity or resistance—only total submission to the Don.
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump barked at Zelenskyy, acting like a discount Tony Soprano shaking down a local shopkeeper. “You either make a deal, or we are out.” The message was crystal clear: Surrender to Putin, or America lets you rot.
When Zelenskyy pushed back—trying to explain, like a rational human being, that diplomacy requires more than rolling over and exposing your belly to a psychotic autocrat like Vladimir Putin—Vance chimed in, whining that it was “disrespectful” to discuss such things in front of the American media. Disrespectful! As if the real problem here was the optics, not the grotesque moral betrayal unfolding in real time.
TRUMP’S FIXATION WITH GRATITUDE: A MOB BOSS DEMANDING TRIBUTE
“Have you ever said thank you once?” Vance sneered at Zelenskyy, echoing his master’s worldview that all human interactions are transactional. “You have to be thankful,” Trump added, “you don’t have the cards. You’re buried there.”
This is what American diplomacy has become: an extortion racket.
Forget alliances, forget history, forget standing up to despots—Trump views everything through the lens of a cheap con artist running a rigged casino. Ukraine, in his mind, is a desperate gambler, and Trump is the pit boss deciding whether to extend another round of credit.
If Zelenskyy had gotten on his knees and kissed Trump’s golden slippers, maybe he’d have left with something. But instead, he left with nothing, because he had the audacity to act like the elected leader of a sovereign nation, rather than a groveling servant.
THE CANCELED PRESS CONFERENCE: WHEN THE HUMILIATION IS TOO MUCH TO SPIN
After the carnage, Trump did what he always does: He took to Truth Social to declare victory.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace,” he wrote, as if the real issue is Ukraine’s unwillingness to surrender, rather than Russia’s ongoing campaign of war crimes and territorial theft.The joint press conference was canceled—which in diplomatic terms is the equivalent of overturning the table and storming out of the restaurant. Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House, no deal signed, no support secured. Just the bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador literally facepalmed in the middle of the meeting. She couldn’t even hide her disgust. This was the international equivalent of watching your boss drunkenly scream at a client in a meeting while you rub your temples and quietly plan your resignation.
TRUMP’S ‘PEACE’ PLAN IS A SURRENDER PLAN
This is all part of a deliberate pivot in American foreign policy. Trump has always sided with Russia, whether it’s calling Putin “a very smart guy,” ignoring his war crimes, or pretending Ukraine started the war. Now, his administration is pushing a so-called “peace plan” that amounts to a glorified land grab for Moscow.
The Wall Street Journal has already reported that Trump’s advisers are split on how exactly to force Ukraine to submit. Some want a “frozen conflict“—which translates to “Russia keeps what it stole“—while others are pushing for a formal deal that outright cedes Ukrainian land and resources to Putin. Either way, the outcome is the same: Ukraine loses, Russia wins, and Trump gets to preen about his ‘deal-making.’
THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S WORD
The entire world saw this Oval Office debacle. If you’re an ally of the United States, you just learned a very clear lesson: You cannot trust America under Donald Trump. Your security, your sovereignty, and your survival are all secondary to whether Trump personally feels flattered. If you are not groveling at his feet, you’re expendable.
Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him.
Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing looks like.
Thank you KKK.
ChrispenEvan said:
Occupy DemocratsBREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
Yes.
dv said:
Trump – “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me, he went through a phony witch hunt.”
A real band of brothers.
I don’t know much about military matters. The US was previously providing about a third of Ukraine’s military aid and so I suppose it means that the EU and other donors would need to increase the flow by 50% to cover the shortfall. Can Europe’s missile defence shield protect Ukraine? Can their airforces disable Russian assets in eastern Ukraine to the extent that Ukrainian groundtroops can regain control? I suppose the question is: if they can, why didn’t it already happen? Numerically Europe’s forces are stronger in every aspect except nuclear warheads but it is all going to hinge on Ukrainian groundtroops ultimately.
The Europeans were happy for Ukraine to do the fighting with the weapons supplied, so fear of Russia escalating the conflict and attacking the smaller NATO states, particularly in the Baltic. nothing wrong with that, avoiding a weider war and saving your own troops is perfectly understandable. But it is getting to the point where if the US abandons, then the Europeans are going to have to get in their with boots on the ground.
If they do it should be all in, take St Petersburg and Kaliningrad for starters.
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Occupy DemocratsBREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
The other leaders just need to stop talking to Trump.
Nothing hurts his pride more than being ignored. There needs to be some sort of conference of world leaders, even just a zoom metting, about the war in Ukraine, to which Trump is not invited.
Good idea.
How do we ensure that happens?
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Occupy DemocratsBREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
The other leaders just need to stop talking to Trump.
Nothing hurts his pride more than being ignored. There needs to be some sort of conference of world leaders, even just a zoom metting, about the war in Ukraine, to which Trump is not invited.
Good idea.
How do we ensure that happens?
Ring Ursula and tell her to get it organised.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:The other leaders just need to stop talking to Trump.
Nothing hurts his pride more than being ignored. There needs to be some sort of conference of world leaders, even just a zoom metting, about the war in Ukraine, to which Trump is not invited.
Good idea.
How do we ensure that happens?
Ring Ursula and tell her to get it organised.
I’ll hold your beer.
dv said:
https://youtu.be/pBhR99pdHps?si=qeOIfXNprL1NEL-SJohn Bolton recommends Rubio and Waltz resign now to prevent their legacies be complete trash.
Good.
ChrispenEvan said:
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the EdgeThere are moments in history where you can feel the tectonic plates of power shifting under your feet, the precise seconds when empires declare themselves rotten and ready to collapse. February 28, 2025, was one of those moments—a grotesque display of unchecked narcissism, geopolitical idiocy, and the full-throttle transformation of American foreign policy into a goddamn mafia shakedown.
Donald Trump, the world’s loudest and dumbest charlatan, decided to hold a public execution of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not with bullets, but with bullying. This was not diplomacy. This was not strategy. This was the kind of goonish humiliation typically reserved for reality television, except now the stakes were measured in millions of lives and the looming specter of World War III.
“YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR III”
Trump—flanked by his yes-man JD Vance and an eerily silent Marco Rubio—welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office only to berate, belittle, and ultimately dismiss him like a waiter who forgot to refill his Diet Coke. The Ukrainian president had made the grave mistake of advocating for his people, for his country, for his soldiers dying daily on the front lines against Russian invaders. But in Trump’s world, there is no room for dignity or resistance—only total submission to the Don.
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump barked at Zelenskyy, acting like a discount Tony Soprano shaking down a local shopkeeper. “You either make a deal, or we are out.” The message was crystal clear: Surrender to Putin, or America lets you rot.
When Zelenskyy pushed back—trying to explain, like a rational human being, that diplomacy requires more than rolling over and exposing your belly to a psychotic autocrat like Vladimir Putin—Vance chimed in, whining that it was “disrespectful” to discuss such things in front of the American media. Disrespectful! As if the real problem here was the optics, not the grotesque moral betrayal unfolding in real time.
TRUMP’S FIXATION WITH GRATITUDE: A MOB BOSS DEMANDING TRIBUTE
“Have you ever said thank you once?” Vance sneered at Zelenskyy, echoing his master’s worldview that all human interactions are transactional. “You have to be thankful,” Trump added, “you don’t have the cards. You’re buried there.”
This is what American diplomacy has become: an extortion racket.
Forget alliances, forget history, forget standing up to despots—Trump views everything through the lens of a cheap con artist running a rigged casino. Ukraine, in his mind, is a desperate gambler, and Trump is the pit boss deciding whether to extend another round of credit.
If Zelenskyy had gotten on his knees and kissed Trump’s golden slippers, maybe he’d have left with something. But instead, he left with nothing, because he had the audacity to act like the elected leader of a sovereign nation, rather than a groveling servant.
THE CANCELED PRESS CONFERENCE: WHEN THE HUMILIATION IS TOO MUCH TO SPIN
After the carnage, Trump did what he always does: He took to Truth Social to declare victory.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace,” he wrote, as if the real issue is Ukraine’s unwillingness to surrender, rather than Russia’s ongoing campaign of war crimes and territorial theft.The joint press conference was canceled—which in diplomatic terms is the equivalent of overturning the table and storming out of the restaurant. Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House, no deal signed, no support secured. Just the bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador literally facepalmed in the middle of the meeting. She couldn’t even hide her disgust. This was the international equivalent of watching your boss drunkenly scream at a client in a meeting while you rub your temples and quietly plan your resignation.
TRUMP’S ‘PEACE’ PLAN IS A SURRENDER PLAN
This is all part of a deliberate pivot in American foreign policy. Trump has always sided with Russia, whether it’s calling Putin “a very smart guy,” ignoring his war crimes, or pretending Ukraine started the war. Now, his administration is pushing a so-called “peace plan” that amounts to a glorified land grab for Moscow.
The Wall Street Journal has already reported that Trump’s advisers are split on how exactly to force Ukraine to submit. Some want a “frozen conflict“—which translates to “Russia keeps what it stole“—while others are pushing for a formal deal that outright cedes Ukrainian land and resources to Putin. Either way, the outcome is the same: Ukraine loses, Russia wins, and Trump gets to preen about his ‘deal-making.’
THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S WORD
The entire world saw this Oval Office debacle. If you’re an ally of the United States, you just learned a very clear lesson: You cannot trust America under Donald Trump. Your security, your sovereignty, and your survival are all secondary to whether Trump personally feels flattered. If you are not groveling at his feet, you’re expendable.
Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him.
Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing looks like.
I still can’t bring myself to watch the video of the press conference. However, I suspect Zelenskyy is not in the least bit surprised about what happened. I don’t see him as having lost.
ChrispenEvan said:
Occupy DemocratsBREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy breaks his silence on Donald Trump’s disastrous Oval Office outburst with stunning grace and class — but refuses to apologize to Trump as demanded by MAGA.
And the best part? He did it on Fox News.
This is what a real world leader sounds like…
“President Trump said after your meeting that you disrespected him and the vice president and all of America in the Oval Office,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier when Zelenskyy appeared on his show. “Do you think you did? And do you think you owe an apology to President Trump?”
“Thank you so much. First of all, thank you for the invitation, for this dialogue and good evening to all of your country, to all Americans,” said Zelenskyy. “I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I’m thankful to President Trump and to Congress’s bipartisan support and I was always very thankful from all of our people.”
“You helped us a lot from the very beginning, here in three years of full scale invasion. You helped us to survive and anyway we are strategic partners,” he continued.
“And even in such tough dialogue — and I think we have to be very honest and we have to be very direct to understand each other because it’s for us very necessary,” said Zelenskyy.
“To President Trump — and with all respect that he wants to finish this war — but nobody wants to finish more than we because we in Ukraine we are in this war, we are in this battle for freedom, for our lives,” he went on.
“So I’m just telling that I think we have to be on the same side and I hope that the president on our side together with us and that is very important to stop Putin,” continued Zelenskyy. “And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war and I hope he will. And we need to pressure him with Europe, with all the partners.”
“And I think this dialogue had to be a little bit earlier to understand where we are,” he continued. “Like you know, I don’t remember exactly, but like President Reagan said that peace is not just the absence of war.”“Yes, we are speaking about just, lasting peace, about freedom, about justice, about human rights and that’s why I said that ‘I think so’ to ceasefire,” he went on. “And you know Putin, he’s broken twenty-five times ceasefire during all these years, ten years.”
“So I’m not hearing from you Mr. President a thought that you owe the president an apology,” said Baier, clearly trying to pander to Trump who was almost certainly watching at home.
“No I respect the president and I respect the American people and if — I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad,” replied Zelenskyy.
“I think maybe somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and free media but there are things where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he added. “And I think that is the most important thing.”
“We are partners. We are very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free,” said Zelenskyy, sounding far more like an American president than Donald Trump did today.
This is an astonishing display of statesmanship. Rather than give into ego or pettiness, Zelenskyy is rising above Donald Trump’s childish bullying to serve his people.
Zelenskyy isn’t interested in following Trump down into the gutter. He’s interested in securing a lasting peace for his innocent embattled country, a task made all the more difficult by Trump’s kowtowing to Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is also correct that these conversations should take place behind closed doors instead of being exploited to create a media circus. Trump and Vance ambushed him in the Oval Office in front of reporters because they knew that it would make headlines and entertain their base.They are not serious leaders. Zelenskyy is.
Hear hear.
captain_spalding said:
What’s really infuriating is that, back in the 1860s, there was some ratbag who was willing to shoot the best President the US has ever had, but, today, in country that’s bursting at the seams with modern, accurate, high-powered firearms, and with more than enough nutcases owning them, there seem to now be a dearth of people willing to shoot the worst President they’ve ever had.
To everything, turn turn turn.
Michael V said:
from=ChrispenEvan]
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge
Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him.
Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing looks like.
Thank you KKK.
Zelensky however, didn’t cow down.
Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up {99 hour loop}
David Brooks, actual conservative intellectual
“ I have enough to say about today. I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we’re a flawed country, but we’re fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they’re usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance. They’re not because we’re ill-intentioned.
“ What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen. Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin, that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that’s safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office. And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I’m in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”
buffy said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the EdgeThere are moments in history where you can feel the tectonic plates of power shifting under your feet, the precise seconds when empires declare themselves rotten and ready to collapse. February 28, 2025, was one of those moments—a grotesque display of unchecked narcissism, geopolitical idiocy, and the full-throttle transformation of American foreign policy into a goddamn mafia shakedown.
Donald Trump, the world’s loudest and dumbest charlatan, decided to hold a public execution of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not with bullets, but with bullying. This was not diplomacy. This was not strategy. This was the kind of goonish humiliation typically reserved for reality television, except now the stakes were measured in millions of lives and the looming specter of World War III.
“YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR III”
Trump—flanked by his yes-man JD Vance and an eerily silent Marco Rubio—welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office only to berate, belittle, and ultimately dismiss him like a waiter who forgot to refill his Diet Coke. The Ukrainian president had made the grave mistake of advocating for his people, for his country, for his soldiers dying daily on the front lines against Russian invaders. But in Trump’s world, there is no room for dignity or resistance—only total submission to the Don.
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump barked at Zelenskyy, acting like a discount Tony Soprano shaking down a local shopkeeper. “You either make a deal, or we are out.” The message was crystal clear: Surrender to Putin, or America lets you rot.
When Zelenskyy pushed back—trying to explain, like a rational human being, that diplomacy requires more than rolling over and exposing your belly to a psychotic autocrat like Vladimir Putin—Vance chimed in, whining that it was “disrespectful” to discuss such things in front of the American media. Disrespectful! As if the real problem here was the optics, not the grotesque moral betrayal unfolding in real time.
TRUMP’S FIXATION WITH GRATITUDE: A MOB BOSS DEMANDING TRIBUTE
“Have you ever said thank you once?” Vance sneered at Zelenskyy, echoing his master’s worldview that all human interactions are transactional. “You have to be thankful,” Trump added, “you don’t have the cards. You’re buried there.”
This is what American diplomacy has become: an extortion racket.
Forget alliances, forget history, forget standing up to despots—Trump views everything through the lens of a cheap con artist running a rigged casino. Ukraine, in his mind, is a desperate gambler, and Trump is the pit boss deciding whether to extend another round of credit.
If Zelenskyy had gotten on his knees and kissed Trump’s golden slippers, maybe he’d have left with something. But instead, he left with nothing, because he had the audacity to act like the elected leader of a sovereign nation, rather than a groveling servant.
THE CANCELED PRESS CONFERENCE: WHEN THE HUMILIATION IS TOO MUCH TO SPIN
After the carnage, Trump did what he always does: He took to Truth Social to declare victory.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace,” he wrote, as if the real issue is Ukraine’s unwillingness to surrender, rather than Russia’s ongoing campaign of war crimes and territorial theft.The joint press conference was canceled—which in diplomatic terms is the equivalent of overturning the table and storming out of the restaurant. Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House, no deal signed, no support secured. Just the bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador literally facepalmed in the middle of the meeting. She couldn’t even hide her disgust. This was the international equivalent of watching your boss drunkenly scream at a client in a meeting while you rub your temples and quietly plan your resignation.
TRUMP’S ‘PEACE’ PLAN IS A SURRENDER PLAN
This is all part of a deliberate pivot in American foreign policy. Trump has always sided with Russia, whether it’s calling Putin “a very smart guy,” ignoring his war crimes, or pretending Ukraine started the war. Now, his administration is pushing a so-called “peace plan” that amounts to a glorified land grab for Moscow.
The Wall Street Journal has already reported that Trump’s advisers are split on how exactly to force Ukraine to submit. Some want a “frozen conflict“—which translates to “Russia keeps what it stole“—while others are pushing for a formal deal that outright cedes Ukrainian land and resources to Putin. Either way, the outcome is the same: Ukraine loses, Russia wins, and Trump gets to preen about his ‘deal-making.’
THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S WORD
The entire world saw this Oval Office debacle. If you’re an ally of the United States, you just learned a very clear lesson: You cannot trust America under Donald Trump. Your security, your sovereignty, and your survival are all secondary to whether Trump personally feels flattered. If you are not groveling at his feet, you’re expendable.
Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him.
Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing looks like.
I still can’t bring myself to watch the video of the press conference. However, I suspect Zelenskyy is not in the least bit surprised about what happened. I don’t see him as having lost.
He stood up to them without the need for a suit.
The last thing the repubs wanted was instant news coverage of this.
dv said:
LOL but honestly we have occasionally been using the dQw4w9WgXcQ reference as the link description when we post other video links here
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
What’s really infuriating is that, back in the 1860s, there was some ratbag who was willing to shoot the best President the US has ever had, but, today, in country that’s bursting at the seams with modern, accurate, high-powered firearms, and with more than enough nutcases owning them, there seem to now be a dearth of people willing to shoot the worst President they’ve ever had.
To everything, turn turn turn.
déposé
sarahs mum said:
While his supporters heckled Zelensky for not wearing a suit
sarahs mum said:
Waiting for him to claim it should win an Oscar.
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Waiting for him to claim it should win an Oscar.
He’s the bestest kid on the hill. No one is better.
Maddow breaks down the slew of administrative changes that the Trump team has made to benefit Putin.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
While his supporters heckled Zelensky for not wearing a suit
Perhaps Zelensky should have said ‘when the people on the front lines get to wear their suits again, so will I’.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
While his supporters heckled Zelensky for not wearing a suit
Perhaps Zelensky should have said ‘when the people on the front lines get to wear their suits again, so will I’.
I liked his use of the word “costumes”.
That’s what men’s suits are, especially the trump clown costume.
Anthony Albanese reiterates support for Ukraine after Donald Trump’s clash with Volodymyr Zelenskyy
In short:
Amid the US’s declining relationship with Ukraine, Anthony Albanese says Australia’s position on the war has not shifted.
The prime minister has described the war effort as a test of the rule of international law.
What’s next?
Many world leaders have reacted to Donald Trump’s clash with Volodymyr Zelenskyy by reaffirming their support for Ukraine.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-01/albanese-reiterates-support-for-ukraine-without-mentioning-trump/104998818
Russian state-media reporter gains access, but is later removed from Trump-Zelenskiy meeting
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A reporter from Russia’s state-owned news agency gained access to a Friday meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as they clashed about their different views on how to end the three-year war.
A White House official said that the White House had not permitted entry to the reporter from Russia’s TASS, and added that he was removed as soon as press officials were notified of his presence.
https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-state-media-reporter-gains-access-is-later-removed-trump-zelenskiy-2025-02-28/
I would have assumed that security around the Oval Office was better than that.
dv said:
Russian state-media reporter gains access, but is later removed from Trump-Zelenskiy meetingWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A reporter from Russia’s state-owned news agency gained access to a Friday meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as they clashed about their different views on how to end the three-year war.
A White House official said that the White House had not permitted entry to the reporter from Russia’s TASS, and added that he was removed as soon as press officials were notified of his presence.https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-state-media-reporter-gains-access-is-later-removed-trump-zelenskiy-2025-02-28/
I would have assumed that security around the Oval Office was better than that.
You would think so.
dv said:
Russian state-media reporter gains access, but is later removed from Trump-Zelenskiy meetingWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A reporter from Russia’s state-owned news agency gained access to a Friday meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as they clashed about their different views on how to end the three-year war.
A White House official said that the White House had not permitted entry to the reporter from Russia’s TASS, and added that he was removed as soon as press officials were notified of his presence.https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-state-media-reporter-gains-access-is-later-removed-trump-zelenskiy-2025-02-28/
I would have assumed that security around the Oval Office was better than that.
perhaps they have been fired?
dv said:
Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up {99 hour loop}David Brooks, actual conservative intellectual
“ I have enough to say about today. I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we’re a flawed country, but we’re fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they’re usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance. They’re not because we’re ill-intentioned.
“ What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen. Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin, that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that’s safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office. And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I’m in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”
Nods.
sarahs mum said:
FMD.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:While his supporters heckled Zelensky for not wearing a suit
Perhaps Zelensky should have said ‘when the people on the front lines get to wear their suits again, so will I’.
I liked his use of the word “costumes”.
That’s what men’s suits are, especially the trump clown costume.
:)
dv said:
Russian state-media reporter gains access, but is later removed from Trump-Zelenskiy meetingWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A reporter from Russia’s state-owned news agency gained access to a Friday meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as they clashed about their different views on how to end the three-year war.
A White House official said that the White House had not permitted entry to the reporter from Russia’s TASS, and added that he was removed as soon as press officials were notified of his presence.https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-state-media-reporter-gains-access-is-later-removed-trump-zelenskiy-2025-02-28/
I would have assumed that security around the Oval Office was better than that.
Fair.
English is now the official language of the USA.
You’ll need a permit to speak other languages.
There’ll be a buyback program for books in foreign languages like the Australian buyback for guns.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/king-charles-invites-donald-trump-for-unprecedented-second-state-visit-to-uk
So Charlie has invited Trump to a soirée in Scotland. Now, as a convicted felon, is Trump even allowed into Scotland?
Divine Angel said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/king-charles-invites-donald-trump-for-unprecedented-second-state-visit-to-ukSo Charlie has invited Trump to a soirée in Scotland. Now, as a convicted felon, is Trump even allowed into Scotland?
What a laugh that would be – apprehended at the border/airport and incarcerated for whatever.
:)
:)
:)
Peak Warming Man said:
English is now the official language of the USA.
You’ll need a permit to speak other languages.
There’ll be a buyback program for books in foreign languages like the Australian buyback for guns.
This was a matter considered by those drafting the US Constitution. It was decided not to have an official language, mainly because of the Dutch, Swedish and German migrants that it might have discommoded.
Australia remains one of the countries with no official language, along with the UK and Costa Rica.
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 28, 2025 (Friday)
Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.
In front of the cameras, Trump and Vance engaged in what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called a “mob hit,” spouting Russian propaganda and trying to bully Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire and signing over rights to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals without guarantees of security. Vance, especially, seemed determined to provoke a fight in front of the cameras, accusing Zelensky, who has been lavish in his thanks to the U.S. and lawmakers including Trump, of being ungrateful. When that didn’t land, Vance said it was “disrespectful” of Zelensky to “try to litigate this in front of the American media,” when it was the White House that set up the event in front of reporters.
Zelensky maintained his composure and did not rise to the bait, but he did not accept their pro-Russian version of the war. He insisted that it was in fact Russia that invaded Ukraine and is still bombing and killing on a daily basis. His refusal to sit silent and submit meekly to their attack seemed to infuriate them.
Trump appeared to become unhinged when Zelensky suggested that the U.S. would in the future feel problems, apparently alluding to the new U.S. relationship with Russia. “You don’t know that. You don’t know that,” Trump erupted. “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”
Zelensky answered that he was just answering the questions Vance was showering on him. “You are in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump said. “We’re going to feel very good.”
Zelensky answered: “You will feel influenced.”
Trump disagreed. “We are going to feel very good and very strong.”
“I am telling you,” Zelensky said. “You will feel influenced.”
Trump appeared to lose control at that point, ranting at Zelensky that Ukraine was losing and that he must accept a ceasefire, but also complaining about former president Joe Biden and Barack Obama and echoing Putin’s talking points. When he could get a word in, Zelensky reiterated that he would not accept a ceasefire without guarantees of security and pointed out that Putin had broken a ceasefire agreement in the past.
Later, when a reporter picked up on that question and asked what would happen if Russia broke a ceasefire agreement, Trump became enraged. Among other things, he said: “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt….” Trump referred to what he calls the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” that Russia had worked to elect him in 2016. That effort, though, was not a hoax: the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 released an exhaustive report detailing that effort.
One of the things Russian operatives believed Trump’s team had agreed to, the report said, was Russia’s annexation of the parts of eastern Ukraine it is now trying to grab through military occupation.
Then Trump continued to rant at the reporter, rehashing his version of the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop at some length, tying in former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a larger stew that brought up Trump’s history with both Russia and Ukraine and their roles in his quest to hold power. Clinton ran against Trump in 2016, when Russia worked to elect him, and Zelensky came across Trump’s radar screen when, in July 2019, Trump tried to force Zelensky to say he was opening an investigation into Hunter Biden in order to smear Biden’s father Joe Biden before the 2020 election. Only after such an announcement, Trump said, would he deliver to Ukraine the money Congress had appropriated to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s 2014 invasion.
Zelensky did not make the announcement. A whistleblower reported Trump’s phone call, leading to a congressional investigation that in turn led to Trump’s first impeachment. Schiff led the House’s impeachment team.
After unloading on the reporter, Trump abruptly ended today’s meeting, saying it was “going to be great television.” Shortly afterward, he asked Zelensky and his team to leave the White House.
This afternoon, former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) posted: “Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day—when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 28, 2025 (Friday)Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.
—————————-CUT————————————
FMD
I am now starting to wish harm on these nasty, nasty URWNJs.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EoHSoRgAj/
Republicans on DJT
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EoHSoRgAj/Republicans on DJT
Members only.
dv said:
Russian state-media reporter gains access, but is later removed from Trump-Zelenskiy meetingWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A reporter from Russia’s state-owned news agency gained access to a Friday meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as they clashed about their different views on how to end the three-year war.
A White House official said that the White House had not permitted entry to the reporter from Russia’s TASS, and added that he was removed as soon as press officials were notified of his presence.https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-state-media-reporter-gains-access-is-later-removed-trump-zelenskiy-2025-02-28/
I would have assumed that security around the Oval Office was better than that.
Probably invited by Trump or some other Putin-lover.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
https://www.facebook.com/591717407/videos/632911729628360/
AussieDJ said:
I don’t think this has been posted here … (at least, not that a quick search has discovered)(Long read)
Go to the substack site to see the links within the article.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-157052044
……………….Democracy Is Done: The Rise of Corporate Monarchy
The Real Agenda Behind Elon’s Coup & Trump’s Chaotic First 3 Weeks
By Shane Almgren
………………..Alright, it’s finally time to answer the million-dollar question that’s on everyone’s mind: WHY IS ALL THIS INSANITY HAPPENING IN OUR GOVERNMENT ALL OF A SUDDEN???
If you don’t know what the ultimate agenda is, this first 3 weeks of Trump’s presidency sure looks like a chaotic, haphazard, nonsensical 3-ring circus dumpster fire.
Absolutely none of it makes any sense.
Only it actually does…in a terrifying sort of way.
The first thing to remember is that real life isn’t like a movie where the bad guys are all part of the same unified organization trying to take over the world. There are a number of bad actors with secret goals, and the one thing we may have working in our favor is that the ones we do know about clearly have different objectives, so it’s entirely possible they sabotage each other before any of them successfully pull off their own batty agendas.
First, we’ve got Project 2025, whose long game seems to be implementing a sort of far-right extremist, quasi-authoritarian political regime within the current American political structure, where Conservative ideologies are shoved down everyone’s throats whether they like it or not. The current immigrant roundup is part of this agenda, as was the ending of Roe v Wade, banning trans people, dismantling gay marriage (coming soon), insisting climate change isn’t real, and waging non-stop culture war issues on mostly non-existent problems (see: CRT, cat litter in classrooms, and anything involving pronouns. Most of Trump’s more controversial Executive Orders not involving Elon and DOGE are part of the Project 2025 agenda.
Then we’ve got the Christian Reconstructionists (see also: Dominionists and the New Apostolic Reformation), whose long game is re-jiggering the Constitution to make America less of a democratic republic and more of a Christian theocracy. Based on the teachings of R.J. Rushdoony—whose chief disciple Mike Johnson currently sits third in line for the presidency as Speaker of the House—this agenda acknowledges that
1. the secularists are actually correct that the Founding Fathers never set America up as a “Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and
2. the Founding Fathers got it wrong in that regard. America was SUPPOSED to be a Christian nation, and it’s their God-given duty to “fix” what the Founders screwed up.
This group wants to install Christian Nationalism and legislate Biblical morality (according to their very narrow interpretation of it). Project 2025 wants to outlaw gays. The Reconstructionists want to execute them. They’re basically the American Taliban for Jesus. Thankfully, they remain on the fringe and haven’t had much success implementing their backwards agenda, other than minor victories like mandating the Ten Commandments and Bibles in every classroom in places like Louisiana and Oklahoma where no one knows how to read anyway.
Finally, we’ve got a third group—the one that’s responsible for all the chaos Elon and DOGE are causing. Their agenda is actually FAR MORE extreme than either Project 2025 or the Reconstructionists. And the scary thing is, they’re already implementing their freakish plan at warp speed while most of the country is busy bickering about all the quaint Project 2025 garbage (and Trump’s usual unending fire hose of idiotic nonsense).
There’s a few key players we’re gonna have to cover some backstory for, namely Elon Musk, JD Vance, a guy you might’ve heard of by the name of Peter Thiel, and a guy you almost certainly haven’t, Curtis Yarvin. These guys are all connected in a mildly horrifying way and we’re about to unpack it all…
Once upon a time in the 90’s, Elon Musk founded a small company called X.com (No, not Twitter—a different X.com. Dude just has an inexplicable fixation with the letter X). X was a fledgling digital banking service that allowed people to transact with vendors and each other without cash, checks, or plastic.
At the same time Musk was building out X, another young entrepreneur, a German immigrant named Peter Thiel, was building a very similar money-transfer service right across town called Confinity. Rather than compete with each other, Musk and Thiel decided to merge their two companies in 1999, with Musk named CEO of the new company. Shortly after the merger, Musk was fired as CEO by the board, who replaced him with Thiel. After Thiel took over, the company’s name was changed to “PayPal.” You may have heard of it.
PayPal attracted some of the most promising young talent in Silicon Valley, and its early members wielded so much power and influence in the tech space that they became collectively known as the “PayPal Mafia.”
Besides Musk and Thiel, the PayPal Mafia included:
• Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (co-founders of YouTube)
• Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman (co-founders of Yelp)
• Max Levchin (current CEO of Affirm)
• Roelof Botha (partner at Sequoia Capital)
• David Sacks (Founder of Geni.com and Yammer, Trump’s new “AI/Crypto Czar”)
• Reed Hoffman (founder of Linkedin, early investor in Facebook, currently on the board at Microsoft)
• Jack Selby (co-founder of Clarium Capital with Peter Thiel)
• Yishan Wong (CEO of Reddit, founder of Terraformation Inc)
• Premal Shah (founder of Kiva, on the board at Change.org)
Plus a dozen others. The PayPal Mafia churned out a Who’s Who in the Big Tech space, with nearly everyone involved becoming billionaires many times over. Today, it’s one of the wealthiest and most influential collection of individuals, not just in America, but in the entire world.
In 2002, eBay acquired Paypal for $1.5 billion. Although no longer officially with PayPal after being ousted, Elon still held around 10% of the company shares and netted roughly $160 million in the sale.
So that’s the Peter Thiel-Elon Musk connection–they co-founded PayPal together.
Now let’s see how JD Vance is tied into this crew.
In 2011, Peter Thiel gave a talk at Yale where JD Vance was attending law school, changing the course of Vance’s life, as JD recounts it. Vance called Thiel “possibly the smartest person” he ever met, and decided to pivot from a career in law to one in venture capitol. In 2015, JD joined the Thiel-founded Mithril Capital, with Thiel as his personal mentor.
In 2016, Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” thrusting his name into the national spotlight for the first time. It was at this same time that Vance, unencumbered by any political aspirations or pretense and therefore free to speak his actual mind, sent his Yale roommate an email regarding America’s leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, that read: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?”)
Vance left Thiel’s firm in 2017 and joined a D.C.-based investment firm. Then he launched his own VC firm, Narya Capital, in 2019 with financial backing from Thiel, billionaire VC capitalist Mark Andreessen, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
For reasons we’ll get to in just a minute, around the time the pandemic was starting to wind down, Peter Thiel decided it was finally time for him to own a U.S. Senator and start pulling some long-awaited political strings. He figured that since he’d funded Vance’s VC firm and essentially owned Vance already, he’d just migrate that ownership from the private sector to the public.
Because JD Vance had been an open critic of Donald Trump during Trump’s entire first term, Thiel invited Vance down to Mar A Lago to smooth things over in hopes of getting an endorsement from Orange Jesus. Thiel informed Vance of his plans to make him a Senator, so Vance scrapped all his previous principles, decided power was “more gooder” than having any convictions, kissed Trump’s ring, and earned the endorsement.
Thiel, for his part, poured an ungodly amount of his own money into Vance’s Senate campaign—about $15 million—marking the largest donation to a single Senate candidate in American history. In addition to his personal $15 mil, Thiel also recruited 10 major donors for Vance, including a couple old tech buddies from the PayPal Mafia who chipped in a million each.
So, if you ever found yourself wondering how the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a lawyer-turned-venture capitalist with no political experience or aspirations and a vocal critic of Donald Trump came out of nowhere and managed to snag Trump’s endorsement and win a Senate seat in his first foray into politics, there’s your explanation: Peter Thiel orchestrated, arranged, and funded the entire thing. A tech billionaire bought himself a Senator.
Now, the next question is: WHY?
This is where it starts to get scary.
It’s time to meet the final character in our story, Curtis Yarvin.
Yarvin is a software developer and tech entrepreneur who started the Unqualified Reservations blog in 2003 under the pen name Mencius Moldbug. He’s perhaps best known for founding the anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).
Like most people, Yarvin sees a ton of problems in society. But unlike most people, the problems he sees—and his solutions to those problems—are dystopian fringe at best, and democracy-ending suicide at worst.
In a nutshell, Yarvin’s Dark Enlightenment political worldview is that the REAL power in the U.S. resides in an informal collaboration of universities and the mainstream media (that he calls “the Cathedral”) which collude to sway public opinion. He admires the former Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping for his “pragmatic and market-oriented authoritarianism,” believes America’s commitment to equality and justice “erodes social order,” and advocates for an American “monarch” to dissolve elite academic institutions and media outlets asap.
A regular speaker at various Libertarian and techno-fascist conferences, Yarvin’s position is that democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful and should be replaced with sovereign corporations whose “shareholders” elect an executive with total power over the country/corporation. As Yarvin explains it, “Unencumbered by liberal-democratic procedures, the executive could rule like a CEO-Monarch.”
And just in case it still isn’t abundantly clear what Curtis Yarvin thinks is the solution to what ails America, here it is in his most straightforward phrasing: “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator-phobia.”
Yes, Curtis Yarvin is an unapologetic proponent of dictatorships since “there’s no real difference between a dictator and a CEO, and corporations under the rule of a CEO appear to work just fine.” As he puts it, “Nations like the United States are outdated software systems” that need to be “broken up into smaller entities called ‘patchworks’ which would be controlled by tech corporations.”
As he put it in an interview with the NY Times on Jan 18, “Democracy is done.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
“Shane, this Yarvin dude is clearly off his rocker. Nobody in their right mind would take this “Corporate Monarchy” nonsense seriously. Why are you wasting everyone’s time explaining in detail the techno-fascist-manifesto ramblings of some internet pop philosopher who calls himself ‘Mencius Moldbug?’ Dude sounds like he’s living in some Matrix-meets-Hunger-Games dystopian fantasy world. Surely NOBODY takes this dude’s crazy ideas seriously!”
That’s where you would be wrong.
Perilously wrong.
Two of Curtis Yarvin’s biggest disciples and advocates for his technocratic ideas are…
Peter Thiel and Vice President JD Vance, the MAGA heir apparent.
The three of them have been friends since at least 2009 after Yarvin’s writings and ideologies became super popular within the PayPal Mafia circle. (If you’ve got an hour and a half to waste, here’s Vance on the Jack Murphy Live Podcast – https://www.youtube.com/live/PMq1ZEcyztY?t=1407s – name-dropping Yarvin and spewing a few of his more sinister ideas.)
See, people forget that billionaires have political ideologies just like everyone else. And remember, most peoples’ political ideologies are generally tailored to improve the life of the person holding them. Democracy sounds great if you’re a peasant living under a king with no say in how things are run. But in what way would democracy improve your life if you’re a multi-billionaire who can buy politicians? Once you’re up that high on the food chain, democracy is no longer a step UP, it’s a step DOWN.
So, all these filthy rich, filthy powerful tech bros have jumped on board with turning America into a corporation run by a CEO with authoritarian power. According to them, the masses don’t need to be voting – the masses are idiots. (Or as Yarvin puts it, “The masses are asses.”) The PayPal Mafia has no interest in becoming beholden to the whims of a bunch of blue collar workers from Appalachia. If they’re gonna be free to live their best lives, they’re gonna need to unshackle themselves from the “masses who can’t even figure life out enough to afford groceries.”
Put bluntly, those who can write a check for a few $billion and not even notice it’s gone are not interested in the opinions of those whining about the cost of 12 eggs.
As Peter Thiel once wrote in a Cato essay, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Now, supposing they were actually going to attempt to pull this techno-coup off, what would that look like in practice?
Thankfully, Yarvin has had the plan mapped out for years with a little strategy he’s given the acronym RAGE: Retire All Government Employees.
It would look exactly like what we’re all looking at.
Elon’s “haphazard, chaotic coup” of federal agencies is anything but. This has been the plan all along by these Yarvin acolytes: gut the federal workforce—either by mass firings or incentivizing them to resign—crippling the entire government in the process, at which point Big Tech corporate solutions that just so happen to already be on hand can step in and take over the reigns of running our government.
Since you could never get away with doing this as a blatant hostile takeover, you just frame the entire exercise as an “audit to weed out fraud and corruption,” then watch the gatekeepers roll out the red carpets and cheer the whole takeover on!
I know it sounds like tin-foil-hat conspiracy, but LOOK at what’s happening in front of your eyes.
Isn’t it a little weird that JD Vance came out of nowhere to win a Senate seat? And weirder still that Peter Thiel managed to convince Trump to make this virtual nobody his running mate even though Vance was the most unpopular VP pick in polling history?
Wasn’t it a bit strange that Donald Trump told a bunch of Evangelicals at a rally, “Vote for me this one time and I’ll make sure you never have to vote again?” What the hell did that mean?
Isn’t it slightly too coincidental that Peter Thiel’s original business partner Elon Musk is currently running roughshod through the American government doing EXACTLY what Curtis Yarvin said needs to happen?
This isn’t conspiracy land at this point. These dudes told everyone what they wanted to do, and then they started doing it while we all watch dumbfounded. The Left is going, “Surely they can’t be doing what it sure as hell looks like they’re doing—taking over the government!” and the Right is just…cheering them on because it “makes the libtard snowflakes cry.”
So there’s your explanation.
Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.
Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.
I told you you weren’t gonna like it.
………………………..
Gosh!
It was a long read, but well worth it. Thanks.
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
English is now the official language of the USA.
You’ll need a permit to speak other languages.
There’ll be a buyback program for books in foreign languages like the Australian buyback for guns.
This was a matter considered by those drafting the US Constitution. It was decided not to have an official language, mainly because of the Dutch, Swedish and German migrants that it might have discommoded.
Australia remains one of the countries with no official language, along with the UK and Costa Rica.
The US constitution is now irrelevant. It’s not upheld.
It’s now a kingdom, and demands a fealty for help, or as every else knows it, it is now a protection racket.
It would be a shame if your country was invaded by the orks.
Maybe if you were to send us all of your important gold and gems, we could “protect” you.
Just watch:
some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.
Among many others, i said months ago that if the Americans put Trump back into the White House, then they deserve every bloody thing that they get.
If it was just the Americans, i’d be finding all of this nonsense hilariously funny.
But, of course, it’s not just the Americans. It’s the Ukrainians, and people in Europe, and people in Africa whose only hope is some USAID programme, and even us, in
Australia, and lots of others besides.
Many decades into the future, the great-great-great-grandchildren of whoever is left after all of this may read about it, and be incredulous.
‘How could they have done this?’, they’ll ask, ‘it was so obvious, so easy to prevent, but they let it happen!’.
Just like we’re asking now.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.Among many others, i said months ago that if the Americans put Trump back into the White House, then they deserve every bloody thing that they get.
If it was just the Americans, i’d be finding all of this nonsense hilariously funny.
But, of course, it’s not just the Americans. It’s the Ukrainians, and people in Europe, and people in Africa whose only hope is some USAID programme, and even us, in
Australia, and lots of others besides.Many decades into the future, the great-great-great-grandchildren of whoever is left after all of this may read about it, and be incredulous.
‘How could they have done this?’, they’ll ask, ‘it was so obvious, so easy to prevent, but they let it happen!’.
Just like we’re asking now.
I blame PWM.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.Among many others, i said months ago that if the Americans put Trump back into the White House, then they deserve every bloody thing that they get.
If it was just the Americans, i’d be finding all of this nonsense hilariously funny.
But, of course, it’s not just the Americans. It’s the Ukrainians, and people in Europe, and people in Africa whose only hope is some USAID programme, and even us, in
Australia, and lots of others besides.Many decades into the future, the great-great-great-grandchildren of whoever is left after all of this may read about it, and be incredulous.
‘How could they have done this?’, they’ll ask, ‘it was so obvious, so easy to prevent, but they let it happen!’.
Just like we’re asking now.
I knew the fallout for Ukraine would be terrible. And for the rest of the world in many ways.
I’m not confident that people in the future will be shocked by all this. That would depend on what we think of as sanity eventually prevailing, and that may not happen.
People of our generation tend to think of benign human progress as somehow written in the stars. Democracy and secular justice, guided by reason, science and humanism, will see us right.
It’s becoming clear that democracy, in this age of omnipresent disinformation and weakened education, can very easily be commandeered by its enemies.
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.Among many others, i said months ago that if the Americans put Trump back into the White House, then they deserve every bloody thing that they get.
If it was just the Americans, i’d be finding all of this nonsense hilariously funny.
But, of course, it’s not just the Americans. It’s the Ukrainians, and people in Europe, and people in Africa whose only hope is some USAID programme, and even us, in
Australia, and lots of others besides.Many decades into the future, the great-great-great-grandchildren of whoever is left after all of this may read about it, and be incredulous.
‘How could they have done this?’, they’ll ask, ‘it was so obvious, so easy to prevent, but they let it happen!’.
Just like we’re asking now.
I blame PWM.
Don’t we all?
sarahs mum said:
It’s OK. They’ll replace it with the Trump Dollar.
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Just watch:
some time soon, Trump will require all members of the US armed services to swear an oath of loyalty to him, personally, as their commander-in-chief.
During the war many European countries sent their gold to Britain for safe keeping.
At the end of the war they didn’t say oh oh we are going to keep some of it for services rendered.
No, they gave it all back because they were decent chaps and some of these countries had been through hell.
Trump and his acolytes are not decent chaps.Among many others, i said months ago that if the Americans put Trump back into the White House, then they deserve every bloody thing that they get.
If it was just the Americans, i’d be finding all of this nonsense hilariously funny.
But, of course, it’s not just the Americans. It’s the Ukrainians, and people in Europe, and people in Africa whose only hope is some USAID programme, and even us, in
Australia, and lots of others besides.Many decades into the future, the great-great-great-grandchildren of whoever is left after all of this may read about it, and be incredulous.
‘How could they have done this?’, they’ll ask, ‘it was so obvious, so easy to prevent, but they let it happen!’.
Just like we’re asking now.
well that’s a bit unfair, we were assured by wise people that there would be no external harm from this hilarious turn
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
5m ·
February 28, 2025 (Friday)Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.
—————————-CUT————————————
FMD
I am now starting to wish harm on these nasty, nasty URWNJs.
it’s like a bad look what you made us do domestic violence play
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/mar/01/a-spectacle-to-horrify-the-world-what-the-papers-say-about-trump-and-vances-meeting-with-zelenskyy
Zelensky has laid bare the ugly truth about Trump, the Godfather President
From Australia is better than this.
So many times I have wanted to do this to so many right wing fuckwits.
From Lara B. Sharp’s Facebook account:
“It was very chilling when Vance suddenly bellowed at President Zelenskyy, ‘You campaigned for the OPPOSITION.’
Survivors of abuse – especially abuse by someone with clinical Narcissistic Personality Disorder, with specifically Malignant Narcissism, will recognize exactly what they did to President Z in that setup of a ‘press conference’.
They will see the DARVO, word salad, gaslighting, guilting and shaming, lying, confabulation, threatening, triangulation, intimidation, breadcrumbing… it wasn’t just bullying. It wasn’t a shouting match.
That was a live performance of textbook and clinical malignant narcissistic abuse.DARVO is an acronym for a pattern of behavior used by abusers to manipulate and avoid accountability. It stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.”
From Wiki:
DARVO (an acronym for “deny, attack, and reverse victim & offender”) is a reaction that perpetrators of wrongdoing, such as sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. Some researchers indicate that it is a common manipulation strategy of psychological abusers.
I don’t remember where I saw this referred to … (unless it was in this thread) …
From the SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behaviour:
Sultanism is a type of autocratic regime in which political power is concentrated in the hands of the ruler and is unbound by political and legal rules. Political authority engulfs social and economic life and follows no elaborate ideology. The regime elicits loyalty through favoritism toward its supporters, reprisals against its opponents, and the repression of civil society.
More here – https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-political-behavior/chpt/sultanism
kii said:
From Lara B. Sharp’s Facebook account:“It was very chilling when Vance suddenly bellowed at President Zelenskyy, ‘You campaigned for the OPPOSITION.’
damn. there it is. I watched
fuck you murdoch. that’s some crazy way of twisting reality.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
From Lara B. Sharp’s Facebook account:“It was very chilling when Vance suddenly bellowed at President Zelenskyy, ‘You campaigned for the OPPOSITION.’
damn. there it is. I watched
fuck you murdoch. that’s some crazy way of twisting reality.
I can only watch in dribs and drabs. It’s too nauseating and I cry.
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.
Whoa. Per Express UK:
___
A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
kii said:
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.Whoa. Per Express UK:
___A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
Trump will respond with 50% tariffs because he still doesn’t understand how they work.
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.
Whoa. Per Express UK:
___A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
Trump will respond with 50% tariffs because he still doesn’t understand how they work.
well we don’t think Haltbakk Bunkers understand how this works either, they failed to realise that if they don’t sell fuel to the DPRNA then they don’t receive payment from DPRNA oh right oh yeah
The local weather reporter posted this before it was taken down:
I’m very proud to be a Vermonter. In case you haven’t seen this, the weather reporter from Sugarbush resort (where Vance is skiing) took a stand with her morning report. It was subsequently taken down. But the words will last. Here it is:
“Mar 1st, 2025, 6:49 AM: Today of all days, I would like to reflect on what Sugarbush means to me. This mountain has brought me endless days of joy, adventure, challenges, new experiences, beauty, community, and peace. I’ve found that nothing cures a racing mind quite like skiing through the trees and stopping to take a deep breath of that fresh forest air. The world around us might be a scary place, but these little moments of tranquility, moments I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy as a direct result of my employment here, give me, and I’d guess you, too, a sense of strength and stability. This fresh forest air, is, more specifically fresh National Forest air. Sugarbush operates on 1745 acres of the Green Mountain National Forest. Right now, National Forest lands and National Parks are under direct attack by the current Administration, who is swiftly terminating the positions of dedicated employees who devote their lives to protecting the land we love, and to protecting us while we are enjoying that land. This Administration also neglects to address the danger, or even the existence of, climate change, the biggest threat to the future of our industry, and the skiing we all so much enjoy here. Burlington, VT is one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, and Vermont is the 9th fastest-warming state. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), a resource I use every day for snow reporting, is crucial in monitoring extreme weather events and informing public safety measures, and is also experiencing widespread layoffs and defunding at the hands of the Administration. Sugarbush would not be Sugarbush without our wonderful community. Employees and patrons alike, we are made up of some of the most kind hearted, hardworking people I have ever met. Our community is rich with folks of all different orientations, ethnicities, and walks of life, who all contribute to make this place what it is. They all love Sugarbush because it is a place where they can come to move their bodies, to connect with the land, to challenge themselves, to build character, to nourish their souls with the gift of skiing. Many of these people are part of the LGBTQI+ community. Many (well, that’s a stretch, we all know this is an incredibly white-washed industry) are people of color. Half are women. Many are veterans or adaptive skiers who, through Vermont Adaptive, are able to access snow sports in part thanks to federal grants through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is also facing devastating cuts. Many of our beloved employees moved across the world through an exchange program on the J1 visa to help this resort run, and they are not US citizens. ALL of these groups are being targeted, undervalued, and disrespected by the current Administration. The beauty of National Forest land, is that anyone and everyone is welcome to enjoy it. Anyone and everyone can buy a lift ticket. I also imagine it is incredibly difficult, and likely impossible, to say “No” to the Secret Service. I hope that, instead of faulting Sugarbush management or employees for “allowing this to happen”, you can direct your anger to the source–the Administration that, in my oh-so-humble opinion, is threatening our democracy, our livelihoods, our land. I want to reiterate how much I admire and respect my fellow employees and managers–they work so hard to make this place operate, to keep you coming back and enjoying it and making lifelong memories. Many of them may feel the same way that I do, but their hands are tied, and for good reason. They have families to support, they have benefits and health insurance to receive, they face far greater and more binding pressure from Corporate. I am in a privileged position here, in that I work only seasonally, I do not rely on this job for health insurance or benefits, and hey, waking up at 4:30 AM isn’t exactly sustainable. Therefore, I am using my relative “platform” as snow reporter, to be disruptive—I don’t have a whole lot to lose. We are living in a really scary and really serious time. What we do or don’t do, matters. This whole shpiel probably won’t change a whole lot, and I can only assume that I will be fired, but at least this will do even just a smidge more than just shutting up and being a sheep. I am really scared for our future. Acting like nothing is happening here feels way scarier than losing my job. I want to have kids one day, and I want to teach them to ski. The policies and ideals of the current Administration, however, are not conducive to either of these things, because, at least how things look now, I’d never be able to afford a good life for a child anyway, and snow will be a thing of Vermont history. So please, for the sake of our future shredders: Be Better Here. It has truly been a pleasure writing your morning snow reports–I hope this one sticks with you. With love, peace, and hope, Lucy Welch’
kii said:
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.Whoa. Per Express UK:
___A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
Good on them!
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.Whoa. Per Express UK:
___A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
Trump will respond with 50% tariffs because he still doesn’t understand how they work.
That’s cool by me.
Now this I’d very much like to see.
https://x.com/i/status/1895838782555111866
An AI video of Zelensky knocking Shitler out.
Spiny Norman said:
Now this I’d very much like to see.https://x.com/i/status/1895838782555111866
An AI video of Zelensky knocking Shitler out.
See below, too.
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
From Jay Kuo on Facebook.Whoa. Per Express UK:
___A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
Trump will respond with 50% tariffs because he still doesn’t understand how they work.
he’ll invade Greenland just to spite them now.
I know.
SCIENCE said:
well we don’t think Haltbakk Bunkers understand how this works either, they failed to realise that if they don’t sell fuel to the DPRNA then they don’t receive payment from DPRNA oh right oh yeah
In case you hadn’t noticed, Norway, especially Norwegian energy companies are up to their eyeballs in money.
They can easily afford to tell the US to piss off.
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
The paragon of elegance on the left is the bloke who questioned Zelensky’s dress sense:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:well we don’t think Haltbakk Bunkers understand how this works either, they failed to realise that if they don’t sell fuel to the DPRNA then they don’t receive payment from DPRNA oh right oh yeah
In case you hadn’t noticed, Norway, especially Norwegian energy companies are up to their eyeballs in money.
They can easily afford to tell the US to piss off.
Jay Kuo…
I have confirmation of the policy from a Norwegian media source now quoting the owner of Haltbakk Bunkers:
From the translation:
___
The company’s owner, Gunnar Gran, expressed strong disapproval of the conduct displayed during a televised meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, 2025. Gran described the event as “the biggest circus ever broadcast live on TV by the sitting U.S. president and his vice president,” commending Zelenskyy’s composure despite feeling that the U.S. had backstabbed him.
Gran emphasized that as a private company, Haltbakk Bunkers has the autonomy to choose its customers and is guided by a moral compass. He stated, “We support Ukraine. We have many Ukrainian employees and know how terribly this war affects them and their families.” Gran also noted that the company had previously ceased dealings with Russian clients following the invasion of Ukraine, resulting in significant financial losses, but maintained their stance based on ethical considerations.
captain_spalding said:
The paragon of elegance on the left is the bloke who questioned Zelensky’s dress sense:
Recent photos show his face as very swollen, like an allergic reaction.
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
Nods.
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
back-up generators?
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
sarahs mum said:
“The West” is over.
Or has the USA been kicked out. and they are no longer to be considered a western country?
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
Maybe since Melon Husk DOGEd everything they need some rubber bands?
kii said:
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
Maybe since Melon Husk DOGEd everything they need some rubber bands?
Coal.
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
Various Town Halls around Texas have devolved into the people booing the Republican representative. Not happy about cuts to Veteran employment.
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
No. All the Virginia Class subs are nuclear powered. This is the model that we are buying 3 of under the AUKUS treaty.
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
Nope, they run a nuclear reactor located in the rear end.
kii said:
Various Town Halls around Texas have devolved into the people booing the Republican representative. Not happy about cuts to Veteran employment.
FAFO time.
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
The US Navy has not had ‘conventional’ (diesel/electric-driven) submarines for decades.
The last ones were the three ‘Barbel’ class submarines, the last of which left service in 1990.
Spiny Norman said:
kii said:
Various Town Halls around Texas have devolved into the people booing the Republican representative. Not happy about cuts to Veteran employment.
FAFO time.
Pigeons coming home to roost.
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
Practice saying it with a broad and cheerful smile on your face.
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
Ignorant fools.
Maybe this is the new rhyming slang.
Rare bread = dead ?
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
They didn’t say nuclear Powered submarine.
Divine Angel said:
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
Personally I prefer the back turning manouvre. Simply ignore and turn your back on them.
Divine Angel said:
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
Your mental image gives me great satisfaction.
I was quite happy knowing that they clearly have sad bleak souls in wanting to get reactions with their silly hats.
dv said:
Maybe this is the new rhyming slang.
Rare bread = dead ?
dv said:
Maybe this is the new rhyming slang.
Rare bread = dead ?
Maybe he’s having a loaf?
captain_spalding said:
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
Practice saying it with a broad and cheerful smile on your face.
Heh heh….you know it works. :)))
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
back-up generators?
Yes. Nuclear submarines have stand-by diesel generators, to provide emergency electrical power for various systems, including the reactor cooling systems.
They would be started occasionally to ensure operability.
However, no nuclear submarine captain (at least, not in any Western navy) would ever set out on a deployment without a full supply of fuel for those generators, which would be quite amplefor long running of the generators. There wouldbequite sufficient fuel for that, plus occasional test runs.
If a nuclear submarine had a situation that required it to run its back-up generators for long enough to reduce supplies to a perilous state, then they would not be just stopping off somewhere to top up with diesel.
They would, instead head straight for the nearest sutiable support facility, in this case HMNB Clyde at Faslane in Scotland.
I suggest that the story is a fabrication.
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:
ruby said::)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
Personally I prefer the back turning manouvre. Simply ignore and turn your back on them.
And now we have the winner strategy. Nice one Buffy.
I was contemplating getting a blue peaked cap with ‘normality’ written on it. But perhaps a suka blyat cap might be in order
ruby said:
… perhaps a suka blyat cap might be in order
Do i smell a marketing opportunity?
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
Good on Mr Z.
:)
ruby said:
Divine Angel said:
ruby said::)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
Your mental image gives me great satisfaction.
I was quite happy knowing that they clearly have sad bleak souls in wanting to get reactions with their silly hats.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:well we don’t think Haltbakk Bunkers understand how this works either, they failed to realise that if they don’t sell fuel to the DPRNA then they don’t receive payment from DPRNA oh right oh yeah
In case you hadn’t noticed, Norway, especially Norwegian energy companies are up to their eyeballs in money.
They can easily afford to tell the US to piss off.
Jay Kuo…
I have confirmation of the policy from a Norwegian media source now quoting the owner of Haltbakk Bunkers:
From the translation:
___
The company’s owner, Gunnar Gran, expressed strong disapproval of the conduct displayed during a televised meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, 2025. Gran described the event as “the biggest circus ever broadcast live on TV by the sitting U.S. president and his vice president,” commending Zelenskyy’s composure despite feeling that the U.S. had backstabbed him.
Gran emphasized that as a private company, Haltbakk Bunkers has the autonomy to choose its customers and is guided by a moral compass. He stated, “We support Ukraine. We have many Ukrainian employees and know how terribly this war affects them and their families.” Gran also noted that the company had previously ceased dealings with Russian clients following the invasion of Ukraine, resulting in significant financial losses, but maintained their stance based on ethical considerations.
Nice one!
:)
captain_spalding said:
I suggest that the story is a fabrication.
there. someone said it out loud.
captain_spalding said:
The paragon of elegance on the left is the bloke who questioned Zelensky’s dress sense:
Ha!
Did he ever mention Churchill?
Tamb said:
ruby said:
Divine Angel said:How did you resist the urge to throw overripe tomatoes at them?
Your mental image gives me great satisfaction.
I was quite happy knowing that they clearly have sad bleak souls in wanting to get reactions with their silly hats.
Maybe he was speaking Indonesian. Suda biak
Why would he do that?
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
That one didn’t need fact-checking. Most claims on both sides of the “KKK argument” need fact-checking.
kii said:
Tamb said:
ruby said:Your mental image gives me great satisfaction.
I was quite happy knowing that they clearly have sad bleak souls in wanting to get reactions with their silly hats.
Maybe he was speaking Indonesian. Suda biakWhy would he do that?
Tamb said:
kii said:
Tamb said:Maybe he was speaking Indonesian. Suda biak
Why would he do that?
Just as unlikely as the other one.
People are enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event and you have to dismiss it, because….what?
Gawd, you’re a boring old man.
sarahs mum said:
That was good to watch and listen to. Especially after yesterday’s performance by Vance and Trump.
I’m still chuckling over Vance saying that Zelensky needs to try their diplomacy to win the war. Comedy gold eh.
IDK what happens from here but I suppose one possibility is that Europe really does get its shit together and becomes a genuine third superpower. Trump says the EU only formed to screw America over (his words), and I guess that’s partially true, but a reunited Europe would be in a much better position to do that. They have a higher population, a bigger economy, more modern infrastructure, the leadership still regard the scientific method as valid etc.
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:back-up generators?
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
Nuclear-armed submarine vs Nuclear (-powered) submarine?
dv said:
Maybe this is the new rhyming slang.
Rare bread = dead ?
No, just a fuckwit that can’t spell a simple word.
dv said:
IDK what happens from here but I suppose one possibility is that Europe really does get its shit together and becomes a genuine third superpower. Trump says the EU only formed to screw America over (his words), and I guess that’s partially true, but a reunited Europe would be in a much better position to do that. They have a higher population, a bigger economy, more modern infrastructure, the leadership still regard the scientific method as valid etc.
What happens next is up to Europe. “The west” is over. Either they come to some collective arrangement on defence, or they fall one by one to Russia bullying. Russia still has nukes of course, only France has nukes in the whole of the EU.
I think the EU need to expand their own independent nuclear deterrent, given that the USA is unreliable. I think the days of non-proliferation are gone, and it’s sll Trump’s fault.
Hard to imagine a nuclear armed Germany being necessary to preserve peace and democracy in Europe, but here we are.
Same goes for Japan in east Asia. I think they seriously need to consider getting their own nukes too.
.. and us.
kii said:
Tamb said:
kii said:Why would he do that?
Just as unlikely as the other one.People are enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event and you have to dismiss it, because….what?
Gawd, you’re a boring old man.
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
Nuclear-armed submarine vs Nuclear (-powered) submarine?
I thought that i had explained:
The USN has NO non-nuclear driven submarines.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Tamb said:Just as unlikely as the other one.
People are enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event and you have to dismiss it, because….what?
Gawd, you’re a boring old man.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
buffy said:Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
Nuclear-armed submarine vs Nuclear (-powered) submarine?
I thought that i had explained:
The USN has NO non-nuclear driven submarines.
It’s taken a bit to catch up – sorry I was four pages behind.
My point is that in normal language usage “nuclear submarine” means nuclear-powered submarine.
Nuclear-armed submarine means, well, nuclear-armed submarine.
In no way was it intended as a comment on the status of USN submarines, about which I have no knowledge. (Well, I have some now; you have informed me, thanks._
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
People are enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event and you have to dismiss it, because….what?
Gawd, you’re a boring old man.
aha so it’s all right for some people to enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event, and it’s all right for some people to dismiss it, but it’s unacceptable for some other people to enjoying a bit of light-heart humour over a distressing event, and it’s also unacceptable for some other people to dismiss it
dv said:
IDK what happens from here but I suppose one possibility is that Europe really does get its shit together and becomes a genuine third superpower. Trump says the EU only formed to screw America over (his words), and I guess that’s partially true, but a reunited Europe would be in a much better position to do that. They have a higher population, a bigger economy, more modern infrastructure, the leadership still regard the scientific method as valid etc.
so india should really get it started
Michael V said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
Good on Mr Z.
:)
why, is it gendersafe to call others female dogs
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Pretty sure that nuclear subs don’t need fuel.
back-up generators?
Yes. Nuclear submarines have stand-by diesel generators, to provide emergency electrical power for various systems, including the reactor cooling systems.
They would be started occasionally to ensure operability.
However, no nuclear submarine captain (at least, not in any Western navy) would ever set out on a deployment without a full supply of fuel for those generators, which would be quite amplefor long running of the generators. There wouldbequite sufficient fuel for that, plus occasional test runs.
If a nuclear submarine had a situation that required it to run its back-up generators for long enough to reduce supplies to a perilous state, then they would not be just stopping off somewhere to top up with diesel.
They would, instead head straight for the nearest sutiable support facility, in this case HMNB Clyde at Faslane in Scotland.
I suggest that the story is a fabrication.
what about the operators maybe they need fuel too or are they driven by 爱 these days
dv said:
Maybe this is the new rhyming slang.
Rare bread = dead ?
perhaps but at face value it’s true, there is pressure to vaccinate and it does require some effort to resist
on the other hand the chaos agency which has thrown its weight behind antivaccination is backed to the tune of like $1500000000000 so make of that what yous will
captain_spalding said:
ruby said:
kii said:
Google Translate says true. The translation is correct.
:)))
There was an older couple at the farmers markets today sauntering around in their red MAGA hats, obviously trying for reactions. It was a bit sad that they were getting smiles and happy conversations. I’m hoping it was people telling them to go live in America. I shall have to practice suka blyat in case they come next week
Practice saying it with a broad and cheerful smile on your face.
are we(1,1,1) sure they were maga hats though maybe they were just regular blood donors
captain_spalding said:
buffy said:
Spiny Norman said:
Quite possible, ta.
I image they’d schedule running it periodically for testing.
Or maybe the nuclear bit in the description describes the warheads, not the way the sub runs?
The US Navy has not had ‘conventional’ (diesel/electric-driven) submarines for decades.
The last ones were the three ‘Barbel’ class submarines, the last of which left service in 1990.
that’s what they want yous to believe
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
The paragon of elegance on the left is the bloke who questioned Zelensky’s dress sense:
Recent photos show his face as very swollen, like an allergic reaction.
What Would Yushchenko Do
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
well we don’t think Haltbakk Bunkers understand how this works either, they failed to realise that if they don’t sell fuel to the DPRNA then they don’t receive payment from DPRNA oh right oh yeah
In case you hadn’t noticed, Norway, especially Norwegian energy companies are up to their eyeballs in money.
They can easily afford to tell the US to piss off.
sorry we were making a comment about the whole “KKK doesn’t understand tariffs” thing when if the purpose is to short term rip off the locals to raise government revenue, plus long term incentivise local production, then that’s tariffs doing work exactly as understood
Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) characterized Friday’s contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bad day” for U.S. foreign policy.
“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said in a Friday text message to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5169686-republican-lawmaker-on-trump-zelensky-meeting-a-bad-day-for-americas-foreign-policy/
dv said:
Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) characterized Friday’s contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bad day” for U.S. foreign policy.“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said in a Friday text message to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5169686-republican-lawmaker-on-trump-zelensky-meeting-a-bad-day-for-americas-foreign-policy/
Yeah, but.
KKK Trump and his henchmen don’t stand for Freedom and Western Values.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) characterized Friday’s contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bad day” for U.S. foreign policy.
“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said in a Friday text message to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5169686-republican-lawmaker-on-trump-zelensky-meeting-a-bad-day-for-americas-foreign-policy/
Yeah, but.
KKK Trump and his henchmen don’t stand for Freedom and Western Values.
well they didn’t just appear like magic, someone must have voted for these geniuses, so we suggest that Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) is simply out of touch
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) characterized Friday’s contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bad day” for U.S. foreign policy.
“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said in a Friday text message to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5169686-republican-lawmaker-on-trump-zelensky-meeting-a-bad-day-for-americas-foreign-policy/
Yeah, but.
KKK Trump and his henchmen don’t stand for Freedom and Western Values.
well they didn’t just appear like magic, someone must have voted for these geniuses, so we suggest that Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) is simply out of touch
Delusion only leads to chaos.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Yeah, but.
KKK Trump and his henchmen don’t stand for Freedom and Western Values.
well they didn’t just appear like magic, someone must have voted for these geniuses, so we suggest that Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) is simply out of touch
Delusion only leads to chaos.
logistic leads to chaos
Michael V said:
dv said:
Congressman Don Bacon (Republican-Nebraska) characterized Friday’s contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bad day” for U.S. foreign policy.“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said in a Friday text message to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5169686-republican-lawmaker-on-trump-zelensky-meeting-a-bad-day-for-americas-foreign-policy/
Yeah, but.
KKK Trump and his henchmen don’t stand for Freedom and Western Values.
And you can bet that the other members of the Five Eyes intelligence community are eyeing the situation very carefully.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/02/trump-ukraine-russia/681851/
There is a transcript available of the podcast at that link.
Trump often says there is an ocean between Russia and the United States so why worry about them.
Who’s gonna tell him?
Heather Cox Richardson
58m ·
March 1, 2025 (Saturday)
John Simpson of the BBC noted recently that “there are years when the world goes through some fundamental, convulsive change.” Seven weeks in, he suggested, 2025 is on track to be one of them: “a time when the basic assumptions about the way our world works are fed into the shredder.”
Simpson was referring to the course the United States has taken in the past month as the administration of President Donald Trump has hacked the United States away from 80 years of alliances and partnerships with democratic nations in favor of forging ties with autocrats like Russian president Vladimir Putin.
On February 24, 2025, the U.S. delegation to the United Nations voted against a resolution condemning Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and calling for it to end its occupation. That is, the U.S. voted against a resolution that reiterated one of the founding principles of the United Nations itself: that one nation must not invade another. The U.S. voted with Russia, Israel, North Korea, Belarus, and fourteen other countries friendly to Russia against the measure, which nonetheless passed overwhelmingly.
Then, on Friday, February 28, 2025, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance made clear their shift toward Russian president Vladimir Putin as they berated Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, publicly trying to bully him into agreeing to the ceasefire conditions that Putin and Trump want to end a war Russia started by invading Ukraine.
The abandonment of democratic principles and the democratic institutions the U.S. helped to create is isolating the United States from nations that have been our allies, partners, and friends.
After yesterday’s Oval Office debacle, democratic nations rejected Trump and Vance’s embrace of Russia and Putin and publicly reiterated their support for Ukraine and President Zelensky. The leaders of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Union, and others all posted their support for Ukraine and Zelensky.
In London today, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer greeted Zelensky with an enthusiastic hug and in front of cameras told him: “You are very, very welcome here…. As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom. We stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take.”
In the last interview that former secretary of state Antony Blinken gave before leaving office, he talked about the importance of alliances and the strong hand the Biden administration was leaving for the incoming Trump administration. Now, a little over a month later, that interview provides a striking contrast to the course the Trump administration has steered.
We are learning the difference at our peril.
American Conversations: Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Heather Cox Richardson, January 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
161K subscribers
AussieDJ said:
Trump often says there is an ocean between Russia and the United States so why worry about them.Who’s gonna tell him?
Sarah Palin.
She claimed to be able to see Russia from her kitchen window.
captain_spalding said:
AussieDJ said:
Trump often says there is an ocean between Russia and the United States so why worry about them.Who’s gonna tell him?
Sarah Palin.
She claimed to be able to see Russia from her kitchen window.
Not till GoogleMaps came along did I realise how narrow the Strait of Gibraltar is,,,
captain_spalding said:
AussieDJ said:
Trump often says there is an ocean between Russia and the United States so why worry about them.Who’s gonna tell him?
Sarah Palin.
She claimed to be able to see Russia from her kitchen window.
IIRC that line came from SNL.
kii said:
This is pretty much my take on how it went too.
buffy said:
kii said:
This is pretty much my take on how it went too.
I read a piece earlier about Zelenskyy’s family history. I knew about some of it, but not some details of his grandparents.
Fuck trump and Vance. They have no idea what strength for his country is in Zelenskyy’s blood.
Fuck trump.
https://www.facebook.com/1371489966/videos/871796591661914/
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
AussieDJ said:
Trump often says there is an ocean between Russia and the United States so why worry about them.Who’s gonna tell him?
Sarah Palin.
She claimed to be able to see Russia from her kitchen window.
IIRC that line came from SNL.
You are correct, i misattribute the line to Palin, S. It was SNL that said that .
The words she actually spoke, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.”
sarahs mum said:
https://www.facebook.com/1371489966/videos/871796591661914/
Oh,God, dare i look?
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.facebook.com/1371489966/videos/871796591661914/
Oh,God, dare i look?
i cried.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.facebook.com/1371489966/videos/871796591661914/
Oh,God, dare i look?
i cried.
Clearly, there’s a lot of ratbags in the USA.
But, there’s a lot of good people, too.
I’ve lived and worked alongside Americans. I’ve been lucky, and they’ve (almost) all been fabulous people.
https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-called-out-over-tax-tips-comment-2037081
They seem to be getting dumber
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.
This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-called-out-over-tax-tips-comment-2037081
They seem to be getting dumber
Tbf no one ever thought Boebert was smart.
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-called-out-over-tax-tips-comment-2037081
They seem to be getting dumber
Tbf no one ever thought Boebert was smart.
she’s more a hands on person than a thinker.
ChrispenEvan said:
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-called-out-over-tax-tips-comment-2037081
They seem to be getting dumber
Tbf no one ever thought Boebert was smart.
she’s more a hands on person than a thinker.
She’s a bit of a jerk.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:Oh,God, dare i look?
i cried.
Clearly, there’s a lot of ratbags in the USA.
But, there’s a lot of good people, too.
I’ve lived and worked alongside Americans. I’ve been lucky, and they’ve (almost) all been fabulous people.
very fine people on all 6 sides
kii said:
buffy said:
kii said:
This is pretty much my take on how it went too.
I read a piece earlier about Zelenskyy’s family history. I knew about some of it, but not some details of his grandparents.
Fuck trump and Vance. They have no idea what strength for his country is in Zelenskyy’s blood.
Fuck trump.
we also note that the Ukrainians talk about being 1 to 10 up against the Russians and so it makes sense that he’s fine there up against 9 of them this is a piece of cake walk in the park
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.
This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
we feel like many of them saw it the other times it was contributed here …
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
Only if it’s for real.
party_pants said:
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
Only if it’s for real.
What is real?
bends a spoon with my mind
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
Woodie said:Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
Only if it’s for real.
What is real?
bends a spoon with my mind
what I say is real.
Right now, I have information on my screen saying that India are 4/170 from 36 overs. I declare this to be real.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:Only if it’s for real.
What is real?
bends a spoon with my mind
what I say is real.
Right now, I have information on my screen saying that India are 4/170 from 36 overs. I declare this to be real.
It has probably changed by now?
SCIENCE said:
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.
This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
we feel like many of them saw it the other times it was contributed here …
Pretty good CGI if ya ask me. So good you all can look at it twice or thrice then, hey what but!!. hehehehe
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
:)
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Don’t believe whatever you’ve been told happened in the Whitehouse.This is what really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/834619464/videos/1047172897292050/ 5 secs.
The link should work for most, I think.
Don’t ya wanna see Mr Zelenskyy smack the Orange Shitgibbon the head????😮
Yes.
AI did a fantastic job of conjuring that up.
:)
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:What is real?
bends a spoon with my mind
what I say is real.
Right now, I have information on my screen saying that India are 4/170 from 36 overs. I declare this to be real.
It has probably changed by now?
Time has this strange effect; things change with it.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:What is real?
bends a spoon with my mind
what I say is real.
Right now, I have information on my screen saying that India are 4/170 from 36 overs. I declare this to be real.
It has probably changed by now?
Sure. But I declare to be true that there is a cricket game on in Dubai between India and New Zealand.
I hereby patent the phrase: “cheeseburger-eating surrender monkey” and claim a small royalty for each re-use.
party_pants said:
I hereby patent the phrase: “cheeseburger-eating surrender monkey” and claim a small royalty for each re-use.
It doesn’t work like that you cheeseburger eating surrender monkey.
Arts said:
party_pants said:
I hereby patent the phrase: “cheeseburger-eating surrender monkey” and claim a small royalty for each re-use.
It doesn’t work like that you cheeseburger eating surrender monkey.
I’ve not had a cheeseburger for the best part of a decade
Point 3. She’s probably a rusted on trumper and can’t see facts, but we can only try.
“As I am in Ukraine at the moment, I would just like to correct a few lies from the Zelensky/Trump meeting based on my work here in Ukraine—Trump and Vance you are welcome to come visit although I doubt you have the courage to do so.
1) Zelensky showed up in military fatigues as he has done at every international meeting since day one of the 2022 Russian invasion—the second Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014—to show his solidarity with the Ukrainian soldiers risking their lives to defend Ukraine, and to emphasize he is the leader of a country at war.
I didn’t see any similar objections to the non-elected immigrant racist white supremacist Elon Musk showing up repeatedly in the White House in a T-shirt and baseball cap which he didn’t even remove—it is a standard sign of respect to leadership to remove your hat—so don’t lecture Zelensky on how to dress.
2) Zelensky is not a dictator and he is not an unpopular leader who is unable to mobilize his people. I have spent many nights and days in the last few weeks with soldiers heading to the frontlines and talking to them, and none of them have tried to refuse to serve and they were heading into the battle with determination and courage—I salute them and respect them deeply.
3) Ukraine and Zelensky doesn’t have to thank the U.S. or Trump—the U.S. and Trump need to thank Ukraine and Zelensky. This is for two reasons.
First of all, Ukraine gave up the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world voluntarily at the end of the USSR under the Budapest accords guaranteed by the U.S., France, UK, and Russia, giving up several trillion of dollars of nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees for its territorial integrity which Russia has violated and the U.S., UK and France vowed to protect. If Ukraine had kept its nuclear weapons, it would have been one of the most nuclear armed countries in the world and Russia would have never invaded. We, the West, committed to defend Ukraine in exchange for its denuclearization so there is no need for Ukraine to thank the U.S. for keeping its promises. See https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/ukraine-nuclear-weapons-and-security-assurances-glance
Secondly, Ukraine is defending not just its own territorial integrity but the future of Europe. I have been interviewing people from the Russian-occupied territories the last few weeks and they really do live in a Stalinist prison camp that is unbelievably oppressive. This is what Putin wants to bring to much of Europe and we need to stop him in Ukraine to save our own democratic future, at any price (respecting human rights).
In was in Chechnya 25 years ago documenting the same Russian abuses, together at the same hotel with the murdered Anna Polikovskaya, the murdered Natalia Estemirova, and Memorial’s Oleg Orlov who was imprisoned in February 2024 for “discrediting the Russian military” and later released in a prisoner exchange.
The difference in 1999-2000 is that we could operate in Russia, under the watchful eye of the FSB (the current KGB). The FSB were staying at the same hotel as us, the ACCA in Ingushetia, and one night I found a few cigarette butts on the floor of my room just to let me know they were watching us. Buy we could go to Moscow, Human Rights Watch had a staff and office in Moscow, and do our work despite the dangers.
Since the Russian invasion of 2022 (and long before that), that limited space for activism and civil society has closed down in Russia. There are no more independent journalists or human rights groups operating in Russia and the HRW office has long closed down, and Anna and Natalia and Nemtsov and so many others were simply murdered by Putin. Yet this is what Trump embraces instead of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people, and he has refrained of any criticism of the murderous dictator Putin, instead trying to humiliate the freedom-fighting Zelensky. But Zelensky isn’t humiliated, he stands proud and strong because you cannot be humiliated by people you don’t respect.
Shame on you, you twice impeached and felon convicted orange wanna be. You and your republican supplicants do not deserve our respect—I won’t even spell republicans with a capital R because they don’t deserve that honorific. Shame on you betrayers of our American Values.”
Peter Bouckaert, Senior Director at Fortify Rights
For some light relief, with serious content, from a US Military Veteran.
Her accent is delicious.
From Facebook.
Yuliia Vyshnevska
March 1 at 9:10 AM
An intriguing analysis has been circulating online regarding the psychological aspects of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance, conducted using ChatGPT.
From this analysis, it becomes evident that we have witnessed a true masterclass in gaslighting, manipulation, and coercion on the part of Trump and his entourage. Let’s break down the key points:
1. Blaming the victim for their own situation
Trump explicitly tells Zelensky: “You have allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” This is classic abuser rhetoric—blaming the victim for their suffering. The implication is that Ukraine itself is responsible for being occupied by Russia and for the deaths of its people.
2. Pressure and coercion into ‘gratitude’
Vance demands that Zelensky say “thank you.” This is an extremely toxic tactic—forcing the victim to express gratitude for the help they desperately need, only to later accuse them of ingratitude if they attempt to assert their rights.
3. Manipulating the concept of ‘peace’
Trump claims that Zelensky is “not ready for peace.” However, what he actually means is Ukraine’s capitulation. This is a classic manipulation technique—substituting the idea of a just peace with the notion of surrender.
4. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of war
Trump repeatedly insists that Zelensky has “no cards to play” and that “without us, you have nothing.” This is yet another abusive tactic—undermining the victim’s efforts by asserting that they are powerless without the mercy of their ‘saviour.’
5. Devaluing the victims of war
“If you get a ceasefire, you must accept it so that bullets stop flying and your people stop dying,” Trump says. Yet, he ignores the fact that a ceasefire without guarantees is merely an opportunity for Russia to regroup and strike again.
6. Dominance tactics
Trump constantly interrupts Zelensky, cutting him off: “No, no, you’ve already said enough,” and “You’re not in a position to dictate to us.” This is deliberate psychological pressure designed to establish a hierarchy in which Zelensky is the subordinate.
7. Forcing capitulation under the guise of ‘diplomacy’
Vance asserts that “the path to peace lies through diplomacy.” This is a classic strategy where the aggressor is given the opportunity to continue their aggression unchallenged.
8. Projection and distortion of reality
Trump declares: “You are playing with the lives of millions of people.” Yet, in reality, it is he who is doing exactly that—shifting responsibility onto Zelensky.
9. Creating the illusion that Ukraine ‘owes’ the US
Yes, the US is assisting Ukraine, but presenting this aid as “you must obey, or you will receive nothing” is not a partnership—it is financial and military coercion.
10. Undermining Ukraine’s resistance
Trump states that “if it weren’t for our weapons, this war would have ended in two weeks.” This is an attempt to erase Ukraine’s achievements and portray its efforts as entirely dependent on US support.
Conclusion:
Trump and his team employed the full spectrum of abusive tactics: gaslighting, victim-blaming, coercion into gratitude, and manipulation of the concepts of peace and diplomacy. This was not a negotiation—it was an attempt to force Zelensky into accepting terms beneficial to the US but potentially fatal for Ukraine.
AussieDJ said:
From Facebook.Yuliia Vyshnevska
March 1 at 9:10 AMAn intriguing analysis has been circulating online regarding the psychological aspects of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance, conducted using ChatGPT.
From this analysis, it becomes evident that we have witnessed a true masterclass in gaslighting, manipulation, and coercion on the part of Trump and his entourage. Let’s break down the key points:
1. Blaming the victim for their own situation
Trump explicitly tells Zelensky: “You have allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” This is classic abuser rhetoric—blaming the victim for their suffering. The implication is that Ukraine itself is responsible for being occupied by Russia and for the deaths of its people.2. Pressure and coercion into ‘gratitude’
Vance demands that Zelensky say “thank you.” This is an extremely toxic tactic—forcing the victim to express gratitude for the help they desperately need, only to later accuse them of ingratitude if they attempt to assert their rights.3. Manipulating the concept of ‘peace’
Trump claims that Zelensky is “not ready for peace.” However, what he actually means is Ukraine’s capitulation. This is a classic manipulation technique—substituting the idea of a just peace with the notion of surrender.4. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of war
Trump repeatedly insists that Zelensky has “no cards to play” and that “without us, you have nothing.” This is yet another abusive tactic—undermining the victim’s efforts by asserting that they are powerless without the mercy of their ‘saviour.’5. Devaluing the victims of war
“If you get a ceasefire, you must accept it so that bullets stop flying and your people stop dying,” Trump says. Yet, he ignores the fact that a ceasefire without guarantees is merely an opportunity for Russia to regroup and strike again.6. Dominance tactics
Trump constantly interrupts Zelensky, cutting him off: “No, no, you’ve already said enough,” and “You’re not in a position to dictate to us.” This is deliberate psychological pressure designed to establish a hierarchy in which Zelensky is the subordinate.7. Forcing capitulation under the guise of ‘diplomacy’
Vance asserts that “the path to peace lies through diplomacy.” This is a classic strategy where the aggressor is given the opportunity to continue their aggression unchallenged.8. Projection and distortion of reality
Trump declares: “You are playing with the lives of millions of people.” Yet, in reality, it is he who is doing exactly that—shifting responsibility onto Zelensky.9. Creating the illusion that Ukraine ‘owes’ the US
Yes, the US is assisting Ukraine, but presenting this aid as “you must obey, or you will receive nothing” is not a partnership—it is financial and military coercion.10. Undermining Ukraine’s resistance
Trump states that “if it weren’t for our weapons, this war would have ended in two weeks.” This is an attempt to erase Ukraine’s achievements and portray its efforts as entirely dependent on US support.Conclusion:
Trump and his team employed the full spectrum of abusive tactics: gaslighting, victim-blaming, coercion into gratitude, and manipulation of the concepts of peace and diplomacy. This was not a negotiation—it was an attempt to force Zelensky into accepting terms beneficial to the US but potentially fatal for Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Facebook.Yuliia Vyshnevska
March 1 at 9:10 AMAn intriguing analysis has been circulating online regarding the psychological aspects of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance, conducted using ChatGPT.
From this analysis, it becomes evident that we have witnessed a true masterclass in gaslighting, manipulation, and coercion on the part of Trump and his entourage. Let’s break down the key points:
1. Blaming the victim for their own situation
Trump explicitly tells Zelensky: “You have allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” This is classic abuser rhetoric—blaming the victim for their suffering. The implication is that Ukraine itself is responsible for being occupied by Russia and for the deaths of its people.2. Pressure and coercion into ‘gratitude’
Vance demands that Zelensky say “thank you.” This is an extremely toxic tactic—forcing the victim to express gratitude for the help they desperately need, only to later accuse them of ingratitude if they attempt to assert their rights.3. Manipulating the concept of ‘peace’
Trump claims that Zelensky is “not ready for peace.” However, what he actually means is Ukraine’s capitulation. This is a classic manipulation technique—substituting the idea of a just peace with the notion of surrender.4. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of war
Trump repeatedly insists that Zelensky has “no cards to play” and that “without us, you have nothing.” This is yet another abusive tactic—undermining the victim’s efforts by asserting that they are powerless without the mercy of their ‘saviour.’5. Devaluing the victims of war
“If you get a ceasefire, you must accept it so that bullets stop flying and your people stop dying,” Trump says. Yet, he ignores the fact that a ceasefire without guarantees is merely an opportunity for Russia to regroup and strike again.6. Dominance tactics
Trump constantly interrupts Zelensky, cutting him off: “No, no, you’ve already said enough,” and “You’re not in a position to dictate to us.” This is deliberate psychological pressure designed to establish a hierarchy in which Zelensky is the subordinate.7. Forcing capitulation under the guise of ‘diplomacy’
Vance asserts that “the path to peace lies through diplomacy.” This is a classic strategy where the aggressor is given the opportunity to continue their aggression unchallenged.8. Projection and distortion of reality
Trump declares: “You are playing with the lives of millions of people.” Yet, in reality, it is he who is doing exactly that—shifting responsibility onto Zelensky.9. Creating the illusion that Ukraine ‘owes’ the US
Yes, the US is assisting Ukraine, but presenting this aid as “you must obey, or you will receive nothing” is not a partnership—it is financial and military coercion.10. Undermining Ukraine’s resistance
Trump states that “if it weren’t for our weapons, this war would have ended in two weeks.” This is an attempt to erase Ukraine’s achievements and portray its efforts as entirely dependent on US support.Conclusion:
Trump and his team employed the full spectrum of abusive tactics: gaslighting, victim-blaming, coercion into gratitude, and manipulation of the concepts of peace and diplomacy. This was not a negotiation—it was an attempt to force Zelensky into accepting terms beneficial to the US but potentially fatal for Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO
Thanks.
we mean none of this is really a huge surprise but we would argue that the most informative part of it is how naturally these abuses have played out from the Russian agents in that room
kii said:
Point 3. She’s probably a rusted on trumper and can’t see facts, but we can only try.“As I am in Ukraine at the moment, I would just like to correct a few lies from the Zelensky/Trump meeting based on my work here in Ukraine—Trump and Vance you are welcome to come visit although I doubt you have the courage to do so.
1) Zelensky showed up in military fatigues as he has done at every international meeting since day one of the 2022 Russian invasion—the second Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014—to show his solidarity with the Ukrainian soldiers risking their lives to defend Ukraine, and to emphasize he is the leader of a country at war.
I didn’t see any similar objections to the non-elected immigrant racist white supremacist Elon Musk showing up repeatedly in the White House in a T-shirt and baseball cap which he didn’t even remove—it is a standard sign of respect to leadership to remove your hat—so don’t lecture Zelensky on how to dress.
2) Zelensky is not a dictator and he is not an unpopular leader who is unable to mobilize his people. I have spent many nights and days in the last few weeks with soldiers heading to the frontlines and talking to them, and none of them have tried to refuse to serve and they were heading into the battle with determination and courage—I salute them and respect them deeply.
3) Ukraine and Zelensky doesn’t have to thank the U.S. or Trump—the U.S. and Trump need to thank Ukraine and Zelensky. This is for two reasons.
First of all, Ukraine gave up the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world voluntarily at the end of the USSR under the Budapest accords guaranteed by the U.S., France, UK, and Russia, giving up several trillion of dollars of nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees for its territorial integrity which Russia has violated and the U.S., UK and France vowed to protect. If Ukraine had kept its nuclear weapons, it would have been one of the most nuclear armed countries in the world and Russia would have never invaded. We, the West, committed to defend Ukraine in exchange for its denuclearization so there is no need for Ukraine to thank the U.S. for keeping its promises. See https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/ukraine-nuclear-weapons-and-security-assurances-glance
Secondly, Ukraine is defending not just its own territorial integrity but the future of Europe. I have been interviewing people from the Russian-occupied territories the last few weeks and they really do live in a Stalinist prison camp that is unbelievably oppressive. This is what Putin wants to bring to much of Europe and we need to stop him in Ukraine to save our own democratic future, at any price (respecting human rights).
In was in Chechnya 25 years ago documenting the same Russian abuses, together at the same hotel with the murdered Anna Polikovskaya, the murdered Natalia Estemirova, and Memorial’s Oleg Orlov who was imprisoned in February 2024 for “discrediting the Russian military” and later released in a prisoner exchange.
The difference in 1999-2000 is that we could operate in Russia, under the watchful eye of the FSB (the current KGB). The FSB were staying at the same hotel as us, the ACCA in Ingushetia, and one night I found a few cigarette butts on the floor of my room just to let me know they were watching us. Buy we could go to Moscow, Human Rights Watch had a staff and office in Moscow, and do our work despite the dangers.
Since the Russian invasion of 2022 (and long before that), that limited space for activism and civil society has closed down in Russia. There are no more independent journalists or human rights groups operating in Russia and the HRW office has long closed down, and Anna and Natalia and Nemtsov and so many others were simply murdered by Putin. Yet this is what Trump embraces instead of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people, and he has refrained of any criticism of the murderous dictator Putin, instead trying to humiliate the freedom-fighting Zelensky. But Zelensky isn’t humiliated, he stands proud and strong because you cannot be humiliated by people you don’t respect.
Shame on you, you twice impeached and felon convicted orange wanna be. You and your republican supplicants do not deserve our respect—I won’t even spell republicans with a capital R because they don’t deserve that honorific. Shame on you betrayers of our American Values.”
Peter Bouckaert, Senior Director at Fortify Rights
well we all know what happened to that last gentleman who wore traditional costume to international meet ups
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:what I say is real.
Right now, I have information on my screen saying that India are 4/170 from 36 overs. I declare this to be real.
It has probably changed by now?
Time has this strange effect; things change with it.
this is so derivative
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:It has probably changed by now?
Time has this strange effect; things change with it.
this is so derivative
I’m sure it can be integrated over time.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Time has this strange effect; things change with it.
this is so derivative
I’m sure it can be integrated over time.
such a primitive consideration
Trump CAUGHT On Hot Mic BEGGING Fox Host To Praise His Cabinet Meeting
Following his first cabinet meeting of his administration this week, Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic begging Fox News host Lawrence Jones to say on the air that his cabinet meeting was “unbelievable.” The man is so desperate for approval and admiration that he resorted to begging an already-friendly network to cover his actions in the most outlandish way possible to make himself look better. Mental health professionals across the country must be going crazy wanting to diagnose Trump’s many problems, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
Nullschool
Weather and climate data shown on this website and countless others are at risk.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the U.S. agency responsible for global weather forecasting, hurricane prediction, ocean observation, and many other services vital to public safety. Its satellites, supercomputers, and research teams provide essential data that help us understand our planet and protect lives.
On February 27, the new U.S. administration initiated mass firings at NOAA. These actions are unethical and deeply disruptive to the talented scientists and engineers who dedicate themselves to the public good. The firings, along with expected budget cuts, have serious implications for the availability and quality of weather forecasts produced by the United States. They must be reversed immediately.
Much of the data on this website is downloaded directly from NOAA’s servers. In this environment of uncertainty, access could be disrupted at any time. While I’ll strive to keep all features on this website functional and switch to alternative data sources if necessary, some datasets have no substitute if they go offline.
If this concerns you, speak up. Share on social media. And if you’re in the U.S., contact your representatives.
- Cameron
ChrispenEvan said:
NullschoolWeather and climate data shown on this website and countless others are at risk.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the U.S. agency responsible for global weather forecasting, hurricane prediction, ocean observation, and many other services vital to public safety. Its satellites, supercomputers, and research teams provide essential data that help us understand our planet and protect lives.
On February 27, the new U.S. administration initiated mass firings at NOAA. These actions are unethical and deeply disruptive to the talented scientists and engineers who dedicate themselves to the public good. The firings, along with expected budget cuts, have serious implications for the availability and quality of weather forecasts produced by the United States. They must be reversed immediately.
Much of the data on this website is downloaded directly from NOAA’s servers. In this environment of uncertainty, access could be disrupted at any time. While I’ll strive to keep all features on this website functional and switch to alternative data sources if necessary, some datasets have no substitute if they go offline.
If this concerns you, speak up. Share on social media. And if you’re in the U.S., contact your representatives.
- Cameron
It is all a part of Putin’s plan.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
this is so derivative
I’m sure it can be integrated over time.
such a primitive consideration
:)
Good conversation.
ChrispenEvan said:
Nullschool
Weather and climate data shown on this website and countless others are at risk.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the U.S. agency responsible for global weather forecasting, hurricane prediction, ocean observation, and many other services vital to public safety. Its satellites, supercomputers, and research teams provide essential data that help us understand our planet and protect lives.
On February 27, the new U.S. administration initiated mass firings at NOAA. These actions are unethical and deeply disruptive to the talented scientists and engineers who dedicate themselves to the public good. The firings, along with expected budget cuts, have serious implications for the availability and quality of weather forecasts produced by the United States. They must be reversed immediately.
Much of the data on this website is downloaded directly from NOAA’s servers. In this environment of uncertainty, access could be disrupted at any time. While I’ll strive to keep all features on this website functional and switch to alternative data sources if necessary, some datasets have no substitute if they go offline.
If this concerns you, speak up. Share on social media. And if you’re in the U.S., contact your representatives.
- Cameron
LOL
Good News, Is There A Border Wall KKK Can’t Build¿ Very Stable Genius Has Found The Perfect Deterrent For Dirty Mexicans
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Mexico has issued a warning to its citizens asking them not to travel to Texas and seven other states in the U.S. due to a measles outbreak.
normalise disaster
It’d be nice thanks.
I think Russian and the US can make short work of the EU.
Peak Warming Man said:
I think Russian and the US can make short work of the EU.
They’ll be no deal which doesn’t have the full-thoated approval of France and the UK if a deal is what Trump wants to end the war.
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice thanks.
Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
AussieDJ said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice thanks.
Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Zelensky was not going to give them that. I sincerely hope he keeps sticking to his guns on that.
it doesn’t matter what he says, to those sycophants it only matters what their idols say
remember back in the day when pseudoscience cracks were the worst disinformation one would regularly encounter, and simply getting a seat at debate gave them legitimacy
This game won’t stop the war and Zelensky is well aware of that.
we’re telling yous
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice thanks.
Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
it doesn’t matter what he says, to those sycophants it only matters what their idols say
remember back in the day when pseudoscience cracks were the worst disinformation one would regularly encounter, and simply getting a seat at debate gave them legitimacy
This game won’t stop the war and Zelensky is well aware of that.
we’re telling yous
though we’ll definitely and readily say this
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” said Merz, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union Party. “I never thought I would have to say something like,” he added, “it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”
naïve fella is wrong
the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely interested and even invested in Europe returning to fascism
Quite understandable, if true.
The Americans will land at Calais and the Russians will take care of Poland and the Baltic states, they’ll probably meet up in Berlin.
oh wow this was quite the surprise
Trump has revealed a self-interest in world politics, expert says
Lewis Wiseman profile image
By Lewis Wiseman
John Blaxland from the Australian National University said that US President Donald Trump has revealed a self-interest in world politics. He said the president’s behaviour could be perceived as boorish but has shown that the United States has a strong interest in current affairs.
yeah keeping up to date with the news here, guess 25 years is pretty much nothing in geological time so this really is news
Kingy said:
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
How about Elvish?
Kingy said:
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
How about Elvish?
captain_spalding said:
Kingy said:
party_pants said:It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
How about Elvish?
Australian English would serve just fine as an official language.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Kingy said:Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
How about Elvish?
Australian English would serve just fine as an official language.
+1
Onya Robert!
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice thanks.
Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
Kingy said:Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
How about Elvish?
Australian English would serve just fine as an official language.
+1
kii said:
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
party_pants said:
kii said:
party_pants said:It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
Think that was Tau?
Kingy said:
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
Australia doesn’t have an official language. I suggest Noongar.
Oh dear.
kii said:
party_pants said:
AussieDJ said:Which English?
The King’s English, or the abomination which is (shudder!) American English?
It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
exactly, JavaScript would be as good as any
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
party_pants said:It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
exactly, JavaScript would be as good as any
I’d have thought the Macquarie dictionary would have attended to the issue.
party_pants said:
kii said:
party_pants said:It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
sounds so sovcit.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:WTF? Are you for real?
exactly, JavaScript would be as good as any
I’d have thought the Macquarie dictionary would have attended to the issue.
the macquarie isn’t a real dictionary.
ChrispenEvan said:
party_pants said:
kii said:WTF? Are you for real?
Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
sounds so sovcit.
I have a vague recollection of skimming/skipping posts about this a year or two ago.
Spiny Norman said:
It’d be nice thanks.
LOL
Peak Warming Man said:
I think Russian and the US can make short work of the EU.
Hmmmmm.
party_pants said:
kii said:
party_pants said:It doesn’t matter. Can’t be a proper country without an official language, any language, as some here have suggested in the past.
WTF? Are you for real?
Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
(Shrugs) the UK has lasted okay despite never having an official language
buffy said:
ChrispenEvan said:
party_pants said:Yes. There were long arguments here some time ago about all Australian laws being invalid because there was no official language in which to write them.
sounds so sovcit.
I have a vague recollection of skimming/skipping posts about this a year or two ago.
Same here. It appeared to devolve into the usual mess, so I ignored it.
Australian laws invalid due to no official language
Hmmm. I remember something about that.
Not authorised or something.
On the rwnj conviction that Europe is a lawless hellscape compared to the US.
dv said:
On the rwnj conviction that Europe is a lawless hellscape compared to the US.
FMD
dv said:
On the rwnj conviction that Europe is a lawless hellscape compared to the US.
I dunno, Europe seems to be doing alright for itself. If it wasn’t for the EU we’d still have lightning cables to charge iPhones.
Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
diddly-squat said:
Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
nice
diddly-squat said:
Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
Don’t do anything to upset those nice Russian folks, OK?
Michael V said:
dv said:
On the rwnj conviction that Europe is a lawless hellscape compared to the US.
FMD
Didn’t you hear, just a week or two back?
Seems that Gina Hancock broke out of a concentration camp in Australia, and somehow struggled her way to the Conservative Political Action Congress in the US.
So, it’s just as bad here.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
Don’t do anything to upset those nice Russian folks, OK?
The problem is that you aren’t playing 4D chess.. I mean step 1 in effective negotiating is always letting go of all of your leverage… It’s the Art of the Deal…
Michael V said:
kii said:
Meanwhile in Ohio…
JDV is an amoral opportunist.
Exactly.
I saw a person praise him for letting one of his kids ruffle his hair a bit, at the inauguration I think. Vance’s wife stopped one of the kids from doing the same and was criticized by the same idjit.
diddly-squat said:
Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
Can he order the Russians to stop, too?
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to stop offensive cyberoperations against Russia.
Don’t do anything to upset those nice Russian folks, OK?
The problem is that you aren’t playing 4D chess.. I mean step 1 in effective negotiating is always letting go of all of your leverage… It’s the Art of the Deal…
Step 1 is deciding out which side you’re on. He seems to have settled on Russia’s side, so what he is doing vaguely makes some logical sense.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
On the rwnj conviction that Europe is a lawless hellscape compared to the US.
FMD
Didn’t you hear, just a week or two back?
Seems that Gina Hancock broke out of a concentration camp in Australia, and somehow struggled her way to the Conservative Political Action Congress in the US.
So, it’s just as bad here.
FMD.
ChrispenEvan said:
Ha!
Heather Cox Richardson
27m ·
March 2, 2025 (Sunday)
On February 28, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matishak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.
Both the scope of the directive and its duration are unclear.
On Face the Nation this morning, Representative Mike Turner (R-OH), a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine, contradicted that information. “Considering what I know, what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that would I’m certain not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations,” he said. Well respected on both sides of the aisle, Turner was in line to be the chair of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress until House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) removed him from that slot and from the intelligence committee altogether.
And yet, as Stephanie Kirchgaessner of The Guardian notes, the Trump administration has made clear that it no longer sees Russia as a cybersecurity threat. Last week, at a United Nations working group on cybersecurity, representatives from the European Union and the United Kingdom highlighted threats from Russia, while Liesyl Franz, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for international cybersecurity, did not mention Russia, saying the U.S. was concerned about threats from China and Iran.
Kirchgaessner also noted that under Trump, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which monitors cyberthreats against critical infrastructure, has set new priorities. Although Russian threats, especially those against U.S. election systems, were a top priority for the agency in the past, a source told Kirchgaessner that analysts were told not to follow or report on Russian threats.
“Russia and China are our biggest adversaries,” the source told Kirchgaessner. “With all the cuts being made to different agencies, a lot of cybersecurity personnel have been fired. Our systems are not going to be protected and our adversaries know this.” “People are saying Russia is winning,” the source said. “Putin is on the inside now.”
Another source noted that “There are dozens of discrete Russia state-sponsored hacker teams dedicated to either producing damage to US government, infrastructure and commercial interests or conducting information theft with a key goal of maintaining persistent access to computer systems.” “Russia is at least on par with China as the most significant cyber threat, the person added. Under those circumstances, the source said, ceasing to follow and report Russian threats is “truly shocking.”
Trump’s outburst in the Oval Office on Friday confirmed that Putin has been his partner in politics since at least 2016. “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia… Russia, Russia, Russia—you ever hear of that deal?—that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it, and we didn’t end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom.”
Putin went through a hell of a lot with Trump? It was an odd statement from a U.S. president, whose loyalty is supposed to be dedicated to the Constitution and the American people.
Trump has made dismissing as a hoax what he calls “Russia, Russia, Russia” central to his political narrative. But Russian operatives did, in fact, work to elect him in 2016. A 2020 report from the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that Putin ordered hacks of Democratic computer networks, and at two crucial moments WikiLeaks, which the Senate committee concluded was allied with the Russians, dumped illegally obtained emails that were intended to hurt the candidacy of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump openly called for Russia to hack Clinton’s emails.
Russian operatives also flooded social media with disinformation, not necessarily explicitly endorsing Trump, but spreading lies about Clinton to depress Democratic turnout, or to rile up those on the right by falsely claiming that Democrats intended to ban the Pledge of Allegiance, for example. The goal of the propaganda was not simply to elect Trump. It was to pit the far ends of the political spectrum against the middle, tearing the nation apart.
Fake accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook drove wedges between Americans over issues of race, immigration, and gun rights. Craig Timberg and Tony Romm of the Washington Post reported in 2018 that Facebook officials told Congress that the Russian campaign reached 126 million people on Facebook and 20 million on Instagram.
That effort was not a one-shot deal: Russians worked to influence the 2020 presidential election, too. In 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Putin “authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical division in the US.” But “nlike in 2016,” the report said, “we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure.”
Moscow used “proxies linked to Russian intelligence to push influence narratives—including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden—to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded.
In October 2024, Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, warned in an interview with CBS News that Russia was bombarding voters with propaganda to divide Americans before that year’s election, as well. Operatives were not just posting fake stories and replying to posts, but were also using AI to manufacture fake videos and laundering Russian talking points through social media influencers. Just a month before, news had broken that Russia was funding Tenet Media, a company that hired right-wing personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen, and Matt Christiansen, who repeated Russian talking points.
Now back in office, Trump and MAGA loyalists say that efforts to stop disinformation undermine their right to free speech. Project 2025, the extremist blueprint for the second Trump administration, denied that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election—calling it “a Clinton campaign dirty trick”—and called for ending government efforts to stop disinformation with “utmost urgency.” “The federal government cannot be the arbiter of truth,” it said.
On February 20, Steven Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes, and Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation and those combating cyberattacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story that two members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” are now installed at CISA: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old known as “Big Balls,” and Kyle Schutt, a 38-year-old software engineer. Kim Zetter of Wired reported that since 2018, CISA has “helped state and local election offices around the country assess vulnerabilities in their networks and help secure them.”
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine. Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean “positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
JDV is an amoral opportunist.
Exactly.
I saw a person praise him for letting one of his kids ruffle his hair a bit, at the inauguration I think. Vance’s wife stopped one of the kids from doing the same and was criticized by the same idjit.
yeah well
JDV is an amoral opportunist.
a perfect representative of his country
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
27m ·
March 2, 2025 (Sunday)On February 28, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matishak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.
————————————————cut——————————————————
On February 20, Steven Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes, and Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation and those combating cyberattacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story that two members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” are now installed at CISA: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old known as “Big Balls,” and Kyle Schutt, a 38-year-old software engineer. Kim Zetter of Wired reported that since 2018, CISA has “helped state and local election offices around the country assess vulnerabilities in their networks and help secure them.”
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine. Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean “positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
Maybe the Krasnov story is correct…
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
JDV is an amoral opportunist.
Exactly.
I saw a person praise him for letting one of his kids ruffle his hair a bit, at the inauguration I think. Vance’s wife stopped one of the kids from doing the same and was criticized by the same idjit.
yeah well
JDV is an amoral opportunist.
a perfect representative of his country
Maybe…
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
27m ·
March 2, 2025 (Sunday)On February 28, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matishak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.
————————————————cut——————————————————
On February 20, Steven Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes, and Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation and those combating cyberattacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story that two members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” are now installed at CISA: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old known as “Big Balls,” and Kyle Schutt, a 38-year-old software engineer. Kim Zetter of Wired reported that since 2018, CISA has “helped state and local election offices around the country assess vulnerabilities in their networks and help secure them.”
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine. Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean “positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
Maybe the Krasnov story is correct…
^
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
Maybe the Krasnov story is correct…
Putin helps Trump win the election, so Trump can pursue his campaign of revenge.
So, Trump owes Putin, big time.
Putin is certain that Trump will ‘honour his obligations’. Because Putin has the Pee Tapes.
dv said:
is that like overt corruption?
Peter Dutton says he will ‘lobby’ Donald Trump to change view on Ukraine if Coalition wins election
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/03/peter-dutton-donald-trump-ukraine-russia-war-zelenskyy-putin
——-
roffle.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
27m ·
March 2, 2025 (Sunday)On February 28, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matishak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.
————————————————cut——————————————————
On February 20, Steven Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes, and Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation and those combating cyberattacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story that two members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” are now installed at CISA: Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old known as “Big Balls,” and Kyle Schutt, a 38-year-old software engineer. Kim Zetter of Wired reported that since 2018, CISA has “helped state and local election offices around the country assess vulnerabilities in their networks and help secure them.”
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine. Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean “positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
Maybe the Krasnov story is correct…
^
I just listened to a guy who explained a lot of the Russian asset ties to trump, Paul Manafort for one, also Felix Sater (who I vaguely remember being talked about ages ago). The failure of all of trump’s companies, the bankruptcies, the sale of property to Russians. All money laundering for the Russians.
How after his first visit to Moscow in 1987 he returned to the US and took out ads criticizing US foreign policy
Therefore making trump Krasnov, even if he doesn’t realise it or remember it, because of his obvious dementia.
Anyway, that’s what I woke up to. I also thought my mother was still alive when I woke up.
sarahs mum said:
Peter Dutton says he will ‘lobby’ Donald Trump to change view on Ukraine if Coalition wins electionhttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/03/peter-dutton-donald-trump-ukraine-russia-war-zelenskyy-putin
——-
roffle.
Add my roffle.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Peter Dutton says he will ‘lobby’ Donald Trump to change view on Ukraine if Coalition wins electionhttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/03/peter-dutton-donald-trump-ukraine-russia-war-zelenskyy-putin
——-
roffle.
Add my roffle.
And mine.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
Maybe the Krasnov story is correct…
^
I just listened to a guy who explained a lot of the Russian asset ties to trump, Paul Manafort for one, also Felix Sater (who I vaguely remember being talked about ages ago). The failure of all of trump’s companies, the bankruptcies, the sale of property to Russians. All money laundering for the Russians.
How after his first visit to Moscow in 1987 he returned to the US and took out ads criticizing US foreign policy
Therefore making trump Krasnov, even if he doesn’t realise it or remember it, because of his obvious dementia.Anyway, that’s what I woke up to. I also thought my mother was still alive when I woke up.
makes more sense than most theories.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:^
I just listened to a guy who explained a lot of the Russian asset ties to trump, Paul Manafort for one, also Felix Sater (who I vaguely remember being talked about ages ago). The failure of all of trump’s companies, the bankruptcies, the sale of property to Russians. All money laundering for the Russians.
How after his first visit to Moscow in 1987 he returned to the US and took out ads criticizing US foreign policy
Therefore making trump Krasnov, even if he doesn’t realise it or remember it, because of his obvious dementia.Anyway, that’s what I woke up to. I also thought my mother was still alive when I woke up.
makes more sense than most theories.
This guy explained that it is all based on verifiable facts.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
is that like overt corruption?
well you won’t find evidence of collusion because you just have a bunch of our souls who know what each of them needs to do to be a part of all this but they never actually need to say that to each other so it’s completely above board and legal
can’t remember the word for this convenient play though
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
is that like overt corruption?
well you won’t find evidence of collusion because you just have a bunch of our souls who know what each of them needs to do to be a part of all this but they never actually need to say that to each other so it’s completely above board and legal
can’t remember the word for this convenient play though
Compare the Australian situation so far where even the impression of impropriety can get you roasted and we’re happier but we do also remember how Corruption and Communism totally didn’t collude over election funding or the detoothing of anti corruption bodies and we’re not completely happy.
Accurate enough.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
is that like overt corruption?
well you won’t find evidence of collusion because you just have a bunch of our souls who know what each of them needs to do to be a part of all this but they never actually need to say that to each other so it’s completely above board and legal
can’t remember the word for this convenient play though
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
is that like overt corruption?
well you won’t find evidence of collusion because you just have a bunch of our souls who know what each of them needs to do to be a part of all this but they never actually need to say that to each other so it’s completely above board and legal
can’t remember the word for this convenient play though
so they’re just saying things independently of each other but the next thing to do for them to grift harder is obvious
still looking for a term for it though, tacit synchronisation or something
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:^
I just listened to a guy who explained a lot of the Russian asset ties to trump, Paul Manafort for one, also Felix Sater (who I vaguely remember being talked about ages ago). The failure of all of trump’s companies, the bankruptcies, the sale of property to Russians. All money laundering for the Russians.
How after his first visit to Moscow in 1987 he returned to the US and took out ads criticizing US foreign policy
Therefore making trump Krasnov, even if he doesn’t realise it or remember it, because of his obvious dementia.Anyway, that’s what I woke up to. I also thought my mother was still alive when I woke up.
makes more sense than most theories.
We even know the activation words for the Manchurian Cantaloupe.
Person woman man camera TV.
Apparently the former president of Poland, Lech Wałęsa and others, wrote the following letter to Trump.
Your Excellency, Mr. President,
We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against Russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s Russia.
We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.
Our alarm was also heightened by the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation, which reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the Security Services and the debates in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist political police, would explain to us that they held all the power while we held none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us. They stripped us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government or express gratitude for our oppression. We are shocked that President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated in the same manner.
The history of the 20th century shows that whenever the United States sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ultimately became a threat to itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this when he decided in 1917 that the United States must join World War I. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he resolved that the war to defend America must be fought not only in the Pacific but also in Europe, in alliance with the nations under attack by the Third Reich.
We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and America’s financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan recognized that millions of enslaved people suffered in Soviet Russia and the countries it had subjugated, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their defense of democratic values with their freedom. His greatness lay, among other things, in his unwavering decision to call the USSR an “Empire of Evil” and to fight it decisively. We won, and today, the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands in Warsaw, facing the U.S. Embassy.
Mr. President, material aid—military and financial—can never be equated with the blood shed in the name of Ukraine’s independence and the freedom of Europe and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude is due to those who sacrifice their blood and their freedom. This is self-evident to us, the people of Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime under Soviet Russia.
We call on the United States to uphold the guarantees made alongside Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which established a direct obligation to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear weapons. These guarantees are unconditional—there is no mention of treating such assistance as an economic transaction.
Signed,
Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, President of Poland
dv said:
We even know the activation words for the Manchurian Cantaloupe.
Person woman man camera TV.
snort & chortle
A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
diddly-squat said:
A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
What, That’s Not How Democracy Works
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
I mean I don’t think a deal can be struck without the support of the Ukrainian people, but equally theirs is not the only vote that matters here. Any deal would also have to have support from France and England (and probably Germany) as well.
The point of the polling numbers is that it illustrates that the vast majority of GOP voters support the current position the Trump administration in regard to support for Ukraine.
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
I mean I don’t think a deal can be struck without the support of the Ukrainian people, but equally theirs is not the only vote that matters here. Any deal would also have to have support from France and England (and probably Germany) as well.
The point of the polling numbers is that it illustrates that the vast majority of GOP voters support the current position the Trump administration in regard to support for Ukraine.
Why would it?
If Ukraine makes an agreement with Russia why would any other country have a say in it?
kii said:
Apparently the former president of Poland, Lech Wałęsa and others, wrote the following letter to Trump.Your Excellency, Mr. President,
We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against Russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s Russia.
We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.
Our alarm was also heightened by the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation, which reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the Security Services and the debates in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist political police, would explain to us that they held all the power while we held none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us. They stripped us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government or express gratitude for our oppression. We are shocked that President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated in the same manner.The history of the 20th century shows that whenever the United States sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ultimately became a threat to itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this when he decided in 1917 that the United States must join World War I. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he resolved that the war to defend America must be fought not only in the Pacific but also in Europe, in alliance with the nations under attack by the Third Reich.
We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and America’s financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan recognized that millions of enslaved people suffered in Soviet Russia and the countries it had subjugated, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their defense of democratic values with their freedom. His greatness lay, among other things, in his unwavering decision to call the USSR an “Empire of Evil” and to fight it decisively. We won, and today, the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands in Warsaw, facing the U.S. Embassy.
Mr. President, material aid—military and financial—can never be equated with the blood shed in the name of Ukraine’s independence and the freedom of Europe and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude is due to those who sacrifice their blood and their freedom. This is self-evident to us, the people of Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime under Soviet Russia.
We call on the United States to uphold the guarantees made alongside Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which established a direct obligation to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear weapons. These guarantees are unconditional—there is no mention of treating such assistance as an economic transaction.
Signed,
Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, President of Poland
Oh, yeah, like Trump’s attention span is going to be sufficient for him to read more than two lines of that.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
I mean I don’t think a deal can be struck without the support of the Ukrainian people, but equally theirs is not the only vote that matters here. Any deal would also have to have support from France and England (and probably Germany) as well.
The point of the polling numbers is that it illustrates that the vast majority of GOP voters support the current position the Trump administration in regard to support for Ukraine.
Why would it?
If Ukraine makes an agreement with Russia why would any other country have a say in it?
because, I would imagine, there would be security guarantees associated with any agreement – baring all out surrender that is.
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Would be close to 100% of Russian citizens I suspect (I hesitate to call them voters).
But surely it is only Ukrainian voters who should get a say in this.
I mean I don’t think a deal can be struck without the support of the Ukrainian people, but equally theirs is not the only vote that matters here. Any deal would also have to have support from France and England (and probably Germany) as well.
The point of the polling numbers is that it illustrates that the vast majority of GOP voters support the current position the Trump administration in regard to support for Ukraine.
Why would it?
If Ukraine makes an agreement with Russia why would any other country have a say in it?
They are all wary of Putin.
Spiny Norman said:
Accurate enough.
:)
kii said:
:)
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Accurate enough.
:)
so it’s true, Ukrainians really can take on 10 opponents to every 1, which is how the DPRNA fascists failed in their meeting
I’ve lost track of where this was posted. The incident is all over the internet.
“MAGA Republican Congressman and world class dickhead Derrick Van Orden, who has poorly represented southwest Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district since 2023, has provided plenty of evidence of his unfitness to hold elected office. Here’s more.
One of his constituents, a former employee of the Veterans Administration who is among the thousands of VA workers illegally fired by convicted felon Donald Trump’s top campaign donor, Elon Musk, messaged Van Orden via LinkedIn to ask for his help and support.
Tony Ruiz, a disabled Army veteran, was fired in a February 13th purge of VA employees by Musk and his DOGE team of pimply-faced hackers only two weeks before the end of his “probationary” period. Like those sent to other fired workers, the email from DOGE with which he was terminated said he was fired for poor performance. That’s a lie, of course. Ruiz had recently been recognized as the Employee of the Quarter for the office in which he worked as a processor of veterans services claims.
So, he contacted his congressman to urge him to help stop the indiscriminate firings of federal workers like himself by Trump, Musk and DOGE
Here’s the response Van Orden sent to him on Saturday:
“I am a member on the VA Committee,” Van Orden wrote. “I have absolutely no say in the employment status of any individual in the executive branch however, I will be referring you to DOGE as it seems that at 13:46 on a Monday you should have been working for veterans, not posting trash about your boss, President Trump. There needs to be accountability.”
Is that so, congressman? Are you so dimwitted, ignorant and out of touch that you think a fired employee is still on the clock even after they were terminated? Are you so daft that you think the workers fired by Musk are still reporting to work? Do you expect people like Ruiz to just keep doing their jobs without pay and without the computers and email accounts from which their access was denied the very moment they were s**t canned by the unelected and unaccountable billionaire oligarch whose boots you lick?
The stupidity of your response, sir, is almost as maddening as your condescension and threats of retribution toward your constituent. Is that your idea of supporting veterans in your district? You are yourself a veteran. What the actual f**k wrong with you?
I’ll remind readers here that, before he was elected, Van Orden was among the Trump cultists who stormed past police barricades at the US Capitol during the insurrection on January 6, 2021. He was photographed standing on a parapet which was early inside of an off-limits area of Capitol grounds. He also lied about being in Capitol grounds that day, even after the photographic evidence of it was made public.
Van Orden was also cited for illegally trying to carry a gun past security checkpoint at an airport in Iowa in 2021. He was fined and placed on probation for a year.
While campaigning in 2021, he verbally assaulted a 17-year-old public library employee in his district because the library had a display of popular books by LGBTQ authors. “His voice was loud, he was aggressive, he had his finger jabbing into (the book) constantly,” the young woman said. She described the situation as “very uncomfortable, threatening.” Van Orden repeatedly demanded to know who set up the display so he could “teach them a lesson,” she said. She had set up the display but said she was too afraid of him to tell him because “he was full on shouting at this point and he kept aggressively shoving the books around. Van Orden ended up checking out every book from the display except one a library patron was already reading, she said. She went home and told her parents that she didn’t feel safe at work anymore.
Van Orden is also the fine and upstanding lawmaker who was reprimanded by Congress in 2023 after he berated several teenage congressional pages who were taking midnight photos in the Capitol Rotunda, which is a long standing tradition for pages at the conclusion of their service. Witnesses say a visibly drunk Van Orden accosted the teens, yelling, “Wake the f**k up you little s**ts,” and “Get the f**k out of here. You are defiling the space.” He reportedly also called the teenagers “jackasses” and “lazy s**ts.”
After the incident, Van Orden made a pathetic excuse for his angry and out of control outburst, saying, “I have long said our nation’s Capitol is a symbol of the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for this country and should never be treated like a frat house common room.”
Yeah, he has so much respect for the Capitol that he supports the insurrectionists who actually did defile the space four years ago. He has continually downplayed the January 6th assault on democracy. He has defended those who attacked police officers, destroyed and stole public property and even spread their own feces inside the building. To him, those people are patriots but not the handful of teenage pages who briefly laid on the floor to snap photos of the Capitol Rotunda ceiling. He reserves his disdain and his profanity for those kids instead.
His district’s voters had a chance to bounce the oafish MAGAnut from office last November but didn’t. I suggest they don’t make the same colossal error at election time next year.”
kii said:
Apparently the former president of Poland, Lech Wałęsa and others, wrote the following letter to Trump.Your Excellency, Mr. President,
We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against Russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s Russia.
We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.
Our alarm was also heightened by the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation, which reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the Security Services and the debates in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist political police, would explain to us that they held all the power while we held none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us. They stripped us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government or express gratitude for our oppression. We are shocked that President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated in the same manner.The history of the 20th century shows that whenever the United States sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ultimately became a threat to itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this when he decided in 1917 that the United States must join World War I. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he resolved that the war to defend America must be fought not only in the Pacific but also in Europe, in alliance with the nations under attack by the Third Reich.
We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and America’s financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan recognized that millions of enslaved people suffered in Soviet Russia and the countries it had subjugated, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their defense of democratic values with their freedom. His greatness lay, among other things, in his unwavering decision to call the USSR an “Empire of Evil” and to fight it decisively. We won, and today, the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands in Warsaw, facing the U.S. Embassy.
Mr. President, material aid—military and financial—can never be equated with the blood shed in the name of Ukraine’s independence and the freedom of Europe and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude is due to those who sacrifice their blood and their freedom. This is self-evident to us, the people of Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime under Soviet Russia.
We call on the United States to uphold the guarantees made alongside Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which established a direct obligation to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear weapons. These guarantees are unconditional—there is no mention of treating such assistance as an economic transaction.
Signed,
Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, President of Poland
G’don Lech.
diddly-squat said:
A majority (75%) of GOP voters support a quick end to the war in Ukraine where Russia keeps all captured land. This contrasts to 55% in Oct 23 and 46% in Aug 22.
Bloody!
Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
diddly-squat said:
Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
A genuine effort for Trump would entail accepting the lie that Ukraine is the invader and that it has to give all the land back to Russia.
roughbarked said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
I mean it seems to be that the only “genuine effort towards peace” that Trump is willing to accept is one where Ukraine surrender all currently occupied land and i just can’t see Zelensky doing that given he has such vocal support from Europe.
CAN TRUMP READ? Asks British PM to read out loud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzypwrH49Fo
Buried in a conversation on whether Trump is illiterate is the theory that he just doesn’t wear glasses and therefore…
it makes some sense. Him also signing with a sharpie in font size 400.
And most people much younger than him wear glasses.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
Yeah
You assume the Russians would use the time to rebuild forces and start again
Putin would did it just save face and not look weak to his adversaries in Russia
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
I mean it seems to be that the only “genuine effort towards peace” that Trump is willing to accept is one where Ukraine surrender all currently occupied land and i just can’t see Zelensky doing that given he has such vocal support from Europe.
Pretty much
Tamb said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.
that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
roughbarked said:
Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
I was saying that it seems like a coalition of dictators.
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
roughbarked said:
Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
I don’t know
Will he leave at the end of his term peacefully.
Its not beyond belief he’d dig in and refuse
The USA has all the ingredients to become a fascist state
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
roughbarked said:
Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
Zelensky has embarrassed Trump three times in one meeting.
First, Trump frequently touts that he’s a genius at ‘making deals’.
He thought he had Zelensky cornered, and that he could score a lot of points with his MAGA fans by talking down to Zelensky and demanding expressions of thanks from him. Zelensky, he believed, had no choice but to sit there and take it, and then sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky didn’t do that. Trump failed to ‘make a deal’, and Zelensky showed that Trump could be defied. Two red faces for Trump.
Secondly, Trump had talked himself up as the one to end the war.
He had Zelensky,right there in the Oval Office, and all it needed was Zelensky’s signature on a document to seal a deal that would have made big money for some of Trump’s friends (and, no doubt, Trump himself, by indirect means), and make big steps toward confirmingTrump’s claim to be able to end the war.
Zelensky just said, ‘nope, see ya’.
No end to the war foreseeable. Red face number three for Trump.
Trump was seen to have misjudged the situation completely. He was shown to be the blundering klutz that he is.
Now it’s all about revenge on Zelensky for the red faces.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.
that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
I don’t know
Will he leave at the end of his term peacefully.
Its not beyond belief he’d dig in and refuse
The USA has all the ingredients to become a fascist state
Lee Harvey, your nation calls out to you…
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.
that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
Zelensky has embarrassed Trump three times in one meeting.
First, Trump frequently touts that he’s a genius at ‘making deals’.
He thought he had Zelensky cornered, and that he could score a lot of points with his MAGA fans by talking down to Zelensky and demanding expressions of thanks from him. Zelensky, he believed, had no choice but to sit there and take it, and then sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky didn’t do that. Trump failed to ‘make a deal’, and Zelensky showed that Trump could be defied. Two red faces for Trump.
Secondly, Trump had talked himself up as the one to end the war.
He had Zelensky,right there in the Oval Office, and all it needed was Zelensky’s signature on a document to seal a deal that would have made big money for some of Trump’s friends (and, no doubt, Trump himself, by indirect means), and make big steps toward confirmingTrump’s claim to be able to end the war.
Zelensky just said, ‘nope, see ya’.
No end to the war foreseeable. Red face number three for Trump.
Trump was seen to have misjudged the situation completely. He was shown to be the blundering klutz that he is.
Now it’s all about revenge on Zelensky for the red faces.
Which will only end up with more red faces and embarrasing news coverage. Trump will be ropeable.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.
that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
Zelensky has embarrassed Trump three times in one meeting.
First, Trump frequently touts that he’s a genius at ‘making deals’.
He thought he had Zelensky cornered, and that he could score a lot of points with his MAGA fans by talking down to Zelensky and demanding expressions of thanks from him. Zelensky, he believed, had no choice but to sit there and take it, and then sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky didn’t do that. Trump failed to ‘make a deal’, and Zelensky showed that Trump could be defied. Two red faces for Trump.
Secondly, Trump had talked himself up as the one to end the war.
He had Zelensky,right there in the Oval Office, and all it needed was Zelensky’s signature on a document to seal a deal that would have made big money for some of Trump’s friends (and, no doubt, Trump himself, by indirect means), and make big steps toward confirmingTrump’s claim to be able to end the war.
Zelensky just said, ‘nope, see ya’.
No end to the war foreseeable. Red face number three for Trump.
Trump was seen to have misjudged the situation completely. He was shown to be the blundering klutz that he is.
Now it’s all about revenge on Zelensky for the red faces.
These open meetings sure are revealing.
An embarrassing blathering old fool full of hot air.
Against a true leader with strengths that go beyond.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
Zelensky has embarrassed Trump three times in one meeting.
First, Trump frequently touts that he’s a genius at ‘making deals’.
He thought he had Zelensky cornered, and that he could score a lot of points with his MAGA fans by talking down to Zelensky and demanding expressions of thanks from him. Zelensky, he believed, had no choice but to sit there and take it, and then sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky didn’t do that. Trump failed to ‘make a deal’, and Zelensky showed that Trump could be defied. Two red faces for Trump.
Secondly, Trump had talked himself up as the one to end the war.
He had Zelensky,right there in the Oval Office, and all it needed was Zelensky’s signature on a document to seal a deal that would have made big money for some of Trump’s friends (and, no doubt, Trump himself, by indirect means), and make big steps toward confirmingTrump’s claim to be able to end the war.
Zelensky just said, ‘nope, see ya’.
No end to the war foreseeable. Red face number three for Trump.
Trump was seen to have misjudged the situation completely. He was shown to be the blundering klutz that he is.
Now it’s all about revenge on Zelensky for the red faces.
Which will only end up with more red faces and embarrasing news coverage. Trump will be ropeable.
Trump doesn’t command respect, some fear perhaps as he can order military action.
You’d defy him as he so unlikeable and you’d realise he cannot be trusted
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
roughbarked said:
Which will only end up with more red faces and embarrasing news coverage. Trump will be ropeable.
Trump, and his supporters, will now blame everything on Zelensky.
They’ll point to the Oval Office debacle, and claim that Zelensky and Ukraine had their chance, right there, and they walked away from it.
They’ll ignore the ambush by Trump, and Vance, and that other fat-faced arsehole, and forget all about how the war started.
The entire war will, in the Trump/MAGA world, now be seen to be Ukraine’s fault.
In that way, it was a win for Trump. And for Putin.
sarahs mum said:
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
The incident with the German woman is scary.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
The incident with the German woman is scary.
It’s still safe to travel to the USA.
What happens once you arrive there….eehhhhh….
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Which will only end up with more red faces and embarrasing news coverage. Trump will be ropeable.
Trump, and his supporters, will now blame everything on Zelensky.
They’ll point to the Oval Office debacle, and claim that Zelensky and Ukraine had their chance, right there, and they walked away from it.
They’ll ignore the ambush by Trump, and Vance, and that other fat-faced arsehole, and forget all about how the war started.
The entire war will, in the Trump/MAGA world, now be seen to be Ukraine’s fault.
In that way, it was a win for Trump. And for Putin.
I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
Trump/Putin = Hitler/Mussolini.
that’s just silly… Trump isn’t trying to take over Europe.. he’s playing domestic politics. By making a deal he get to lord over the Dems and claim that he is the only person that could have ever made peace.
Zelensky has embarrassed Trump three times in one meeting.
First, Trump frequently touts that he’s a genius at ‘making deals’.
He thought he had Zelensky cornered, and that he could score a lot of points with his MAGA fans by talking down to Zelensky and demanding expressions of thanks from him. Zelensky, he believed, had no choice but to sit there and take it, and then sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky didn’t do that. Trump failed to ‘make a deal’, and Zelensky showed that Trump could be defied. Two red faces for Trump.
Secondly, Trump had talked himself up as the one to end the war.
He had Zelensky,right there in the Oval Office, and all it needed was Zelensky’s signature on a document to seal a deal that would have made big money for some of Trump’s friends (and, no doubt, Trump himself, by indirect means), and make big steps toward confirmingTrump’s claim to be able to end the war.
Zelensky just said, ‘nope, see ya’.
No end to the war foreseeable. Red face number three for Trump.
Trump was seen to have misjudged the situation completely. He was shown to be the blundering klutz that he is.
Now it’s all about revenge on Zelensky for the red faces.
exactly right, he isn’t trying to take over the place, he’s just trying to take over their resources oops
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Which will only end up with more red faces and embarrasing news coverage. Trump will be ropeable.
Trump, and his supporters, will now blame everything on Zelensky.
They’ll point to the Oval Office debacle, and claim that Zelensky and Ukraine had their chance, right there, and they walked away from it.
They’ll ignore the ambush by Trump, and Vance, and that other fat-faced arsehole, and forget all about how the war started.
The entire war will, in the Trump/MAGA world, now be seen to be Ukraine’s fault.
In that way, it was a win for Trump. And for Putin.
I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Bloomberg are reporting that the Trump Administration are halting all military aid to Ukraine. On background, a Defense Department official has said that the freeze will remain in place until DJT determines that the Ukrainian leadership is making what he believes is a genuine effort towards peace.
If examine Putin’s record, it seems the only genuine effort towards piece would be beating Russian troops all the way back to the border if not beyond. Giving up another skerrick of land would just reward aggression and make further revanchism a certainty.
nah but he isn’t going to do that until it’s actually happened
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
The incident with the German woman is scary.
It’s still safe to travel to the USA.
What happens once you arrive there….eehhhhh….
First stop is the Kevlar clothing shop.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:Trump, and his supporters, will now blame everything on Zelensky.
They’ll point to the Oval Office debacle, and claim that Zelensky and Ukraine had their chance, right there, and they walked away from it.
They’ll ignore the ambush by Trump, and Vance, and that other fat-faced arsehole, and forget all about how the war started.
The entire war will, in the Trump/MAGA world, now be seen to be Ukraine’s fault.
In that way, it was a win for Trump. And for Putin.
I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
Yeah, I was wondering about that.
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
The incident with the German woman is scary.
It’s still safe to travel to the USA.
What happens once you arrive there….eehhhhh….
First stop is the Kevlar clothing shop.
here’s Your ABC on the topic but LOL everyone knows that ASIANS belong in ASIA anyway so they can reap what they sowed
Occupy Democrats
2h ·
BREAKING: The Premier of Ontario throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump over his disastrous tariffs by threatening to cut off electricity to the United States: “They need to feel the pain.”
And he was just getting started…
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy — with a smile on my face,” said Premier Doug Ford.
“And I’m encouraging every other province to do the same. Quebeuc. Manitoba. B.C. We all have to act in unison out east,” he continued.
“They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard,” he stated.
He said that his government is ready to tack a surcharge on every megawatt of energy that American states purchase from Ontario. They are also prepared to “rip up” a $100 million deal with MAGA oligarch Elon Musk’s Starlink company.
Trump is slated to sign 25% tariffs on Canadian goods tomorrow, with a 10% tariff on energy. He stated that there is “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to cut a deal to avoid the tariffs.
“They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,” said Trump.
He claims that the tariffs are designed to force Canada and Mexico to do even more to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States — although it’s unclear what, if anything, more these countries could do.
In truth, Trump is just slapping these tariffs into place because he thinks that it looks tough for his xenophobic base and he has somehow convinced himself that tariffs are paid by foreign countries rather than American consumers.
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
2h ·
BREAKING: The Premier of Ontario throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump over his disastrous tariffs by threatening to cut off electricity to the United States: “They need to feel the pain.”
And he was just getting started…
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy — with a smile on my face,” said Premier Doug Ford.
“And I’m encouraging every other province to do the same. Quebeuc. Manitoba. B.C. We all have to act in unison out east,” he continued.
“They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard,” he stated.
He said that his government is ready to tack a surcharge on every megawatt of energy that American states purchase from Ontario. They are also prepared to “rip up” a $100 million deal with MAGA oligarch Elon Musk’s Starlink company.
Trump is slated to sign 25% tariffs on Canadian goods tomorrow, with a 10% tariff on energy. He stated that there is “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to cut a deal to avoid the tariffs.
“They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,” said Trump.
He claims that the tariffs are designed to force Canada and Mexico to do even more to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States — although it’s unclear what, if anything, more these countries could do.
In truth, Trump is just slapping these tariffs into place because he thinks that it looks tough for his xenophobic base and he has somehow convinced himself that tariffs are paid by foreign countries rather than American consumers.
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
empty threats we thought they already made those threats last month so it’s just posturing and pose
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
Yeah, I was wondering about that.
the old republic still had them
sarahs mum said:
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
You buckin’ feauty!
Good on Zelensky for saying no.
Slap in the face for the orange Toad.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Good on Zelensky for saying no.Slap in the face for the orange Toad.
If only it had been…
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
You buckin’ feauty!
I wonder when The Trump voters will change their minds.
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
You buckin’ feauty!
I wonder when The Trump voters will change their minds.
they won’t
Tau.Neutrino said:
Good on Zelensky for saying no.Slap in the face for the orange Toad.
Probably erased his shit eater grin
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
You buckin’ feauty!
I wonder when The Trump voters will change their minds.
it seems to me like they cheer until it affects them personally.
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:
You buckin’ feauty!
I wonder when The Trump voters will change their minds.
they won’t
They will get fed up with him at some point.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
captain_spalding said:Trump, and his supporters, will now blame everything on Zelensky.
They’ll point to the Oval Office debacle, and claim that Zelensky and Ukraine had their chance, right there, and they walked away from it.
They’ll ignore the ambush by Trump, and Vance, and that other fat-faced arsehole, and forget all about how the war started.
The entire war will, in the Trump/MAGA world, now be seen to be Ukraine’s fault.
In that way, it was a win for Trump. And for Putin.
I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
yes
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
2h ·
BREAKING: The Premier of Ontario throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump over his disastrous tariffs by threatening to cut off electricity to the United States: “They need to feel the pain.”
And he was just getting started…
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy — with a smile on my face,” said Premier Doug Ford.
“And I’m encouraging every other province to do the same. Quebeuc. Manitoba. B.C. We all have to act in unison out east,” he continued.
“They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard,” he stated.
He said that his government is ready to tack a surcharge on every megawatt of energy that American states purchase from Ontario. They are also prepared to “rip up” a $100 million deal with MAGA oligarch Elon Musk’s Starlink company.
Trump is slated to sign 25% tariffs on Canadian goods tomorrow, with a 10% tariff on energy. He stated that there is “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to cut a deal to avoid the tariffs.
“They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,” said Trump.
He claims that the tariffs are designed to force Canada and Mexico to do even more to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States — although it’s unclear what, if anything, more these countries could do.
In truth, Trump is just slapping these tariffs into place because he thinks that it looks tough for his xenophobic base and he has somehow convinced himself that tariffs are paid by foreign countries rather than American consumers.
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
Ha!
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:Tau.Neutrino said:
I wonder when The Trump voters will change their minds.
they won’t
They will get fed up with him at some point.
That debacle is not a good way to run business, is it.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
2h ·
BREAKING: The Premier of Ontario throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump over his disastrous tariffs by threatening to cut off electricity to the United States: “They need to feel the pain.”
And he was just getting started…
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy — with a smile on my face,” said Premier Doug Ford.
“And I’m encouraging every other province to do the same. Quebeuc. Manitoba. B.C. We all have to act in unison out east,” he continued.
“They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard,” he stated.
He said that his government is ready to tack a surcharge on every megawatt of energy that American states purchase from Ontario. They are also prepared to “rip up” a $100 million deal with MAGA oligarch Elon Musk’s Starlink company.
Trump is slated to sign 25% tariffs on Canadian goods tomorrow, with a 10% tariff on energy. He stated that there is “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to cut a deal to avoid the tariffs.
“They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,” said Trump.
He claims that the tariffs are designed to force Canada and Mexico to do even more to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States — although it’s unclear what, if anything, more these countries could do.
In truth, Trump is just slapping these tariffs into place because he thinks that it looks tough for his xenophobic base and he has somehow convinced himself that tariffs are paid by foreign countries rather than American consumers.
The economic fallout will be immense and could end up pitching the United States into a full-blown recession. MAGA voters wanted cheaper groceries and instead they’re going to skyrocket the cost of everything.
empty threats we thought they already made those threats last month so it’s just posturing and pose
Ha!
perhaps but they want their team to win more so they don’t care much about cheaper groceries and they will stick to buying more expensive made in amerikkka so it will actually punish foreign countries effectively costing them
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
The incident with the German woman is scary.
It’s still safe to travel to the USA.
What happens once you arrive there….eehhhhh….
my friend is there right now.. he is not reporting any issues.. but he is a bald rich white man so…
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:I wonder what people in the US Congress and Senate thought of the debacle.
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
yes
And, the people who bear the titles of ‘Congressman/woman’ and ‘Senator’: they still have some role in the governing of the country?
Because, from what we’ve seen lately, they don’t seem to be terribly aware of it.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Congress? Senate?
Do they still have those?
yes
And, the people who bear the titles of ‘Congressman/woman’ and ‘Senator’: they still have some role in the governing of the country?
Because, from what we’ve seen lately, they don’t seem to be terribly aware of it.
they make promises and say things
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
yes
And, the people who bear the titles of ‘Congressman/woman’ and ‘Senator’: they still have some role in the governing of the country?
Because, from what we’ve seen lately, they don’t seem to be terribly aware of it.
they make promises and say things
The citadel has been stormed.
The comparison between Trump and Europe.
Tau.Neutrino said:
The comparison between Trump and Europe.
Trumps incompetence.
Europe’s resolve.
captain_spalding said:
And, the people who bear the titles of ‘Congressman/woman’ and ‘Senator’: they still have some role in the governing of the country?
yes
Meanwhile…
kii said:
Meanwhile…
protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Meanwhile…
protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
/TIC
(Because you forgot to add it.)
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Meanwhile…
protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
Meanwhile…
protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
navy blue here.
I once got a detention for wearing red.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
The comparison between Trump and Europe.
Trumps incompetence.
Europe’s resolve.
Fighting over resources is not good for the environment.
That needs consideration.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
navy blue here.
I once got a detention for wearing red.
I was only noticed by the headmistress because my older sister was on the honour’s board for level 1 art in the HSC and my younger sister was notorious for being a rabble-rousing troublemaker who displayed her ND behaviour in all its glory (before we knew she was ND). I escaped notice by behaving nicely, until I bought lollies off Kerry Smith during English class.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
navy blue here.
I once got a detention for wearing red.
I was only noticed by the headmistress because my older sister was on the honour’s board for level 1 art in the HSC and my younger sister was notorious for being a rabble-rousing troublemaker who displayed her ND behaviour in all its glory (before we knew she was ND). I escaped notice by behaving nicely, until I bought lollies off Kerry Smith during English class.
noticed the tother day that Hornsby girls now has 3k fees. which seems a lot for a public school.
sarahs mum said:
Vanessa Wallace Artist
33m ·
Interesting.
Australia is saying it’s still safe to travel to USA.
The UK is being far more cautious.
And Germany already had one national grabbed by ICE and neither consulate nor family or friend she was traveling with were notified. She even had a return ticket in her possession.
FMD
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:protection of women and girls mandating genital inspections nice
At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
navy blue here.
I once got a detention for wearing red.
And the kneeling was to make sure your skirt actually touched the floor. Of course, we all knew how to wear a length of elastic around our waist and hitch the skirt up later to mini length.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:At my high school we had to have knicker inspections done by the headmistress. Kneel on the marble floor outside her office, in front of the main entrance doors. She’d lift the skirt of your uniform up for the inspection. We had to wear “nigger brown” cottontails. Fuck that was abusive. Selective high school in Sydney 1969.
navy blue here.
I once got a detention for wearing red.
And the kneeling was to make sure your skirt actually touched the floor. Of course, we all knew how to wear a length of elastic around our waist and hitch the skirt up later to mini length.
Yes, the measuring of the uniform length. We just hitched ours up over the belt. Box pleats were so much fun.
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has said she “wholeheartedly” agrees with Trump that the Department of Education should be abolished.
It must be weird dealing with her, knowing she wants the whole shop shut down.
McMahon is a wrestling magnate who is being sued for her part in a sexual abuse coverup so in fairness she may be too busy to deal with this side gig.
dv said:
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has said she “wholeheartedly” agrees with Trump that the Department of Education should be abolished.It must be weird dealing with her, knowing she wants the whole shop shut down.
McMahon is a wrestling magnate who is being sued for her part in a sexual abuse coverup so in fairness she may be too busy to deal with this side gig.
It seems to be a prerequisite to either being a rapist or covering up for rapists.
kii said:
This Missouri senator, is proposing a highway named after Trump. The comments are absolute gold.
:)
dv said:
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has said she “wholeheartedly” agrees with Trump that the Department of Education should be abolished.It must be weird dealing with her, knowing she wants the whole shop shut down.
McMahon is a wrestling magnate who is being sued for her part in a sexual abuse coverup so in fairness she may be too busy to deal with this side gig.
Gourd!
kii said:
dv said:
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has said she “wholeheartedly” agrees with Trump that the Department of Education should be abolished.It must be weird dealing with her, knowing she wants the whole shop shut down.
McMahon is a wrestling magnate who is being sued for her part in a sexual abuse coverup so in fairness she may be too busy to deal with this side gig.It seems to be a prerequisite to either being a rapist or covering up for rapists.
Or a very sycophantic nong.
This is Mike Turner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, who was Chair of the House Intelligence Committee until he was removed from that position by the Speaker of the House a few weeks ago. He is one of the pro-Ukraine voices among the Republicans and criticised the President for his phone call to Zelenskyy in which he appeared to be suborning false testimony. In this clip he is reacting with incredulity to the news that Trump has shut down Cyber Command’s Russia operations.
He appears to be unfamiliar with the news and doesn’t believe it: “Considering what I know about what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that I’m certain would not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations”.
https://www.threads.net/@javiernegrete/post/DGv8bP5y6gI?xmt=AQGzZS0mpdh4SYrZDLmzRKslhUjIVGXSBmSUWBWHeGGSPg
dv said:
This is Mike Turner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, who was Chair of the House Intelligence Committee until he was removed from that position by the Speaker of the House a few weeks ago. He is one of the pro-Ukraine voices among the Republicans and criticised the President for his phone call to Zelenskyy in which he appeared to be suborning false testimony. In this clip he is reacting with incredulity to the news that Trump has shut down Cyber Command’s Russia operations.He appears to be unfamiliar with the news and doesn’t believe it: “Considering what I know about what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that I’m certain would not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations”.
https://www.threads.net/@javiernegrete/post/DGv8bP5y6gI?xmt=AQGzZS0mpdh4SYrZDLmzRKslhUjIVGXSBmSUWBWHeGGSPg
Heck!
Michael V said:
dv said:
This is Mike Turner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, who was Chair of the House Intelligence Committee until he was removed from that position by the Speaker of the House a few weeks ago. He is one of the pro-Ukraine voices among the Republicans and criticised the President for his phone call to Zelenskyy in which he appeared to be suborning false testimony. In this clip he is reacting with incredulity to the news that Trump has shut down Cyber Command’s Russia operations.He appears to be unfamiliar with the news and doesn’t believe it: “Considering what I know about what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that I’m certain would not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations”.
https://www.threads.net/@javiernegrete/post/DGv8bP5y6gI?xmt=AQGzZS0mpdh4SYrZDLmzRKslhUjIVGXSBmSUWBWHeGGSPg
Heck!
It’s hard to hear the latest news when you’ve got your head entirely up the President’s bum.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
This is Mike Turner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, who was Chair of the House Intelligence Committee until he was removed from that position by the Speaker of the House a few weeks ago. He is one of the pro-Ukraine voices among the Republicans and criticised the President for his phone call to Zelenskyy in which he appeared to be suborning false testimony. In this clip he is reacting with incredulity to the news that Trump has shut down Cyber Command’s Russia operations.
He appears to be unfamiliar with the news and doesn’t believe it: “Considering what I know about what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that I’m certain would not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations”.
https://www.threads.net/@javiernegrete/post/DGv8bP5y6gI?xmt=AQGzZS0mpdh4SYrZDLmzRKslhUjIVGXSBmSUWBWHeGGSPg
Heck!
It’s hard to hear the latest news when you’ve got your head entirely up the President’s bum.
hence the term “digest” for certain news feeds
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Heck!
It’s hard to hear the latest news when you’ve got your head entirely up the President’s bum.
hence the term “digest” for certain news feeds
Pay that one.
Heather Cox Richardson
9m ·
March 3, 2025 (Monday)
As seemed evident even at the time, the ambush of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday was a setup to provide justification for cutting off congressionally approved aid to Ukraine as it tries to fight off Russia’s invasion. That “impoundment” of funds Congress has determined should go to Ukraine is illegal under the terms of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, and it is unconstitutional because the Constitution gives to Congress, not to the president, the power to set government spending and to make laws. The president’s job is to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
It was for a similar impoundment of congressionally appropriated funds for Ukraine, holding them back until Zelensky agreed to tilt the 2020 election by smearing Joe Biden, that the House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2019. It is not hard to imagine that Trump chose to repeat that performance, in public this time, as a demonstration of his determination to act as he wishes regardless of laws and Constitution.
On Sunday, Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released a series of memos he and other senior career officials had written, recording in detail how the cuts to “lifesaving humanitarian assistance” at the agency will lead to “preventable death” and make the U.S. less safe. The cuts will “no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale,” one memo read.
Enrich estimated that without USAID intervention, more than 16 million pregnant women and more than 11 million newborns would not get medical care; more than 14 million children would not get care for pneumonia and diarrhea (among the top causes of preventable deaths for children under the age of 5); 200,000 children would be paralyzed with polio; and 1 million children would not be treated for severe acute malnutrition. There would be an additional 12.5 million or more cases of malaria this year, meaning 71,000 to 166,000 deaths; a 28–32% increase in tuberculosis; as many as 775 million cases of avian flu; 2.3 million additional deaths a year in children who could not be vaccinated against diseases; additional cases of Ebola and mpox. The higher rates of illness will take a toll on economic development in developing countries, and both the diseases and the economic stagnation will spill over into the United States.
Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised to create a system for waivers to protect that lifesaving aid, the cuts appear random and the system for reversing them remains unworkable. The programs remain shuttered. Enrich blamed “political leadership at USAID, the Department of State, and DOGE, who have created and continue to create intentional and/or unintentional obstacles that have wholly prevented implementation.”
On Sunday, Enrich sent another memo to staff, thanking them for their work and telling them he had been placed on “administrative leave, effective immediately.”
Dangerous cuts are taking place in the United States, as well. On Friday, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk called Social Security, the basis of the U.S. social safety net, a “Ponzi scheme.” Also on Friday, the Social Security Administration announced that it will consolidate the current ten regional offices it maintains into four and cut at least 7,000 jobs from an agency that is already at a 50-year staffing low. Erich Wagner of Government Executive reported that billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) team had canceled the leases for 45 of the agency’s field offices and is urging employees to quit.
The acting commissioner of the agency, Leland Dudek, a mid-level staffer who got his post after sharing sensitive information with DOGE, blamed former president Joe Biden for the cuts. In contrast, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) pointed out that the system currently delivers 99.7% of retirement benefits accurately and on time. He warned that the administration is hollowing it out, and when it can no longer function, Republicans will say it needs the private sector to take it over. He called the cuts “a prelude to privatization.”
“The public is going to suffer terribly as a result of this,” a senior official told NPR. “Local field offices will close, hold times will increase, and people will be sicker, hungry, or die when checks don’t arrive or a disability hearing is delayed just one month too late.”
In South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, more than 200 wildfires began to burn over the weekend as dry conditions and high winds drove the flames. Firefighters from the Forest Service helped to contain the fires, but they were understaffed even before Trump took office. Now, with the new cuts to the service, prevention measures are impossible and there aren’t enough people to fight fires effectively and safely. South Carolina governor Henry McMaster ® declared a state of emergency on Sunday.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo picked up something many of us missed, posting today that Trump’s February 11 “workforce optimization” executive order is a clear blueprint for the end goal of all the cuts to the federal government. The order says that departments and agencies must plan to cut all functions and employees who are not designated as essential during a government shutdown. As Marshall notes, this is basically a blueprint for a skeleton crew version of government.
But for all that the administration, led by DOGE, insists that the U.S. has no money for the government services that help ordinary people, it appears to think there is plenty of money to help wealthy supporters. In February, the cryptocurrency bitcoin experienced its biggest monthly drop since June 2022, falling by 17.5%. On Sunday, in a post on his social media site, Trump announced that the government will create a strategic stockpile of five cryptocurrencies, spending tax dollars to buy them.
Supporters say that such an investment could pay off in decades, when that currency has appreciated to become worth trillions of dollars. But, as Zachary B. Wolf of CNN notes, “for every bitcoin evangelist, there is an academic or banker from across the political spectrum who will point out that cryptocurrency investments might just as easily go up in smoke, which would be an unfortunate thing to happen to taxpayer dollars.”
The first three currencies Trump announced were not well known, and the announcement sent their prices soaring. Hours later, he added the names of the two biggest cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. After the initial surges, by Monday prices for the currencies had fallen roughly back to where they had been before the announcement, making the announcement look like a pump-and-dump scheme. Economist Peter Schiff, a Trump supporter, called for a full congressional investigation, suggesting that someone other than Trump might have written the social media posts that set off the frenzy and wondering who was buying and selling in that short window of time.
Also on Sunday, the administration announced it would stop enforcing anti-money-laundering laws that were put in place over Trump’s veto in 2021 at the end of his first term and required shell companies to identify the people who own or control them. Referring to the law as a “Biden rule,” Trump called the announcement that he would not enforce it “Exciting News!” The Trump Organization frequently uses shell companies.
A world in which the government does not regulate business or address social welfare or infrastructure, claiming instead to promote economic development by funneling resources to wealthy business leaders, looks much like the late-nineteenth-century world that Trump praises. Trump insists that President William McKinley, who was president from 1897 to 1901, created the nation’s most prosperous era by imposing high tariffs on products from foreign countries.
Trump confirmed today that he will go forward with his own 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% on goods from China, adding to the 10% tariffs Trump added to Chinese products in February. While President Joe Biden maintained tariffs on only certain products from China to protect specific industries, it appears Trump’s tariffs will cover all products.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada called the tariffs “unjustified” and announced that Canada will put retaliatory tariffs on $20.8 billion worth of U.S. products made primarily in Republican-dominated states, including spirits, beer, wine, cosmetics, appliances, orange juice, peanut butter, clothing, footwear, and paper. A second set of tariffs in a few weeks will target about $90 billion worth of products, including cars and trucks, EVs, products made of steel and aluminum, fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, and dairy products.
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum did not provide details of what her country would do but told reporters today: “We have a plan B, C, D.” Chinese officials say that China, too, will impose retaliatory tariffs, singling out agricultural products and placing tariffs of 15% on corn and 10% on soybeans. It also says it will restrict exports to 15 U.S. companies.
The tariffs in place in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century were less important for the explosive growth of the economy in that era than the flood of foreign capital into private businesses: railroad, mining, cattle, department stores, and finance. By the end of the century, investing in America was such a busy trade that the London Stock Exchange had a separate section for American railroad transactions alone.
And the economic growth of the country did not help everyone equally. While industrialists like Cornelius Vanderbilt II could build 70-room summer homes in Newport, Rhode Island, the workers whose labor kept the mines and factories producing toiled fourteen to sixteen hours a day in dangerous conditions for little money, with no workmen’s compensation or disability insurance if they were injured. The era has become known as the Gilded Age, dominated by so-called robber barons.
Today, the stock market dropped dramatically upon news that Trump intended to go through with his tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 650 points, down 1.48%. The S&P fell 1.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite, which focuses on technology stocks, fell 2.64%. Meanwhile, shares of European defense companies jumped to record highs as Europe moves to replace the U.S. support for Ukraine.
Also today, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecast a dramatic contraction in the economy in the first quarter of 2025. Evaluating current data according to a mathematical model, it moved from an expected 2.9% growth in gross domestic product at the end of January to –2.8% today. That is just a prediction and there is still room for those numbers to turn around, but they might help to explain why Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is talking about changing the way the U.S. calculates economic growth.
Bansky more likely.
Spiny Norman said:
Bansky most likely.
Fixed.
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:Bansky most likely.
Fixed.
There should be an Australian graffiti artist called Banksia
dv said:
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:Bansky most likely.
Fixed.
There should be an Australian graffiti artist called Banksia
LOL
A couple of days ago there was some talk about how air traffic controllers could get too busy.
Here’s an example of one not being too busy as such, but having to spend far too much time getting a good read-back on the cleared route & altitude, etc.
Nine whole minutes burnt-up by just one plane when it should have taken 30 – 60 seconds.
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
sarahs mum said:
“I was lucky to escape any real fighting,” he said in his 2016 memoir.
sarahs mum said:
I am hoping now that the US falls into deep recession because of Bishop Putin’s little altar boys, and the rest of the developed world doesn’t, mainly through massive emergency defence spending stimulus.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
I am hoping now that the US falls into deep recession because of Bishop Putin’s little altar boys, and the rest of the developed world doesn’t, mainly through massive emergency defence spending stimulus.
we guess if people want churn they could build renewable electricity generators but yeah that might do it too
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
Oh, the French certainly have a lot more recent experience than that.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
Oh, the French certainly have a lot more recent experience than that.
Supposedly educated or did he get special treatment, because he clearly does not know history and that’s recent history within his lifetime so wtf is going on? Same with Trump he has a screwed up view on history too. No decent advisors either.
I was just watching Desert Drifter on youtube, his wife did an update at the end. He was in a bad car accident and got severe brain damage, and was taken off life support yesterday. No updates since.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
Trump and Vance, both are also unsound.
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
He’s a very dangerous man.
That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
The local press here are trying to make something out of the WA Premier Roger the Cook calling Vance “a knob”. Hardly going to dent his election chances on Saturday i think, probably enhance them.
Anyway, I am voting for him as my local member because he has promised some local road intersection upgrades. There’s gotta be some perks to living in the premier’s own electorate.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:He’s a very dangerous man.
That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
Trump and Vance, both are also unsound.
I think they both enjoy screwing up history to suit their agenda.
They are both dangerous fuckwits.
I wonder about history recall across the whole administration.
Change history as if it doesn’t matter.
Unprecedented.
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
kii said:He’s a very dangerous man.
That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
The local press here are trying to make something out of the WA Premier Roger the Cook calling Vance “a knob”. Hardly going to dent his election chances on Saturday i think, probably enhance them.
Anyway, I am voting for him as my local member because he has promised some local road intersection upgrades. There’s gotta be some perks to living in the premier’s own electorate.
I can’t see any real intelligence in Vance.
Trump selected a loonie rather than someone like Mike Pence, who is not so unhinged like Vance.
Its delbrate to muddy the waters, Trump likes to use chaos, the fool he is.
Kingy said:
I was just watching Desert Drifter on youtube, his wife did an update at the end. He was in a bad car accident and got severe brain damage, and was taken off life support yesterday. No updates since.
Bugger, that was supposed to be in chat. I haven’t even been drinking, I have no excuse.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:That and a loose cannon.
And a nutcase.
So that’s two nutcases in the whitehouse both with terrible recall of history, both with similar traits.
The local press here are trying to make something out of the WA Premier Roger the Cook calling Vance “a knob”. Hardly going to dent his election chances on Saturday i think, probably enhance them.
Anyway, I am voting for him as my local member because he has promised some local road intersection upgrades. There’s gotta be some perks to living in the premier’s own electorate.
I can’t see any real intelligence in Vance.
Trump selected a loonie rather than someone like Mike Pence, who is not so unhinged like Vance.
Its delbrate to muddy the waters, Trump likes to use chaos, the fool he is.
I think it’s worse than that. I don’t think they are stupid. I think they have a worldview which goes back to great power politics. Small nations don’t matter. This goes all the way back to the late Bronze Age and all the way forward to WW1 and WW2. Every so often the world arranges and rearranges itself in great empire blocs in open competition with one another. trump and his cronies want America to play this game, and not the post WW2 Bretton Woods global order.
I wonder what sort of meeting Zelensky would have if it was a Harris Schulze administration ?
Tau.Neutrino said:
I wonder what sort of meeting Zelensky would have if it was a Harris Schulze administration ?
probably wouldn’t have made good television
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:The local press here are trying to make something out of the WA Premier Roger the Cook calling Vance “a knob”. Hardly going to dent his election chances on Saturday i think, probably enhance them.
Anyway, I am voting for him as my local member because he has promised some local road intersection upgrades. There’s gotta be some perks to living in the premier’s own electorate.
I can’t see any real intelligence in Vance.
Trump selected a loonie rather than someone like Mike Pence, who is not so unhinged like Vance.
Its delbrate to muddy the waters, Trump likes to use chaos, the fool he is.
I think it’s worse than that. I don’t think they are stupid. I think they have a worldview which goes back to great power politics. Small nations don’t matter. This goes all the way back to the late Bronze Age and all the way forward to WW1 and WW2. Every so often the world arranges and rearranges itself in great empire blocs in open competition with one another. trump and his cronies want America to play this game, and not the post WW2 Bretton Woods global order.
It should not be seen as a game, this win loose attitude is not good for humanity or the environment, particularly the environment. Fighting over resources will not save either one. Trump has set back both.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:I can’t see any real intelligence in Vance.
Trump selected a loonie rather than someone like Mike Pence, who is not so unhinged like Vance.
Its delbrate to muddy the waters, Trump likes to use chaos, the fool he is.
I think it’s worse than that. I don’t think they are stupid. I think they have a worldview which goes back to great power politics. Small nations don’t matter. This goes all the way back to the late Bronze Age and all the way forward to WW1 and WW2. Every so often the world arranges and rearranges itself in great empire blocs in open competition with one another. trump and his cronies want America to play this game, and not the post WW2 Bretton Woods global order.
It should not be seen as a game, this win loose attitude is not good for humanity or the environment, particularly the environment. Fighting over resources will not save either one. Trump has set back both.
Sure it’s shit. But it is the best fit I can make to what is going on.
It is not just random chaos driven by idiocy, it is towards a preconceived goal.
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:I think it’s worse than that. I don’t think they are stupid. I think they have a worldview which goes back to great power politics. Small nations don’t matter. This goes all the way back to the late Bronze Age and all the way forward to WW1 and WW2. Every so often the world arranges and rearranges itself in great empire blocs in open competition with one another. trump and his cronies want America to play this game, and not the post WW2 Bretton Woods global order.
It should not be seen as a game, this win loose attitude is not good for humanity or the environment, particularly the environment. Fighting over resources will not save either one. Trump has set back both.
Sure it’s shit. But it is the best fit I can make to what is going on.
It is not just random chaos driven by idiocy, it is towards a preconceived goal.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:It should not be seen as a game, this win loose attitude is not good for humanity or the environment, particularly the environment. Fighting over resources will not save either one. Trump has set back both.
Sure it’s shit. But it is the best fit I can make to what is going on.
It is not just random chaos driven by idiocy, it is towards a preconceived goal.
Yes.
But I don’t like the way Trump surrounds himself with chaos while he acheives his goals, it’s a very untrustworthy practice.
Well yes. He is a very repulsive man, and I can’t bear ti listen to him soeak.
say wot?
Tau.Neutrino said:
I wonder what sort of meeting Zelensky would have if it was a Harris Schulze administration ?
Schulze?
sarahs mum said:
What a deeply ignorant cunt
WOW: British leader delivers PUBLIC REBUKE to Trump Brian Tyler Cohen 9 min video
forecast is for eggs up 41%
sarahs mum said:
forecast is for eggs up 41%
Sheesh it’s not KKK’s fault that chickens only lay one egg a day. Who do you think he is, Jesus¿
wait
well howdy there internet people it’s
Belle again so today we’re going to talk
about grocery prices and what’s
projected to happen in
2025 that link for project rebound will
be down below it’s giving day so don’t
forget to check out the program the new
USDA reports are out and the projection
on food prices given the current
situation is that they will continue to
rise this does not include any price
increase due to Trump’s tariffs so
they’re going to rise but by how much
overall the projection says that across
the board food prices will rise 3.4%
over last year but that’s pretty broad
the report gets into specifics of
different kinds of food let’s start with
eggs since that was an incredibly
important metric during the election
eggs are projected to climb by
41.1% the USDA seems pretty certain that
we haven’t reached the highest egg
prices we’re going to see poultry isn’t
really expected to climb much at all but
there’s a little note that indicates
that might change if things with bird
flu aren’t brought under control that
has led to a lot of questions that we’ve
answered over on the other channel but
the short version is that the meat
chickens and egg layers aren’t the same
and it takes longer to replace egg
layers
beef and ve is expected to rise
3.2% pork prices are predicted to
increase
1.2% fresh fruits are expected to go up
2.4% again not in this report but
Economist will tell you that if the
tariffs go into effect this number will
be higher processed fruits and veggies
is only going up
1.1% sugars and sweets up 6.4%
non-alcoholic beverages up
4.4% again doesn’t include the effects
of a potential tariff on
aluminum this is obviously not what a
lot of people were expecting many
believed they’d see prepandemic prices
coming their way as economists explained
when that was being said that isn’t
going to happen and if you actually saw
prices fall to pre-pandemic levels or
even the levels of 2022
it would actually be a very bad sign for
the economy as a whole and could signal
significant economic problems ahead and
by that they mean tougher times than
most alive today have ever seen the kind
of thing that would make 2008 look like
a walk in the park the report is useful
as a baseline but in some ways it has
already been rendered obsolete Trump has
indicated his tariffs will go ahead and
that is isn’t factored in so you can
look at these numbers as the absolute
minimum and expect them to be higher as
Supply Chains Get interrupted and
additional costs get passed on to you
obviously there will be questions about
how to stretch your dollar at the
grocery store we’ve looked through the
shopping hacks online the only one we
found that has actual evidence backing
it up is switching to store brand which
looks to save you between 20 and 40% on
your grocery bill depending on what you
buy if you’ve got other advice we’d love
to hear it in the comments anyway it’s
just a thought y’all have a good day
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
Arresting people on campus may be tricky. As far as I know, universities are policed by campus police. It varies with private unis though.
Tau.Neutrino said:
WOW: British leader delivers PUBLIC REBUKE to Trump Brian Tyler Cohen 9 min video
Vance saying you went to Pennsylvania to campaign for the opposition, he knows full well Zelensky had no control over who was in the US government at the time.
Trump and his oligarchy club trying to bully Zelensky into a deal that would see Ukraine paying the cost over 10 generations, too much greed.
Trump clearly wants to be in the oligarchy club.
It’s not a good club to be in.
Melania is lobbying for an “anti-revenge porn” bill.
LOLOL..after Putin posted photos of her from her “soft porn” days right after the election in 2024.
Tau.Neutrino said:
WOW: British leader delivers PUBLIC REBUKE to Trump Brian Tyler Cohen 9 min video
You can clearly see that they want to rewrite history.
But what for, to appease Putin.?
We all know that Russia invaded Ukraine.
A convicted criminal trying to impress a war criminal.
Why though?
Tau.Neutrino said:
*fixed
I wonder what sort of meeting Zelensky would have if it was a Harris Walz* administration ?
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
From the man who told them to Fight Fight and sent them to storm the citadel.
Trump and Moms for Liberty open snitch line for DEI in schools, get flooded with spam.
The form: https://enddei.ed.gov/
Oligarchy club before Environment.
Rich before poor.
Profit before lives.
Misinformation before facts.
Self interest before everyone else.
Stupid beliefs before science.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
From the man who told them to Fight Fight and sent them to storm the citadel.
Trump’s punishment attitude sucks.
roughbarked said:
Vance is a piece of shit
Yep. He was setup to be humiliated and bullied, you don’t do that to world leaders.
Vance saying you (Zelensky) went to Pennsylvania to campaign for the opposition, vance knows full well Zelensky had no control over who was President in the US government at the time.,
Vance is disgusting.
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:
Vance is a piece of shit
Yep. He was setup to be humiliated and bullied, you don’t do that to world leaders.
Vance saying you (Zelensky) went to Pennsylvania to campaign for the opposition, vance knows full well Zelensky had no control over who was President in the US government at the time.,Vance is disgusting.
Must be a few embarrassed US ambassadors shaking their heads.
World Leaders DESTROY Trump at EMERGENCY MEETING 21 min video.
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump getting shamed by world leaders who convened in the United Kingdom with President Zelenskyy to show solidarity against Putin.
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
From the man who told them to Fight Fight and sent them to storm the citadel.
Trump’s punishment attitude sucks.
It’s Like May 35 Again Oh The Heavenly Peace Gate
Wait
LOL
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:
Yep. He was setup to be humiliated and bullied, you don’t do that to world leaders.
Vance saying you (Zelensky) went to Pennsylvania to campaign for the opposition, vance knows full well Zelensky had no control over who was President in the US government at the time.,Vance is disgusting.
Must be a few embarrassed US ambassadors shaking their heads.
nobody could have foreseen this
I apologize in advance uh to ‘s radio
listeners I said that JD Vance was a
piece of and um I think that that
will be uh the impression of the rest of
the world well we are covering the
extraordinary scenes coming out of the
white house this afternoon historic
Clash it wasn’t even a press conference
because we have just been told that that
press conference that was planned
between Donald Trump and Vladimir zinski
has been cancelled Donald Trump has
effectively shown Vladimir zalinski the
door uh so it it became very very heated
in that exchange we’re going to just
recap what has happened in the last hour
in some of the most astonishing moments
that I’ve ever witnessed between two
world leaders Donald Trump has posted on
Truth social that President zalinski
isn’t ready for peace and can come back
when he is he’s also accused him of
disrespecting the US in the cherished
Oval Office let’s have a reminder of how
the dramatic meeting unfolded over an
hour ago the exchange began to get
heated When Vladimir zinski interjected
whilst the vice president was
speaking I I would respond to this so
look for four years the United States of
America we had a president who stood up
at press conferences and talked tough
about Vladimir Putin and then Putin
invaded Ukraine and destroyed a
significant chunk of the country the
path to peace and the path to Prosperity
is maybe engaging in diplomacy we tried
the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our
chest and pretending that the president
of the United States’s words mattered
more than the president of the United
States’s actions what makes America a
good country is America engaging in
diplomacy that’s what president Trump is
doing can I ask you sure yeah yeah okay
so he occupied uh our parts big parts of
Ukraine part of East and Crimea uh so he
occupied it on
2014 so
during a lot of years I’m not speaking
about just Biden but those time was
Obama then President Obama then
president Trump then President Biden now
president Trump and God bless now
president Trump will stop him but during
2014 nobody stopped him he just occupied
and took he killed people you know what
the contact are
2015 2014 2014
and4 so I was not here yeah that’s
exactly right yes but dur 2014 till
2022 you the what the situation the same
that people have been dying on the
contact line nobody stopped from there
it only got more
uncomfortable and what you’re doing is
very dis disrespectful to the country
this country that’s back to you far more
than a lot of people said they should
have have you said thank you once this
entire meeting no in this entire meeting
that you said thank you you went to
Pennsylvania in campaign for the
opposition in October offer some words
of appreciation for the United States of
America and the president who’s trying
to save your country and this after
president zalinski warned of the war
coming to the West don’t tell us what
we’re going to feel we’re trying to
solve a problem don’t tell us what we’re
going to feel I’m not telling you
because you’re in no position to dictate
that you’re in no position to dictate
what we’re going to feel we’re going to
feel very good influ we’re going to feel
very good and very strong you will feel
influen you’re right now not in a very
good position you’ve allowed yourself to
be in a very bad position and he happens
to be right about from the very
beginning of the war you’re not in a
good position you don’t have the cards
right now with us you start having cards
right now you don’t you’re playing
csing you’re gambling with the lives of
millions of people you’re gambling with
World War II you’re gambling with World
War I
well let’s continue discussing those
unprecedented scenes coming from the
white house now with Tim Marshall
Foreign Affairs expert and author of
Prisons of geography Jim Townsend former
deputy assistant secretary of defense
for Europe and NATO and Alexander mesco
and MP in Vladimir zelinsky’s party and
the chair of the Foreign Affairs
Committee in the Ukrainian Parliament
good evening to all three of you
Alexander let me start with you when you
were watching that encounter what did
you think
think well it was unusual to put it very
mildly I couldn’t believe my ears but
you know the hher Guide to the Galaxy
teaches us don’t panic so I I hope that
behind the closed doors the situation
will be more calm and more constructive
well except Donald Trump has cancelled
the press conference and effectively
shown vadir ziny the
door well um again uh I’m proud of my
president that he stands up uh for uh he
is able to defend our values in our
country because you know right now he’s
a voice of uh defined country fighting
against Russian aggression for the third
year and and we’re entering the fourth
year of brutal War but you know he’s the
voice of of all ukrainians and I’m proud
that uh he manages he has Gods to defend
us even in front of the most powerful
person on Earth which is president Trump
right now and I think we’re just about
to see him leaving the White House now
yes he has left the White House he’s got
into a car vomir zalinsky has left
without doing that promised press
conference uh that was really a very
short encounter after that testy
exchange that has I think it’s fair to
say shocked the world um um Alexander
just before I bring in our other guests
is there an agenda here that Donald
Trump and his team they want to get
zinski out and put someone more amenable
in place is that what’s at stake
here no absolutely not because uh the
recent statements made by President
Trump with regard to our president uh
had only this effect they boosted uh the
popularity of our president in Ukraine
uh because for us he’s a symbol of our
resistance and it had no effect because
you know I don’t see any reason uh to to
remove our president from power as a
commander-in chief as a very popular
president as a symbol of our hope and
resistance Jim town and let me bring in
you here former deputy assistant
secretary of defense for Europe and NATO
um Jim it was an extraordinary display
um it looked like the two powerful men
in the room hectoring and bullying the
junior what did you make of it well it
was like a barroom brawl I just uh you
know it was it was it was uh brutal
quite brutal it was shocking but I think
it was brutal in the sense that uh for
all the public to see we saw these two
heads of state uh battling each other
with fists verbal fists and we’re not
used to seeing that one thing that Trump
said was um I think the American people
the public should see this and that’s
why I’m letting this photographic
opportunity go on so that everyone can
see this and I so in a lot of ways this
with theater too you you know he was uh
raising his voice and he was uh JD Vance
piling on this wrestling match this
scrum uh some of it was theater for the
public to see how tough they are well is
is is that the point that it was a
calculated premeditated sort of Ambush
by the president and his Deputy of the
uh Ukrainian
president well you know it certainly
felt like it didn’t it uh I I’m I’m GNA
watch it again with that in mind but uh
they were ready they were ready for this
uh JB Vance particularly I mean usually
the vice president sits there and
doesn’t jump in and pile on the way JD
Vance did in a rude way frankly you know
zalinski Rose to the Rose to the bait
uh excuse me should he not have risen to
the bait yeah uh I I think everyone’s
different I would not have risen to the
bait because it just makes it worse but
country isn’t losing its people you know
every night in
danger well I think a between rising to
the bait uh uh and uh and and beginning
a spectacle and defending yourself and I
think I think he was trying to defend
himself but with Donald Trump I think
you have to be very it’s like handling a
bomb you know you gotta be very careful
might say why should you deal with him
like that you know why why should people
do what K starm and Emanuel macron did
you know the bonamy the the backs
slapping and the kind of you know they
don’t really think that do they well you
know it’s a it’s an important point and
I think what I see here in Washington
talking to many Europeans coming through
they ask how do we deal with Trump and
they all want to gain the plan you have
a game plan for dealing with him and I
think M roll and kir dmer had their
approach I think zinski went in there
and I think like you said he’s under
pressure so he did uh engage in in a
debate but I think uh with Donald Trump
that it’s it’s like wrestling with pigs
you know uh the pigs love it and you
just get dirty
that’s such a metaphor let me bring in
Tim Marshall now foreign affairs expert
author of Prisons of geography Tim where
on Earth does this leave America Ukraine
Europe the UK the
world I think it leaves America’s
reputation uh significantly lowered and
I say that as a supporter of the United
States I say that as someone who
believes that President Trump has got
very many valid points when he
criticizes the Europeans I I wrote a big
essay in the Sunday Times this weekend
saying just that that you know we have
been backsliders we have been weak we
haven’t stood up for ourselves but this
was a premeditated gangster-like
Ambush it was low blows it was low it
was clearly deliberate the scene was set
even before that uh the bits you’ve
played
Kathy I think it was one of the tame
journalists that they’ve got into the
White House Now who said to the zalinsky
hey why are you wearing that have you
have you even got a suit they were
goding him and then in comes JD Vance
who knows better than to to to to take
control when the big man’s in the room
so clearly he knows what he’s doing
absolutely insults the president of
Ukraine he I believe he had to stand up
for himself I don’t think zelinsky could
have gone home being utterly humiliated
I don’t think he was I don’t think he
would survive as a political leader if
he had not stood up for himself because
he is the representative of Ukraine but
is that it was disgusting is that the
agenda that the White House wants to get
him out and and and do you think that
might work I mean how do you think
things will Shape Up in terms of the EU
for example well I mean I’ve got a lot
of people messaging in saying uh K starm
now now needs to cancel that state
visit well he won’t um because that’s
Britain in ‘s National interest but I go
back to this idea of an ambush um and
and also what Jim just said uh I I I
wrote the words down when I heard Trump
say them I think it’s very important for
the American people to see what’s going
on that’s why I kept this going for so
long and then he ended the press
conference this is going to be great
television it was absolutely deliberate
designed to humiliate
zalinski um because you could either
humiliate him without him pushing back
back in which case he’s completely
mascul and and I think his term in
office would come to an end fairly soon
or he stands up for himself in which
case they get to bully him even more the
macron stama loving I think will help
France and uh Britain sorry you asked me
where it goes from here I’m at a bit of
a loss I mean and I thought it was
interesting when you just announced that
the press conferences have have been
cancelled CU it would have gone on again
then um and look how short the meeting
was was it was it an hour I think yeah I
think uh starma had a couple of hours
they clearly have not agreed and he’s
left and they’re going to get a deal
imposed upon them which is going to be
very hard for them to uh accept I I
think the chanceries of Europe tonight
will like Oxana marova who if you see
the footage which you have Kathy you’ll
see a woman woman in the front row she’s
got her head in her hands and she’s
almost crying that’s the Ukrainian
ambassador to America she realizes
what’s going on in front of them well
Alexander maresco MP in Vladimir
zelinsky’s party chair of the Foreign
Affairs committee I’ve got to ask you is
Donald Trump a Russian
asset I hope not I hope not but the
truth is that we don’t have any other
American president we have to live with
we have to deal with with Mr Trump as
American president and Our Fate
dependent on the American military aid
to Ukraine we can survive um due to
American Aid and we’re grateful for the
fact that the United States has saved us
several times but you know for us Trump
is both uh Challenge and opportunity and
we have no right to be pessimistic you
have to continue to deal with him to
persuade him no matter how tough how
difficult it is because he’s our reality
objective reality but luckily we have
friends we have K starmer who will come
uh tomorrow if I’m not mistaken and
we’ll also speak on behalf of Ukraine we
have our President macron we have other
European leaders who will gather
together 10 of them at the summit so we
have friends we are not
alone very good to hear Alexander Mesko
thank you very much for joining us I’ll
let you go I’m sure you’ve got many any
other demands on your time now but thank
you very much for joining us on times
radio Tim Marshall Foreign Affairs
expert author of The prisons of
geography and Jim townend former deputy
assistant secretary of defense for
Europe and NATO remain with me um Jim
townend first I mean the US wanted to
get its hands on Ukraine’s minerals that
deal has not been signed it was going to
be a memorandum of understanding it has
not been signed and zinski has now left
the White House um do you think think
though nevertheless that Donald Trump
will be very pleased with how this went
as as Tim was saying you know this was
made for television and he’ll think this
was a job well
done well I think T is right uh you know
I’ll I’ll uh I’ll sharpen my earlier
response and say yeah this it certainly
had the ear marks of being a setup uh
and I think frankly uh I think Trump
will come away and feel pretty good
about this I mean yes he wants the
minerals yes he he wants the the
framework agreement signed I think it
eventually will be signed but he loves
good television and he loves to throw
red meat uh to his followers and this is
just a great example of that I mentioned
I called it theater and uh earlier and
it is theater it’s theater for
television he’s gonna come out looking
like a tough guy uh Putin’s gonna love
it I bet Putin sends him a little note
saying you look great out there I mean
this this is something where you know
Trump is uh is is going to be gaining
from this uh even even more than signing
a uh a minerals agreement that a lot of
people probably aren’t focused on right
this the the film is enough and they’ll
love it I’d like to bring in also Adam
Bolton presenter of Sunday morning on
times radio good evening to you all
thank you very much for staying with us
Adam your response on Twitter was piy
what did you make of what we’ve just
seen well I said and I think I’m allowed
to say this I apologize in advance to ‘s
radio listeners I said that JD Vance was
a piece of and um I think that that
will be uh the impression of the rest of
the world I saw your uh previous
interview e saying that this will play
well in the United States uh I think to
the rest of the world uh there will be
shock and confirmation of their worst
suspicions about the new
Administration um it’s you know at the
very least uh you know I’ve been in the
Oval Office many times with visiting
British prime ministers uh they have
never been treated like that by any of
the
previous and indeed they weren’t this is
no way to treat the elected leader of a
Nation at War uh and which the United
States is supposed uh to still be in
Alliance with Adam just briefly there’s
a lot of people messaging in saying K
dmer should cancel that state visit um
in sympathy and solidarity with Vladimir
zinski what do you
think well I I think he would be ill
advised to rush ahead with it and I
think that’s going to be next year of
course you know the UK like France is in
this position where it wishes to
maintain an alliance um I I’ve always
thought that uh perhaps the UK has gone
a little bit too far uh in terms of uh
trying to suck up and and and molate
Donald Trump I mean you know it’s quite
remarkable that there is someone who is
so you know pural that he responds to
flattery in that way I think much more
important really of what we’ve seen now
is where it leaves uh the Ukraine
conflict um yeah had that statement from
Trump you know come back when you want
peace uh we had very clear statements
from zalinski that you know it wasn’t
peace at any price that uh Ukraine would
fight on if it had to and I think
probably the Fallout of all of this uh
is simply going to be that Us’s voice is
not going to be listened to in in this
process and that it will be up to the
Europeans uh to um Step Up yeah and Tim
Tim Marshall let me bring you back in at
this point because the European leaders
are meeting at K St is hosting them with
Vladimir zelinski how on Earth should
they react to this now do you think well
I think I think it’s proof that they
need to make a choice a choice that they
don’t want to make I mean I think the
the way ahead if you think it’s doable
is to
bate this man whilst you try to build
your defenses because you should be
doing that anyway and then you hang on
for four years still in with an intact
NATO but it’s this sort of behavior that
is going to make that even more
difficult and it will provide some
impetus to this idea of the Europeans
getting finally getting their act
together Adam mentioned um Trump’s
comments and I think it’s worth passing
what he said here because I think we can
read things into it he said zilinski is
not ready for peace if America is
involved because he feels our
involvement gives him a big
Advantage um I don’t want that Advantage
I want peace and then this is the bit
for me he disrespected the United States
of America in its cherished Oval Office
and then as Adam said he can come back
when he’s ready for peace the guy’s out
the door as you said he’s been shown the
door being booted out of it and and that
therefore gives the the Europeans
tomorrow some really difficult
discussions because if the Americans are
not going to be dealing with the
ukrainians and and they’re and they’re
going to try and impose this deal um via
the Russians what are the Europeans
going to do about it the CH of Europe
are going are in Shock tonight and the
will be buzzing exactly well we must end
it there but Tim Marshall Jim towns and
Adam Bolton after an frankly
unbelievable scenes coming from the
White House we’ll see how that plays out
over the weekend how Europe responds
thank you for listening
roughbarked said:
don’t worry all yous need is another manufactured crisis and the big strong man will look like the right leader again
well the thought Donald Trump walking
into the house chamber again may make
you want to crawl into the fetal
position which I totally understand that
speech is actually where I want to start
and here’s why because tomorrow night
he’s going to give you his version of
events and I want to give you mine now I
could sit here and tell you all about
the inner workings of how a big speech
like this typically comes together in a
White House how the writing process
typically Works how the preparation
typically Works how the strategy
typically Works what a president is
thinking about in the days ahead all of
the things I could talk about all of
that but the thing is in this moment
that would all be pretty useless because
this is not a normal speech it’s not a
normal presidency it’s not a normal
reality we are all living in to State
the obvious and I think it’s important
to remember all of that heading into
tomorrow night because Trump is going to
have a big platform and he’s definitely
going to try his hardest to convince you
that his plan and his last six weeks in
office have helped you somehow now I
mean just this morning Trump previewed
his speech by saying quote tomorrow
night will be big I will tell it like it
is but let me translate that for you
real quick when Trump says he’ll tell it
like it is what he really means is that
he’s going to tell you what his own
warped version of is of what he wants
you to believe I mean I obviously don’t
know what’s in the speech I can’t
entirely predict all the things he’s
going to talk about at all but I I think
it’s pretty safe to say that he’s going
to lie he’s going to exaggerate he’s
going to sugarcoat he’s going to say a
lot of things that aren’t true as you’re
watching that and resisting the urge to
throw something at the TV if you do just
make sure it’s a soft thing just
remember that you know what’s true no
matter what he says tomorrow you know
what he’s already done you know what
you’ve been seeing with your own eyes
you know how you and your family and
your neighbors have been feeling I mean
you probably felt a little less safe but
that next flight after a series of
recent crashes and air disasters As
Trump and mus continue their quest to
gut the FAA I bet you’ve heard about the
measles outbreak in Texas killing a
child that might be the same age as your
kid or your grandkid As Trump and muskot
the Department of Health and Human
Services you might have seen the news
today that for the first time in history
your Social Security checks might not
come on time you’ve probably gone to the
grocery store over the past few weeks
and seen that the prices have not
actually gone down
but up and you know that when Trump
imposes his tariffs on Canada and Mexico
in a few hours costs will go up even
more if you have money in the stock
market you probably notice that the
markets tanked today after Trump
confirmed those tariffs are coming and I
know you saw what happened in the Oval
Office on Friday when Trump bered an
ally under attack and sided with a
murderous dictator point is this you see
what’s happening you know what’s
happening and if you spent the last few
weeks worrying about what all of this
means for you and what this means for
the country and your Community you’re
not alone I mean you’re in the majority
actually brand new polling shows that a
majority of Americans say the state of
the union is not very strong a majority
of Americans say the cuts to the federal
government are doing more harm than good
majority of Americans say Trump has not
paid enough attention to the country’s
most important problems and the only
president who had a lower approval
rating than Donald Trump at this point
in their presidency is Donald Trump
again you see what’s happening you you
know what’s happening and you are in the
majority we see that very clearly in the
data and we’re also seeing it in
communities and town halls all across
the country I mean look at the greeting
vice president JD van Scott in Vermont
over the weekend when citizens crowded
the streets carrying signs like
democracy not Fascism and my personal
favorite goosi in Russia JD and listen
to this chorus of booze at Congressman
Keith self’s Town Hall in Texas over the
weekend the program
Applause
I mean that’s pretty loud from the
people of Texas and watch this moment
from a town hall in Kansas where
constituents pressed Senator Roger
Marshall Marshall so forcefully that he
literally just got up and walked out we
don’t have time for everyone to stand up
I do got two more commitments today
appreciate everybody making the drive
out and God bless America thank you
Applause
Music
they seem a little displeased there in
Kansas and I want you to take a listen
to one more this is from Congressman Tom
sasi’s Town Hall over the weekend and
keep in mind as you’re watching that
well yes he is a Democrat he represents
a very purple
District listen everybody’s freaking out
everybody’s like you know I’m mred
like’s let’s work together let’s try and
find common ground and what happened in
the white house yesterday I was so
pissed pissed
off I knew you had to get that out of
your
system I mean he was referencing Donald
Trump berading zinski the president of
Ukraine in the Oval Office and people
were clapping because they were pissed
off too it’s pretty loud and clear from
the people of Long Island now Trump of
course came out this morning and said
nothing see here and that all of these
people and at all of these Town Halls
are just paid troublemakers that’s his
claim and of course there’s no evidence
that that’s true but that response is an
awfully good window into what we will
likely hear from him tomorrow night he’s
going to tell you not to believe what
you’re seeing with your own eyes not to
believe what you’re feeling in your gut
and to just take him at his word I’m
here to tell you to do the exact
opposite I’m here to tell you to trust
what you’ve been seeing with your own
eyes believe what you’ve been feeling in
your gut and know that you are
definitely Ely not alone I can think of
two better people to talk with about all
of this Dan fer is a former senior
adviser to President Obama and co-host
of PODS of America Ben roads is the
former deputy National Security adviser
to President Obama if this was a normal
State of the Union we could just get
super nerdy about all the preparations
but it’s not so we’re not going to do
that so Dan let me start with you I I
kind I just gave my take on how I’m
looking at tomorrow night we’re all
going to watch it so if people watching
don’t want to watch it we’ll we’ll tell
you all about it but how are you looking
at
it I think one of the big questions
about this speech is is everyone People
Like Us the media the Democrats in
Congress going to treat it like a normal
speech just a slightly more extreme
version of a traditional State of the
Union but that’s not what this is right
we we know what we’re going to get is
going to be gaslighting we know that we
are undergoing one of the most radical
and dangerous potentially
unconstitutional changes in how America
operates over the last six weeks here
and are we going to treat it as such are
we just going to get up there and
critique what he says say you know maybe
this wasn’t exactly right maybe this
wasn’t wrong go through the strategy of
it and then come out with our talking
points about the price of eggs right or
we G or we going to play a bigger game
here and talk about what’s really
happening and I think that’s the
question for all of us as we try to
figure out because we don’t really have
the vocabulary or the experience to
really deal with what Trump is do with
Elon Musk are doing to our country right
now no question it’s it’s um
unprecedented is one way of talking
about it but it’s it’s many many things
Ben let me ask you I mean one of the
things that you always prepare for and
you always watch on the outside is sort
of what everybody does in the room and
I’m sure we will talk about that
tomorrow as we see it but I think it’s
important to also level such as how
abnormal and horrible in many ways
things are right now I mean we just
learned tonight that the us is going to
pause all military assistance into
Ukraine I think we should expect um
anything in this moment of course but if
Trump makes a big deal of that tomorrow
night are you expecting Republicans in
the chamber are going to stand up and
applaud I mean what what are what should
we be preparing for to the degree we
even know in that
regard well just to build on what you
said in your opening Jen and what Dan
said uh he’s going to try to present all
of these deeply radical things he’s
doing um on his own terms yeah and then
there’s going to be this instinct to
digest them as if there are kind of
policy shifts right so Ukraine he will
present what he’s doing ber
president zalinski in the Oval Office
and cutting all assistance as a peace
plan um and not as what it really is
which is a transformative event in
American history where the United States
is shifting from the side of our
European allies to the side of laar
Putin that’s what it is he will try to
present it as something else as a peace
plan in the same way that he’ll try to
present you know Doge as just an effort
to get rid of waste and fraud and cut
some uh spending from the budget and not
what it actually is which is an effort
led by a tech oligarch to dismantle the
US federal government right and so
across the board there going to be these
things where he’s trying to kind of take
advantage of the normaly of the venue
you know I just am a guy with an agenda
to make government work better to bring
peace to Ukraine to you know have a big
beautiful economy never mind that the
tariffs that are going to go in effect
tomorrow we going to have huge
disruptive effects on vital American
sectors like the automotive sector like
the prices of food
and so I think the Republicans look I
have no hope for them they’ll stand in
applaud they’ll salute Mr Trump they’ll
do whatever they have to do to avoid you
know some magga media coming after them
I think what we have to do is not give
into the normaly of the event we are
living through a very abnormal thing
that is happening and we’re going to be
living through it for at least two years
until the midor elections and and I
think that’s how Democrats need to
respond and frankly everybody who’s in
the kind of reality based World whatever
their party affiliate needs to respond I
mean the man can read from a
teleprompter if he needs to I actually
don’t I mean the inauguration was so
much crazier than the first inauguration
so that’s not what I expect but if
anyone says he became president tonight
tomorrow night I’m going to lay on the
ground so I hope that’s not what happens
anywhere Dan let me ask you just about
Democrats and because because that that
is one thing Ben Ben raised there and
also you referenced I mean the the
vernacular and how exactly to fight back
it feels like everybody’s kind of
working out the Kinks of what works and
what doesn’t work some Democrats are not
showing up some are doing alternative
events some are bringing um federal
workers who have been fired what do you
what do you think they should
do I mean all of the above honestly
which is I think for much of the we’re
getting better I’m we should sate the
Democrats are getting better than they
were a few weeks ago but as a party
we’ve been so flumed by how to deal with
Trump because I think the results of the
election the degree of the shift in
Trump’s Direction really sort of broke
people’s brains and so we’re like L of
people are waiting for whatever the
right the Silver Bullet the right
message with the one poll that’s going
to tell us what to do when the reality
is just like get out there and make
noise right get out because that right
now and this is I think the lesson of
media in the Trump era is quantity is
more is more important than Precision in
what you say so go there attention my
only piece of advice I think is don’t
play wacka try to tell one story about
what Trump is doing and the story that I
would recommend is corruption
it is what ties all of this together
right whether you have the world’s
richest man rooting through our
government including The Regulators that
look after his businesses whether you
have a taxpayer funded crypto scam
whether you have a taxpayer funded
political ad for Trump bunch of people
are enriching themselves within the
government like that is a story that can
tie everything together but you don’t
have to take my story just get out there
and start
talking e
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
Land of the free hey?
DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases on key weather buildings
The Trump administration has informed NOAA that two pivotal centers for weather forecasting will soon have their leases canceled, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: One of the buildings is the nerve center for generating national weather forecasts.
It was designed to integrate multiple forecasting centers in one building to improve operating efficiency. It houses telecommunications equipment to send weather data and forecasts across the U.S. and abroad.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/03/doge-noaa-weather-building-leases-trump
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
still banging on with the governor shit.
Did not age well. Apparently has been deleted as well.
sarahs mum said:
I do like me some historical perspective.
rhymes
so last night Rachel mattow took us back
in time to make a vital comparison
between what’s happening right here and
right now and this amazingly great story
about a certain senator from Minnesota
Ernest lundine remember him 1940 as
you’re about to see his treasonous turn
codery compared with the Russian talking
points that we hear more and more
spilling out of the mouths of duly
elected Republican members of Congress
well the parallels are simp incredible
so let’s get right to the video from
Rachel from last night and hear the
remarkably similar words of appeasement
and apology insistence uttered 85 short
years ago uh here’s the kicker will you
see who actually wrote the speech in
question that lundine never lived to
deliver it’s great stuff here’s Rachel
now so on um July
10th uh the German air force started its
large scale attack on our closest
overseas Ally on Great Britain that was
the start of the Battle of Britain um
and at that point Great Britain was the
last man standing in Western Europe the
the Germans had spread out into Austria
uh and then into Czechoslovakia and then
they took Poland and Denmark and Norway
and Belgium and the Netherlands and
Luxembourg and France Nazi Germany was
just rolling through all of those
countries and at the end Britain was it
starting July 10th 1940 the might of the
German Air Force turned its sights to
destroying and ultimately trying to take
Britain as well because they wanted all
of it they wanted all of Europe and at
that point the United States had to
decide what we were going to do here was
not just our closest overseas Ally but
here was the last country standing in
the way of total Nazi domination of all
of Europe which is what Hitler seemed to
want to use not only for its own ends
but he seemed to want to use that as the
Cornerstone of a global Third Reich Nazi
World Domination and here’s little Great
Britain standing as the last thing
between them and control of that
continent so what were we going to do
what president Roosevelt wanted to do
was help our Ally help Great Britain
stand up to the Nazis help them hold the
line FDR expended a huge amount of
political Capital to do that and also
just Capital money to send Britain as
much support as he could manage short of
us getting into the war ourselves in
1940 that’s what FDR did that is what we
remember the United States doing as a
country but at the time it definitely
wasn’t like a consensus decision that is
definitely what president Roosevelt
wanted to do but lots of other people in
the country did not want to do that that
at
all remember that date July 10th that’s
when the German air force started
attacking the British Mainland July 10th
exactly one month later on August 10th
1940 a sitting US senator gave a
national speech on the radio in which he
demanded that
England should say thank you to us they
should be way more grateful they should
show us some respect frankly all our
allies should for all that we’ve done
for them and it was time frankly for
them to start paying us
back um that senator’s name was Ernest
lundine he was a senator from Minnesota
um and in Congress he had formed
something called the make Europe pay War
debts committee which said that we
shouldn’t be helping our so-called
allies in Europe at all because frankly
those allies especially England they
owed us they owed us money from the
first world war money they hadn’t been
able to pay back yet
we should focus now on making them pay
us back rather than us giving them any
more help I mean who cares that they’re
being invaded and attacked by the huge
Nazi war machine which has already
invaded and taken over the whole rest of
Western Europe not our problem we should
be collecting right now on what they owe
us for helping them already the first
time around in no way should we be
giving them any more
help Ernest lendine was actually so into
the idea of the the make Europe pay War
debts committee um that he formed a
second committee with a similar name uh
that focused specifically on how they
should pay our their debts to us his his
other committee was said that they
should pay their War debts To Us by
giving us their
Islands islands for war debts committee
that was his idea our allies are in the
middle of being invaded and bombed and
occupied by the Nazis but this seems
like a good moment to see if we can get
some stuff off of
them seizure of the islands may be
necessary as was once advocated by
Andrew Jackson our Great American
president Danish and Dutch British and
French Ireland possessions in America
all must become American in the meantime
our debts are piling Skyhigh approaching
50 billions with a 6 billion dollar
deficit this year yeah see we’ve got
these debts they owe us let’s seize
their
Islands to to cover some of their debt
to us Let them fight off the Nazis
themselves they owe us we shouldn’t be
helping them
anymore less than two weeks after giving
that speech on the radio Senator Ernest
line was dead in a mysterious plane
crash when they pulled his body out of
the wreckage they found in the pocket of
his
jacket a draft speech that he had been
planning on giving in the United States
State Senate that was kind of along the
same lines as that radio addressed
definitely don’t support our supposed
allies as they are fighting Hitler who
cares about whether or not they can
fight Hitler off or not what’s so bad
about Germany anyway that was the draft
of the speech in his pocket he never got
a chance to deliver that speech because
he died in that plane crash but that
speech that he had on him he had in his
pocket when he died turns out that
speech was written for
him by the Nazi government by a na agent
by the Hitler government’s top paid
propaganda agent in the United States
turns out that Senator Ernest lundine
was being paid by the Nazis he had been
on Hitler’s payroll the whole time
Hitler’s government was paying him to
argue in Washington to use his position
as a US senator to make this case to the
American people that we shouldn’t be
helping our allies fight back against
the Nazis in Europe we should instead
focus on getting them to apologize to us
for not being able to pay back
everything we did for them in the first
world war we should be getting them to
show their gratitude to us now by
figuring out what they can do what they
can give up of their own resources to
prioritize paying us while they’re
fighting off the Nazis or
whatever that happened in August
1940 how was your day
today I have been told by a senior
official here that nothing’s going to
happen with this minerals deal until
zinski goes in front of cameras and
makes an explicit public
apology 85 years ago in
1940 Ernest lendine was just a senator
he wasn’t the president or the vice
president um a and ultimately we did not
adopt as a country this proposal that
Hitler had stuffed into his mouth with a
wad of cash this proposal from him that
we should refuse to even dig a grave for
our allies that we should not only
refuse to help them we should pile on
them make things even harder for them
than they already
were we did we did not go along with
that Ernest lundine died in that plane
crash not long thereafter he was exposed
as a paid Nazi
agent and then he quickly was
forgotten we didn’t choose his course 85
years ago we chose to go with what
president Roosevelt wanted to do we
chose a very different course and in so
doing the United States not only stood
up for our allies and stood against the
Nazis the United States became the
leader of the Free
World and now it is 85 years later it’s
2025 we’re six weeks into Donald Trump’s
second term as
president and our Ally Ukraine doesn’t
have any Islands to give up to us but
they do have minerals I guess yes that
we could take off them that we could we
could
mine and so under Donald Trump our offer
to our Ally Ukraine as they try to fight
off an Invasion From Russia our offer to
them is that they should be so lucky
that we would Dain to take all of their
minerals they’d be lucky to get such a
deal with us in fact they’ll only even
get that deal they’ll only get the
privilege of us taking their resources
off of them if they gravel for it but
even then maybe not well uh his words uh
they certainly ring with a sickening
familiarity akin to the stuff that we
hear today and every day from the party
that bows to Putin or as it’s been
called in the past the
GOP yeah it sure seems like we’ve heard
this song before that it’s all just a
little bit of history repeating
Music
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
I do like me some historical perspective.
rhymes
so last night Rachel mattow took us back
in time to make a vital comparison
between what’s happening right here and
right now and this amazingly great story
about a certain senator from Minnesota
Ernest lundine remember him 1940 as
you’re about to see his treasonous turn
codery compared with the Russian talking
points that we hear more and more
spilling out of the mouths of duly
elected Republican members of Congress
well the parallels are simp incredible
so let’s get right to the video from
Rachel from last night and hear the
remarkably similar words of appeasement
and apology insistence uttered 85 short
years ago uh here’s the kicker will you
see who actually wrote the speech in
question that lundine never lived to
deliver it’s great stuff here’s Rachel
now so on um July
10th uh the German air force started its
large scale attack on our closest
overseas Ally on Great Britain that was
the start of the Battle of Britain um
and at that point Great Britain was the
last man standing in Western Europe the
the Germans had spread out into Austria
uh and then into Czechoslovakia and then
they took Poland and Denmark and Norway
and Belgium and the Netherlands and
Luxembourg and France Nazi Germany was
just rolling through all of those
countries and at the end Britain was it
starting July 10th 1940 the might of the
German Air Force turned its sights to
destroying and ultimately trying to take
Britain as well because they wanted all
of it they wanted all of Europe and at
that point the United States had to
decide what we were going to do here was
not just our closest overseas Ally but
here was the last country standing in
the way of total Nazi domination of all
of Europe which is what Hitler seemed to
want to use not only for its own ends
but he seemed to want to use that as the
Cornerstone of a global Third Reich Nazi
World Domination and here’s little Great
Britain standing as the last thing
between them and control of that
continent so what were we going to do
what president Roosevelt wanted to do
was help our Ally help Great Britain
stand up to the Nazis help them hold the
line FDR expended a huge amount of
political Capital to do that and also
just Capital money to send Britain as
much support as he could manage short of
us getting into the war ourselves in
1940 that’s what FDR did that is what we
remember the United States doing as a
country but at the time it definitely
wasn’t like a consensus decision that is
definitely what president Roosevelt
wanted to do but lots of other people in
the country did not want to do that that
at
all remember that date July 10th that’s
when the German air force started
attacking the British Mainland July 10th
exactly one month later on August 10th
1940 a sitting US senator gave a
national speech on the radio in which he
demanded that
England should say thank you to us they
should be way more grateful they should
show us some respect frankly all our
allies should for all that we’ve done
for them and it was time frankly for
them to start paying us
back um that senator’s name was Ernest
lundine he was a senator from Minnesota
um and in Congress he had formed
something called the make Europe pay War
debts committee which said that we
shouldn’t be helping our so-called
allies in Europe at all because frankly
those allies especially England they
owed us they owed us money from the
first world war money they hadn’t been
able to pay back yet
we should focus now on making them pay
us back rather than us giving them any
more help I mean who cares that they’re
being invaded and attacked by the huge
Nazi war machine which has already
invaded and taken over the whole rest of
Western Europe not our problem we should
be collecting right now on what they owe
us for helping them already the first
time around in no way should we be
giving them any more
help Ernest lendine was actually so into
the idea of the the make Europe pay War
debts committee um that he formed a
second committee with a similar name uh
that focused specifically on how they
should pay our their debts to us his his
other committee was said that they
should pay their War debts To Us by
giving us their
Islands islands for war debts committee
that was his idea our allies are in the
middle of being invaded and bombed and
occupied by the Nazis but this seems
like a good moment to see if we can get
some stuff off of
them seizure of the islands may be
necessary as was once advocated by
Andrew Jackson our Great American
president Danish and Dutch British and
French Ireland possessions in America
all must become American in the meantime
our debts are piling Skyhigh approaching
50 billions with a 6 billion dollar
deficit this year yeah see we’ve got
these debts they owe us let’s seize
their
Islands to to cover some of their debt
to us Let them fight off the Nazis
themselves they owe us we shouldn’t be
helping them
anymore less than two weeks after giving
that speech on the radio Senator Ernest
line was dead in a mysterious plane
crash when they pulled his body out of
the wreckage they found in the pocket of
his
jacket a draft speech that he had been
planning on giving in the United States
State Senate that was kind of along the
same lines as that radio addressed
definitely don’t support our supposed
allies as they are fighting Hitler who
cares about whether or not they can
fight Hitler off or not what’s so bad
about Germany anyway that was the draft
of the speech in his pocket he never got
a chance to deliver that speech because
he died in that plane crash but that
speech that he had on him he had in his
pocket when he died turns out that
speech was written for
him by the Nazi government by a na agent
by the Hitler government’s top paid
propaganda agent in the United States
turns out that Senator Ernest lundine
was being paid by the Nazis he had been
on Hitler’s payroll the whole time
Hitler’s government was paying him to
argue in Washington to use his position
as a US senator to make this case to the
American people that we shouldn’t be
helping our allies fight back against
the Nazis in Europe we should instead
focus on getting them to apologize to us
for not being able to pay back
everything we did for them in the first
world war we should be getting them to
show their gratitude to us now by
figuring out what they can do what they
can give up of their own resources to
prioritize paying us while they’re
fighting off the Nazis or
whatever that happened in August
1940 how was your day
today I have been told by a senior
official here that nothing’s going to
happen with this minerals deal until
zinski goes in front of cameras and
makes an explicit public
apology 85 years ago in
1940 Ernest lendine was just a senator
he wasn’t the president or the vice
president um a and ultimately we did not
adopt as a country this proposal that
Hitler had stuffed into his mouth with a
wad of cash this proposal from him that
we should refuse to even dig a grave for
our allies that we should not only
refuse to help them we should pile on
them make things even harder for them
than they already
were we did we did not go along with
that Ernest lundine died in that plane
crash not long thereafter he was exposed
as a paid Nazi
agent and then he quickly was
forgotten we didn’t choose his course 85
years ago we chose to go with what
president Roosevelt wanted to do we
chose a very different course and in so
doing the United States not only stood
up for our allies and stood against the
Nazis the United States became the
leader of the Free
World and now it is 85 years later it’s
2025 we’re six weeks into Donald Trump’s
second term as
president and our Ally Ukraine doesn’t
have any Islands to give up to us but
they do have minerals I guess yes that
we could take off them that we could we
could
mine and so under Donald Trump our offer
to our Ally Ukraine as they try to fight
off an Invasion From Russia our offer to
them is that they should be so lucky
that we would Dain to take all of their
minerals they’d be lucky to get such a
deal with us in fact they’ll only even
get that deal they’ll only get the
privilege of us taking their resources
off of them if they gravel for it but
even then maybe not well uh his words uh
they certainly ring with a sickening
familiarity akin to the stuff that we
hear today and every day from the party
that bows to Putin or as it’s been
called in the past the
GOP yeah it sure seems like we’ve heard
this song before that it’s all just a
little bit of history repeating
Music
it does seem a bit suspicious him dying just before delivering that speech…
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
still banging on with the governor shit.
question for the geniuses here if tariffs accelerate upwards then at what point do yous just say this is stupid and blanket block the imports
Spiny Norman said:
sarahs mum said:
say wot?
Land of the free hey?
Sure seems like it.
/TIC
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
I do like me some historical perspective.
rhymes
they certainly ring with a sickening
familiarity akin to the stuff that we
hear today and every day from the party
that bows to Putin or as it’s been
called in the past the
GOP yeah it sure seems like we’ve heard
this song before that it’s all just a
little bit of history repeating
Music
it does seem a bit suspicious him dying just before delivering that speech…
also true
though these days we pretty much have social media feeds and archives (which some interests are trying to shut down of course) to look at trends in the person’s leanings
crazy world
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
still banging on with the governor shit.
question for the geniuses here if tariffs accelerate upwards then at what point do yous just say this is stupid and blanket block the imports
you don’t need to block them, they just become cost prohibitive
Spiny Norman said:
DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases on key weather buildingsThe Trump administration has informed NOAA that two pivotal centers for weather forecasting will soon have their leases canceled, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: One of the buildings is the nerve center for generating national weather forecasts.
It was designed to integrate multiple forecasting centers in one building to improve operating efficiency. It houses telecommunications equipment to send weather data and forecasts across the U.S. and abroad.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/03/doge-noaa-weather-building-leases-trump
NOAA develops anthropogenic climate change models.
“Get rid of them.”
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
FMD
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
still banging on with the governor shit.
Because Canada is seen by Trump as a US state.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
The intellectual cripple strikes again.
still banging on with the governor shit.
question for the geniuses here if tariffs accelerate upwards then at what point do yous just say this is stupid and blanket block the imports
Whenever you feel like doing it.
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
still banging on with the governor shit.
question for the geniuses here if tariffs accelerate upwards then at what point do yous just say this is stupid and blanket block the imports
you don’t need to block them, they just become cost prohibitive
right so the idea is that when there’s a 46840% tariff the constituents think “wow a great strong leader with world record strong tariffs” instead of the simple truth that it’s a ban which violates freedoms
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
question for the geniuses here if tariffs accelerate upwards then at what point do yous just say this is stupid and blanket block the imports
you don’t need to block them, they just become cost prohibitive
right so the idea is that when there’s a 46840% tariff the constituents think “wow a great strong leader with world record strong tariffs” instead of the simple truth that it’s a ban which violates freedoms
I have no idea what you mean
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
you don’t need to block them, they just become cost prohibitive
right so the idea is that when there’s a 46840% tariff the constituents think “wow a great strong leader with world record strong tariffs” instead of the simple truth that it’s a ban which violates freedoms
I have no idea what you mean
neither do the Americans know what their country means
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
a bunch of rubber stamps always has been
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
Hope the US is enjoying the hand basket they’re in. Gonna be a bumpy ride all the way down
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
Congress has been a mess for decades, all things aside if this administration can’t get it to work in the way it needs it to, then at least we’ll know it’s fundamentally broken.
The best thing is the slim majority is that it makes every GOP member own their decisions.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
but that’s simply not true, Congress is requited to function in that it needs to propose and pass legislation.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
but that’s simply not true, Congress is requited to function in that it needs to propose and pass legislation.
I think the biggest issue for lobbyists is that they that have to navigate the whims of the POTUS who, at the moment, is essentially determining all the major policy positions of the GOP.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
don’t worry you won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
but that’s simply not true, Congress is requited to function in that it needs to propose and pass legislation.
As someone said, rubber stamp. You pay the organ-grinder, not the monkeys.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
but that’s simply not true, Congress is requited to function in that it needs to propose and pass legislation.
As someone said, rubber stamp. You pay the organ-grinder, not the monkeys.
I mean would you expect anything different if one party controlled both the HoR and the Senate in Aust? Is it really that much of a surprise that the party in control is passing the legislation it, itself, has proposed?
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.
And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
captain_spalding said:
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
I agree. It upholds the adage that politics has very little to do with government.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
I agree. It upholds the adage that politics has very little to do with government.
The simple fact is you can’t do the things you want to do if you never actually control government, and you can’t win government if you are shit at politics
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
FMD
As well: what are laws even for?
Michael V said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
FMD
As well: what are laws even for?
They don’t care about the Constitution, what’s a silly little law?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89aB6SX2y40
Interesting clip showing interviews with people in Brantley County, Georgia
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.
And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
and so we(0,1,1) finally realise that the whole checks and balances thing is a scam, and it’s only balanced if there’s equipoise, and there’s only equipoise if the sports teams are the same andor they are well hung, which means there’s no real way to achieve meaningful progress, which
wait
oh shit
oh right that was the whole point all along
SCIENCE said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
The US government is currently made up of a majority of Republicans, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, fine, we’ll go along with that, we will do nothing.
And of a minority of Democrats, who look at what Trump is doing, and say, no, we don’t go along with that, but we can do nothing.
Ergo, Trump is the government.
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
and so we(0,1,1) finally realise that the whole checks and balances thing is a scam, and it’s only balanced if there’s equipoise, and there’s only equipoise if the sports teams are the same andor they are well hung, which means there’s no real way to achieve meaningful progress, which
wait
oh shit
oh right that was the whole point all along
I’m sorry, I don’t understand what the point you are trying to make is.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
don’t worry you won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more
How cool is that! Tump’s a legend!
/TIC
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
At some point, the Congresspeople and Senators will get worried, because the lobbyists will realise that those two Houses no longer play any effective role in government, and they can stop bunging the paper bags of fifties and hundreds to the ‘elected representatives’.
US pollies make enough money from special interests and wealthy constituents legally to make under the table shenanigans superfluous.
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
FMD
As well: what are laws even for?
They don’t care about the Constitution, what’s a silly little law?
Quite.
I have to hand it to Trump, he’s done more damage in two months that I estimated he’s do in six. Further I guessed we need the triumvirate of tariffs, deportations of hundreds of thousands of the undocumented and politicisation of the Fed when he’s only really done one of these things.
I estimate that in three months the US economy will be flat-lining, rates hikes will be happening and even the MAGA faithful will be losing faith.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/epa-ruling-sewage-water
US supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies
Ruling by the court, which has a Republican super majority, undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act
—-
Yeah that might as well happen
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
President Donald Trump has celebrated the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not enforce fines under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law that aims to increase transparency around the ownership of certain business entities.https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-corporate-transparency-act-boi-treasury-2038564
Not sure what Congress is even for any more.
Congress has been a mess for decades, all things aside if this administration can’t get it to work in the way it needs it to, then at least we’ll know it’s fundamentally broken.
The best thing is the slim majority is that it makes every GOP member own their decisions.
The thing is, this is an example where Congress worked. There was bipartisan support for this important bill banning anonymous shell corporations.
But DJT has basically just instructed the Treasury to … ignore the law and not enforce the provisions of this Act.
https://youtu.be/71hKowGIpHM?si=HKwklnzyECXpTgXY
Legal Eagles: DOGE’s fake claims of fraud
diddly-squat said:
SCIENCE said:diddly-squat said:
I don’t mean to sound flippant here, but that is actually good politics… may not end up in good public outcomes, but that is how you play the game.
and so we(0,1,1) finally realise that the whole checks and balances thing is a scam, and it’s only balanced if there’s equipoise, and there’s only equipoise if the sports teams are the same andor they are well hung, which means there’s no real way to achieve meaningful progress, which
wait
oh shit
oh right that was the whole point all along
I’m sorry, I don’t understand what the point you are trying to make is.
exactly
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/epa-ruling-sewage-waterUS supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies
Ruling by the court, which has a Republican super majority, undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act—-
Yeah that might as well happen
Shitting were we live literally
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/epa-ruling-sewage-water
US supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies
Ruling by the court, which has a Republican super majority, undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act——
Yeah that might as well happen
worked well in the UK place recently so why not
Witty Rejoinder said:
I have to hand it to Trump, he’s done more damage in two months that I estimated he’s do in six. Further I guessed we need the triumvirate of tariffs, deportations of hundreds of thousands of the undocumented and politicisation of the Fed when he’s only really done one of these things.I estimate that in three months the US economy will be flat-lining, rates hikes will be happening and even the MAGA faithful will be losing faith.
Yeah I guess he is ahead of schedule domestically but I tried to be callous and say “ah well they voted for this “.
Internationally, people are saying NATO is effectively dead and that too happened faster than I anticipated. I’m kind of hoping the Russians can still be beaten.
I wouldn’t be opposed to Australia increasing aid to Ukraine in an appropriate ratio. Heartened by the bipartisan commitment, here.
dv said:
https://youtu.be/71hKowGIpHM?si=HKwklnzyECXpTgXY
Legal Eagles: DOGE’s fake claims of fraud
“maybe”
Maybe the real fraud was the fraud made up along the way? 🚀💰Try Rocket Money for free with our link:
Elon mus claims to have found billions
of dollars of government fraud waste and
abuse but on closer inspection almost
all of his claims turned out to be
products of elon’s own ignorance now
everyone on the planet is in favor of
increased governmental efficiency but
the problem is that fraud waste and
abuse are harder to find than you might
think so much so that there are senior
government officials called inspectors
General who run entire teams of
independent Watchdogs with public
accountability unfortunately Donald
Trump fired most of them in one of his
first acts in his second term and it’s
particularly important to have federal
employees dig into claims of because
generally you can’t find it by simply
looking at a spreadsheet of payments so
when Elon Musk and his doge Bros claimed
that they found billions of dollars of
fraud by looking at a spreadsheet of
payments we were skeptical and our
skepticism paid off because it turns out
to a first order approximation they
didn’t find any fraud now musk and Trump
May disagree with the federal spending
priority set by Congress but the
spending set by Congress is the law so
categorically if spending certain funds
as required by Congressional
appropriation it can’t be fraud but that
hasn’t stopped musk and Doge from
doubling down on their wild claims so it
turns out they did find fraud maybe the
real fraud was the fraud they made up
along the way chaos lawyer Liz Dy
explains thanks Devon after the election
Donald Trump announced the creation of
the Department of government efficiency
Doge to dismantle government bureaucracy
SL excess regulations cut wasteful
expenditures and restructure federal
agencies at the time he promised that
Elon Musk and VI ramas Swami would
provide advice and guidance from outside
of the government and partner with the
White House Office of Management and
budget to drive large-scale structural
reform and create an entrepreneurial
approach to government never seen before
but it was not meant to be first ramas
Swami was sent packing off to Ohio and
then within hours of being sworn in on
January 20th Trump signed an executive
order renaming the department of Digital
Services the department of government
efficiency essentially he skin suited
Doge into an existing agency like some
kind of alien body
[Music]
snatcher this is not science fiction the
department of Digital Services was
originally tasked with improving user
experience on government websites and
that first executive order sort of
pretended that there was an overlap
between the missions it said that Doge
would be responsible for modernizing
federal technology and software to
maximize governmental efficiency and
productivity although it did hint at
what was to come by referring to a team
of Doge dudes which was to be dispatched
to each government agency and given
access to all non-classified databases
what followed was nothing nothing less
than a wholesale takeover of the
government by Elon Musk and his doge
Bros as they colonized One Federal
agency after another and either shut
them down or radically downsized them by
firing tens of thousands of government
employees in February the president
dropped all pretense that Doge was about
modernization in a second executive
order he mandated that four federal
workers be fired for every one new hire
and he gave the Doge liaison to each
Federal agency the power to veto all
hiring decisions since then the Doge
Bros have slashed through the government
while the agency’s Twitter account posts
Non-Stop about all the woke contracts
it’s cancelling it is not legal for the
president or his billionaire buddy to
arbitrarily cancel contracts and
congressionally allocated spending but
that’s the subject for another
video today we’re going to talk about
math specifically how believing
everything you see on the internet makes
you bad at it on January 28th in her
first appearance at the podium White
House Press Secretary Caroline lebit
claimed that Doge had discovered that
the government was spending $50 million
to buy condoms from Gaza uh Doge and om
also found that there was about to be 50
million taxpayer dollars that went out
the door to fund condoms in Gaza that is
a Preposterous waste of taxpayer money
musk called it the tip of the iceberg
and said my guess is that a lot of that
money ended up in the pockets of Hamas
not actually condoms that story was
utter nonsense the entire population of
Gaza before the latest War was only 2
million people as multiple news
organizations have pointed out usaid the
government’s vehicle for Distributing
humanitarian assistance spent Zer on
condoms in the entire Middle East in
2024 with only about $7 million for
Condoms worldwide and we have to show
you those articles instead of the
original Source material because Doge
yanked down usaid’s website including
the tables that showed what the agency
spent in Prior years but as Jeremy
kendic the president of refugees
International and a former official at
usaid noted on Twitter what’s going on
here is not a billion condoms for Gaza
what’s going on is that the brosa Doge
can’t read government spreadsheets he
called it the kind of basic mistake you
make when you fired half the workforce
of the global Health Bureau and pushed
out much of the senior leadership
pressed for evidence of the $50 million
claim State Department spokesperson
Tammy Bruce tweeted that the across
theboard pause and foreign assistance
quote allowed the state department to
prevent unjustified and Non-Emergency
spending such as condoms prevented $102
million in unjustified funding to a
contractor in Gaza including money for
contraception there was again no
evidence for this claim and as kendic
pointed out it would be entirely
appropriate for the US government to
purchase condoms and other birth control
as part of its humanitarian funding
president Trump then doubled the figure
to $100 million think of it $1 million
on
condoms to Hamas some media Outlets have
suggested Ed that the Doge Bros got
confused between the Gaza Strip which is
home to millions of Palestinians and
Gaza province in mosam Beek as the
Washington Post points out the Elizabeth
Glazer pediatric AIDS Foundation
received $83 million from the Department
of Health and Human Services Department
for HIV AIDS prevention in Gaza Province
although none of that went to buy
condoms that did not stop Fox news’s
Jesse Waters from insisting on air that
the US government was paying for condom
bombs they make condom bombs
Hamas inflates the condoms straps on an
explosive and floats them into Israel
it’s a dual use
technology looks like a Hamas birthday
party so we pay for the Hamas condom
bombs and Israel’s Iron Dome none of
that was remotely true as far as we can
tell it’s just completely made up but
here’s musk brushing off the criticism
in the Oval Office that’s what you say
well first of all uh some of the things
that I say will be incorrect and and
should be corrected so nobody’s going to
bat a thousand I mean any you know we
will make mistakes but we’ll act quickly
to a correct it again we did not spend
$50 million on condoms and if we had it
wouldn’t be appropriate or legal for
some unelected billionaire to Simply
cancel that allocation out based on his
own sense that it’s a bad idea but that
was not the only incidence of musk maath
leading to bizarre and often outright
false claims about the federal budget
now sorry to interrupt but if you’re
going to accuse the government of fraud
you’ll want a good lawyer but if you
want a great lawyer my law fir the eagle
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during that Gonzo Oval Office press
conference mus claimed to have found
billions of dollars of Social Security
fraud the allegation that there were
thousands of fake 150y old people
collecting Social Security checks
rocketed through the Maga ecosystem
here’s the president’s son Don Jr
tweeting OMG it’s so bad what’s been
happening to our country and your money
but people who actually understand code
immediately spotted the error the tip
off is that musk thinks all those fake
Social Security accounts are for people
who are 150 years old I.E born in 1875
see a lot of the data that whiz kid
coders have been rifling through was
written in the last century there are a
lot of reasons for this but Chief among
them is money because it’s expensive to
modernize enormous Data Systems
particularly when like Social Security
they absolutely positively cannot break
down or leak and Congress is never
interested in appropriating millions of
dollars to revitalize data processing
systems so it always gets pushed off to
the next year which means that the
management protocols for US government
financial data are very old and very
fragile that’s part of why people were
freaking out about the Doge dudes
getting into treasury’s Payment
Processing system because it would be
very easy to break it by accident and
breaking it would be catastrophic
because it would grind the entire
government payment system to a halt
anyway in 1988 long before most of the
Doge programmers were even born the
International Organization for
standardization tried to regularize the
notation for dates take as an example
this number Americans read that as
February 10th for more or less everyone
else it’s October 2nd and you guys can
argue in the comments about who’s right
here but for the purposes of
international banking transaction it
matters that everyone is on the same
page so in 1988 we all agreed that the
international standard would be an
eight-digit number comprising the year
month and day that standard was called
iso8601 and under it February 10th 2025
is rendered as 20252
Zer the world over no more confusion but
for reasons you don’t care about having
to do with the Gregorian calendar under
ISO 8601 we all agreed to treat May 20th
1875 as the year zero that’s the date
when the Treaty of Metro was signed at
the first International Convention to
establish the international Bureau of
weights and measures in Paris and I
guess that seemed like as good a date as
any but I’m sure we all see where this
is going because the government’s
payment processing systems at the
department of treasury’s Bureau of
fiscal Services runs on a 65-year-old
computer programming language called
cobal and cobal utilizes the iso8601
standard meaning that if there’s nothing
in the birth date field it will render
as the earliest date acknowledged by the
system 1875
0520 so if anyone of any age has a
missing birthday the system will show
her as born on May 20th 1875 and a
person who doesn’t know what he’s
looking at is going to see that as
showing a social security recipient
who’s 150 years old which is very funny
if you’re a computer programmer but not
so funny if you’re watching your
government be disassembled by a deranged
billionaire but musk was not done on
February 16th he discovered that 83% of
Social Security recipients were
fraudulent tweeting maybe Twilight is
real and there are a lot of vampires
collecting Social Security Trump
immediately pared the claim that there
were millions of fraudulent Social
Security recipients from 200 to 20 9
years
old 879 people from 210 years old I
haven’t met any of
them and if I did I I would bless them I
would I would worship the ground they
walk on I have no idea where musk got
that chart he did not say but there are
roughly 71 million Social Security
recipients in the United States and
roughly 60 million Americans over the
age of 65 almost all of whom are social
security eligible which doesn’t even
take into account all the widows orphans
and disabled people who collect Social
Security benefits there just are not
enough people for there to be tens of
millions of fraudulent recipients that’s
that’s not a thing in another recent
episode musk tweeted the Doge team just
discovered that FEMA sent $59 Million
last week to luxury hotels in New York
City to house illegal migrants sending
this money violated the law and is in
Gross insubordination to the president’s
executive order that money is meant for
American disaster relief and instead is
being spent on high-end hotels for
illegals literally none of that was true
in fact the Federal Emergency Management
agency sent almost $81 million to the
city of New York on February 6th as part
of its obligation under the law to
support communities hosting large
numbers of Asylum Seekers and migrants
released from federal custody the city
used $19 million to pay itself back for
money already spent to house migrants in
accordance with the Federal grant those
immigrants are being housed in multiple
locations including the Rosevelt Hotel a
once famous but now decidedly
dilapidated building in Midtown that the
city uses as a migrant shelter and
central processing Hub it was just over
a year ago when the Rosevelt Hotel
excuse me became New York City’s intake
Center for newly arriving migrants the
city does not put migrants up in luxury
hotels in fact is paying an average of
$156 a night per room a decidedly
non-luxury rate for New York City and
contrary to what musk said that money
was not supposed to be spent on disaster
relief it was part of a $50 million
Congressional allocation to FEMA’s
shelter and service program in short the
money was being used exactly as Congress
directed in its 2023 and 2024 budget
bills and L we forget budget bills are
laws the president cannot unilaterally
suspend them and neither can Elon Musk
nevertheless musk tweeted that a
clawback demand will be made today to
recoup those funds and Cameron Hamilton
the acting administrator of FEMA raced
to to make it happen he tweeted I want
to thank the Doge team for making me
aware of this effective yesterday those
payments have all been suspended from
FEMA Personnel will be held accountable
Congress should have never passed bills
in 2023 and 2024 asking FEMA to do this
work this stops now it is not normal for
a public official to say yes these are
laws passed by Congress instructing me
to do a thing but guess what I’m not
going to do it which is why Hamilton
said something different in court see a
federal judge in Island already barred
the government from cutting any grants
or contracts outside the regular agency
review process and after muskin Hamilton
announced their intent to do just that
the justice department filed an
emergency motion asking the court to
allow it to cut funds to New York City
in his declaration to the Court Hamilton
did not say that he was clawing back the
grant money because New York was using
disaster relief to put migrants up in
luxury hotels instead he claimed that
according to Media reports The Vicious
Venezuelan gang R aragua has taken over
the hotel and is using it as a
recruiting center and base of operations
to plan a variety of crimes that claim
was sourced to a New York Post article
derived mainly from Spanish language Tik
toks Hamilton made no claim to have
investigated those rumors he did not
refer to any violation by the city of
New York which would have invalidated
the Grant and he did not tell the court
that he engaged in the months-long
process set out in federal regulations
to recoup and properly used Grant funds
instead he said he paused funding
quickly in this matter to protect that
funding from the potential for its
misuse for the illegal activity
described but the judge refused to sign
the government’s permission slip he said
basically if what you’re doing is legal
then you don’t need my permission and if
it’s not legal I can’t give it to you
and of course it wasn’t legal Federal
Regulations require an audit 60 days
notice an appeal mechanism and allowing
the grant recipient to make repayment
Arrangements here the government just
reversed an $80 million payment most of
which had nothing to do with the
Roosevelt Hotel and stole the money
Department of Homeland Security
secretary chrisy Nom fired the civil
servants who put the transaction through
as they were required to do by law
calling them FEMA deep State activists
and promised that there will not be a
single penny spent that goes against the
interest in safety of the American
people but again the American people
spoke when they elected their
representatives to Congress which sets
the budget that’s how our constitutional
system goes and the fact that Elon Musk
believes crazy things either because he
sees the on the Internet or because the
Doge dos don’t know what they’re looking
at does not change the law Elon Musk and
his doge Bros put out so many fake
stories it can be hard to keep track of
them all he and his millions of
followers spent several news Cycles
discovering that media Outlets were
secretly funded by agencies like usid I
think the theory here is that federal
agencies which make policy decisions and
have to leas with Congress should not
pay for subscriptions to the New York
Times And The Washington Post and
political Pro which are essential
reading for everyone in DC I guess the
less information the better on February
12th Reuters published a story entitled
musk Doge Cuts based more on political
ideology than real cost savings so far
the story noted correctly that musk was
going after programs that conservatives
dislike such as public television and
programs that support diversity but
those represent a minuscule fraction of
the federal budget and will not get
close to the $2 trillion in spending
cuts musk has promised to find after
director Ron Howard posted the Reuters
piece musk replied I wonder how much
money Reuters is getting from the
government let’s find out a crypto bro
named Mario Noel raced to produce the
desired data which wasn’t difficult
since you and I and everyone else can go
to
usaspending.gov and plug in any
recipient we like Nel pointed to a
contract from 2018 when Trump was still
president for quote active social
engineering defense and large-scale
social deception he said Doge
investigations reveal mysterious defense
department payments to Reuters for large
scale social deception project between
2018 and 2022 while DARPA claims it was
for cyber defense questions swirl about
why a news agency received Millions for
social engineering in fact questions did
not swirl or at least not until Nel
started swirling them because you too
can click through and see the November
2017 proposal soliciting Innovative
research proposals in the area of
automated defense against social
engineering attacks which knul must have
done himself since he knew that the
proposal originated from DARPA the
defense Advanced research project agency
but that did not matter to musk who
immediately tweeted Reuters was paid
millions of dollars by the US government
for large scale social deception that is
literally what it says on the purchase
order they’re a total scam and it didn’t
matter to the president either the
reality is that Thompson Raiders is a
huge company with a news division that
is totally separate from its research
Division and Doge didn’t discover this
contract it was on a public website and
some internet Rando tweeted it at musk
along with a totally misleading
suggestion which musk and Trump were
both delighted to treat as fact anyway
thanks to this hard-hitting
investigation the Securities and
Exchange Commission has now canceled its
subscription to wesla the legal research
database relied on by every lawyer in
America because it happens to be owned
by Reuters in reality though the Reuters
article that made musk mad in the first
place was dead right the things that
doge is cutting are a minuscule fraction
of the federal budget in that Oval
Office press conference on February 11th
Trump crowed the Doge had found tens of
billions of dollars of waste Fraud and
Abuse to cut mostly by perusing USA
spending. goov apparently but the
Washington Post ran the numbers and even
if you take do at its word their math
does not add up because a trillion is a
really big number and if you’re
promising half a trillion dollars worth
of savings from cutting waste Fraud and
Abuse a few million dollars here or
there will not cut it for instance Doge
says pennies cost more than three cents
to Mint so the government can save $179
million a year by eliminating the penny
which might be true although I’d note
that getting rid of pennies means we’re
going to need a lot more nickels which
cost 14 cents a piece to make and like
reuter said most of the Doge Cuts so far
have been to projects to promote
diversity Equity inclusion and access
which might add up to a few billion
dollars across the entire federal
government but is relatively speaking a
drop in the buget even the purported
$881 million in cuts to the Department
of Education do not get anywhere near
that $500 billion trun Pro pred you can
e out a million dollars by getting rid
of the non-binary gender marker X on all
government documents and you can a an
exhibit on dror Anthony fouchy at the
Museum of National Institute of Health
and save
$168,000 that’s more of a middle finger
to people you don’t like than actual
budget policy The Washington Post
tallied the Doge cuts through February
12th and came up with a total of $6
billion of which judges have already
blocked $4 billion in cuts to medical
and scientific research that is not half
a trillion dollars it is not even t of
billions of dollars as musk and Trump
promised and even if Trump and musk get
their way and fire vast swads of the
federal Workforce it’s not going to get
them where they say they want to go
because as the Brookings institution
points out 60% of the federal Workforce
is at the Department of Defense Veterans
Affairs and the Department of Homeland
Security Trump promised not to cut any
staff at those departments although he’s
already fired a thousand people at the
ba so who knows they also fired and then
had to rehire more than 300 workers who
managed the national nuclear stock stock
pile oops but if you leave aside those
three agencies the payroll for the
entire rest of the federal government is
just 108 billion so you could cut one in
three federal workers and it would still
only save you $35 billion a recent
investigation by the New York Times of a
reported $8 billion contract canceled by
Doge revealed that the real number was
just $8 million the times notes that
after the article was published Doge
removed the screenshot that showed the
mismatch but continued to claim $8
billion in savings it added a link to
the original incorrect version of the
listing showing an $8 billion value it
later updated the link to reflect the
correct number but failed to subtract
the
7,992 million from the supposed $55
billion tally of the cuts it claims to
have made so far and by the by the time
says that they didn’t find this a by
going through the whole list they just
picked the biggest number and
investigated that one first but the do
Defenders have a good answer for that
and it’s what are you trying to hide you
must be mad because we found all this
corruption when they want to audit us
Aid who is spending a hundred million to
send condoms to Gaza let alone running
shrimp on treadmill and all the other
ridiculous things we the Democrats go
crazy let them do this Sean reasonable
people can argue about small government
versus big government and the
appropriate use of tax dollars that’s
not the issue here leave aside the
dubious legality of almost everything
Doge has done violating everything from
Civil Service protections to the
Appropriations Clause to the the
empowerment Control Act that’s going to
be for judges to sort out the issue is
that none of the numbers these guys are
throwing around will get you anywhere
near half a trillion dollars or2
trillion do or whatever madeup figure
they throw out tomorrow that math just
ain’t mathing although if your goal is
to hollow out the federal government and
make sure that it can never deliver
services that Americans have come to
rely on this plan ought to do it thanks
Liz now just because they weren’t able
to find fraud in the government doesn’t
mean that you can’t save money at home
and I speak from personal experience
because I recently found hundreds of
dollars of monthly subscriptions for
services I didn’t use anymore and even
double charges for important services
that I use to make these videos and once
you start tracking expenses it’s insane
how much money you can save and today’s
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dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
I have to hand it to Trump, he’s done more damage in two months that I estimated he’s do in six. Further I guessed we need the triumvirate of tariffs, deportations of hundreds of thousands of the undocumented and politicisation of the Fed when he’s only really done one of these things.
I estimate that in three months the US economy will be flat-lining, rates hikes will be happening and even the MAGA faithful will be losing faith.
Yeah I guess he is ahead of schedule domestically but I tried to be callous and say “ah well they voted for this “.
Internationally, people are saying NATO is effectively dead and that too happened faster than I anticipated. I’m kind of hoping the Russians can still be beaten.
I wouldn’t be opposed to Australia increasing aid to Ukraine in an appropriate ratio. Heartened by the bipartisan commitment, here.
wait so the alarmists were actually correct after all yet again damn surprise face wow
SCIENCE’s transcription, formatted:
First part:
Elon Musk claims to have found billions of dollars of government fraud, waste, and abuse, but upon closer inspection, almost all of his assertions appear to stem from his own ignorance. While there is widespread support for increased governmental efficiency, the reality is that fraud, waste, and abuse are often more elusive than one might think. This complexity is why senior government officials, known as inspectors general, lead teams of independent watchdogs with public accountability. Unfortunately, many of these officials were dismissed by Donald Trump during his second term’s initial actions.
It is crucial for federal employees to investigate claims of fraud because such discrepancies cannot typically be identified by merely reviewing spreadsheets of payments. When Musk and his associates claimed to have uncovered billions in fraud through this method, skepticism was warranted. Our doubts were justified, as it turned out that, at least on a preliminary basis, they did not find any fraud. Musk and Trump may disagree with the federal spending priorities established by Congress; however, spending dictated by Congressional appropriation is legally binding. Therefore, categorically, if certain funds are allocated as required by Congress, it cannot be classified as fraud. Nonetheless, this has not deterred Musk and his followers from persisting in their unfounded claims.
In the aftermath of the election, Trump announced the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to dismantle bureaucratic excesses, eliminate wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies. At that time, he promised that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would provide external advice and guidance while collaborating with the White House Office of Management and Budget to drive large-scale structural reform and introduce an unprecedented entrepreneurial approach to governance. However, this vision quickly unraveled. Ramaswamy was soon dispatched to Ohio, and within hours of taking office on January 20th, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Department of Digital Services to the Department of Government Efficiency. Essentially, he repurposed an existing agency.
The Department of Digital Services was originally tasked with enhancing user experience on government websites. The first executive order misleadingly suggested an overlap in mission, asserting that Doge would modernize federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity. It hinted at a team of “Doge dudes” who would be dispatched to each government agency with access to all non-classified databases. What followed was nothing short of a wholesale takeover of the government by Musk and his associates as they systematically colonized federal agencies, either shutting them down or drastically downsizing them by terminating tens of thousands of government employees.
In February, the president abandoned any pretense that Doge was focused on modernization. In a subsequent executive order, he mandated that for every new federal worker hired, four must be terminated. He also granted the Doge liaison at each federal agency the authority to veto all hiring decisions. Since then, the Doge Bros have made significant cuts throughout the government while the agency’s Twitter account incessantly promotes its cancellation of “woke” contracts. It is important to note that it is illegal for the president or his billionaire associates to arbitrarily cancel contracts or congressionally allocated spending.
On January 28th, during her first press briefing, White House Press Secretary Caroline Lebit claimed that Doge had discovered the government was spending $50 million on condoms from Gaza. Musk further asserted that this was a preposterous waste of taxpayer money and suggested that much of this funding ended up in Hamas’s pockets rather than being used for condoms. This narrative was utterly baseless; prior to the recent conflict, Gaza’s entire population was only around two million people. Multiple news organizations have indicated that USAID, the government’s vehicle for distributing humanitarian assistance, spent zero dollars on condoms in the entire Middle East in 2024, with only about $7 million allocated for condoms worldwide.
Due to Doge’s actions, we must reference articles instead of original source material because they have removed USAID’s website content that detailed past expenditures. Jeremy Kendic, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official, noted on Twitter that the issue at hand is not about a billion condoms for Gaza; rather, it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding by the Doge team regarding government spreadsheets. Kendic described this as a basic error typical of someone who has dismissed half of the workforce within the Global Health Bureau and pushed out much of its senior leadership.
When pressed for evidence regarding the $50 million claim, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated that a pause in foreign assistance allowed the department to prevent unjustified and non-emergency spending such as condoms. She claimed this prevented $102 million in unjustified funding to a contractor in Gaza, including funds for contraception. However, once again, there was no evidence supporting this assertion. Kendic pointed out that it would be entirely appropriate for the U.S. government to purchase condoms and other forms of birth control as part of its humanitarian funding.
President Trump subsequently inflated this figure to $100 million, suggesting that $1 million was being funne
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE’s transcription, formatted:
not us we just copy pasted but surely there’s some 爱 or something you can use to do that
dv said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/epa-ruling-sewage-waterUS supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies
Ruling by the court, which has a Republican super majority, undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act—-
Yeah that might as well happen
Yeah.
Why not?
They’re shitting on everything else, so why not?
From Quora:
Does Zelensky have more balls than Trump and JD Vance put together?
Let’s put it this way:
When an enterprising Hollywood producer puts together a motion picture version of Donald Trump selling out Volodymyr Zelinskyy and the people of the Ukraine, Zelinskyy will be portrayed by actor Jeremy Renner:
In the role of Donald Trump, the producer will exhume and reanimate the late Laird Cregar:
And in the role of J.D. Vance, the producer will cast Toto:
The Rev Dodgson said:
From Quora:Does Zelensky have more balls than Trump and JD Vance put together?
Let’s put it this way:When an enterprising Hollywood producer puts together a motion picture version of Donald Trump selling out Volodymyr Zelinskyy and the people of the Ukraine, Zelinskyy will be portrayed by actor Jeremy Renner:
In the role of Donald Trump, the producer will exhume and reanimate the late Laird Cregar:
And in the role of J.D. Vance, the producer will cast Toto:
LOLOLOLOL 😆
Perfect!
The Rev Dodgson said:
>And in the role of J.D. Vance, the producer will cast Toto:
I’d think that Peter Lorre (with a beard) would have been good for it.
Or one of the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz.
captain_spalding said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
>And in the role of J.D. Vance, the producer will cast Toto:
I’d think that Peter Lorre (with a beard) would have been good for it.
Or one of the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz.
Maybe Jabba and Salacious Crumb
The Rev Dodgson said:
From Quora:Does Zelensky have more balls than Trump and JD Vance put together?
Let’s put it this way:When an enterprising Hollywood producer puts together a motion picture version of Donald Trump selling out Volodymyr Zelinskyy and the people of the Ukraine, Zelinskyy will be portrayed by actor Jeremy Renner:
In the role of Donald Trump, the producer will exhume and reanimate the late Laird Cregar:
And in the role of J.D. Vance, the producer will cast Toto:
Budget approved.
YES…he REALLY IS, that stupid…and that much of a traitor!!!
Hegseth being interviewed in Brussels:
REPORTER: You focused on what Ukraine has to give up. What concessions will be demanded of Putin?
HEGSETH: Hmm. I would start by saying that the arguments that have been made that somehow sitting down at the table right now is making concessions to Vladimir Putin, I just reject that outright.
REPORTER: Yes, but every “peace talk” so far has been about what Ukraine has to give up – territory, NATO aspirations, sovereignty. So what exactly is Putin putting on the table?
HEGSETH: Well, I don’t think it’s fair to say that we’re just giving concessions to Putin.
REPORTER: Okay, is he pulling out the Russian troops? Paying reparations? Admitting war crimes? Or is his big “compromise” that he’s just taking less from Ukraine than he originally wanted?
HEGSETH: Look, negotiations require both sides to make sacrifices.
REPORTER: Yes, but only one side has launched a full-scale invasion. If a guy steals your house and offers to give you back half of your living room, that’s not a “compromise” – that’s a hostage deal.
HEGSETH: I just think it’s time for diplomacy.
REPORTER: Diplomacy is great when both sides want peace. But when one side just wants a “pause” to recharge, that’s not diplomacy – that’s setting up for the next invasion.
HEGSETH: So you’re saying no negotiations, just endless war?
REPORTER: No, I’m saying that a peace agreement where only one side makes sacrifices is not peace – that’s a better saying for surrender.
*Christopher Adams
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
I have to hand it to Trump, he’s done more damage in two months that I estimated he’s do in six. Further I guessed we need the triumvirate of tariffs, deportations of hundreds of thousands of the undocumented and politicisation of the Fed when he’s only really done one of these things.
I estimate that in three months the US economy will be flat-lining, rates hikes will be happening and even the MAGA faithful will be losing faith.
Yeah I guess he is ahead of schedule domestically but I tried to be callous and say “ah well they voted for this “.
Internationally, people are saying NATO is effectively dead and that too happened faster than I anticipated. I’m kind of hoping the Russians can still be beaten.
I wouldn’t be opposed to Australia increasing aid to Ukraine in an appropriate ratio. Heartened by the bipartisan commitment, here.wait so the alarmists were actually correct after all yet again damn surprise face wow
We underreacted again
TIL the French spell Vlad’s name like the Canadian delicacy
dv said:
TIL the French spell Vlad’s name like the Canadian delicacy
I’ll always think of him as Mr. Chips.
Mr. Chips-and-Cheese, that is.
It’d be such a cushy job to be ‘a Russian agent’ in the US right now.
Surely, Moscow has sent out the word, ‘you can knock off for a while, team: there’s nothing you can do, alone or combined, that’s going to benefit us as much as what Trump is doing’.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
TIL the French spell Vlad’s name like the Canadian delicacy
I’ll always think of him as Mr. Chips.
Mr. Chips-and-Cheese, that is.
we mean the alternative with just an added ‘a’ is probably a bit too risky
désolé, on veut dire risqué
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
Seems quite determined to get his paws on the Panama Canal, too.
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
maybe the evangelicals who believe that Trump will bring the end of times are on the money.
sarahs mum said:
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
Seems quite determined to get his paws on the Panama Canal, too.
maybe the evangelicals who believe that Trump will bring the end of times are on the money.
all good probably these things will stew a bit more and then these dprna geniuses will bomb 三亚市 or something and boom the party begins
I’m not sure I would be comfortable travelling to a lot of os destinations atm.
sarahs mum said:
I’m not sure I would be comfortable travelling to a lot of os destinations atm.
and I wish kii had already sold and come home.
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
Seems quite determined to get his paws on the Panama Canal, too.
He never did comprehend consent
dv said:
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
Seems quite determined to get his paws on the Panama Canal, too.
He never did comprehend consent
oooo.
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
FMD
Effectively a threat of war with Denmark.
No wonder he’s given up support for Ukraine.
dv said:
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
Seems quite determined to get his paws on the Panama Canal, too.
He never did comprehend consent
Seems so.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
FMD
Effectively a threat of war with Denmark.
No wonder he’s given up support for Ukraine.
war with denmark means war with nato.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Trump says the U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-says-the-us-will-take-greenland-one-way-or-the-other.html
FMD
Effectively a threat of war with Denmark.
No wonder he’s given up support for Ukraine.
war with denmark means war with nato.
Think he cares?
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:FMD
Effectively a threat of war with Denmark.
No wonder he’s given up support for Ukraine.
war with denmark means war with nato.
Think he cares?
well, it isn’t if he cares but more does he realise it.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:FMD
Effectively a threat of war with Denmark.
No wonder he’s given up support for Ukraine.
war with denmark means war with nato.
Think he cares?
He clearly doesn’t. He’s got the playpen and he’s pulling all the bars out.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:war with denmark means war with nato.
Think he cares?
well, it isn’t if he cares but more does he realise it.
Ha.
Heather Cox Richardson
44m ·
March 4, 2025 (Tuesday)
We’ve been traveling and between that and the fact that the news has come faster and faster, the letters have crept later and later. Let’s take the night off and regroup tomorrow.
Here’s a picture of the Pacific Ocean for a change, with thanks to our California friends who have a knack for landing us in the right place at the right time to watch spectacular sunsets.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
Think he cares?
well, it isn’t if he cares but more does he realise it.
Ha.
they need a strong but disinterested and distant nation across the ocean to stabilise things
Wouldn’t it be less worrying if the US Scretary for Health didn’t look like he’sabout to expire at any moment?
An actual quote from Trump’s speech today
“The problem is that the bad guys don’t respect the law”
Meanwhile Mike Johnson be like…
captain_spalding said:
Wouldn’t it be less worrying if the US Scretary for Health didn’t look like he’sabout to expire at any moment?
uh the undead don’t die just look at rupe
talk big like an alpha
Republicans advised to avoid in-person town halls after confrontations over layoffs go viral
walk like
The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee advised Republicans in a closed-door meeting that there were other ways to reach constituents.
what
Hi de ho
¿ref
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?
An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.DIE?!”
SCIENCE said:
¿ref
captain_spalding said:
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.DEI?!”
captain_spalding said:
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.IDE?!”
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?
An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.DIE?!”
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?
An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.DEI?!”
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?
An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.IDE?!”
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.IDE?!”
Hmmm, only ten days till the Ides of March…
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Hmmm, only ten days till the Ides of March…
so did he put his mug on the banknote or not
dv said:
Hi de ho
Yeah, likely…
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
Have you watched Trump’s address to Congress?An execellent bit is where the camera cuts to Melania.
You don’t have to be psychic to read her thoughts:
“Why.Won’t.You.IDE?!”
If only.
sarahs mum said:
entertainment
I’m joined Now by Washington DC’s
hottest new power couple and I couldn’t
be more nauseous thanks so much for
joining me president
Donald Jessica
Trump Melania sir your first few weeks
back have been chaotic AF and many
Americans are already concerned nobody
in history has ever gotten more bad
publicity than me well let’s not bring
BL Lively into this please you have been
abusing executive power making enemies
of our allies grocery prices are through
the roof I mean I I just had to a guy
behind a sea town to score a carton of
eggs that’s unbelievable that’s what he
said all we’re really trying to do here
is restore the will of the people
through the president uhhuh whatever
hold that thought would you before I
sing the song Oh Darlings I know we’re
exhausted every day it’s a new decree a
new Scandal a new reason to question our
life choices at this rate Trump will
soon declare himself supreme leader and
start issuing Royal edicts from Mara
Lago hundreds of Articles flood in Daily
about the spray tan and chief making it
impossible to track the madness
thankfully ground news my longtime
partner and fabulous sponsor does all
the heavy lifting so that we can focus
on more important things like deep
breathing and plotting our escape to
Canada it helps me sort through all the
chaos with Trump’s steamrolling policies
left and right it’s clear he wants
control over everything how’s this for a
power move he actually hung his mug shot
in the Oval Office over 100 Outlets are
covering it but without ground news
you’d never know why some are calling
this bold leadership While others are
calling it a national embarrassment by
the way the latter is correct this is
why we cannot rely on just one source
language is sneaky media traps are
everywhere ground news helps me filter
the nonsense and build feeds with
sources I actually trust it’s my go-to
platform and because I love you so much
I got you 40% off their Vantage
subscription which is only five bucks a
month just scan the little QR code on
your screen or go to ground. news/ Randy
Trump 2.0 may be rewriting the rules but
we are reading between the lines thanks
to ground news look I realize the
government might be a little bloated
trust me I know bloated when I see it
but um you know you two dim store
dictators are tearing down institutions
and eroding our rights it’s starting to
feel super constitutional crisis e
really is kind of funny to think that
had you not outrun the law yourself you
might be sitting in prison right now
instead of the Oval
Office cut the the damage that
Biden has done to this country and it’s
not even Biden it’s the people that
circled him in the Oval Office okay
nothing has changed about
you it’s all the same routine it’s going
to be by the way you’re still the same
obnoxious fo from 2016
makeup you’re still not
blending promises you won’t
keep wrapped in your own self-interest
and the whole Dei thing that was a that
was a close your
mouth you
creep it’s time to cry but bye
democracy and watch this Sky
defy democ see would someone stop this
clown and I make you understand you’re
wearing the wrong shade
concealer a Lady Justice and grabbed her
by the t is cracking down on crime
unless it’s crime that he
commits there’s only
retribution on his mind From Dawn Till
does who needs the Constitution
he’s got
Elon and now they’ll try
tocy
as def
democracy up for clown this country was
headed down a very bad track an
idiot our presidents an
idiot for real though he’s a criminal
vindictive and obscene
swind handing out his
pardons hiring these hardons there’s no
low to L for
him this thirsty
whinging
sanity so much for
moreal and
Humanity they’ll never catch the
clown not you in the meantime we have
four years the beauty is we have four
years I hope you’re
happy you heartless
billionaire I hope you fix your hair I
hope you’re not too mean and best of
luck with buying green
land I hope the next years
don’t I hope you’re
happy you
so if you care to find me look for an
open bar it’s barely been 2 months but
girl I’m damn near out of P war and if
this lying
Boo keeps up this
Anarchy we’ll all be dead before we make
it to year three
who
knew
democracy we let
this democracy and now we’re stuck in
crazy
town and no one in the whole us can save
us from this blach blunt mess who batch
at cruel obest walls with ears of Steel
and Tiny an actual convicted Fon
dragging us all down to Hell and
narcissistic instigating fascist crook
who feeds on hating anyone outside his
cult no porn star Dem or sane adult is
ever going to
stop your hair looks
crabby we
for the president has been so unfairly
attacked not now Melania
alleged
This morning’s rabbit hole. After the history of Australian cyclones rabbit hole.
I really should be trying to finalise my password records. I did reconnect to my old Pinterest account. LOLOLOL….sigh
This is priceless stoopidity.“eight million dollars for making mice transgender. this is real.
no, no, no, no. nobody is spending government money to make mice transgender. you low-wattage dolt. the word is transgenic.
let’s say you’re a cancer researcher, and you implant some human genetic material into mice, in order to better study how cells mutate. boom! — you’ve just created transgenic mice.
nobody is doing sex-change operations on mice and setting them loose in Nancy Mace’s bathroom.
Thanks for the Randy Rainbow link sm.
kii said:
This is priceless stoopidity.“eight million dollars for making mice transgender. this is real.no, no, no, no. nobody is spending government money to make mice transgender. you low-wattage dolt. the word is transgenic.
let’s say you’re a cancer researcher, and you implant some human genetic material into mice, in order to better study how cells mutate. boom! — you’ve just created transgenic mice.
nobody is doing sex-change operations on mice and setting them loose in Nancy Mace’s bathroom.
oh god
SCIENCE said:
alleged
The Iowa GOP advanced a bill making it a misdemeanor for a healthcare provider to administer a Covid vaccine. Even when a person has requested a Covid vaccine.
!!!
kii said:
This is priceless stoopidity.“eight million dollars for making mice transgender. this is real.no, no, no, no. nobody is spending government money to make mice transgender. you low-wattage dolt. the word is transgenic.
let’s say you’re a cancer researcher, and you implant some human genetic material into mice, in order to better study how cells mutate. boom! — you’ve just created transgenic mice.
nobody is doing sex-change operations on mice and setting them loose in Nancy Mace’s bathroom.
Ha!
Donald Trump’s latest address to Congress was a disaster—full of hypocrisy, lies, and authoritarian threats. From gaslighting about “free speech” to defending Elon Musk’s illegal power grab, this speech revealed it all. Even Republicans were caught off guard. Let’s break it down!
Mary Trump’s channel
It’s a sad day for data journalism, ABC has announced that, as a part of larger restructuring effort, it will be laying off staff and closing the FiveThirtyEight news site.
Michael V said:
kii said:
This is priceless stoopidity.“eight million dollars for making mice transgender. this is real.no, no, no, no. nobody is spending government money to make mice transgender. you low-wattage dolt. the word is transgenic.
let’s say you’re a cancer researcher, and you implant some human genetic material into mice, in order to better study how cells mutate. boom! — you’ve just created transgenic mice.
nobody is doing sex-change operations on mice and setting them loose in Nancy Mace’s bathroom.
Ha!
In MAGAland: “Hey, y’know what them damn lefty scientists are doin’ now? They’re confusin’ rodents about their gender, then stuffin’ ‘em into lamps, and makin’ transgenies out of ‘em!’.
dv said:
This crossed my feed earlier and I thought it was an Onion headline. I truly can’t fathom these dipshits.
You can always count on the US Voter to work things out four months too late.
dv said:
R. Soles.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
*bumps this Randy Rainbow link
ah . Buffy had seen it.
dv said:
You can always count on the US Voter to work things out four months too late.
Unfortunately.
Due to tariffs, Canadian gas exports to the US will decline, and Europe is continuing to try to wean off Russian gas. The solution might seem obvious but unfortunately, Canada’s LNG export facilities are poor. They have a number of projects under construction, and the one at Kitimat B.C. may be finished late this year.
Almost all of Australia’s LNG exports go to Asia. There was one shipment to Europe last month but that was the first since the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
*bumps this Randy Rainbow link
:)
From another scan of the Internet:
Ben Shapiro, America’s most insufferable fast-talker, is launching a petition begging Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin – who killed George Floyd. Musk is adding fuel to the fire. It’s a state conviction, so Trump can’t pardon Chauvin.
“Make no mistake — the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics,” Shapiro said. “The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/elon-musk-doubles-down-on-ben-shapiros-plea-for-trump-to-pardon-derek-chauvin/
There are now more cases of measles in Texas than there are transgender athletes in the whole of the US.
kii said:
From another scan of the Internet:Ben Shapiro, America’s most insufferable fast-talker, is launching a petition begging Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin – who killed George Floyd. Musk is adding fuel to the fire. It’s a state conviction, so Trump can’t pardon Chauvin.
“Make no mistake — the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics,” Shapiro said. “The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/elon-musk-doubles-down-on-ben-shapiros-plea-for-trump-to-pardon-derek-chauvin/
FMD
Angry.
Michael V said:
kii said:
From another scan of the Internet:Ben Shapiro, America’s most insufferable fast-talker, is launching a petition begging Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin – who killed George Floyd. Musk is adding fuel to the fire. It’s a state conviction, so Trump can’t pardon Chauvin.
“Make no mistake — the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics,” Shapiro said. “The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/elon-musk-doubles-down-on-ben-shapiros-plea-for-trump-to-pardon-derek-chauvin/
FMD
Angry.
Same here. Think I’ll watch Greta Gerwin in The Dish and the Spoon. She’s expressing her anger through eating donuts and drinking beer as she drives along a rainy road.
diddly-squat said:
There are now more cases of measles in Texas than there are transgender athletes in the whole of the US.
Ha!
Say Goodbye To Our National Parks
miniminuteman channel
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fa57E-Vu1dg
Three people. FMD.
Spiny Norman said:
Say Goodbye To Our National Parksminiminuteman channel
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fa57E-Vu1dg
Three people. FMD.
Mrs rb said, “That’s got to be probably the worst thing they have done”.
Me: There exists no love for mother earth at all in Trump’s world.
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
Say Goodbye To Our National Parksminiminuteman channel
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fa57E-Vu1dg
Three people. FMD.
Mrs rb said, “That’s got to be probably the worst thing they have done”.
Me: There exists no love for mother earth at all in Trump’s world.
The only love that exists in Trump’sworld is the love he has for himself.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has caused alarm among pediatricians, vaccine experts and lawmakers with an opinion piece that focuses on vitamin A and nutrition as treatments for measles.
In response to a measles outbreak in Texas, which resulted in the first American measles death in nearly a decade, Kennedy wrote for Fox News about the benefits of “good nutrition” and vitamin A – but did not explicitly recommend highly effective vaccines.
“In fact, relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” Dr Sue Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Washington Post.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/rfk-jr-vitamins-measles-outbreak
dv said:
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has caused alarm among pediatricians, vaccine experts and lawmakers with an opinion piece that focuses on vitamin A and nutrition as treatments for measles.In response to a measles outbreak in Texas, which resulted in the first American measles death in nearly a decade, Kennedy wrote for Fox News about the benefits of “good nutrition” and vitamin A – but did not explicitly recommend highly effective vaccines.
“In fact, relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” Dr Sue Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Washington Post.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/04/rfk-jr-vitamins-measles-outbreak
Another FMD, but really, not unexpected.
Spiny Norman said:
It should never have to come to this.
But the thoughtful sentiment made me smile.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
Say Goodbye To Our National Parksminiminuteman channel
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fa57E-Vu1dg
Three people. FMD.
Mrs rb said, “That’s got to be probably the worst thing they have done”.
Me: There exists no love for mother earth at all in Trump’s world.
The only love that exists in Trump’sworld is the love he has for himself.
we thought they hate themselves but love money
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
From another scan of the Internet:
Ben Shapiro, America’s most insufferable fast-talker, is launching a petition begging Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin – who killed George Floyd. Musk is adding fuel to the fire. It’s a state conviction, so Trump can’t pardon Chauvin.
“Make no mistake — the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics,” Shapiro said. “The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.”
FMD
Angry.
Same here. Think I’ll watch Greta Gerwin in The Dish and the Spoon. She’s expressing her anger through eating donuts and drinking beer as she drives along a rainy road.
truth justice stalin
dv said:
Due to tariffs, Canadian gas exports to the US will decline, and Europe is continuing to try to wean off Russian gas. The solution might seem obvious but unfortunately, Canada’s LNG export facilities are poor. They have a number of projects under construction, and the one at Kitimat B.C. may be finished late this year.
Almost all of Australia’s LNG exports go to Asia. There was one shipment to Europe last month but that was the first since the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
so maybe the world will come to rely less on gas and KKK saves the world from global warming
Michael V said:
dv said:
You can always count on the US Voter to work things out four months too late.
Unfortunately.
don’t worry just wag the dog and those ratings will fix themselves up the right way around again quick smart
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
The Iowa GOP advanced a bill making it a misdemeanor for a healthcare provider to administer a Covid vaccine. Even when a person has requested a Covid vaccine.
!!!
ah well good news maybe they’ll be cheaper for us
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Due to tariffs, Canadian gas exports to the US will decline, and Europe is continuing to try to wean off Russian gas. The solution might seem obvious but unfortunately, Canada’s LNG export facilities are poor. They have a number of projects under construction, and the one at Kitimat B.C. may be finished late this year.
Almost all of Australia’s LNG exports go to Asia. There was one shipment to Europe last month but that was the first since the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
so maybe the world will come to rely less on gas and KKK saves the world from global warming
You’re dreaming.
kii said:
This morning’s rabbit hole. After the history of Australian cyclones rabbit hole.I really should be trying to finalise my password records. I did reconnect to my old Pinterest account. LOLOLOL….sigh
mild shock
The material “Trump is a KGB agent” is based on exclusive information received from a former high-ranking employee of the GRU of the USSR Ministry of Defense (Soviet intelligence). For the first time, shocking details of Donald Trump’s years-long cooperation with the KGB and FSB are revealed. According to the insider, Russian intelligence services not only recruited him back in 1978, but also played a key role in winning the 2024 election. This data could be the basis for impeachment and even charges of treason.
Aleksandr Sotnik (born 1968) is an independent journalist, publicist, analyst and writer. Since 2012, he has covered protest actions across Russia, and was one of the few reporters who documented events in the midst of political crises. In 2014, he founded the independent channel Sotnik-TV, where he published interviews with leading opposition figures, including Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov and others.
As an active participant in civil society, he took part in organizing the March Against Scoundrels (2013), the Peace March (2014) and other protest events. In 2018, due to threats of physical violence, he was forced to leave Russia with his family. First he lived in Lithuania, then moved to Slovakia, where he continues his activities as an independent journalist and publicist.
In 2023, the Russian authorities added him to the Rosfinmonitoring register as an “extremist and terrorist”, which was yet another example of political pressure on independent journalists.
Today, Alexander Sotnik continues to work in exile and remains one of the most consistent independent political analysts and journalists exposing the Russian political system and its mechanisms of influence.
in light of the latest geopolitical events taking place in the world and what may happen in the very near future
in connection with the rise to power in the United States of Donald Trump I have decided to bring to the attention of all
interested parties the secret information that I have from the direct participants and executiv of this top secret operation of the KGB of the USSR
to recruit and subsequently cooperate with US citizen Donald John
Trump the leaders and high-ranking officers of the KGB of the USSR as well
as the State security service of Czechoslovakia staty B were involved in this operation I do not
exclude the possibility of participation and supervision by state bodies of the USSR and the czechoslovak Socialist
Republic the head of the KGB of the ussi Yuri andropov and his first Deputy semanan were the direct leaders of this
secret operation Army General San also supervised the second third and fifth
directorates of the KGB of the USSR and the main directorate of the Border troops of the KGB of the USSR the lead
leadership and staff of the second directorate of Counter Intelligence of the KGB of the USSA directly carried out
contact recruitment of Donald John Trump during his first trip to the USSR in 1987 but this recruitment operation
according to the data I have verified began back in the mid 70s with the direct participation of the leadership
of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR intelligence and the State security service of
Czechoslovakia in order for interested parties to understand the extent of my access to classified information and
sources and to trust my information I would like to slightly lift the curtain on my identity I am a former leftenant
Colonel of the fifth directorate of the guu of the USSR directorate of operational intelligence due to close
family ties and complete trust from February 5th 1982 to July 13th 1987 I
was the closest assistant to the chief of the main intelligence directorate Deputy Chief of the general staff of the
Armed Forces of the USSR Army General p IV asutin and due to the nature of my
service I had access to the most secret information of all intelligence and special services of the USSR as well as
the security services of the Warsaw pack countries I had to directly communicate
with the leadership of the intelligence Services of these countries and on IA shuin instructions delve into and
supervise joint operations at that time not a single even the most insignificant operation
carried out on the territory of Eastern European countries or on the territory of the rest of the world was possible
without the participation of Soviet Specialists all operations involving the special services of these socialist
countries were carried out only after coordination with Moscow the ears and the watchful eye of the Big Brother of
the occupier were sticking out everywhere and I very often had to be precisely these ears and eyes of Pi iers
shotin I will start with information I received quite recently from a former high-ranking officer of the State
security service of Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the USSR and the Socialist camp and after the Declaration
of Independence of the Czech Republic and Slovakia he became a general of the office of foreign relations and
information I.E the foreign intelligence of the Czech Republic starting his service in stne Banos he was directly
subordinate to Colonel G cadela who in the late 60s recruited and subsequently supervised Ivana Marie zelov the future
first wife of Donald John Trump she was recruited in the highest category in the qualification of
agent such people were recruited for conscious cooperation reasons material benefits
coupons in department stores financing of expenses clothing Western alcohol Etc
better employment options with opportunities to travel around the world and also ideological reasons the fight
for socialism the peace movement Etc an important addition was communication with representatives of
the unfriendly West it resulted in Psych logical pressure on the subjects through compromising information demoralization
of the individual blackmail Etc staty Banos used undercover agents
in all its departments intelligence counterintelligence security surveillance and the intelligence
technical department in intelligence there were such categories of undercover agents as agent secret liaison an
ideological collaborator cooperation was most often terminated due to the health
or death of the employee his immigration demotion Etc but everything depended on
the quality of the cooperation Ivana Marie zelov was born on February 20th 1949 in the city of
gotwald in moravi from her youth she devoted her attention to Alpine skiing
according to Ivana herself she was even a member of the reserve team of Czechoslovakia at the 1972 Winter
Olympics but if this pre-prepared Legend worked until the mid 80s then already in 1989 by the time of the collapse of the
warsa pact and its secret intelligence Services the Secretary General of the Olympic Committee of Czechoslovakia Peta
pesni began to refute this Legend when journalists asked about Ivana zelov he
replied who is this woman Ivana and why do journalists continue to ask about her
we have searched and consulted with many people many times and there is no such girl in our records it is this remark
that makes us look into her biography in more detail we see a standard scheme used by the special services of the USSR
and the Warsaw packed countries to transfer and legalize their female agents to the countries of the Hostile
West this is a fictitious marriage with a foreigner who fell into the networks of these special services due to some
offense from my experience of service in the guu of the USSR I claim that we had
quite extensive lists of such potential clients for subsequent recruitment in order to later use them in our interests
zoves example is very typical of the classic pattern of this kind of operation in 1971 zelenov married
Austrian ski instructor Alfred wil Mayer in March 1972 Ivana wil received
Austrian citizenship the fact that this was a fictitious marriage is evidenced by the fact that from the moment of the
wedding and while living with Alfred Ivana wil had a romantic relationship with The czechoslovak Lyricist and
playwright yie tidle who was also an employee of the State security service of Czechoslovakia he helped Ivana quickly
adapt to her new role tidle died in a car accident in 1973 and most likely not
by accident at least according to my check informant the police closed this case very quickly after Steel’s death in
1973 Ivana and her fictitious husband left for the United States where they got divorced in Los Angeles after the
divorce Ivana moved to Canada where she lived with another employee of the czechoslovak State security service
George Yuri s AKA who was acting under cover according to the legend he was the
owner of a ski Boutique in Montreal Ivana had known this employee since his studies and service in Czechoslovakia
since 1967 while living in Canada Ivana worked as a ski instructor and worked part-time
as a model in a department store and a designer clothing store she was also involved in the advertising campaign for
the 1976 Summer Olympics there was a strong hand behind her skillfully
leading her to the main goal of her entire life and service with a beautiful biography and an impressive portfolio in
1976 Ivana was introduced to Donald John Trump by the KGB residency in the USA
she immediately broke up with Yuri sakka and threw herself into Trump’s arms that
was when the operation to recruit and use Donald Trump in the KGB operations began and it was Ivana zelov who
prepared Trump and brought him to Moscow in 1987 to ensure person contact between
her husband and the then chairman of the KGB according to my information this meeting took place in one of the KGB
buildings in kaisel Lane Ivana zelov in addition to her native Czech was fluent
in several languages Russian German and French she herself did not indicate
English among these languages although she lived in the USA with Trump from 1976 to
1992 in her marriage with Donald Trump she had three children Donald Trump Jr
Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump how did she communicate with her husband and children without knowing English the
fact that she did not indicate fluency in English could be a kind of psychological defense and this is one of
the skills that are taught in the secret Services the moment when Donald Trump’s family relationship with Ivana Trump
zelenov began to break up miraculously coincided with the time of the destruction of the Socialist system the
Warsaw Pact and the secret Services of the former socialist block countries in 1989
by the way their official divorce took place in the same month March 1992 when the KGB of the USSR and the guu of the
USSR ceas to exist this was a clear attempt by Donald Trump to get rid of the documentary connection with the
agent of the State security service of Czechoslovakia and the trail of its Moscow leadership but the KGB of the
USSR turned out to have two long tentacles in conclusion of the research into Ivana zoves personality I would
like to inform you that in 22 by decree of the president of the Czech Republic she was postumus awarded the gold medal
for merit on the recommendation of the leadership of the Czech security service this award is given by the president of
the Czech Republic to Citizens for merits in public service or local government for achievements in the field
of Economics science technology culture art Sports education defense and
National Security of the state but how the recruitment operation itself took place and what could have been discussed
at the meeting between the chairman of the KGB of the USSR comrade chov and Mr Trump I will tell you in my next
message before approving the scheme for recruiting Donald Trump experts compiled his psychological profile this is the
rule the psychological features of the subject are identified and a determination is made are there
prerequisites and grounds for his recruitment but let’s first delve into the history of the creation and
construction of the bull punitive intelligence and counterintelligence system itself I often come across
various scientific works by Western researchers who call themselves specialists in the history of the USSR
and experts in the work of the Soviet Special Services starting from the moment of the October Revolution and
until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 but all these Specialists are
historians or journalists at Best by their education that is people far from the special services from their ideology
and the way of thinking of the employees of the Soviet and now Russian special services this mentality is formed during
study in special institutions and subsequent service and does not coincide with the generally accepted principles
of Morality In The West a normal and mentally healthy person simply will not
understand this having lived in Europe for over 10 years and periodically communicating with employees of European
special services I came to the conclusion that foreign citizens do not understand and are initially incapable
of perceiving the ideological basis embedded in the consciousness of employees of the Soviet Special Services
it is precisely this misunderstanding and work according to their European moral and ethical templates that does
not allow them to effectively counter the active measures of the Soviet and now Russian special services I didn’t
just go through all the stages of training in the field of Counter Intelligence and intelligence of the USSR I graduated from the higher School
of the KGB and served for almost 2 years in the first main directorate pgu KGB
ussi then for more than 10 years was close to the leadership of the guu USSR
directly participating in the creation and construction of ideological principles and templates of the work of
the system itself unlike most of my colleagues who did not have high ranking fathers with big shoulder straps I was
inside this think tank from childhood and witnessed the discussion of service problems and situations by grown-up
uncles in shoulder straps in an informal setting during family getto togethers at the dater I saw Tipsy Marshals and
Generals heard them and learned the nature of the system itself from the drunken Revelations of military leaders
such feasts were frequent and took place at General’s dates in the near Moscow region of course by the time I entered
and began studying at the KGB higher school I was several heads above all my classmates and future colleagues in
understanding how the system works later already a major in the USSR giu for
future career growth I externally graduated from the military diplomatic Academy at the insistence of the head of
the guu pea IV asutin and since then I have had quite extensive connections
after all some of my classmates from the day before yesterday now work in the central office of the FSB of Russia and
in the main directorate of the general staff of the ministry of Defense 2 days ago from one of my former classmates a
general in the central office of the FSB I received more detailed and precise information about the operation to
recruit the future US president Donald John Trump by the KGB of the USSR
according to information from my former classmate who due to the nature of his service has access to the most secret
archives of the FSB svr and old KGB documents active measures with Donald
Trump began in 1978 on October 17th 1978 the first
Deputy Chief of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR leftenant General Boris Ivanov reported
at a meeting of the heads of the first Main directorate and in particular the chief of the first main directorate of
the k g b of the USSR Vladimir katkov on the completion of the first preliminary stage of recruiting Donald Trump and
proposed moving on to real cooperation and using him in active measures in the United States and other Western
countries ionov Boris sovic supervised director at K Counter Intelligence and
departments for the Western hemisphere in 1955 to 1959 he headed the legal KGB
residency in New York in 1960 to 1962 he was the head head of the first
Department of the first main directorate of the KGB from January 1962 to June
1964 he was a legal KGB resident in the United States in New York and went on
business trips to Chile Peru Argentina and Cuba during his missions in the
United States he held the post of advisor to the permanent representative of the USSR to the UN was an individual
member of the commission on human rights and the subcommission on prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities of the UN from March 17th
1979 he became the head of the KGB operational group in Afghanistan from 1982 to 1987 he was the
chief intelligence consultant of the group of Consultants to the chairman of the KGB now we can assume with 100%
certainty that it was Boris Ivanov who directly reported to androv and later to chov about cooperation with Donald Trump
it should be noted that it was Ivanov who in the 1980s was the representative of the AGB of the USSR in the small five
of The polit Bureau an expert foreign policy body that determined the foreign policy of the USSR he was also the
official representative of the USSR in international negotiations on security and cooperation in Europe and the
limitation of strategic nuclear weapons by the way during the invasion of the USSR troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968
Ivanov was the deputy head of the KGB operational group in Czechoslovakia and practically supervised and directed The
joint actions of the USSR KGB and the local staty Banos service from that
moment on it was Ivanov who supervised and maintained friendly trusting ties with the stb leadership and remembering
the primary role of the czechoslovak special services in this operation we can easily identify the figure who
played the main role in the recruitment of Donald Trump I have listed ivona’s positions in such detail to show what
great importance the leadership of the USSR KGB and the country’s leadership attached to the the recruitment of
Donald Trump even before the collapse of the USSR perhaps the collapse of the USSR was a psychological blow for Trump
himself which ideologically and mentally brings him closer to Putin after leftenant General Ivanov was transferred
to a higher management level in 1978 Major General Yuri Ivanovic drov Deputy
Chief of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR chief of directorate s of illegal intelligence of the first
main directorate of the KGB of the USSR who held this position from 1979 to 1991
took on the figure of Donald Trump in the system of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR at the same time at the end of 1979
the top secret service a active measures was connected to this operation the
employees of this Secret Service carried out open or secret specific operations e measures the purpose of which was to
influence certain areas of the political life of countries their foreign policy the solution of international problems s
to mislead the enemy undermine and weaken his positions disrupt his plans
Etc one of the goals of active measures is to influence public opinion in other countries as well as the actions of
individuals State and public organizations in the Soviet Union it was
precisely these activities that were carried out by service a of the first main directorate of the KGB which worked
in close contact with the international Department of the Central Committee of the cpsu since that moment Donald Trump has
received comprehensive support from highly qualified specialists in the areas that are now being carried out before our eyes both in the United
States and in the western world most likely relying on the rich experience of the employees of this Secret Service and
long-standing contact with it Donald Trump and his Entourage created the mega movement to conduct election campaigns
in 2016 and 2024 staging assassination attempts and much more with the set of
shock content that the whole world has seen in recent months I understand understand why Western intelligence
agencies could not find an antidote to these active actions thoroughly developed and carried out by highly
professional Specialists of this secret service but let’s return to Trump’s curators leaving for a new position
leftenant General Ivanov transferred supervision and all management of this operation to his Deputy Major General
Vadim alexich kachenko who later received the rank of left tenant General
from 1970 to 1974 kachenko was a resident in Tunisia and Egypt then for 5
years until August 1979 he headed the illegal intelligence Department less of
the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR he worked with Helen and Peter
Kroger Leon Tina and Morris Cohen he led the storming of arman’s Palace in
1979 from 1979 to 1991 kachenko was the first Deputy head of the first main
directorate of the KGB of the USSR after katkov was promoted in 1988
Gorbachev demanded that young people be promoted and 65-year-old Keno’s career growth was cut short nevertheless he
continued to serve under yelson and resigned only in 1997 it should be noted that it was he
who headed director atess for 5 years which in 1979 took Donald Trump under its wing and began to help him in active
measures he continued to supervise this operation and secretly manage active measures already in the foreign
intelligence service of the Russian Federation one of Trump’s curators was Lazar lazarevich matv a legendary figure
he was the head of the Soviet intelligence group in East Germany represented the USSR in the ministry of
State security of the gdr from 1982 to 1989 he held the post of KGB USS Alazan
officer for the Dron district and in 1982 to 83 was directly subordinate to Victor ngv the former head of that
illegal group of the S directorate of the KGB of the USSR and just for information Lazar mattv was
Vladimir Putin’s immediate Superior during the Dron period in this message I
focused on the moment of the Preparatory part of the Recruitment and the beginning of active measures to work with Donald Trump I also identified the
interested parties and high ranking officers involved in the development of the subject all of them one might say
are legends of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR can you imagine how important this operation
was for the KGB and the leadership of the USSR since they together with the State security service of Czechoslovakia
threw their best Personnel into its implementation in my next message I will talk about the tasks that were assigned
to Donald Trump by the leaders of the KGB of the USSR and also present public IED the very active events in which
Donald Trump personally took
part for me as a specialist in Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence accustomed to working according to
systemic templates it is clear why he was chosen Trump initially perfectly
matched all our criteria from Early Childhood he showed signs of criminal
Consciousness with a complete lack of generally accepted moral principles and spiritual values Trump was absolutely
unprincipled and full of contempt for the sense of civic duty it was precisely such specimens that were systematically
sought out and subsequently recruited by the KGB giu and the security services of
the war warsa packed countries to the question what could interest young Donald Trump I will try to answer
briefly the Bolshevik regime declared its main strategic goal to be the Triumph of Red Terror throughout the
world which would be the key to the victory Of The World Revolution this was the main idea of the criminal Bolshevik
convicts who created a barbaric ideology under the guise of beautiful populist slogans all over the world they sought
out marginal and unprincipled individuals who were ready to cooperate with the GPU nkvd KGB and now the FSB
despite their own acts of treason among historical figures these include KL lick
and Rosa Luxembourg Palmero togliatti and Ern Thalman Dolores iburi and Mao
zidong kimil s and many others who succumbed to the ideological handouts of the Bolsheviks under the mythological
source of World Revolution all of them became traitors to their countries and their peoples Donald Trump can be
included in this list of traitors and moral free in the fight to promote their ideology
the USSR special services used any dirty methods political Terror and murder prostitution drug production and
distribution human trafficking the creation and support of terrorist organizations like the Palestine
Liberation Front the IRA in Ireland ETA and the red brigades in Spain are all
bloody creations of the USSR having created a terrorist State under the leadership of yesterday’s
convicts the Bolsheviks merged with the criminal underworld establishing the red Comm turn and having created a state
system after which they began to pursue a policy based on the creation and support of terrorist movements
throughout the world this support required colossal financial resources and this budget was formed from the sale
of weapons the production and sale of drugs human trafficking prostitution and
the gambling business with the rise to power of the pro Soviet Castro regime in Cuba the USSR began to actively
interfere in the Affairs of Latin American countries Ries career officers of the KGB and giu began to supervise
and together with the security services of Cuba established direct contacts with the drug cartels of Mexico Colombia and
a number of other countries the goal was to if not destroy then undermine stability within the United States
through the delivery and distribution of drugs during my service in the guu I
often came across reports on operations and active measures carried out jointly with Cuban comrades in the stru of the
guu this area was handled by the third directorate focused on the countries of the Western Hemisphere Great Britain and
its dominions during my service this directorate was headed in turn by Petri
asev Kelsey ferovic and sakulin Ivan pavlovich it was these high-ranking
officers who organized and supervised the implementation of joint operations with Cuban special services on the
territory of the United States and Latin American countries they supervised work
with drug cartels that produce drugs and distributed them primarily in the United States on the Cuban side Manuel Pano
Losa a Cuban State security officer politician and Statesman founder of the Castro government special services
personally participated in such operations he was an active participant in the Cuban Revolution and a member of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and headed the American Department of the Central Committee of
the CPC he organized political repressions and secret Special Operations
but Pano’s main area of activity was foreign intelligence exporting the Revolution and Cuban expansion in Latin
America the apparatus created under his leadership was considered one of the most successful security and
intelligence agencies in the world and was compared to the East German stari service Pano’s main operational partner
was Marcus wolf I note that the CIA considered Peno to be the Cuban equivalent of wolf Pine oversaw secret
operations and support for Pro communist forces in Argentina Venezuela Peru
Colombia and Bolivia it was from these Latin American countries that cocaine flowed in an inexhaustible stream with
the direct participation of Manuel Pineo in 1974 Pineo became the head of the
American Department of the Central Committee of the CPC in this capacity he continued to
oversee Cuban operations in Latin America organized support for leftist Marxist and pro-communist movements
Grenadian Nicaraguan Salvadoran Guatemalan he was in charge of
intelligence and political activities in the United States disintegration actions in Cuban political immigrant
organizations among Pino’s contacts were such major figures as Peruvian president Velasco Alvarado Panamanian leader Omar
toos and the rise to power of the governments of Maurice Bishop and especially Daniel ortiga were considered
brilliant achievements of Pineo why did I pay such special attention to this topic in my post about Trump
because the purpose of recruiting Donald Trump is inextricably linked to the production and distribution of drugs in
the United States and other countries of the Western Hemisphere the profits from the production and distribution of drugs
had to be legalized until the mid 70s this was relatively easy after all
International control over Financial transactions had not yet been established and the profits received
from criminal activity were easily legalized by the Soviet Special Services and their Cuban colleagues after which
they were directed to support terrorist revolutionary organizations and movements in Western countries but in
the late ’70s laundering became problematic the risks increased and it was necessary to look for a legal or at
least semi-legal way to launder money received from Criminal business according to my information received
from my Superior the head of the USSR giu Army General pea IV asutin and the
head of the fifth directorate of operational intelligence leftenant General Constantine kachenko our special
services were intensively searching for owners of companies associated with the construction and gambling businesses
with large trading companies with chain stores they were also looking in other areas they were interested in firms and
companies capable of officially passing huge amounts of cash through their structures these searches were carried
out in the USA by employees of the first Department of the KGB first Chief directorate however according to my
superiors our employees failed to find and recruit such owners of large bus businesses in the USA but the first
Chief directorate together with the State security service of Czechoslovakia was more fortunate in this direction
they managed to recruit and involve American businessman Donald Trump in their active activities now it is time
to move on to a more detailed examination of the participation of agent Trump in the active activities of
the first Chief directorate if we analyze the financial ups and downs of his companies then starting from 1976
from the moment of the beginning of recruitment these periods will surprisingly coincide with the successes
and failures of the Bolshevik system itself until 1987 that is until the
moment of Trump’s arrival in Moscow and personal meeting with the chairman of the KGB of the USSR Victor chov the
financial income of Donald Trump’s companies fit within the limits of the financial sums received from Shadow
participation in the legalization of income of the KGB of the USSR and Cuban special services which were permitted at
that time in January 198 7 Donald Trump received an official invitation to visit
the USSR this was Trump’s first trip to Moscow earlier in late 1986 at a dinner
party hosted by Leonard lorder who ran his mother EST day Lord’s Cosmetics Empire Donald Trump met with yui dubinin
then the ussr’s ambassador to the UN according to reliable sources it was
Donald Trump’s wife on the recommendation of her bosses in Prague and their handlers in Moscow who
persuaded Donald Trump to attend the event Yuri dubinin like the vast majority of
Soviet diplomats was a Soviet intelligence officer working under diplomatic cover from May 1986 to May
1990 he was the ussr’s ambassador to the United States please note the dates of
jubin in’s transfer to the USA and the time of his work strangely coincide with the preparation for Donald Trump’s
arrival in Moscow and the monitoring of his actions after the meeting with KGB chairman chov but there are no
coincidences among intelligence a agencies dubinin’s appointment to the post of the USSR permanent
representative to the UN to the security Council for a period of 2.5 months was a cover operation for further actions in
the final stage of the operation and judging by these actions the leadership of the KGB of the USSR desperately
needed a personal meeting with Trump to officially cover his trip to the USSR in
January 1987 Trump received an invitation from the state committee for foreign tourism which was one of the
main mechanisms in the the official Espionage activities in the KGB of the USSR by July 1987 his meeting with the
chairman of the KGB of the USSR chov was fully prepared from my own experience I
know that the preparation of such personal meetings of foreign citizens with the leadership of the USSR intelligence Services took at least 6
months but this meeting was prepared in an accelerated mode what was the task
facing the KGB leadership with Gorbachev’s rise to power in the USSR a
course was set for perista including the normalization of relations with hostile Western countries to solve such problems
it was necessary to change the face and internal appearance of the system in the eyes of potential Western Partners to
achieve their goals the cists always relied on bribery and recruitment of high-ranking officials but such active
measures required completely different amounts of money this is no longer just Shadow support for terrorist
organizations here is a qualitatively different budget over the course of 9 years of close
cooperation with Donald Trump the leadership of the KGB of the USSR became convinced of his reliability and finally
decided to entrust him with very substantial sums this explains the fact that in the period from 1987 to the end
of 1990 the financial affairs of Donald Trump’s companies sharply went uphill
during this time his Capital miraculously increased by $375
million this was a colossal surge not seen before the magic of the genius of a successful
businessman dissipates if you understand how the secret Springs of the special services work and six official
bankruptcies in the following year speak for themselves in 1989 the political and
Military Alliance uniting the pro-soviet countries of Eastern Europe completely collapsed one of the first to cease to
exist was the State security service of Czechoslovakia Donald Trump and His companion Ivana zelov saw their chance
to get rid of each other and at the same time get out from under the control of their curators from Prague and Moscow
the official reason for their breakup seems naive professional intelligence officer Ivana zelich kova with the
psychology of an escort acquired during her service simply could not get jealous of trump having caught him with his
mistress in the hotel Corridor so this breakup was truly mutually beneficial by
the way they divorced in March 1992 and it was in this month that the KGB and
the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR ceased to exist it should be
noted that stne Banos finally disappeared in early 1990 but the KGB controlled its agent until March 1992
monitoring the movement of funds allocated to him however since 1990 this
grip also began to weaken especially after the recall of Trump’s curator UI dubinin from Washington this was a lucky
chance and Trump relying on his criminal psychology decided to quietly forget
about the lubianka money but it didn’t help him the decline of his financial prosperity coincided with
the collapse of the USSR and from the end of 1990 until the end of 1996 his
business entered a deep crisis but it also miraculously ended in 1997 after
Donald Trump’s second visit to Moscow in 1996 and his personal meeting with the leadership of the FSB of Russia which
inherited the dirt on Donald Trump alas his attempt to jump off was not
successful in post Soviet Russia the new leadership of the country and the FSB have new geopolitical tasks other than
schemes for legalizing money received from the production and sale of drugs and bribing officials in the United
States and Western countries and this was already pulling Donald Trump to the electric chair the new tasks set before
Trump by the leadership of the FSB of Russia in their nature and scale do not compare with his previous crimes and I
will tell about Trump’s active measures under the leadership of his new bosses in the final part part of the
message it is time to talk about President Donald Trump and his consequences in the active measures
carried out by the FSB of modern Russia as I have already reported in March 1992
Trump got off the hook of a KGB of the USSR as if forgetting about the Soviet money allocated to him as a result of a
personal meeting in mosow with some KGB of the USSR Victor chov after Consulting
with my reliable special ists from the then leadership of the KGB of the USSR I am ready to state that the money was
intended to pay for services to high ranking persons in London in US circles and for more effective implementation of
active measures in the territory of the USA and other countries of the Western Hemisphere after the collapse of the
USSR and the emergence of the liquidation of the KGB of the USSR and other special services in the countries
of the Eastern agreement Trump considered that he had been forgotten but he was disappointed in early no
November 1996 at the invitation of the first efficiency of the Prime Minister of the Moscow government the head of the
complex of perspective development Vladimir resin Trump came to Moscow he arrived accompanied by representatives
of the American company us tobacco together with which it is planned to build in the elite residential room of
Moscow a complex for foreign businessmen in fact it was a good bait prepared by the FSB of Russia to restore cooperation
and to Begin work already with the new leadership of the FSB and svr according to my information control over
the implementation of further cooperation with Donald Trump trump was assigned to the first impact of the foreign intelligence service of the
Russian Federation Colonel General alexe shakov shakov alexe anital evic worked
in the pgu system of the KGB of the USSR since 1964 graduated from intelligence School
worked in Belgium was twice experienced in business business trips to India he
went from a junior oper ative to the first influence of the director of the svr during this visit Trump met with
shakov but to create closer contact and detailed discussion of further cooperation Trump returned to once again
in December 1996 for cover the main goals of the visit were with the first Deputy Prime
Minister of the Moscow government Vladimir resin the main topic of discussion was the project of the
residential complex Trump Tower according to my reliable source Donald Trump and alexe schac of spent two days
in a separate office specially prepared for these purposes in the building of the Moscow City Hall at the insistence
of the svr leadership in order to better cover up such cooperation and Trump’s more frequent visits to Moscow the
mayor’s office proposed several construction projects for example the Reconstruction of the Moscow and Russia
hotels the possibility of Trump’s participation in the construction of the world’s largest Children’s Entertainment
Center called Miracle Park on which Moscow mayor lov’s friend sculptor zurb seratelli
worked according to American Media Trump offered the sculptor his plan to create a huge the size of the Statue of Liberty
Monument to Christopher Columbus in Manhattan these projects were widely covered in the Russian and American
Press but not a single even the smallest construction project involving Donald Trump’s companies in Moscow was ever
implemented simply initially these were just well-prepared cover operations in order to initially be able to remove any
suspicion from the us intelligence Services regarding such frequent trips and Public Communication the Russian intelligence
Services initially tried to protect their valuable agent during such trips adding a financial interest to him one
of the manifestations of payment for the services of such cooperation with the svr was an event held in November
2013 then Donald Trump organized the Miss Universe beauty contest in Moscow co-owner of which he was from 1996 to
2015 together with the NBC television Company for its holding in the Moscow kroer City Hall Trump according to Media
reports received $14 million from the entrepreneur and owner of the crocus group Aris agalarov and other investors
according to the data received from my informant The Lion’s Share of this money came from the svr and possibly from
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself I can assume that Donald Trump knew who the main source of the some that came to
him was it was decent considering that Trump once purchased the estate in maralago for $5
million or a little more Trump was increasingly hooked by the Russian special services the Strategic
geopolitical tasks that were set before him during the Miss Universe contest in 2013 exceeded all possible fantasies of
Vladimir Putin himself in my opinion these $14 million were a small advance
for future actions on the part of the kg bfsb agent Donald Trump it was then that
he was set with the Strategic task of going into politics and trying to take the seat of the US president Moscow
constantly came to the rescue promptly solving the financial problems of the great businessman during six
bankruptcies of the companies belonging to him former employees of the AA directorate of the pguk KGB of the USSR
surrounded him with their care and help from the moment of their cooperation back in 1978 and I am sure that some of them are
still present in his Entourage I see signs of the use of pattern and skills embedded in me among
others which were used by US employees of the Soviet Special Services during active measures after all it is
impossible to hide the Knowledge and Skills obtained from common teachers and a special style I will not focus on the
2016 election campaign and the obvious participation of Specialists from the Leia directorate in it using dirty
political technology methods against Hillary Clinton in the interests of trump however I will dwell on the
personal meeting of US president Trump with Putin during the Russia us Summit on July 16th 2018 in Helsinki during a
personal conversation with Putin in a face-to-face format Donald Trump violated the US security law by refusing
the mandatory presence of an American interpreter during the conversation in such cases I emphasize this is a
mandatory procedure established by law perhaps Donald Trump had something to hide from his
employee however it was after this personal meeting that Donald Trump came out to journalists psychologically
depressed and on the contrary his viav Putin demonstrated the elevated mood of a winner and master of the situation the
second point I want to focus on is the staging of an assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Trump this
spectacle took place on July 13th 2024 when a shooting occurred during a
campaign rally in Butler Pennsylvania I am qualified to discuss this event from a professional point of
view since as a Young Junior officer I received specialized sniper training
alas I had to use these skills during during short-term deployments to Afghanistan in 1984 to
86 therefore as a Professional Sniper I could analyze this entire spectacle in
detail but for now I will focus your attention on the personality of one young woman who was the only female
guard of Donald Trump at that moment in some of the footage of the assassination attempt this female security guard is
clearly visible she who is short in comparison to Trump himself tries to cover him from the front from the most
dangerous Direction a fire moreover she leaves his entire head and even part of
his chest open for a subsequent shot any professional will tell you that this is an initially incorrect distribution of
roles in Trump’s security system in the event of such situations why did this become possible
because she was Donald Trump’s only personal bodyguard unlike all the other male guards from the government agency
and I am inclined to assume that she was aware that this assassination attempt was staged and now directly about
Trump’s Savor this young woman is Russian she comes from the small town of Rask in the ryzen region in the late
2000s it was part of the security service of Sarah briansky cement plant LLC which is part of the barel cement
holding the chairman of the supervisory board and founder of basic element is the Russian oligarch Oleg der Pasa a
billionaire head of the merged company rousel and en plus group in 2001 the
security service of basic element was headed by the former head of the counter elligence department and former deputy
director of the FSB Colonel General Valerie pavlovich penin penin himself
was born in Donetsk studied at the higher KGB courses under the USSR Council of ministers in Minsk worked
first in the KGB directorate of the voros lrad region and then in cakka he
supervised the work of the department for exposing foreign agents in voros lrad penin had a daughter toona who
later wanted to get into Show Business and her loving father Oran organized this for her her career was on the rise
but in 1995 she tragically died in a car accident Russians know her as tonnina
the author of the song Call Me with You performed by the star of the Russian stage alap pukaa this is how intricately
intertwined the events in Russia are where the KGB leaves traces almost everywhere but let’s return to the
personality of Valerie penin in 1981 he was appointed head of the second KGB
directorate Counter Intelligence from 1991 he headed the ministry of security
directorate for the neab region in 1995 he returned to Moscow to the post of
head of the FSB Counter Intelligence operations directorate in September 1997
he was appointed deputy director of the FSB and head of the Counter Intelligence department on November 22nd 1997 he was
included in the inter departmental commission for the protection of State Secrets they had been closely acquainted
with Oleg der pasca since the 1990s when penin headed the ministry of security directorate for the neab region and
protected the criminal business of der pasca and his accomplices in the Siberian region this was a time of
criminal Wars for the redistribution of property in Siberia of which penin was the shadow owner on July 25th 1998
yelton appointed Vladimir Putin as the Director of the FSB and penin became one of his most trusted persons in the FSB
system system according to my information he carried out the most important and even bloody orders of his
boss after Putin became president of Russia their personal relationship only grew stronger it was penin who
introduced Putin to derap pasca who eventually became Putin’s personals wallet and the main custodian of most of
Putin’s assets penin on the other hand remained in the role of thasia
responsible for the security system of these assets he was appointed Deputy General director of of basic element for
asset protection in 2009 and in June 2018 he became General director of the
holding company basic element but let’s get back to the female security guard from Donald Trump’s Inner Circle
according to the information I have this woman worked in the security service of the Sarah briansky cement plant
Construction in the city of mov which by the way is located 99 kilm from ryas her
hometown she was a master of several types of martial arts and P himself immediately took a liking to her he
began to entrust her with the execution of important tasks including the murder of people penkin had influence and dirt
on her blackmailed her and threatened to deal with her family this influence has
remained to this day on the recommendation and protection of penin the woman from the city of ryas
underwent training and special training at the Ry and guard’s higher Airborne command School improving her previous
skills and acquiring new ones including special training in Parachute jumping and Proficiency in all types of bladed
and firearms in 2015 to 16 penin introduced her to Oleg der pasa’s personal security
she became the oligarchs personal bodyguard with the same function of carrying out personal and most important
assignments der Pasa took her to the United States and it was after the meeting between Donald Trump and Putin
on July 16th 2018 in Helsinki that this lady strangely found herself in the
personal security of the US president I believe that this transfer was planned in advance and agreed upon by penin with
Putin himself o derap Pasa was just a transmission Link in this castling thus
Putin and penkin received the most devoted eyes and ears in close proximity to president Donald Trump since then
this lady has been following Trump like a faithful Shadow she was also in maralago and one can only guess what top
secret documents taken out of the White House she had unhindered access to I have no doubt that she had enough time
to copy and pass on to her master penin everything that interested the main character Putin I am sure that this
theft of documents was a pre-planned and well-executed operation of the Kremlin special services and the Very
participation of this strange female security guard in the active event with shooting at Trump’s ears gives reason to
believe that we are dealing with an unprecedented interference of a hostile state in the presidential elections in
the USA I will note that it was this story with the assassination attempt that affected Trump’s rating
consequently and the outcome of the vote it is difficult to believe precisely because this story is unprecedented but
it only seems incredible the current active measures carried out by Donald Trump Elon Musk and their other
associates to destroy the US security community and army to destroy NATO and break relations with European countries
correspond to the plans of Putin who wants to weaken the political and Military Alliance in European countries
and ultimately destroy both NATO and the European Union Putin dreams of restoring
the geopolitical influence of the USSR and Raves about conquering all of Europe something Joseph Stalin dreamed of but
never achieved unfortunately these goals can be achieved with the help of those active measures the templates of which I
have described deep down I hope to reach the consciousness of European politicians and the heads of European
intelligence Services who are capable of preventing this madness we still have some time
but it is catastrophically short end of communication
>>The court has reshaped America in significant ways in recent years. In 2022, it removed the constitutional right to abortion. In 2023, it ruled that race could no longer be considered in college admissions. Last year, it found that former presidents have some immunity from criminal prosecution.
All these rulings were seen as victories for Trump. But the court hasn’t always found in his favour.
The morning after his speech, it ruled against him.
It sided with a lower court and ordered his administration to unfreeze foreign aid.
Most of the justices voted along political lines.
Four Republican-appointed justices sided with the Trump administration, and three Democrat-appointed justices voted against it.
But two Republican appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined their more progressive colleagues to deliver Trump a defeat.<<
Perhaps there is a glimmer of light.
REF:
ABC news link
buffy said:
>>The court has reshaped America in significant ways in recent years. In 2022, it removed the constitutional right to abortion. In 2023, it ruled that race could no longer be considered in college admissions. Last year, it found that former presidents have some immunity from criminal prosecution.
All these rulings were seen as victories for Trump. But the court hasn’t always found in his favour.
The morning after his speech, it ruled against him.
It sided with a lower court and ordered his administration to unfreeze foreign aid.
Most of the justices voted along political lines.
Four Republican-appointed justices sided with the Trump administration, and three Democrat-appointed justices voted against it.
But two Republican appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined their more progressive colleagues to deliver Trump a defeat.<<
Perhaps there is a glimmer of light.
REF:
ABC news link
agree, have to give the victims a few little breadcrumbs of hope and small variable ratio rewards so they keep playing the game don’t get too angry and tear yous down
There was a Black child at the event, used as a prop.. He has brain cancer. They have cut funding to cancer research.
kii said:
There was a Black child at the event, used as a prop.. He has brain cancer. They have cut funding to cancer research.
every enabler has their price
President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
diddly-squat said:
President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
FMD
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
FMD
He’s sending education back to the individual states. Federal department deals with things like special ed etc.
diddly-squat said:
President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
They are planning on having a more better one.
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:
✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look:
• Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói”
• English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico”
• Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska”
• Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf”
• Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to halt a lower court order that required the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign-aid funding, clearing the way for the money to flow to groups that have done work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development overseas.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-foreign-aid-usaid/
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages:
• Dutch: “Golf van Mexico”
• Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko”
• Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico”
• Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
kii said:
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
furious said:
kii said:
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
Are you not aware of the idiot felon rapist changing the name to Gulf of America?
kii said:
furious said:
kii said:Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
Are you not aware of the idiot felon rapist changing the name to Gulf of America?
Yes, that is a different name…
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
PMSL
:)
kii said:
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
:)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/05/canada-goose-bald-eagle-political-symbolism
furious said:
kii said:
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:
✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
^
kii said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
FMD
He’s sending education back to the individual states. Federal department deals with things like special ed etc.
isn’t that kind of how it works in Australia then
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
kii said:
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
^
I think the point is that this mob has circumvented the order that “Gulf of Mexico” is prohibited usage in the USA, by “disguising it in plain sight” as linguistic diversity. I found that funny as in ha-ha type funny.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
FMD
He’s sending education back to the individual states. Federal department deals with things like special ed etc.
isn’t that kind of how it works in Australia then
It’s been a long time since I was involved in funding. The states still oversee each Australian state, most SN funding came from the feds.
Trump wants to abolish fed funds, and therefor SN kids and teachers miss out. Unless the state can pick up the deficit.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:furious said:
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
^
I think the point is that this mob has circumvented the order that “Gulf of Mexico” is prohibited usage in the USA, by “disguising it in plain sight” as linguistic diversity. I found that funny as in ha-ha type funny.
+1
Vance has mentors who are all nutters.
One is James Orr a British professor of Religion
Another one of J.D Vance’s mentors is Peter Thiel, another far rightie who is a tech billionaire.
You have to wonder why someone has to rely on so many mentors.
What have they been teaching him?
How to make money, how to believe in God, how to be horrible to world leaders.
Some people just can’t move on and get with the times, they’ll keep calling things by their old outdated names like Fraser Island and the Gulf of Mexico etc.
Peak Warming Man said:
Some people just can’t move on and get with the times, they’ll keep calling things by their old outdated names like Fraser Island and the Gulf of Mexico etc.
Fuck off.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Vance has mentors who are all nutters.One is James Orr a British professor of Religion
Another one of J.D Vance’s mentors is Peter Thiel, another far rightie who is a tech billionaire.
You have to wonder why someone has to rely on so many mentors.
What have they been teaching him?
How to make money, how to believe in God, how to be horrible to world leaders.
Now we know why Vance has so many mentors.
Because Vance knows that he cannot think for himself.
kii said:
The President of the United States is a piece of shit.
The Vice President of the United States is a piece of shit
So much shit and not enough water to flush it away.
You have to wonder why America has a Congress and a Senate.
Oh, I remember. They make laws.
Those.
I see Trump and Vance has both loose Cannon’s.
Dangerous to have so many loose Cannon’s on board.
They can blow a hole in the deck and sink the ship, that’s no good
Tau.Neutrino said:
I see Trump and Vance has both loose Cannon’s.Dangerous to have so many loose Cannon’s on board.
They can blow a hole in the deck and sink the ship, that’s no good
What is usually done with loose cannon’s is to tie them down, or throw them overboard.
kii said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
furious said:
kii said:
kii said:
There is a fb group called Texas Reporter. They do lots of posts about the Gulf of Mexico. Nice bit of push back.Saw this one just now:
✨ Curious about how the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to in the different languages spoken in Iceland? Here’s a look: • Icelandic (official language): “Mexíkóflói” • English (widely spoken as a second language): “Gulf of Mexico” • Polish (largest immigrant language): “Zatoka Meksykańska” • Danish (taught in schools due to historical ties): “Den Mexicanske Golf” • Lithuanian (growing immigrant community): “Meksikos įlanka”
With a mix of Nordic roots and a growing international community, Iceland’s linguistic diversity is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how a single geographic feature can have so many names even on this remote island? 🌊🗺️
Actually they have done a range of languages. Nice work.
🌍✨ Curious about linguistic diversity? In the Netherlands, the “Gulf of Mexico” is referred to differently across various languages: • Dutch: “Golf van Mexico” • Frisian: “Golf fan Meksiko” • Limburgish: “Golf vaan Mexico” • Dutch Low Saxon: “Golf van Mexico”
While Dutch is the official language, regional languages like Frisian, Limburgish, and Low Saxon add rich diversity to the country’s linguistic landscape.
Isn’t it fascinating how a single geographical feature can have different names within one country? 🌊🗺️
But they are all the same name, in different languages…
^
I think the point is that this mob has circumvented the order that “Gulf of Mexico” is prohibited usage in the USA, by “disguising it in plain sight” as linguistic diversity. I found that funny as in ha-ha type funny.
+1
good
we think both aspect are entertaining but then yeah we are entertained by many thing
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
They are planning on having a more better one.
More bettererer?
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:
President Donald Trump is tomorrow expected to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
They are planning on having a more better one.
More bettererer?
even much more betterererer plus
I hadn’t heard about the transwoman who won the bike race.
Also…clown farts…Boebert and MTG 🤡 🤡
LOLOLOLOL 😆
Heather Cox Richardson
34m ·
March 5, 2025 (Wednesday)
In the gym of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, former and future prime minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill rose to deliver a speech. Formally titled “Sinews of Peace,” the talk called for the United States and Britain to stand together against the growing menace of Soviet communism. Less than a year after the end of the war, the U.S. and its allies were concerned about the Soviets’ increasing control over the countries of eastern Europe and their apparent intent to continue spreading communism throughout the world.
“Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organisation intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytising tendencies,” Churchill said. He expressed “strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin,” but he urged Europe and the U.S. to work together to stand against “dictators or…compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police” to control an all-powerful state.
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent,” Churchill declared, and his warning that Europe had been divided in two by an iron curtain defined the coming era.
President Harry Truman had urged Churchill to come and had conferred with him about the Iron Curtain speech, lending his support to Churchill’s argument. In Fulton, Truman introduced Churchill. The growing distrust between the Soviet bloc and the western allies led to the Soviet blockade in 1948 of the parts of Berlin under western control—a blockade broken by the Berlin airlift in which the U.S. and the U.K. delivered food and fuel to West Berlin by airplane—and the creation in 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a security agreement to resist Soviet expansion.
The so-called Cold War between the two superpowers dominated much of geopolitics for the next several decades. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan warned that the U.S. was engaged in a titanic struggle between “right and wrong and good and evil.” The Soviet Union was the “evil empire,” preaching “the supremacy of the state” and “its omnipotence over individual man.”
When the Cold War ended with the crumbling of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s, those Americans who had come to define the world as a fight between the dark forces of communism and the good forces of capitalism believed their ideology of radical individualism had triumphed. In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukayama famously concluded that the victory of liberal democracy over communism meant “the end of history” as all nations gravitated toward the liberal democracy that time had proven was fundamentally a better system of government than any other.
Forty-five years after Churchill warned that the world was splitting in two, it appeared that democracies, led by the United States of America, had won. In that triumphant mood, American leaders set out to spread capitalism into formerly communist countries, believing that democracy would follow since capitalism and democracy went hand in hand.
But history, in fact, was not over. Oligarchs in the former Soviet republics quickly began to consolidate formerly public property into their own hands. They did so through the use of what scholar Andrew Wilson called “virtual politics,” a system that came out of the techniques of state propaganda to become what he called “performance art.” By the early 2000s, the Russian state, under the control of former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, had a monopoly on “political technology,” which spread like wildfire as the internet became increasingly available.
Russian “political technologists” used modern media to pervert democracy. They blackmailed opponents, abused state power to help favored candidates, sponsored “double” candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to split their voters and thus open the way for their own candidates, created false parties to create opposition, and created false narratives around elections or other events that enabled them to control public debate.
This system enabled leaders to avoid the censorship from which voters would recoil by instead creating a firehose of news until people became overwhelmed by the task of trying to figure out what was real and simply tuned out. Essentially, this system replaced the concept of voters choosing their leaders with the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.
In 2004, Putin tried to extend his power over neighboring Ukraine by backing candidate Viktor Yanukovych for the presidency there. Yanukovych appeared to have won, but the election was full of irregularities, including the poisoning of a key rival who wanted to break ties with Russia and align Ukraine with Europe. The U.S. government and other international observers did not recognize the election results, and the Ukrainian government voided the election.
To resurrect his political career, Yanukovych turned to an American political consultant, Paul Manafort, who had worked for both Nixon and Reagan and who was already working for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. With Manafort’s help, Yanukovych won the presidency in 2010 and began to turn Ukraine toward Russia. In 2014, after months of popular protests, Ukrainians ousted Yanukovych from power and he fled to Russia.
Shortly after Yanukovych’s ouster, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, prompting the United States and the European Union to impose economic sanctions on Russia and on specific Russian businesses and oligarchs. Manafort owed Deripaska about $17 million but had no way to repay it until his longtime friend and business partner Roger Stone, who was advising Trump’s floundering presidential campaign, turned to him for help. Manafort did not take a salary from the campaign but immediately let Deripaska know about his new position.
Russian operatives told Manafort that in exchange for a promise to turn U.S. policy toward Russia, they would work to get Trump elected. They wanted Trump to look the other way as Putin took control of eastern Ukraine through a “peace” plan that would end the war in Crimea, weaken NATO, and remove U.S. sanctions from Russian entities.
According to a 2020 report from the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee, “the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election…by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin.”
That effort was “part of a broader, sophisticated, and ongoing information warfare campaign designed to sow discord in American politics and society…a vastly more complex and strategic assault on the United States than was initially understood…the latest installment in an increasingly brazen interference by the Kremlin on the citizens and democratic institutions of the United States.” It was “a sustained campaign of information warfare against the United States aimed at influencing how this nation’s citizens think about themselves, their government, and their fellow Americans.”
In other words, they used “political technology,” manipulating media to undermine democracy by creating a false narrative that enabled them to control public debate.
Last night, President Donald Trump illustrated the power of virtual politics when he talked for an hour and forty minutes to a joint session of Congress. He lied repeatedly, starting with the lie that he had a historic mandate—in fact, more people voted for someone else than voted for him—and moving on to the idea his first month was “the most successful in the history of our nation,” saying that the first president, George Washington, came in second. He went on to portray himself as the best at everything, as well as the greatest victim in the world.
Trump’s speech was valuable not as a picture of the country as it is, but rather as a narrative that offered supporters a shared worldview that reinforced their allegiance to the MAGA movement. As Dan Keating, Nick Mourtoupalas, and Hannah Dormido of the Washington Post pointed out, the speech contained highly polarizing words never before heard in a similar address to Congress: “left-wing,” “weaponized,” “lunatics,” “ideologues,” and “deepfake.” Right-wing media reinforces that virtual reality: Today on the Fox News Channel, Trump advisor Peter Navarro nonsensically claimed that “Canada has been taken over by Mexican cartels.”
Russian leaders created a false narrative to get voters to put them in power, where they could privatize public enterprises and monopolize the country’s wealth. Today, billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump said last night is in charge of the “Department of Government Efficiency” despite what the administration has told courts, told a technology conference that the government should privatize “as much as possible” and suggested that two of the top candidates for privatization are Amtrak and the United States Postal Service. Cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of the National Weather Service, also appear to be a prelude to privatization.
The Trump administration today announced plans to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs in what Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) calls a plan to gut the agency and “then push to privatize the Department so they can fund tax cuts for billionaires.”
Jess Piper of The View From Rural Missouri notes that what seems to be a deliberate attempt to crash what was, when Trump took office, a booming U.S. economy, is a feature of the administration’s plan, not a bug. It creates “curated failure” that enables oligarchs to buy up the assets of the state and of desperate individuals for “rock-bottom prices.”
In mid-February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the defense secretaries of European allies that the U.S. could no longer focus on European security. Days later, on February 14, Vice President J.D. Vance sided with Russia when he attacked European values and warned that Europe’s true threat was “the threat from within.” Two weeks later, on February 28, Trump and Vance ambushed Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in a transparent attempt to create a pretext for abandoning Ukraine and siding with Russia.
Today, United States officials said they were ceasing to share with Ukraine the intelligence that enables Ukraine to target Russian positions.
In a nationally televised speech today, France president Emmanuel Macron warned that Europe must prepare to stand against the Russian threat by itself, without the partnership of the United States. “The Russian threat is here and is affecting European countries, affecting us,” Macron said. “I want to believe that the U.S. will stay by our side, but we have to be ready if they don’t.” Yesterday, politicians in the United Kingdom angrily interpreted Vice President Vance’s dismissal of “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years” as a dig at the U.K. after its suggestion that it would be willing to be part of a Ukraine peacekeeping force. They pointed out that the U.K. has stood alongside the U.S. repeatedly since World War II.
“We were at war with a dictator,” said French center-right politician Claude Malhuret of Europe’s stand against Putin. “ow we are at war with a dictator backed by a traitor.”
Today on the Fox News Channel, Trump advisor Peter Navarro nonsensically claimed that “Canada has been taken over by Mexican cartels.”
—
beyond nonsense.
sarahs mum said:
Today on the Fox News Channel, Trump advisor Peter Navarro nonsensically claimed that “Canada has been taken over by Mexican cartels.”—
beyond nonsense.
Fox News is part of the problem. I think it needs to be physically destroyed, and everyone involved with it needs to be rounded and sold into slavery overseas.
geniuses still think that some negotiators are on the side of the victims
SCIENCE said:
geniuses still think that some negotiators are on the side of the victims
FMD
SCIENCE said:
geniuses still think that some negotiators are on the side of the victims
Surely it is time for someone to kill him now?
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:geniuses still think that some negotiators are on the side of the victims
Surely it is time for someone to kill him now?
this too will pass, my guy…
Trump was democratically elected and his actions will be judged at the ballot box.
This sucks arse for Ukraine, but luckily it would seem that Europe are not quite as keen to be bent over by Putin, as Trump is.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:geniuses still think that some negotiators are on the side of the victims
Surely it is time for someone to kill him now?
this too will pass, my guy…
Trump was democratically elected and his actions will be judged at the ballot box.
This sucks arse for Ukraine, but luckily it would seem that Europe are not quite as keen to be bent over by Putin, as Trump is.
I fear current the deformation of American democracy will be non-elastic.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:Surely it is time for someone to kill him now?
this too will pass, my guy…
Trump was democratically elected and his actions will be judged at the ballot box.
This sucks arse for Ukraine, but luckily it would seem that Europe are not quite as keen to be bent over by Putin, as Trump is.
I fear
current thedeformation of American democracy will be non-elastic.
Whoops, bad edit.
I fear the current deformation of American democracy will be non-elastic.
party_pants said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:this too will pass, my guy…
Trump was democratically elected and his actions will be judged at the ballot box.
This sucks arse for Ukraine, but luckily it would seem that Europe are not quite as keen to be bent over by Putin, as Trump is.
I fear
current thedeformation of American democracy will be non-elastic.
Whoops, bad edit.
I fear the current deformation of American democracy will be non-elastic.
No doubt there will be some things that will be permanently deformed – I think the best we can hope for is a complete disintegration of the politics of MAGA and an electoral wipeout for the GOP in four years time. Anything less than that will see elements of MAGA politics endure, and that’s ultimately a bad thing.
But for the moment people have to come to terms with the notion that elections have consequences.
All that to one side, I also really hope that the Dems are able to rebrand and get behind series of candidates that will be both electable and inspiring.
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportationsWASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
Glad to see he’s taking last week’s tete-a-tete so well.
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
Glad to see he’s taking last week’s tete-a-tete so well.
we hear good friend Russia are quite happy to take Ukrainians so this should work out very well indeed
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportationsWASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
Glad to see he’s taking last week’s tete-a-tete so well.
Trump’s ethics stink. His revenge is not proportional to his action.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportationsWASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
Glad to see he’s taking last week’s tete-a-tete so well.
Trump’s ethics stink. His revenge is not proportional to his action.
What does everybody in the US Congress and Senate think?
Reckon anyone there is a bit pissed off with an idiot doing there job?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Neophyte said:Glad to see he’s taking last week’s tete-a-tete so well.
Trump’s ethics stink. His revenge is not proportional to his action.
What does everybody in the US Congress and Senate think?
Reckon anyone there is a bit pissed off with an idiot doing there job?
With an idiot doing their job.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Trump’s ethics stink. His revenge is not proportional to his action.
What does everybody in the US Congress and Senate think?
Reckon anyone there is a bit pissed off with an idiot doing there job?
With an idiot doing their job.
Trump and Vance ganged up on him, they set him up to humiliate him, were rude to him.
Trump and Vance had complete disregard for the purpose of the meeting, turning the friendship into something else, only an arsehole would do.
And then using that to deport those that were warmly accepted by the Biden administration.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:What does everybody in the US Congress and Senate think?
Reckon anyone there is a bit pissed off with an idiot doing there job?
With an idiot doing their job.
Trump and Vance ganged up on him, they set him up to humiliate him, were rude to him.
Trump and Vance had complete disregard for the purpose of the meeting, turning the friendship into something else, only an arsehole would do.
And then using that to deport those that were warmly accepted by the Biden administration.
One would expect to be greeted warmly but have this antagonism instead, how is that to be trusted?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:With an idiot doing their job.
Trump and Vance ganged up on him, they set him up to humiliate him, were rude to him.
Trump and Vance had complete disregard for the purpose of the meeting, turning the friendship into something else, only an arsehole would do.
And then using that to deport those that were warmly accepted by the Biden administration.
One would expect to be greeted warmly but have this antagonism instead, how is that to be trusted?
Vance with all his mentorship then says that.
Diplomacy 404, Vance.
Zelensky was invited into the Oval Office under false pretentions.
It’s hard to trust that.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Zelensky was invited into the Oval Office under false pretentions.It’s hard to trust that.
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportationsWASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
FMD
Using power to be an arsehole.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportationsWASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
FMD
Using power to be an arsehole.
I think Trump and Vance have bought disrepute into the offices of which they hold.
New Marsh Family song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvT3aQjLxdE
buffy said:
New Marsh Family song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvT3aQjLxdE
Great performance.
Shitler at work again.
I wonder how long it’ll be before they just start shooting them and throwing the bodies down a mineshaft.
Spiny Norman said:
Shitler at work again.
I wonder how long it’ll be before they just start shooting them and throwing the bodies down a mineshaft.
he’s like that kid that sets fire to kittens.
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
Shitler at work again.
I wonder how long it’ll be before they just start shooting them and throwing the bodies down a mineshaft.
he’s like that kid that sets fire to kittens.
woof
sarahs mum said:
It’d make a good rap song?
sarahs mum said:
LOLOLOLOL
kii said:
:)
Trump is flipping tariffs on an off like a toggle so that his inner circle can make money on the share fluctuations and at this point I think Mexico and Canada should just leave their reciprocal tariffs in place until he leaves office.
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
^googolplex
That’s insane.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
^googolplex
That’s insane.
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
JudgeMental said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:FMD
^googolplex
That’s insane.
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
Are they going to archive “The Flintstones” now?
Saw this earlier, I figure it’s true. I’m too depressed to Google.
kii said:
Saw this earlier, I figure it’s true. I’m too depressed to Google.
TBF, other ‘agencies’ of the US government have not been all that averse to adopting the guise of USAID personnel in their work.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
Saw this earlier, I figure it’s true. I’m too depressed to Google.
TBF, other ‘agencies’ of the US government have not been all that averse to adopting the guise of USAID personnel in their work.
Yeah, but, their nefarious deeds will just find other cover. It’s not like an aid program started any of that…
Michael V said:
JudgeMental said:
Spiny Norman said:^googolplex
That’s insane.
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
Are they going to archive “The Flintstones” now?
I’m still hoping DJT has a ga-ol time
dv said:
Michael V said:
JudgeMental said:https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
Are they going to archive “The Flintstones” now?
I’m still hoping DJT has a ga-ol time
I’m not holding my breath. Should have happened a few years ago.
dv said:
Michael V said:
JudgeMental said:https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
Are they going to archive “The Flintstones” now?
I’m still hoping DJT has a ga-ol time
LOLOL
Love your work!
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:Are they going to archive “The Flintstones” now?
I’m still hoping DJT has a ga-ol time
LOLOL
Love your work!
+1
JudgeMental said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
FMD
^googolplex
That’s insane.
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/03/photo-of-enola-gay-aircraft-among-26000-images-flagged-for-removal-in-pentagons-dei-purge.html
Next they’ll be telling you that Japan were the good guys and
wait¿¡
Heather Cox Richardson
23m ·
March 6, 2025 (Thursday)
This morning, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke of Reuters reported that the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States. Foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova reminded Americans that “these people had to be completely financially independent, pay tax, pay all fees (around $2K) and have an affidavit from an American person to even come here.”
“This has nothing to do with strategic necessity or geopolitics,” Russia specialist Tom Nichols posted. “This is just cruelty to show Putin he has a new American ally.”
The Trump administration’s turn away from traditional European alliances and toward Russia will have profound effects on U.S. standing in the world. Edward Wong and Mark Mazzetti reported in the New York Times today that senior officials in the State Department are making plans to close a dozen consulates, mostly in Western Europe, including consulates in Florence, Italy; Strasbourg, France; Hamburg, Germany; and Ponta Delgada, Portugal, as well as a consulate in Brazil and another in Turkey.
In late February, Nahal Toosi reported in Politico that President Donald Trump wants to “radically shrink” the State Department and to change its mission from diplomacy and soft power initiatives that advance democracy and human rights to focusing on transactional agreements with other governments and promoting foreign investment in the U.S.
Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency” have taken on the process of cutting the State Department budget by as much as 20%, and cutting at least some of the department’s 80,000 employees. As part of that project, DOGE’s Edward Coristine, known publicly as “Big Balls,” is embedded at the State Department.
As the U.S. retreats from its engagement with the world, China has been working to forge greater ties. China now has more global diplomatic posts than the U.S. and plays a stronger role in international organizations. Already in 2025, about 700 employees, including 450 career diplomats, have resigned from the State Department, a number that normally would reflect a year’s resignations.
Shutting embassies will hamper not just the process of fostering goodwill, but also U.S. intelligence, as embassies house officers who monitor terrorism, infectious disease, trade, commerce, militaries, and government, including those from the intelligence community. U.S. intelligence has always been formidable, but the administration appears to be weakening it.
As predicted, Trump’s turn of the U.S. toward Russia also means that allies are concerned he or members of his administration will share classified intelligence with Russia, thus exposing the identities of their operatives. They are considering new protocols for sharing information with the United States. The Five Eyes alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the U.S. has been formidable since World War II and has been key to countering first the Soviet Union and then Russia. Allied governments are now considering withholding information about sources or analyses from the U.S.
Their concern is likely heightened by the return to Trump’s personal possession of the boxes of documents containing classified information the FBI recovered in August 2022 from Mar-a-Lago. Trump took those boxes back from the Department of Justice and flew them back to Mar-a-Lago on February 28.
A CBS News/YouGov poll from February 26–28 showed that only 4% of the American people sided with Russia in its ongoing war with Ukraine.
The unpopularity of the new administration’s policies is starting to show. National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson (R-NC) told House Republicans on Tuesday to stop holding town halls after several such events have turned raucous as attendees complained about the course of the Trump administration. Trump has blamed paid “troublemakers” for the agitation, and claimed the disruptions are part of the Democrats’ “game.” “ut just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION,” he posted on social media, “it’s not going to work for them!”
More Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him.
Even aside from the angry protests, DOGE is running into trouble. In his speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Trump referred to DOGE and said it “is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.” In a filing in a lawsuit against DOGE and Musk, the White House declared that Musk is neither in charge of DOGE nor an employee of it. When pressed, the White House claimed on February 26 that the acting administrator of DOGE is staffer Amy Gleason. Immediately after Trump’s statement, the plaintiffs in that case asked permission to add Trump’s statement to their lawsuit.
Musk has claimed to have found billions of dollars of waste or fraud in the government, and Trump and the White House have touted those statements. But their claims to have found massive savings have been full of errors, and most of their claims have been disproved. DOGE has already had to retract five of its seven biggest claims. As for “savings,” the government spent about $710 billion in the first month of Trump’s term, compared with about $630 billion during the same timeframe last year.
Instead of showing great savings, DOGE’s claims reveal just how poorly Musk and his team understand the work of the federal government. After forcing employees out of their positions, they have had to hire back individuals who are, in fact, crucial to the nation, including the people guarding the U.S. nuclear stockpile. In his Tuesday speech, Trump claimed that the DOGE team had found “$8 million for making mice transgender,” and added: “This is real.”
Except it’s not. The mice in question were not “transgender”; they were “transgenic,” which means they are genetically altered for use in scientific experiments to learn more about human health. For comparison, S.V. Date noted in HuffPost that in just his first month in office, Trump spent about $10.7 million in taxpayer money playing golf.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo pointed out today that people reporting on the individual cuts to U.S. scientific and health-related grants are missing the larger picture: “DOGE and Donald Trump are trying to shut down advanced medical research, especially cancer research, in the United States…. They’re shutting down medicine/disease research in the federal government and the government-run and funded ecosystem of funding for most research throughout the United States. It’s not hyperbole. That’s happening.”
Republicans are starting to express some concern about Musk and DOGE. As soon as Trump took office, Musk and his DOGE team took over the Office of Personnel Management, and by February 14 they had begun a massive purge of federal workers. As protests of the cuts began, Trump urged Musk on February 22 to be “more aggressive” in cutting the government, prompting Musk to demand that all federal employees explain what they had accomplished in the past week under threat of firing. That request sparked a struggle in the executive branch as cabinet officers told the employees in their departments to ignore Musk. Then, on February 27, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that the firings were likely illegal and temporarily halted them.
On Tuesday, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) weighed in on the conflict when he told CNN that the power to hire and fire employees properly belongs to Cabinet secretaries.
Yesterday, Musk met with Republican— but no Democratic— members of Congress. Senators reportedly asked Musk—an unelected bureaucrat whose actions are likely illegal—to tell them more about what’s going on. According to Liz Goodwin, Marianna Sotomayor, and Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post, Musk gave some of the senators his phone number and said he wanted to set up a direct line for them when they have questions, allowing them to get a near-instant response to their concerns.” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters that Musk told the senators he would “create a system where members of Congress can call some central group” to get cuts they dislike reversed.
This whole exchange is bonkers. The Constitution gives Congress alone the power to make appropriations and pass the laws that decide how money is spent. Josh Marshall asks: “How on earth are we in this position where members of Congress, the ones who write the budget, appropriate and assign the money, now have to go hat in hand to beg for changes or even information from the guy who actually seems to be running the government?”
Later, Musk met with House Republicans and offered to set up a similar way for the members of the House Oversight DOGE Subcommittee to reach him. When representatives complained about the random cuts that were so upsetting constituents. Musk defended DOGE’s mistakes by saying that he “can’t bat a thousand all the time.”
This morning, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. ruled in favor of a group of state attorneys general from 22 Democratic states and the District of Columbia, saying that Trump does not have the authority to freeze funding appropriated by Congress. McConnell wrote that the spending freeze “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.” As Joyce White Vance explained in Civil Discourse, McConnell issued a preliminary injunction that will stay in place until the case, called New York v. Trump, works its way through the courts. The injunction applies only in the states that sued, though, leaving Republican-dominated states out in the cold.
Today, Trump convened his cabinet and, with Musk present, told the secretaries that they, and not Musk, are in charge of their departments. Dasha Burns and Kyle Cheney of Politico reported that Trump told the secretaries that Musk only has the power to make recommendations, not to make staffing or policy decisions.
Trump is also apparently feeling pressure over his tariffs of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on imports from China that went into effect on Tuesday, which economists warned would create inflation and cut economic growth. Today, Trump first said he would exempt car and truck parts from the tariffs, then expanded exemptions to include goods covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) Trump signed in his first term. Administration officials say other tariffs will go into effect at different times in the future.
The stock market has dropped dramatically over the past three days owing to both the tariffs and the uncertainty over their implementation. But Trump denied his abrupt change had anything to do with the stock market.
“I’m not even looking at the market,” Trump said, “because long term, the United States will be very strong with what’s happening.”
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us.
#ResistTrump
kii said:
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us. #ResistTrump
I think I’m gunna need 2,000 nuclear weapons to feel safe.
kii said:
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us. #ResistTrump
WTAF
kii said:
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us. #ResistTrump
FMD
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us. #ResistTrump
WTAF
LOL
Ten Democrats joined with House Republicans on Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green for his protest during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress this week — a formal condemnation of the Texas Democrat’s actions.
As House Speaker Mike Johnson called for the congressman to be formally censured following the vote, Green led a group of Democrats in singing the gospel song, “We Shall Overcome” on the House floor, upsetting some Republicans who called for order. Johnson then called the House into recess so the floor could be cleared.
“I don’t mind being one of 10 Democrats who said, no, there’s a deeper principle at stake here, which is reverence for this institution,” Himes said after the vote, adding that lawmakers need to act “with the decorum and with the civility that says to the world that we are a serious country.” “I have no love for Donald Trump, but I do have reverence for the Office of the President,” he told CNN’s Pamela Brown.
Johnson earlier Thursday criticized Green’s behavior during the speech as “shameful and egregious,” saying it “disgraced the institution of Congress.” “He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort,” Johnson said in a morning post on X.
nice
Johnson earlier Thursday criticized Green’s behavior during the speech as “shameful and egregious,” saying it “disgraced the institution of Congress.” “He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort,” Johnson said in a morning post on X.”“
Substitute ‘Trump’s’ for ‘Green’s’, and see which version sounds more believable.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
We live in suspended disbelief.
Here is Trump’s insight on the two astronauts stranded in space:
“Maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
This raging nutcase has the access codes to 1,500 nuclear weapons. God help us. #ResistTrump
WTAF
LOL
Ten Democrats joined with House Republicans on Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green for his protest during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress this week — a formal condemnation of the Texas Democrat’s actions.
As House Speaker Mike Johnson called for the congressman to be formally censured following the vote, Green led a group of Democrats in singing the gospel song, “We Shall Overcome” on the House floor, upsetting some Republicans who called for order. Johnson then called the House into recess so the floor could be cleared.
“I don’t mind being one of 10 Democrats who said, no, there’s a deeper principle at stake here, which is reverence for this institution,” Himes said after the vote, adding that lawmakers need to act “with the decorum and with the civility that says to the world that we are a serious country.” “I have no love for Donald Trump, but I do have reverence for the Office of the President,” he told CNN’s Pamela Brown.
Johnson earlier Thursday criticized Green’s behavior during the speech as “shameful and egregious,” saying it “disgraced the institution of Congress.” “He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort,” Johnson said in a morning post on X.
nice
Sticking by the rules while your opponents run riot over them is seen as a sign of weakness. Good on the disruptive rebels.
A Trump recession has become a real possibility
Widespread tariffs and swift government cuts add pain to an already slowing economy.
March 6, 2025 at 3:09 p.m. EST
Americans are growing fearful of a recession. It’s not here yet, but President Donald Trump is steering the country toward a downturn with his tariffs and cuts to spending and the federal workforce — for no logical reason.
Trump has raised tariffs to their highest levels since the 1940s. The scale and scope of his levies on imports from China, Mexico and Canada are beyond anything he imposed in his first term. And he has only just begun. By Thursday, he granted a one-month pause on tariffs on most Mexican and Canadian imports, but he is threatening “reciprocal tariffs” on almost all imports starting on April 2. Wall Street banks have in turn hiked their probabilities for a 2025 recession. Even economist Ed Yardeni, one of the most optimistic forecasters, said in a note that he is “raising the odds of a tariff-induced recession from 20 percent to 35 percent.”
Almost every economist I talk with uses words such as “uncertain,” “jitters” and “shaky” to describe the situation. Trump’s whipsaw actions have put businesses and consumers on edge, and they might pull back on hiring and spending. This could lead to a downward spiral: government cutbacks triggering layoffs in the private sector and spending cuts in health care, education and nonprofit services, which necessitate reductions at restaurants, stores and so on.
Early signs of trouble are apparent. Consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level since 2023. Consumer spending tanked in January. A scary chart from the Atlanta Federal Reserve shows the economy nosediving to a -2.4 percent contraction in the first quarter. This is only a forecast, and it’s extremely skewed because companies are rushing before the tariffs take effect to bring in imports, which detract from growth. Most economists anticipate growth around 1.5 percent in the first quarter once all the data comes in — a slowdown, not a total collapse.
But the heart of the economy — consumer spending — is starting to weaken. Affluent Americans are spooked by stock market declines and a bond market signaling slow growth, or worse. Meanwhile, middle-class retail brands are struggling: Starbucks, Target and Applebee’s have seen declining sales. Restaurant owners say customers are “skipping appetizers or desserts.”
John Peyton, chief executive of Dine Brands Global, which owns Applebee’s, told investors on Wednesday: “In 2024, macro headwinds significantly impacted consumer spending. This especially affected guests with household incomes of less than $75,000.” Now, these consumers are getting hit with roughly $1,000 in extra costs because of Trump’s latest tariffs.
In addition to tariff fears, people have “layoff anxiety.” Hiring was already anemic, and the latest data from ADP indicates that, in this uncertain time, even sectors that were bright spots last year, including health care, are pulling back. The belief that there will be fewer jobs in six months has surged to its highest level in more than a decade, according to the Conference Board’s survey of consumers.
Put all this together and it’s a recession tinderbox. Growth and hiring were already slowing at the start of the year, and now Trump is inciting an economic storm. The big question is why he’s doing this. At first, it appeared he merely wanted quick wins that he could tout at daily press events. Few people thought his tariffs would last long. But his rhetoric and actions have grown more alarming. He talks as though he truly believes tariffs can bring back millions of jobs and substantial revenue. They can’t.
In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said tariffs “are about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it is happening and it will happen rather quickly.”
The White House seems almost to be hoping a downturn will come swiftly, so it can be blamed on former president Joe Biden. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now fond of saying Trump will “own the economy in six or 12 months.”
But this is not what most Trump voters asked for. They want lower prices and a better economy, not a recession. Already, the president’s poll numbers are slipping. The bottom half of income earners have little to no savings to tide them over in a downturn. And while Americans have been craving more stability, Republicans are proposing to cut food stamps, Medicaid and other safety net benefits.
What remains after all this upheaval could easily be a diminished economy with fewer job options, fewer markets to sell American goods abroad and far fewer worker protections.
Trump keeps saying there “won’t be much” pain. Even Wall Street is finding this hard to believe.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/06/trump-recession-tariffs-layoffs/?
dv said:
well it does say “profits” and “net income” so isn’t that where these things normally go even outside health care pretty sure they aren’t registered as notforprofits
dv said:
Sigh.
SCIENCE said:
say “profits” and “net income” so
ah but you see
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-08/donald-trump-gold-cards-visas-explained/104984228
“The big risk is: How do you know whether the money was lawfully obtained? How do you know it’s not a criminal you’re talking about? And how do you know this is not going to lead to assisting criminals to strengthen their foothold in th US?
you just don’t get it
we already know it’s going to assist the right kind of totally-not-criminals to get into the DPRNA, that’s the whole point
The price of eggs has fallen considerably since its high of $8.17 a couple of days back, and the price of ‘gas’ has declined by 5 cents.
However, i suggest that this has more to do with the precipitous plunges in stock markets brought on by Trump’s tariff threats than with any sort of managed economic plan.
captain_spalding said:
The price of eggs has fallen considerably since its high of $8.17 a couple of days back, and the price of ‘gas’ has declined by 5 cents.
However, i suggest that this has more to do with the precipitous plunges in stock markets brought on by Trump’s tariff threats than with any sort of managed economic plan.
we thought that was the plan
Trump says Putin launching massive strike on Ukraine is ‘what anybody would do’
US president says he finds Russia easier to deal with than Ukraine after cutting off intelligence and weapons to Kyiv
—
Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards,” Trump said. “In terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/trump-says-it-is-easier-to-deal-with-russia-and-putin-wants-to-end-the-war
dv said:
Trump says Putin launching massive strike on Ukraine is ‘what anybody would do’
US president says he finds Russia easier to deal with than Ukraine after cutting off intelligence and weapons to Kyiv—
Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards,” Trump said. “In terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/trump-says-it-is-easier-to-deal-with-russia-and-putin-wants-to-end-the-war
FMD
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
🚩 🚩
Divine Angel said:
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.🚩 🚩
If Putin wants to end the war it would be because he’s run out of cannon fodder.
In reality he will stop shooting if he can get the and and minerals for free.
Divine Angel said:
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
🚩 🚩
surely yous mean to include some ⚑ of ⚑ these in there as well
Michael V said:
dv said:
Trump says Putin launching massive strike on Ukraine is ‘what anybody would do’
US president says he finds Russia easier to deal with than Ukraine after cutting off intelligence and weapons to Kyiv—
Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards,” Trump said. “In terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/trump-says-it-is-easier-to-deal-with-russia-and-putin-wants-to-end-the-war
FMD
DPRNA bringing yous simple easy solutions to terrible difficult complex wicked fucking huge problems since … uh … well fine maybe 1945¿
Carrick Ryan
Lost in the noise of the past two weeks, not many people noticed that Trump took some unprecedented steps to nullify the one branch of Government he doesn’t completely control – the judiciary.
Firstly, he fired any Justice Department prosecutors who who participated in investigations against him, and removed the security clearances of any former intelligence officials who have criticised him publicly, including former President Biden.
He signed an executive order removing the security clearances and banning from federal buildings for any lawyer that was found to have assisted in impeachment investigations against him. Even those acting pro-bono.
He signed an executive order banning not-for profit workers from a federal loan forgiveness scheme if they were deemed to have engaged in “improper” activities. This would likely include any not-for profits that challenge his policies in court.
He then signed an executive order requiring any plaintiff wishing to challenge the legality of Trump’s actions in court to provide, up front, a bond covering the totality of the Government’s legal costs, to be forfeited in full if the case fails.
These are all clearly designer to deter anyone from using the courts to restrain him, and they will work.
Almost no one will have the money available to provide the necessary bond to even get their day in court, and even if they did… how many lawyers would want to take that job?
It should be noted that this is exactly how Putin took control of Russia. Make resistance too costly. Intimidate the public into apathy.
Trump has been President for 47 days.
JudgeMental said:
Carrick Ryan
Lost in the noise of the past two weeks, not many people noticed that Trump took some unprecedented steps to nullify the one branch of Government he doesn’t completely control – the judiciary.
Firstly, he fired any Justice Department prosecutors who who participated in investigations against him, and removed the security clearances of any former intelligence officials who have criticised him publicly, including former President Biden.
He signed an executive order removing the security clearances and banning from federal buildings for any lawyer that was found to have assisted in impeachment investigations against him. Even those acting pro-bono.
He signed an executive order banning not-for profit workers from a federal loan forgiveness scheme if they were deemed to have engaged in “improper” activities. This would likely include any not-for profits that challenge his policies in court.
He then signed an executive order requiring any plaintiff wishing to challenge the legality of Trump’s actions in court to provide, up front, a bond covering the totality of the Government’s legal costs, to be forfeited in full if the case fails.
These are all clearly designer to deter anyone from using the courts to restrain him, and they will work.
Almost no one will have the money available to provide the necessary bond to even get their day in court, and even if they did… how many lawyers would want to take that job?It should be noted that this is exactly how Putin took control of Russia. Make resistance too costly. Intimidate the public into apathy.
Trump has been President for 47 days.
pretty sure the checks and balances are strong and there will be no external impacts
JudgeMental said:
Carrick RyanLost in the noise of the past two weeks, not many people noticed that Trump took some unprecedented steps to nullify the one branch of Government he doesn’t completely control – the judiciary.
Firstly, he fired any Justice Department prosecutors who who participated in investigations against him, and removed the security clearances of any former intelligence officials who have criticised him publicly, including former President Biden.
He signed an executive order removing the security clearances and banning from federal buildings for any lawyer that was found to have assisted in impeachment investigations against him. Even those acting pro-bono.
He signed an executive order banning not-for profit workers from a federal loan forgiveness scheme if they were deemed to have engaged in “improper” activities. This would likely include any not-for profits that challenge his policies in court.
He then signed an executive order requiring any plaintiff wishing to challenge the legality of Trump’s actions in court to provide, up front, a bond covering the totality of the Government’s legal costs, to be forfeited in full if the case fails.
These are all clearly designer to deter anyone from using the courts to restrain him, and they will work.
Almost no one will have the money available to provide the necessary bond to even get their day in court, and even if they did… how many lawyers would want to take that job?It should be noted that this is exactly how Putin took control of Russia. Make resistance too costly. Intimidate the public into apathy.
Trump has been President for 47 days.
FMD
FMD
FMD
US President Donald Trump has reportedly warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he wants to redraw the borders between the two countries.
The comments, which left Canadian officials rattled, came as the two leaders spoke early last month as part of discussions to stave off Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Details of the phone calls were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-politics-live-trump-pauses-mexico-tariffs-but-talks-continue-for-canada/live-coverage/ece8d126d11c4c20ee34147efbaa2a26
sarahs mum said:
US President Donald Trump has reportedly warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he wants to redraw the borders between the two countries.The comments, which left Canadian officials rattled, came as the two leaders spoke early last month as part of discussions to stave off Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Details of the phone calls were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-politics-live-trump-pauses-mexico-tariffs-but-talks-continue-for-canada/live-coverage/ece8d126d11c4c20ee34147efbaa2a26
FMD
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.
He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.html
sarahs mum said:
US President Donald Trump has reportedly warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he wants to redraw the borders between the two countries.The comments, which left Canadian officials rattled, came as the two leaders spoke early last month as part of discussions to stave off Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Details of the phone calls were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-politics-live-trump-pauses-mexico-tariffs-but-talks-continue-for-canada/live-coverage/ece8d126d11c4c20ee34147efbaa2a26
So instead of nice quiet polite neighbours, he wants to turn them into neutral at best if not outright hostile.
ince Donald Trump won a second term in the White House, one of his most bizarre fixations has been on Canada, the United States’ next-door neighbor and closest ally. It seemingly began after the election, when the president floated the idea of annexing Canada in meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Though this appeared to be a joke at the time, it was then seemingly elevated to the level of serious policy. Trump has continued to call Canada the “51st state” and Trudeau its “governor,” and the president has taken an increasingly adversarial approach toward the Great White North, with reports emerging that he is said to be mulling dramatic shifts in the two nations’ long-standing relationship on matters of trade and national security. Trump has of course repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs against our northern neighbor, and this week levied and then partially paused tariffs against Canada and Mexico but took specific aim at Canada and alleged that Trudeau was using the issue to “stay in power.”
As the dynamic between the United States and Canada continues to fray, here’s a look at some of the wildest threats and claims Trump and his aides have reportedly made.
Annex Canada using “economic force” … for its minerals?
In early January, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he would use military force to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. He responded that he would use “economic force.”
In February, the Toronto Star reported on a series of comments from Justin Trudeau talking about his conversations with Trump that were captured on a hot mic. Per the outlet, Trudeau told a room full of Canadian business leaders at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit that Trump’s words stem from a desire to obtain Canada’s critical minerals. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” he said. “But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country, and it is a real thing.”
Earlier this week, Trudeau drew a connection between Trump’s previously announced 25 percent tariffs against Canada and his ongoing mantra about making Canada the 51st state. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” he told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.
Redraw the U.S.-Canada border
Trump has reportedly taken his talk about annexing Canada to new heights. The New York Times reported that the president spoke to Trudeau in early February and questioned the validity of the 1908 treaty that established the border between Canada and the United States and that he wanted to “revise the boundary.” The new report echoes similar reporting in the Toronto Star where Trudeau said the treaty was raised by Trump in their conversations, prompting a rebuttal from the prime minister:
According to sources, Trudeau said he replied to Trump that the treaty was replaced by the Canadian Constitution. He also reminded the president that Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, had patriated the constitution from Great Britain to make it clear that Canada has sovereignty over its own territory.
Redistribute the Great Lakes (and take Canada’s water)
The phone call between not-yet-confirmed Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc, reported by the Times, also broached the subject of the Great Lakes, the five massive freshwater lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) that lie along the northern border and contain 21 percent of the world’s freshwater supply. Lutnick reportedly told LeBlanc that Trump is interested in tossing the standing agreements between the two nations on control of the bodies of water.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump on two occasions seemed to suggest using British Columbia’s water in California, as the Toronto Star has reported.
Remove Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance
In February, the Financial Times reported that Peter Navarro, a senior White House adviser, was advocating for Canada’s removal from the Five Eyes, the international intelligence alliance. The coalition, whose origins stretch back as far as World War II, consists of information sharing between the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Though Navarro denied the FT’s reporting, a new report suggests that the proposal is still being considered in the White House’s circle.
According to the New York Times, Lutnick spoke on the phone with LeBlanc and laid out numerous grievances that Trump had toward Canada. One issue top of mind for Trump was the Five Eyes alliance that, Lutnick claims, Trump wished to remove Canada from.
Cancel NORAD
Per the Times report, Lutnick also told LeBlanc that Trump was reconsidering military cooperation, including the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) — the long-standing partnership that aims to protect the continent from outside threats like nuclear missile attacks. Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has apparently tried to assure Canada that this was not going to happen, according to the Times’ sources.
The fentanyl blame game
As part of his trade-war rhetoric, Trump has repeatedly accused Canada of not doing enough to curb the flow of illegal fentanyl into the U.S. across the northern border — which is his primary public justification for imposing high tariffs on Canada. There’s no evidence to support these claims, as CFR notes:
Canada plays virtually no role in the U.S. fentanyl influx, especially compared to the other countries. The country contributes less than 1 percent to its southern neighbor’s street fentanyl supply, as both the Canadian government and data from the DEA
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-vs-canada-51st-state-wildest-threats.html
Apparently they are having trouble recruiting people for the secret service. A $40,000 bonus is being offered to encourage people.
kii said:
Apparently they are having trouble recruiting people for the secret service. A $40,000 bonus is being offered to encourage people.
Why volunteer to be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes?
( i found the border stuff while I was looking to find more info on a meme I saw about Russia declaring the Canadian border invalid. I can find no trace of a story about that.)
party_pants said:
kii said:
Apparently they are having trouble recruiting people for the secret service. A $40,000 bonus is being offered to encourage people.
Why volunteer to be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes?
The short woman SS officer in the infamous “assassination” incident apparently has links to Russian stuff. Also because she’s short she should not have been part of the team – less of her to cover the turd’s bloated carcass.
Also the main guy featured in the photos has been promoted to something something special.
I can’t be bothered to find the sources of this stuff, I read so much of it. It might have been from that video I posted the other day.
sarahs mum said:
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.html
I’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.htmlI’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
can it deal with both the USA and Russia?
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.htmlI’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
can it deal with both the USA and Russia?
Russia have got their own problems to deal with. Besides, both China and Japan could seize lands and islands in the east if the opportunity arises, there’s a few places where there is not a settled border.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.htmlI’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
can it deal with both the USA and Russia?
Where is its border with Russia?
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:I’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
can it deal with both the USA and Russia?
Where is its border with Russia?
Canada and Russia share a maritime border in the Arctic, but no land border, with the closest point being the Russian island of Wrangel and the Canadian Arctic islands.
“US President Donald Trump has reportedly warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he wants to redraw the borders between the two countries.”
He’s got a Sharpie and he’s not afraid to use it.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.He also brought up something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.
The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned revisiting the sharing of lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is regulated by a number of treaties, a topic he’s expressed interest about in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.htmlI’m sure Canada has enough smarts to deal with the Trumping f-wit.
They can outwit him because he is unarmed…. But he is also a bully. And normal people are not prepared to defend against the depths bully’s will go. Especially when a main tactic for a bully is to not play by the rules if the game.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:can it deal with both the USA and Russia?
Where is its border with Russia?
Canada and Russia share a maritime border in the Arctic, but no land border, with the closest point being the Russian island of Wrangel and the Canadian Arctic islands.
Ta.
I think Canada should be able to cope.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:Where is its border with Russia?
Canada and Russia share a maritime border in the Arctic, but no land border, with the closest point being the Russian island of Wrangel and the Canadian Arctic islands.
Ta.
I think Canada should be able to cope.
What would be funny is if we see US border states declaring they’d like to quit the US and join Canada instead.
Heather Cox Richardson
33m ·
March 7, 2025 (Friday)
Black Americans outnumbered white Americans among the 29,500 people who lived in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s, but the city’s voting rolls were 99% white. So in 1963, Black organizers in the Dallas County Voters League launched a drive to get Black voters in Selma registered. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent civil rights organization, joined them.
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, but the measure did not adequately address the problem of voter suppression. In Selma a judge had stopped the voter registration protests by issuing an injunction prohibiting public gatherings of more than two people.
To call attention to the crisis in her city, Amelia Boynton, a member of the Dallas County Voters League acting with a group of local activists, traveled to Birmingham to invite Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to the city. King had become a household name after delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and his presence would bring national attention to Selma’s struggle.
King and other prominent members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference arrived in January to push the voter registration drive. For seven weeks, Black residents tried to register to vote. County Sheriff James Clark arrested almost 2,000 of them on a variety of charges, including contempt of court and parading without a permit. A federal court ordered Clark not to interfere with orderly registration, so he forced Black applicants to stand in line for hours before taking a “literacy” test. Not a single person passed.
Then on February 18, white police officers, including local police, sheriff’s deputies, and Alabama state troopers, beat and shot an unarmed 26-year-old, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was marching for voting rights at a demonstration in his hometown of Marion, Alabama, about 25 miles northwest of Selma. Jackson had run into a restaurant for shelter along with his mother when the police started rioting, but they chased him and shot him in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Jackson died eight days later, on February 26.
The leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Selma decided to defuse the community’s anger by planning a long march—54 miles—from Selma to the state capitol at Montgomery to draw attention to the murder and voter suppression. Expecting violence, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee voted not to participate, but its chair, John Lewis, asked their permission to go along on his own. They agreed.
On March 7, 1965, sixty years ago today, the marchers set out. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a Confederate brigadier general, Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and U.S. senator who stood against Black rights, state troopers and other law enforcement officers met the unarmed marchers with billy clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas. They fractured John Lewis’s skull and beat Amelia Boynton unconscious. A newspaper photograph of the 54-year-old Boynton, seemingly dead in the arms of another marcher, illustrated the depravity of those determined to stop Black voting.
Images of “Bloody Sunday” on the national news mesmerized the nation, and supporters began to converge on Selma. King, who had been in Atlanta when the marchers first set off, returned to the fray.
Two days later, the marchers set out again. Once again, the troopers and police met them at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but this time, King led the marchers in prayer and then took them back to Selma. That night, a white mob beat to death a Unitarian Universalist minister, James Reeb, who had come from Massachusetts to join the marchers.
On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a nationally televised joint session of Congress to ask for the passage of a national voting rights act. “Their cause must be our cause too,” he said. “ll of us…must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.” Two days later, he submitted to Congress proposed voting rights legislation.
The marchers remained determined to complete their trip to Montgomery, but Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, refused to protect them. So President Johnson stepped in. When the marchers set off for a third time on March 21, 1,900 members of the nationalized Alabama National Guard, FBI agents, and federal marshals protected them. Covering about ten miles a day, they camped in the yards of well-wishers until they arrived at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25. Their ranks had grown as they walked until they numbered about 25,000 people.
On the steps of the capitol, speaking under a Confederate flag, Dr. King said: “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”
That night, Viola Liuzzo, a 39-year-old mother of five who had arrived from Michigan to help after Bloody Sunday, was murdered by four Ku Klux Klan members who tailed her as she ferried demonstrators out of the city.
On August 6, Dr. King and Mrs. Boynton were guests of honor as President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recalling “the outrage of Selma,” Johnson said: “This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.”
The Voting Rights Act authorized federal supervision of voter registration in districts where African Americans were historically underrepresented. Johnson promised that the government would strike down “regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote.” He called the right to vote “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men,” and pledged that “we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy.”
As recently as 2006, Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act by a bipartisan vote. By 2008 there was very little difference in voter participation between white Americans and Americans of color. In that year, voters elected the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, and they reelected him in 2012. And then, in 2013, the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision struck down the part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to get approval from the federal government before changing their voting rules. This requirement was known as “preclearance.”
The Shelby County v. Holder decision opened the door, once again, for voter suppression. A 2024 study by the Brennan Center of nearly a billion vote records over 14 years showed that the racial voting gap is growing almost twice as fast in places that used to be covered by the preclearance requirement. Another recent study showed that in Alabama, the gap between white and Black voter turnout in the 2024 election was the highest since at least 2008. If nonwhite voters in Alabama had voted at the same rate as white voters, more than 200,000 additional ballots would have been cast.
Democrats have tried since 2021 to pass a voting rights act but have been stymied by Republicans, who oppose such protections. On March 5, 2025, Representative Terri Sewall (D-AL) reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would help restore the terms of the Voting Rights Act, and make preclearance national.
The measure is named after John Lewis, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader whose skull law enforcement officers fractured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis went on from his days in the Civil Rights Movement to serve 17 terms as a representative from Georgia. Until he died in 2020, Lewis bore the scars of March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday.
Democracy in the USA is already a dead horse.
It cannot be fixed without a revolution.
JudgeMental said:
Carrick RyanLost in the noise of the past two weeks, not many people noticed that Trump took some unprecedented steps to nullify the one branch of Government he doesn’t completely control – the judiciary.
Firstly, he fired any Justice Department prosecutors who who participated in investigations against him, and removed the security clearances of any former intelligence officials who have criticised him publicly, including former President Biden.
He signed an executive order removing the security clearances and banning from federal buildings for any lawyer that was found to have assisted in impeachment investigations against him. Even those acting pro-bono.
He signed an executive order banning not-for profit workers from a federal loan forgiveness scheme if they were deemed to have engaged in “improper” activities. This would likely include any not-for profits that challenge his policies in court.
He then signed an executive order requiring any plaintiff wishing to challenge the legality of Trump’s actions in court to provide, up front, a bond covering the totality of the Government’s legal costs, to be forfeited in full if the case fails.
These are all clearly designer to deter anyone from using the courts to restrain him, and they will work.
Almost no one will have the money available to provide the necessary bond to even get their day in court, and even if they did… how many lawyers would want to take that job?It should be noted that this is exactly how Putin took control of Russia. Make resistance too costly. Intimidate the public into apathy.
Trump has been President for 47 days.
Link?
Unrest in Canada?
A man is on the run after at least 12 people were injured during a shooting at Toronto pub, according to Canadian police.
Police said they did not have a description of the suspect, who remained at large.
Four victims had non-life-threatening injuries and the extent of injuries to the rest was not known, they said.
“I am deeply troubled to hear reports of a shooting at a pub in Scarborough,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow posted on X, adding that the police chief had assured her “all necessary resources have been deployed”.
She said that the investigation was “early and ongoing”.
Massive fuckwit announcement.
Walt Nauto was part of the traitorous top secrets confidential file boxes incident in the Mar-a-Lago toilet era of the final season of the USA, part A.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/trump-blames-globalists-for-stock-market-sell-off.html
Trump blames ‘globalists’ for stock market sell-off
Major stock indexes dropped sharply this week, as rattled investors struggled to get a handle on President Donald Trump’s sweeping and shifting tariff policies.
But when asked in the Oval Office on Thursday whether he thought it was his tariffs that were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere.
“Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied, “Because we’re taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago.”
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were.
“We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country,” he continued. “We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but NBC reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering an overhaul of how it interacts with NATO allies.
Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
dv said:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/trump-blames-globalists-for-stock-market-sell-off.html
Trump blames ‘globalists’ for stock market sell-offMajor stock indexes dropped sharply this week, as rattled investors struggled to get a handle on President Donald Trump’s sweeping and shifting tariff policies.
But when asked in the Oval Office on Thursday whether he thought it was his tariffs that were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere.
“Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied, “Because we’re taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago.”
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were.
“We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country,” he continued. “We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but NBC reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering an overhaul of how it interacts with NATO allies.
Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
It is arguable that the greatest globalist are the multinationals with founding roots in the US. They were encouraged to become globalists by successive US governments in the guise of neo-liberalism. All the big tech giants for example.
party_pants said:
dv said:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/trump-blames-globalists-for-stock-market-sell-off.html
Trump blames ‘globalists’ for stock market sell-offMajor stock indexes dropped sharply this week, as rattled investors struggled to get a handle on President Donald Trump’s sweeping and shifting tariff policies.
But when asked in the Oval Office on Thursday whether he thought it was his tariffs that were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere.
“Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied, “Because we’re taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago.”
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were.
“We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country,” he continued. “We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but NBC reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering an overhaul of how it interacts with NATO allies.
Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
It is arguable that the greatest globalist are the multinationals with founding roots in the US. They were encouraged to become globalists by successive US governments in the guise of neo-liberalism. All the big tech giants for example.
So we should be supporting the multinationals with founding roots in the US then?
party_pants said:
It is arguable that the greatest globalist are the multinationals with founding roots in the US. They were encouraged to become globalists by successive US governments in the guise of neo-liberalism. All the big tech giants for example.
Exactly.
They became ‘globalists’, because, hey, those brown people will do the work for peanuts!
Members of Congress and Jewish civil rights organizations are criticizing the new deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense, Kingsley Wilson, for a series of online posts and past political commentary she made before joining the Trump administration.
Over the last several years, Wilson posted and commented prolifically on podcasts in her position at the right-wing think tank the Center for Renewing America. Wilson praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, promoted theories widely seen as antisemitic, excoriated Republicans in Congress who supported Ukraine, frequently used a slur for people with intellectual disabilities and also appeared to support political violence.
Now that Wilson is serving in the Pentagon, her comments have raised new scrutiny.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/06/nx-s1-5319995/kingsley-wilson-antisemitic-comments-defense-department-pentagon
The Rev Dodgson said:
party_pants said:
dv said:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/trump-blames-globalists-for-stock-market-sell-off.html
Trump blames ‘globalists’ for stock market sell-offMajor stock indexes dropped sharply this week, as rattled investors struggled to get a handle on President Donald Trump’s sweeping and shifting tariff policies.
But when asked in the Oval Office on Thursday whether he thought it was his tariffs that were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere.
“Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied, “Because we’re taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago.”
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were.
“We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country,” he continued. “We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but NBC reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering an overhaul of how it interacts with NATO allies.
Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
It is arguable that the greatest globalist are the multinationals with founding roots in the US. They were encouraged to become globalists by successive US governments in the guise of neo-liberalism. All the big tech giants for example.
So we should be supporting the multinationals with founding roots in the US then?
No. Just pointing out that it is not other countries ripping off the US, if anything is ripping off the US (which is questionable) it is their own US-based multinationals. But they were encouraged to do so by US foreign policy over the last few decades.
party_pants said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
party_pants said:It is arguable that the greatest globalist are the multinationals with founding roots in the US. They were encouraged to become globalists by successive US governments in the guise of neo-liberalism. All the big tech giants for example.
So we should be supporting the multinationals with founding roots in the US then?
No. Just pointing out that it is not other countries ripping off the US, if anything is ripping off the US (which is questionable) it is their own US-based multinationals. But they were encouraged to do so by US foreign policy over the last few decades.
My point was that “globalism” is a good thing, at least in principle.
The Rev Dodgson said:
party_pants said:
The Rev Dodgson said:So we should be supporting the multinationals with founding roots in the US then?
No. Just pointing out that it is not other countries ripping off the US, if anything is ripping off the US (which is questionable) it is their own US-based multinationals. But they were encouraged to do so by US foreign policy over the last few decades.
My point was that “globalism” is a good thing, at least in principle.
Well yes, it has been the basic principle since Bretton Woods in 1944. That empires were a bad idea and that nations should instead operate on a basis of trade for mutual benefit. Each nation having their own particular advantages and disadvantages etc.
LOL
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/us-support-uk-nuclear-arsenal-in-doubt-trident-france
SCIENCE said:
LOL
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/us-support-uk-nuclear-arsenal-in-doubt-trident-france
New times. It’s going to be a four cornered Pitney from here: USA, Russia, China, Europe.
what the fuck
Sorry, bit of a bad line, sounded like you were saying “chicken rental trend”.
SCIENCE said:
what the fuck
nobody could have foreseen this
nobody could have foreseen this
wait did we say that twice
Lolol…good work!
“every other group in the world has the right to its own homeland except white people.”
tucker carlson.
JudgeMental said:
“every other group in the world has the right to its own homeland except white people.”tucker carlson.
Well, there’s all of Scandinavia.
JudgeMental said:
“every other group in the world has the right to its own homeland except white people.”tucker carlson.
Dangerous, manipulative liar.
kii said:
Lol
dv said:
kii said:
Lol
It’s all those poor white Americans without a homeland crossing the border into Mexico have turned the numbers negative.
Trump Didn’t See This Coming: Canada to Blocking US Free Access to Alaska: A Bluff or Tactic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8E8zAgGM9U
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
kii said:
Lol
It’s all those poor white Americans without a homeland crossing the border into Mexico have turned the numbers negative.
Ah. I now understand. Thanks.
JudgeMental said:
“every other group in the world has the right to its own homeland except white people.”tucker carlson.
Has no idea of his own parentage?
I reckon Trump should give Canada Alaska.
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.
Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Does he even know where Australia is?
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
>>admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus
So am I.
Peak Warming Man said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
>>admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus
So am I.
Me too, but i was more like questioning why the UK needed to be involved with it at all, why not just the US and Australia.
Buying those conventional Japanese built subs back in 2014 is looking like a great idea in hindsight. They’d have been in service already by now.
Peak Warming Man said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
>>admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus
So am I.
So we’re all agreed.
They’ll give us our money back, and we’ll return the submarines that have been delivered so far.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Peak Warming Man said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
>>admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus
So am I.
So we’re all agreed.
They’ll give us our money back, and we’ll return the submarines that have been delivered so far.
but we still need some new subs.
Maybe we could use that money to bribe Russian and Chinese crews to defect? Bonus for nuclear powered subs. BIGGGGG BONUS for any nuclear weapons they can bring along with them.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Does he even know where Australia is?
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Ah well we’ll have to spend that half a trillion dollars on something else I guess.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Ah well we’ll have to spend that half a trillion dollars on something else I guess.
Wonder if the French will make us some?
roughbarked said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Ah well we’ll have to spend that half a trillion dollars on something else I guess.
Wonder if the French will make us some?
No. We don’t want French stuff either.
if they bac out of the sub deal can we back out of the naval port deal?
sarahs mum said:
if they bac out of the sub deal can we back out of the naval port deal?
Pine Gap.
sarahs mum said:
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for-pentagon-says-selling-submarines-to-australia-would-be-crazy-if-taiwan-tensions-flare
Every cloud…
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
This was an interesting read this morning:
https://closertotheedge.substack.com/p/the-red-x-of-arrogance-how-snopes
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
FMD.
Elon. Elon, maybe?
Michael V said:
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
FMD.
Elon. Elon, maybe?
That’s the common belief.
New nickname…Elump.
kii said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
FMD.
Elon. Elon, maybe?
That’s the common belief.
New nickname…Elump.
When I first read that I thought he meant that because he wasn’t elected in 2020 he was allowed to regain the presidency in 2024 and thus be president during the tournament. But in hindsight that might be thinking beyond Trump’s ken.
kii said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
FMD.
Elon. Elon, maybe?
That’s the common belief.
New nickname…Elump.
IDGI
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:FMD.
Elon. Elon, maybe?
That’s the common belief.
New nickname…Elump.
IDGI
Elon + Trump
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:That’s the common belief.
New nickname…Elump.
IDGI
Elon + Trump
Ah. Too subtle for my brain to work out.
Another plane crash.
5 injured in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Michael V said:
kii said:
Michael V said:
IDGI
Elon + Trump
Ah. Too subtle for my brain to work out.
truskkk
nah that’s not so outlandish
tron
mumps
Do you remember in the movie ‘Mr. Roberts’, how Lieutenant-Commander Morton reacted right at the end, when, Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon) bursts into the ‘captain’s’ cabin, and demands to know ‘what’s all this crud about no movie tonight?!’?
I think that Trump just had a ‘Captain Morton’ moment:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Elon + Trump
Ah. Too subtle for my brain to work out.
truskkk
nah that’s not so outlandish
tron
mumps
let’s just call them The Lumps.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
Ah. Too subtle for my brain to work out.
truskkk
nah that’s not so outlandish
tron
mumps
let’s just call them The Lumps.
El Lumps
JudgeMental said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:truskkk
nah that’s not so outlandish
tron
mumps
let’s just call them The Lumps.
El Lumps
Los Lumpos.
captain_spalding said:
JudgeMental said:
captain_spalding said:let’s just call them The Lumps.
El Lumps
Los Lumpos.
¡Cuidado! Los Lumpos!
captain_spalding said:
¡Cuidado! Los Lumpos!
Benjolan
kii said:
dv said:
During the Oval Office signing event, Trump veered from soccer talk to politics when reflecting on how the United States secured hosting rights during his first administration. “When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-064237193.html
we thought he’d made the rigged admission before
‘Weak and ineffective’: Donald Trump lashes out at former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull
US president Donald Trump has lashed former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as a “weak and ineffective leader” who was rejected by the Australian people, in a late-night social media post.
Taking to Truth Social platform just before midnight Sunday night in Washington DC, Trump said Turnbull led Australia from “behind” and did not understand China.
“Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from ‘behind’ never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so. I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader and, obviously, Australian’s agreed with me!!!”
The post appears to be in response to an interview, granted by Turnbull, to Bloomberg in which he said Trump’s chaotic leadership style would benefit China, to the detriment of the US.
“President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump: where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent.”
Turnbull said the world was seeing an “undiluted” version of Trump in his second term, and that his capricious behavior would be seen as advantageous for China’s President Xi Jinping in international relations.
For countries forced to choose between “China on the one hand, and Trump on the other”, many would “find China a more attractive partner.”
Contacted by the Guardian, Turnbull said his commentary on Bloomberg “speaks for itself”.
“His post proves that my comments hit the mark,” the former prime minister said.
Trump and Turnbull have history. The pair shared an acrimonious phone call in 2017 over the US-Australia refugee swap deal, which had been negotiated by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
Trump said it was a bad deal and accepting it would make him look like a “dope”.
“I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous,” Trump said shortly before the call ended.
But at other times, the pair have appeared friendly. Turnbull has said previously Trump would mention Kerry Packer every time they met, even during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Turnbull was prime minister from 2015 to 2018. He did not lose office at an election, but rather through an internal Liberal party spill, when he lost the leadership to Scott Morrison.
Matt Mikalatos
13h ·
This is Mahmoud Khalil. He graduated from a leadership program at Columbia University in December, and is still in university housing. He’s married, and his wife is eight months pregnant. Mahmoud is passionate about education, and has had a variety of jobs involving education and disadvantaged youth. He’s particularly interested in creating programs that help educate out-of-school youth in developing countries.
Mahmoud has a green card. He is a lawful, permanent resident of the United States. Remember that, it’s going to be important in what’s about to happen.
Last night (Saturday) as Mahmoud and his wife walked into their university-owned apartment building, two men in plain clothes slipped in the door behind them.
The men claimed they were ICE agents. They also claimed that they had a warrant for Mahmoud’s arrest on their phone, and that his student visa was being revoked.
Reminder: Mahmoud has a green card. He’s no longer on a student visa.
Mahmoud told them he had a green card, and his wife went up to their apartment to get it. When she returned, the agents, confused, made a phone call where the agents were told “we’re revoking that too.”
The agents refused to give Mahmoud’s wife a reason why he was being detained. When Mahmoud’s lawyer called, ICE refused to say why Mahmoud was being detained and that his “student visa was revoked.” When the lawyer (again) pointed out that he had a green card, ICE representatives said that also would be revoked.
You may be wondering, “Hey, isn’t it illegal for ICE to come onto private property — the university — without showing a warrant to the university for the arrest? Wouldn’t the warrant necessarily say something about why he was being arrested?”
Great question. Columbia University has publicly said that ICE requires a warrant to enter non-public areas of campus (like housing), but also as of the moment has refused to answer whether ICE contacted them before slipping into the apartment building behind Mahmoud and his wife.
Meanwhile: Mahmoud has been sent to a for-profit prison in New Jersey with no official charges.
Nevertheless, we know why Mahmoud was arrested.
Mahmoud has been involved in peaceful protests at the university, asking that the school stop investing in weapons manufacturing and, in particular, that the school stop investing in companies that are helping to fund the killing of people in Gaza.
So, just to make this very clear and simple:
A lawful, permanent resident of the United States has been arrested for exercising his freedom of speech.
The US government doesn’t like some of his OPINIONS and so they have arrested him and are making plans to deport him.
Maybe you don’t like Mahmoud’s opinions. Maybe you don’t agree with him. Fine. But the point is: the US government is arresting LEGAL IMMIGRANTS — PEOPLE WITH GREEN CARDS — for exercising their freedom of speech.
This is not the behavior of a nation that is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” It’s an act of profound cowardice and an arbitrary and cruel exercise of power.
ETA: Mahmoud’s wife, an American citizen, attempted to see him at the New Jersey facility today and has been told that he’s not there. His lawyer says he may be as far away as Louisiana, but the point is this: he’s now not only been “detained” without charges, but neither his wife nor his lawyer know where the US government is holding him.
Heather Cox Richardson
2h ·
March 9, 2025 (Sunday)
Lately, political writers have called attention to the tendency of billionaire Elon Musk to refer to his political opponents as “NPCs.” This term comes from the gaming world and refers to a nonplayer character that follows a scripted path and cannot think or act on its own, and is there only to populate the world of the game for the actual players. Amanda Marcotte of Salon notes that Musk calls anyone with whom he disagrees an NPC, but that construction comes from the larger environment of the online right wing, whose members refer to anyone who opposes Donald Trump’s agenda as an NPC.
In The Cross Section, Paul Waldman notes that the point of the right wing’s dehumanization of political opponents is to dismiss the pain they are inflicting. If the majority of Americans are not really human, toying with their lives isn’t important—maybe it’s even LOL funny to pretend to take a chainsaw to the programs on which people depend. “We are ants, or even less,” Waldman writes, “bits of programming to be moved around at Elon’s whim. Only he and the people who aspire to be like him are actors, decision-makers, molding the world to conform to their bold interplanetary vision.”
Waldman correctly ties this division of the world into the actors and the supporting cast to the modern-day Republican Party’s longstanding attack on government programs. After World War II, large majorities of both parties believed that the government must work for ordinary Americans by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net like Social Security, promoting infrastructure projects like the interstate highway system, and protecting civil rights that guaranteed all Americans would be treated equally before the law. But a radical faction worked to undermine this “liberal consensus” by claiming that such a system was a form of socialism that would ultimately make the United States a communist state.
By 2012, Republicans were saying, as Representative Paul Ryan did in 2010, that “60 Percent of Americans are ‘takers,’ not ‘makers.’” In 2012, Ryan had been tapped as the Republican vice presidential candidate. As Waldman recalls, in that year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group of rich donors that 47% of Americans would vote for a Democrat “no matter what.” They were moochers who “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”
As Waldman notes, Musk and his team of tech bros at the Department of Government Efficiency are not actually promoting efficiency: if they were, they would have brought auditors and would be working with the inspectors general that Trump fired and the Government Accountability Office that is already in place to streamline government. Rather than looking for efficiency, they are simply working to zero out the government that works for ordinary people, turning it instead to enabling them to consolidate wealth and power.
Today’s attempt to destroy a federal government that promotes stability, equality, and opportunity for all Americans is just the latest iteration of that impulse in the United States.
The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence took a revolutionary stand against monarchy, the idea that some people were better than others and had a right to rule. They asserted as “self-evident” that all people are created equal and that God and the laws of nature have given them certain fundamental rights. Those include—but are not limited to—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The role of government was to make sure people enjoyed these rights, they said, and thus a government is legitimate only if people consent to that government. For all that the founders excluded Indigenous Americans, Black colonists, and all women from their vision of government, the idea that the government should work for ordinary people rather than nobles and kings was revolutionary.
From the beginning, though, there were plenty of Americans who clung to the idea of human hierarchies in which a few superior men should rule the rest. They argued that the Constitution was designed simply to protect property and that as a few men accumulated wealth, they should run things. Permitting those without property to have a say in their government would allow them to demand that the government provide things that might infringe on the rights of property owners.
By the 1850s, elite southerners, whose fortunes rested on the production of raw materials by enslaved Black Americans, worked to take over the government and to get rid of the principles in the Declaration of Independence. As Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina put it: “I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much lauded but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson that ‘all men are born equal.’”
“We do not agree with the authors of the Declaration of Independence, that governments ‘derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,’” enslaver George Fitzhugh of Virginia wrote in 1857. “All governments must originate in force, and be continued by force.” There were 18,000 people in his county and only 1,200 could vote, he said, “ut we twelve hundred…never asked and never intend to ask the consent of the sixteen thousand eight hundred whom we govern.”
Northerners, who had a mixed economy that needed educated workers and thus widely shared economic and political power, opposed the spread of the South’s hierarchical system. When Congress, under extraordinary pressure from the pro-southern administration, passed the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that would permit enslavement to spread into the West and from there, working in concert with southern slave states, make enslavement national, northerners of all parties woke up to the looming loss of their democratic government.
A railroad lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, remembered how northerners were “thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach—a scythe—a pitchfork—a chopping axe, or a butcher’s cleaver” to push back against the rising oligarchy. And while they came from different parties, he said, they were “still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.” Across the North, people came together in meetings to protest the Slave Power’s takeover of the government, and marched in parades to support political candidates who would stand against the elite enslavers.
Apologists for enslavement denigrated Black Americans and urged white voters not to see them as human. Lincoln, in contrast, urged Americans to come together to protect the Declaration of Independence. “I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop?… If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out!”
Northerners put Lincoln into the White House, and once in office, he reached back to the Declaration—written “four score and seven years ago”—and charged Americans to “resolve that…this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The victory of the United States in the Civil War ended the power of enslavers in the government, but new crises in the future would revive the conflict between the idea of equality and a nation in which a few should rule.
In the 1890s the rise of industry led to the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy, and once again, wealthy leaders began to abandon equality for the idea that some people were better than others. Steel baron Andrew Carnegie celebrated the “contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer,” for although industrialization created “castes,” it created “wonderful material development,” and “while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department.”
Those at the top were there because of their “special ability,” Carnegie wrote, and anyone seeking a fairer distribution of wealth was a “Socialist or Anarchist…attacking the foundation upon which civilization rests.” Instead, he said, society worked best when a few wealthy men ran the world, for “wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves.”
As industrialists gathered the power of the government into their own hands, people of all political parties once again came together to reclaim American democracy. Although Democrat Grover Cleveland was the first to complain that “orporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters,” it was Republican Theodore Roosevelt who is now popularly associated with the development of a government that took power back for the people.
Roosevelt complained that the “absence of effective…restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise.” Roosevelt ushered in the Progressive Era with government regulation of business to protect the ability of individuals to participate in American society as equals.
The rise of a global economy in the twentieth century repeated this pattern. After socialists took control of Russia in 1917, American men of property insisted that any restrictions on their control of resources or the government were a form of “Bolshevism.” But a worldwide depression in the 1930s brought voters of all parties in the U.S. behind President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal for the American people.”
He and the Democrats created a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure in the 1930s. Then, after Black and Brown veterans coming home from World War II demanded equality, that New Deal government, under Democratic president Harry Truman and then under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, worked to end racial and, later, gender hierarchies in American society.
That is the world that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are dismantling. They are destroying the government that works for all Americans in favor of using the government to concentrate their own wealth and power.
And, once again, Americans are protesting the idea that the role of government is not to protect equality and democracy, but rather to concentrate wealth and power at the top of society. Americans are turning out to demand Republican representatives stop the cuts to the government and, when those representatives refuse to hold town halls, are turning out by the thousands to talk to Democratic representatives.
Thousands of researchers and their supporters turned out across the country in more than 150 Stand Up for Science protests on Friday. On Saturday, International Women’s Day, 300 demonstrations were organized around the country to protest different administration policies. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is drawing crowds across the country with the “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour, on which he has been joined by Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers.
“Nobody voted for Elon Musk,” protestors chanted at a Tesla dealership in Manhattan yesterday in one of the many protests at the dealerships associated with Musk’s cars. “Oligarchs out, democracy in.”
Trump Declines to Rule Out Recession as Tariffs Begin to Bite
President Trump said that Americans would be better off in the long run from his tariffs, which he said would prevent the country from being “ripped off.”
By Luke Broadwater, Colby Smith and Ana Swanson
March 9, 2025
President Trump declined in an interview aired Sunday to rule out the possibility that his economic policies, including aggressive tariffs against America’s trade partners, would cause a recession.
In the interview with Maria Bartiromo, the host of “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News, Mr. Trump also said that he was considering increasing tariffs against Mexico and Canada. The interview took place on Thursday at the White House.
Referencing “rising worries about a slowdown,” Ms. Bartiromo asked Mr. Trump: “Are you expecting a recession this year?”
“I hate to predict things like that,” Mr. Trump responded. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing, and there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”
Mr. Trump’s imposition of sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China last week rocked stock markets and invited pushback from industries, including the largest automakers, who told the president that the duties would decimate their business. Canada immediately retaliated with tariffs on $20.5 billion worth of American exports and threatened additional measures. China has also placed tariffs on U.S. goods and plans to impose another round on Monday.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump abruptly reversed his 25 percent tariffs on many Canadian and Mexican exports.
But the president is planning more tariffs soon — increasing the odds of an economically damaging global trade war. On Wednesday, his administration is set to put in place a 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum, which he previewed last month. And the president has said to expect further levies on April 2, when he plans to impose what he is calling “reciprocal tariffs” to answer back to other countries’ tariffs and other trading practices.
Ms. Bartiromo told Mr. Trump that business leaders appreciate certainty: “The public companies want to make sure that we have clarity after April 2, when those reciprocal tariffs go in. Are you going to change anything after that? Will we have clarity?”
“We may go up with some tariffs. It depends. We may go up. I don’t think we’ll go down, or we may go up,” Mr. Trump said. “They have plenty of clarity. They just use that. That’s almost a sound bite. They always say that we want clarity. Look, our country has been ripped off for many decades, for many, many decades, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”
Economists have turned gloomier on the economic outlook amid Mr. Trump’s dizzying approach to tariffs, which has fueled considerable uncertainty and hamstrung businesses considering new investments and hiring. The concern is that the ongoing volatility chills this activity even further, intensifying an economic slowdown that is already underway.
Heading into Mr. Trump’s second term in the White House, the economy had downshifted to a more modest pace of growth, the labor market had cooled and inflation, although still sticky, was well off its 2022 peak. The economic backdrop is still solid by many metrics, but policies like tariffs, deportations and steep government spending cuts that are central to Mr. Trump’s economic agenda are expected to test that resilience.
Tariffs, for example, are broadly expected to raise prices for everyday goods while also dampening growth as businesses and consumers are forced to redeploy resources and cut back on spending elsewhere. Elevated inflation has limited to a degree how much the Federal Reserve may be able to support the economy if conditions deteriorate. For the time being, the central bank has opted to keep interest rates on hold at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent.
Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, reiterated on Friday that the Fed was not in a “hurry” to lower interest rates because the economy remained in good shape, but acknowledged the potentially disruptive nature of Mr. Trump’s plans, especially on inflation.
Lackluster growth combined with rising prices has stoked fears of stagflation, a toxic combination that would put the Fed in an even more difficult position.
In an interview on Friday, Austan D. Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed and a voting member on this year’s policy-setting committee, said that such a dynamic was increasingly “on the radar screen,” especially as he heard from companies in his district that they were grappling with an “uncertainty-induced chill.”
Speaking on Meet the Press on Sunday, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said that tariffs would help “grow our economy in a way we’ve never grown before.”
Asked about forecasts from banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, who say a recession in the next 12 months has become more likely, Mr. Lutnick said that Americans should not be bracing for a recession.
“I would never bet on recession,” he said. “No chance.”
Mr. Lutnick claimed that the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government deficits would drive interest rates down, while drilling more oil would also bring down the price of energy. He acknowledged that tariffs could increase the price of foreign goods, but said that domestic goods would get cheaper.
Many economists have expressed other views, saying that tariffs on foreign products can help U.S. companies become more profitable by giving them space to raise their prices, as well.
“Foreign goods may get a little more expensive,” Mr. Lutnick said. “But American goods are going to get cheaper, and you’re going to be helping Americans by buying American.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/us/politics/trump-recession-lutnick.html?
sarahs mum said:
Matt Mikalatos
13h ·
This is Mahmoud Khalil. He graduated from a leadership program at Columbia University in December, and is still in university housing. He’s married, and his wife is eight months pregnant. Mahmoud is passionate about education, and has had a variety of jobs involving education and disadvantaged youth. He’s particularly interested in creating programs that help educate out-of-school youth in developing countries.
Mahmoud has a green card. He is a lawful, permanent resident of the United States. Remember that, it’s going to be important in what’s about to happen.
Last night (Saturday) as Mahmoud and his wife walked into their university-owned apartment building, two men in plain clothes slipped in the door behind them.
The men claimed they were ICE agents. They also claimed that they had a warrant for Mahmoud’s arrest on their phone, and that his student visa was being revoked.
Reminder: Mahmoud has a green card. He’s no longer on a student visa.
Mahmoud told them he had a green card, and his wife went up to their apartment to get it. When she returned, the agents, confused, made a phone call where the agents were told “we’re revoking that too.”
The agents refused to give Mahmoud’s wife a reason why he was being detained. When Mahmoud’s lawyer called, ICE refused to say why Mahmoud was being detained and that his “student visa was revoked.” When the lawyer (again) pointed out that he had a green card, ICE representatives said that also would be revoked.
You may be wondering, “Hey, isn’t it illegal for ICE to come onto private property — the university — without showing a warrant to the university for the arrest? Wouldn’t the warrant necessarily say something about why he was being arrested?”
Great question. Columbia University has publicly said that ICE requires a warrant to enter non-public areas of campus (like housing), but also as of the moment has refused to answer whether ICE contacted them before slipping into the apartment building behind Mahmoud and his wife.
Meanwhile: Mahmoud has been sent to a for-profit prison in New Jersey with no official charges.
Nevertheless, we know why Mahmoud was arrested.
Mahmoud has been involved in peaceful protests at the university, asking that the school stop investing in weapons manufacturing and, in particular, that the school stop investing in companies that are helping to fund the killing of people in Gaza.
So, just to make this very clear and simple:
A lawful, permanent resident of the United States has been arrested for exercising his freedom of speech.
The US government doesn’t like some of his OPINIONS and so they have arrested him and are making plans to deport him.
Maybe you don’t like Mahmoud’s opinions. Maybe you don’t agree with him. Fine. But the point is: the US government is arresting LEGAL IMMIGRANTS — PEOPLE WITH GREEN CARDS — for exercising their freedom of speech.
This is not the behavior of a nation that is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” It’s an act of profound cowardice and an arbitrary and cruel exercise of power.
ETA: Mahmoud’s wife, an American citizen, attempted to see him at the New Jersey facility today and has been told that he’s not there. His lawyer says he may be as far away as Louisiana, but the point is this: he’s now not only been “detained” without charges, but neither his wife nor his lawyer know where the US government is holding him.
FMD
(His ideas might upset the Trump-Gaza-Redevelopment plans?)
The Borders are secure again and the pets are safe now, didn’t take long.
Peak Warming Man said:
The Borders are secure again and the pets are safe now, didn’t take long.
Any cats and dogs eaten from now on will be those consumed by ‘proper’ US citizens only.
For those interested in learning about the extent of the current state of White House corruption, here’s a deep dive from Rolling Stone.
Trump’s Shockingly Lawless Second Term: Donald Trump and Elon Musk are blindly purging the government to make it more MAGA and cruel, ignoring the law, and cashing in like America has never seen.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-musk-lawless-second-term-1235290095/
Alternative link, though Archive Today webpage capture:
captain_spalding said:
Peak Warming Man said:
The Borders are secure again and the pets are safe now, didn’t take long.
Any cats and dogs eaten from now on will be those consumed by ‘proper’ US citizens only.
I’m not allowed to set (humane) traps for cats and/or dogs. Nor am I allowed to catch cane toads for food. (I understand that their legs are good to eat.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/07/cia-base-mistakenly-exposed-doge-government-building-sell/
dv said:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/07/cia-base-mistakenly-exposed-doge-government-building-sell/
LOL
FMD
LOL
Michael V said:
dv said:
LOL
FMD
LOL
“mistakenly”
“accidentally”
Thank you!
kii said:
Good on Senator Kelly.
Fk Musk.
The government of Ontario is applying a 25 percent surcharge starting Monday on electricity exports to three U.S. states in response to U.S. tariffs on Canada. This surcharge will affect electricity sales for 1.5 million homes and businesses across Michigan, Minnesota and New York, the Ontario government said. In total, it could cost up to $400,000 per day.
earn, you mean to say earn
Michael V said:
kii said:
Good on Senator Kelly.
Fk Musk.
Kelly is a really decent man, but don’t fuck with him. He’s been through a few versions of hell.
kii said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Good on Senator Kelly.
Fk Musk.
Kelly is a really decent man, but don’t fuck with him. He’s been through a few versions of hell.
Trump is surrounding himself with people who have no idea of diplomacy, no idea how to think things through properly.
America needs to rethink the purpose of having a third arm of government which is showing itself to be unproductive and counter productive to its interests.
I expect there is some pretty selective recruitment being used here, but still some interesting perspectives…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js15xgK4LIE
Heather Cox Richardson
21m ·
March 10, 2025 (Monday)
Last week’s dramatically dropping stock market prompted Fox News Channel personality Maria Bartiromo to ask Trump in an interview that aired yesterday if he was expecting a recession. Trump answered: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”
Yesterday evening, on Air Force One, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he is worried about a recession. “Who knows?” the president answered. “All I know is this: We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money. I’m telling you, you just watch. We’re going to have jobs. We’re going to have open factories. It’s going to be great.”
Today the stock market plunged.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 prominent companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges fell by 890 points, more than 2%. The S&P 500, which tracks the stocks of 500 of the largest companies listed in the U.S., fell by 2.7%. The Nasdaq Composite, which tracks tech stocks, fell by 4%. Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla closed down more than 15%, dropping more than 45% this year. Tonight, as the Asian markets opened on the other side of the world, the slide continued.
According to MarketWatch, this is the worst start to a presidential term since 2009, when the country was in the subprime mortgage crisis. Trump did not inherit an economy mired in crisis, of course; he inherited what was, at the time, the strongest economy in the world. That booming economy is no more: Goldman is now predicting higher inflation and slower growth than it had previously forecast, while its forecast for Europe is now stronger than it had been.
Trump has always been a dodgy salesman more than anything, telling supporters what they want to hear. He insisted that the strong economy under former president Joe Biden was, in fact, a disaster that only he could fix. In October, Trump told attendees at a rally: “We will begin a new era of soaring incomes.
Skyrocketing wealth. Millions and millions of new jobs and a booming middle class. We are going to boom like we’ve never boomed before.”
That sales pitch got Trump away from the criminal cases against him and back into the White House. Now, though, he needs to make the sales pitch fit into a reality that it doesn’t match. Trump is “steering the country toward a downturn with his tariffs and cuts to spending and the federal workforce—for no logical reason,” Washington Post economic reporter Heather Long wrote on March 6. “Trump’s whipsaw actions have put businesses and consumers on edge,” she noted. If they stop spending at the same time that the government slashes jobs and spending, a downward spiral could lead to a recession. “Trump is inciting an economic storm,” Long wrote. “The big question is why he’s doing this.”
One answer might be that Trump’s top priority is the extension of the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, at the same time that he has also promised to cut the deficit. Those two things are utterly at odds: the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the tax cuts will cost the country more than $4 trillion over the next ten years.
Tariffs appear to have been Trump’s workaround for that incompatibility. He claimed that tariffs would shift the burden of funding the U.S. government to foreign countries. When economists reiterated that tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers and would drive up prices and slow growth, he insisted they were wrong.
Increasingly, tariffs seem to have become for him not just the solution to his economic dilemma, but also a symbol of American strength.
“ariffs are not just about protecting American jobs,” Trump told Congress last week. “They are about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it is happening and it will happen rather quickly. There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that.”
After watching Trump talk to Fox News Channel host Bret Baier in mid-February, Will Saletan of The Bulwark noted that Trump seemed truly to believe that tariffs would bring in “tremendous amounts of money.” For that, as well as his apparent conviction that Palestinians should evacuate Gaza so the U.S. could “take over” and develop the real estate there, and that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, and so on, Saletan concluded “Donald Trump is Delusional.”
Another reason for Trump’s dogged determination to impose tariffs despite the pain they are inflicting on Americans might lie in James Fallows’s observation in Breaking the News after the president’s speech to Congress that Trump mental acuity is slipping. Fallows noted that Trump’s vocabulary has shrunk markedly since his first term and he appears to be falling back on “more primitive and predictable” phrases. Tonight the president appeared to be moving back in time, as well, advertising the availability of the first season of “the Emmy nominated ORIGINAL APPRENTICE STARRING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP.”
The White House said today in a statement: “Since President Trump was elected, industry leaders have responded to President Trump’s America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy with trillions in investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs. President Trump delivered historic job, wage, and investment growth in his first term, and is set to do so again in his second term.”
As the administration’s economic policies are rocking the economy, the administration’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Syrian-born Palestinian activist who figured prominently in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University last April, seems designed to rock society. According to Democracy Now, Khalil is an Algerian citizen, but he holds a U.S. green card and is married to a U.S. citizen who is 8 months pregnant.
Shortly after he took office, Trump issued an executive order saying he would revoke the student visas of anyone he claimed sympathized with Hamas. On Saturday, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Khalil. Khalil’s lawyer said that ICE agents claimed they were acting on the orders of the State Department to revoke Khalil’s student visa, apparently unaware that Khalil, who graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December 2024, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. When his wife showed officers documents proving that status, the lawyer said, an officer said they were revoking his green card instead. He is apparently being held in Louisiana.
The revocation of a green card is very rare. The Associated Press noted that the Department of Homeland Security can begin the process of deportation for lawful permanent residents who are connected to alleged criminal activity. But Khalil hasn’t been charged with a crime. Nik Popli of Time magazine notes that a green card holder can be deported for supporting terrorist groups, but in that case the government must have material evidence. A Homeland Security spokesperson did not offer any such evidence, saying simply that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” and that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
That is, the Trump administration has arrested and detained a legal resident for expressing an opinion that Trump officials don’t like, likely using Khalil to launch this extraordinary attack on the First Amendment because they don’t expect Americans to care deeply about his fate. Once the principle is established that the government can arrest and jail protesters, though, officials will use it to silence opposition broadly. “This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump posted just after noon. “We know there are more students at Columbia who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
Representative Greg Casar (D-TX) posted: “This is illegal, and it endangers the rights of all Americans. In this country, people must be free to express their views—left or right, popular or unpopular—without being detained or punished by the government.” On this basic principle, Americans across the political spectrum appear to agree. Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter was one of those who stepped back from the idea of arrests and deportations of those expressing opinions. “There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport,” she posted, “but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?”
Today, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that Khalil “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” and ordered a hearing on Wednesday.
Speaking of tuber
dv said:
Speaking of tuber
and bloated
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
unbelievable. also unciviised.
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
Not far off the population of Australia.
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
Land of the free hey.
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
unbelievable. also unciviised.
Not far off the population of Australia.
so the vast majority haven’t which suggests gun laws are still too restrictive
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
Insanity
Spiny Norman said:
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
Land of the free hey.
Land of the free-fire zone.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
sarahs mum said:
unbelievable. also unciviised.
Not far off the population of Australia.
so the vast majority haven’t which suggests gun laws are still too restrictive
Does it say anything about being present or injured twice or thrice?
Woodie said:
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Not far off the population of Australia.
so the vast majority haven’t which suggests gun laws are still too restrictive
Does it say anything about being present or injured twice or thrice?
No Survivorship Bias Here
hedge hedge hedge hedge hedge
oh wait they called themselves on it
SCIENCE said:
:)
dv said:
One in 15 Americans has witnessed a mass shooting – study
Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/one-in-15-americans-has-witnessed-a-mass-shooting-study
FMD
SCIENCE said:
:)
Also it’s now deemed to be domestic terrorism or something to demonstrate outside Tesla dealerships.
So, Jan 6 wasn’t domestic terrorism, school shootings aren’t domestic terrorism, but this is?
There’s an interview of Musk nearly crying because his company is going down the gurgler.
kii said:
Also it’s now deemed to be domestic terrorism or something to demonstrate outside Tesla dealerships.So, Jan 6 wasn’t domestic terrorism, school shootings aren’t domestic terrorism, but this is?
There’s an interview of Musk nearly crying because his company is going down the gurgler.
It’s not illegal to boycott things. I’m sure his purchase of one car is going to Make Elon Great Again.
Spiny Norman said:
No no no, it won’t happen to them. They voted for Trump, Trump will look after them.
Love it.
US Department of Education employees have just received an email telling them to vacate the building by 6 p.m. tonight.
The Trump administration is dismantling our education system. Apparently the less educated we are, the easier we are to manipulate.
Spiny Norman said:
US Department of Education employees have just received an email telling them to vacate the building by 6 p.m. tonight.The Trump administration is dismantling our education system. Apparently the less educated we are, the easier we are to manipulate.
This is abysmal government. What are they going to replace it with? Teachers who believe that humans and dinosaurs had to have co-existed because God made everything in seven days?
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
US Department of Education employees have just received an email telling them to vacate the building by 6 p.m. tonight.The Trump administration is dismantling our education system. Apparently the less educated we are, the easier we are to manipulate.
This is abysmal government. What are they going to replace it with? Teachers who believe that humans and dinosaurs had to have co-existed because God made everything in seven days?
the states will takeover the running so I guess whatever ideology those states have will be taught.
Divine Angel said:
Spiny Norman said:
No no no, it won’t happen to them. They voted for Trump, Trump will look after them.
make them rich.
Of course, when everyone is rich, then no-one is rich.
Spiny Norman said:
US Department of Education employees have just received an email telling them to vacate the building by 6 p.m. tonight.The Trump administration is dismantling our education system. Apparently the less educated we are, the easier we are to manipulate.
keep ‘em sick, poor, and dumb.
Check off the third one.
JudgeMental said:
roughbarked said:
Spiny Norman said:
US Department of Education employees have just received an email telling them to vacate the building by 6 p.m. tonight.The Trump administration is dismantling our education system. Apparently the less educated we are, the easier we are to manipulate.
This is abysmal government. What are they going to replace it with? Teachers who believe that humans and dinosaurs had to have co-existed because God made everything in seven days?
the states will takeover the running so I guess whatever ideology those states have will be taught.
^this
also the belief seems to be that a lot of the program delivery will not necessarily be cut, but moved to other agencies.
It also seems that Ukraine has agreed to terms on a cease fire deal – Russia is yet to agree, but if this happens it will be a massive win for DJT.
diddly-squat said:
It also seems that Ukraine has agreed to terms on a cease fire deal – Russia is yet to agree, but if this happens it will be a massive win for DJT.
LOLOLOL….4D checkers again?
The Hidden History of Trump’s First Trip to Moscow
In 1987, a young real estate developer travelled to the Soviet Union. The KGB almost certainly made the trip happen.
t was 1984 and General Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov had a problem. The general occupied one of the KGB’s most exalted posts. He was head of the First Chief Directorate, the prestigious KGB arm responsible for gathering foreign intelligence.
Kryuchkov had begun his career with five years at the Soviet mission in Budapest under Ambassador Yuri Andropov. In 1967 Andropov became KGB chairman. Kryuchkov went to Moscow, took up a number of sensitive posts, and established a reputation as a devoted and hardworking officer. By 1984, Kryuchkov’s directorate in Moscow was bigger than ever before—12,000 officers, up from about 3,000 in the 1960s. His headquarters at Yasenevo, on the wooded southern outskirts of the city, was expanding: Workmen were busy constructing a 22-story annex and a new 11-story building.
In politics, change was in the air. Soon a new man would arrive in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev’s policy of detente with the West—a refreshing contrast to the global confrontation of previous general secretaries—meant the directorate’s work abroad was more important than ever.
Kryuchkov faced several challenges. First, a hawkish president, Ronald Reagan, was in power in Washington. The KGB regarded his two predecessors, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as weak. By contrast Reagan was seen as a potent adversary. The directorate was increasingly preoccupied with what it believed—wrongly—was an American plot to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike against the USSR.
It was around this time that Donald Trump appears to have attracted the attention of Soviet intelligence. How that happened, and where that relationship began, is an answer hidden somewhere in the KGB’s secret archives. Assuming, that is, that the documents still exist.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
diddly-squat said:
JudgeMental said:
roughbarked said:This is abysmal government. What are they going to replace it with? Teachers who believe that humans and dinosaurs had to have co-existed because God made everything in seven days?
the states will takeover the running so I guess whatever ideology those states have will be taught.
^this
also the belief seems to be that a lot of the program delivery will not necessarily be cut, but moved to other agencies.
That’s a 1970s way of thinking.
I’ve told this anecdote here before. A NSW Premier (newly elected with a mandate to “cut the dead wood from the Public Service”) announced how he’d found an entire Government Department that was doing nothing and had disbanded it. He’d actually cut the Department I worked for into two pieces and given those bits to other Government Departments. Nobody sacked. Nobody moved. Just a new ultimate boss.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
JudgeMental said:the states will takeover the running so I guess whatever ideology those states have will be taught.
^this
also the belief seems to be that a lot of the program delivery will not necessarily be cut, but moved to other agencies.
That’s a 1970s way of thinking.
I’ve told this anecdote here before. A NSW Premier (newly elected with a mandate to “cut the dead wood from the Public Service”) announced how he’d found an entire Government Department that was doing nothing and had disbanded it. He’d actually cut the Department I worked for into two pieces and given those bits to other Government Departments. Nobody sacked. Nobody moved. Just a new ultimate boss.
Same happened to my sister. She works in the state govt’s energy dept. Under Labor she worked in renewables. LNP get in, that dept is disbanded and she now works on some other initiative. Same boss, same team, just different stuff.
The LNP may have also cut the cybersecurity budget but you didn’t hear that from me.
sarahs mum said:
FMD
I wonder how the USA would react if allies asked them to remove troops from various bases not on US soil
Dee Bee Tee
10m ·
Just moved my super to a more balanced fund from a growth fund. (Same industry super)
Reason:
The American economy is starting to freefall and with a lot of Australian Super funds heavily invested in American shares its time to adjust.
My balance dropped 10k in 2 weeks.
Trumps economic genius. .Rat.
PS: Just a rant, not considered economic advice.
Cymek said:
I wonder how the USA would react if allies asked them to remove troops from various bases not on US soil
is it that easy?
sarahs mum said:
Dee Bee Tee
10m ·
Just moved my super to a more balanced fund from a growth fund. (Same industry super)
Reason:
The American economy is starting to freefall and with a lot of Australian Super funds heavily invested in American shares its time to adjust.
My balance dropped 10k in 2 weeks.
Trumps economic genius. .Rat.
PS: Just a rant, not considered economic advice.
it is genius though
you may think your accounts are emptying out
but theirs are getting pumped higher and higher
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
seems fair, fascists are not welcome here
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
I wonder how the USA would react if allies asked them to remove troops from various bases not on US soil
is it that easy?
this is bullshit anyway, the troops are there, it’s their soil, haven’t you ever heard of the west bank
wait did someone say bank, quick, kkk would like to cash in
captain_spalding said:
Divine Angel said:
Spiny Norman said:
No no no, it won’t happen to them. They voted for Trump, Trump will look after them.
make them rich.
Of course, when everyone is rich, then no-one is rich.
zero sum winning
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
seems fair, fascists are not welcome here
FMD
sarahs mum said:
Cymek said:
I wonder how the USA would react if allies asked them to remove troops from various bases not on US soil
is it that easy?
I wouldn’t think so
From tomorrow the US will slap a 25 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium, with Donald Trump knocking back Australia’s bid for an exemption.
The CEO of the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, Ray Mostogyl, tells Leon Compton on Tasmania Mornings the Tasmanian aluminium industry has diversified enough to not rely on the US market, and ultimately the US consumer will be the worse off.
“At the end of the day, it’s the consumer who pays for all these fancy announcements, not the government,” he says.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-mornings/what-do-us-tariffs-mean-for-tasmanian-aluminium-exports/105040518
I wonder if Trumps “plan” is to weaken the Federal government so it’s powerless against corporations taking control.
So much government work is behind the scenes so to the general public unless they directly use it think its a waste
sarahs mum said:
From tomorrow the US will slap a 25 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium, with Donald Trump knocking back Australia’s bid for an exemption.The CEO of the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, Ray Mostogyl, tells Leon Compton on Tasmania Mornings the Tasmanian aluminium industry has diversified enough to not rely on the US market, and ultimately the US consumer will be the worse off.
“At the end of the day, it’s the consumer who pays for all these fancy announcements, not the government,” he says.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-mornings/what-do-us-tariffs-mean-for-tasmanian-aluminium-exports/105040518
doesn’t tesla use a bit of aluminum?
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
From tomorrow the US will slap a 25 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium, with Donald Trump knocking back Australia’s bid for an exemption.The CEO of the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, Ray Mostogyl, tells Leon Compton on Tasmania Mornings the Tasmanian aluminium industry has diversified enough to not rely on the US market, and ultimately the US consumer will be the worse off.
“At the end of the day, it’s the consumer who pays for all these fancy announcements, not the government,” he says.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-mornings/what-do-us-tariffs-mean-for-tasmanian-aluminium-exports/105040518
doesn’t tesla use a bit of aluminum?
I wouldn’t have though it was a huge amount.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
From tomorrow the US will slap a 25 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium, with Donald Trump knocking back Australia’s bid for an exemption.The CEO of the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, Ray Mostogyl, tells Leon Compton on Tasmania Mornings the Tasmanian aluminium industry has diversified enough to not rely on the US market, and ultimately the US consumer will be the worse off.
“At the end of the day, it’s the consumer who pays for all these fancy announcements, not the government,” he says.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-mornings/what-do-us-tariffs-mean-for-tasmanian-aluminium-exports/105040518
doesn’t tesla use a bit of aluminum?
I wouldn’t have though it was a huge amount.
Cybertrucks use shitloads of it.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:doesn’t tesla use a bit of aluminum?
I wouldn’t have though it was a huge amount.
Cybertrucks use shitloads of it.
Do they? I thought that their bodies were made from stainless steel.
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKDPrsMaZU8
Heather Cox Richardson
12m ·
March 11, 2025 (Tuesday)
The stock market continued to fall today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 478 points, or 1.14%; the S&P 500 fell almost 0.8%; and the Nasdaq Composite fell almost 0.2%. The S&P 500 briefly held its own in trading today, but then Trump announced on his social media platform that he was going to double the tariffs on steel and aluminum from the new 25% rates to a 50% rate on Canada and might increase tariffs to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.”
Stocks fell again.
Unable to admit that he might be wrong, President Donald Trump is doubling down on the policies that are crashing the economy. In addition to his tariff threats, he also reiterated that “the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” an outrageous position that he suddenly began to advance after the 2024 presidential election and which has Canadians so furious they are boycotting U.S. goods and booing the Star-Spangled Banner.
More than 100 top business leaders met with Trump today to urge him to stop destabilizing what had been a booming economy with his on-again-off-again tariffs. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told Jeff Stein and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post that in private, “usiness leaders, CEOs and COOs are nervous, bordering on unnerved, by the policies that are being implemented, how they’re being implemented and what the fallout is. There’s overwhelming uncertainty and increasing discomfort with how policy is being implemented.”
The extreme unpredictability means that no one knows where or how to invest. Market strategist Art Hogan told CNN’s Matt Egan, “This market is just blatantly sick and tired of the back and forth on trade policy.” Yesterday, Delta Air Lines cut its forecasts for its first-quarter revenue and profits by half, a sign of weakening corporate and consumer confidence and concerns about the safety of air travel. Today, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines cut their forecasts, and American Airlines forecast a first-quarter loss.
When he talked to reporters, Trump reasserted that he intends to do what he wants regardless of the business leaders’ input. “Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down, but you know what, we have to rebuild our country. Long-term what I’m doing is making our country strong again.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt advised, “If people are looking for certainty, they should look at the record of this president.”
Not everyone will find that suggestion comforting.
Trump backed off on his threat to raise the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%, but went ahead with his threat to place 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum products. Those tariffs took effect at midnight.
In the face of his own troubles, Trump’s sidekick billionaire Elon Musk is also escalating his destructive behavior. Yesterday Musk’s social media platform X underwent three separate outages that spanned more than six hours. Lily Jamali and Liv McMahon of the BBC reported that Oxford professor Ciaran Martin, former head of the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Center, said that the outages appear to have been an attack called a “distributed denial of service,” or DDoS, attack. This is an old technique in which hackers flood a server to prevent authentic users from reaching a website.
“I can’t think of a company of the size and standing internationally of X that’s fallen over to a DDoS attack for a very long time,” Martin said. The outage “doesn’t reflect well on their cyber security.” Without any evidence, Musk blamed hackers in Ukraine for the outages, an accusation Martin called “pretty much garbage.”
Four days ago, another of Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded after takeoff, and now SpaceX’s Starlink internet service is facing headwinds. In February, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim canceled his collaborations with Starlink after growing tensions with Musk culminated with Musk alleging on X that Slim is tied to organized crime. The loss of that deal cost Musk about $7 billion in the short term, but more in the long term as Slim will work with European and Chinese companies in 25 Latin American countries rather than Starlink. Slim has said he would invest $22 billion in those projects over the next three years.
Also in February, after U.S. negotiators threatened to cut Ukraine’s access to the 42,000 Starlink terminals that supply information to the front lines, the European Commission began to look for either government or commercial alternatives. The European Commission is made up of a college of commissioners from each of the 27 European Union countries. It acts as the main executive branch of the European Union.
On Sunday, Musk posted: “y Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.” Poland pays for about half the Starlink terminals in Ukraine, about $50 million a year. Poland’s minister of foreign affairs, Radosław Sikorski, responded that “if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.” “Be quiet, small man,” Musk replied. “You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”
After all the tariff drama with Canada, last week Ontario also cancelled a deal it had with Starlink.
But perhaps the biggest hit Musk has taken lately is over his Tesla car brand. On February 6, Musk’s younger brother Kimbal, who sits on Tesla’s board, sold more than $27 million worth of shares in the company. Tesla chair Robyn Denholm sold about $43 million worth of Tesla stock in February and recently sold another $33 million. Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja has sold $8 million worth over the past 90 days. Yesterday, board member James Murdoch sold just over $13 million worth of stock.
Fred Lambert of Electrek, which follows the news about electric vehicles and Tesla, noted that Tesla stock dropped 15% yesterday, “down more than 50% from its all-time high just a few months ago.” “Tesla insiders are unloading,” he concluded.
Tesla sales are dropping across the globe owing to the unpopularity of Musk’s antics, along with the cuts and data breaches from his “Department of Government Efficiency.” Protesters have been gathering at Tesla dealerships to express their dismay. While the protests have been peaceful, as Chris Isidore of CNN reports, there have also been reports of vandalism. Tesla owners are facing ridicule as protesters take out their anger toward Musk on his customers, and at least one competitor is working to lure consumers away from Musk’s brand by offering a discount to Tesla owners.
Trump has jumped to Musk’s defense, posting just after midnight this morning that “Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for. They tried to do it to me at the 2024 Presidential Ballot Box, but how did that work out? In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
Indeed, today Trump used the office of the presidency to bolster Musk’s business. Teslas were lined up at the White House, where Trump read from a Tesla sales pitch—photographer Andrew Harnik caught an image of his notes. And then the same man who gave a blanket pardon to those convicted of violent crimes related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol called those protesting at Tesla dealerships “domestic terrorists” and promised that the government would make sure they “go through hell.”
Trump and Musk appear to have taken the downturn in their fortunes by becoming more aggressive. Martin Pengelly of The Guardian noted that in the middle of Monday’s stock market plunge, Trump posted or reposted more than 100 messages on his social media channel. All of them showed him in a positive light, including reminders of the 2004 first season of the television show The Apprentice, in which Trump starred: a golden moment in Trump’s past when his ratings were high and the audience seemed to believe he was a brilliant and powerful businessman.
Today, egged on by Musk, Trump pushed again to take over other countries. He told reporters: “When you take away that artificial line that looks like it was done with a ruler…and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States, there is no place anywhere in the world that looks like that…. And then if you add Greenland…that’s pretty good.”
The Trump administration also announced today it was cutting about half the employees in the Department of Education. The Senate confirmed Linda McMahon, who has little experience with education, to head the department on March 3 by a party-line vote. Shutting down the department “was the president’s mandate—his directive to me,” McMahon told Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham. McMahon assured Ingraham that existing grants and programs would not “fall through the cracks.”
But when Ingraham asked her what IDEA stood for—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—she wasn’t sure, although she knew it was “the programs for disabled and needs.” Ingraham knew what the acronym meant but assured McMahon that after 30 years on the job, she still didn’t know all the acronyms. McMahon replied: “This is my fifth day on the job and I’m really trying to learn them very quickly.”
Musk lashed out at Arizona senator Mark Kelly on social media yesterday, after Kelly posted pictures of his recent trip to Ukraine and discussed the history of Russia’s invasion, concluding “it’s important we stand with Ukraine.” Musk responded: “You are a traitor.”
Kelly, who was in the Navy for 25 years and flew 39 combat missions in the Gulf War before becoming an astronaut, responded: “Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”
In 1987, a young, ambitious real estate mogul named Donald Trump traveled to the Soviet Union. Decades later, former KGB officers claimed he wasn’t just there for business—he was being cultivated. Was Trump given the codename Krasnov by Soviet intelligence? What really happened during that trip?
sarahs mum said:
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKDPrsMaZU8
surely someone in the Republican party is worried about the shit going down?
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s presidency quickly unraveling as he fails at everything he does.
Trump SUFFERS Major BLOW as his TERM FALLS APART
15 min video.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]
surely someone in the Republican party is worried about the shit going down?
for values of worried approaching elated
Tau.Neutrino said:
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s presidency quickly unraveling as he fails at everything he does.Trump SUFFERS Major BLOW as his TERM FALLS APART
15 min video.
but Mrs. California is only worried about Biden’s autosigning
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKDPrsMaZU8
surely someone in the Republican party is worried about the shit going down?
The Republican party only sees an opportunity to make money.
The economy declines, and stock prices decline with it.
Buy cheap.
Then, either Trump does something to restore market confidence, or else he’s replaced with a puppet (named Vance?) who enacts such measures.
Sell high.
Money made.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKDPrsMaZU8
surely someone in the Republican party is worried about the shit going down?
The Republican party only sees an opportunity to make money.
The economy declines, and stock prices decline with it.
Buy cheap.
Then, either Trump does something to restore market confidence, or else he’s replaced with a puppet (named Vance?) who enacts such measures.
Sell high.
Money made.
no way surely yous’r‘n’t saying our souls are doing pump and dump manipulations surely not
Don’t worry Trump, Elon and Vance know what they doing. Real economic experts.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Don’t worry Trump, Elon and Vance know what they doing. Real economic experts.
The American economy was doing well under Biden.
Now with the economy under Trump, its looking like recession time
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/doj-official-fired-mel-gibson-gun
Weird story
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Don’t worry Trump, Elon and Vance know what they doing. Real economic experts.The American economy was doing well under Biden.
Now with the economy under Trump, its looking like recession time
It’s a somewhat enlarged and considerably more personal version of what the L/NP does here, when it’s returned to government after a period in the wilderness of Opposition.
The populace/nation must be made to see that denying the right to rule to those appointed by God carries consequences, and it’s best to ensure that they get their snout rubbed in the muck to drive the lesson home, even if the muck has to be manufactured.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Don’t worry Trump, Elon and Vance know what they doing. Real economic experts.The American economy was doing well under Biden.
Now with the economy under Trump, its looking like recession time
It’s a somewhat enlarged and considerably more personal version of what the L/NP does here, when it’s returned to government after a period in the wilderness of Opposition.
The populace/nation must be made to see that denying the right to rule to those appointed by God carries consequences, and it’s best to ensure that they get their snout rubbed in the muck to drive the lesson home, even if the muck has to be manufactured.
The two main parties are already well on the way to stopping any challenge to their reign.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKDPrsMaZU8
surely someone in the Republican party is worried about the shit going down?
Probably not.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-courts-putin-russians-trying-kill-americans-gray-zone-hybrid-war
As Trump Courts Putin, Russians Keep Trying to Kill Americans
The “gray zone” war on America and its allies isn’t going to stop.
sarahs mum said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s presidency quickly unraveling as he fails at everything he does.Trump SUFFERS Major BLOW as his TERM FALLS APART
15 min video.
but Mrs. California is only worried about Biden’s autosigning
You mean that Biden didn’t actually sign the certificate I received commemorating mr kii’s military service?
Wowsers!
This is completely tongue-in-cheek.
(Actually I got 2 of them through a clerical error.)
There’s been some discussion about whether DJT using the White House as a venue for selling cars goes against the Hatch Act but the majority opinion seems to be that the President is not a Federal employee.
dv said:
There’s been some discussion about whether DJT using the White House as a venue for selling cars goes against the Hatch Act but the majority opinion seems to be that the President is not a Federal employee.
Wasn’t he promoting his tacky merch from the Resolute desk a few weeks ago?
Also, iirc, his daughter/wife was promoting Goya brand beans in the Oval Office whilst she was employed as an advisor during the first season of MAGA Does DC.
kii said:
dv said:
There’s been some discussion about whether DJT using the White House as a venue for selling cars goes against the Hatch Act but the majority opinion seems to be that the President is not a Federal employee.
Wasn’t he promoting his tacky merch from the Resolute desk a few weeks ago?
Also, iirc, his daughter/wife was promoting Goya brand beans in the Oval Office whilst she was employed as an advisor during the first season of MAGA Does DC.
his daughter in law was suggesting we should line up to kiss his feet.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
dv said:
There’s been some discussion about whether DJT using the White House as a venue for selling cars goes against the Hatch Act but the majority opinion seems to be that the President is not a Federal employee.
Wasn’t he promoting his tacky merch from the Resolute desk a few weeks ago?
Also, iirc, his daughter/wife was promoting Goya brand beans in the Oval Office whilst she was employed as an advisor during the first season of MAGA Does DC.
his daughter in law was suggesting we should line up to kiss his feet.
I’ve had a running thought about the belief that trump has been sent by god thing. Remember a few weeks ago when the AI pictures of him a a king were doing the rounds?
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:Wasn’t he promoting his tacky merch from the Resolute desk a few weeks ago?
Also, iirc, his daughter/wife was promoting Goya brand beans in the Oval Office whilst she was employed as an advisor during the first season of MAGA Does DC.
his daughter in law was suggesting we should line up to kiss his feet.
I’ve had a running thought about the belief that trump has been sent by god thing. Remember a few weeks ago when the AI pictures of him a a king were doing the rounds?
there is a bunch of Christians who really don’t like him but they believe he is going to bring the end of times and send them to be with God and so they support him.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:his daughter in law was suggesting we should line up to kiss his feet.
I’ve had a running thought about the belief that trump has been sent by god thing. Remember a few weeks ago when the AI pictures of him a a king were doing the rounds?
there is a bunch of Christians who really don’t like him but they believe he is going to bring the end of times and send them to be with God and so they support him.
Yep. For years I’ve seen their insanity on full display. Met some. Like the woman who thought I must eat babies for breakfast after I mentioned the Winter Solstice.
Most of them look normal and it’s why if anyone mentions their religion I just dismiss them as brainwashed fools. I don’t have time for any religion. Ever.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:I’ve had a running thought about the belief that trump has been sent by god thing. Remember a few weeks ago when the AI pictures of him a a king were doing the rounds?
there is a bunch of Christians who really don’t like him but they believe he is going to bring the end of times and send them to be with God and so they support him.
Yep. For years I’ve seen their insanity on full display. Met some. Like the woman who thought I must eat babies for breakfast after I mentioned the Winter Solstice.
Most of them look normal and it’s why if anyone mentions their religion I just dismiss them as brainwashed fools. I don’t have time for any religion. Ever.
Sheesh, if they want to be close to God, couldn’t they just cut out the middleman, and do a Jonestown to relieve us of their presence?
Neophyte said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:there is a bunch of Christians who really don’t like him but they believe he is going to bring the end of times and send them to be with God and so they support him.
Yep. For years I’ve seen their insanity on full display. Met some. Like the woman who thought I must eat babies for breakfast after I mentioned the Winter Solstice.
Most of them look normal and it’s why if anyone mentions their religion I just dismiss them as brainwashed fools. I don’t have time for any religion. Ever.
Sheesh, if they want to be close to God, couldn’t they just cut out the middleman, and do a Jonestown to relieve us of their presence?
I’d gladly help them. The damage they have done to so many people is unforgivable.
kii said:
Neophyte said:
kii said:Yep. For years I’ve seen their insanity on full display. Met some. Like the woman who thought I must eat babies for breakfast after I mentioned the Winter Solstice.
Most of them look normal and it’s why if anyone mentions their religion I just dismiss them as brainwashed fools. I don’t have time for any religion. Ever.
Sheesh, if they want to be close to God, couldn’t they just cut out the middleman, and do a Jonestown to relieve us of their presence?
I’d gladly help them. The damage they have done to so many people is unforgivable.
those guys have always banged on about how the end of the world is coming. and they have always been wrong. but maybe trump and elon could get it together.
From Mugsy Margarit on Facebook
“Updated March 12th
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don’t actually know what’s going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here’s a timeline to explain why we’re here, and why we’re angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 – The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as ‘the greatest trade agreement in history”. (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 – In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 – Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister ‘Governor Trudeau’ and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 – Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 – Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 – Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 – At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 – Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 – During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will ‘expand its territory’ during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 – At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 – Trump states publicly that Canada ‘will’ become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 – Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 – Trump refers to Canada as its ‘Cherished 51st state’ and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 – A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn’t think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 – In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 – In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he’s serious about his threats, calling it a ‘viable consideration for expanding US territory’
Feb 10th, 2025 – Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 – Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 – Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it’s own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 – In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland ‘one way or the other’.
March 5th, 2025 – US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump “had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon.”
March 7th, 2025 – Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada’s total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada’s independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 – Canada’s foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 – Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 – President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump’s own words, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
March 11th, 2025 PT. II – Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with “Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They’re throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric…we’re not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans”, insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III – Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn’t ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we’ve seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn’t a joke to us. We’re not overreacting. We don’t think he’s just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada’s creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America’s very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We’re angry. We’re really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what’s happening because we’re tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man’s plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
Note
The hundreds of positive comments and messages I’ve received from Americans today have restored my faith in you, and humanity. You do care, and I was wrong in assuming you didn’t.”
kii said:
From Mugsy Margarit on Facebook
“Updated March 12th
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don’t actually know what’s going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here’s a timeline to explain why we’re here, and why we’re angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 – The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as ‘the greatest trade agreement in history”. (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 – In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 – Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister ‘Governor Trudeau’ and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 – Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 – Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 – Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 – At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 – Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 – During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will ‘expand its territory’ during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 – At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 – Trump states publicly that Canada ‘will’ become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 – Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 – Trump refers to Canada as its ‘Cherished 51st state’ and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 – A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn’t think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 – In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 – In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he’s serious about his threats, calling it a ‘viable consideration for expanding US territory’
Feb 10th, 2025 – Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 – Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 – Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it’s own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 – In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland ‘one way or the other’.
March 5th, 2025 – US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump “had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon.”
March 7th, 2025 – Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada’s total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada’s independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 – Canada’s foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 – Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 – President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump’s own words, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
March 11th, 2025 PT. II – Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with “Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They’re throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric…we’re not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans”, insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III – Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn’t ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we’ve seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn’t a joke to us. We’re not overreacting. We don’t think he’s just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada’s creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America’s very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We’re angry. We’re really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what’s happening because we’re tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man’s plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
Note
The hundreds of positive comments and messages I’ve received from Americans today have restored my faith in you, and humanity. You do care, and I was wrong in assuming you didn’t.”
no way we still remember when Russia were threatening to storm Ukraine and everyone was like nah they’re just posturing they totally wouldn’t do that and now look it was true nothing happened at all
SCIENCE said:
no way we still remember when Russia were threatening to storm Ukraine and everyone was like nah they’re just posturing they totally wouldn’t do that and now look it was true nothing happened at all
I didn’t think that they were posturing.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
no way we still remember when Russia were threatening to storm Ukraine and everyone was like nah they’re just posturing they totally wouldn’t do that and now look it was true nothing happened at all
I didn’t think that they were posturing.
agreed but as you know there are any number of people that will tell us that this is just bluster with no real consequences now
kii said:
From Mugsy Margarit on Facebook“Updated March 12th
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don’t actually know what’s going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here’s a timeline to explain why we’re here, and why we’re angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 – The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as ‘the greatest trade agreement in history”. (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 – In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 – Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister ‘Governor Trudeau’ and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 – Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 – Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 – Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 – At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 – Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 – During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will ‘expand its territory’ during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 – At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 – Trump states publicly that Canada ‘will’ become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 – Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 – Trump refers to Canada as its ‘Cherished 51st state’ and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 – A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn’t think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 – In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 – In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he’s serious about his threats, calling it a ‘viable consideration for expanding US territory’
Feb 10th, 2025 – Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 – Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 – Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it’s own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 – In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland ‘one way or the other’.
March 5th, 2025 – US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump “had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon.”
March 7th, 2025 – Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada’s total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada’s independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 – Canada’s foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 – Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 – President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump’s own words, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
March 11th, 2025 PT. II – Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with “Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They’re throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric…we’re not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans”, insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III – Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn’t ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we’ve seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn’t a joke to us. We’re not overreacting. We don’t think he’s just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada’s creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America’s very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We’re angry. We’re really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what’s happening because we’re tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man’s plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
Note
The hundreds of positive comments and messages I’ve received from Americans today have restored my faith in you, and humanity. You do care, and I was wrong in assuming you didn’t.”
gonna share this.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
From Mugsy Margarit on Facebook“Updated March 12th
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don’t actually know what’s going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here’s a timeline to explain why we’re here, and why we’re angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 – The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as ‘the greatest trade agreement in history”. (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 – In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 – Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister ‘Governor Trudeau’ and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 – Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 – Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 – Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 – At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 – Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 – During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will ‘expand its territory’ during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 – At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 – Trump states publicly that Canada ‘will’ become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 – Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 – Trump refers to Canada as its ‘Cherished 51st state’ and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 – A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn’t think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 – In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 – In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he’s serious about his threats, calling it a ‘viable consideration for expanding US territory’
Feb 10th, 2025 – Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 – Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 – Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it’s own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 – In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland ‘one way or the other’.
March 5th, 2025 – US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump “had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon.”
March 7th, 2025 – Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada’s total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada’s independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 – Canada’s foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 – Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 – President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump’s own words, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
March 11th, 2025 PT. II – Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with “Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They’re throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric…we’re not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans”, insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III – Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn’t ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we’ve seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn’t a joke to us. We’re not overreacting. We don’t think he’s just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada’s creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America’s very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We’re angry. We’re really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what’s happening because we’re tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man’s plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
Note
The hundreds of positive comments and messages I’ve received from Americans today have restored my faith in you, and humanity. You do care, and I was wrong in assuming you didn’t.”
gonna share this.
He’s getting threats from MAGAts.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
From Mugsy Margarit on Facebook“Updated March 12th
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don’t actually know what’s going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here’s a timeline to explain why we’re here, and why we’re angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 – The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as ‘the greatest trade agreement in history”. (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 – In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 – Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister ‘Governor Trudeau’ and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 – Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 – Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 – Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 – At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 – Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 – During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will ‘expand its territory’ during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 – At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 – Trump states publicly that Canada ‘will’ become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 – Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 – Trump refers to Canada as its ‘Cherished 51st state’ and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 – A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn’t think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 – In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 – In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he’s serious about his threats, calling it a ‘viable consideration for expanding US territory’
Feb 10th, 2025 – Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 – Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 – Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it’s own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 – In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland ‘one way or the other’.
March 5th, 2025 – US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump “had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon.”
March 7th, 2025 – Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada’s total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada’s independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 – Canada’s foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 – Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 – President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump’s own words, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
March 11th, 2025 PT. II – Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with “Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They’re throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric…we’re not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans”, insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III – Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn’t ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we’ve seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn’t a joke to us. We’re not overreacting. We don’t think he’s just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada’s creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America’s very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We’re angry. We’re really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what’s happening because we’re tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man’s plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
Note
The hundreds of positive comments and messages I’ve received from Americans today have restored my faith in you, and humanity. You do care, and I was wrong in assuming you didn’t.”
gonna share this.
He’s getting threats from MAGAts.
when are you coming home kii?
Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Melissa Moon is feeling nauseous.
10 March at 01:19 ·
D. Earl Stephens, retired managing editor of the military’s daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes, issues a warning, not only to the average citizen of the U.S. but, I believe, to rank and file military personnel at home and around the world.
He’s exhorting them to consider if they will follow the orders of a madman hell bent on destroying the U.S. or follow the U.S. Constitution. I suspect tens of thousands of troops will disobey orders rather than invade Canada (less so with Greenland or Panama, I suspect). Those will be the first shots of the civil war.
I’m posting the entire text of his piece here and will link to the article in comments.
followers highlight
—-
“It would be helpful if we stopped pretending this terrible chapter in American history won’t close without bloodshed …
It would be helpful if Americans, and our feeble Democratic politicians in particular, stopped implying by their comatose actions that Democracy is some damn American right and has no end date.
America very well might be arriving at hers, because, yes, it really is that bad right now.
Rather than bringing Ping-Pong paddles and groovy, little signs to a fascist hate-fest disguised as a State of the Union speech, it would be helpful if our meek, out-of-touch Democratic politicians at least pretended they understood the perilous moment we are standing in right now.
We are in deep, deep trouble, and now would be a wonderful, necessary time to step in front of your favorite mirror and honestly ask yourself what you are willing to do to fight for our country’s survival.
We are but six-plus weeks into the repulsive, wannabe-king’s second term and the damage he and his party are causing are already at catastrophic levels.
Our air, water, earned benefits, peace, public safety, civil rights, and human rights are all under immediate threat. Worse? This is only the first course of many that will be served by the vindictive, orange madman, and his pathetic party of supplicants.
The insults, the attacks, endless provocations, and thrashing of our Constitution will continue daily. All this carefully planned evil will be aimed at exactly one thing: breaking us.
Everything he is doing is designed to pound us into submission, and he’s having a grand damn doing it.
This was entirely his aim when he and his pet mutt, JD Vance, double-teamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the behest of Boss Putin in the Oval Office on Friday. The idea was to publicly humiliate the man who has done more to defend America’s interests across the globe than any Republican in memory.
Because Zelenskyy has tasted gun powder and breathed the odious smell of death on the battlefield, he wasn’t about to be pushed around by some morbidly obese, 78-year-old yacht club bully and his toady, who think swinging a sand wedge to free a golf ball from some bunker is dangerous business.
Zelenskyy punched back and wasn’t having it. He told the truth, and didn’t back down. The future of his country is on the line right now, and he acted like it.
And therein lies the playbook for dealing with this sadistic bastard — if only the cautious, too-clever Democratic Party and their weak leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, bothered paying attention.
While Rome burns, they dither.
They act as if we have all the time in the world, when time is something that is not guaranteed right now. They seem to somehow have no idea how bad things are about to get, or most certainly will be when elections they seem to be pinning their hopes on roll around next year.
Everything changed on November 5th, but by the looks of it, very little has changed in the Democratic Party.
This country will never be the same, and the sooner we come to grips with that, and start acting accordingly the better.
What would you do if everything you had and everyone you loved was threatened? Would you act like Zelenskyy or Schumer?
One of the big mistakes of Joe Biden’s presidency was this notion that everything was going to be OK, and that his idea of America matched the actual circumstances of America.
If I had a dollar for every time he said this, I’d fold up shop and move to Tahiti:
“We are the United States of America – there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together. We just have to remember who we are.”
It was a noble statement and magical thinking that would have worked great pre-2016, when we could still believe without being laughed at that our two parties could work together in a crisis to protect America.
When we were attacked by the terrible human being who is now somehow leading us January 6, 2021, that magical thinking needed to go out the nearest window.
Instead, our Justice Department twiddled its thumbs and allowed the America-attacker to build himself back up, so that WE would have to deal with him AGAIN.
I seethe just thinking about this, but it is where we are right now, and the sooner we all understand this the better.
The clock is ticking. The bomb is in place.
Which brings me back around to my original premise: At some point, he will do something so heinous … so anti-America … so dangerous … that the people who truly love our country will be forced into the streets to take a life-or-death stand. Sadly, this is actually the best-case scenario, because the worst case is we just go quietly into the dark, gloomy night and become an authoritarian country, where we have zero rights or say in how we are governed.
Yesterday under the cover of his blankets, the America-attacker shared this with us:
Now read the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.”
He is telling us what he thinks of America and silly things like the Constitution. Kings don’t pay attention to that kind worthless drivel.
And, really, end of the day, it not him who we have most to fear. It’s the stupid, goddam Republicans who are stubbornly in all of our lives. These are the people who have illustrated there is no known pain or sacrifice to our civil liberties or pocketbooks that they won’t absorb just for the satisfaction of watching some poor kid of color going without something they didn’t think she should have.
So the choice is yours: You can continue thinking there is some magical way out of this, or you can begin to take the threat to everything you hold dear seriously, and ACT accordingly.”
— D. Earl Stephens, author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes.
diddly-squat said:
Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
I wonder what they are even agreeing to. Can Russia accept a cease-fire if the Poms and French are gonna show up and patrol the demilitarized zone?
sarahs mum said:
Melissa Moon is feeling nauseous.
10 March at 01:19 ·
D. Earl Stephens, retired managing editor of the military’s daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes, issues a warning, not only to the average citizen of the U.S. but, I believe, to rank and file military personnel at home and around the world.
He’s exhorting them to consider if they will follow the orders of a madman hell bent on destroying the U.S. or follow the U.S. Constitution. I suspect tens of thousands of troops will disobey orders rather than invade Canada (less so with Greenland or Panama, I suspect). Those will be the first shots of the civil war.
I’m posting the entire text of his piece here and will link to the article in comments.
followershighlight
—-
“It would be helpful if we stopped pretending this terrible chapter in American history won’t close without bloodshed …
It would be helpful if Americans, and our feeble Democratic politicians in particular, stopped implying by their comatose actions that Democracy is some damn American right and has no end date.
America very well might be arriving at hers, because, yes, it really is that bad right now.
Rather than bringing Ping-Pong paddles and groovy, little signs to a fascist hate-fest disguised as a State of the Union speech, it would be helpful if our meek, out-of-touch Democratic politicians at least pretended they understood the perilous moment we are standing in right now.
We are in deep, deep trouble, and now would be a wonderful, necessary time to step in front of your favorite mirror and honestly ask yourself what you are willing to do to fight for our country’s survival.
We are but six-plus weeks into the repulsive, wannabe-king’s second term and the damage he and his party are causing are already at catastrophic levels.
Our air, water, earned benefits, peace, public safety, civil rights, and human rights are all under immediate threat. Worse? This is only the first course of many that will be served by the vindictive, orange madman, and his pathetic party of supplicants.
The insults, the attacks, endless provocations, and thrashing of our Constitution will continue daily. All this carefully planned evil will be aimed at exactly one thing: breaking us.
Everything he is doing is designed to pound us into submission, and he’s having a grand damn doing it.
This was entirely his aim when he and his pet mutt, JD Vance, double-teamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the behest of Boss Putin in the Oval Office on Friday. The idea was to publicly humiliate the man who has done more to defend America’s interests across the globe than any Republican in memory.
Because Zelenskyy has tasted gun powder and breathed the odious smell of death on the battlefield, he wasn’t about to be pushed around by some morbidly obese, 78-year-old yacht club bully and his toady, who think swinging a sand wedge to free a golf ball from some bunker is dangerous business.
Zelenskyy punched back and wasn’t having it. He told the truth, and didn’t back down. The future of his country is on the line right now, and he acted like it.
And therein lies the playbook for dealing with this sadistic bastard — if only the cautious, too-clever Democratic Party and their weak leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, bothered paying attention.
While Rome burns, they dither.
They act as if we have all the time in the world, when time is something that is not guaranteed right now. They seem to somehow have no idea how bad things are about to get, or most certainly will be when elections they seem to be pinning their hopes on roll around next year.
Everything changed on November 5th, but by the looks of it, very little has changed in the Democratic Party.
This country will never be the same, and the sooner we come to grips with that, and start acting accordingly the better.
What would you do if everything you had and everyone you loved was threatened? Would you act like Zelenskyy or Schumer?
One of the big mistakes of Joe Biden’s presidency was this notion that everything was going to be OK, and that his idea of America matched the actual circumstances of America.
If I had a dollar for every time he said this, I’d fold up shop and move to Tahiti:
“We are the United States of America – there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together. We just have to remember who we are.”
It was a noble statement and magical thinking that would have worked great pre-2016, when we could still believe without being laughed at that our two parties could work together in a crisis to protect America.
When we were attacked by the terrible human being who is now somehow leading us January 6, 2021, that magical thinking needed to go out the nearest window.
Instead, our Justice Department twiddled its thumbs and allowed the America-attacker to build himself back up, so that WE would have to deal with him AGAIN.
I seethe just thinking about this, but it is where we are right now, and the sooner we all understand this the better.
The clock is ticking. The bomb is in place.
Which brings me back around to my original premise: At some point, he will do something so heinous … so anti-America … so dangerous … that the people who truly love our country will be forced into the streets to take a life-or-death stand. Sadly, this is actually the best-case scenario, because the worst case is we just go quietly into the dark, gloomy night and become an authoritarian country, where we have zero rights or say in how we are governed.
Yesterday under the cover of his blankets, the America-attacker shared this with us:
Now read the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.”
He is telling us what he thinks of America and silly things like the Constitution. Kings don’t pay attention to that kind worthless drivel.
And, really, end of the day, it not him who we have most to fear. It’s the stupid, goddam Republicans who are stubbornly in all of our lives. These are the people who have illustrated there is no known pain or sacrifice to our civil liberties or pocketbooks that they won’t absorb just for the satisfaction of watching some poor kid of color going without something they didn’t think she should have.
So the choice is yours: You can continue thinking there is some magical way out of this, or you can begin to take the threat to everything you hold dear seriously, and ACT accordingly.”
— D. Earl Stephens, author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes.
Ummm he’s seems to be blaming Democrats for most of that piece.
Witty Rejoinder said:
sarahs mum said:
Melissa Moon is feeling nauseous.
10 March at 01:19 ·
D. Earl Stephens, retired managing editor of the military’s daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes, issues a warning, not only to the average citizen of the U.S. but, I believe, to rank and file military personnel at home and around the world.
He’s exhorting them to consider if they will follow the orders of a madman hell bent on destroying the U.S. or follow the U.S. Constitution. I suspect tens of thousands of troops will disobey orders rather than invade Canada (less so with Greenland or Panama, I suspect). Those will be the first shots of the civil war.
I’m posting the entire text of his piece here and will link to the article in comments.
followershighlight
—-
“It would be helpful if we stopped pretending this terrible chapter in American history won’t close without bloodshed …
It would be helpful if Americans, and our feeble Democratic politicians in particular, stopped implying by their comatose actions that Democracy is some damn American right and has no end date.
America very well might be arriving at hers, because, yes, it really is that bad right now.
Rather than bringing Ping-Pong paddles and groovy, little signs to a fascist hate-fest disguised as a State of the Union speech, it would be helpful if our meek, out-of-touch Democratic politicians at least pretended they understood the perilous moment we are standing in right now.
We are in deep, deep trouble, and now would be a wonderful, necessary time to step in front of your favorite mirror and honestly ask yourself what you are willing to do to fight for our country’s survival.
We are but six-plus weeks into the repulsive, wannabe-king’s second term and the damage he and his party are causing are already at catastrophic levels.
Our air, water, earned benefits, peace, public safety, civil rights, and human rights are all under immediate threat. Worse? This is only the first course of many that will be served by the vindictive, orange madman, and his pathetic party of supplicants.
The insults, the attacks, endless provocations, and thrashing of our Constitution will continue daily. All this carefully planned evil will be aimed at exactly one thing: breaking us.
Everything he is doing is designed to pound us into submission, and he’s having a grand damn doing it.
This was entirely his aim when he and his pet mutt, JD Vance, double-teamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the behest of Boss Putin in the Oval Office on Friday. The idea was to publicly humiliate the man who has done more to defend America’s interests across the globe than any Republican in memory.
Because Zelenskyy has tasted gun powder and breathed the odious smell of death on the battlefield, he wasn’t about to be pushed around by some morbidly obese, 78-year-old yacht club bully and his toady, who think swinging a sand wedge to free a golf ball from some bunker is dangerous business.
Zelenskyy punched back and wasn’t having it. He told the truth, and didn’t back down. The future of his country is on the line right now, and he acted like it.
And therein lies the playbook for dealing with this sadistic bastard — if only the cautious, too-clever Democratic Party and their weak leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, bothered paying attention.
While Rome burns, they dither.
They act as if we have all the time in the world, when time is something that is not guaranteed right now. They seem to somehow have no idea how bad things are about to get, or most certainly will be when elections they seem to be pinning their hopes on roll around next year.
Everything changed on November 5th, but by the looks of it, very little has changed in the Democratic Party.
This country will never be the same, and the sooner we come to grips with that, and start acting accordingly the better.
What would you do if everything you had and everyone you loved was threatened? Would you act like Zelenskyy or Schumer?
One of the big mistakes of Joe Biden’s presidency was this notion that everything was going to be OK, and that his idea of America matched the actual circumstances of America.
If I had a dollar for every time he said this, I’d fold up shop and move to Tahiti:
“We are the United States of America – there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together. We just have to remember who we are.”
It was a noble statement and magical thinking that would have worked great pre-2016, when we could still believe without being laughed at that our two parties could work together in a crisis to protect America.
When we were attacked by the terrible human being who is now somehow leading us January 6, 2021, that magical thinking needed to go out the nearest window.
Instead, our Justice Department twiddled its thumbs and allowed the America-attacker to build himself back up, so that WE would have to deal with him AGAIN.
I seethe just thinking about this, but it is where we are right now, and the sooner we all understand this the better.
The clock is ticking. The bomb is in place.
Which brings me back around to my original premise: At some point, he will do something so heinous … so anti-America … so dangerous … that the people who truly love our country will be forced into the streets to take a life-or-death stand. Sadly, this is actually the best-case scenario, because the worst case is we just go quietly into the dark, gloomy night and become an authoritarian country, where we have zero rights or say in how we are governed.
Yesterday under the cover of his blankets, the America-attacker shared this with us:
Now read the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.”
He is telling us what he thinks of America and silly things like the Constitution. Kings don’t pay attention to that kind worthless drivel.
And, really, end of the day, it not him who we have most to fear. It’s the stupid, goddam Republicans who are stubbornly in all of our lives. These are the people who have illustrated there is no known pain or sacrifice to our civil liberties or pocketbooks that they won’t absorb just for the satisfaction of watching some poor kid of color going without something they didn’t think she should have.
So the choice is yours: You can continue thinking there is some magical way out of this, or you can begin to take the threat to everything you hold dear seriously, and ACT accordingly.”
— D. Earl Stephens, author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes.
Ummm he’s seems to be blaming Democrats for most of that piece.
It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
sarahs mum said:
Melissa Moon is feeling nauseous.
10 March at 01:19 ·
D. Earl Stephens, retired managing editor of the military’s daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes, issues a warning, not only to the average citizen of the U.S. but, I believe, to rank and file military personnel at home and around the world.
He’s exhorting them to consider if they will follow the orders of a madman hell bent on destroying the U.S. or follow the U.S. Constitution. I suspect tens of thousands of troops will disobey orders rather than invade Canada (less so with Greenland or Panama, I suspect). Those will be the first shots of the civil war.
I’m posting the entire text of his piece here and will link to the article in comments.
followershighlight
—-
“It would be helpful if we stopped pretending this terrible chapter in American history won’t close without bloodshed …
It would be helpful if Americans, and our feeble Democratic politicians in particular, stopped implying by their comatose actions that Democracy is some damn American right and has no end date.
America very well might be arriving at hers, because, yes, it really is that bad right now.
Rather than bringing Ping-Pong paddles and groovy, little signs to a fascist hate-fest disguised as a State of the Union speech, it would be helpful if our meek, out-of-touch Democratic politicians at least pretended they understood the perilous moment we are standing in right now.
We are in deep, deep trouble, and now would be a wonderful, necessary time to step in front of your favorite mirror and honestly ask yourself what you are willing to do to fight for our country’s survival.
We are but six-plus weeks into the repulsive, wannabe-king’s second term and the damage he and his party are causing are already at catastrophic levels.
Our air, water, earned benefits, peace, public safety, civil rights, and human rights are all under immediate threat. Worse? This is only the first course of many that will be served by the vindictive, orange madman, and his pathetic party of supplicants.
The insults, the attacks, endless provocations, and thrashing of our Constitution will continue daily. All this carefully planned evil will be aimed at exactly one thing: breaking us.
Everything he is doing is designed to pound us into submission, and he’s having a grand damn doing it.
This was entirely his aim when he and his pet mutt, JD Vance, double-teamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the behest of Boss Putin in the Oval Office on Friday. The idea was to publicly humiliate the man who has done more to defend America’s interests across the globe than any Republican in memory.
Because Zelenskyy has tasted gun powder and breathed the odious smell of death on the battlefield, he wasn’t about to be pushed around by some morbidly obese, 78-year-old yacht club bully and his toady, who think swinging a sand wedge to free a golf ball from some bunker is dangerous business.
Zelenskyy punched back and wasn’t having it. He told the truth, and didn’t back down. The future of his country is on the line right now, and he acted like it.
And therein lies the playbook for dealing with this sadistic bastard — if only the cautious, too-clever Democratic Party and their weak leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, bothered paying attention.
While Rome burns, they dither.
They act as if we have all the time in the world, when time is something that is not guaranteed right now. They seem to somehow have no idea how bad things are about to get, or most certainly will be when elections they seem to be pinning their hopes on roll around next year.
Everything changed on November 5th, but by the looks of it, very little has changed in the Democratic Party.
This country will never be the same, and the sooner we come to grips with that, and start acting accordingly the better.
What would you do if everything you had and everyone you loved was threatened? Would you act like Zelenskyy or Schumer?
One of the big mistakes of Joe Biden’s presidency was this notion that everything was going to be OK, and that his idea of America matched the actual circumstances of America.
If I had a dollar for every time he said this, I’d fold up shop and move to Tahiti:
“We are the United States of America – there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together. We just have to remember who we are.”
It was a noble statement and magical thinking that would have worked great pre-2016, when we could still believe without being laughed at that our two parties could work together in a crisis to protect America.
When we were attacked by the terrible human being who is now somehow leading us January 6, 2021, that magical thinking needed to go out the nearest window.
Instead, our Justice Department twiddled its thumbs and allowed the America-attacker to build himself back up, so that WE would have to deal with him AGAIN.
I seethe just thinking about this, but it is where we are right now, and the sooner we all understand this the better.
The clock is ticking. The bomb is in place.
Which brings me back around to my original premise: At some point, he will do something so heinous … so anti-America … so dangerous … that the people who truly love our country will be forced into the streets to take a life-or-death stand. Sadly, this is actually the best-case scenario, because the worst case is we just go quietly into the dark, gloomy night and become an authoritarian country, where we have zero rights or say in how we are governed.
Yesterday under the cover of his blankets, the America-attacker shared this with us:
Now read the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.”
He is telling us what he thinks of America and silly things like the Constitution. Kings don’t pay attention to that kind worthless drivel.
And, really, end of the day, it not him who we have most to fear. It’s the stupid, goddam Republicans who are stubbornly in all of our lives. These are the people who have illustrated there is no known pain or sacrifice to our civil liberties or pocketbooks that they won’t absorb just for the satisfaction of watching some poor kid of color going without something they didn’t think she should have.
So the choice is yours: You can continue thinking there is some magical way out of this, or you can begin to take the threat to everything you hold dear seriously, and ACT accordingly.”
— D. Earl Stephens, author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes.
Ummm he’s seems to be blaming Democrats for most of that piece.
It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Ummm he’s seems to be blaming Democrats for most of that piece.
It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
Hopefully, they have a plan.
diddly-squat said:
Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Ummm he’s seems to be blaming Democrats for most of that piece.
It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
And turn the demilitarize zone into another Riveria with riverside resorts and parties ever night o The Vulva.
Peak Warming Man said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
And turn the demilitarize zone into another Riveria with riverside resorts and parties ever night o The Vulva.
That should read The Volga.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
filibuster.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
filibuster.
Eh I understand the idea of just letting it crash.
It’s got the vibes of the boss firing someone and then calling them the next day asking them to come in to help because everything has gone haywire. “Wow that’s crazy”, end call, block. I’ve no idea how bad it would have to go before most voters start to take things seriously but I suppose we’ll find out.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:It could be said that they appear to be caving in.
I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
Yup.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
But Putin has convinced his populace that we will not stop. We must win this special military action.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
filibuster.
Eh I understand the idea of just letting it crash.
It’s got the vibes of the boss firing someone and then calling them the next day asking them to come in to help because everything has gone haywire. “Wow that’s crazy”, end call, block. I’ve no idea how bad it would have to go before most voters start to take things seriously but I suppose we’ll find out.
Yep. All we can do is buy popcorn before it sells out.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I reckon they’re just keeping their powder dry.
I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Ukraine has agreed to terms of a 30 day cease fire; Russia are, as yet, uncommitted to any proposal.
Gonna be interesting if Ukraine agree but Russia don’t because that kind of backs the Trump administration into a corner.
Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
But Putin has convinced his populace that we will not stop. We must win this special military action.
no, Putin always speaks about “achieving his objectives”, not winning… If he tells the the Russian people that the SMO has done when it set out to do then no one will blink twice.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
to some extent… the Dems still need to come up with a new sense of self.. at the moment they are still the party of “Kamala’s They/Them”
diddly-squat said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Yes. Zelensky has outsmarted Trump.
It’s now up to Trump to get Putin to come to the table and present a practical set of demands and concessions to permit the cease-fire to happen.
If Putin doesn’t, then the blame for continuation of the war rests entirely with Putin. And it makes Trump look very ineffectual.
If Putin embarrasses Trump, then, given Trump’s vindictive nature, it might swing his support more firmly behind Zelensky/Ukraine.
But Putin has convinced his populace that we will not stop. We must win this special military action.
no, Putin always speaks about “achieving his objectives”, not winning… If he tells the the Russian people that the SMO has done when it set out to do then no one will blink twice.
OK. But the people think Ukraine are attacking them. So they must beat them back.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
filibuster.
Eh I understand the idea of just letting it crash.
It’s got the vibes of the boss firing someone and then calling them the next day asking them to come in to help because everything has gone haywire. “Wow that’s crazy”, end call, block. I’ve no idea how bad it would have to go before most voters start to take things seriously but I suppose we’ll find out.
I kinda like the idea of just letting the GOP take the wheel for a while, but in doing so, the Dems need to make the GOP own every decision along the way. Not one single Dem should give them an easy win in the House or the Senate.
Even the single Dem voting with the GOP on the continuation just boggles my head.
diddly-squat said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
to some extent… the Dems still need to come up with a new sense of self.. at the moment they are still the party of “Kamala’s They/Them”
Celebrities seem to have annoyed people this time around with supporting the democrats and perhaps should shut up
sarahs mum said:
¿ microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia ?
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:I’m not really sure what people think they can do. They don’t control anything. I don’t think they are voting to confirm Trump’s nominations. What else can they do?
Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
You didn’t ask what more, they can do.
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
You didn’t ask what more, they can do.
Ask not what your Trump can do for you, ask what you can do for your Trump, lube not included.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:filibuster.
Eh I understand the idea of just letting it crash.
It’s got the vibes of the boss firing someone and then calling them the next day asking them to come in to help because everything has gone haywire. “Wow that’s crazy”, end call, block. I’ve no idea how bad it would have to go before most voters start to take things seriously but I suppose we’ll find out.
I kinda like the idea of just letting the GOP take the wheel for a while, but in doing so, the Dems need to make the GOP own every decision along the way. Not one single Dem should give them an easy win in the House or the Senate.
Even the single Dem voting with the GOP on the continuation just boggles my head.
Continuation?
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Fight issues in the courts and in the state governments they control and provide an alternative narrative. For example this issue of the green card holding Palestine supporter detained may be an example of the MAGA mob bending the law and due process to the extreme and is something the Democrats can use to highlight the far right actions of the current GOP controlled government.
I think they are already doing those things.
You didn’t ask what more, they can do.
OK…tell me what more they can do. The people elected Trump. So it’s his ball to play with.
buffy said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
buffy said:I think they are already doing those things.
You didn’t ask what more, they can do.
OK…tell me what more they can do. The people elected Trump. So it’s his ball to play with.
I’m just saying that I answered your question as asked. There isn’t much more they can do this early in the clusterfuck.
I think the GOP is doing enough damage withouy any help from the Democrats and it’s only gonna get worse.
Witty Rejoinder said:
I think the GOP is doing enough damage withouy any help from the Democrats and it’s only gonna get worse.
I’d like to think the judiciary was a bit mindful of their own place, and the danger to them. They are supposed to be separate from the political part of things. I guess this is what you get when they are politically appointed. Not much separation, a lot of obligation.
sarahs mum said:
mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
but they never got measles again eh.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
but they never got measles again eh.
Lol…I forgot to mention the bonus facial nerve twitching that kept him entertained 😆
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
but they never got measles again eh.
Lol…I forgot to mention the bonus facial nerve twitching that kept him entertained 😆
:(
!Rachel Maddow shares video of Rep. John Larson channeling the outrage of his constituents at the anticipation that Donald Trump’s top donor, Elon Musk, is intending to destroy Social Security in order to privatize it. The Washington Post reported early Wednesday that Musk was planning cuts to Social Security’s telephone customer service, but by the end of the day those plans had been cancelled. Between the public outcry and the exposure in the media, the pushback on Social Security cuts appears to have worked!:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mFpn8BJLV4
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
but they never got measles again eh.
nobody gets ¡ rabies twice either
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
mr kii had encephalitis from measles as a kid, his hearing was permanently damaged. His brother ended up with damaged kidneys that resulted in a transplant as an adult.
but they never got measles again eh.
nobody gets ¡ rabies twice either
Funny you should mention that. I know I have told the story of mr kii and the treatment he had in case of rabies. A ferret in Germany attacked him.
Heather Cox Richardson
14m ·
March 12, 2025 (Wednesday)
Trump’s 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imported into the U.S. went into effect today, prompting retaliatory tariffs from the European Union and Canada. The E.U. announced tariffs on about $28 billion worth of products, including beef and whiskey, mostly produced by Republican-dominated states. “We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy.”
Canada also announced new tariffs on Wednesday on about $21 billion worth of U.S. products, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs. François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science, and industry, said: “The U.S. administration is once again inserting disruption and disorder into an incredibly successful trading partnership and raising the costs of everyday goods for Canadians and American households alike.”
With the stock market falling and business leaders begging Trump to stop the trade machinations that are creating the volatility that is wrenching the economy downward, Trump said yesterday to reporters: “ong-term, what I’m doing is making our country strong again.”
In an interview on the CBS Evening News last night, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a billionaire financial executive, was asked whether Trump’s economic policies were “worth it” even if they cause a recession.
“These policies are the most important thing America has ever had,” Lutnick answered. “It is worth it.”
Former representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) reposted Lutnick’s assertion and said: “In my graduate thesis, I quoted a hardline communist official from Poland in the 1950s who was asked about terrible shortages of food and housing. He said people had to sacrifice and “if that’s what it takes to prove the superiority of socialism, it’s worth it.”
The days when the Republican Party were conservatives are long gone. Edmund Burke, the Anglo-Irish politician and political thinker who began the process of articulating a conservative political philosophy, did so most famously in response to the French Revolution. In 1790, a year after the storming of the Bastille prison symbolized the rebellion of the people against the monarchy, Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Burke had supported the American Revolution that had ended less than a decade before largely because he believed that the American colonists were trying to restore their traditional rights. But the French Revolution, he thought, was an entirely different proposition. As revolutionaries in France replaced their country’s traditions with laws and systems based on their theory of an ideal government, Burke drew back.
He took a stand against radical change driven by people trying to make the government enforce a specific political ideology. Ideologically driven government was radical and dangerous, he thought: quickly, the ideology became more important than the complex reality of the way society—and people—actually worked.
In 1790, Burke argued that the role of government was not to impose a worldview, but rather to promote stability, and that lawmakers could achieve that stability most effectively by supporting the structures that had proven themselves effective in the past; in his time, that meant social hierarchies, the church, property, and the family. “Conservative” meant, literally, conserving what was already there, without reference to an ideology. Those in charge of government should make changes slowly, according to facts on the ground, in order to keep the country stable, he thought. If it behaved this way, the government, which in his time was usually seen as a negative force in society, could be a positive one.
In 2025 the Republicans in charge of the United States of America are not the conservatives they call themselves; they are the dangerous ideological radicals Burke feared. They are abruptly dismantling a government that has kept the United States relatively prosperous, secure, and healthy for the past 80 years. In its place, they are trying to impose a government based in the idea that a few men should rule.
The Trump administration’s hits to the economy have monopolized the news this week, but its swing away from Europe and toward Russia, antagonizing allies and partners while fawning over authoritarians like Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, is also a radical stand, and one that seems likely to destabilize American security. Former allies have expressed concern over sharing intelligence with the U.S. in the future, and yesterday, 34 army leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, Japan, and Australia met in Paris without inviting the United States.
The wholesale destruction of the U.S.A.’s advanced medical research, especially cancer research, by firing scientists, canceling grants, banning communications and collaboration, and stopping travel is also radical and seems unlikely to leave Americans healthier than before.
Yesterday, news broke that the administration canceled $800 million worth of grants to Johns Hopkins University, one of the nation’s top research universities in science and medicine. Meanwhile, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cast doubt on the safe, effective measles vaccine as the disease continues to spread across the Southwest.
Today, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin boasted that the administration is taking 31 actions to roll back environmental protections. Those include regulations about electric vehicles and pollution from coal-fired plants. The administration intends to rescind the EPA’s 2009 finding that the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change endanger public health. That finding is the legal argument for regulations governing car and truck emissions and power plants.
Also today, the United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees supplemental food programs, announced it was cutting about $1 billion in funding that enables schools and food banks to buy directly from local farms and ranches. This will hit farmers and producers as well as children and food-insecure families.
In place of the system that has created relative stability for almost a century, Republicans under President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk are imposing a government that is based in the idea that a government that works to make people safe, prosperous, and healthy is simply ripping off wealthy people. Asked if he felt sorry for those losing their jobs in the government purges, Trump told NBC News, without evidence: “Sure I do. I feel very badly…but many of them don’t work at all. Many of them never showed up to work.”
The administration promises that it is eliminating “waste, fraud, and corruption,” but Judd Legum of Popular Information today launched the “Musk Watch DOGE Tracker,” which shows that Musk has overstated the savings he claims by at least 92%, with the warning that since these identified cuts are illegal and unconstitutional—Congress appropriates money and writes the laws for how it’s spent, and courts have agreed that the executive branch has to execute the laws as they are written—the contracts might not be canceled at all.
That the administration knows it is not operating on the up-and-up seems clear from its attempts to hide what it is doing. It has taken weeks for courts to get the administration to say who is running the “Department of Government Efficiency” and what the body actually is. The White House has tried to characterize Musk as a senior advisor to the president to shield him from questioning.
But today, in response to a lawsuit by 14 attorneys general from Democratic-dominated states arguing that Musk is acting unconstitutionally, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Musk and DOGE to turn over their records and answer questions, giving them three weeks to comply.
On Tuesday, remaining staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) received an email under the name of acting executive secretary Erica Carr at USAID telling them to shred or burn agency records, despite strict laws about the preservation of federal documents. “Haphazardly shredding and burning USAID documents and personnel files seems like a great way to get rid of evidence of wrongdoing when you’re illegally dismantling the agency,” said Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Two lawsuits are already challenging the order.
And the corruption in the administration was out in the open yesterday. After Trump advertised Elon Musk’s cars at the White House, Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that Musk “has signaled to President Trump’s advisers in recent days that he wants to put $100 million into groups controlled by the Trump political operation.” This is separate from Musk’s own political action committee, which dropped almost $300 million into the 2024 election and which is now pouring money into next month’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The government that Trump and Musk are destroying, with the complicity of their party, is popular, and Republican members of Congress are apparently unwilling to have to vote on the policies that are putting their radical ideology into place. In an extraordinary move yesterday, House Republicans made it impossible for Congress to challenge Trump’s tariffs.
The Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. But the International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows the president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, which Trump did on February 1. That same law allows Congress to end such a declaration of emergency, but if such a termination is introduced—as Democrats have recently done—it has to be taken up in a matter of days.
But this would force Republicans to go on record as either supporting or opposing the unpopular economic ideology Trump and Musk are imposing. So Republicans just passed a measure saying that for the rest of this congressional session, “each day…shall not constitute a calendar day” for the purposes of terminating Trump’s emergency declaration.
The Republicans’ legislation that a day is not a day seems to prove the truth of Burke’s observation that by trying to force reality to fit their ideology, radical ideologues will end up imposing tyranny in the name of liberty.
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
Cymek said:
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
I’m not sure we are really put out at this stage. what really was at risk was the free trade agreement.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.
I’m boycotting Teslas.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.
Friends just let friends fuck up¿
His Daughter Was America’s First Measles Death in a Decade
A visit with a family in mourning
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/03/texas-measles-outbreak-death-family/681985/
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.I’m boycotting Teslas.
Me too, Mr Man. Whenever I see one, I’ll turn around and go the other way.
JudgeMental said:
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/introducing-the-musk-watch-doge-tracker?s=04dodgy DOGE.
Ta.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.
I understand that a great many Canadians are refusing to but they US-made booze that they usually purchase.
captain_spalding said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.I understand that a great many Canadians are refusing to but they US-made booze that they usually purchase.
I can’t think of any American products that I buy.
dv said:
Half serious question: is Albo weakening the alliance by refusing to place retaliatory tariffs?
I think the alliance by whatever form we previously understood it is over. The US alliances with Canada and Mexico and the European part of NATO seem to have been unilaterally ditched, to be replaced with something new but nobody is quite sure what yet. It is only a matter of time before they turn on us over some trivial issue.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:sarahs mum said:
but they never got measles again eh.
nobody gets ¡ rabies twice either
Funny you should mention that. I know I have told the story of mr kii and the treatment he had in case of rabies. A ferret in Germany attacked him.
Ooh!
I haven’t heard that one.
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
Cymek said:Has Australia ever called out the USA for anything its undertaken.
Seems standard procedure to agree with them despite the ambiguous morality of whatever the issue or action
I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.I’m boycotting Teslas.
Me, too.
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:I wonder what US products people could just not buy
Alcohol for example, plenty of others choices.I’m boycotting Teslas.
Me, too.
I’m boycotting Teslas, and X and Space-X.
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
His followers can’t afford eggs but sure, go out and buy a $100k EV to own the Libs.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
What is this auto signing thing?
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
but..
Divine Angel said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
His followers can’t afford eggs but sure, go out and buy a $100k EV to own the Libs.
SHUT UP ABOUT THE EGGS!!!
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
but..
..and who controls the White House today?
Answer: nobody! Everyone just makes up shit as they go along!
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
party_pants said:Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
His followers can’t afford eggs but sure, go out and buy a $100k EV to own the Libs.
SHUT UP ABOUT THE EGGS!!!
Egg prices in the US have declined in recent days.
Yes, the stock market is headed for destruction like a kamikaze plane for an aircraft carrier’s deck, foreign investment in the US is now merely a memory, capital flow is now indistinguishable from that of a glacier, but, yes, eggs are somewhat less expensive.
Mission accomplished.
I have suggested posts on Facebook from US pages talking about not using expensive eggs for Easter (dyeing, etc) so here’s a pattern to crochet/knit/sew reusable eggs instead.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mrs. California still going on about the auto signing oblivious to the world falling apart around her.
Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
but..
Well, according to Wikipedia this autopen (which I’d never heard of) has been used by US presidents for a very long time now.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
but..
Well, according to Wikipedia this autopen (which I’d never heard of) has been used by US presidents for a very long time now.
Funnily enough I only learned of this contraption yesterday as fans of Korean pop act Blackpink are disappointed their signed CDs and posters weren’t signed by Blackpink, but an autopen.
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.
“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
A big chunk of the Australian aluminium industry is owned by US-based multinational ALCOA anyhow, so the profits go back to Wall St.
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
A big chunk of the Australian aluminium industry is owned by US-based multinational ALCOA anyhow, so the profits go back to Wall St.
i think albo is right. We should just buy less coke and big macs. I think the pollies wanting tariff war are wrong. i understand why Canada is taking that path but we aren’t in the same boat. we should just hold hands and buy Australian wherever possible.
I don’t like the idea of having to grovel. We’ve done enough to not have to thank America. If we absolutely have to it should be ‘thanks for taking us into useless wars on false info.’
I don’t think Dutton can play the ‘I want to DOGE’ and ‘I want to trade war.’ if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
A big chunk of the Australian aluminium industry is owned by US-based multinational ALCOA anyhow, so the profits go back to Wall St.
i think albo is right. We should just buy less coke and big macs. I think the pollies wanting tariff war are wrong. i understand why Canada is taking that path but we aren’t in the same boat. we should just hold hands and buy Australian wherever possible.
I don’t like the idea of having to grovel. We’ve done enough to not have to thank America. If we absolutely have to it should be ‘thanks for taking us into useless wars on false info.’
I don’t think Dutton can play the ‘I want to DOGE’ and ‘I want to trade war.’ if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
Yeah. Putting up retaliatory tariffs will just be inflationary.
In reality, we don’t sell a huge amount of stuff to the US, we import more from them than they buy from us, so tariffs on those imports is silly. It is mostly high tech stuff like computers and aerospace and the like. Not really a broad based interconnected trade like Canada or Mexico.
sarahs mum said:
if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
Well, there’s your problem.
He’s almost incapable of thinking of something supportive, and he wont shut up.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
Well, there’s your problem.
He’s almost incapable of thinking of something supportive, and he wont shut up.
bloody murdoch.
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
party_pants said:Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
His followers can’t afford eggs but sure, go out and buy a $100k EV to own the Libs.
SHUT UP ABOUT THE EGGS!!!
Oh, sorry. Pardon me.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:Trump promoting Tesla is likely to have a negative overall impact on the brand reputation and sales figures.
but..
Well, according to Wikipedia this autopen (which I’d never heard of) has been used by US presidents for a very long time now.
Huh!
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:His followers can’t afford eggs but sure, go out and buy a $100k EV to own the Libs.
SHUT UP ABOUT THE EGGS!!!
Oh, sorry. Pardon me.
trump early in the morning ranted about shutting up about the eggs.
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
Very concerned about those big dumpers
sarahs mum said:
:)
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
Well, there’s your problem.
He’s almost incapable of thinking of something supportive, and he wont shut up.
LOLOLOLOL
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:SHUT UP ABOUT THE EGGS!!!
Oh, sorry. Pardon me.
trump early in the morning ranted about shutting up about the eggs.
Ah.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
Very concerned about those big dumpers
He might be taking a dump out of his mouth.
The US has previously shown interest in critical minerals from Ukraine and Greenland and Mr Sinodinos indicated Australia would be a better and more stable partner.
Ambassador Rudd would not be drawn on the detail of discussions over critical minerals supply but acknowledged they were central to the negotiation.
“If you do the maths, it’s pretty interesting,” Mr Rudd said.
“America designates itself as having 50 categories of critical minerals, which it needs for the future, 50 priority categories.
“They see themselves as being vulnerable in 12 of those, and they are import dependent in 40 of those for Australia.
“If you look at those 50, we are currently supplying 28 and can supply 36 of them … we are uniquely positioned to be able to do this.”
Michael V said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.
“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.Very concerned about those big dumpers
He might be taking a dump out of his mouth.
Man Of Steel
sarahs mum said:
The US has previously shown interest in critical minerals from Ukraine and Greenland and Mr Sinodinos indicated Australia would be a better and more stable partner.Ambassador Rudd would not be drawn on the detail of discussions over critical minerals supply but acknowledged they were central to the negotiation.
“If you do the maths, it’s pretty interesting,” Mr Rudd said.
“America designates itself as having 50 categories of critical minerals, which it needs for the future, 50 priority categories.
“They see themselves as being vulnerable in 12 of those, and they are import dependent in 40 of those for Australia.
“If you look at those 50, we are currently supplying 28 and can supply 36 of them … we are uniquely positioned to be able to do this.”
Let’s whack an export tariff on supplying any of these to the USA and sell them to other countries more cheaply.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
sarahs mum said:
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.
“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: “Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium”.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
A big chunk of the Australian aluminium industry is owned by US-based multinational ALCOA anyhow, so the profits go back to Wall St.
i think albo is right. We should just buy less coke and big macs. I think the pollies wanting tariff war are wrong. i understand why Canada is taking that path but we aren’t in the same boat. we should just hold hands and buy Australian wherever possible.
I don’t like the idea of having to grovel. We’ve done enough to not have to thank America. If we absolutely have to it should be ‘thanks for taking us into useless wars on false info.’
I don’t think Dutton can play the ‘I want to DOGE’ and ‘I want to trade war.’ if he can’t think of something supportive, he should just shut up.
+1
^
this
good
As we in the southern hemisphere move into autumn, those in the northern hemisphere are moving into spring.
Which means it’s a good time to indulge in a little Doge-inspired spring cleaning…
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/doge-inspired-spring-cleaning
President Trump is threatening a 200% tariff on European wine after the European Union announced retaliatory tariffs on whiskey.
lnk
A grand jury in Oklahoma on Wednesday indicted Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris, accusing him in five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a girl beginning when she was 12 years old in the 1980s.
Robert Morris, who was once a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, resigned as senior pastor of Gateway Church in June after admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s.
His accuser has said she was 12 when Morris first sexually abused her on Christmas in 1982 during a visit to her home in Hominy, Oklahoma. He was then 21.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Cindy Clemishire said after the indictment was made public.
The state’s multicounty grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday after hearing two days of testimony in secret sessions. Grand jurors charged Morris, now 63, with five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.
Grand jurors alleged the offenses started when the girl was 12 and continued while she was 13 and 14.
The former pastor’s Oklahoma attorney, Mack Martin, declined comment.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose assistants advise the grand jury, said “there can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children.”
His assistants said time restrictions on prosecuting sex crimes against children do not apply because Morris did not live in Oklahoma at any time.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2025/03/12/oklahoma-grand-jury-ingateway-megachurch-founder-former-trump-spiritual-adviser-indicted-in-oklahoma/82318426007/
AussieDJ said:
As we in the southern hemisphere move into autumn, those in the northern hemisphere are moving into spring.Which means it’s a good time to indulge in a little Doge-inspired spring cleaning…
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/doge-inspired-spring-cleaning
:)
kii said:
A grand jury in Oklahoma on Wednesday indicted Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris, accusing him in five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a girl beginning when she was 12 years old in the 1980s.Robert Morris, who was once a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, resigned as senior pastor of Gateway Church in June after admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s.
His accuser has said she was 12 when Morris first sexually abused her on Christmas in 1982 during a visit to her home in Hominy, Oklahoma. He was then 21.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Cindy Clemishire said after the indictment was made public.
The state’s multicounty grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday after hearing two days of testimony in secret sessions. Grand jurors charged Morris, now 63, with five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.
Grand jurors alleged the offenses started when the girl was 12 and continued while she was 13 and 14.
The former pastor’s Oklahoma attorney, Mack Martin, declined comment.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose assistants advise the grand jury, said “there can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children.”
His assistants said time restrictions on prosecuting sex crimes against children do not apply because Morris did not live in Oklahoma at any time.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2025/03/12/oklahoma-grand-jury-ingateway-megachurch-founder-former-trump-spiritual-adviser-indicted-in-oklahoma/82318426007/
…and the number of drag queens currently charged with or announced as suspects in child sexual abuse is…?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
A grand jury in Oklahoma on Wednesday indicted Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris, accusing him in five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a girl beginning when she was 12 years old in the 1980s.
Robert Morris, who was once a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, resigned as senior pastor of Gateway Church in June after admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s.
His accuser has said she was 12 when Morris first sexually abused her on Christmas in 1982 during a visit to her home in Hominy, Oklahoma. He was then 21.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Cindy Clemishire said after the indictment was made public.
The state’s multicounty grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday after hearing two days of testimony in secret sessions. Grand jurors charged Morris, now 63, with five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.
Grand jurors alleged the offenses started when the girl was 12 and continued while she was 13 and 14.
The former pastor’s Oklahoma attorney, Mack Martin, declined comment.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose assistants advise the grand jury, said “there can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children.”
His assistants said time restrictions on prosecuting sex crimes against children do not apply because Morris did not live in Oklahoma at any time.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2025/03/12/oklahoma-grand-jury-ingateway-megachurch-founder-former-trump-spiritual-adviser-indicted-in-oklahoma/82318426007/
…and the number of drag queens currently charged with or announced as suspects in child sexual abuse is…?
All of them they just don’t know it yet¡
Not exactly great at running the finances of a country.
Spiny Norman said:
Not exactly great at running the finances of a country.
What about Trump’s first term?
Divine Angel said:
Spiny Norman said:
Not exactly great at running the finances of a country.
What about Trump’s first term?
I don’t have that handy sorry. There wasn’t such a large crash though.
Republicans at the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill that would allow health care providers to “visually or physically examine a minor child” for the purpose of identifying their “biological sex” without the “consent of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.”
The bill, S.B. 456, would define sex based on whether a person produces eggs or sperm. It says that gender-segregated spaces like locker rooms or restrooms are to be used based on a person’s sex assigned at birth, and it leaves no room for trans or nonbinary people’s identities. It also says that all intersex people are “either male or female” but does not give a basis for assigning a sex to them.
The bill would have far-ranging effects, including on how transgender students are treated at schools. The text states that all multi-occupancy facilities like restrooms and changing rooms have to be designated as either exclusively for those assigned male at birth or those assigned female at birth.
Yesterday, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved an amendment from Del. J.B. Akers ® to allow a child’s “treating health care provider” to examine a child’s genitals without the consent of their parents. The amendment states that only the treating health care provider can perform such examinations without the parents’ consent. The amendment does not mention adults, and therefore presumably they could be forced to undergo such examinations by anyone.
The amendment was actually an improvement over a previous version of the bill, which, state Democrats argued, would have allowed teachers to perform the genital examinations.
Akers’ amendment was the Republican response to one proposed by Del. Kayla Young (D), which would have banned child and adult genital examinations altogether.
“It’s unconscionable that Republicans would support legislation that authorizes intrusive visual inspections of minors without parental approval,” Young said. “West Virginians should be alarmed and disgusted by this invasion of privacy.”
The state Senate passed S.B. 456 in a 32-1 vote last Monday, March 3. There are only three Democrats in the body; state Sen. Mike Woelfel (D) voted for the bill, state Sen. Joey Garcia (D) voted against it, and state Sen. Robert Plymale (D) was absent. On Friday, the bill passed the House of Delegates in an 87-9 vote.
The bill was then passed by both chambers again on Monday, March 7 with the amendment. It will now go to Gov. Patrick Morrisey ® for his signature.
Yesterday, state Democrats – who control only 11 seats out of 100 in the House of Delegates – held a press conference to denounce the bill as well as several others that they say will harm children, including a bill to allow teachers to use corporal punishment and another bill that rolls back vaccine requirements for schools.
“While people sit around the dinner table looking at electric bills, that look more like what they used to take home in a month versus an electric bill, when we have coal mines that are shutting down because of saber-rattling in Washington over tariffs, when we have an unelected bureaucrat who’s firing federal employees that administer services that our people depend on – these are the types of issues that we are worried about?” Del. John Williams (D) said at the press conference, according to Real WV. “West Virginia has bigger problems and bigger fish to fry.”
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/gop-lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-child-genital-exams-without-parental-consent/
Spiny Norman said:
Not exactly great at running the finances of a country.
That’s ugly. Very ugly.
Obscene.
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.
it’s an ideological attack – it’s about “owning the Libs”
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.
Try reading any one of the many books about Trump that are now available.
One is ‘A Very Stable Genius’, about Trump’s previous stint in the White House.
https://www.amazon.com/Very-Stable-Genius-Testing-America/dp/152660907X
That book, and others besides, show that the man is 100% spite, vituperation, and retaliation, head-to-toe..
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.
God forbid the government does something like give a damn about people. People who aren’t rich white men, that is.
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.
Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
Before my time.
That also makes sense as well.
Cymek said:
kii said:
Cymek said:Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
Before my time.
That also makes sense as well.
https://www.habitat.org/carter-work-project
President Jimmy Carter.
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
Obscene.
Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
What about Carter?
Michael V said:
kii said:
Cymek said:Do you reckon its all spite
Lets ruin anything decent people in the USA hold dear.
Lets flex our muscles and see if we can piss of everyone else including close military allies.Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
What about Carter?
Carter was intimately involved with Habitat for Humanity and some choice words about Trump on recent years while he was still cognisant.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
What about Carter?
Carter was intimately involved with Habitat for Humanity and some choice words about Trump on recent years while he was still cognisant.
made some choice words
kii said:
Cymek said:
kii said:Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
Before my time.
That also makes sense as well.
https://www.habitat.org/carter-work-project
President Jimmy Carter.
Ah, thanks.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Cymek said:Before my time.
That also makes sense as well.
https://www.habitat.org/carter-work-project
President Jimmy Carter.
Ah, thanks.
I learned about Jimmy’s work from The Simpsons.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
What about Carter?
Carter was intimately involved with Habitat for Humanity and some choice words about Trump on recent years while he was still cognisant.
Ta.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Michael V said:
kii said:Its payback. Remember Jimmy Carter?
What about Carter?
Carter was intimately involved with Habitat for Humanity and some choice words about Trump on recent years while he was still cognisant.
There was a time in recent years when Trump was still cognisant?
When was that?
I’m looking around for a Trump Toy Doll that says, look at me, look at me, when you pick it up.
The Rev Dodgson said:
There was a time in recent years when Trump was still cognisant?
On a geological timescale, sure
Heather Cox Richardson
29m ·
March 13, 2025 (Thursday)
Stocks fell again today.
The S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies that are listed on U.S. stock exchanges and is the world’s most widely followed stock market benchmark, dropped 77.78 points, or 1.39%, ending the day more than 10% off its record high of less than a month ago and entering into “correction” territory. A market correction is a period of rapid change that drops the value of stocks by at least 10%.
Other major indexes have also fallen into correction as President Donald Trump’s tariffs and tariff threats, along with dramatic cuts to federal funding and federal employment, are hobbling the national economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 537 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2%.
In the wake of the dropping markets, Trump announced on his social media platform today that if the European Union did not drop its 50% tariff on whiskey, imposed as retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel, he would impose a 200% tariff on all “WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.” He added: “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
In fact, journalist Dave Infante, who covers drinking in America at Fingers, noted that while it seems counterintuitive, such a tariff would “crush the US wine industry. Booze gets to market on distributors’ trucks,” he posted. “These fleets need volume to run efficiently. Subtract EU wine from the equation & it no longer pencils out. Any gains from less competition would likely be paid back out in margin loss.”
Kai Ryssdal of the radio show Marketplace posted: “I’m honestly running out of words I can use on the air to describe what’s happening in and to this economy.”
There is a grim fascination in the 1929 stock market crash, when Americans watched with horror as the bottom fell out of the economy. In our memories, reinforced by jerky black-and-white newsreels, that crisis shows businessmen aghast as fortunes disappeared in heavy trading that left the ticker tape that recorded prices running hours behind only to toll men’s destruction when it finally reached the end of the day’s sales.
But the stock market crisis of 1929 came from structural imbalances in the nation that created a weak economy in which about 5% of the country received about one third of the nation’s income. What really jumps out today is that, in contrast to 1929, the national economy is strong—or was just a month ago. In fact, before Trump took office, it was the strongest of any economically developed country in the world.
The blame for the falling market in the United States today can be laid squarely at the feet of the new presidential administration, with the tariff war it has instigated and the sweeping cuts it has made to United States government employment. President Donald Trump and his staff insist that the pain he is inflicting on Americans will pay off in long-term economic development, but they have deliberately thrust a stick into the wheels of a strong economy.
It is an astonishing thing to watch a single man hamstring the United States economy. It is also astonishing to watch Republican senators try to convince the American people that a falling stock market and contracting economy is a good thing. “Our economy has been on a sugar high for a long time. It’s been distorted by excess government spending,” Montana Senator Tim Sheehy told Fox News Channel host Larry Kudlow today. “What we’re seeing here from this administration and what you’re gonna see from this Congress is re-disciplining to ensure that our economy is based on private investment and free-market growth, not public sector spending.”
In fact, until a brief spike in spending during the coronavirus crisis, government expenditure in the United States as a percentage of gross domestic product has held relatively steady around 20% since the 1950s.
Today, Trump met with Secretary-General Mark Rutte of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) who was eager to get Trump to reiterate U.S. support for NATO. Trump told Rutte that the United States needs control of Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland “for international security, not just security—international—we have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful.”
Asked about whether the U.S. would annex Greenland, he answered: “I think that will happen.”
At that same meeting, Trump talked about his order to release water from two California dams in January allegedly to deliver water to Los Angeles after the devastating wildfires in that region, although water managers in Los Angeles said they had plenty of water for firefighting. A February 3 memo from the Army Corps of Engineers, obtained by Scott Dance and Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, makes it clear that officials knew that the 2.5 billion gallons they released in response to Trump’s order “could not be delivered to Southern California.”
In fact, as Ian James explained in the Los Angeles Times, water releases are usually carefully considered, and local water managers and lawmakers thought the sudden plan was potentially “ruinous,” worrying that an abrupt surge of water could damage the lands and people downstream while wasting water that would be needed during the hot growing season.
That’s not how Trump portrayed the sudden release of water. After talking to reporters about the upcoming congressional budget fight, he suddenly pivoted to Los Angeles, and from there to water. “I broke into Los Angeles, can you believe it, I had to break in,” he said. “I invaded Los Angeles and we opened up the water, and the water is now flowing down. They have so much water they don’t know what to do. They were sending it out to the Pacific for environmental reasons. Ok, can you believe it? And in the meantime they lost 25,000 houses. They lost, and nobody’s ever seen anything like it. But, uh, we have the water—uh, love to show you a picture, you’ve seen the picture—the water’s flowing through the half-pipes, you know, we have the big half-pipes that go down. Used to, twenty-five years ago they used to have plenty of water but they turned it off for, again, for environmental reasons. Well, I turned it on for environmental reasons and also fire reasons but, ah, and I’ve been asking them to do that during my first term, I said do it, I didn’t think anything like could happen like this, but they didn’t have enough water. Now the farmers are going to have water for their land and the water’s in there, but I actually had to break in. We broke in to do it because, ah, we had people who were afraid to give water. In particular they were trying to protect a certain little fish. And I said, how do you protect a fish if you don’t have water? They didn’t have any water so they’re protecting a fish. And that didn’t work out too well by the way….”
Today, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that federal agencies must immediately offer thousands of probationary workers purged from the government in the early weeks of Trump’s administration their jobs back. Mass firings from the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments did not follow the law, Alsup said.
The government declined to make witnesses available to the court although Alsup had ordered the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management to appear today. Alsup told lawyers from the Justice Department that he believed they were hiding how the firings had taken place and who was responsible. “You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth…. I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth.… I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth.”
Tonight, U.S. District Judge James Bredar ordered the administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers in the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the General Service Administration, and the Small Business Administration.
Bredar said it was “likely” that “the Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce.” The government claimed it did not have to give advance notice of the firings because it had dismissed the probationary workers for “performance” or other individual reasons. “On the record before the Court, this isn’t true,” Bredar said. “There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively.”
Alt National Park Service
This should scare all Americans.
The fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cannot provide a clear justification for Khalil’s arrest is deeply troubling. In a nation that prides itself on the rule of law, due process, and civil liberties, the government’s inability—or refusal—to articulate the specific reasons for detaining a lawful permanent resident raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability.
Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar’s vague response—suggesting that Khalil’s presence at pro-Palestinian demonstrations is reason enough for arrest—sets a dangerous precedent. Participating in political protests is a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment. If the mere act of demonstrating is grounds for arrest and potential deportation, it represents a significant erosion of civil liberties and a step toward authoritarian tactics where individuals are punished for their political beliefs rather than actual crimes.
Moreover, the claim that Khalil’s visa could be revoked is not only misleading but factually incorrect. As a green card holder, he does not possess a visa that can simply be rescinded by the administration. Any change in his immigration status must go through a legal process, including review by an immigration judge. The suggestion that administrative officials have unilateral authority to strip him of his residency without due process is both legally dubious and indicative of a broader disregard for the rule of law.
The United States does not—and should not—“disappear” people. Arrests must be based on clear legal violations, not vague associations or political participation. If DHS cannot specify what Khalil did that justified his detention, the logical conclusion is that he is being targeted for his activism. This is not how justice is supposed to work in America. If we allow the government to detain individuals without due process or clear charges, we undermine the very democratic principles we claim to uphold.
If you have time to listen to NPR’s Morning Edition with the DHS official, we highly recommend it. Thank you, NPR!
We worry—who is next?
In short:
The federal government is asking the Trump administration for more information after Australian researchers were sent questionnaires asking them to justify American research grants.
The tertiary education union called it “blatant political interference” and the Group of Eight representative body said it was “extremely concerned”.
What’s next?
Major research positions within the Trump administration are yet to be filled, but may be in a position to provide further clarity once installed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/trump-administration-asks-australian-universities-funding/105053784
sarahs mum said:
In short:
The federal government is asking the Trump administration for more information after Australian researchers were sent questionnaires asking them to justify American research grants.The tertiary education union called it “blatant political interference” and the Group of Eight representative body said it was “extremely concerned”.
What’s next?
Major research positions within the Trump administration are yet to be filled, but may be in a position to provide further clarity once installed.
so there are no external ramifications
sarahs mum said:
In short:
The federal government is asking the Trump administration for more information after Australian researchers were sent questionnaires asking them to justify American research grants.The tertiary education union called it “blatant political interference” and the Group of Eight representative body said it was “extremely concerned”.
What’s next?
Major research positions within the Trump administration are yet to be filled, but may be in a position to provide further clarity once installed.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/trump-administration-asks-australian-universities-funding/105053784
The response to that surely is “see our grant application”. Because…you have to put up a lot of information to get research grants.
JudgeMental said:
Alt National Park Service
In a nation that prides itself on the rule of law, due process, and civil liberties,
a step toward authoritarian tacticsindicative of a broader disregard for the rule of law.
The United States does not—and should not—“disappear” people.
LOL
have we got a deity damn surprise for yous
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
In short:
The federal government is asking the Trump administration for more information after Australian researchers were sent questionnaires asking them to justify American research grants.The tertiary education union called it “blatant political interference” and the Group of Eight representative body said it was “extremely concerned”.
What’s next?
Major research positions within the Trump administration are yet to be filled, but may be in a position to provide further clarity once installed.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/trump-administration-asks-australian-universities-funding/105053784
The response to that surely is “see our grant application”. Because…you have to put up a lot of information to get research grants.
Especially research grants funded by the US. Effectively you have to be the world’s best in your field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=089i2Ex5Nlw
‘A sham’: Federal judge blasts Trump admin on improper firings of federal workers; orders rehiring
Maddow.
In the majority Black village of Lincoln Heights, Ohio civilians have formed an armed patrol group to protect their neighborhood after neo-Nazis carrying rifles and shouting racial slurs held a rally there last month. NBC News’ Morgan Radford reports.
Black community in Ohio forms safety program after neo-Nazi rally
sarahs mum said:
Fk DJT.
sarahs mum said:
In the majority Black village of Lincoln Heights, Ohio civilians have formed an armed patrol group to protect their neighborhood after neo-Nazis carrying rifles and shouting racial slurs held a rally there last month. NBC News’ Morgan Radford reports.
Black community in Ohio forms safety program after neo-Nazi rally
Bloody!
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Fk DJT.
Tarriff related money pouring in? WTF?
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle:
Those responsible for following this illegal, immoral, and disgusting order are a disgrace to the uniform we all wore and traitors to the oath we all swore.
They should have stood their ground.
They should have defended their fallen and silent comrades. They should have told Trump and Hegseth to go fuck themselves in the strongest possible terms, no matter the consequences.
That is their sacred duty. No less.
They have dishonored every veteran with their cowardly actions.
But it’s worse than that.
They followed THIS order, right?
They followed this order to erase their own fallen comrades in arms, those killed in the service of their country, some awarded the highest honor the nation can bestow for bravery and courage far, far beyond the ordinary. Men and woman who gave their very lives for America.
In case you were wondering if these same so-called warriors would follow Trump’s order to erase YOU.
Because if they’ll follow this order, they’ll follow ANY order.
kii said:
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle:Those responsible for following this illegal, immoral, and disgusting order are a disgrace to the uniform we all wore and traitors to the oath we all swore.
They should have stood their ground.
They should have defended their fallen and silent comrades. They should have told Trump and Hegseth to go fuck themselves in the strongest possible terms, no matter the consequences.
That is their sacred duty. No less.
They have dishonored every veteran with their cowardly actions.
But it’s worse than that.
They followed THIS order, right?
They followed this order to erase their own fallen comrades in arms, those killed in the service of their country, some awarded the highest honor the nation can bestow for bravery and courage far, far beyond the ordinary. Men and woman who gave their very lives for America.
In case you were wondering if these same so-called warriors would follow Trump’s order to erase YOU.
Because if they’ll follow this order, they’ll follow ANY order.
What are they so afraid of?
sarahs mum said:
That must be news to Rupert.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Fk DJT.
Tarriff related money pouring in? WTF?
well OK we were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt in that they may have been referring to longer term effects but never mind
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Fk DJT.
Tarriff related money pouring in? WTF?
It works like throwing a tennis ball against a brick wall, and catching it.
‘Hey, now i have another tennis ball!’
(Throws ball again.)
‘Hey, now i have another tennis ball! That makes three that i have!’
A Dark Day for Our Country
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Today was a bad day for our country – and for the Democratic Party. Let’s talk about it.
SEN. ADAM SCHIFF
MAR 15, 2025
Today was a bad day for the country, and I won’t sugarcoat it, today was also a bad day for the Democratic Party.
Let me explain.
Today we took up that six-month CR, or continuing resolution, giving Donald Trump six more months to continue doing what he’s doing. Tearing down our agencies, firing federal workers, cutting Medicaid, closing Social Security offices, devastating veterans, laying off veterans.
We just gave him six more months to continue down that destructive path.
We in the Congress gave up our authority, gave up our power to allow him to continue to do this because we feared something worse if we refused.
Now I made it clear. I think that was the wrong judgment.
I strongly opposed this CR but nevertheless, it passed.
Why is this a bad day for the country?
We have to step back and understand what our founders did when they established the Constitution and our set of checks and balances, our founders understood that, as Madison said, “men were no angels.”
If they were angels, there would be no need for government.
So we needed a government, but we also needed to make sure that that government divided up power so that no one could become too powerful. Understanding the nature of human nature, that the accretion of power can corrupt human nature, they split up the power between the different branches of government.
Between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.
And that worked well for 200 years. Until it started to break down. Until institutions started to, on their own, give up some of their authority.
Now, the founders expected that we would jealously guard our own institutions, that ambition would be made to check ambition.
So the ambition of people in the legislative branch would check the ambition of people in the executive branch. And the ambition of people in the judicial branch would be a check on both the other branches. But that has broken down in favor of the ambition of a president of your own party.
And so we have seen Republicans in the House and Senate willing to give up their authority to this president because they think this President will do their will, or because they think that the President will carry out their agenda and won’t punish them for dissenting.
A perfect test case in this CR is Republicans giving up the power of Congress to stop these tragic terrorists that are wrecking the economy.
Why on earth would Congress give up that power? Because they don’t want to have to vote on it themselves.
Because they’re afraid that if they do vote on it and they affirm what Donald Trump is doing, they’ll be punished by their voters.
So they say, “We would just rather not have that power anymore. We will give it to you, Donald Trump.”
That is a bad day for the United States, a bad day for the balance of power.
We are ceding our authority. We are concentrating it further in the executive. And if there was any executive that could not be trusted with any more power, it is Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court has given up its authority by handing the President what he wanted, which was a decision giving him absolute immunity from prosecution, putting him above the rule of law.
So, a bad day for the United States of America.
But it’s also a bad day for the Democratic Party.
We are in the minority in the House. We’re in the minority in the Senate. We don’t control the White House. We certainly don’t control the majority opinion on the Supreme Court.
The only hope that we have of standing up to this President, of pushing back against the destructive actions he’s taking is if we stay together.
In the House, Democrats stayed together.
We did not stay together in the Senate.
Now I understand many of my colleagues who voted the other way that I did today, firmly hold the conviction that voting for it was the lesser of two evils.
And we are all peering through the glass darkly.
We are all trying to imagine the future if this passes or if this fails.
But one thing is very clear.
And that is without unity, without common agreement between Democrats in the House and in the Senate and amongst ourselves, we have no power to stop this President.
This must not happen again.
But it will take more than democratic unity in the Congress to stop this president from tearing up our country.
It will require much more. It will require all of us.
It will require that reporters told not to write stories by their newspaper for fear of the President’s reaction, speak publicly, even if they risk firing or resignation.
That subscribers make their views known when a newspaper gives up its editorial independence.
It will require customers to make their views known when corporations cater to the President.
It will require universities to stick together when the President goes after one university, to understand that all universities are in the same boat.
It will require reporters when they are attacked for not using the President’s preferred language about absurdities like the Gulf of America – that reporters stick together and band together. Not let them be picked apart by a president with no veneration, understanding or appreciation of the First Amendment.
It will require all of us.
It will require you in your personal capacity. To speak out in your workplace. In your home. With your neighbors.
It will require all of us to defend our First Amendment rights, our right to choose who will govern us, and place limits on the power of those who do.
It will require all of us.
92 years ago, on the 53rd day of a new chancellorship, the German parliament decided to give up its authority to the new chancellor.
To allow the new chancellor to govern by decree.
Today is the 53rd day of the Trump administration.
Now, we have not decided to fully give up our power to this President. But we took a tragic step in that direction today.
We must not take that step again.
“We are going to have a crash and we’re going to have a crash like a 1929 crash if she gets in,” the Republican nominee warned, referring to the Great Depression.
“You saw a gentleman yesterday who got up, one of the top analysts in the world, frankly, and said that if Trump isn’t elected he predicts, and he’s predicting you have a stock market crash like 1929.”
captain_spalding said:
“We are going to have a crash and we’re going to have a crash like a 1929 crash if she gets in,” the Republican nominee warned, referring to the Great Depression.
“You saw a gentleman yesterday who got up, one of the top analysts in the world, frankly, and said that if Trump isn’t elected he predicts, and he’s predicting you have a stock market crash like 1929.”
you know however high the interest rates are under Corruption Liberal you know it’ll always be higher under Labor the dirty communist bastards
He warned that a government shutdown would give President Trump and his allies “the keys to the city, state and country,” arguing that “while the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.
‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
captain_spalding said:
“We are going to have a crash and we’re going to have a crash like a 1929 crash if she gets in,” the Republican nominee warned, referring to the Great Depression.
“You saw a gentleman yesterday who got up, one of the top analysts in the world, frankly, and said that if Trump isn’t elected he predicts, and he’s predicting you have a stock market crash like 1929.”
Trump’s figures look a bit rubbery.
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
“We are going to have a crash and we’re going to have a crash like a 1929 crash if she gets in,” the Republican nominee warned, referring to the Great Depression.
“You saw a gentleman yesterday who got up, one of the top analysts in the world, frankly, and said that if Trump isn’t elected he predicts, and he’s predicting you have a stock market crash like 1929.”
you know however high the interest rates are under Corruption Liberal you know it’ll always be higher under Labor the dirty communist bastards
LOL
airlines are the latest to warn about a
sharp drop in consumer activity a loss
of momentum in the real economy Delta
Airlines CEO yesterday called it a
parade of horribles talking about the
company’s experience over the last
couple months and he wasn’t the only one
American Airlines they’ve been chopping
their forecast in response to what
Walmart CEO called quote stress
behaviors in consumers it’s the same
noticeable loss of momentum in the US
economy that has been weighing on
everything from stocks to business and
consumer confidence something big has
changed and we’re seeing it more and
more places it’s being confirmed in more
and more places in fact today’s CPI is
another example after the latest
inflation scare has predictably run its
course the index is back into its
disinflationary downswing led by yep get
this the largest drop in Airline fairs
in years it dragged down the
transportation services price index by
the most in any single month since
September of 2021 even the core CPI was
at its lowest rate in 4 years but to
most people certainly air Travelers
today it doesn’t feel like it what
consumers are suffering from is that
this disinflation doesn’t feel at all
like disinflation or what they imagin
have been led to believe it would
incomes haven’t caught up with the price
changes from three years ago even as
price changes settle down anything which
threatens to upset the delicate balance
can create a harsh backlash or or
trigger as the Walmart guy said stress
behaviors that upset can come from more
price pressures like we’ve seen in food
or it can also come from jobs and
incomes which was exactly what the
latest labor market data had already
shown this March 2025 parade of
horribles has both that’s why it’s
become so noticeable so undeniable even
Wall Street analysts are back to using
the RW and using it more frequently
while everyone hopes that this is just a
short-run transition the concerns are
growing that there’s more behind it than
just a temporary disruption the parade
might have quite a way still left to go
now what Walmart CEO Doug McMillan was
talking about earlier in March these
stress behaviors is that price pressures
income pressures and that word
uncertainty which keeps coming up were
causing consumers to change their
behavior even more than they already
have according to one report Walmart is
seeing quote stress behaviors among
budget conscious consumers quote and we
worry about that McMillan said you can
see that the money runs out before the
month is gone you can see that people
are buying smaller pack sizes at the end
of the month and it’s not really prices
necessarily as I keep pointing out it’s
about incomes the price changes were
mostly behind us and we’ll go we’ll go
over the details there and why it feels
like this thing never ends and what’s
really pressuring consumers isn’t the
past price changes it’s the past price
changes in combination with uncertainty
over the rest of the economy really jobs
and incomes But continuing with Walmart
the company recently projected lower
than expected profit for the current
fiscal year while citing uncertainty
related consumer Behavior as well as
economic and geopolitical conditions and
These Warnings are piling up and it’s
what airlines are now saying about the
health of the global economy that has
everyone on edge because Airlines
discretionary spending a lot of is
discretionary spending and the first
thing that consumers really pull back
from that they have to pull back from
when they’re faced with higher
uncertainty more pressures and jobs and
incomes that we keep seeing in the in
the economic data and labor market
statistics the first thing they pull
back from when they’re serious about
pulling back discretionary spending like
air travel Leisure and that’s exactly
what Delta Airlines and American
southwest and JetBlue all said yesterday
we’re seeing a pullback in that type of
discretionary spending but the effects
on the global economy
they’re they’re likely to be profound
and that’s what we’re going to talk
about on March 24th at euroall
University’s webinar there’s a link in
the description to sign up we’re going
to talk about what this recession scare
means for the global economy both
Politics as well as markets interest
rates all of that stuff the US dollar
and what maybe we can do about it so
like I said there’s a link in the
description hope you can join us on
Monday March 24th I’ll see you
there if it was just Delta and it’s CEO
talking about a parade of horribles
which by the way he meant to describe
some of these other non-economic factors
like the fires in California as a way to
try to dismiss the weakness that’s
pretty evident in the the report that he
gave in fact the Delta Airlines of AK
filing with the SEC says it’s not just
about these other non-economic factors
they’re really talking about a sharp
drop and a and a pretty substantial loss
of economic momentum that is impacting
consumers call it uncertainty if you
will but it wasn’t just Delta it was
almost all of them uh Delta as I
mentioned South West Jet Blue and
American here’s how Bloomberg described
it two of the biggest US Airlines
slashed their financial forecast and a
host of other major retailers warned of
consumer weakness ahead adding to
concerns about a potential recession
American Airlines group on Tuesday
predicted its first quarter loss would
be roughly double its prior guidance
less than a day after Delta Airlines cut
its profit Outlook in half the carriers
along with Rivals Southwest are riging
in expectations in the face of a broad
and rapid reversal of demand Trends and
that’s Broad and Rapid reversal that’s
what we keep seeing all over the place
and Airlines would be a big one where it
comes to Consumer
Behavior Delta chief executive officer
Ed Bastion didn’t mince words when
describing the start of the Year calling
it quote a parade of horribles and again
he meant he meant the parade of
horribles to describe the non-con the
the winter the fires and whatever else
that they could throw up but it’s really
as the article here says it’s really
about the macroeconomic conditions that
consumers are facing which as I said in
the introduction anything that threatens
the delicate balance between incomes and
the fiscal situation households find
them in find themselves in after the
last couple years the price changes are
all in the rear but incomes for most of
the most of the economy most of the
country are still are still trying to
catch up to those past price changes and
falling short so if you think that
you’re already short you feel that
you’re already short from where you
should be you’ve been left behind and
impoverished by the supply shock era
anything that threatens to push prices
higher yet again is going to hurt it’s
going to raise your level of uncertainty
or anything that threatens the path of
incomes and jobs and hours and all the
labor market conditions that we talk
about that’s going to have the same
effect and then you put the two together
labor market weakness with potential
increase in prices and it’s a bad mix
that leads to a lot of people prudently
saying let’s just pull back here and see
how everything plays out so there’s the
sharp loss of momentum when everyone
hopes that it’s a short run loss of
momentum but given these fundamentals
you can see why markets are why it’s
provoked such a big backlash in markets
even like the stock
market and the fact that company after
company major company after major
company retailers and now airlines are
warning about it is itself a
warning for Delta specifically this is a
dramatic turnaround in a relatively
short period of time time again the loss
of momentum back on January 10th Delta’s
CEO was talking was speaking very
differently singing a very different
tune about business prospects for the
airline Delta Airlines jumped the most
in more than four years as the carrier
reaps the benefit of robust demand fors
lucrative premium seats a trend showing
no sign of retreat quote the supply
demand balance is as good as I can ever
recall it being as we look into 2025
that’s CEO Ed Bastion what he said in an
interview after the company reported
earnings back on January 10th that beat
analyst estimates and here’s the money
quote we have pretty good visibility
through the first quarter and into the
spring and apparently they don’t have
good visibility because here they are in
March just two months later talking
about a parade of horribles and the
parade of horribles like I said is meant
as a distraction to say okay it’s just
these one-off non-economic factors and
everything should go back to normal
Maybe by summertime but that’s not what
the what the SEC filing for Delta
actually said when you look at the 8K
for Delta the latest one that was filed
it says instead Delta expects to deliver
total revenue growth for the March
quarter of 3 to 4% year-over-year and
that’s down from the 7 to 9% back when
they had quote pretty good visibility
into the spring so the parade of
horribles have dropped their revenue
estimates down to 3 to 4% and this is
the most important part the Outlook has
been impacted by the recent reduction in
consumer and corporate confidence caused
by increased macro uncertainty driving
softness and demand and domestic demand
that’s it’s impacted by recent reduction
in consumer incorporate confidence it’s
the rising uncertainty it’s the idea
that the macroeconomic conditions the
loss of momentum all of it conspiring to
to lead to this loss of momentum that’s
being felt all over the place and Delta
was hardly the only one American
Airlines on Tuesday said their revenue
environment has been weaker than
initially expected due to softness in
the domestic Leisure segment again
discretionary spending particularly in
March loss of momentum the company’s
also been impacted by flight 5342 the
Collision in January over the pomac
river and you can see it in the stock
market Airline stocks have utterly
tanked since the end of January now they
were on a tremendous upswing they were
benefiting from the rate cut environment
at least perception about the rate cut
environment uh going all the way back to
last August the Dow Airlines index
however which peaked on January 20th
again the same time frame as
everything’s been reversing ever since
then it’s down 30% including down again
this morning even as other stocks mildly
bounce after the sell off to begin this
week um the S&P 500 is Buri positive but
the Dow Jones Industrials is down and
here we have the airline index down yet
again as well so the stock market is not
looking at this as a temporary uh
temporary disruption non economic
factors and that everything will go back
to normal and be just as robust as it
was by the time we get to maybe April
and May and into the summertime the
stock market is thinking yeah we there’s
a really good chance here that this
becomes more than a temporary disruption
that the parade of horribles has a bit
longer to run more than more than
anybody’s willing to just hang in there
and see how it goes here we’re getting
to the point where the serious concern
serious macro concerns these rward
concerns are impacting even stock
investors and their previous willingness
to hold stocks through basically any
other ma macroeconomic
Circumstance the loss of momentum that’s
that’s the important thing about the
stock market here is the loss of
momentum has become so undeniable that
even the stock market is reacting to it
not just in the airline case but in one
in one way that makes a lot of sense
given the fact that macroeconomic data
is backing up all these reports that
we’re getting whether in the stock
market or outside the stock market
whether it be the airline industry the
retail industry or everything in between
all of it pointing to loss of momentum
that being that’s being picked up in all
of these all these various different
ways in the marketplace in these
corporate reports and in the government
data and to the last part of that we’ve
got today’s CPI report for the month of
February the headline rate came in at
0.22% month over month which was down
from where it was expected to be 0.3% so
even less than expectations the
year-over-year rate was a little bit
less at
3.14% and the main reasons the CPI were
lower than expectations where gasoline
was down Airline fairs were down pretty
sharply which I’ll get to in just a
second plus there was a lack of another
surge in car insurance premiums that was
a positive and then half of the gain was
artificial shelter imputations which we
keep running across and even there the
price changes are slowing down in
shelter indexes like owner’s equivalent
rent for gasoline um motor fuel
specifically was down a full percentage
point or nearly a full percentage Point
compared to the large gains that were’re
seeing for whatever seasonal reasons or
seasonal adjustment reasons in December
and January but gasoline prices the
lower lower prices for motor fuel were
offset by higher Energy Services and
electricity especially natural gas
prices the cold winter but there’s I
mean transportation services Airline
fairs were down sharply backing up what
we’re seeing and what we’re hearing from
the industry itself according to the CP
numbers Airline fairs were down 4% in
the month of February alone can’t I
can’t wait to see what they are what
they’re going to be for March uh if the
these Airline reports are have are
anything to go by it’s likely to be even
more and that was enough the 4% drop in
Airline fairs across the board was
enough to lower the transportation
services index by 8/10 of a percent
which was the largest single month
decline in that index since September of
2021 so there’s your deflationary
response to the loss of momentum the the
stress behaviors in consumers as far as
airlines are concerned
and the result of all of that was this
the core rate in the CPI was the lowest
it had been in four years at least on a
year-over-year basis so disinflation is
happening and it’s happening again and
again it doesn’t happen in a straight
line so we go through these back and
forth periods where consumer prices
start to accelerate then they come down
and then they accelerate again and every
time they’re accelerating everybody says
oh here comes inflation all over and
then when it when it decelerates because
the economic fundamentals are not there
the surprised by it when they really
shouldn’t be and only to see consumer
prices accelerate again and then fall
off again we go back and forth back and
forth that’s typical disinflation but
why it the reason why it feels so bad
when prices are on the upswing is
because of incomes incomes have never
caught up to with the price changes that
were really front loaded back in 2021
and
2022 so if we put the numbers on it we
look at just consumer prices and here we
just use the CPI index excluding shelter
so it’s basically all the rest of the
index except for shelter prices because
they’re artificial imputations what you
see clearly is that most of the quote
unquote inflation really the supply
shock was in that that short run period
the 17 months between February 2021 in
June of 2022 which means it wasn’t the
FED on either end of it it wasn’t rate
hikes nor was it rate Cuts back in 2021
it wasn’t money printing by QE what it
was was the fact that Supply was
constrained at the same time
that the recovery from the pandemic lows
was taking place so demand was coming
back faster than Supply and prices were
the only way to adjust and once prices
went too far pushed way too far by the
Russian invasion of Ukraine which spiked
oil that was it June of 2022 was when
the quote unquote inflation really ended
and we’ve been living with the
consequences of it ever since then
that’s why people continue to talk about
inflation what they’re really referring
to is that phase shift back then but
that 15-month period the CPI less
shelter increased by 15% or a 10.3%
annual rate in that 17mon period since
June of 2022 the CPI less shelter has
has been up only
4.4% total not per year total which is a
1.6% per year annual rate and just to
give you some reference in the 17 months
before December 2019 or up to including
December 2019 in that same 17 month the
same index the CPI less shelter Rose by
a
1.5% annual rate so prices sort ahead in
21 and 22 and then they kind of stop we
keep feeling the pressure because here’s
the other part of it incomes we look at
nominal disposable income nominal
disposable income from February 21 to
June June of 2022 nominal DPI Rose by
just 5.5% now while government transfers
were in there as well the overall level
that doesn’t take to account those
transfers ERS just Rose by 5.5% compared
to the 15% increases in prices so
already without the government’s Aid
consumers were being left far and Far
Behind farther and farther behind but
since February 2021 nominal disposable
income has risen by
25% which is outpacing the CPI less
shelter which over that same period
going all the way back to February 2021
Rose by 20% so even though nominal
incomes are up by 25% in prices
excluding shelter are up by 20% that
doesn’t mean that everyone has caught up
and even that 25% nominal income gain
for the upper ends that’s really where
it’s been concentrated even that’s not
enough given price changes because you
want incomes to rise far and above where
prices are not just to be about roughly
in the same area go back to the last
three years before the pandemic so 2017
2018 and 2019 during that period which
was not a great one for the labor market
not a great one for incomes in those
three years
prices again the CPI less shelter
increased by 4.4% total showing again
the disinflation that was the silent
depression in the 2010s during those
same three years again not the most
robust in economic history depression
consistent nominal disposal income Rose
by 14% so you have a 14% increase in
nominal incomes and only a 4% increase
in price changes which is one reason why
despite the silent depression people
weren’t weren’t feeling the same
negative negatives that they do today
there wasn’t the same negative
perceptions that we have today because
today you have for most people price
changes that at the very best were the
same as incomes but for Mo for the vast
majority less income for prices I mean
the best case is that uh incomes have
kept up with prices but more for more
people than not it’s not even close so
incomes are below price changes which
means everyone is struggling everyone’s
been impoverished everyone has been left
behind so disinflation doesn’t feel like
this inflation and it won’t until
incomes catch up and the more we see
labor market difficulties and the more
consumers realize this the more they
know that they’re never going to catch
up the more they’re going to react
harshly to anything that threatens their
precarious and perilous current
household
situation and that’s why airlines are
now reporting and warning about this big
change in their circumstances why
Walmart and all these other retailers
Kohl’s was another one saying that they
see something different about consumers
McMillan from Walmart said stress
behaviors they’re piling up that’s got
the that’s got Walmart concerned about
the state of consumers all of it goes
back to the same thing consumers have
been left behind they know it and so
they’re very sensitive to changes in
either more price pressures or more
weakness in the labor market and here in
early 2025 we’ve got both of those
things happening at the same time so it
seems like the economy has lost a
tremendous amount of momentum in a way
that is becoming increasingly undeniable
because it has lost a tremendous amount
of momentum since it didn’t have a whole
lot to begin with the fundamental
background of the economy is forgot how
to grow impoverishment people being left
behind and now you have all of these
negatives building up uncertainty call
it that if you want to it’s really just
maybe the the arrival of a traditional
recession on top of they forgot how to
grow recession that’s what airlines are
talking about that’s what retailers are
talking about that’s what’s gripped the
stock
market it certainly isn’t just a US
phenomenon we’ve seen the loss of
momentum in other places too including
China you wouldn’t think China would be
able to lose more momentum yet they did
and went over the details behind that in
the video link below hope you can join
us for our webinar March 24th there’s a
link in the description to sign up thank
you for joining me and always thank you
to Y University members and subscribers
and until next time take care
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
kii said:
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle:Those responsible for following this illegal, immoral, and disgusting order are a disgrace to the uniform we all wore and traitors to the oath we all swore.
They should have stood their ground.
They should have defended their fallen and silent comrades. They should have told Trump and Hegseth to go fuck themselves in the strongest possible terms, no matter the consequences.
That is their sacred duty. No less.
They have dishonored every veteran with their cowardly actions.
But it’s worse than that.
They followed THIS order, right?
They followed this order to erase their own fallen comrades in arms, those killed in the service of their country, some awarded the highest honor the nation can bestow for bravery and courage far, far beyond the ordinary. Men and woman who gave their very lives for America.
In case you were wondering if these same so-called warriors would follow Trump’s order to erase YOU.
Because if they’ll follow this order, they’ll follow ANY order.
FMD
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.
‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Buy¡ Buy¡ Buy¡
Michael V said:
kii said:
From Jim Wright aka Stonekettle:Those responsible for following this illegal, immoral, and disgusting order are a disgrace to the uniform we all wore and traitors to the oath we all swore.
They should have stood their ground.
They should have defended their fallen and silent comrades. They should have told Trump and Hegseth to go fuck themselves in the strongest possible terms, no matter the consequences.
That is their sacred duty. No less.
They have dishonored every veteran with their cowardly actions.
But it’s worse than that.
They followed THIS order, right?
They followed this order to erase their own fallen comrades in arms, those killed in the service of their country, some awarded the highest honor the nation can bestow for bravery and courage far, far beyond the ordinary. Men and woman who gave their very lives for America.
In case you were wondering if these same so-called warriors would follow Trump’s order to erase YOU.
Because if they’ll follow this order, they’ll follow ANY order.
FMD
Arlington Cemetery scrubs info on famous Black, Hispanic, and female veterans to comply with Trump orders
The purge follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s declaration that ‘DEI is dead’ as he implements Trump’s agenda at the Pentagon
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/arlington-cemetery-dei-trump-b2715465.html
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
To be fair Black Monday in 1929 was 13% down in one day. The worst decline in history is Black Monday from 1987 which was down 22% in one day. Trump’s incompetence in governing will be a show burn.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
it’s raining men!
JudgeMental said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
it’s raining men!
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
To be fair Black Monday in 1929 was 13% down in one day. The worst decline in history is Black Monday from 1987 which was down 22% in one day. Trump’s incompetence in governing will be a show burn.
I just hope it is Tesla shares that get the hardest hit and become almost worthless.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:Fk DJT.
Tarriff related money pouring in? WTF?
It works like throwing a tennis ball against a brick wall, and catching it.
‘Hey, now i have another tennis ball!’
(Throws ball again.)
‘Hey, now i have another tennis ball! That makes three that i have!’
Ha!
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
The US stock market has declined by more than 10% since Trump and Elon began going berserk.‘Black Monday’ (28 Oct 1929), when stockbrokers were (apocryphally) throwing themselves out of windows, was a 13% decline.
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
Just like Russia…
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
There’s still a chance it will go lower.
Well, going by the precedent, it doesn’t have far to go before it starts raining people on Wall Street.
Just like Russia…
it is russia
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
14m ·
March 12, 2025 (Wednesday)———————-CUT————————
And the corruption in the administration was out in the open yesterday. After Trump advertised Elon Musk’s cars at the White House, Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that Musk “has signaled to President Trump’s advisers in recent days that he wants to put $100 million into groups controlled by the Trump political operation.” This is separate from Musk’s own political action committee, which dropped almost $300 million into the 2024 election and which is now pouring money into next month’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The government that Trump and Musk are destroying, with the complicity of their party, is popular, and Republican members of Congress are apparently unwilling to have to vote on the policies that are putting their radical ideology into place. In an extraordinary move yesterday, House Republicans made it impossible for Congress to challenge Trump’s tariffs.
The Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. But the International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows the president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, which Trump did on February 1. That same law allows Congress to end such a declaration of emergency, but if such a termination is introduced—as Democrats have recently done—it has to be taken up in a matter of days.
But this would force Republicans to go on record as either supporting or opposing the unpopular economic ideology Trump and Musk are imposing. So Republicans just passed a measure saying that for the rest of this congressional session, “each day…shall not constitute a calendar day” for the purposes of terminating Trump’s emergency declaration.
The Republicans’ legislation that a day is not a day seems to prove the truth of Burke’s observation that by trying to force reality to fit their ideology, radical ideologues will end up imposing tyranny in the name of liberty.
FMD.
Thanks for sharing, sm.
Pardon me, but I lost track of who posted this. But, whatever.
The NY Times has reported a draft version of the travel ban. The ban is expected to be finalized and/or go into effect around March 21.
First off, apologies to the multitudes of people who have emailed/texted/messaged me about the travel ban. I’m just a guy.
As of today, here’s what we know, and what we don’t:
1. There are 3 levels: red, orange, and yellow. Red is absolute ban (11 countries), orange is sharply restricted travel (10 countries), and yellow is probationary – 60 days to fix problems or else wind up on the orange or red lists (22 countries.)
2. Absolute ban means what it says. No visas, temporary or permanent. Orange will mean effectively a nearly complete ban, but certain “affluent travelers” may be able to enter, but, significantly, not people on immigrant visas (the ones who’d get a green card once they come) or tourist visas.
3. This list is a draft. It is not final, and countries may change by the time it gets to the White House.
4. The ban affects travelers, not people who are inside the United States.
5. The majority of the countries are still Muslim. But there are notable exceptions, which will make it much harder to get it tossed as a “Muslim Ban”
And…here’s what we don’t know yet:
1. We don’t know if there will be a waiver option like there was during the Trump 1.0 travel ban.
2. We don’t know yet how it will affect those who have been approved for visas but have not yet traveled. We also don’t know whether it will cancel people’s visas that have already been used.
3. We don’t even really know if the ban won’t reach green card holders. I had been telling folks GC holders should be safe, but it’s clear in the wake of Mahmoud Khalil that this administration’s idea of “permanent residence” differs from the dictionary definition.
4. We don’t know how this will play out. The ban is likely to be challenged, but the administration had figured out the “winning formula” during Trump 1.0. Some form of it will almost certainly go into effect, but we don’t know exactly what it will look like.
There is a lot of uncertainty still. That’s why it’s hard to say whether loved ones who are in, say, Pakistan, should travel back to the US before 3/21.
I will say that being back in the US before 3/21 would be the only way to guarantee that the ban wouldn’t affect you. If you’re from one of these 43 countries (or however many wind up on the final list) then traveling outside the US carries some degree of risk that cannot be eliminated. The decision of whether to take that risk is a personal one, not a legal one.
But if it were my own family, I’d want them here in the US, and wait and see what actually happens. I expect that at best, it’ll be chaotic – airlines won’t receive clear guidance on how to implement the ban, which will lead to inconsistencies in application. I think more green card holders who have spent more time outside than inside the US will be scrutinized more heavily. There will be an increase in airport detentions and administrative deportations with 5-year bans on reentry. And due in part to a 2022 SCOTUS ruling, whatever happens at the consulate, you’re going to be stuck with it, as going to court will not be an option.
I guess there’s one other thing that we do know: The United States just got a lot less welcoming.
kii said:
Pardon me, but I lost track of who posted this. But, whatever.The NY Times has reported a draft version of the travel ban. The ban is expected to be finalized and/or go into effect around March 21.
First off, apologies to the multitudes of people who have emailed/texted/messaged me about the travel ban. I’m just a guy.
As of today, here’s what we know, and what we don’t:
1. There are 3 levels: red, orange, and yellow. Red is absolute ban (11 countries), orange is sharply restricted travel (10 countries), and yellow is probationary – 60 days to fix problems or else wind up on the orange or red lists (22 countries.)
2. Absolute ban means what it says. No visas, temporary or permanent. Orange will mean effectively a nearly complete ban, but certain “affluent travelers” may be able to enter, but, significantly, not people on immigrant visas (the ones who’d get a green card once they come) or tourist visas.
3. This list is a draft. It is not final, and countries may change by the time it gets to the White House.
4. The ban affects travelers, not people who are inside the United States.
5. The majority of the countries are still Muslim. But there are notable exceptions, which will make it much harder to get it tossed as a “Muslim Ban”
And…here’s what we don’t know yet:
1. We don’t know if there will be a waiver option like there was during the Trump 1.0 travel ban.
2. We don’t know yet how it will affect those who have been approved for visas but have not yet traveled. We also don’t know whether it will cancel people’s visas that have already been used.
3. We don’t even really know if the ban won’t reach green card holders. I had been telling folks GC holders should be safe, but it’s clear in the wake of Mahmoud Khalil that this administration’s idea of “permanent residence” differs from the dictionary definition.
4. We don’t know how this will play out. The ban is likely to be challenged, but the administration had figured out the “winning formula” during Trump 1.0. Some form of it will almost certainly go into effect, but we don’t know exactly what it will look like.
There is a lot of uncertainty still. That’s why it’s hard to say whether loved ones who are in, say, Pakistan, should travel back to the US before 3/21.
I will say that being back in the US before 3/21 would be the only way to guarantee that the ban wouldn’t affect you. If you’re from one of these 43 countries (or however many wind up on the final list) then traveling outside the US carries some degree of risk that cannot be eliminated. The decision of whether to take that risk is a personal one, not a legal one.
But if it were my own family, I’d want them here in the US, and wait and see what actually happens. I expect that at best, it’ll be chaotic – airlines won’t receive clear guidance on how to implement the ban, which will lead to inconsistencies in application. I think more green card holders who have spent more time outside than inside the US will be scrutinized more heavily. There will be an increase in airport detentions and administrative deportations with 5-year bans on reentry. And due in part to a 2022 SCOTUS ruling, whatever happens at the consulate, you’re going to be stuck with it, as going to court will not be an option.
I guess there’s one other thing that we do know: The United States just got a lot less welcoming.
Some of these places are active war zones but I don’t know, for instance, why St Kitts would be there.
kii said:
Pardon me, but I lost track of who posted this. But, whatever.The NY Times has reported a draft version of the travel ban. The ban is expected to be finalized and/or go into effect around March 21.
First off, apologies to the multitudes of people who have emailed/texted/messaged me about the travel ban. I’m just a guy.
As of today, here’s what we know, and what we don’t:
1. There are 3 levels: red, orange, and yellow. Red is absolute ban (11 countries), orange is sharply restricted travel (10 countries), and yellow is probationary – 60 days to fix problems or else wind up on the orange or red lists (22 countries.)
2. Absolute ban means what it says. No visas, temporary or permanent. Orange will mean effectively a nearly complete ban, but certain “affluent travelers” may be able to enter, but, significantly, not people on immigrant visas (the ones who’d get a green card once they come) or tourist visas.
3. This list is a draft. It is not final, and countries may change by the time it gets to the White House.
4. The ban affects travelers, not people who are inside the United States.
5. The majority of the countries are still Muslim. But there are notable exceptions, which will make it much harder to get it tossed as a “Muslim Ban”
And…here’s what we don’t know yet:
1. We don’t know if there will be a waiver option like there was during the Trump 1.0 travel ban.
2. We don’t know yet how it will affect those who have been approved for visas but have not yet traveled. We also don’t know whether it will cancel people’s visas that have already been used.
3. We don’t even really know if the ban won’t reach green card holders. I had been telling folks GC holders should be safe, but it’s clear in the wake of Mahmoud Khalil that this administration’s idea of “permanent residence” differs from the dictionary definition.
4. We don’t know how this will play out. The ban is likely to be challenged, but the administration had figured out the “winning formula” during Trump 1.0. Some form of it will almost certainly go into effect, but we don’t know exactly what it will look like.
There is a lot of uncertainty still. That’s why it’s hard to say whether loved ones who are in, say, Pakistan, should travel back to the US before 3/21.
I will say that being back in the US before 3/21 would be the only way to guarantee that the ban wouldn’t affect you. If you’re from one of these 43 countries (or however many wind up on the final list) then traveling outside the US carries some degree of risk that cannot be eliminated. The decision of whether to take that risk is a personal one, not a legal one.
But if it were my own family, I’d want them here in the US, and wait and see what actually happens. I expect that at best, it’ll be chaotic – airlines won’t receive clear guidance on how to implement the ban, which will lead to inconsistencies in application. I think more green card holders who have spent more time outside than inside the US will be scrutinized more heavily. There will be an increase in airport detentions and administrative deportations with 5-year bans on reentry. And due in part to a 2022 SCOTUS ruling, whatever happens at the consulate, you’re going to be stuck with it, as going to court will not be an option.
I guess there’s one other thing that we do know: The United States just got a lot less welcoming.
Is that travel bans to, from of both?
I note that Russia is on the orange list.
Not going well – fortunately – for the republicans in their town hall meetings.
kii said:
well rough but maybe we wouldn’t literally call it torture
Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair. She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression. “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.
wait
He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.
so they force infected him isn’t that a war crime
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/14/mehmet-oz-confirmation-hearing/
I kind of forgot that Dr Oz is Trump’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid. His Senate hearing is on now.
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
well rough but maybe we wouldn’t literally call it torture
Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair. She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression. “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.
wait
He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.
so they force infected him isn’t that a war crime
Stripped naked and a cold shower in New Hampshire is torture.
Your distortion of the influenza infection is stupid.
dv said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/14/mehmet-oz-confirmation-hearing/
I kind of forgot that Dr Oz is Trump’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid. His Senate hearing is on now.
FFS …
Captain Mark Kelly on his Tesla, Musk, etc.
dv said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/14/mehmet-oz-confirmation-hearing/
I kind of forgot that Dr Oz is Trump’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid. His Senate hearing is on now.
“…in a festival-like setting.’‘
Did the ‘“Mädchenorchester” von Auschwitz’ provide musical accompaniment to the selection parades when the trains arrived?
captain_spalding said:
Did the ‘“Mädchenorchester” von Auschwitz’ provide musical accompaniment to the selection parades when the trains arrived?
Apparently, they did.
“They also played for sick prisoners in the infirmary, and were sometimes assigned to play when new transports arrived, or during selections.”
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/death-camps/birkenau/czajkowskazofia/”
How Trump is making Putin’s dream come true.
Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy.
He’s left Ukraine high and dry, he’s abandoning Europe, he’s slapped tariffs on America’s allies, and he’s floated the idea of seizing new territory in Greenland, Canada and the Panama canal.
And the big one: President Trump seems to have a great deal of time and respect for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
So what’s the deal with Putin and Trump – is what we’re witnessing now just the beginning of their grand plans for a new world order? And what hints can we get on how things might unfold from a conference that happened 80 years ago between US president Franklin Roosevelt, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a little town called Yalta?
This week on If You’re Listening, will Putin’s dream of an emboldened Soviet sphere come true?
ABC News In-depth channel
Spiny Norman said:
Not going well – fortunately – for the republicans in their town hall meetings.
I thought they had stopped even doing them because the peasants are revolting.
dv said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/14/mehmet-oz-confirmation-hearing/
I kind of forgot that Dr Oz is Trump’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid. His Senate hearing is on now.
FMD
Spiny Norman said:
How Trump is making Putin’s dream come true.Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy.
He’s left Ukraine high and dry, he’s abandoning Europe, he’s slapped tariffs on America’s allies, and he’s floated the idea of seizing new territory in Greenland, Canada and the Panama canal.
And the big one: President Trump seems to have a great deal of time and respect for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
So what’s the deal with Putin and Trump – is what we’re witnessing now just the beginning of their grand plans for a new world order? And what hints can we get on how things might unfold from a conference that happened 80 years ago between US president Franklin Roosevelt, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a little town called Yalta?
This week on If You’re Listening, will Putin’s dream of an emboldened Soviet sphere come true?ABC News In-depth channel
Roosevelt was quite confident that he could ‘handle’ Stalin, and talk him around to Roosevelt’s way of thinking.
Chruchill was under no such illusions, and told Roosevelt just how mistaken Churchill felt that Roosevelt was.
Roosevelt heard what he wanted to hear i.e. not what Churchill told him, but whatever ‘assurances’ Stalin was willing to offer.
sarahs mum said:
Shoulda made it vomit coloured
sarahs mum said:
Dam.
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Shoulda made it vomit coloured
haematemesis
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.
Really disappointed
diddly-squat said:
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.Really disappointed
Usually the party that causes the government shutdown gets blamed. At least this way they get to have their cake and eat it too by preventing the shutdown but also voting against the continuing resolution in numbers suffice to appeal to their base.
diddly-squat said:
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.Really disappointed
Also.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.Really disappointed
Also.
team sports good
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Shoulda made it vomit coloured
I woulda made hime step in the puddle.
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Shoulda made it vomit coloured
I woulda made hime step in the puddle.
They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:Shoulda made it vomit coloured
I woulda made hime step in the puddle.
They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:I woulda made hime step in the puddle.
They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
Perhaps they could have laid a banana skin there.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
with or without punji sticks?
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
with or without punji sticks?
Too complicated, too time-consuming.
Grizzly bear.
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
with or without punji sticks?
Without, I guess. I think if you wanted to actually kill him you could just shoot down the plane.
Maybe they could have just played Rick Astley’s Never gunna give you up instead of the proper national anthem.
party_pants said:
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
with or without punji sticks?
Without, I guess. I think if you wanted to actually kill him you could just shoot down the plane.
Maybe they could have just played Rick Astley’s Never gunna give you up instead of the proper national anthem.
Not fair to kill the pilot.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:They should have laid a ‘Trump 2024’ down there.
‘Trump 2024’ flag, that is.
(Have had no coffee yet.)
I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
LOL
captain_spalding said:
LOLOLOL
Well done!
:)
party_pants said:
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:I was thinking more along the lines of a trapdoor and pit underneath the mat.
with or without punji sticks?
Without, I guess. I think if you wanted to actually kill him you could just shoot down the plane.
Maybe they could have just played Rick Astley’s Never gunna give you up instead of the proper national anthem.
Ha!
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
LOLOLOL
Well done!
:)
If you liked that…
…here’s another recent one from Ruben:
captain_spalding said:
If you liked that…
…here’s another recent one from Ruben:
That’s very clever. But it’s not exactly funny.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:If you liked that…
…here’s another recent one from Ruben:
That’s very clever. But it’s not exactly funny.
No, not really.
‘Funny’ is when comedy parodies the real world, not when it mirrors the real world.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
LOLOLOL
Well done!
:)
If you liked that…
…here’s another recent one from Ruben:
:)
Heather Cox Richardson
18h ·
March 14, 2025 (Friday)
Today the Senate passed a stopgap measure from the House of Representatives to fund the government for six months through September 30. The measure is necessary because the Republican-dominated House has been unable to pass the appropriations bills necessary to fund the government in 2025.
Congress has kept the government open by agreeing to pass a series of continuing resolutions, or CRs, that fund the government at the levels of the previous budget. The most recent continuing resolution to keep the government funded expires at midnight tonight. The Republicans in the House passed a new measure to replace it on Tuesday and then left town, forcing the Senate either to pass it or to kill it and leave the government unfunded.
The new measure is not a so-called clean CR that simply extends previous funding. Instead, the Republican majority passed it without input from Democrats and with a number of poison pills added. The measure increases defense spending by about $6 billion from the previous year, cuts about $13 billion from nondefense spending, and cuts $20 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service. It forces Washington, D.C., to cut $1 billion from its budget, protects President Donald Trump’s ability to raise or lower tariffs as he wishes, and gives him considerable leeway in deciding where money goes.
House Democrats stood virtually united against the measure—only Jared Golden of Maine voted yes—and initially, Republican defectors on the far right who oppose levels of funding that add to the deficit appeared likely to kill it. But Trump signed on to the bill and urged Republicans to support it. In the end, on the Republican side, only Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against it.
Like the House, the Senate is dominated by Republicans, who hold 53 seats, but the institution of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to end it, gave Democrats room to stop the measure from coming to a vote. Whether they should do so or not became a heated fight over the past three days. To vote on the measure itself, Republicans needed 60 votes to end the potential for a filibuster. To get to 60 votes, Republicans would need some Democrats to agree to move on to a vote that would require a simple majority.
The struggle within the Democratic Party over how to proceed says a lot about the larger political struggle in the United States.
House Democrats took a strong stand against enabling the Trump Republicans, calling for Democratic senators to maintain the filibuster and try to force the Republicans to negotiate for a one-month continuing resolution that would give Congress time to negotiate a bipartisan bill to fund the government.
But Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would support advancing the spending bill. He argued that permitting the Republicans to shut down the government would not only hurt people, it would also give Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk full control over government spending, because under a shutdown, the administration gets to determine which functions of the government are essential and which are not.
In an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday, Schumer noted that Musk has said he was looking forward to a government shutdown. Jake Lahut, Leah Feiger, and Vittoria Elliott reported in Wired on Tuesday that Musk wanted a government shutdown because it would make it easier to get rid of hundreds of thousands of government workers. During a shutdown, the executive branch determines which workers are essential and which are not, and as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo highlights, Trump has issued an executive order calling for the government to stabilize at the skeleton crew that a government shutdown would call essential. Yesterday was the government-imposed deadline for agencies to submit plans to slash their budgets with a second wave of mass layoffs, so at least part of a plan is already in place.
Schumer said that Trump and the Republicans were forcing Democrats into a choice between a bad bill and a shutdown that would hand even more power to Trump. “he Republican bill is a terrible option,” he wrote. “It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address this country’s needs. But…Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown. We should not give them one. The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path.”
There appeared to be evidence this morning that Trump and Musk wanted a shutdown when before the vote had taken place, Trump publicly congratulated Schumer for voting to fund the government, seemingly goading him into voting against it. “eally good and smart move by Senator Schumer,” he posted.
But as Schumer and a few of his colleagues contemplated allowing the Republicans to pass their funding measure, a number of Democrats called on them to resist the Trump administration and its congressional enablers. House Democrats urged their Senate colleagues to take a stand against the destruction Trump and Musk are wreaking and to maintain a filibuster. At the forefront, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mobilized her large following to stop Schumer and those like him from deciding to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House, backed Ocasio-Cortez, issuing a statement calling the choice between a shutdown and the proposed bill a “false choice.” She called instead for fighting the Republican bill and praised the House Democrats who had voted against the measure.
“Democratic senators should listen to the women,” she wrote, who have called for a short-term extension and a negotiated bipartisan agreement. “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before—but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People.”In the end, Schumer voted to move the measure forward. Joining him were Democratic senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Gary Peters of Michigan, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Independent Angus King of Maine. One Republican—Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky—voted against moving the measure forward.
Once freed from the filibuster, Senate Republicans passed the bill by a vote of 54 to 46, with New Hampshire’s Shaheen and Maine’s King joining the Republican majority and Republican Rand Paul voting against.
And so, the government will not shut down tonight. But today’s struggle within the Democratic Party shows a split between those who lead an opposition party devoted to keeping the government functioning, and a number of Democrats who are stepping into the position of leading the resistance to MAGA as it tries to destroy the American government. Praise for those resisters shows the popular demand for leaders who will stand up to Trump and Musk.
In a similar moment in 1856, newly elected representative from Massachusetts Anson Burlingame catapulted to popularity by standing up to the elite southern enslavers who had dominated the government for years. Blustering, threatening, and manipulating the mechanics of the government, southern lawmakers had come to expect their northern political opponents, who valued civil discourse and compromise, to cave. Southern leaders threw their weight around to gather more and more power over the country into their hands. Finally, in 1854, they overreached, forcing through Congress the Kansas-Nebraska Act that permitted them to spread human enslavement into the American West. In the following elections, northerners sent to Congress a very different breed of representatives.
On May 22, 1856, pro-slavery representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina came up behind Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner and beat him nearly to death on the floor of the Senate after Sumner had given an antislavery speech Brooks found objectionable. But rather than pleading for calm and compromise in the wake of the attack, Burlingame had had enough. On June 21 he rose and gave a speech about his colleague and his state, calling it “Defence of Massachusetts.”
Burlingame stood up for his state, refuting the insults southerners had thrown at Massachusetts in recent speeches and insulting southerners in return. And Burlingame did something far more important. He called out the behavior of the southern leaders as they worked to attack the principles that supported “the very existence of the Government itself.”
“he sons of Massachusetts are educated at the knees of their mothers, in the doctrines of peace and good will, and God knows, they desire to cultivate those feelings—feelings of social kindness, and public kindness,” Burlingame said. But he warned his southern colleagues that northerners were excellent soldiers and that “if we are pushed too long and too far,” northerners would fight to defend their lives, their principles, and their country.
Burlingame provoked Brooks, and he, temperamentally unable to resist any slight, challenged Burlingame to a duel. Brooks assumed all Yankees were cowards and figured that Burlingame would decline in embarrassment. But Burlingame accepted with enthusiasm, choosing rifles as the dueling weapons. Burlingame was an expert marksman.
Burlingame also chose to duel in Canada, giving Brooks the opportunity to back out on the grounds that he felt unsafe traveling through the North after his beating of Sumner made him a hated man. The negotiations for the duel went on for months, and the duel never took place. Burlingame had turned Brooks, known as “Bully” Brooks, into a figure of ridicule, revealing that when he faced an equal opponent, his bravado was bluster.
Forgotten now, Burlingame’s speech was once widely considered one of the most important speeches in American history. It marked the moment when northerners shocked southerners by standing up to them and vowing that the North would fight for democracy. Northerners rallied to Burlingame’s call and, in so doing, reshaped politics.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:If you liked that…
…here’s another recent one from Ruben:
That’s very clever. But it’s not exactly funny.
No, not really.
‘Funny’ is when comedy parodies the real world, not when it mirrors the real world.
but what if real world is comedy
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:That’s very clever. But it’s not exactly funny.
No, not really.
‘Funny’ is when comedy parodies the real world, not when it mirrors the real world.
but what if real world is comedy
it’s not
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.Really disappointed
Also.
perhaps it is a rock and hard place thing.
also we probs need a new thread. this one is getting weighty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONE9uWyAKNo&t=13s
Wisecrack
The Soviet Strategy Fueling America’s Decline
(Hypernormalization)
It’s real.
kii said:
surely the term for that is begging
kii said:
It’s real.
FMD
That’s dangerous.
FMD
That really is the thin edge of the wedge.
FMD
Michael V said:
kii said:
It’s real.
FMD
That’s dangerous.
FMD
That really is the thin edge of the wedge.
FMD
nobody could have foreseen this, that would be psychosis too
dv said:
It’s those aliens that kill cows in the night and eat our pets.
Michael V said:
kii said:
It’s real.
FMD
That’s dangerous.
FMD
That really is the thin edge of the wedge.
FMD
They’ll be wrapping them in wet bedsheets, à la russe
roughbarked said:
dv said:
It’s those aliens that kill cows in the night and eat our pets.
we thought it was just darvo seriously
dv said:
LOLOLOL
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
It’s real.
FMD
That’s dangerous.
FMD
That really is the thin edge of the wedge.
FMD
nobody could have foreseen this, that would be psychosis too
interesting use of the
Why has the US historically funded independent media in Asia and Europe?
word
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-16/voice-of-america-radio-free-asia-us-funding-cut/105058080
“Independent”
SCIENCE said:
interesting use of the
Why has the US historically funded independent media in Asia and Europe?
word
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-16/voice-of-america-radio-free-asia-us-funding-cut/105058080
“Independent”
Oh well I’m sure China can fill that vacuum
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
What I’m hearing is I should eat more McDonald’s to use the beef we can’t sell overseas.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
Stuffem. We can sell that beef anywhere.
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
What I’m hearing is I should eat more McDonald’s to use the beef we can’t sell overseas.
Sounds like a plan except we need an Aussie hamburger franchise.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
it is the saleyards where prices are set not with the farmers.
JudgeMental said:
SCIENCE said:Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.
“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
oh we thought the fall in demand would necessitate Australian farmers to drop their prices thereby bringing less value into the Australian economy
it is the saleyards where prices are set not with the farmers.
‘tis true that.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
sigh the Dems voting through the continuation bill is, IMO, a complete failure for the party. It shows they have no direction, that they are fractured as a group and that they have no form of effective leadership.Really disappointed
Usually the party that causes the government shutdown gets blamed. At least this way they get to have their cake and eat it too by preventing the shutdown but also voting against the continuing resolution in numbers suffice to appeal to their base.
Yeah, I don’t agree.. I mean I understand the logic of your point but in my mind this just makes the Dems look weak and rudderless.. either vote for it, or don’t, but a fractured party is just bad politics. In any case, the GOP are the party of government, they hold Congress in it’s entirety and they hold the executive.. it’s their job to run government, not the Dems.
Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say
“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.
I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
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Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say
March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am Updated March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am
1 of 2 | “Dead” Ned Johnson turns out to be very much alive. It took him and… (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)More
By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.
I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
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Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.
“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”
At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.
“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”
“There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”
Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January.
Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn’t been paid, and he’s yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” which makes it tough to get a loan.
“The good news is I don’t think it can go any lower than that,” he said cheerfully.
He called the bank first, and they said an electronic notification had been triggered on Feb. 18 that he had died back in November. But I’m on the phone with you right now, he told them. Also, what did I die of? Take it up with Social Security, they said.
What followed was a nearly three-week battle to resurrect himself. He called Social Security two or three times a day for two weeks, with each call put on hold and then eventually disconnected. Finally someone answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he got a call delaying that to March 24.
In a huff, he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown. It’s one of the buildings proposed to be closed under what the AP called “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”
It was like a Depression-era scene, he said, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The employees were kind but beleaguered.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/
Divine Angel said:
This will hit Trumpie where it hurts.“Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.“
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/16/australias-trade-minister-warns-trump-tariff-war-could-raise-price-of-big-mac-in-us?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-3
I’ve already stopped buying bourbon, and that’s gonna hit them hard.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
18h ·
March 14, 2025 (Friday)Today the Senate passed a stopgap measure from the House of Representatives to fund the government for six months through September 30. The measure is necessary because the Republican-dominated House has been unable to pass the appropriations bills necessary to fund the government in 2025.
Congress has kept the government open by agreeing to pass a series of continuing resolutions, or CRs, that fund the government at the levels of the previous budget. The most recent continuing resolution to keep the government funded expires at midnight tonight. The Republicans in the House passed a new measure to replace it on Tuesday and then left town, forcing the Senate either to pass it or to kill it and leave the government unfunded.
The new measure is not a so-called clean CR that simply extends previous funding. Instead, the Republican majority passed it without input from Democrats and with a number of poison pills added. The measure increases defense spending by about $6 billion from the previous year, cuts about $13 billion from nondefense spending, and cuts $20 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service. It forces Washington, D.C., to cut $1 billion from its budget, protects President Donald Trump’s ability to raise or lower tariffs as he wishes, and gives him considerable leeway in deciding where money goes.
House Democrats stood virtually united against the measure—only Jared Golden of Maine voted yes—and initially, Republican defectors on the far right who oppose levels of funding that add to the deficit appeared likely to kill it. But Trump signed on to the bill and urged Republicans to support it. In the end, on the Republican side, only Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against it.
Like the House, the Senate is dominated by Republicans, who hold 53 seats, but the institution of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to end it, gave Democrats room to stop the measure from coming to a vote. Whether they should do so or not became a heated fight over the past three days. To vote on the measure itself, Republicans needed 60 votes to end the potential for a filibuster. To get to 60 votes, Republicans would need some Democrats to agree to move on to a vote that would require a simple majority.
The struggle within the Democratic Party over how to proceed says a lot about the larger political struggle in the United States.
House Democrats took a strong stand against enabling the Trump Republicans, calling for Democratic senators to maintain the filibuster and try to force the Republicans to negotiate for a one-month continuing resolution that would give Congress time to negotiate a bipartisan bill to fund the government.
But Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would support advancing the spending bill. He argued that permitting the Republicans to shut down the government would not only hurt people, it would also give Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk full control over government spending, because under a shutdown, the administration gets to determine which functions of the government are essential and which are not.
In an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday, Schumer noted that Musk has said he was looking forward to a government shutdown. Jake Lahut, Leah Feiger, and Vittoria Elliott reported in Wired on Tuesday that Musk wanted a government shutdown because it would make it easier to get rid of hundreds of thousands of government workers. During a shutdown, the executive branch determines which workers are essential and which are not, and as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo highlights, Trump has issued an executive order calling for the government to stabilize at the skeleton crew that a government shutdown would call essential. Yesterday was the government-imposed deadline for agencies to submit plans to slash their budgets with a second wave of mass layoffs, so at least part of a plan is already in place.
Schumer said that Trump and the Republicans were forcing Democrats into a choice between a bad bill and a shutdown that would hand even more power to Trump. “he Republican bill is a terrible option,” he wrote. “It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address this country’s needs. But…Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown. We should not give them one. The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path.”
There appeared to be evidence this morning that Trump and Musk wanted a shutdown when before the vote had taken place, Trump publicly congratulated Schumer for voting to fund the government, seemingly goading him into voting against it. “eally good and smart move by Senator Schumer,” he posted.
But as Schumer and a few of his colleagues contemplated allowing the Republicans to pass their funding measure, a number of Democrats called on them to resist the Trump administration and its congressional enablers. House Democrats urged their Senate colleagues to take a stand against the destruction Trump and Musk are wreaking and to maintain a filibuster. At the forefront, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mobilized her large following to stop Schumer and those like him from deciding to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House, backed Ocasio-Cortez, issuing a statement calling the choice between a shutdown and the proposed bill a “false choice.” She called instead for fighting the Republican bill and praised the House Democrats who had voted against the measure.
“Democratic senators should listen to the women,” she wrote, who have called for a short-term extension and a negotiated bipartisan agreement. “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before—but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People.”In the end, Schumer voted to move the measure forward. Joining him were Democratic senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Gary Peters of Michigan, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Independent Angus King of Maine. One Republican—Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky—voted against moving the measure forward.
Once freed from the filibuster, Senate Republicans passed the bill by a vote of 54 to 46, with New Hampshire’s Shaheen and Maine’s King joining the Republican majority and Republican Rand Paul voting against.
And so, the government will not shut down tonight. But today’s struggle within the Democratic Party shows a split between those who lead an opposition party devoted to keeping the government functioning, and a number of Democrats who are stepping into the position of leading the resistance to MAGA as it tries to destroy the American government. Praise for those resisters shows the popular demand for leaders who will stand up to Trump and Musk.
In a similar moment in 1856, newly elected representative from Massachusetts Anson Burlingame catapulted to popularity by standing up to the elite southern enslavers who had dominated the government for years. Blustering, threatening, and manipulating the mechanics of the government, southern lawmakers had come to expect their northern political opponents, who valued civil discourse and compromise, to cave. Southern leaders threw their weight around to gather more and more power over the country into their hands. Finally, in 1854, they overreached, forcing through Congress the Kansas-Nebraska Act that permitted them to spread human enslavement into the American West. In the following elections, northerners sent to Congress a very different breed of representatives.
On May 22, 1856, pro-slavery representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina came up behind Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner and beat him nearly to death on the floor of the Senate after Sumner had given an antislavery speech Brooks found objectionable. But rather than pleading for calm and compromise in the wake of the attack, Burlingame had had enough. On June 21 he rose and gave a speech about his colleague and his state, calling it “Defence of Massachusetts.”
Burlingame stood up for his state, refuting the insults southerners had thrown at Massachusetts in recent speeches and insulting southerners in return. And Burlingame did something far more important. He called out the behavior of the southern leaders as they worked to attack the principles that supported “the very existence of the Government itself.”
“he sons of Massachusetts are educated at the knees of their mothers, in the doctrines of peace and good will, and God knows, they desire to cultivate those feelings—feelings of social kindness, and public kindness,” Burlingame said. But he warned his southern colleagues that northerners were excellent soldiers and that “if we are pushed too long and too far,” northerners would fight to defend their lives, their principles, and their country.
Burlingame provoked Brooks, and he, temperamentally unable to resist any slight, challenged Burlingame to a duel. Brooks assumed all Yankees were cowards and figured that Burlingame would decline in embarrassment. But Burlingame accepted with enthusiasm, choosing rifles as the dueling weapons. Burlingame was an expert marksman.
Burlingame also chose to duel in Canada, giving Brooks the opportunity to back out on the grounds that he felt unsafe traveling through the North after his beating of Sumner made him a hated man. The negotiations for the duel went on for months, and the duel never took place. Burlingame had turned Brooks, known as “Bully” Brooks, into a figure of ridicule, revealing that when he faced an equal opponent, his bravado was bluster.
Forgotten now, Burlingame’s speech was once widely considered one of the most important speeches in American history. It marked the moment when northerners shocked southerners by standing up to them and vowing that the North would fight for democracy. Northerners rallied to Burlingame’s call and, in so doing, reshaped politics.
Re-posted for diddly-squat.
I thought this interesting.
dv said:
Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.
I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
Local Politics
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Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say
March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am Updated March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am1 of 2 | “Dead” Ned Johnson turns out to be very much alive. It took him and… (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)More By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
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Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”
At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.
“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”
“There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”
Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January.
Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn’t been paid, and he’s yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” which makes it tough to get a loan.
“The good news is I don’t think it can go any lower than that,” he said cheerfully.
He called the bank first, and they said an electronic notification had been triggered on Feb. 18 that he had died back in November. But I’m on the phone with you right now, he told them. Also, what did I die of? Take it up with Social Security, they said.
What followed was a nearly three-week battle to resurrect himself. He called Social Security two or three times a day for two weeks, with each call put on hold and then eventually disconnected. Finally someone answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he got a call delaying that to March 24.
In a huff, he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown. It’s one of the buildings proposed to be closed under what the AP called “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”
It was like a Depression-era scene, he said, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The employees were kind but beleaguered.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/
FMD
What a dreadful position to be in.
:(
Michael V said:
dv said:
Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.
I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
Local Politics
Log In Subscribe
SALE! Get 12 weeks of news for only $1.
Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say
March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am Updated March 15, 2025 at 6:00 am1 of 2 | “Dead” Ned Johnson turns out to be very much alive. It took him and… (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)More By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.
Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”
That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).
Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.
ADVERTISING
Skip AdSkip Ad
Skip Ad
Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”
At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.
“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”
“There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”
Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January.
Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn’t been paid, and he’s yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” which makes it tough to get a loan.
“The good news is I don’t think it can go any lower than that,” he said cheerfully.
He called the bank first, and they said an electronic notification had been triggered on Feb. 18 that he had died back in November. But I’m on the phone with you right now, he told them. Also, what did I die of? Take it up with Social Security, they said.
What followed was a nearly three-week battle to resurrect himself. He called Social Security two or three times a day for two weeks, with each call put on hold and then eventually disconnected. Finally someone answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he got a call delaying that to March 24.
In a huff, he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown. It’s one of the buildings proposed to be closed under what the AP called “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”
It was like a Depression-era scene, he said, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The employees were kind but beleaguered.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/
FMD
What a dreadful position to be in.
:(
i could imagine that happening with centrelnk. but not to thousands of people.
sarahs mum said:
FMD
This all so mind-blowingly awful and depressing.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
she doesn’t even look ethnic or dark skinned or such.
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
she doesn’t even look ethnic or dark skinned or such.
Yebbut, she probably sounds ‘foreign’ to the dogey brothers, and that’s all they’d need.
sarahs mum said:
“What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America”
Seems like it has become just that.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
“What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America”
Seems like it has become just that.
^
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
“What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America”
Seems like it has become just that.
^
perhaps she has been to israel or cuba or canada.
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:“What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America”
Seems like it has become just that.
^
perhaps she has been to israel or cuba or canada.
Or worse, Taxachusetts.
kii said:
It’s real.
Signs of psychic pathology eh?
sarahs mum said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
· This is fascism…this is Becky Burke she was on a back packing tour of North America and crashed into Trumps immigration pogroms. Her father writes “Our daughter Becky, a 28-year-old British tourist, has been caught up in the recent immigration crackdown in the US. What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America has turned into a nightmare. Despite being a tourist with no criminal record, she was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. Becky’s current conditions are deeply concerning. She is sharing a cell, surviving on a diet of cold rice, potatoes, and beans (she is vegan), and has limited access to phone calls. Visitors are restricted to speaking through a glass screen via telephone. All her possessions have been confiscated, and she feels isolated and desperate to come home. We are doing everything we can. We are in touch with the British Consulate in London and San Francisco. An American friend is helping by sending funds to her inmate account so she can buy basic necessities like tea. But progress has been slow, and we urgently need more support. We are asking for your help. Please share Becky’s story widely through your networks. We hope to connect with experts, legal professionals, or anyone who can offer advice or assistance. Becky is a kind, adventurous young woman who simply wants to return home to her family.”
FMD
she doesn’t even look ethnic or dark skinned or such.
Yebbut, she probably sounds ‘foreign’ to the dogey brothers, and that’s all they’d need.
“What was meant to be a life-changing four-month backpacking trip across North America”
Seems like it has become just that.
^
perhaps she has been to israel or cuba or canada.
makes one wonder just how concentration camping it has to get before they change the flags on this
political statement thing
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
Woodie said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
Woodie said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
FMD
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80y3yx1jdyo
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Michael V said:
FMD
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
so uh why
SCIENCE said:
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
so uh why
We’ve only her word for the reason, which is that she was refused entry on the grounds of suspicion that she was going to work there illegally.
The incarceration seems a bit unnecessary but this is not “fascism”. Settle down.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
Woodie said:
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
so uh why
We’ve only her word for the reason, which is that she was refused entry on the grounds of suspicion that she was going to work there illegally.
The incarceration seems a bit unnecessary but this is not “fascism”. Settle down.
fair enough we suppose if there were actually work camps then someone going someplace to work legally or illegally can’t complain that they aren’t finding work
communists hiding their faces under masks like criminals
An RSVP for “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., advised supporters to mask up to participate. (Getty/AP)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-tell-supporters-mask-up-ahead-fighting-oligarchy-tour
CANADA Defies TRUMP, Kills F-35 Deal,
so does Portugal;.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NJiugd0Ys
sarahs mum said:
CANADA Defies TRUMP, Kills F-35 Deal,so does Portugal;.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NJiugd0Ys
Good.
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
CANADA Defies TRUMP, Kills F-35 Deal,so does Portugal;.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NJiugd0Ys
Good.
trump’s certainly being an economic wizard.
sarahs mum said:
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
CANADA Defies TRUMP, Kills F-35 Deal,so does Portugal;.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NJiugd0Ys
Good.
trump’s certainly being an economic wizard.
winning the peace prize
Michael V said:
This all so mind-blowingly awful and depressing.
It isn’t at all good news.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
AussieDJ said:Good.
trump’s certainly being an economic wizard.
winning the peace prize
He’s the best no the ONLY person in the world who can do this.
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
Woodie said:
Woodie said:
Michael V said:FMD
Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
^this
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
It’s all in the BBC article posted.
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
It’s all in the BBC article posted.
so what is the tl;dr version?
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/11/british-tourist-detained-us-canada/82267160007/
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/03/10/becky-burke-detained-by-ice/
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/11/british-tourist-detained-us-canada/82267160007/
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/03/10/becky-burke-detained-by-ice/
diddly-squat said:
Woodie said:
Woodie said:Anybody gunna look up why she was refused entry into Canada first, then this happened on trying to return to the US???????
They do that sorta thing here too, ya know.
^this
that >
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
does anyone here know what her visa status was when she was arrested?
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/11/british-tourist-detained-us-canada/82267160007/
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/03/10/becky-burke-detained-by-ice/
thanks
From: diddly-squat
ID: 2261611
Subject: re: Australian politics -March 2025
Bernie Sanders speaks about the continuing resolution that just passed the senate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcIahANO6Lk
—
Bernie is getting some big turnouts.
Trump Threatens To JAIL Maddow After Going PUBLIC Over Scandal!
‘link”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApA23Xt5FY
it had to happen.
sarahs mum said:
From: diddly-squat
ID: 2261611
Subject: re: Australian politics -March 2025
Bernie Sanders speaks about the continuing resolution that just passed the senatehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcIahANO6Lk
—
Bernie is getting some big turnouts.
pity about the previous round eh
SCIENCE said:
Gee, i’d like to buy a Tesla, Elon, but Donny said i can’t go to any of the dealerships.
This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Gee, i’d like to buy a Tesla, Elon, but Donny said i can’t go to any of the dealerships.
say what you will about DJT, but that guy sure has helped the sale of EV’s among the non-believers – doing God’s work for the environment…
sarahs mum said:
Trump Threatens To JAIL Maddow After Going PUBLIC Over Scandal!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApA23Xt5FYit had to happen.
did it actually though
When Donald Trump said he wanted to be a
dictator on day one we told people to
believe him because we knew that’s what
Donald Trump would want to do want to
concentrate as much power as possible in
the Oval Office so he could make him and
his wealthy buddies in the biggest
corporations in America even richer all
while going after his enemies with
impunity that is Donald Trump’s sole
focus more money for his buddies and
then political vengeance and we saw that
second part play out in Donald Trump’s
visit to his doj yesterday because that
is certainly how he sees it it’s not the
Department of Justice it is Donald
Trump’s Department of Justice and that
was made really clear by one specific
statement in which he let us all know
who his biggest target is pretty much
Rachel madow and it is incredibly scary
we’re going to get into it all but
before we do if I could quickly ask you
to leave a like on this video and if you
haven’t already and you enjoy our
channel to hit that subscribe button it
goes a long way and it really does mean
a lot to me now before we can get into
what Trump had to say at his press
conference actually want to hear the
person that we’re going to be talking
about break it down that’s Rachel mattow
right here one of Donald Trump’s first
acts upon being sworn in as president
for a second term uh was to appoint a
new US attorney in Washington DC his
name is Ed Martin it quickly became
clear what made Ed Martin so appealing
to Trump for this term um Ed Martin was
at the US capital on January 6th he said
it was great said it was like Marty um
he later served as a defense lawyer for
several Trump supporters who were
charged with attacking police officers
during the attack on the Capal that day
once Trump named him us attorney in
Washington the top federal prosecutor in
Washington DC Mr Martin immediately set
about demoting and firing Federal
prosecutors who had worked on January 6
cases he also honestly uh tried to
indict Chuck Schumer
the top Democrat in the Senate an effort
so outlandish he apparently couldn’t
even get Trump Justice Department
officials to sign off on it Ed Martin
also tried to get one top prosecutor in
his office to order a bank to freeze
billions of dollars that had been
dispersed by the Biden Administration in
a Federal grant that prosecutor resigned
rather than follow that order from Ed
Martin she resigned because she said
there was no crime there was no legal
justification for opening a criminal
investigation and thereby freezing those
funds she said he was essentially
telling her to fake a criminal
investigation and she wouldn’t do
it Ed Martin after she resigned then
personally signed and submitted a
seizure warrant for the funds in that
bank account because he couldn’t find
anybody else willing to sign it the
judge he submitted that warrant to
rejected it because again no evidence of
any
crime this week Congressman Jamie Rasin
Democrat of Maryland asked the Justice
Department’s Inspector General to open
an inquiry into the behavior of Mr
Martin as us attorney in Washington DC
rasen’s letter outlined all the things
Martin has done that he says could
potentially deserve investigation by the
Inspector General the list runs to nine
pages single spaced in small type Ed
Martin hasn’t even been running that
office for two
months Democrats in the Senate have also
asked for an investigation of Ed Martin
from the DC bar um and in an a
development that’s surely totally
unrelated I should mention that Ed
Martin and Trump’s attorney general Pam
Bondi are reportedly now moving to try
to take control of the DC bar themselves
they’re doing it very stealthily by
having Ed Martin’s deputy and Pam
bondy’s brother run for leadership roles
to take over the DC
bar good luck with that I’m sure nobody
will notice is it the Bondi as in Bondi
yeah same last
name you might think that developments
like this might create a real sense of
turmoil uh hunkering down maybe or at
least a lot of renewed hard work at the
justice department well let’s look at
what attorney general Pam Bondi has been
up to in the midst of this mess you
might recall that last week Trump signed
an executive order to punish a
particular Law Firm because that law
firm has done work for Democrats among
other things Trump’s executive order
would block anyone from that law firm
from entering Federal cour houses which
might make it difficult to be a lawyer
in Washington DC I’m just saying the law
firm naturally sued um and because the
case was so important to Trump and
potentially because it was difficult to
find any career prosecutors who really
wanted to defend it um attorney general
Pam bandi sent her own Chief of Staff
the Attorney General’s Chief of Staff to
argue the case himself personally in
federal court so while Donald Trump is
an equal opportunity critic of the media
of the press holding him accountable
always trying to Bar an outlet from
speaking out against him or not using
the the proper pronouns for his body of
water the Gulf of America he’s been
particularly critical of Rachel madout
lately saying that her ratings are
tanking in a couple times over the past
weeks saying that MSNBC should fire her
that they should be forced to and now
Donald Trump has a new line of attack on
what is clearly his least favorite
journalist this right here can’t allow
yourselves to be deflected you just
can’t let it happen you have so many you
have such a higher calling and I believe
that CNN and
msdnc who literally write
97.6% bad about me are political arms of
the Democrat Party and in my opinion
they’re really corrupt and they’re
illegal what they do is illegal it makes
no difference how big a victory I had I
can have the biggest victory in history
it makes no difference what kind of a
failure the other side has what
MSNBC and CNN are doing to Donald Trump
is illegal now he didn’t specify what so
we can only be led to believe that it’s
criticizing him that he thinks should be
illegal while standing at the Department
of Justice railing against his political
enem enemies who are already on a list
of his FBI
director we didn’t forget about that we
didn’t forget about the cash pel enemies
list I’m sure he’s already gotten
started on that truth to Donald Trump
should be illegal holding the powerful
to account should be illegal but but
it’s not even just that it is
disagreement with Donald Trump that
should be illegal this is a man who has
tanked our economy who is
unsettled consumer sentiment who is
fired veterans in Mass tanking the stock
market breaking our alliances turning
his back on a hundred years of America’s
role in the world but he says America is
great because America is great to Donald
Trump When Donald Trump is in charge of
America the Press is doing its job when
they’re supporting Donald Trump and if
they’re not it’s illegal that’s what
he’s made clear that is his position and
it’s terrifying and Jake Tapper someone
who I guess is also illegal under Donald
Trump’s view had a great response to it
this President Donald Trump who was long
railed against the politicization of the
justice department this afternoon came
to the Great Hall of the doj and
delivered one of the most political
speeches ever given there by a US
president the president claimed he was
quote turning the page on four long
years of weaponization referring to the
Biden years and then he launched into
ways he apparently wants to weaponize
the justice department against the news
media and perceived political opponents
he started of course by airing
grievances some of them legitimate with
investigations and prosecutions
involving
him they spied on my campaign launched
one hoax and disinformation operation
after another broke the law in a
colossal scale persecuted my family
staff and supporters raided my home
maralago
and did everything within their power to
prevent me from becoming the president
of the United States he then turned to
his supportive attorney general and FBI
director and presented what seemed to be
marching
orders the American people have given us
a mandate and really a far re just a
far-reaching
investigation is what they are demanding
into the corruption of our system and
that’s exactly I’m sure what Pam and
cash and everyone else mentioned here
and not mentioned is going to be doing
we will expel the Rogue actors and
corrupt forces from our government part
of the orders also apparently include uh
Prosecuting those in the news media who
do not cover him
glowingly and I believe that CNN and
msdnc who literally write
97.6% bad about me or political arms of
the Democrat Party and in my opinion
they’re really corrupt and they’re
illegal what they do is illegal it makes
no difference how big a victory I had I
can have the biggest victory in history
these networks and these newspapers are
really no different than a highly paid
political operative and it has to stop
it has to be illegal it’s influencing
judges and it’s in it’s really a
changing law and it just cannot be
legal it makes no difference how big a
victory I had the president said while
complaining about the news media it has
to stop it can’t be legal prompting the
question is the president suggesting
that it should be a crime for the news
media to report accurately that he lost
the 2020
election that as his attorney general
Bill bar stated at the time there was no
widespread fraud that would have changed
the outcome is that what he’s suggesting
this is all of a piece of course uh in
his view of the justice department
starting just hours after his
inauguration when President pardon or
commuted the sentences of every single
RI or her storm the capital on January 6
nearly there’s been a lot of talk in the
Trump Administration about who should
and should not be in this
country based on whether or not they
make it a safe place which is a nice
nice fascist starting point talk about
anti-American activity right and and
who’s a real American and who this
country is for
right we saw a republican Congressman
Congressman Gil from Texas say that
multiculturalism is destroying
America although his wife is Indian and
he is white it’s the hypocrisy of Maga
January 6 is fine let those people free
what’s really dangerous is truth it’s
not a violent attack on the capital that
we should be worried about it’s people
calling out those who pardon the violent
offenders it’s insanity and Magie can’t
defend it as we can see do you think it
should be illegal to criticize the judge
and also I recall president Trump being
pretty critical of the a couple judges
in New York I mean wouldn’t it apply to
him well Jake I was at the uh I was at
his speech today and I thought uh you’re
the reporting you’re hearing is not EXA
at all what I heard I heard a president
who said we’re going to get the
Department of Justice back to the
business of apprehending Prosecuting and
making sure that we have a rule of law
in this country I introduced Pam Bondi
and cash Patel and I even saw Leo Terell
was there and Leo of course is uh doing
some great work for the justice
department investigating anti-Semitism
on college campuses including the my own
University of Minnesota but as far as
the judges he was talking about
intimidation of Judges by others outside
or the lawyers are intimidating judges I
think that’s the point he was making and
it was well received by most of the
people there let me ask you hey Tom
emmer Remember When Donald Trump spent
the entirety of last summer really all
last year threatening judges saying he’d
come for them saying that some need to
put them in their place all sorts of
threats increasingly had larger gag
orders because of I wish they had put
him in prison once for those you don’t
remember that or you don’t seem to care
yeah that tracks that’s
magga that’s Maga that’s what we’re
dealing with and that’s what we have to
call out and we’re certainly going to on
this show every single day and if you
want to support that as always you hit
that subscribe button you can leave a
like on this video and if you stuck
around to the end you can drop a blue
heart in the comments and until next
time and if Donald Trump doesn’t put us
in jail for speaking the truth I’ll see
you soon
diddly-squat said:
This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
Solid and appropriate use of rhetoric.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
Solid and appropriate use of rhetoric.
“We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,”
diddly-squat said:
This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
The US might take back ti Eiffel Tower, be careful what you wish for.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
Gee, i’d like to buy a Tesla, Elon, but Donny said i can’t go to any of the dealerships.
say what you will about DJT, but that guy sure has helped the sale of EV’s among the non-believers – doing God’s work for the environment…
256-dimensional othello
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
The US might take back ti Eiffel Tower, be careful what you wish for.
I’ve been to Vegas.. they already have their own
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
The US might take back ti Eiffel Tower, be careful what you wish for.
Belay that.
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:
This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
The US might take back ti Eiffel Tower, be careful what you wish for.
wait until the houthis return the fertiliser deliveries
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)
Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
Federalists in Congress passed the laws during what is known as the “Quasi-War” with France during the French Revolution, when it appeared that members of their political opposition in the U.S. were working to destabilize the U.S. government’s foreign policy of neutrality and overthrow the government so it would side with France in its struggles with Spain and Great Britain.
Their fears were not unfounded. In 1793, the year after French citizens overthrew the French monarchy, Edmond Charles Genêt arrived in the United States to serve as the French minister to the U.S. Immediately, Citizen Genêt ignored U.S. neutrality and began outfitting privateers to prey on British shipping. When the government told him to stop, he threatened to appeal to the American people. More radical French officials replaced Genêt in 1794, although he stayed in the U.S. out of concern for his safety under the new regime in France.
But his threat to appeal to Americans highlighted the growing tension between the party of George Washington and John Adams—the Federalists—and the party of Thomas Jefferson: the Democratic-Republicans (or Jeffersonian Republicans). Democratic-Republicans thought that the Federalists were moving toward monarchy, and they worked to undermine that shift by building ties with the French government to put members of their own party into office. In 1798 a private citizen, George Logan, traveled to France to negotiate with the government for policies that would strengthen the hands of the Democratic-Republicans at home.
It’s from Logan’s attempt that we got the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from “directly or indirectly” working with a foreign government to influence either the foreign government or the U.S. government. This is one of the laws Trump’s national security advisor Mike Flynn likely ran afoul of after the 2016 election when, as a private citizen, he talked to Russian operatives about Trump’s plans to change U.S. foreign policy once he was in office.
In addition to the Logan Act, Federalists in Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, including the Alien Enemies Act. That law, which applies during wartime or when a foreign government threatens an “invasion” or “predatory incursion,” permits the president to authorize the arrest, imprisonment, or deportation of people older than 14 who come from a foreign enemy country. President James Madison used the law to arrest British nationals during the War of 1812, President Woodrow Wilson invoked it against Germans during World War I, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used it against Japanese, Italian, and German noncitizens.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would use the Alien Enemies Act to deport gang members, and in an executive order signed Friday night but released yesterday morning after news of it leaked, Trump claimed that thousands of members of the Tren de Aragua gang have “unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” In connection with the Venezuelan government, he said, the gang has made incursions into the U.S. with the goal of “destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.”
Marc Caputo of Axios reported that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem orchestrated the weekend’s events. Caputo explained that after news of the executive order leaked, an immigration activist who tracks deportation flights posted on social media at 2:31 p.m. that “TWO HIGHLY UNUSUAL I C E flights” were leaving Texas on a flight path to El Salvador.
The administration was deporting more than 200 men it claimed were members of the Tren de Aragua gang and sending them to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele had agreed to accept prisoners from the U.S. for “a very low fee.” Tim Sullivan and Elliot Spagat of the Associated Press report that the administration agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison about 300 men for a year.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democracy Forward promptly filed a lawsuit warning that Trump would be using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans in the country as gang members, regardless of whether there was any evidence of their gang membership and regardless of whether Venezuela is truly trying to invade the United States. The suit asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the deportation of five Venezuelans in federal custody who believed they were about to be deported. At least one of the men said he wasn’t a member of the gang.
Judge James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the D.C. Circuit, issued a temporary restraining order stopping the government from deporting the five men. The administration promptly appealed, and the ACLU asked the judge to expand the order to cover all migrants who could fall under Trump’s executive order.
Ryan Goodman of Just Security put together the timeline of what came next. At 5:00 last night, Judge Boasberg asked whether deportations would happen in the next 24–48 hours. The government’s attorney said he didn’t know; the ACLU attorney said the government was moving rapidly. Before 5:22, Boasberg ordered a break so the government attorney could obtain official information before the hearing resumed at 6:00.
At 5:45, Goodman reports, another flight took off.
Before 6:52, Judge Boasberg agreed with the ACLU that the terms of the Alien Enemies Act apply only to “enemy nations,” and blocked deportations under it. Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Gary Grumbach of NBC News reported that the judge ordered the administration to return the planes in flight to the United States. “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off, or is in the air, needs to be returned to the United States,” the judge said. “Those people need to be returned to the United States.”
Caputo reports that White House officials discussed whether to order the planes, which were then off the Yucatan Peninsula, to turn around but chose not to.
At 8:02, Goodman reports, more than an hour past the judge’s order to recall the planes, a flight arrived in El Salvador.
Last night, El Salvador’s president reposted an article explaining that a federal judge had ordered the planes to return to the U.S., adding the comment: “Oopsie… Too late,” with a laughing emoji. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted it.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Caputo, “If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a fight we are more than happy to take.” But while the administration would like to make this crisis about the alleged behavior of the men they deported, it is really about the rule of law in the United States.
As law professor Steve Vladeck explains, the administration is asserting that Trump himself can determine that the country is at war although it obviously isn’t, an assertion that Tim Balk of the New York Times notes would give Trump the power to arrest, detain, and deport all migrants over the age of 14 without due process, as he determined who is a gang member without due process. We have no evidence that the men deported were gang members, and now they have vanished.
In addition, the administration appears to have violated the orders of the court. As legal analyst Harry Litman wrote: “The table is set for the most direct showdown of Trump and the courts to date. Administration admits today that 100s of supposed gang members were deported w/ no process. chief judge of district court Jeb Boasberg had ordered them not to do it and to return any planes that had been sent.”
Legal commentator Joyce White Vance added that although there will be fights over who did what, when, the case will be headed to the Supreme Court, where Trump will hope for a decision “that says he can do these deportations regardless of other legal issues, because he is the president, and the president has the power to do whatever he deems necessary under Article II of the Constitution.” She adds:” If presidents can do whatever they want, including putting people on a plane and sending them to prisons in a foreign country with no due process whatsoever, then really, who are we?”
Trump’s erosion of the rule of law has been speeding up since he took office. On March 6 he began to target lawyers when he signed an executive order designed to put the Perkins Coie law firm, which often represents Democratic politicians and organizations, out of business. After a judge blocked his order harassing Perkins Coie, Trump followed it with attacks on the Paul, Weiss law firm, and then on Covington.
On Friday Trump appeared at the Department of Justice, the arm of government charged with protecting the equal protection of the laws, where he said those who challenge his actions are “horrible people. They are scum.” The president of the United States identified lawyers he dislikes by name from the Department of Justice, an astonishing attempt to undermine the rule of law by endangering particular individuals who would protect it.
“We are inevitably headed,” Vance wrote, “to a confrontation between a president who has rejected the rule of law and a judge sworn to enforce it. We are in an exceedingly dangerous moment for democracy.”
In Common Sense, when he made the argument against monarchy that would drive the colonists to create their own new form of government, Thomas Paine warned his neighbors that without the rule of law, the country belongs to a king. He urged them to turn away from a world that gave one man such absolute power. “o far as we approve of monarchy,” he wrote, “in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club held its championship today. He posted tonight that he is proud to have won it again this year.
Peak Warming Man said:
diddly-squat said:This is priceless…
Give back the Statue of Liberty, French MEP tells US
https://www.politico.eu/article/statue-of-liberty-france-nyc-mep-socialists-democrats-group/
The US might take back ti Eiffel Tower, be careful what you wish for.
Um. That’s not how it happened…. But if it was a gift from the US (which it wasn’t) many Parisians would actually enjoy getting rid of it.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club held its championship today. He posted tonight that he is proud to have won it again this year.
Was he the only golfer?
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
One small step for a man, one giant leap to a kingdom.
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)
—-
that’s a lot of stuff we haven’t read in other places.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
In a way, that’s one possible interpretation of stuff the US Supreme Court has already made a judgement on.
Trump says he was ‘being a little bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Ukraine war in 24 hours
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5197961-trump-says-he-was-being-a-little-bit-sarcastic-when-he-promised-to-end-ukraine-war-in-24-hours/
roughbarked said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
One small step for a man, one giant leap to a kingdom.
Just stop with your useless comments.
dv said:
Trump says he was ‘being a little bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Ukraine war in 24 hourshttps://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5197961-trump-says-he-was-being-a-little-bit-sarcastic-when-he-promised-to-end-ukraine-war-in-24-hours/
You wonder with Ukraine when does it become fatalistic
Would you as a nation be willing to give up territory to end a war (which itself means trusting Putin)
Or keep fighting to the bitter end and possibly have hundreds of thousands of more dead in the hope of a better outcome.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)
—-that’s a lot of stuff we haven’t read in other places.
As an aside, one way of fixing this (use of ancient legislation) problem there, here and elsewhere is to have mandated sunset clauses on all legislation. If not reviewed, altered if necessary, then resubmitted and re-passed by a date set in the legislation (or other legislation, or even in the constitution), it automatically lapses.
kii said:
It seems quite true the US government offers incentives to the underclasses to join the military.
Basic health care and such that should be a right from the start
Once you have done your duty, they discard you.
Cymek said:
kii said:
It seems quite true the US government offers incentives to the underclasses to join the military.
Basic health care and such that should be a right from the start
Once you have done your duty, they discard you.
It’s very true. Plus people in the military historically have supported the GOP. Thinking they are what’s best for pay and conditions. From memory it’s the Democrats who get the better deals for active and retired military.
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
I think we’ve already established that the POTUS has immunity in all matters relating to the execution of his duties.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
I think we’ve already established that the POTUS has immunity in all matters relating to the execution of his duties.
That’s civil and criminal immunity. It s not carte blanche to break the constitution.
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 16, 2025 (Sunday)Yesterday, President Donald Trump reached back to 1798 for authority to expel five people he claims are members of a Venezuelan gang. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as the legal basis for the expulsion. The Alien Enemies Act was one of four laws from 1798 that make up the so-called Alien and Sedition Acts.
I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
I think we’ve already established that the POTUS has immunity in all matters relating to the execution of his duties.
US deports 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court ruling to halt flights
Trump invoked 1798 law previously used to detain Japanese Americans in second world war to justify deportations
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/deportation-alleged-gang-members-el-salvador
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
I think we’ve already established that the POTUS has immunity in all matters relating to the execution of his duties.
That’s civil and criminal immunity. It s not carte blanche to break the constitution.
well yes, but “legal consequences” implies some from of punitive action.. we’ve already see the courts apply the hand break to certain executive orders and I expect we’ll continue to do so.. but there won’t be any “consequences” per se
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
I think we’ve already established that the POTUS has immunity in all matters relating to the execution of his duties.
It’s interesting that so many nations born in blood become the very thing they fought against.
A president with more power than the kings and queens of old, various freedoms curtailed except the ones propping up the status quo.
Religious still has its day but only the fundamentalist ones.
it seems mental to me that given the circumstances under which the Constitution was formed that it offers such wide privileges to, particularly the head of the the executive branch.
it also seems mental to me that they would allow life long tenure in positions like the Supreme Court Justices.
kii said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:I think what happens next will be an important test of what kind of country the US is now. If there are no legal consequences then the law doesn’t apply to the executive.
One small step for a man, one giant leap to a kingdom.
Just stop with your useless comments.
z <- -z
dv said:
Trump says he was ‘being a little bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Ukraine war in 24 hourshttps://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5197961-trump-says-he-was-being-a-little-bit-sarcastic-when-he-promised-to-end-ukraine-war-in-24-hours/
nobody could have foreseen this
Cymek said:
dv said:
Trump says he was ‘being a little bit sarcastic’ when he promised to end Ukraine war in 24 hourshttps://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5197961-trump-says-he-was-being-a-little-bit-sarcastic-when-he-promised-to-end-ukraine-war-in-24-hours/
You wonder with Ukraine when does it become fatalistic
Would you as a nation be willing to give up territory to end a war (which itself means trusting Putin)
Or keep fighting to the bitter end and possibly have hundreds of thousands of more dead in the hope of a better outcome.
giving up land will totally guarantee peace with an enemy that will totally not be strengthened by receiving valuable land
sarahs mum said:
US deports 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court ruling to halt flights
Trump invoked 1798 law previously used to detain Japanese Americans in second world war to justify deportationshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/deportation-alleged-gang-members-el-salvador
nobody could have foreseen this
wait we thought the courts were going to check and balance things
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought the courts were going to check and balance things
well, I mean, some people didn’t…
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought the courts were going to check and balance things
One of the last things mr kii said to me about the political situation here before he died…It would be okay because of the checks and balances. The past 4 years would have horrified him.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought the courts were going to check and balance things
One of the last things mr kii said to me about the political situation here before he died…It would be okay because of the checks and balances. The past 4 years would have horrified him.
it’s horrifying you and me day to day.
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Faaaark!!!!
Even more insane than usual.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought the courts were going to check and balance things
One of the last things mr kii said to me about the political situation here before he died…It would be okay because of the checks and balances. The past 4 years would have horrified him.
Its the entire point of the courts to not be subjected to political whims and inference.
Corrupts them before they even starts to hear cases
Prejudging but its seems a very yank way of making everything pageantry when it should be business as usual.
The courts shouldn’t care who you are but the circumstances behind it all.
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
what was kii saying about being horrified?
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
Well, moe of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
Neophyte said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
Well, moe of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
at least we know now why they have been rabbiting on about autopens while the country falls apart into a heap of shit..
Haven’t been keeping up with the shit Trump’s been pulling so this may have already been discussed.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-musk-doge-treasury-take-money-bank-account-1235295232/
“On February 11, 2025, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency housed in the Department of Homeland Security, removed $80.5 million from New York City’s main bank account, which is an account with Citibank. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. They “debited,” the financial way of referring to “subtracting,” New York City’s “central treasury account” for $80.5 million. According to public statements by Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller, this could only be covered by a line of credit facility to the tune of $79.5 million. In short they, in essence, sent New York City’s main bank account to negative $79.5 million to rescind routine funding appropriated by Congress to house refugees. Citibank kindly agreed to forgive the overdraft fee.On February 18, a FEMA-branded letter authored by Cameron Hamilton, a person described in the letter as a “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator,” was sent to New York City government. The letter explained that the money was “clawed back” because of a range of claims about illegal activity which The New York Post alleged took place in the hotels the city paid to put Venezuelan refugees in. I can’t really communicate to readers what this letter reads like, so I will simply quote an important paragraph to provide the flavor.
The letter expresses “significant concerns” that FEMA “funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities. For example, a substantial portion of your award goes to funding alien housing at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. According to media reports, the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua has taken over the hotel and is using it as a recruiting center and base of operations to plan a variety of crimes. According to these same reports, these crimes include gun and drug sales as well as sex trafficking, which can reasonably be presumed to be conducted in the hotel itself. One of the groups responsible for these activities refer to themselves as ‘diablos de la 42,’ which means the devils of 42nd St., a street near where the Roosevelt Hotel is located. DHS/FEMA has a responsibility to ensure that it does not make payments that fund criminal activity.”
This justification for denying congressionally appropriated funds is extremely legally dubious. This justification for “reversing” the disbursement of already disbursed funds is far beyond legally dubious. It brings up profound and basic issues about the functioning of our society. In a number of ways, the most important element of this story is that it was clearly instigated by Elon Musk.
At 5:00 a.m. the day before the FEMA payments were “clawed back” by FEMA, Elon Musk tweeted: “The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.” “
Divine Angel said:
Haven’t been keeping up with the shit Trump’s been pulling so this may have already been discussed.https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-musk-doge-treasury-take-money-bank-account-1235295232/
“On February 11, 2025, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency housed in the Department of Homeland Security, removed $80.5 million from New York City’s main bank account, which is an account with Citibank. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. They “debited,” the financial way of referring to “subtracting,” New York City’s “central treasury account” for $80.5 million. According to public statements by Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller, this could only be covered by a line of credit facility to the tune of $79.5 million. In short they, in essence, sent New York City’s main bank account to negative $79.5 million to rescind routine funding appropriated by Congress to house refugees. Citibank kindly agreed to forgive the overdraft fee.On February 18, a FEMA-branded letter authored by Cameron Hamilton, a person described in the letter as a “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator,” was sent to New York City government. The letter explained that the money was “clawed back” because of a range of claims about illegal activity which The New York Post alleged took place in the hotels the city paid to put Venezuelan refugees in. I can’t really communicate to readers what this letter reads like, so I will simply quote an important paragraph to provide the flavor.
The letter expresses “significant concerns” that FEMA “funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities. For example, a substantial portion of your award goes to funding alien housing at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. According to media reports, the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua has taken over the hotel and is using it as a recruiting center and base of operations to plan a variety of crimes. According to these same reports, these crimes include gun and drug sales as well as sex trafficking, which can reasonably be presumed to be conducted in the hotel itself. One of the groups responsible for these activities refer to themselves as ‘diablos de la 42,’ which means the devils of 42nd St., a street near where the Roosevelt Hotel is located. DHS/FEMA has a responsibility to ensure that it does not make payments that fund criminal activity.”
This justification for denying congressionally appropriated funds is extremely legally dubious. This justification for “reversing” the disbursement of already disbursed funds is far beyond legally dubious. It brings up profound and basic issues about the functioning of our society. In a number of ways, the most important element of this story is that it was clearly instigated by Elon Musk.
At 5:00 a.m. the day before the FEMA payments were “clawed back” by FEMA, Elon Musk tweeted: “The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.” “
the money was administered by FeMA but did not go through the disaster relief fund.
Neophyte said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump DECLARES All Biden PARDONS VOID by Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Wf3JQNjEU
Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
Well, more of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
I’m guessing that they will soon have a new “constitution” written in crayon with tomato sauce splotches all over it.
Kingy said:
Neophyte said:
Michael V said:Oh, that’ll be interesting in the US Supreme Court…
What about all those previous US Presidents that have used an autopen? Will all their signings become null and void, too?
I suppose KKK doesn’t care.
Well, more of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
I’m guessing that they will soon have a new “constitution” written in crayon with tomato sauce splotches all over it.
be written using a sharpei.
JudgeMental said:
Kingy said:
Neophyte said:Well, more of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
I’m guessing that they will soon have a new “constitution” written in crayon with tomato sauce splotches all over it.
be written using a sharpei.
Would probably be more sensible.
JudgeMental said:
Kingy said:
Neophyte said:Well, more of the original signatories on the original US Constitution didn’t use a Sharpie, so that’s probably null and void.
I’m guessing that they will soon have a new “constitution” written in crayon with tomato sauce splotches all over it.
be written using a sharpei.
:)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/defense-department-black-medal-of-honor-veteran
it’s so overtly evil these days.
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/defense-department-black-medal-of-honor-veteranit’s so overtly evil these days.
I’m surprised that Mr cowardly bone spurs didn’t just scrawl “Nigger” over his grave.
Fucking scum.
They need a military coup and bodies lined up against the wall right now to fix this. Can’t wait another 3.75 years.
party_pants said:
They need a military coup and bodies lined up against the wall right now to fix this. Can’t wait another 3.75 years.
All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
They need a military coup and bodies lined up against the wall right now to fix this. Can’t wait another 3.75 years.
All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
They need a military coup and bodies lined up against the wall right now to fix this. Can’t wait another 3.75 years.
All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war so he can enact his martial law dreams.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war so he can enact his martial law dreams.
and bring back slavery.
sarahs mum said:
kii said:
sarahs mum said:war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war so he can enact his martial law dreams.
and bring back slavery.
The re-education camps for people taking medication for depression, ADHD etc. RFK Jr wants them to grow vegetables, because it will be good for them to be off drugs and connecting with the land.
tizzyent and the autosign shit show regarding Biden’s pardons
Not just a rant but some good insight.
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
They need a military coup and bodies lined up against the wall right now to fix this. Can’t wait another 3.75 years.
All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
Democracies swing back and forth.. people will vote with the feet in four years
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.
I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
Trump expected that Zelensky would have no choice but to sit there and take it while Trump and Vance postured and posed, and eventually sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky just took the opportunity to leave, when it was presented. That set back Trump rather a bit.
Later, at a time of his choosing, Zelensky came back and said ok, we’d be willing to look at the ceasefire proposal, which put the ball back in the court of Trump and Putin.
If Putin says ‘no’ to the ceasefire, then it makes it clear to everyone that Putin is the one who wants the war to go on. And, it would damage Trump, showing him to not be the fabulous deal-maker the he portrays himself to be, and that he has no influence with Putin.
Zelensky has made it clear that he won’t take just any shit deal that they cook up, which has done his prestige no harm at all.
So, now it’s Trump who has to do the work, not Zelensky and Ukraine.
diddly-squat said:
Democracies swing back and forth.. people will vote with the feet in four years
That they will.
But will their votes count for anything? And, will there be anything left to vote for?
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:All in good time. The MAGA mob has to be allowed to realise the folly of their ways. If they go all in while the spineless GOP leadership cheer while Trump eviscerates the constitution then it will be time for things to get bloody.
They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
Trump expected that Zelensky would have no choice but to sit there and take it while Trump and Vance postured and posed, and eventually sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky just took the opportunity to leave, when it was presented. That set back Trump rather a bit.
Later, at a time of his choosing, Zelensky came back and said ok, we’d be willing to look at the ceasefire proposal, which put the ball back in the court of Trump and Putin.
If Putin says ‘no’ to the ceasefire, then it makes it clear to everyone that Putin is the one who wants the war to go on. And, it would damage Trump, showing him to not be the fabulous deal-maker the he portrays himself to be, and that he has no influence with Putin.
Zelensky has made it clear that he won’t take just any shit deal that they cook up, which has done his prestige no harm at all.
So, now it’s Trump who has to do the work, not Zelensky and Ukraine.
The White House altercation has also galvanized his support at home and among European leaders.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Democracies swing back and forth.. people will vote with the feet in four years
That they will.
But will their votes count for anything? And, will there be anything left to vote for?
yes and yes
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
Don’t be so certain aboutthat:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
OK, they did their best to belittle him.
But, i don’t think that he was humiliated.
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
Trump expected that Zelensky would have no choice but to sit there and take it while Trump and Vance postured and posed, and eventually sign whatever was put in front of him.
Zelensky just took the opportunity to leave, when it was presented. That set back Trump rather a bit.
Later, at a time of his choosing, Zelensky came back and said ok, we’d be willing to look at the ceasefire proposal, which put the ball back in the court of Trump and Putin.
If Putin says ‘no’ to the ceasefire, then it makes it clear to everyone that Putin is the one who wants the war to go on. And, it would damage Trump, showing him to not be the fabulous deal-maker the he portrays himself to be, and that he has no influence with Putin.
Zelensky has made it clear that he won’t take just any shit deal that they cook up, which has done his prestige no harm at all.
So, now it’s Trump who has to do the work, not Zelensky and Ukraine.
Trump now has to tell Putin that the story he sent Trump to tell wasn’t acceptable and that he has to now admit that he started this war and that only he can end it short of being defeated.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
A town in Victoria has imposed its own tariffs on US products in retaliation to the 2 schoolboy bullies in the whitehouse who belittled, humiliated and bullied Zelensky.I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
You did read the rest of my post, where i explained why i think that?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
OK, they did their best to belittle him.
But, i don’t think that he was humiliated.
He wasn’t.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
You did read the rest of my post, where i explained why i think that?
Yes, but first impressions and all that.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:What? Are you serious?
You did read the rest of my post, where i explained why i think that?
Yes, but first impressions and all that.
Shifting goalposts.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:I don’t think that Zelensky was belittled or humiliated.
What? Are you serious?
OK, they did their best to belittle him.
But, i don’t think that he was humiliated.
Okay, I’ll give you a little leeway on that. They tried to humiliate him.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:What? Are you serious?
OK, they did their best to belittle him.
But, i don’t think that he was humiliated.
Okay, I’ll give you a little leeway on that. They tried to humiliate him.
They thought they were humiliating him.
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
kii said:What? Are you serious?
You did read the rest of my post, where i explained why i think that?
Yes, but first impressions and all that.
Yeah, it looked awful for Zelensky while The Lump and The Dunce were running their routine on him, but it didn’ttake very long to seethat he wasn’tgoingto play their game in any way.
He wasn’t going to just sit there and cop it, then sign like a good little boy.
Nor was he going to explode into a shouting match and swap insults with Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber, which would have given them a pretext to abandon Ukraine and a ceasefire altogether.
He largely played the diplomat, but made his exit as soon as he got a clear run to the door.
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:They have no time. Action now or face collapse.
war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
LOLOLOL…..you’re so funny.
roughbarked said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:You did read the rest of my post, where i explained why i think that?
Yes, but first impressions and all that.
Shifting goalposts.
You showed all of us how to do that.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
LOLOLOL…..you’re so funny.
Well…it would be sort of fun for the Democrats to be able to run a ‘he’s so old, he’s so sleepy, he’s so decrepit and senile’ campaign against Trump.
Morning Pilgrims.
Nothing to report of any great moment.
Over.
Peak Warming Man said:
Morning Pilgrims.
Nothing to report of any great moment.
Over.
Not a good start.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:war looks increasingly likely. civil war the most likely likely.
Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
Don’t be so certain aboutthat:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Morning Pilgrims.
Nothing to report of any great moment.
Over.
Not a good start.
I was going to reply, but i’m at the point in the morning where i either get up and do something useful, or commit to sitting here and continuing my blatherings.
So, i was deep in ponderment.
Anyway: good morning, PWM.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Civil war is a highly unlikely outcome.. Trump’s presidency will end in four years, that much is certain.
Don’t be so certain aboutthat:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump to run for have a third term.”
Fixed it for you.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Don’t be so certain aboutthat:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
but hey look.. if you are confident I’m happy to make a bet on that and also take some action on there not being a civil war as well.
don’t worry nothing can happen until it’s already happened
roughbarked said:
kii said:
captain_spalding said:
OK, they did their best to belittle him.
But, i don’t think that he was humiliated.
Okay, I’ll give you a little leeway on that. They tried to humiliate him.
They thought they were humiliating him.
oh come on everyone knows that trying to do something and actually doing something are the same something
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:Democracies swing back and forth.. people will vote with the feet in four years
That they will.
But will their votes count for anything? And, will there be anything left to vote for?
that’s the beauty of the system, you get to choose between the teams, and the teams get to sit wherever they sit on the spectrum, so you get to choose between two far right teams
kii said:
tizzyent and the autosign shit show regarding Biden’s pardonsNot just a rant but some good insight.
what’s the insight
Humidity is only 69% so walkies was fine today. Walkies friend was back onboard and we talked about Adolescence on Netflix. I also tried to give a synopsis of Severance but since no one understands what’s going on in that show, it’s a pointless exercise.
Divine Angel said:
Humidity is only 69% so walkies was fine today. Walkies friend was back onboard and we talked about Adolescence on Netflix. I also tried to give a synopsis of Severance but since no one understands what’s going on in that show, it’s a pointless exercise.
Please refer this to the chat thread in your head. Me n PWM have caught the same disease, apparently.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
You did read the article, did you not?
You comprehended from that, that, with sufficient co-operation from the Republican party, the Supreme Court, and some others, and, with the disregard for norms of legitimacy that Trump has previously shown, the Constitution could be either circumvented, or disregarded altogether, effectively becoming irrelevant?
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
You did read the article, did you not?
You comprehended from that, that, with sufficient co-operation from the Republican party, the Supreme Court, and some others, and, with the disregard for norms of legitimacy that Trump has previously shown, the Constitution could be either circumvented, or disregarded altogether, effectively becoming irrelevant?
disagree, once a country has a constitution it will never depart from that constitution ever again
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
You did read the article, did you not?
You comprehended from that, that, with sufficient co-operation from the Republican party, the Supreme Court, and some others, and, with the disregard for norms of legitimacy that Trump has previously shown, the Constitution could be either circumvented, or disregarded altogether, effectively becoming irrelevant?
disagree, once a country has a constitution it will never depart from that constitution ever again
Uzbekistan abandoned its previous constitution, and adopted a new one as the result of a ballot in 2023.
Chile abandoned its constitution, and adopted a new one in 1925, and replaced that one in 1980, and another replacement was rejected in a ballot in 2022.
France’s Fourth Republic collapsed in 1958, and was replaced withthe Fifth Republic, with a new constitution.
You can find others for yourself.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Don’t be so certain aboutthat:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
There is absolutely no pathway for Trump to run for a third term.
“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
Thanks for the link. Interesting reading.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
You did read the article, did you not?
You comprehended from that, that, with sufficient co-operation from the Republican party, the Supreme Court, and some others, and, with the disregard for norms of legitimacy that Trump has previously shown, the Constitution could be either circumvented, or disregarded altogether, effectively becoming irrelevant?
The federal party can’t run the election, end of story
Harvey Fierstein
“I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER.
A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premiere American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include, KINKY BOOTS. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, HAIRSPRAY, SAFE SEX, CASA VALENTINA, SPOOKHOUSE, A CATERED AFFAIR, THE SISSY DUCKLING, BELLA BELLA and more.
I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less. He does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification.
He attacks free speech
He attacks the free press.
He attacks America’s allies.
His only allegiance is to himself – the golden calf.
My fellow Americans I warn you – this is NOT how it begins.
This is how freedom ENDS!
Trump may have declared “woke” as dead in America.
We must prove him wrong.
WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!”
Okay this takes the cake.
Trump Appoints Michael Flynn, Walt Nauta and Other Allies to Oversee Military Academies
Among other appointees were Charlie Kirk, Sean Spicer and the daughter of Steve Bannon. President Trump purged several of the military oversight boards last month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/trump-military-academies-flynn-nauta.html
At least most of these have some military experience.
Maureen Bannon is an Army veteran who served in Iraq. She runs Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Sean Spicer, who had a not very auspicious run as White House communications director, was a Commander with the US Navy.
Nauta was a cook with the Navy, serving in the state of Georgia, but is mostly known for 8 criminal charges related to illegal handling of documents, obstruction etc in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Flynn is a military veteran and was head of the NSA and was an unregistered foreign agent working for both Turkey and Russia. He accepted a plea deal where he would only be convicted of providing false statements in return for testimony. He was subsequently pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Charlie Kirk is a conspiracy theorist and social media inflencer.
I think the Kirk and Flynn appointments should raise eyebrows.
Has there ever been a motion to pass an amendment preventing impeached, or otherwise “unacceptable” people, to attain the position of POTUS?
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:“There is absolutely no honourable and/or legitimate pathway for Trump
to run forhave a third term.”Fixed it for you.
no, there is actually no pathway… in order for that to happen he would have to amend the constitution and as I’ve said before, that requires not only a super majority in both houses, but also requires a majority of states to agree; and remember, elections are run by states in the US, so he doesn’t have control over the electoral process.
talking about a third Trump term is nothing but a silly distraction
You did read the article, did you not?
You comprehended from that, that, with sufficient co-operation from the Republican party, the Supreme Court, and some others, and, with the disregard for norms of legitimacy that Trump has previously shown, the Constitution could be either circumvented, or disregarded altogether, effectively becoming irrelevant?
That’s what he’s been doing since he got back into the oval office. It will take America to stop him.
Divine Angel said:
Has there ever been a motion to pass an amendment preventing impeached, or otherwise “unacceptable” people, to attain the position of POTUS?
I don’t really understand what you mean, are you asking of Congress has ever passed legislation to bar someone running for office as President or as you asking if anyone has tried to run but been deemed ineligible?
It appears that Prince Harry might also get chucked out of the US because he wrote of drug use in his memoirs but may not have mentioned that on his visa application.
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Has there ever been a motion to pass an amendment preventing impeached, or otherwise “unacceptable” people, to attain the position of POTUS?
I don’t really understand what you mean, are you asking of Congress has ever passed legislation to bar someone running for office as President
This one. Something along the lines of, thou shall not make a convicted felon president. Obviously they have never passed legislation, but has it been tried?
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Has there ever been a motion to pass an amendment preventing impeached, or otherwise “unacceptable” people, to attain the position of POTUS?
I don’t really understand what you mean, are you asking of Congress has ever passed legislation to bar someone running for office as President
This one. Something along the lines of, thou shall not make a convicted felon president. Obviously they have never passed legislation, but has it been tried?
ok, to be eligible to run for the office of the POUTS you need to be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years – and that’s about it.
There is some question about if a person is eligible to run if convicted of sedition (something that would ultimately be tested in front of the SCOTUS), but other than that you are GTG if you meet the core eligibility criteria.
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:I don’t really understand what you mean, are you asking of Congress has ever passed legislation to bar someone running for office as President
This one. Something along the lines of, thou shall not make a convicted felon president. Obviously they have never passed legislation, but has it been tried?
ok, to be eligible to run for the office of the POUTS you need to be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years – and that’s about it.
There is some question about if a person is eligible to run if convicted of sedition (something that would ultimately be tested in front of the SCOTUS), but other than that you are GTG if you meet the core eligibility criteria.
and to be clear, those criteria are not set out in legislation written by Congress, they were baked into the Constitution itself by the Founders
US pork, poultry exports to China receive last-minute extension, but beef still waiting
Well, they can’t really complain about other countries doing their own thing, can they. Their president has been chucking tariffs around like confetti.
buffy said:
US pork, poultry exports to China receive last-minute extension, but beef still waitingWell, they can’t really complain about other countries doing their own thing, can they. Their president has been chucking tariffs around like confetti.
Tit for tat isn’t it.
Who will break first almost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
The U.S. Institute for Peace announced Monday that despite being independent of the executive branch and controlling its own building and the land it sits on, their objections to members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team trespassing in their building were overridden by D.C. police. That came after an earlier confrontation in which DOGE was accompanied by the FBI. Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, who is suing the U.S. Marshals for information on DOGE after a similar raid, joins to discuss the unprecedented nature of DOGE leveraging the threat of armed law enforcement against another part of the government.’‘
Latest Jon Stewart monologue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8OFrDQkfjM
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
FMD
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
FMD
The DC police are famously inept, corrupt, and dickheaded.
The Capitol has its own police service. They’re worse than the DC police.
The White House has its own police service. They’re worse than the other two.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
FMD
The DC police are famously inept, corrupt, and dickheaded.
Ref?
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:FMD
The DC police are famously inept, corrupt, and dickheaded.
Ref?
Just Google ‘Washington DC police corruption’.
That ought to keep you busy for quite a while.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:The DC police are famously inept, corrupt, and dickheaded.
Ref?
Just Google ‘Washington DC police corruption’.
That ought to keep you busy for quite a while.
I could do that with any police force and be flooded with articles. How about you find a ref that claims they are ‘famously’ corrupt compared to other services.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 17, 2025 (Monday)
From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.
The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.
“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.
Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.
The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.
After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.
The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.
Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.
But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more than a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”
In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.
Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.
Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Times reported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.
Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”
The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”
After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.
The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”
When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.
Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.
And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.
Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I’m the guy who used to oversee the federal government’s agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”
The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.
The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.
Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it’s going to fall on states, and it’s going to fall on states really unevenly.”
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Ref?
Just Google ‘Washington DC police corruption’.
That ought to keep you busy for quite a while.
I could do that with any police force and be flooded with articles. How about you find a ref that claims they are ‘famously’ corrupt compared to other services.
Oh, well, to be honest, it’s just my recollection from some books and articles i’ve read over the past decade or two.
Which did strongly suggest that they have a definite bias towards the prevailing political climate.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:Just Google ‘Washington DC police corruption’.
That ought to keep you busy for quite a while.
I could do that with any police force and be flooded with articles. How about you find a ref that claims they are ‘famously’ corrupt compared to other services.
Oh, well, to be honest, it’s just my recollection from some books and articles i’ve read over the past decade or two.
Which did strongly suggest that they have a definite bias towards the prevailing political climate.
Washington DC is a minority majority city with black and hispanic citizens together outnumbering white Americans. It is also, being the capital, dominated by public service employment and lastly is reliably left leaning in its city government and the representatives it sends to the Federal Congress. These all point to its police force not being one to naturally support Trump’s agenda of radical reform of the federal government.
Now I have no idea why these police seemed to whole-heartedly support the DOGE operation but I would wager it is not because they are particularly corrupt when compared to other US cities.
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I could do that with any police force and be flooded with articles. How about you find a ref that claims they are ‘famously’ corrupt compared to other services.
Oh, well, to be honest, it’s just my recollection from some books and articles i’ve read over the past decade or two.
Which did strongly suggest that they have a definite bias towards the prevailing political climate.
Washington DC is a minority majority city with black and hispanic citizens together outnumbering white Americans. It is also, being the capital, dominated by public service employment and lastly is reliably left leaning in its city government and the representatives it sends to the Federal Congress. These all point to its police force not being one to naturally support Trump’s agenda of radical reform of the federal government.
Now I have no idea why these police seemed to whole-heartedly support the DOGE operation but I would wager it is not because they are particularly corrupt when compared to other US cities.
Perhaps my perceptions, and the information on which they’re based, are outdated. I would not be sorry if they were, and it may be that i’m relaying yesterday’s news.
But, there does seem to be a good whiff of yielding before the prevailing wind about this sory.
How our global friends can help us.
Don’t come here!
Robert Reich
March 18.
Friends,
I’m addressing this letter especially to those of you who live in other lands.
As you probably know, we here in the United States are facing the biggest emergency in the history of our democracy, and we need your help.
Trump and other members of his regime (Elon Musk, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi) are actively undermining our system of government — usurping Congress’s power to fund the government, saying they “don’t care” what judges say, arresting peaceful protesters, investigating Trump’s “enemies,” siding with Putin against Ukraine, encouraging bigotry, and sowing widespread fear.
Please know that the Trump regime doesn’t represent the majority of Americans. Trump won the 2024 presidential election by a razor-thin (1.5 percent) margin, but half of all Americans didn’t vote, including many who voted for Biden in 2020. Polls consistently show most Americans do not support what Trump is doing.
How can you help us?
Like most bullies, Trump can be constrained only if everyone stands up to his bullying — including you.
First, if you are thinking about a trip to the United States, please reconsider. Why reward Trump’s America with your tourist dollars?
Spending by non-Americans in the United States is a significant source of tax revenue and a major “export” of this nation. There’s no reason for you to indirectly support Trump’s economy.
Many international travelers concerned about Trump’s authoritarianism have already canceled trips to the United States. I suggest you do so, too.
Last week, Trump threatened a 200 percent tariff on European wine and alcohol after calling the European Union “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”
Why reward this bellicose rhetoric? Many Europeans are already skipping trips to Disney World and American music festivals.
Travel from China, a frequent target of Trump’s contempt, is down 11 percent. Chinese travelers are choosing to vacation in Australia and New Zealand instead of visiting U.S. national parks.
Our dear neighbors north of the border, who have long been the major source of international travel to the United States, are deciding to visit Europe and Mexico instead.
In response to Trump’s repeated desire to make Canada a “51st state,” Canada’s former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has urged Canadians not to vacation in America.
An informal boycott by Canadian travelers has begun. The number of Canadians returning by car from visits to the United States already fell by 23 percent in February, and air travel by Canadians returning from the United States was down 13 percent relative to last year, according to Statistics Canada.
Overall, it’s expected that international travel to the United States will drop at least 5 percent this year.
Although we have loved (and profited from) your visits, I urge you to join many of your compatriots and at least for now decide not to come to the United States.
Second, if you are thinking about coming to the United States on a student or even on an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work here, you should also reconsider.
Perhaps wait a few years until, hopefully, the Trump regime has ended.
It is not entirely safe for you to be here, in any event.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, who has been in the United States legally on an H-1B visa, was just deported without explanation — even though a court had blocked her expulsion.
Dr. Alawieh had traveled last month to Lebanon, her home country, to visit relatives. When she tried to return from that trip to the United States, she was detained by U.S. customs and immigration officials and put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.
Lebanon is not even on a draft list of nations from which the Trump administration is considering banning entry to the United States.
Even if there’s a shortage in America of skilled workers in your specialty, you could be deported at any time, for any or no reason.
Likewise, if you are considering coming to America on a student visa, you might consider the risk at this time. A Columbia University graduate student was arrested and detained for no reason other than that he peacefully protested Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza.
The administration of Brown University is advising foreign students, ahead of spring break, to “consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the U.S. Department of State.”
It is not just the risk. It’s also the circumstances. If you care about democracy, this is not the time to come here on a student or H-1B visa because the Trump regime is riding roughshod over the Constitution of the United States.
On Sunday, the Trump regime deported hundreds of Venezuelan nationals from the United States under the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act — which until now has been used only in times of war — even though a federal judge blocked the decision and ordered planes carrying some of the Venezuelans to turn back to the United States.
On Sunday night, Trump told reporters that the Venezuelans he sent back to Venezuela were “bad people.”
But no one can take Trump’s word that these were “bad” people. Trump routinely uses the term “bad people” to refer to those who oppose or criticize him, or whom he dislikes.
Whatever your reason for wanting to come to the United States — as a visitor, a student, or an H-1B skilled worker — you might reconsider your plans.
Deciding not to come would send a signal that you’re justifiably worried about your safety and security here and you are as repulsed by the Trump regime’s attacks on democracy as are most of us Americans.
From Lee Goodman, who was referenced by this post from kii in Chat a litte earlier…
I wore my concentration camp uniform to Tucson, Arizona, for a conference on migration. It was noticed. The next day, I wore normal clothes. Several people who I already knew came up to me and said they hadn’t recognized me when they saw me in the uniform. All they saw was the uniform, not the person inside.
My wearing the uniform served its purpose. It drew attention to the way the Nazis treated migrants and the way the U.S. is treating them – as less than human. As anonymous objects, not individuals.
By the end of the day, yet another similarity between that dark period of history and today had appeared in the news. We learned that the Trump administration had disobeyed a court order to temporarily cease deportations that were being conducted under a law that dates back to 1798. Until now, that law had never been used except in time of actual war. It was most recently used to imprison German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during World War II. In modern times, its use has widely been viewed as a violation of fundamental rights. Today we are not at war, but Trump is using the law to deport people without their having any opportunity to challenge their deportations. It is being used exactly the way the Gestapo used laws that gave them unhampered power over innocent people.
We also saw in the news that the country the people were deported to had immediately shaved the prisoners’ heads and threw them into a prison that is famous for its human rights abuses. The president of that country laughed when told that the deportees he had received were not supposed to have been sent to him, because their deportations violated a U.S. court order. “Oopsie,” he said.
The callousness of the foreign leader was shocking, but no more than the way our own president responded when asked why he had ignored the judge’s order. Following a now clearly established pattern, the White House spokesperson said the president did not believe he was obligated to obey the order. Once again, he demonstrated that he believes he is not subject to our laws and not required to act the way our Constitution says a president must act.
When I first wore the uniform, I was concerned that I might be acting in an alarmist way. But on a daily basis, our president is making me feel that we need to be sounding the alarm louder and louder. The similarities between what the Nazis did and what our president is doing are increasing. Our government is knocking on doors in the night. People are being disappeared. Some of them will die.
It would be nice if more people were concerned about what is happening to migrants. The onslaught of anti-immigrant propaganda we have all been subjected to makes it understandable that more people are not. The illegal deportations this week should awaken people that migrants are not the only ones in jeopardy. If people can be deported without their having any opportunity to challenge their removal, all of us can be deported in the same way. Each of us could be shipped to a foreign country and imprisoned. None of us would be able to stop it.
The president’s so-called border czar has been threatening to arrest anyone who interferes with efforts to round up, imprison, and deport migrants. Am I interfering, by writing that I oppose the deportation policies? Am I interfering by wearing a replica of a concentration camp uniform? If you share this writing on social media, are you interfering? We would argue to a court that we are not, but the people who are being deported are not allowed to go to court. They cannot object. Any one of us could be in the same helpless position. That is the horror of what our president is now doing.
On the plane home, I wore a button with a blue triangle on my shirt. A handful of people asked me about it, and I explained. Each of them told me they had not known that migrants in Nazi concentration camps wore blue triangles. Until now, we didn’t need to know. Our country wasn’t being run by people who act like Nazis.
AussieDJ said:
From Lee Goodman, who was referenced by this post from kii in Chat a litte earlier…I wore my concentration camp uniform to Tucson, Arizona, for a conference on migration. It was noticed. The next day, I wore normal clothes. Several people who I already knew came up to me and said they hadn’t recognized me when they saw me in the uniform. All they saw was the uniform, not the person inside.
He’s a brave man to do that in Tucson.
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Lee Goodman, who was referenced by this post from kii in Chat a litte earlier…I wore my concentration camp uniform to Tucson, Arizona, for a conference on migration. It was noticed. The next day, I wore normal clothes. Several people who I already knew came up to me and said they hadn’t recognized me when they saw me in the uniform. All they saw was the uniform, not the person inside.
He’s a brave man to do that in Tucson.
Yes, he is.
https://www.facebook.com/lee.goodman.963
from Jay Kuo’s fb page…
Per the NYT:
Just hours after President Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who sought to pause the removal of more than 200 migrants to El Salvador, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a rare public statement.
“For more than two centuries,” the chief justice said, “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Mr. Trump had called the judge, James E. Boasberg, a “Radical Left Lunatic” in a social media post and said he should be impeached.
The exchange was reminiscent of one in 2018, when Chief Justice Roberts defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary after Mr. Trump called a judge who had ruled against his administration’s asylum policy “an Obama judge.”
The chief justice said that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” he said in a statement then. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
kii said:
from Jay Kuo’s fb page…
Per the NYT:
Just hours after President Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who sought to pause the removal of more than 200 migrants to El Salvador, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a rare public statement.
“For more than two centuries,” the chief justice said, “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Mr. Trump had called the judge, James E. Boasberg, a “Radical Left Lunatic” in a social media post and said he should be impeached.
The exchange was reminiscent of one in 2018, when Chief Justice Roberts defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary after Mr. Trump called a judge who had ruled against his administration’s asylum policy “an Obama judge.”
The chief justice said that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” he said in a statement then. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
don’t worry a nice cosy sit down with dear leader should warm up those cold feet again
kii said:
surely sexual activity in the duties of an official supporting the glorious leader should be immune from criminal prosecution
kii said:
AussieDJ said:
From Lee Goodman, who was referenced by this post from kii in Chat a litte earlier…
I wore my concentration camp uniform to Tucson, Arizona, for a conference on migration. It was noticed. The next day, I wore normal clothes. Several people who I already knew came up to me and said they hadn’t recognized me when they saw me in the uniform. All they saw was the uniform, not the person inside.
My wearing the uniform served its purpose. It drew attention to the way the Nazis treated migrants and the way the U.S. is treating them – as less than human. As anonymous objects, not individuals.
By the end of the day, yet another similarity between that dark period of history and today had appeared in the news. We learned that the Trump administration had disobeyed a court order to temporarily cease deportations that were being conducted under a law that dates back to 1798. Until now, that law had never been used except in time of actual war. It was most recently used to imprison German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during World War II. In modern times, its use has widely been viewed as a violation of fundamental rights. Today we are not at war, but Trump is using the law to deport people without their having any opportunity to challenge their deportations. It is being used exactly the way the Gestapo used laws that gave them unhampered power over innocent people.
We also saw in the news that the country the people were deported to had immediately shaved the prisoners’ heads and threw them into a prison that is famous for its human rights abuses. The president of that country laughed when told that the deportees he had received were not supposed to have been sent to him, because their deportations violated a U.S. court order. “Oopsie,” he said.
The callousness of the foreign leader was shocking, but no more than the way our own president responded when asked why he had ignored the judge’s order. Following a now clearly established pattern, the White House spokesperson said the president did not believe he was obligated to obey the order. Once again, he demonstrated that he believes he is not subject to our laws and not required to act the way our Constitution says a president must act.
When I first wore the uniform, I was concerned that I might be acting in an alarmist way. But on a daily basis, our president is making me feel that we need to be sounding the alarm louder and louder. The similarities between what the Nazis did and what our president is doing are increasing. Our government is knocking on doors in the night. People are being disappeared. Some of them will die.
It would be nice if more people were concerned about what is happening to migrants. The onslaught of anti-immigrant propaganda we have all been subjected to makes it understandable that more people are not. The illegal deportations this week should awaken people that migrants are not the only ones in jeopardy. If people can be deported without their having any opportunity to challenge their removal, all of us can be deported in the same way. Each of us could be shipped to a foreign country and imprisoned. None of us would be able to stop it.
The president’s so-called border czar has been threatening to arrest anyone who interferes with efforts to round up, imprison, and deport migrants. Am I interfering, by writing that I oppose the deportation policies? Am I interfering by wearing a replica of a concentration camp uniform? If you share this writing on social media, are you interfering? We would argue to a court that we are not, but the people who are being deported are not allowed to go to court. They cannot object. Any one of us could be in the same helpless position. That is the horror of what our president is now doing.
On the plane home, I wore a button with a blue triangle on my shirt. A handful of people asked me about it, and I explained. Each of them told me they had not known that migrants in Nazi concentration camps wore blue triangles. Until now, we didn’t need to know. Our country wasn’t being run by people who act like Nazis.
so we should hit Thai officials with visa sanctions over deportation of Uyghurs then areweright
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-15/us-puts-sanctions-on-thai-officials/105056430
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
It is the failed American dream. They want it back or are easily fooled into thinking they can. It was always going to be a nightmare anyway.
sarahs mum said:
…
kii said:
…
Michael V said:
kii said:
…
His lunacy needs to be certified and locked in a padded soundproof cell.
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
…
His lunacy needs to be certified and locked in a padded soundproof cell.
Ya think?
LOLOLOL…
kii said:
Eyes pop.
Gosh.
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
kii said:
The leopards are not going hungry, that’s for sure.
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Hey thanks, I wasn’t sure there was an actual real answer! I’m aware of the Reagan era and thought that might be it.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Eyes pop.
Gosh.
All sock puppets and straw drones.
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Hey thanks, I wasn’t sure there was an actual real answer! I’m aware of the Reagan era and thought that might be it.
we thought it was the era of great let them fight each other to the death and then jump in to save the day at the end like a hero
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Hey thanks, I wasn’t sure there was an actual real answer! I’m aware of the Reagan era and thought that might be it.
we thought it was the era of great let them fight each other to the death and then jump in to save the day at the end like a hero
It is only in the minds of people like Musk and Trump and was probably started by John D. Rockefeller. America is great because it can have the mega rich. The voters are the drowning ones grasping at plastic straws.
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “
Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Trump has said the 1890s.
kii said:
Trump to declare fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Tamb said:
kii said:
Trump to declare fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
The last time they played the WOMD card it was not a success.
sure it was they got Iraqi oil on side
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
:)
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
so we should thank the Vikings then
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
:)
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
Exactly what era was American so great that he wishes to return to that time? It seems like the slogan should be Make America Like 1930s Germany but that’s far less catchy.
the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Trump has said the 1890s.
Hamilton doesn’t cover that period so I am unfamiliar with why it was so great.
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
:)
extwitter want to keep my account safe, and they didn’t offer a “bugger off” option, so I didn’t get to read that.
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Trump has said the 1890s.
Hamilton doesn’t cover that period so I am unfamiliar with why it was so great.
I’ll do a musical to explain it, called The Cleveland Show.
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
BURN!
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
:)
extwitter want to keep my account safe, and they didn’t offer a “bugger off” option, so I didn’t get to read that.
Well that’s one way to keep your account safe
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:the typical answer is the 1950s, which in some ways was true, as that was when progressive taxation was at it’s greatest in the US. Bit I’m not sure that’s the reason they would pick.
Trump has said the 1890s.
Hamilton doesn’t cover that period so I am unfamiliar with why it was so great.
Why Hamilton was so great or the 1890s was so great?
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
In response to a rhetorical suggestion fromRaphael Glucksmann that the US should return the Statue of Liberty if they despise liberty, the White House spokesperson said:
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. “Fair but because of the Revolutionary War aid, they could reasonably say that if it weren’t for France, the US would be speaking English now…
:)
Would or wouldn’t?
Neophyte said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:Trump has said the 1890s.
Hamilton doesn’t cover that period so I am unfamiliar with why it was so great.
Why Hamilton was so great or the 1890s was so great?
The 1890s. I don’t think Back to the Future 3 covered that period either.
Neophyte said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:Trump has said the 1890s.
Hamilton doesn’t cover that period so I am unfamiliar with why it was so great.
Why Hamilton was so great or the 1890s was so great?
Not sure about Hamilton but as for the late 1800’s = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
mrs california this morning..
Ros Meeker
You calling me ignorant? Damn. And you are also calling 50% of your own countrymen ignorant…while your country falls apart. I keep on waiting for you to have some awakening to what is going on, but you are a long way down the rabbit hole.
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
sarahs mum said:
mrs california this morning..
Ros Meeker
You calling me ignorant? Damn. And you are also calling 50% of your own countrymen ignorant…while your country falls apart. I keep on waiting for you to have some awakening to what is going on, but you are a long way down the rabbit hole.
The rude awakening is surely on its way nearby. She’ll learn of it soon enough though it may come as a great shock.
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
Draining that swamp.
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
mrs california this morning..
Ros Meeker
You calling me ignorant? Damn. And you are also calling 50% of your own countrymen ignorant…while your country falls apart. I keep on waiting for you to have some awakening to what is going on, but you are a long way down the rabbit hole.“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
The rude awakening is surely on its way nearby. She’ll learn of it soon enough though it may come as a great shock.
LOL yeah right people are quite happy to die in their sleep so keep waiting while they darvo all the way to deity
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
Draining that swamp.
draining upwards
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
Draining that swamp.
draining upwards
He’s swamping the drain
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
because that is what they learned watching Fox.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:Draining that swamp.
draining upwards
He’s swamping the drain
The man’s words are always best looked at from both sides now.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
:)
extwitter want to keep my account safe, and they didn’t offer a “bugger off” option, so I didn’t get to read that.
I couldn’t read it either. Some error or other.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
because that is what they learned watching Fox.
Rupert, damn his hide.
sarahs mum said:
mrs california this morning..
Ros Meeker
You calling me ignorant? Damn. And you are also calling 50% of your own countrymen ignorant…while your country falls apart. I keep on waiting for you to have some awakening to what is going on, but you are a long way down the rabbit hole.
Ah well.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
because that is what they learned watching Fox.
I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
They’ve been brain washing the population for a good 75 years that anything not run or controlled by corporations is communist.
People are to be exploited as it fights them commies.
Make them so patriotic they will accept a fascist like he’s a hero
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
They’ve been brain washing the population for a good 75 years that anything not run or controlled by corporations is communist.
People are to be exploited as it fights them commies.
Make them so patriotic they will accept a fascist like he’s a hero
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
because that is what they learned watching Fox.
I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns. Now I don’t really think that calling people ignorant is an overly helpful way to help build understanding, but it’s important to remember that a majority of people voted for this government knowing full well what they were going to do.
In the end, this is how democracy works.
because that is what they learned watching Fox.
I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
When they don’t get their dole cheque and do get their inflated power bill on the same day?
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns.
Well it’s not zero but it’s also not much. 36% of the population approve of DOGE’s activities. Some may have wanted public sector cuts but not chaos, randomness and incompetent execution of that program.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/politics/government/nearly-60-percent-of-voters-are-unhappy-with-doge-poll-finds/ar-AA1AWTNS?ocid=BingNewsSerp
I don’t spend a lot of time over at r/conservative but they seem very happy their god is doing so well.
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:because that is what they learned watching Fox.
I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
sure, and I would hope that there comes a time when the policy settings of the current administration impacts enough of their voters to force them to rethink their choice.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
In fairness, there is a substantial proportion of the population that are legitimately happy with the way the current administration is addressing their concerns.
Well it’s not zero but it’s also not much. 36% of the population approve of DOGE’s activities. Some may have wanted public sector cuts but not chaos, randomness and incompetent execution of that program.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/politics/government/nearly-60-percent-of-voters-are-unhappy-with-doge-poll-finds/ar-AA1AWTNS?ocid=BingNewsSerp
but cuts to government are just part of the picture – a lot of people really wanted action on immigration… now even though the current administration is very good at telegraphing what they are doing, the thing I find interesting is that the Biden Administration oversaw more deportations than are currently taking place now.. but messaging just isn’t something the Dems do well..
it’s like here, you ask the average person which government is tougher on illegal immigration and they will say the LibNats every day of the week when the fact is the two parts have virtually identical policy settings.. Messaging is everything and love him or hate him, the one thing Trump is very, very good at is messaging (especially when you can lie without consequence).
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
sure, and I would hope that there comes a time when the policy settings of the current administration impacts enough of their voters to force them to rethink their choice.
I assume the entire point besides saving money is to weaken the government sector so private business can take over.
Get rid of various checks, rules and guidelines so everything and everyone can be exploited.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
sure, and I would hope that there comes a time when the policy settings of the current administration impacts enough of their voters to force them to rethink their choice.
I assume the entire point besides saving money is to weaken the government sector so private business can take over.
Get rid of various checks, rules and guidelines so everything and everyone can be exploited.
The purpose is mostly ideological. MAGA conservatism is essentially a form of right wing populism foundered in the belief that (1) the POTUS holds (or at least should hold) ultimate power in government, (2) that the national interests of America are more important than the national interests of any other country and (3) that the “establishment” (and this really is a proxy for any form of conventional social institution) is corrupt and/or degrading the social norms of a “better time” (that’s the again in the Make America Great Again).
Trump has used this as a means to feed both his desire for power and celebrity as well as a means to increase the the wealth of himself and his family.
Chief Justice John Roberts has come out in response to DJT’s call for the impeachment of the Federal Judge that ruled against him in a deportation order. The Chief Justice said:
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal review process exists for that purpose”
Interesting what happens when a powerful individual sees their authority potentially at risk.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
sure, and I would hope that there comes a time when the policy settings of the current administration impacts enough of their voters to force them to rethink their choice.
I assume the entire point besides saving money is to weaken the government sector so private business can take over.
Get rid of various checks, rules and guidelines so everything and everyone can be exploited.
That’s exactly what they appear to be doing.
roughbarked said:
Why TRUMP Supporters Really Believe In Him? A Psychiatrist’s Insight
One of the comments in reply:
Trump’s supporters don’t measure his success by what he does FOR them, they measure by what he does AGAINST people they don’t like…….. That’s why they see him as being “successful.”
This is why they will NEVER abandon him.
His tormenting of the “others” sustains them.
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
Draining that swamp.
All the shit he’s flinging around now is swamping the drains.
AussieDJ said:
roughbarked said:
Why TRUMP Supporters Really Believe In Him? A Psychiatrist’s Insight
One of the comments in reply:
Trump’s supporters don’t measure his success by what he does FOR them, they measure by what he does AGAINST people they don’t like…….. That’s why they see him as being “successful.”
This is why they will NEVER abandon him.
His tormenting of the “others” sustains them.
Ka Ching! Everything the MAGAs do is to “own the Libs”.
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:because that is what they learned watching Fox.
I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
but, not until then.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
Divine Angel said:
“The mess he’s cleaning up” is an interesting way to put it.
Draining that swamp.
All the shit he’s flinging around now is swamping the drains.
LOL
captain_spalding said:
Divine Angel said:
diddly-squat said:I mean maybe, but still there is no rule that says “thou shalt not consume NewsCorp media”.. I see comments like the one you posted and what I think is that a lot of people must be looking at Trump and seeing a person that is delivering on promises they made during the campaign, promises to do things they wanted to happen. why would they be unhappy about that?
They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
but, not until then.
Even then it’ll be the Left’s fault.
diddly-squat said:
Chief Justice John Roberts has come out in response to DJT’s call for the impeachment of the Federal Judge that ruled against him in a deportation order. The Chief Justice said:“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal review process exists for that purpose”
Interesting what happens when a powerful individual sees their authority potentially at risk.
You don’t think he’s a believer in the separation of powers and is purely self interested?
Neophyte said:
captain_spalding said:
Divine Angel said:They’re unhappy when cuts to services affects them.
but, not until then.
Even then it’ll be the Left’s fault.
There’s no left in the US, they even drive on the right.
From Quora:
“Today, Glucksmann responded:
“Dear Americans,
Since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this.
Our two people are intimately linked by History, the blood we shed and the passion for freedom we share, a passion symbolized by this Statue that was offered to the United States by France to honor your glorious Revolution.
As the press secretary for this shameful Administration said: without your nation, France would have “spoken German.” In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy.
3. Our gratitude to these heroes and their sacrifices is therefore eternal.
4. But the America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin. It helped the resistance and didn’t attack Zelensky.
5. It celebrated science and didn’t fire researchers for using banned words. It welcomed the persecuted and didn’t target them.
It was far, so far from what your current President does, says, and embodies.
6. This America, faithful to the wonderful words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, your America, is worth so much more than the betrayal of Ukraine and Europe, xenophobia, or obscurantism.
7. We all in Europe love this nation to which we know we owe so much. It will rise again. You will rise again. We are counting on you.
8. And it is precisely because I am petrified by Trumps betrayal that I said yesterday in a rally that we could symbolically take back the Statue of Liberty if your government despised everything it symbolizes in your eyes, ours, and those of the world.
It was a wake up call.
9. No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty.
The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone.
And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.
10. Until we meet again in the fight for freedom and dignity, we will be the continuators of our shared history and the protectors of our treasure: more than a statue of copper and steel, the freedom it symbolizes.””
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Chief Justice John Roberts has come out in response to DJT’s call for the impeachment of the Federal Judge that ruled against him in a deportation order. The Chief Justice said:“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal review process exists for that purpose”
Interesting what happens when a powerful individual sees their authority potentially at risk.
You don’t think he’s a believer in the separation of powers and is purely self interested?
oh no.. I know he’s self interested.. his authority rests solely in the separation of powers and he knows it..
I mean, that’s the exact reason I think he spoke out.. it’s a comment directly aimed at Trump and his administration.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Chief Justice John Roberts has come out in response to DJT’s call for the impeachment of the Federal Judge that ruled against him in a deportation order. The Chief Justice said:“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal review process exists for that purpose”
Interesting what happens when a powerful individual sees their authority potentially at risk.
You don’t think he’s a believer in the separation of powers and is purely self interested?
oh no.. I know he’s self interested.. his authority rests solely in the separation of powers and he knows it..
I mean, that’s the exact reason I think he spoke out.. it’s a comment directly aimed at Trump and his administration.
Seems a little harsh to consider him incapable of any ethical integrity about the importance of judicial independence. Clarence Thomas OTOH…
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:You don’t think he’s a believer in the separation of powers and is purely self interested?
oh no.. I know he’s self interested.. his authority rests solely in the separation of powers and he knows it..
I mean, that’s the exact reason I think he spoke out.. it’s a comment directly aimed at Trump and his administration.
Seems a little harsh to consider him incapable of any ethical integrity about the importance of judicial independence. Clarence Thomas OTOH…
call me a skeptic but it’s essentially taken Trump to talk about impeachment of judges for him to speak out about what accepted norms and jurisprudence.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:oh no.. I know he’s self interested.. his authority rests solely in the separation of powers and he knows it..
I mean, that’s the exact reason I think he spoke out.. it’s a comment directly aimed at Trump and his administration.
Seems a little harsh to consider him incapable of any ethical integrity about the importance of judicial independence. Clarence Thomas OTOH…
call me a skeptic but it’s essentially taken Trump to talk about impeachment of judges for him to speak out about what accepted norms and jurisprudence.
Justices are notably taciturn when it comes to public commentary.
nobody could have foreseen this
We are up to Season 3 of The Boys, from a couple of years ago. The Deep has been put in charge of Crime Analytics, but he fires everyone and has no idea what he is doing, so they are having difficulty tracking anyone. This gives Vought’s enemies an opportunity to regroup and organise a major attack.
These shows are such a great form of escapism!
Oops wrong thread.
dv said:
We are up to Season 3 of The Boys, from a couple of years ago. The Deep has been put in charge of Crime Analytics, but he fires everyone and has no idea what he is doing, so they are having difficulty tracking anyone. This gives Vought’s enemies an opportunity to regroup and organise a major attack.These shows are such a great form of escapism!
Oops wrong thread.
I haven’t watched the latest season.
Is a good show.
kii said:
Minnesota State Senator, Justin Eichorn made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. Hours later, he was arrested for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
Yeah that sounds about right
dv said:
kii said:
Minnesota State Senator, Justin Eichorn made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. Hours later, he was arrested for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
Yeah that sounds about right
How about this?
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Minnesota State Senator, Justin Eichorn made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. Hours later, he was arrested for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
Yeah that sounds about right
How about this?
shrug it’s what people vote for and democracy is truth
SCIENCE said:
…
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Minnesota State Senator, Justin Eichorn made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. Hours later, he was arrested for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
Yeah that sounds about right
How about this?
FMD
kii said:
dv said:
kii said:
Minnesota State Senator, Justin Eichorn made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. Hours later, he was arrested for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
Yeah that sounds about right
How about this?
Birds of a feather and all that
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 18, 2025 (Tuesday)
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that the Trump administration stop deporting anyone from the United States under the authority of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and that the planes carrying individuals to prison in El Salvador be turned around. Despite the order, the administration declined to bring the planes back, and administration officials appeared to mock the order, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposting the message of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele that read, “Oopsie… Too late,” along with a laughing emoji.
On Sunday, lawyers from the Department of Justice suggested that the planes were outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. when Boasberg issued the order, or that the order didn’t take effect until it was entered into the electronic docket, although his verbal order that he said had to be “complied with immediately” came about 45 minutes earlier, before at least one of the planes landed.
On Monday the Justice Department unsuccessfully asked a federal appeals court to remove Boasberg from the case. In a hearing, Boasberg asked the administration to clarify its actions after it appeared to defy the court by rushing the planes off the ground and to El Salvador. In response to the Justice Department’s claim that the judge’s orders had no authority over the flights once they left U.S. airspace, the judge noted that the power of the federal courts does not end at the end of U.S. airspace. Boasberg also appeared to reject the claim of the DOJ lawyers that there is no judicial order until it is published in a written filing. The DOJ also refused to tell Boasberg anything about the flights, saying that even their number was a question of national security, although the administration had talked extensively about them on public media.
Boasberg scheduled another hearing today to get the DOJ lawyers to answer the questions they had refused to address.
This morning, President Donald Trump took to social media to call Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President—He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
Trump’s post sounds as if he is nervous about the increasing unrest over his policies and is trying to convince people that he has a mandate although in fact more people voted for other candidates in the 2024 election than voted for him. But it was his suggestion that any judge with whom he disagrees should be removed that sparked pushback from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, who issued a statement saying: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Roberts wrote the Trump v. United States decision of July 1, 2024, establishing that presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of their official presidential duties, and it seems likely that Trump did not expect a rebuke from him.
U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang also sought to stop the administration’s power grab. In a scathing 68-page decision, Chuang found that the actions of Elon Musk and the “Department of Government
Efficiency” to destroy the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways.” Chuang explained that the destruction of USAID hurt not only the 26 current or recently fired employees and contractors of USAID who had filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency.” That destruction also hurt “the public interest, because they deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”
While the question of who is in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is such a mystery that it has spawned its own social media hashtag—WITAOD, for “Who is the administrator of DOGE?”—Chuang clearly identified Elon Musk as the person in charge. Trump “identified Musk as the leader of DOGE,” he notes, and “Trump and Musk held a joint press conference in the Oval Office to answer reporters’ questions about DOGE.” Chuang noted the many, many times when Trump called Musk DOGE’s leader.
In the lawsuit, USAID employees argued that Musk has acted as an officer of the United States without having been duly appointed to such a role. The Constitution provides that the president can appoint such officers, who exercise “significant authority,” but that they must be confirmed with the advice and consent of the Senate. Musk, quite obviously, was not. The White House has tried to get around this issue by claiming that Musk is only an advisor to the president, but Chuang wasn’t buying it. “ased on the present record,” he wrote, “the only individuals known to be associated with the decisions to initiate a shutdown of USAID…are Musk and DOGE team Members.” Musk therefore “exercises actual authority in ways that an advisor to the President does not.”
Chuang ordered that parts of USAID must be restored, although what effect that will have is unclear since the agency has been destroyed.
Trump continued his attack on the rule of law today when he fired the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, which protects consumers from collusion and anti-consumer practices. The firings leave only two Republicans on the commission and leave it without a quorum to do business.
Beginning with the 1935 case of Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the courts have established that the president cannot fire officials in agencies created by Congress without a serious reason like neglect of duties. Legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern wrote: “Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands.”
Trump held a phone conversation today with Russian president Vladimir Putin, allegedly about a proposed ceasefire in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump boasted that he would end Russia’s war against Ukraine in a day, and he is now eager for any end to the hostilities. But Putin seems less eager to reach a solution than to demonstrate his dominance over Trump. Today, when the phone call was scheduled, Putin was on stage at an event. When his interviewer asked if he needed to go because he would be late for the call, Putin dismissed the question and laughter broke out. Brett Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room public relations firm wrote: “Making leaders wait is an old Putin power play. But, this is pretty brutal. Putin is publicly mocking Trump.”
While Trump’s team portrayed the conversation as productive, Putin maintained that Ukraine was the aggressor in the war, although it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. Putin also demanded that the U.S. and allies must stop all military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine, conditions that would hamstring Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
Finally today, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has proposed addressing the H5N1 bird flu that is decimating U.S. poultry and cattle farms by simply letting the disease run rampant. He suggests such a course would permit scientists to discover birds that are immune to the disease.
But veterinary scientists say that letting the virus sweep through flocks is “a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” as Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, told Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times. Chickens and turkeys don’t have the genes to resist the virus, and every infection is a chance for the virus to mutate into a more virulent form, one of which could mutate so it could spread among humans. If H5N1 were permitted to infect 5 million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Hansen told Mandavilli.
The danger of this shoot first, ask questions later attitude of administration officials was on display today in articles about the men deported to El Salvador. A Washington Post article by Silvia Foster-Frau followed the story of four Venezuelan friends who had come to the U.S. illegally. They shared a townhouse in Dallas, where immigration officials picked them up last Thursday. The men signed deportation papers, expecting to return to Venezuela, but although there is no record that the men committed crimes in the U.S. and their families insist they are not affiliated with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang whose members White House officials claim were on the weekend’s deportation flights, the men are shown in the videos of those deported to prison in El Salvador.
A Reuters story by Sarah Kinosian and Kristina Cooke reported that family members who suspect their loved ones have been sent to El Salvador have launched a WhatsApp helpline.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 18, 2025 (Tuesday)
Ta.
:(
more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
totally not colonialism interference
US President Donald Trump made it clear he wanted to strike a deal with Ukraine on rare earth minerals. But after negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy stagnated he is looking at another war-torn nation facing an invader as another option: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
SCIENCE said:
totally not
colonialisminterferenceUS President Donald Trump made it clear he wanted to strike a deal with Ukraine on rare earth minerals. But after negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy stagnated he is looking at another war-torn nation facing an invader as another option: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Trump could have quite easily had the deal with Zelensky, but was incapable of resisting the opportunity display what an arsehole he (Trump) is.
SCIENCE said:
more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
“American medical giants gangsters have written to the Trump administration…”
Fiexed it.
Totally fiexed it.
SCIENCE said:
more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
Bloody!
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
PBS includes many new drugs, not yet available as generics.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
PBS includes many new drugs, not yet available as generics.
I’ll have to look up the details, but from memory, we extended US drug patents to something well beyond regular Australian patent expiry. It was quite controversial at the time as it locked us in to long term higher prices. The whole purpose of the FTA in 2005 was to reduce tariffs. If Chump is suddenly breaching that FTA then we don’t have to abide by the terms either, we can waive that extended time limit, and start going generic on a whole load of stuff.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:More totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
PBS includes many new drugs, not yet available as generics.
Big Pharna already fuck with the PBS big time.
…. and it’s not necessarily American.
Novo Nordisk is now the biggest company in Europe. Novo Nordisk make Ozempic. Novo Nordisk also make Wegovy.
Both Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutide.
Ozempic is on the PBS list at a gov’t negotiated price. Wegovy is NOT on the PBS list. Yet it is exactly the same stuff made by exactly the same company.
Novo Nordisk restrict supply of Ozempic at the PBS negotiated price, yet supply of Wegovy is not restricted. Both require a prescription from your GP.
However, as Ozempic is on the PBS I get it for $7.70,, but it can be difficult to get because Novo Nordisk restrict supply for what the gov’t will pay for it.
However, if I had a script for Wegovy, I’d have to pay up to $380 (depending on dose strength) however supply at that price is not restricted and always available.
My pharmacist tells me the price diff between what the gov’t pay for ozempic, and what you’d pay for Wegovy is $113 a script for exactly the same thing.
So big pharma already fuck with the PBS by restricting supply, if they don’t get their way with pricing.
Woodie said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
PBS includes many new drugs, not yet available as generics.
Big Pharna already fuck with the PBS big time.
…. and it’s not necessarily American.
Novo Nordisk is now the biggest company in Europe. Novo Nordisk make Ozempic. Novo Nordisk also make Wegovy.
Both Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutide.
Ozempic is on the PBS list at a gov’t negotiated price. Wegovy is NOT on the PBS list. Yet it is exactly the same stuff made by exactly the same company.
Novo Nordisk restrict supply of Ozempic at the PBS negotiated price, yet supply of Wegovy is not restricted. Both require a prescription from your GP.
However, as Ozempic is on the PBS I get it for $7.70,, but it can be difficult to get because Novo Nordisk restrict supply for what the gov’t will pay for it.
However, if I had a script for Wegovy, I’d have to pay up to $380 (depending on dose strength) however supply at that price is not restricted and always available.
My pharmacist tells me the price diff between what the gov’t pay for ozempic, and what you’d pay for Wegovy is $113 a script for exactly the same thing.
So big pharma already fuck with the PBS by restricting supply, if they don’t get their way with pricing.
Not quite the same situation. Novo Nordisk are a Danish company and Denmark part of the EU. We don’t have an FTA with the EU because of geographical naming rights over cheese. So the PBS contracts are one on one with the Aus Govt and the company. But the key thing is that eventually the patent will expire and the Australian Govt will be able to source generic copies of the drug.
Under the US & Australia FTA from 2005, US companies get an extended period of patent protection. If we ended this special arrangement because the US has violated the FTA by imposing tariffs, there would be a whole range of existing drugs now open to generic competition. So the US companies would lose out worse than what they were getting now, so they should just STFU.
Woodie said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
PBS includes many new drugs, not yet available as generics.
Big Pharna already fuck with the PBS big time.
…. and it’s not necessarily American.
Novo Nordisk is now the biggest company in Europe. Novo Nordisk make Ozempic. Novo Nordisk also make Wegovy.
Both Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutide.
Ozempic is on the PBS list at a gov’t negotiated price. Wegovy is NOT on the PBS list. Yet it is exactly the same stuff made by exactly the same company.
Novo Nordisk restrict supply of Ozempic at the PBS negotiated price, yet supply of Wegovy is not restricted. Both require a prescription from your GP.
However, as Ozempic is on the PBS I get it for $7.70,, but it can be difficult to get because Novo Nordisk restrict supply for what the gov’t will pay for it.
However, if I had a script for Wegovy, I’d have to pay up to $380 (depending on dose strength) however supply at that price is not restricted and always available.
My pharmacist tells me the price diff between what the gov’t pay for ozempic, and what you’d pay for Wegovy is $113 a script for exactly the same thing.
So big pharma already fuck with the PBS by restricting supply, if they don’t get their way with pricing.
FMD
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
awful read. never going back to the US again.
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooneyawful read. never going back to the US again.
I’ve just read the same article. I don’t think I’ll be going to the US either.
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooneyawful read. never going back to the US again.
I’ve just read the same article. I don’t think I’ll be going to the US either.
I know Aus has done some bad shit. this shit is shit. i hate it.
sarahs mum said:
AussieDJ said:
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooneyawful read. never going back to the US again.
I’ve just read the same article. I don’t think I’ll be going to the US either.
I know Aus has done some bad shit. this shit is shit. i hate it.
+1
sarahs mum said:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooneyawful read. never going back to the US again.
During the first trump administration I always took my state issued ID (I don’t have a driver’s license so this card is an option for me to show my address), my military ID, and my Green Card with me when I took Gracie for walks around the block.
We have Border Patrol vehicles using the main road near us, a compound is up the road.
sarahs mum said:
What Would luiJesus Do
captain_spalding said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
more totally not happening external consequences
American medical giants have written to the Trump administration, urging it to consider Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an “unfair trade practice” and to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
The 2005 FTA was a big concession to the US big pharma in the first place. It has resulted in Australia paying more for US drugs than otherwise.
If they want to give that up, we can just go for generic off-patent stuff from overseas. They lose.
“American medical
giantsgangsters have written to the Trump administration…”Fiexed it.
Totally fiexed it.
but we acknowledge that it totally is the flex yous think it is
Some polling results for y’all
Our Struggle has begun Brothers and Sisters and Trans and Intersex and all the others too numerous to name.
An unsung hero has struck a blow for the cause.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tesla-vehicles-vandalized-us-musk-began-white-house/story?id=119910817
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
Watch how much is redacted.
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
The art of misdirection
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
His wearing gloves so as not to show how small his hands are.
He needs to wear those make America Great Again caps so as not to reveal how small his brain is.
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.
Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
fsm said:
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
Trump must really love free trade.
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
He’s also ripping up the lawn in the Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden to pave it, because it rains and he thinks it will look better, and more like the patio at Motel-A-Lago. Season 1 of trump’s reality show had Melania, rip out the rose bushes.
It’s all distraction.
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
He’s also ripping up the lawn in the Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden to pave it, because it rains and he thinks it will look better, and more like the patio at Motel-A-Lago. Season 1 of trump’s reality show had Melania, rip out the rose bushes.
It’s all distraction.
The interview, which was part of Ingraham’s show ‘The Angle’ contained an exclusive tour of the Oval Office. As Ingraham and the President passed through the rose garden, the cameras captured workers paving some areas of the garden with concrete. Ingraham then asks Trump if he is paving it and why.
“What was happening is, it’s supposed to have events,” Trump said, adding, “every event you have, it’s soaking wet. It’s soaking wet, and people can’t. And the women with the high heels, it’s just too much.
“The grass just, it doesn’t work. And we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. But, you know, we use it for press conferences, and it doesn’t work because the people fall into the, you know, into the wet stuff.”
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/donald-trump-planning-to-pave-over-jackie-kennedys-rose-garden-with-concrete-what-we-know-article-119233557
I’d build a moat.
fsm said:
kii said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
He’s also ripping up the lawn in the Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden to pave it, because it rains and he thinks it will look better, and more like the patio at Motel-A-Lago. Season 1 of trump’s reality show had Melania, rip out the rose bushes.
It’s all distraction.
The interview, which was part of Ingraham’s show ‘The Angle’ contained an exclusive tour of the Oval Office. As Ingraham and the President passed through the rose garden, the cameras captured workers paving some areas of the garden with concrete. Ingraham then asks Trump if he is paving it and why.
“What was happening is, it’s supposed to have events,” Trump said, adding, “every event you have, it’s soaking wet. It’s soaking wet, and people can’t. And the women with the high heels, it’s just too much.
“The grass just, it doesn’t work. And we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. But, you know, we use it for press conferences, and it doesn’t work because the people fall into the, you know, into the wet stuff.”
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/donald-trump-planning-to-pave-over-jackie-kennedys-rose-garden-with-concrete-what-we-know-article-119233557
he’s trying to turn it all into a big fucking driveway
Arts said:
fsm said:
kii said:He’s also ripping up the lawn in the Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden to pave it, because it rains and he thinks it will look better, and more like the patio at Motel-A-Lago. Season 1 of trump’s reality show had Melania, rip out the rose bushes.
It’s all distraction.
The interview, which was part of Ingraham’s show ‘The Angle’ contained an exclusive tour of the Oval Office. As Ingraham and the President passed through the rose garden, the cameras captured workers paving some areas of the garden with concrete. Ingraham then asks Trump if he is paving it and why.
“What was happening is, it’s supposed to have events,” Trump said, adding, “every event you have, it’s soaking wet. It’s soaking wet, and people can’t. And the women with the high heels, it’s just too much.
“The grass just, it doesn’t work. And we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. But, you know, we use it for press conferences, and it doesn’t work because the people fall into the, you know, into the wet stuff.”
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/donald-trump-planning-to-pave-over-jackie-kennedys-rose-garden-with-concrete-what-we-know-article-119233557
he’s trying to turn it all into a big fucking driveway
Tamb said:
Arts said:
fsm said:The interview, which was part of Ingraham’s show ‘The Angle’ contained an exclusive tour of the Oval Office. As Ingraham and the President passed through the rose garden, the cameras captured workers paving some areas of the garden with concrete. Ingraham then asks Trump if he is paving it and why.
“What was happening is, it’s supposed to have events,” Trump said, adding, “every event you have, it’s soaking wet. It’s soaking wet, and people can’t. And the women with the high heels, it’s just too much.
“The grass just, it doesn’t work. And we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. But, you know, we use it for press conferences, and it doesn’t work because the people fall into the, you know, into the wet stuff.”
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/donald-trump-planning-to-pave-over-jackie-kennedys-rose-garden-with-concrete-what-we-know-article-119233557
he’s trying to turn it all into a big fucking driveway
Maybe Teslas are paved road only vehicles.
God damn Republicans and their fascination with EVs
Tau.Neutrino said:
fsm said:
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
Trump must really love free trade.
It’s becoming a bit unbelievable how much he’s giving up the US economy. I knew it would be bad but never underestimate Trump!
It will be fun watching the sycophants in the GOP slowly but surely attempt some pushback. First the oligarchs and tech bros will turn.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
fsm said:
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
Trump must really love free trade.
It’s becoming a bit unbelievable how much he’s giving up the US economy. I knew it would be bad but never underestimate Trump!
It will be fun watching the sycophants in the GOP slowly but surely attempt some pushback. First the oligarchs and tech bros will turn.
giving=fucking
‘Bizarre fetish’: Trump’s obsession with Canada called a ‘South Park gag’ leaving even Fox stumped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-BBNEiNwoM
—-
oh yeah. I remember when south park did that.
Divine Angel said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
Watch how much is redacted.
Red Dwarf did it well were he killed himself
diddly-squat said:
Tamb said:
Arts said:he’s trying to turn it all into a big fucking driveway
Maybe Teslas are paved road only vehicles.God damn Republicans and their fascination with EVs
Turns out “go woke, go broke” Is wrong and it’s actually, “go Nazi, lose a few billion dollars” but that’s not as catchy.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Trump must really love free trade.
It’s becoming a bit unbelievable how much he’s giving up the US economy. I knew it would be bad but never underestimate Trump!
It will be fun watching the sycophants in the GOP slowly but surely attempt some pushback. First the oligarchs and tech bros will turn.
giving=fucking
Ok, I’ll make that adjustment in your future posts.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Trump must really love free trade.
It’s becoming a bit unbelievable how much he’s giving up the US economy. I knew it would be bad but never underestimate Trump!
It will be fun watching the sycophants in the GOP slowly but surely attempt some pushback. First the oligarchs and tech bros will turn.
giving=fucking
excuse me! this is a fucking family forum.. please refrain from swearing
Arts said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:It’s becoming a bit unbelievable how much he’s giving up the US economy. I knew it would be bad but never underestimate Trump!
It will be fun watching the sycophants in the GOP slowly but surely attempt some pushback. First the oligarchs and tech bros will turn.
giving=fucking
excuse me! this is a fucking family forum.. please refrain from swearing
Is crashing the global economy an indictable offence?
fsm said:
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
There really is absolutely no capacity to think things through, is there. It’s so childish.
buffy said:
fsm said:
President Donald Trump’s plan to revive US shipbuilding by placing massive fees on China-linked ships that visit American ports is causing US coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $US1.5 million ($2.3 million) on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that also include ships made in China.
Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers, according to major US exporters and transportation providers.
Vessel owners have already refused to provide offers for future US coal shipments due to the proposed USTR fees, Xcoal Energy & Resources chief executive Ernie Thrasher said in a letter this month to US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Enacting and implementing those fees could cease exports of US coal within 60 days, putting $US130 billion worth of shipments at risk, Thrasher said. He said the fee structure could add up to 35 per cent to the delivered cost of US coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market.
“The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic,” said Thrasher, who confirmed sending the letter and said he had not received a response.
The letter from Pennsylvania-based coal marketer Xcoal and comments from agriculture representatives showing tangible impacts from the proposed fees have not previously been reported.
Coal mines in West Virginia are also preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal inventories pile up, Chris Hamilton, chief executive of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He did not provide specifics.
The proposed fees could also make it harder for the US to export other energy products such as oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry lobbying group, said in comments submitted to the USTR this month.
The USTR proposal also seeks to shift domestic exports to ships that are both flagged and built in the United States. The current fleet of US-flagged cargo vessels is less than 200, and not all are US-built.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-s-massive-shipping-fees-threaten-us-trade-20250320-p5ll1j
There really is absolutely no capacity to think things through, is there. It’s so childish.
The point is, will all this get past the midterms?
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
we won’t be able to handle it!!!
JudgeMental said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
we won’t be able to handle it!!!
What about all the documents he’s showing Putin?
roughbarked said:
JudgeMental said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
we won’t be able to handle it!!!
What about all the documents he’s showing Putin?
80,000 documents
How on earth could you generate so many unless you got paid by the document
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)
On the Fox News Channel’s The Five yesterday, the panel of Fox personalities expressed outrage that federal judge James Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to stop its deportation of migrants based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. That act permits the president to arrest and deport citizens of other countries that are at war with the U.S. or invading it. If Trump’s claim that Venezuelan gang members are acting in concert with the Venezuelan government to invade the U.S. stands, it gives the president extraordinary scope to take power over immigration away from Congress by declaring any foreign country is invading the United States and thus making its citizens subject to deportation without going through the normal legal process.
The Fox News Channel hosts were also unhappy that when President Donald Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts issued a relatively mild statement that did not mention the president by name but criticized his call for Boasberg’s impeachment by saying: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Roberts was nominated for his position by Republican president George W. Bush and was the author of the Donald Trump v. United States decision establishing that a president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his official duties, a decision that upended centuries of precedent to allow Trump to avoid criminal prosecution. Roberts can hardly be considered a member of the radical Left.
And yet, on The Five, Greg Gutfeld exploded: “Maybe a guy in a robe in D.C. can follow all the protocols, but Trump is the ‘f-ing’ president of the United States who protects 300 million plus people. He is a leader who does not have the luxury of opening up his little books to read ‘Oh my god, maybe he didn’t do it the right way.’ Roberts, shut the ‘f’ up. This is something that a president has to do. He HAS to do this.”
Gutfeld’s outburst shows just how far today’s right wing has slid toward autocracy. It is a grim marker for our democracy, when a commentator with a wide audience openly calls for the replacement of the rule of law with a dictator.
While Trump apologists are insisting that the men deported to El Salvador are part of a Venezuelan gang that has spread crime across the United States, the family members of some of the individuals who show up on videos of those deported insist their relatives are not gang members.
On Monday, March 17, two days after the men were deported, Acting Field Office Director Robert L. Cerna of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations added support to their families’ statements when he revealed that “many” of those deported did not have criminal records in the United States, although he insisted that the men were nonetheless associated with the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang. In a sworn declaration, Cerna told the court that if the deportees lack a criminal record, “that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time.”
He went on to say: “The lack of criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
That paragraph, from an American official, is worth rereading. It asserts to the court that a person’s lack of criminal record proves that they are more dangerous than people who do have a criminal record because their clean record simply shows that the government lacks a complete profile of their crimes.
Wow.
The United States has laws in place to prosecute criminals whether or not they are citizens and, if they are convicted, to imprison them and then, if they are not citizens, to deport them. This system was in operation long before Donald Trump became president. When people like Gutfield call for the president to act outside that system, they are saying that our legal system is insufficient to handle the conditions in modern America.
But arguing that the rule of law is obsolete is nothing new. It was common among certain circles in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Then, as now, gangs of Americans insisted that the courts had been corrupted by politicians who let members of certain populations off easily because they wanted their votes, and thus were unleashing criminals on the community.
In 1884, for example, Cincinnati, Ohio, erupted into three days of rioting when William Berner avoided a murder conviction after he and his fellow employee Joseph Palmer beat their employer, stableman William Kirk, strangled him, and threw his body in the woods outside the city. Convicted of manslaughter, Berner was sentenced to twenty years in prison rather than execution.
After the court announced Berner’s sentence, 8,000 of “the wisest and most prudent citizens” of the city, “well-known and respected citizens,” met to call for justice. They swept into the streets, becoming a mob that killed 56 people and injured more than 200 over the next two days. They fought against symbols of government authority, attacking the jail and police officers and burning the courthouse to the ground.
The argument used by the Cincinnati rioters—that a court system corrupted by politicians was letting criminals loose into the community—was the justification for the lynching of Black Americans from the 1890s onward.
Today, the attack on the rule of law is taking a different form. MAGA supporters are calling for the courts to be replaced not with lynching parties but with a dictator, a single man who will override the laws to bring what his supporters consider justice to those they claim are enemies. The end to the due process of the law leads to situations where a government official can argue that the lack of a criminal record for someone perceived to be an enemy of those in power just proves that person is a criminal.
The call to erase the rule of law and institute a dictatorship is more than just an attack on individuals’ rights. It is fundamentally an attack on the supreme power of the American people. “We the People of the United States,” our constitution reads, “do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
That constitution, which establishes the legislative branch in Article I as the first among equals, sets out a process by which American citizens elect lawmakers who write, debate, and pass the laws under which we live. Under this system, our laws represent the will of the American people.
Trump and today’s MAGA Republicans are proudly ignoring those laws, not only in Trump’s attacks on the judiciary but also in things like the administration’s lie, reported today by Andy Kroll of ProPublica, that nearly 7,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service were fired for poor performance despite the repeated warnings of a top IRS lawyer that this was “a false statement” that amounted to “fraud” on the courts.
The administration’s attempt to ignore the laws the Constitution charges it with executing amounts to an attack on the right of the American people to establish the rules under which we live.
In a webcast on Monday, Trump ally Steve Bannon defended the deportations even if, as his guest said, they swept in “some gardener or something who’d never been in trouble.” Bannon replied: “ Big deal…. Maybe some people got caught up in it. Who knows?… I think they got everybody who was a bad guy, but guess what? If there’s some innocent gardeners in there? Hey, tough break for a swell guy. That’s where we stand.”
Throughout our history, that is not where the laws of the United States, or the majority of its people, have stood.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)On the Fox News Channel’s The Five yesterday, the panel of Fox personalities expressed outrage that federal judge James Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to stop its deportation of migrants based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. That act permits the president to arrest and deport citizens of other countries that are at war with the U.S. or invading it. If Trump’s claim that Venezuelan gang members are acting in concert with the Venezuelan government to invade the U.S. stands, it gives the president extraordinary scope to take power over immigration away from Congress by declaring any foreign country is invading the United States and thus making its citizens subject to deportation without going through the normal legal process.
The Fox News Channel hosts were also unhappy that when President Donald Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts issued a relatively mild statement that did not mention the president by name but criticized his call for Boasberg’s impeachment by saying: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Roberts was nominated for his position by Republican president George W. Bush and was the author of the Donald Trump v. United States decision establishing that a president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his official duties, a decision that upended centuries of precedent to allow Trump to avoid criminal prosecution. Roberts can hardly be considered a member of the radical Left.
And yet, on The Five, Greg Gutfeld exploded: “Maybe a guy in a robe in D.C. can follow all the protocols, but Trump is the ‘f-ing’ president of the United States who protects 300 million plus people. He is a leader who does not have the luxury of opening up his little books to read ‘Oh my god, maybe he didn’t do it the right way.’ Roberts, shut the ‘f’ up. This is something that a president has to do. He HAS to do this.”
Gutfeld’s outburst shows just how far today’s right wing has slid toward autocracy. It is a grim marker for our democracy, when a commentator with a wide audience openly calls for the replacement of the rule of law with a dictator.
While Trump apologists are insisting that the men deported to El Salvador are part of a Venezuelan gang that has spread crime across the United States, the family members of some of the individuals who show up on videos of those deported insist their relatives are not gang members.
On Monday, March 17, two days after the men were deported, Acting Field Office Director Robert L. Cerna of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations added support to their families’ statements when he revealed that “many” of those deported did not have criminal records in the United States, although he insisted that the men were nonetheless associated with the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang. In a sworn declaration, Cerna told the court that if the deportees lack a criminal record, “that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time.”
He went on to say: “The lack of criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
That paragraph, from an American official, is worth rereading. It asserts to the court that a person’s lack of criminal record proves that they are more dangerous than people who do have a criminal record because their clean record simply shows that the government lacks a complete profile of their crimes.
Wow.
The United States has laws in place to prosecute criminals whether or not they are citizens and, if they are convicted, to imprison them and then, if they are not citizens, to deport them. This system was in operation long before Donald Trump became president. When people like Gutfield call for the president to act outside that system, they are saying that our legal system is insufficient to handle the conditions in modern America.
But arguing that the rule of law is obsolete is nothing new. It was common among certain circles in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Then, as now, gangs of Americans insisted that the courts had been corrupted by politicians who let members of certain populations off easily because they wanted their votes, and thus were unleashing criminals on the community.
In 1884, for example, Cincinnati, Ohio, erupted into three days of rioting when William Berner avoided a murder conviction after he and his fellow employee Joseph Palmer beat their employer, stableman William Kirk, strangled him, and threw his body in the woods outside the city. Convicted of manslaughter, Berner was sentenced to twenty years in prison rather than execution.
After the court announced Berner’s sentence, 8,000 of “the wisest and most prudent citizens” of the city, “well-known and respected citizens,” met to call for justice. They swept into the streets, becoming a mob that killed 56 people and injured more than 200 over the next two days. They fought against symbols of government authority, attacking the jail and police officers and burning the courthouse to the ground.
The argument used by the Cincinnati rioters—that a court system corrupted by politicians was letting criminals loose into the community—was the justification for the lynching of Black Americans from the 1890s onward.
Today, the attack on the rule of law is taking a different form. MAGA supporters are calling for the courts to be replaced not with lynching parties but with a dictator, a single man who will override the laws to bring what his supporters consider justice to those they claim are enemies. The end to the due process of the law leads to situations where a government official can argue that the lack of a criminal record for someone perceived to be an enemy of those in power just proves that person is a criminal.
The call to erase the rule of law and institute a dictatorship is more than just an attack on individuals’ rights. It is fundamentally an attack on the supreme power of the American people. “We the People of the United States,” our constitution reads, “do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
That constitution, which establishes the legislative branch in Article I as the first among equals, sets out a process by which American citizens elect lawmakers who write, debate, and pass the laws under which we live. Under this system, our laws represent the will of the American people.
Trump and today’s MAGA Republicans are proudly ignoring those laws, not only in Trump’s attacks on the judiciary but also in things like the administration’s lie, reported today by Andy Kroll of ProPublica, that nearly 7,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service were fired for poor performance despite the repeated warnings of a top IRS lawyer that this was “a false statement” that amounted to “fraud” on the courts.
The administration’s attempt to ignore the laws the Constitution charges it with executing amounts to an attack on the right of the American people to establish the rules under which we live.
In a webcast on Monday, Trump ally Steve Bannon defended the deportations even if, as his guest said, they swept in “some gardener or something who’d never been in trouble.” Bannon replied: “ Big deal…. Maybe some people got caught up in it. Who knows?… I think they got everybody who was a bad guy, but guess what? If there’s some innocent gardeners in there? Hey, tough break for a swell guy. That’s where we stand.”
Throughout our history, that is not where the laws of the United States, or the majority of its people, have stood.
The immigrants over the years, have they been treated well I wonder.
Or were they cheap exploitable labour who once there didn’t have much option but to take what they were dealt.
It seems as an outside observer so many things are set up in the USA to exploit people desperate for work
roughbarked said:
JudgeMental said:
Peak Warming Man said:
AT LAST WE’LL KNOW THE TRUTH
we won’t be able to handle it!!!
What about all the documents he’s showing Putin?
We’re not going to learn much from 80,000 documents that have everything blacked out except the date at the start, and the words ‘The End’ on the final page.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)On the Fox News Channel’s The Five yesterday, the panel of Fox personalities expressed outrage that federal judge James Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to stop its deportation of migrants based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. That act permits the president to arrest and deport citizens of other countries that are at war with the U.S. or invading it. If Trump’s claim that Venezuelan gang members are acting in concert with the Venezuelan government to invade the U.S. stands, it gives the president extraordinary scope to take power over immigration away from Congress by declaring any foreign country is invading the United States and thus making its citizens subject to deportation without going through the normal legal process….
I really don’t understand why diddly-squat has so much confidence that the Constitutional Order will prevail in America.
Here’s what ChatGPT says about the path to authoritarianism. How many of these things are happening right now in the US? Most of them?
1. Erosion of Democratic Norms
Normalization of Undemocratic Practices: If political leaders or parties repeatedly engage in undemocratic practices (e.g., undermining the rule of law, disregarding judicial independence, or attacking free press), it can lead to the erosion of democratic norms. This can make it easier for authoritarian leaders to gain power. Polarization and Divisiveness: Extreme political polarization can create an environment where compromise and collaboration become difficult. As citizens become more divided, authoritarian figures may emerge, promising to restore order by silencing dissent or disregarding opposition.2. Weakening of Checks and Balances
Consolidation of Power: A key characteristic of authoritarianism is the concentration of power in the hands of a single leader or party. If the executive branch gains excessive control over the judiciary, the media, and other institutions, it can undermine the system of checks and balances that is central to American democracy. Weakening of Political Institutions: If political parties or government institutions, such as Congress, become more dysfunctional or less independent, it can lead to the centralization of power in the hands of the president or other leaders. This weakening can make it easier for authoritarian figures to circumvent the democratic process.3. Attacks on Civil Liberties and Free Press
Media Control and Misinformation: Authoritarian leaders often attempt to control the media or spread misinformation to manipulate public opinion and consolidate their power. If the press is attacked or delegitimized, it becomes more difficult for citizens to hold leaders accountable, fostering an environment where authoritarianism can thrive. Suppression of Dissent: Authoritarian regimes often respond to criticism with censorship, surveillance, and repression. If government actions against protesters, civil rights organizations, or the political opposition become more widespread, it could be a sign that the U.S. is moving toward authoritarianism.4. Weakening of Rule of Law
Undermining Judicial Independence: If the judicial system becomes politicized or subservient to political leaders, it can no longer act as an independent check on executive power. The rule of law is a cornerstone of democracy, and any erosion of its integrity can lead to authoritarianism. Selective Law Enforcement: If law enforcement and the legal system are used selectively to target political opponents, it creates a dangerous precedent where political opposition is viewed as a threat to be eliminated rather than as a legitimate part of the democratic process.5. Nationalism and Populism
Rise of Populist Leaders: Charismatic leaders who capitalize on nationalist sentiment and promise to restore the nation’s former glory can attract large followings. They may appeal to voters’ frustration with the political system and present themselves as the only solution to the nation’s problems. Populism, when unchecked, can lead to authoritarian practices as leaders push for centralization of power to “protect the people.” Us vs. Them Mentality: Authoritarian regimes often create an “us vs. them” mentality, where certain groups (ethnic minorities, immigrants, political opponents) are demonized as enemies of the state. This helps leaders consolidate support by uniting citizens against perceived threats.6. Economic Inequality and Discontent
Economic Distress: When a large portion of the population feels economically disenfranchised or alienated, they may be more receptive to authoritarian rhetoric. Leaders who promise to restore order, prioritize nationalism, or protect domestic industries may gain popularity by tapping into economic frustration. Corporate Power: As corporations gain more influence over politics and policies, the potential for an oligarchic or corporatist system emerges, where a few powerful entities control the country’s direction. This could undermine democratic processes, favoring the interests of elites over the public.7. Decline in Civic Engagement
Political Apathy: When citizens become disengaged from the political process, they may stop holding elected officials accountable, which allows authoritarian figures to take advantage of the lack of scrutiny. Low voter turnout, disillusionment, and apathy toward government can contribute to a weakening of democratic norms and institutions. Diminished Trust in Institutions: A decrease in public trust in government institutions, including the electoral system, the judiciary, and law enforcement, can weaken the foundations of democracy. If citizens no longer believe that these institutions are functioning fairly and effectively, they may be more inclined to support strong, central leadership.8. Crisis and the Expansion of Executive Power
Emergencies and Crises: National emergencies (such as wars, economic collapse, or health crises) can lead to the concentration of power in the executive branch as governments respond to the crisis. If these powers are not checked and are extended indefinitely, they can provide a pathway to authoritarianism. Suspension of Rights During Crisis: Leaders may justify the suspension of rights (such as freedom of speech, assembly, or privacy) in the name of national security or public safety, leading to the weakening of democratic safeguards.9. International Influence and External Threats
Foreign Authoritarian Influence: Sometimes, foreign authoritarian regimes or ideologies can provide both inspiration and resources to domestic movements. A global rise in authoritarianism could embolden similar tendencies in the U.S., especially if these movements claim that democracy is in decline worldwide. Manipulation of Elections: External actors may attempt to manipulate the U.S. political process through disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, or financial support to certain political groups, fostering division and undermining democratic institutions.sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)
FTD
A friend is going to Washington tomorrow for a conference (medical), she was joking yesterday about being detained for some of her social media posts about Trump.
And then we read this today.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained
ruby said:
A friend is going to Washington tomorrow for a conference (medical), she was joking yesterday about being detained for some of her social media posts about Trump.
And then we read this today.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained
America! Ha ha ha! We love you
How many people are proud to be citizens
Of this beautiful country of ours, the stripes and the stars
For the rights that men have died for to protect?
The women and men who have broke their necks
For the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold
… or so we’re told
Big tech giants Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon and Elon Musk’s X have lodged a formal complaint urging the Trump administration to target “coercive and discriminatory” Australian media laws.
The members of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) responded to a request by the Office of the United States Trade Representative for “comments to assist in reviewing and identifying unfair trade practices and initiating all necessary actions to investigate harm from non-reciprocal trade arrangements”.
more…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/trump-urged-to-target-coercive-and-discriminatory-australian-media-laws-by-musks-x-apple-google-and-meta
esselte said:
ruby said:
A friend is going to Washington tomorrow for a conference (medical), she was joking yesterday about being detained for some of her social media posts about Trump.
And then we read this today.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained
America! Ha ha ha! We love you
How many people are proud to be citizens
Of this beautiful country of ours, the stripes and the stars
For the rights that men have died for to protect?
The women and men who have broke their necks
For the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold
… or so we’re told
serious question though should we tell those students we mentioned previously that they should purge their personal devices before they take the descent into hell
sarahs mum said:
Big tech giants Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon and Elon Musk’s X have lodged a formal complaint urging the Trump administration to target “coercive and discriminatory” Australian media laws.
The members of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) responded to a request by the Office of the United States Trade Representative for “comments to assist in reviewing and identifying unfair trade practices and initiating all necessary actions to investigate harm from non-reciprocal trade arrangements”.
well they can fuck themselves
esselte said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)On the Fox News Channel’s The Five yesterday, the panel of Fox personalities expressed outrage that federal judge James Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to stop its deportation of migrants based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. That act permits the president to arrest and deport citizens of other countries that are at war with the U.S. or invading it. If Trump’s claim that Venezuelan gang members are acting in concert with the Venezuelan government to invade the U.S. stands, it gives the president extraordinary scope to take power over immigration away from Congress by declaring any foreign country is invading the United States and thus making its citizens subject to deportation without going through the normal legal process….
I really don’t understand why diddly-squat has so much confidence that the Constitutional Order will prevail in America.
Here’s what ChatGPT says about the path to authoritarianism. How many of these things are happening right now in the US? Most of them?
1. Erosion of Democratic Norms
Normalization of Undemocratic Practices: If political leaders or parties repeatedly engage in undemocratic practices (e.g., undermining the rule of law, disregarding judicial independence, or attacking free press), it can lead to the erosion of democratic norms. This can make it easier for authoritarian leaders to gain power. Polarization and Divisiveness: Extreme political polarization can create an environment where compromise and collaboration become difficult. As citizens become more divided, authoritarian figures may emerge, promising to restore order by silencing dissent or disregarding opposition.2. Weakening of Checks and Balances
Consolidation of Power: A key characteristic of authoritarianism is the concentration of power in the hands of a single leader or party. If the executive branch gains excessive control over the judiciary, the media, and other institutions, it can undermine the system of checks and balances that is central to American democracy. Weakening of Political Institutions: If political parties or government institutions, such as Congress, become more dysfunctional or less independent, it can lead to the centralization of power in the hands of the president or other leaders. This weakening can make it easier for authoritarian figures to circumvent the democratic process.3. Attacks on Civil Liberties and Free Press
Media Control and Misinformation: Authoritarian leaders often attempt to control the media or spread misinformation to manipulate public opinion and consolidate their power. If the press is attacked or delegitimized, it becomes more difficult for citizens to hold leaders accountable, fostering an environment where authoritarianism can thrive. Suppression of Dissent: Authoritarian regimes often respond to criticism with censorship, surveillance, and repression. If government actions against protesters, civil rights organizations, or the political opposition become more widespread, it could be a sign that the U.S. is moving toward authoritarianism.4. Weakening of Rule of Law
Undermining Judicial Independence: If the judicial system becomes politicized or subservient to political leaders, it can no longer act as an independent check on executive power. The rule of law is a cornerstone of democracy, and any erosion of its integrity can lead to authoritarianism. Selective Law Enforcement: If law enforcement and the legal system are used selectively to target political opponents, it creates a dangerous precedent where political opposition is viewed as a threat to be eliminated rather than as a legitimate part of the democratic process.5. Nationalism and Populism
Rise of Populist Leaders: Charismatic leaders who capitalize on nationalist sentiment and promise to restore the nation’s former glory can attract large followings. They may appeal to voters’ frustration with the political system and present themselves as the only solution to the nation’s problems. Populism, when unchecked, can lead to authoritarian practices as leaders push for centralization of power to “protect the people.” Us vs. Them Mentality: Authoritarian regimes often create an “us vs. them” mentality, where certain groups (ethnic minorities, immigrants, political opponents) are demonized as enemies of the state. This helps leaders consolidate support by uniting citizens against perceived threats.6. Economic Inequality and Discontent
Economic Distress: When a large portion of the population feels economically disenfranchised or alienated, they may be more receptive to authoritarian rhetoric. Leaders who promise to restore order, prioritize nationalism, or protect domestic industries may gain popularity by tapping into economic frustration. Corporate Power: As corporations gain more influence over politics and policies, the potential for an oligarchic or corporatist system emerges, where a few powerful entities control the country’s direction. This could undermine democratic processes, favoring the interests of elites over the public.7. Decline in Civic Engagement
Political Apathy: When citizens become disengaged from the political process, they may stop holding elected officials accountable, which allows authoritarian figures to take advantage of the lack of scrutiny. Low voter turnout, disillusionment, and apathy toward government can contribute to a weakening of democratic norms and institutions. Diminished Trust in Institutions: A decrease in public trust in government institutions, including the electoral system, the judiciary, and law enforcement, can weaken the foundations of democracy. If citizens no longer believe that these institutions are functioning fairly and effectively, they may be more inclined to support strong, central leadership.8. Crisis and the Expansion of Executive Power
Emergencies and Crises: National emergencies (such as wars, economic collapse, or health crises) can lead to the concentration of power in the executive branch as governments respond to the crisis. If these powers are not checked and are extended indefinitely, they can provide a pathway to authoritarianism. Suspension of Rights During Crisis: Leaders may justify the suspension of rights (such as freedom of speech, assembly, or privacy) in the name of national security or public safety, leading to the weakening of democratic safeguards.9. International Influence and External Threats
Foreign Authoritarian Influence: Sometimes, foreign authoritarian regimes or ideologies can provide both inspiration and resources to domestic movements. A global rise in authoritarianism could embolden similar tendencies in the U.S., especially if these movements claim that democracy is in decline worldwide. Manipulation of Elections: External actors may attempt to manipulate the U.S. political process through disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, or financial support to certain political groups, fostering division and undermining democratic institutions.
shrug these things can’t possibly happen until they’ve already happened
From Whit Barringer on fb:
“You’re getting a pizza. You’re stopped by ICE. You say, “I’m a citizen, born and raised here.” ICE arrests you anyway. They confiscate your driver’s license and your social security card, and they throw you into a van with other handcuffed people.
Last Friday, the administration defied a judge’s order and deported people who had not received a trial to slave labor camps in El Salvador. Those people may never see the light of day – again, with no trial.
Now imagine you’re the person who was getting pizza and is now in the back of a van. You know you are a citizen, but they’ve taken away your proof. (And you don’t know it yet, but they are going to create a warrant to justify your arrest after the fact.)
What if you got put on a plane to El Salvador, on the words of lying agents of the government? Who would believe you? Who would know you were gone? How would they get you out? Could they get to you in time before you are worked to death in a brutal, violent prison system?
We are not yet two months into this administration, and ICE has arrested, tortured, imprisoned, deported, and/or sold into slavery:
• American citizens
• people who have never had a trial Link
• visa-holders and permanent residents, who in at least one case ICE tortured the man to get him to give up their immigration status so they could deport him (important to note, he is a white German man) Link
• tourists Link
• entire families, even when their child is an American citizen and has just gotten out of literal brain surgery Link
• a neurosurgeon who had a legal protection from courts preventing their deportation Link
Being American doesn’t protect you. Being white doesn’t protect you. Being a parent, a child, talented, healthy, sick, dying, or under court-ordered protection doesn’t protect you.
There’s precedent for this, perhaps most recently in how we treated Iraqis and Afghanis accused of terrorism during the War on Terror. Then, the government said bad treatment – the denial of basic necessities, torture, even death while in custody – was okay because they were classified as “enemy combatants” – a made-up term that the Bush administration used to describe people that it considered neither citizens of the US nor part of the military of a formal country.
According to the federal government, they were in an in-between place without protections, because no country could claim them and therefore diplomacy and the Geneva Convention did not apply. Just about anything could happen to them in custody and it be excusable and justified. The same logic is being applied to immigrants.
And it’s worth noting that the act they used to deport the Venezuelans on Friday was last used to imprison all Japanese Americans during World War II. The incarceration of the Japanese (also done by executive order) and the subsequent Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States, together represent one of the greatest misuses of presidential power in US history and one of the worst legal decisions in US history.
It was evil to deny people their rights then, and it’s evil now.
Trump has used legal maneuvering to try and create exactly the conditions where brutal abuse can happen out of sight of the American people, but with the additional legal license to arrest anyone on American soil without legal recourse.
Again, they are shipping people out of the country or losing them in the prison system. They are doing this so that the people they arrest, whether they are innocent or guilty or completely uninvolved, are stripped them of their civil rights and disappeared before anyone can protest.
On top of all of this, the government is arguing that it can arrest and deport people if they speak against the president’s foreign policy objectives. Put another way, President Trump is arguing that disagreeing with him is enough to get you deported. Everyone should be absolutely terrified of these people and what they are capable of.
Lastly: This is why they want to redefine birthright citizenship. If they succeed, they can recategorize people from citizens into noncitizens. This has happened before: German Jews were recategorized and stripped of citizenship, which created the legal justification for sending Jews to labor and death camps. Link
The road map here is very clear, and the administration has said over and over and over again that it wants to follow it. I don’t know if the American people can stop what is happening at this point – the train is running away and barreling towards all of us – but the grandchildren of this generation will be asking us if we tried.”
kii said:
From Whit Barringer on fb:“You’re getting a pizza. You’re stopped by ICE. You say, “I’m a citizen, born and raised here.” ICE arrests you anyway. They confiscate your driver’s license and your social security card, and they throw you into a van with other handcuffed people.
Last Friday, the administration defied a judge’s order and deported people who had not received a trial to slave labor camps in El Salvador. Those people may never see the light of day – again, with no trial.
Now imagine you’re the person who was getting pizza and is now in the back of a van. You know you are a citizen, but they’ve taken away your proof. (And you don’t know it yet, but they are going to create a warrant to justify your arrest after the fact.)
What if you got put on a plane to El Salvador, on the words of lying agents of the government? Who would believe you? Who would know you were gone? How would they get you out? Could they get to you in time before you are worked to death in a brutal, violent prison system?
We are not yet two months into this administration, and ICE has arrested, tortured, imprisoned, deported, and/or sold into slavery:
• American citizens
• people who have never had a trial Link
• visa-holders and permanent residents, who in at least one case ICE tortured the man to get him to give up their immigration status so they could deport him (important to note, he is a white German man) Link
• tourists Link
• entire families, even when their child is an American citizen and has just gotten out of literal brain surgery Link
• a neurosurgeon who had a legal protection from courts preventing their deportation Link
Being American doesn’t protect you. Being white doesn’t protect you. Being a parent, a child, talented, healthy, sick, dying, or under court-ordered protection doesn’t protect you.
There’s precedent for this, perhaps most recently in how we treated Iraqis and Afghanis accused of terrorism during the War on Terror. Then, the government said bad treatment – the denial of basic necessities, torture, even death while in custody – was okay because they were classified as “enemy combatants” – a made-up term that the Bush administration used to describe people that it considered neither citizens of the US nor part of the military of a formal country.
According to the federal government, they were in an in-between place without protections, because no country could claim them and therefore diplomacy and the Geneva Convention did not apply. Just about anything could happen to them in custody and it be excusable and justified. The same logic is being applied to immigrants.
And it’s worth noting that the act they used to deport the Venezuelans on Friday was last used to imprison all Japanese Americans during World War II. The incarceration of the Japanese (also done by executive order) and the subsequent Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States, together represent one of the greatest misuses of presidential power in US history and one of the worst legal decisions in US history.
It was evil to deny people their rights then, and it’s evil now.
Trump has used legal maneuvering to try and create exactly the conditions where brutal abuse can happen out of sight of the American people, but with the additional legal license to arrest anyone on American soil without legal recourse.
Again, they are shipping people out of the country or losing them in the prison system. They are doing this so that the people they arrest, whether they are innocent or guilty or completely uninvolved, are stripped them of their civil rights and disappeared before anyone can protest.On top of all of this, the government is arguing that it can arrest and deport people if they speak against the president’s foreign policy objectives. Put another way, President Trump is arguing that disagreeing with him is enough to get you deported. Everyone should be absolutely terrified of these people and what they are capable of.
Lastly: This is why they want to redefine birthright citizenship. If they succeed, they can recategorize people from citizens into noncitizens. This has happened before: German Jews were recategorized and stripped of citizenship, which created the legal justification for sending Jews to labor and death camps. Link
The road map here is very clear, and the administration has said over and over and over again that it wants to follow it. I don’t know if the American people can stop what is happening at this point – the train is running away and barreling towards all of us – but the grandchildren of this generation will be asking us if we tried.”
come home kii. seriously.
sarahs mum said:
come home kii. seriously.
I’m doing all of this by myself. No help. For the past few years I have dealt with too much on top of the pandemic and the trump horrors.
My physical health is fairly shit. My mental health is basically fine for someone dealing with grief and isolation, even if Bubblecar wants to “diagnose” me with various mental health disorders.
I am serious about coming home, but I hate that I have to leave my little house.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:come home kii. seriously.
I’m doing all of this by myself. No help. For the past few years I have dealt with too much on top of the pandemic and the trump horrors.
My physical health is fairly shit. My mental health is basically fine for someone dealing with grief and isolation, even if Bubblecar wants to “diagnose” me with various mental health disorders.
I am serious about coming home, but I hate that I have to leave my little house.
i understand. i do…
The FOTUS has actually moved the original copy of the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.
kii said:
Jeff TiedrichThe FOTUS has actually moved the original copy of the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.
Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcement
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump, opens new tab has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.
On Wednesday, Germany updated its U.S. travel advisory to emphasise that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry after several Germans were detained at the border recently.
Current British travel advice for the United States published online by Britain’s foreign office stated:
“You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”
Archived versions of the same website showed that at the beginning of February, the guidance had only stated: “The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules.”
The foreign office declined to comment on the reason for the revision or confirm when exactly it took place. It said its travel advice was designed to help people make decisions and the advice was constantly kept under review.
Earlier this month, in response to media reports that a woman had been detained for more than 10 days at the border over a possible breach of her visa conditions, the Foreign Office confirmed it was providing support to a British national detained in the United States.
The woman has since returned to Britain, local media reported.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-beefs-up-travel-warnings-over-us-border-enforcement-2025-03-20/
sarahs mum said:
Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcementLONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump, opens new tab has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.On Wednesday, Germany updated its U.S. travel advisory to emphasise that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry after several Germans were detained at the border recently.
Current British travel advice for the United States published online by Britain’s foreign office stated:
“You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”
Archived versions of the same website showed that at the beginning of February, the guidance had only stated: “The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules.”The foreign office declined to comment on the reason for the revision or confirm when exactly it took place. It said its travel advice was designed to help people make decisions and the advice was constantly kept under review.
Earlier this month, in response to media reports that a woman had been detained for more than 10 days at the border over a possible breach of her visa conditions, the Foreign Office confirmed it was providing support to a British national detained in the United States.
The woman has since returned to Britain, local media reported.https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-beefs-up-travel-warnings-over-us-border-enforcement-2025-03-20/
The US tourist industry is in serious trouble.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcementLONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump, opens new tab has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.On Wednesday, Germany updated its U.S. travel advisory to emphasise that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry after several Germans were detained at the border recently.
Current British travel advice for the United States published online by Britain’s foreign office stated:
“You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”
Archived versions of the same website showed that at the beginning of February, the guidance had only stated: “The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules.”The foreign office declined to comment on the reason for the revision or confirm when exactly it took place. It said its travel advice was designed to help people make decisions and the advice was constantly kept under review.
Earlier this month, in response to media reports that a woman had been detained for more than 10 days at the border over a possible breach of her visa conditions, the Foreign Office confirmed it was providing support to a British national detained in the United States.
The woman has since returned to Britain, local media reported.https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-beefs-up-travel-warnings-over-us-border-enforcement-2025-03-20/
The US tourist industry is in serious trouble.
This is happening everywhere.
Just read about this on Reddit, showing the original and revised message.
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcementLONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump, opens new tab has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.On Wednesday, Germany updated its U.S. travel advisory to emphasise that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry after several Germans were detained at the border recently.
Current British travel advice for the United States published online by Britain’s foreign office stated:
“You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”
Archived versions of the same website showed that at the beginning of February, the guidance had only stated: “The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules.”The foreign office declined to comment on the reason for the revision or confirm when exactly it took place. It said its travel advice was designed to help people make decisions and the advice was constantly kept under review.
Earlier this month, in response to media reports that a woman had been detained for more than 10 days at the border over a possible breach of her visa conditions, the Foreign Office confirmed it was providing support to a British national detained in the United States.
The woman has since returned to Britain, local media reported.https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-beefs-up-travel-warnings-over-us-border-enforcement-2025-03-20/
The US tourist industry is in serious trouble.
it’s only worth a couple of trillion.
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcementLONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.
Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump, opens new tab has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.On Wednesday, Germany updated its U.S. travel advisory to emphasise that a visa or entry waiver does not guarantee entry after several Germans were detained at the border recently.
Current British travel advice for the United States published online by Britain’s foreign office stated:
“You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”
Archived versions of the same website showed that at the beginning of February, the guidance had only stated: “The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules.”The foreign office declined to comment on the reason for the revision or confirm when exactly it took place. It said its travel advice was designed to help people make decisions and the advice was constantly kept under review.
Earlier this month, in response to media reports that a woman had been detained for more than 10 days at the border over a possible breach of her visa conditions, the Foreign Office confirmed it was providing support to a British national detained in the United States.
The woman has since returned to Britain, local media reported.https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-beefs-up-travel-warnings-over-us-border-enforcement-2025-03-20/
The US tourist industry is in serious trouble.
it’s only worth a couple of trillion.
How are the unemployment figures looking?
buffy said:
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:The US tourist industry is in serious trouble.
it’s only worth a couple of trillion.
How are the unemployment figures looking?
The US unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in February 2025, remaining relatively stable in a narrow range of 4.0% to 4.2% since May 2024.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
Current Rate: 4.1%
Recent Trend: The unemployment rate has been fluctuating slightly, but has generally remained within a narrow range of 4.0% to 4.2% since May 2024.
Number of Unemployed: The number of unemployed people was at 7.1 million in February 2025.
Data Source: This information is based on the Household Survey Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Other Economic Indicators: In February 2025, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by +0.2%, and payroll employment increased by +151,000.
Historical Context: The unemployment rate has varied significantly throughout history, reaching peaks during economic downturns like the Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic.
kii said:
I read somewhere that Bea Arthur’s description of her military service was removed from some website, except that it wasn’t deleted entirely. Only mentions of her being Jewish and an ally for LGBTIQ+ people were removed. Other celebrities who served were deleted, then reinstated later.
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
I read somewhere that Bea Arthur’s description of her military service was removed from some website, except that it wasn’t deleted entirely. Only mentions of her being Jewish and an ally for LGBTIQ+ people were removed. Other celebrities who served were deleted, then reinstated later.
How do these people ever manage to write computer programmes that run? Attention to detail is incredibly poor. I thought they were all supposed to be super tech savvy…
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
I read somewhere that Bea Arthur’s description of her military service was removed from some website, except that it wasn’t deleted entirely. Only mentions of her being Jewish and an ally for LGBTIQ+ people were removed. Other celebrities who served were deleted, then reinstated later.
How do these people ever manage to write computer programmes that run? Attention to detail is incredibly poor. I thought they were all supposed to be super tech savvy…
Anecdote alert! My BIL is the director of cybersecurity for the Qld govt. When he took over the job, the systems were in very poor shape. Barely running, loads of bugs (read: vulnerabilities) and he wondered how the whole thing hadn’t collapsed or been hacked by Russians.
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
I read somewhere that Bea Arthur’s description of her military service was removed from some website, except that it wasn’t deleted entirely. Only mentions of her being Jewish and an ally for LGBTIQ+ people were removed. Other celebrities who served were deleted, then reinstated later.
How do these people ever manage to write computer programmes that run? Attention to detail is incredibly poor. I thought they were all supposed to be super tech savvy…
the archives are being rewritten…
sarahs mum said:
buffy said:
Divine Angel said:I read somewhere that Bea Arthur’s description of her military service was removed from some website, except that it wasn’t deleted entirely. Only mentions of her being Jewish and an ally for LGBTIQ+ people were removed. Other celebrities who served were deleted, then reinstated later.
How do these people ever manage to write computer programmes that run? Attention to detail is incredibly poor. I thought they were all supposed to be super tech savvy…
the archives are being rewritten…
they use 爱 and fake it
kii said:
is this the intestine intestine fella who found wmds in eye rack
Divine Angel said:
Just read about this on Reddit, showing the original and revised message.
so it’s stayed the same
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
is this the intestine intestine fella who found wmds in eye rack
Funny you should mention WMD. I may have posted something about this already, anyway…
I think I read that trump wants to declare fentanyl a WMD, so he has an excuse to invade Canadia and Mexico.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
March 19, 2025 (Wednesday)Throughout our history, that is not where the laws of the United States, or the majority of its people, have stood.
Thanks sm.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
is this the intestine intestine fella who found wmds in eye rack
Funny you should mention WMD. I may have posted something about this already, anyway…
I think I read that trump wants to declare fentanyl a WMD, so he has an excuse to invade Canadia and Mexico.
yes this is our surprised face
kii said:
Jeff TiedrichThe FOTUS has actually moved the original copy of the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.
One suspects he’s just itching to burn it live on TV
AussieDJ said:
:)
Neophyte said:
kii said:
Jeff TiedrichThe FOTUS has actually moved the original copy of the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.
One suspects he’s just itching to burn it live on TV
Draw on it with a thick black Sharpie.
kii said:
FMD
kii said:
Neophyte said:
kii said:
Jeff TiedrichThe FOTUS has actually moved the original copy of the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.
One suspects he’s just itching to burn it live on TV
Draw on it with a thick black Sharpie.
an original…
Michael V said:
kii said:
FMD
Colin_Powell is dead?
.
Looks at Google..
Powell died from complications of COVID-19 in 2021, while being treated for a form of blood cancer that damaged his immune system.
Ah
Ian said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
FMD
Colin_Powell is dead?
.
Looks at Google..
Powell died from complications of COVID-19 in 2021, while being treated for a form of blood cancer that damaged his immune system.
Ah
so the biological weapons of mass destruction got him in the end after all
hey there Colombian-born MAGAt and failed GOP candidate Valentina Gomez, what do you think of immigrants?
kii said:
hey there Colombian-born MAGAt and failed GOP candidate Valentina Gomez, what do you think of immigrants?
Evil people around.
Not out of the realm of possibility either
kii said:
hey there Colombian-born MAGAt and failed GOP candidate Valentina Gomez, what do you think of immigrants?
Cymek said:
kii said:
hey there Colombian-born MAGAt and failed GOP candidate Valentina Gomez, what do you think of immigrants?
Evil people around.
Not out of the realm of possibility either
IKR, imagine wishing people dead…
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
kii said:
hey there Colombian-born MAGAt and failed GOP candidate Valentina Gomez, what do you think of immigrants?
Evil people around.
Not out of the realm of possibility either
IKR, imagine wishing people dead…
One can wish a person to be dead, and still be a normal member of society. This photo and the comment takes it to psycho level.
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Um what
that is not to say that there is an upcoming war with china. it is to say that musk is to be fully briefed on how it would handled if it happened.
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
Um what
that is not to say that there is an upcoming war with china. it is to say that musk is to be fully briefed on how it would handled if it happened.
Brief all the other tech bros too. Tim Cook should be invited.
it’s all right starting racist wars and opening the door to atrocity is perfectly acceptable as long as it’s a democratically voted decision
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:Evil people around.
Not out of the realm of possibility either
IKR, imagine wishing people dead…
One can wish a person to be dead, and still be a normal member of society. This photo and the comment takes it to psycho level.
wait didn’t you know leftist wokists are incapable of nuance, wishing people were dead and performing gun violence are exactly the literal same thing
sarahs mum said:
It would be interesting in a scary way to see how the USA would cope.
It would be the first time they’d have an enemy equal in power to them or almost.
One wonder about the discipline once missiles hit what is thought of invulnerable naval vessels
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
It would be interesting in a scary way to see how the USA would cope.
It would be the first time they’d have an enemy equal in power to them or almost.
One wonder about the discipline once missiles hit what is thought of invulnerable naval vessels
….. and Mr Musk knowing whether his massive Tesla factories in China would be blown up as well.
Woodie said:
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
It would be interesting in a scary way to see how the USA would cope.
It would be the first time they’d have an enemy equal in power to them or almost.
One wonder about the discipline once missiles hit what is thought of invulnerable naval vessels
….. and Mr Musk knowing whether his massive Tesla factories in China would be blown up as well.
The anger with China is strange as well
OK so they are expansionist, who hasn’t been in the history of the world.
Human rights are poor, I mean the USA isn’t much better when it comes to caring for the population in general
Profit margins took precedence over making goods locally and China was cheap and took short cuts with workers rights and pollution, etc.
So now everyone is annoyed China is a powerhouse economically
They are a threat but damn the USA is as well with Trump in charge.
Especially as who knows if he wants the world to burn.
He certainly has the means to do so.
He really is Homelander
Cymek said:
Woodie said:
Cymek said:It would be interesting in a scary way to see how the USA would cope.
It would be the first time they’d have an enemy equal in power to them or almost.
One wonder about the discipline once missiles hit what is thought of invulnerable naval vessels
….. and Mr Musk knowing whether his massive Tesla factories in China would be blown up as well.
The anger with China is strange as well
OK so they are expansionist, who hasn’t been in the history of the world.
Human rights are poor, I mean the USA isn’t much better when it comes to caring for the population in general
Profit margins took precedence over making goods locally and China was cheap and took short cuts with workers rights and pollution, etc.
So now everyone is annoyed China is a powerhouse economically
They are a threat but damn the USA is as well with Trump in charge.
Especially as who knows if he wants the world to burn.
He certainly has the means to do so.
He really is Homelander
¿expansionist?
https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/women-in-texas-are-dying?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I’m too tired and overwhelmed right now to read this, but someone here might be able to.
Divine Angel said:
well people should have a sense of humour only losers take themselves so seriously and nobody likes losers
Cymek said:
Woodie said:
Cymek said:It would be interesting in a scary way to see how the USA would cope.
It would be the first time they’d have an enemy equal in power to them or almost.
One wonder about the discipline once missiles hit what is thought of invulnerable naval vessels
….. and Mr Musk knowing whether his massive Tesla factories in China would be blown up as well.
The anger with China is strange as well
OK so they are expansionist, who hasn’t been in the history of the world.
Human rights are poor, I mean the USA isn’t much better when it comes to caring for the population in general
Profit margins took precedence over making goods locally and China was cheap and took short cuts with workers rights and pollution, etc.
So now everyone is annoyed China is a powerhouse economically
They are a threat but damn the USA is as well with Trump in charge.
Especially as who knows if he wants the world to burn.
He certainly has the means to do so.
He really is Homelander
Give it another 10 – 20 years (if not sooner) and it will be Beijing St, not Wall St, that rules the world. And the yanks ain’t gunna take that one laying down.
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)
It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
Today, members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” team showed up at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which helps to fund libraries and museums across the country and whose elimination Trump called for in an executive order last week. They sent employees home, swore in a new acting director in the lobby, and proceeded to cancel contracts and grants.
Even as this dismantling was going on, District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander was blocking the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing data at the Social Security Administration and ordering them to destroy copies of any personal information they have already accessed. “The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander wrote. “It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”
Also today, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who said the government could not use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify sending migrants to a prison in El Salvador, appeared to be out of patience with the government’s obfuscation of what actually happened in the process of that rendition last weekend.
Boasberg’s order today laid out that he had repeatedly asked the government to provide information about the flights but that the government had “evaded its obligations,” providing only general information about the flights and appearing to cast about for further delays.
“This is woefully insufficient,” Boasberg wrote. He required that the government explain by March 25 why its failure to return the flights as ordered did not violate the court order to do so. Far from backing down, the administration appears to be considering escalating its fight with the courts. Devlin Barrett of the New York Times reported today that lawyers in the Trump administration believe the 1798 Alien Enemies Act Trump used to deport migrants also permits federal agents to enter people’s homes without a warrant, an assault on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Trump White House and its MAGA supporters appear to be trying to cement their power to control the government by undermining the rule of law and the judges who are defending it. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday called Judge Boasberg a “Democrat activist,” although he was originally appointed by President George W. Bush, and badly misrepresented Boasberg’s order. She also attacked Boasberg’s wife for her political donations.
In Talking Points Memo this morning, David Kurtz recorded how MAGA supporters Elon Musk and Laura Loomer have attacked Boasberg’s daughter, and in Rolling Stone, Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng noted that that the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, accused Boasberg of “attempting to meddle in national security,” adding: “This one federal judge thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot.”
Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote that “udges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” trying to obscure that it is the role of courts to determine whether or not the power the executive is claiming is, in fact, legitimate. On the Fox News Channel, “border czar” Tom Homan said: “I don’t care what the judges think.”
Kurtz noted that Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has promised hearings on the many injunctions against the Trump administration. Kurtz also noted that angry Trump supporters have called in bomb threats against judges who have stood against Trump’s excesses, including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and have sent anonymous pizza deliveries to the homes of judges and their relatives as a way to demonstrate that “we know where you live.”
Perez and Suebsaeng reported that the White House’s strategy is to “move fast” before courts can stop them. In the end, one source close to the president told them that the president’s ultimate power over judges comes from the fact that they do not command an army, while he does. “Are they going to come and arrest him?” the advisor asked, apparently confident that the answer is no.
The attack of Trump and his MAGA supporters on the courts and the rule of law has illustrated how quickly the United States is sliding from democracy to authoritarianism. “Honest to god, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky told Amanda Taub of the New York Times. Along with his colleague Daniel Ziblatt, Levitsky wrote How Democracies Die. “We look at these comparative cases in the 21st century, like Hungary and Poland and Turkey. And in a lot of respects, this is worse,” Levitsky said.
“These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.”
President Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine the courts, and thus the country’s legal system, appears to have kicked the alarm about the dismantling of the U.S. government into a new phase. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times ran op-eds today from law professors detailing the lawlessness of the Trump administration and warning that the courts will not be able to stop Trump and his administration from their authoritarian takeover of the government.
In the New York Times, Georgetown University professor of law Stephen Vladeck has faith that the courts will try to rein Trump in, while in the Washington Post, Harvard Law School professor Ryan Doerfler and Yale University professor of law and history Samuel Moyn are less convinced that the judges Trump himself appointed will stand against him, but all three of them warn that stopping Trump will require the people to demand “far more aggressive oversight from members of Congress,” as Vladeck puts it. Doerfler and Moyn wrote that “real resistance must take place in Congress, at government workplaces, and in the streets.”
That the courts are in the position of trying to stop a president who is ignoring the Constitution reflects that Republicans in Congress appear to have taken off the table impeachment, the political remedy the Constitution’s framers put into our system for such a crisis.
There has been remarkably little pushback from Republicans about the changes being made to the country in their names, but the news that dropped on March 18 that the administration is considering giving up a key role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has sparked public objection from Republicans who care about the nation’s global role. Since NATO organized, the role of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, known as the SACEUR, has been filled by an American.
Now the Trump administration is considering relinquishing that position as part of a massive restructuring plan that could save up to $270 million of the Defense Department’s $850 billion annual budget, or about 0.03% of it. The U.S. is also considering stopping its expansion and modernization of U.S. Forces Japan, which would save about $1.18 billion, according to Courtney Kube and Gordon Lubold of NBC News, but would weaken the cooperation designed to counter China.
“For the United States to give up the role of supreme allied commander of NATO would be seen in Europe as a significant signal of walking away from the alliance,” retired Admiral James Stavridis, who served as SACEUR and head of European Command from 2009 to 2013, wrote to Kube and Lubold. “It would be a political mistake of epic proportion, and once we give it up, they are not going to give it back. We would lose an enormous amount of influence within NATO, and this would be seen, correctly, as probably the first step toward leaving the Alliance altogether.”
House Armed Services Committee chair Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Senate Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) issued a joint statement saying they are “very concerned about reports that claim is considering unilateral changes on major strategic issues, including significant reductions to U.S. forces stationed abroad, absent coordination with the White House and Congress. We…will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress,” they wrote. “Such moves risk undermining American deterrence around the globe and detracting from our negotiating positions with America’s adversaries.”
Their concerns about protecting their power to have a say in U.S. foreign policy and to make sure that policy serves the American people are unlikely to be assuaged by events tonight.
Eric Schmitt, Eric Lipton, Julian E. Barnes, Ryan Mac, and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that the Pentagon has scheduled a briefing tomorrow for billionaire Elon Musk on the U.S. military’s top-secret plans for any potential war with China. As the reporters noted, this information includes “some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets.” Musk’s largest Tesla factory is located in China—Chinese lenders contributed $2.8 billion to it—and as Joshua Keating of Vox explained two days ago, China is the only EV market where Tesla sales are continuing to increase. Keating also pointed to a Financial Times report that Chinese investors have been funneling money into Musk’s other businesses.
After the New York Times story broke, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: “The Defense Department is excited to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary Hegseth and is just visiting.” About an hour later, the reporters note, he posted on X: “This is 100% Fake News. Just brazenly & maliciously wrong. Elon Musk is a patriot. We are proud to have him at the Pentagon.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chimed in: “This is NOT a meeting about ‘top secret China war plans.’ It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great!”
Then Trump added: “The Fake News is at it again, this time the Failing New York Times. They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China.’ How ridiculous?’ China will not be even mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue.”
Shortly after Trump posted, Alexander Ward and Nancy A. Youssef of the Wall Street Journal confirmed the story, adding that their sources told them that Musk had asked for the briefing. They also reminded readers that Musk “has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close partner of China, the country that has supported Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz told Rachel Maddow tonight he was “speechless.” “I don’t know how to convey…how far out of the norm this is…. These are closely guarded secrets because our national and our global defense depends upon them…. I don’t understand where…are the Republicans? Where are Lindsay Grahams? Where are these people who know how this works? To not be terrified of where this is at…. Sharing our most guarded secrets on global conflict with a truly unstable private citizen who has no authority…. This is chilling…. Republican senators need to put a stop to this and pull this back.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
…..
Minnesota governor Tim Walz told Rachel Maddow tonight he was “speechless.” “I don’t know how to convey…how far out of the norm this is…. These are closely guarded secrets because our national and our global defense depends upon them…. I don’t understand where…are the Republicans? Where are Lindsay Grahams? Where are these people who know how this works? To not be terrified of where this is at…. Sharing our most guarded secrets on global conflict with a truly unstable private citizen who has no authority…. This is chilling…. Republican senators need to put a stop to this and pull this back.”
It is chilling. All of this cannot wait until the midterms.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
Apologies if it’s already been posted but in case it hasn’t.
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky
There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
I am often muttering FMDs too. First thing I do in the morning these days is to check what fresh hell they have thought up.
I am grateful for Heather Cox Richardson’s writings, they are definitely going to be part of US history one day. Unless the current management make sure they go into the bin as well.
Bloody orcs.
Spiny Norman said:
Apologies if it’s already been posted but in case it hasn’t.I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was luckyThere was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
in other news Canadian airlines have started cancelling flights for the summer to the states and the border is
processing a similar amount of people as it was doing in the height of covid.
sarahs mum said:
Spiny Norman said:
Apologies if it’s already been posted but in case it hasn’t.I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was luckyThere was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
yeah. we have been horrified by that.in other news Canadian airlines have started cancelling flights for the summer to the states and the border is
processing a similar amount of people as it was doing in the height of covid.
Ta.
And hopefully it’ll continue to decrease.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
Trump is on a programme of revenge for what he sees as personal insults and attacks, and filures to acknowledge him as a No1. super genius.
His controlling pyschopathic father instilled in him an absolute terror of not being ‘the best’, and Trump is still trying to prove to his long-dead dad that he is ‘the best’.
Key to that is that his father also taught him about revenge, and ‘owning’ those who think that they’ve got the better of you.
Trump can’t acknowledge any failure or deficiency as being due to him, because that’s not possible: he’s ‘the best’. So, those failures and deficiencies have to be caused by other people. Other people who must be part of a conspiracy designed to make him look bad. The ‘deep state’. The ‘left’. The ‘woke’. Europe. Canada. Mexico. Illegal immigrants. Transgenders. They’re all in on it.
It’s too big for him to go after them one at a time. So, the answer is : smash it all. Wreck it. Tear it down. Trash it. Burn it. Leave it in ruins.
If ‘innocent’ people get hurt, that’s their tough luck. They didn’t answer the call to overthrow Joe Biden, so, screw ‘em.
The main thing is: revenge.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
Trump is on a programme of revenge for what he sees as personal insults and attacks, and filures to acknowledge him as a No1. super genius.
His controlling pyschopathic father instilled in him an absolute terror of not being ‘the best’, and Trump is still trying to prove to his long-dead dad that he is ‘the best’.
Key to that is that his father also taught him about revenge, and ‘owning’ those who think that they’ve got the better of you.
Trump can’t acknowledge any failure or deficiency as being due to him, because that’s not possible: he’s ‘the best’. So, those failures and deficiencies have to be caused by other people. Other people who must be part of a conspiracy designed to make him look bad. The ‘deep state’. The ‘left’. The ‘woke’. Europe. Canada. Mexico. Illegal immigrants. Transgenders. They’re all in on it.
It’s too big for him to go after them one at a time. So, the answer is : smash it all. Wreck it. Tear it down. Trash it. Burn it. Leave it in ruins.
If ‘innocent’ people get hurt, that’s their tough luck. They didn’t answer the call to overthrow Joe Biden, so, screw ‘em.
The main thing is: revenge.
fixed.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
Trump is on a programme of revenge for what he sees as personal insults and attacks, and filures to acknowledge him as a No1. super genius.
His controlling pyschopathic father instilled in him an absolute terror of not being ‘the best’, and Trump is still trying to prove to his long-dead dad that he is ‘the best’.
Key to that is that his father also taught him about revenge, and ‘owning’ those who think that they’ve got the better of you.
Trump can’t acknowledge any failure or deficiency as being due to him, because that’s not possible: he’s ‘the best’. So, those failures and deficiencies have to be caused by other people. Other people who must be part of a conspiracy designed to make him look bad. The ‘deep state’. The ‘left’. The ‘woke’. Europe. Canada. Mexico. Illegal immigrants. Transgenders. They’re all in on it.
It’s too big for him to go after them one at a time. So, the answer is : smash it all. Wreck it. Tear it down. Trash it. Burn it. Leave it in ruins.
If ‘innocent’ people get hurt, that’s their tough luck. They didn’t answer the call to overthrow Joe Biden, so, screw ‘em.
The main thing is: revenge.
My brain would explode if I thought like that.
Because it doesn’t make sense.
I don’t do revenge and never have. It’s not in my make-up. I don’t even understand it, although I recognise that some people do do revenge.
If I am treated badly, deliberately badly, that is, with intended nastiness (not just by mistake), I don’t have anything more to do with that person. I don’t tell them off. I don’t have a fight. I quietly don’t pursue the relationship.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
Trump is on a programme of revenge for what he sees as personal insults and attacks, and filures to acknowledge him as a No1. super genius.
His controlling pyschopathic father instilled in him an absolute terror of not being ‘the best’, and Trump is still trying to prove to his long-dead dad that he is ‘the best’.
Key to that is that his father also taught him about revenge, and ‘owning’ those who think that they’ve got the better of you.
Trump can’t acknowledge any failure or deficiency as being due to him, because that’s not possible: he’s ‘the best’. So, those failures and deficiencies have to be caused by other people. Other people who must be part of a conspiracy designed to make him look bad. The ‘deep state’. The ‘left’. The ‘woke’. Europe. Canada. Mexico. Illegal immigrants. Transgenders. They’re all in on it.
It’s too big for him to go after them one at a time. So, the answer is : smash it all. Wreck it. Tear it down. Trash it. Burn it. Leave it in ruins.
If ‘innocent’ people get hurt, that’s their tough luck. They didn’t answer the call to overthrow Joe Biden, so, screw ‘em.
The main thing is: revenge.
My brain would explode if I thought like that.
Because it doesn’t make sense.
I don’t do revenge and never have. It’s not in my make-up. I don’t even understand it, although I recognise that some people do do revenge.
If I am treated badly, deliberately badly, that is, with intended nastiness (not just by mistake), I don’t have anything more to do with that person. I don’t tell them off. I don’t have a fight. I quietly don’t pursue the relationship.
Well, that’s the difference between you and Trump.
For Trump, it’s all about Trump. No-one else matters, including his immediate family. They exist only to be useful to him. If they’re not useful to him, then what happens to them is of no import.
Nothing else matters. If a lot of people get hurt, if institutions are wrecked and ruined, if society, the country, and civilisation itself falls into ashes, it matters not.
As long as he can tell himself ‘i won’.
It simply is not possible to overstate his narcissism.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Trump is on a programme of revenge for what he sees as personal insults and attacks, and filures to acknowledge him as a No1. super genius.
His controlling pyschopathic father instilled in him an absolute terror of not being ‘the best’, and Trump is still trying to prove to his long-dead dad that he is ‘the best’.
Key to that is that his father also taught him about revenge, and ‘owning’ those who think that they’ve got the better of you.
Trump can’t acknowledge any failure or deficiency as being due to him, because that’s not possible: he’s ‘the best’. So, those failures and deficiencies have to be caused by other people. Other people who must be part of a conspiracy designed to make him look bad. The ‘deep state’. The ‘left’. The ‘woke’. Europe. Canada. Mexico. Illegal immigrants. Transgenders. They’re all in on it.
It’s too big for him to go after them one at a time. So, the answer is : smash it all. Wreck it. Tear it down. Trash it. Burn it. Leave it in ruins.
If ‘innocent’ people get hurt, that’s their tough luck. They didn’t answer the call to overthrow Joe Biden, so, screw ‘em.
The main thing is: revenge.
My brain would explode if I thought like that.
Because it doesn’t make sense.
I don’t do revenge and never have. It’s not in my make-up. I don’t even understand it, although I recognise that some people do do revenge.
If I am treated badly, deliberately badly, that is, with intended nastiness (not just by mistake), I don’t have anything more to do with that person. I don’t tell them off. I don’t have a fight. I quietly don’t pursue the relationship.
Well, that’s the difference between you and Trump.
For Trump, it’s all about Trump. No-one else matters, including his immediate family. They exist only to be useful to him. If they’re not useful to him, then what happens to them is of no import.
Nothing else matters. If a lot of people get hurt, if institutions are wrecked and ruined, if society, the country, and civilisation itself falls into ashes, it matters not.
As long as he can tell himself ‘i won’.
It simply is not possible to overstate his narcissism.
It is most unfortunate. And it’s most unfortunate that so many people have been conned by him to vote him into this powerful position, where he thinks (read: knows and acts like) he is unassailable.
Michael V said:
…where he thinks (read: knows and acts like) he is unassailable.
That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
…where he thinks (read: knows and acts like) he is unassailable.
That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.
And there is nowt we can do, except just watch it happen.
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
…where he thinks (read: knows and acts like) he is unassailable.
That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.And there is nowt we can do, except just watch it happen.
I can’t even get on a motorbike and go fast to take my mind off it all.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.And there is nowt we can do, except just watch it happen.
I can’t even get on a motorbike and go fast to take my mind off it all.
:(
Why is Mark Hamill not US President?
I see the unredacted kennedy papers now include personal details, name, dob, birthplace and social security numbers of some important people.
Trump goes full Turkmenistan dictator with a drone show in honour of himself in Florida.
https://x.com/i/status/1902741232394043416
FMD time again.
Spiny Norman said:
Trump goes full Turkmenistan dictator with a drone show in honour of himself in Florida.https://x.com/i/status/1902741232394043416
FMD time again.
excellent choice of song.
😎
captain_spalding said:
Why is Mark Hamill not US President?
I had an Aunt Bebe (pronounced Bibbi). It’s what she called herself when she was very young after everybody had told her that she as the baby of the family. She lived in London. I finally met her in early 1965, IIRC. She was in the early stage of Parkinson’s by then.
Spiny Norman said:
Trump goes full Turkmenistan dictator with a drone show in honour of himself in Florida.https://x.com/i/status/1902741232394043416
FMD time again.
Yeah. Sure is weird.
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Trump goes full Turkmenistan dictator with a drone show in honour of himself in Florida.https://x.com/i/status/1902741232394043416
FMD time again.
excellent choice of song.
😎
I see that some are saying that it’s fake.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Spiny Norman said:
Trump goes full Turkmenistan dictator with a drone show in honour of himself in Florida.https://x.com/i/status/1902741232394043416
FMD time again.
excellent choice of song.
😎
I see that some are saying that it’s fake.
googling, trump drone show florida, brings up a lot of legit appearing reports.
Just watched Planet America. They discussed the whitening of the military records. It crossed my mind that perhaps someone who disagreed with the idea had followed orders to the letter. Had deliberately overdone the removals to make a point and make it look really bad. Then Chas gave that a name…Catastrophic Compliance. I’ve never heard the term before, but it fits.
buffy said:
Just watched Planet America. They discussed the whitening of the military records. It crossed my mind that perhaps someone who disagreed with the idea had followed orders to the letter. Had deliberately overdone the removals to make a point and make it look really bad. Then Chas gave that a name…Catastrophic Compliance. I’ve never heard the term before, but it fits.
malicious compliance is the usual term.
ChrispenEvan said:
buffy said:
Just watched Planet America. They discussed the whitening of the military records. It crossed my mind that perhaps someone who disagreed with the idea had followed orders to the letter. Had deliberately overdone the removals to make a point and make it look really bad. Then Chas gave that a name…Catastrophic Compliance. I’ve never heard the term before, but it fits.
malicious compliance is the usual term.
Yes, that fits too.
from my friend Gab…
We have been having a wonderful time reuniting with friends who have been traveling here in Mexico and are also moving north. Fun to share stories of our travels, have communal dinners with fish we caught or clams we have collected, wonderful fires with music, hiking together when the winds are too strong to paddle and enjoying being off the grid and away from the mayhem for a bit.
We will be crossing back into the USA in a few weeks and slowly making our way back across the USA to New England by May. Not at all sure on our route yet, but we will let you know if we might be coming close to where you are! We will be in Connecticut, Maine and all in between through the spring and summer and into the fall for sure, so if you are traveling that way, please be sure to let us know! Love to connect.
Sorry this is so short, but we are pirating an internet connection off another camper’s Starlink. As he says – I want everyone to use it as much as possible as I struggle with the idea of having it and supporting Elon. Guess there will be a lot of these kinds of quandaries once we return…..
they need to remove Trump from office, or kill him.
There is no other discussion.
party_pants said:
they need to remove Trump from office, or kill him.There is no other discussion.
Way to cement people into their chosen groups, regardless of how stupid their chosen ex-leader might have been.
The Rev Dodgson said:
party_pants said:
they need to remove Trump from office, or kill him.There is no other discussion.
Way to cement people into their chosen groups, regardless of how stupid their chosen ex-leader might have been.
Nah, I’m serious. The US system of checks and balances can’t handle a situation where any one party of the tri-partite system actively acts outside of scope of power and authority. They can’t survive 4 years of this crap. His first term was all about how many lies he told, his second term is all about how many unconstitutional orders he can issue. Each one is a few years of legal challenges and appeals and counter appeals, and he is doing half a dozen to ach week. There are not enough judges and lawyers to hear each case on its merits.
the only solution is to remove the root cause of the problem through any means, foul or fair.
I mean FFS a jury found him on the balance of porbalilities to have committed sexual assault. Why is that alone not enough to impeach him and remove him from office peacefully,
At some stage the US military has to intervene with blindfolds and firing squads if the Congress is too timid.
I see that most of the Venezuelans that were deported had no criminal record so maybe DJT just found them unrelatable
dv said:
I see that most of the Venezuelans that were deported had no criminal record so maybe DJT just found them unrelatable
he needs others to incite hatred.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
I see that most of the Venezuelans that were deported had no criminal record so maybe DJT just found them unrelatablehe needs others to incite hatred.
The videos of the deported people being processed and paraded is set up for maximum propaganda material. If you can stomach it look at the men being marched in single file – heads shaven, bent over, in shackles and wearing white prison uniforms. The camera angles have been arranged before the footage was even shot.
Laura Ingraham: “is Barron’s aptitude, in your view, business or politics?”
Donny: “maybe technology. he can look a a computer. I’m trying, turning off his computer, I turn it off, I turn it off, his laptop, I said ‘oh good now,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I say, ‘how did you did that?’ ‘none of your business, dad.’ he’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
kii said:
He’s so fucking stupid.Laura Ingraham: “is Barron’s aptitude, in your view, business or politics?”
Donny: “maybe technology. he can look a a computer. I’m trying, turning off his computer, I turn it off, I turn it off, his laptop, I said ‘oh good now,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I say, ‘how did you did that?’ ‘none of your business, dad.’ he’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
Not trying to be flippant about a serious matter but if an elderly person expresses surprise that their 19 year old son can turn on a laptop, it would normally be taken as a troubling sign.
dv said:
kii said:
He’s so fucking stupid.Laura Ingraham: “is Barron’s aptitude, in your view, business or politics?”
Donny: “maybe technology. he can look a a computer. I’m trying, turning off his computer, I turn it off, I turn it off, his laptop, I said ‘oh good now,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I say, ‘how did you did that?’ ‘none of your business, dad.’ he’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
Not trying to be flippant about a serious matter but if an elderly person expresses surprise that their 19 year old son can turn on a laptop, it would normally be taken as a troubling sign.
This gets lost in all the other clear signs that he has declined mentally.
Robert Reich:
“Friends,
Yesterday, Trump dismantled much of the Department of Education. He ordered wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut most of her department, although student loans and special education funding will continue.
His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago.
But there’s a much larger story here.
Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research) and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).
Put this together with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors.
And with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science.
With Trump’s and right-wing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide.
Combine this with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.
And his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president).
What’s the larger picture?
Not an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “the culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Certainly not that Trump is seeking “small government” over “big government” or advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism.
What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education and for public libraries, museums, and the arts.
They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it.
Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind.
The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: from JD Vance and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president. And from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk.
Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.
Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian group of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.
Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.
In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.”
The Republican party has lost the plot.
Bringing in unelected people into politics like Trump has is a terrible idea.
The destructive behaviour dismantling education and health is criminal.
Rich people fearing the educated needs to stop.
The damage will take years to fix.
Tau.Neutrino said:
The Republican party has lost the plot.Bringing in unelected people into politics like Trump has is a terrible idea.
The destructive behaviour dismantling education and health is criminal.
Rich people fearing the educated needs to stop.
The damage will take years to fix.
“All we have to do is flood the zone.
“Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never, will never, be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.”
ruby said:
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
48m ·
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
More and more FMDs. Daily FMDs
I am often muttering FMDs too. First thing I do in the morning these days is to check what fresh hell they have thought up.
I am grateful for Heather Cox Richardson’s writings, they are definitely going to be part of US history one day. Unless the current management make sure they go into the bin as well.
Bloody orcs.
They can’t destroy things that the rest of the world have seen. I wonder how long it takes them to self combust?
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
Michael V said:
…where he thinks (read: knows and acts like) he is unassailable.
That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.And there is nowt we can do, except just watch it happen.
We can. We can trade with others, ally with others. Don’t allow theTrump brand to land here.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:That’s the problem, he effectively is now thanks to all the sycophant judges & other officials that will just accept whatever he says & does.
I was fairly sure I’d live long enough to see the fall of the US as a superpower, I never imagined I’d see it in the next few years though.And there is nowt we can do, except just watch it happen.
I can’t even get on a motorbike and go fast to take my mind off it all.
That makes me feel sad.
party_pants said:
they need to remove Trump from office, or kill him.There is no other discussion.
As long as it doesn’t make him a martyr.
waves to Ms Mum.
Katie Couric interviews Heather Cox Richardson.
Woodie said:
waves to Ms Mum.Katie Couric interviews Heather Cox Richardson.
Thanks Woodie
Woodie said:
waves to Ms Mum.Katie Couric interviews Heather Cox Richardson.
ta.
dv said:
I see that most of the Venezuelans that were deported had no criminal record so maybe DJT just found them unrelatable
Bloody.
Michael V said:
dv said:
I see that most of the Venezuelans that were deported had no criminal record so maybe DJT just found them unrelatableBloody.
He wants America to be White again?
dv said:
kii said:
He’s so fucking stupid.Laura Ingraham: “is Barron’s aptitude, in your view, business or politics?”
Donny: “maybe technology. he can look a a computer. I’m trying, turning off his computer, I turn it off, I turn it off, his laptop, I said ‘oh good now,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I say, ‘how did you did that?’ ‘none of your business, dad.’ he’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
Not trying to be flippant about a serious matter but if an elderly person expresses surprise that their 19 year old son can turn on a laptop, it would normally be taken as a troubling sign.
Likely.
Michael V said:
dv said:
kii said:
He’s so fucking stupid.Laura Ingraham: “is Barron’s aptitude, in your view, business or politics?”
Donny: “maybe technology. he can look a a computer. I’m trying, turning off his computer, I turn it off, I turn it off, his laptop, I said ‘oh good now,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I say, ‘how did you did that?’ ‘none of your business, dad.’ he’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”
Not trying to be flippant about a serious matter but if an elderly person expresses surprise that their 19 year old son can turn on a laptop, it would normally be taken as a troubling sign.
Likely.
very troubling.
kii said:
Robert Reich:“Friends,
Yesterday, Trump dismantled much of the Department of Education. He ordered wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut most of her department, although student loans and special education funding will continue.
His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago.
But there’s a much larger story here.
Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research) and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).
Put this together with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors.
And with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science.
With Trump’s and right-wing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide.
Combine this with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.
And his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president).
What’s the larger picture?
Not an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “the culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Certainly not that Trump is seeking “small government” over “big government” or advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism.
What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education and for public libraries, museums, and the arts.
They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it.
Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind.
The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: from JD Vance and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president. And from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk.
Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.
Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian group of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.
Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.
In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.”
The previous two posts in this thread indicated that Trump is likely partly or completely demented.
How is he then able to orchestrate such a complex and deliberate destruction? Even with the speculated manipulation (see above), that’d be difficult.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Robert Reich:“Friends,
Yesterday, Trump dismantled much of the Department of Education. He ordered wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut most of her department, although student loans and special education funding will continue.
His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago.
But there’s a much larger story here.
Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research) and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).
Put this together with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors.
And with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science.
With Trump’s and right-wing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide.
Combine this with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.
And his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president).
What’s the larger picture?
Not an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “the culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Certainly not that Trump is seeking “small government” over “big government” or advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism.
What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education and for public libraries, museums, and the arts.
They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it.
Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind.
The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: from JD Vance and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president. And from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk.
Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.
Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian group of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.
Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.
In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.”
The previous two posts in this thread indicated that Trump is likely partly or completely demented.
How is he then able to orchestrate such a complex and deliberate destruction? Even with the speculated manipulation (see above), that’d be difficult.
He just sends those who say yes to burn whomever he has in his revengeful sight.
Woodie said:
waves to Ms Mum.Katie Couric interviews Heather Cox Richardson.
Oi!
What are you doing up?
That’s against the laws of nature!
Michael V said:
Woodie said:
waves to Ms Mum.Katie Couric interviews Heather Cox Richardson.
Oi!
What are you doing up?
That’s against the laws of nature!
Might have been a call of nature?
A pity Trump doesn’t have people like Danielle Wood.
Danielle Wood, who leads the Productivity Commission, has warned that cutting public service jobs won’t lead to significant savings and could hamper economic reform.
roughbarked said:
A pity Trump doesn’t have people like Danielle Wood.Danielle Wood, who leads the Productivity Commission, has warned that cutting public service jobs won’t lead to significant savings and could hamper economic reform.
What makes you think he’d listen anyway? He surrounds himself with Yes Men.
Divine Angel said:
roughbarked said:
A pity Trump doesn’t have people like Danielle Wood.Danielle Wood, who leads the Productivity Commission, has warned that cutting public service jobs won’t lead to significant savings and could hamper economic reform.
What makes you think he’d listen anyway? He surrounds himself with Yes Men.
That’s why it is a pity. He’s dooming himself and others to failure. He got himself to the oval office, ‘the sacred oval office’. He really should be making America great.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
excellent choice of song.
😎
I see that some are saying that it’s fake.
googling, trump drone show florida, brings up a lot of legit appearing reports.
so is it really fake or is this another one of those “he wasn’t being serious he was just struggling with autism” “he didn’t mean actual genocide he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs” episodes
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
I see that some are saying that it’s fake.
googling, trump drone show florida, brings up a lot of legit appearing reports.
so is it really fake or is this another one of those “he wasn’t being serious he was just struggling with autism” “he didn’t mean actual genocide he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs” episodes
But he actually said he was going to remove the arabs to other countries with arabs. Gaza will be for rich Israelis.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Robert Reich:
“Friends,
Yesterday, Trump dismantled much of the Department of Education. He ordered wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut most of her department, although student loans and special education funding will continue.
His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago.
But there’s a much larger story here.
Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research) and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).
Put this together with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors.
And with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science.
With Trump’s and right-wing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide.
Combine this with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.
And his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president).
What’s the larger picture?
Not an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “the culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Certainly not that Trump is seeking “small government” over “big government” or advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism.
What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education and for public libraries, museums, and the arts.
They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it.
Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind.
The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: from JD Vance and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president. And from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk.
Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.
Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian group of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.
Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.
In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.”
The previous two posts in this thread indicated that Trump is likely partly or completely demented.
How is he then able to orchestrate such a complex and deliberate destruction? Even with the speculated manipulation (see above), that’d be difficult.
we don’t think Hanlon shaving applies here and he might lack general aptitude but our souls in charge of the DPRNA are good at what they do and if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Robert Reich:
“Friends,
Yesterday, Trump dismantled much of the Department of Education. He ordered wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut most of her department, although student loans and special education funding will continue.
His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago.
But there’s a much larger story here.
Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research) and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).
Put this together with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors.
And with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science.
With Trump’s and right-wing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide.
Combine this with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.
And his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president).
What’s the larger picture?
Not an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “the culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Certainly not that Trump is seeking “small government” over “big government” or advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism.
What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education and for public libraries, museums, and the arts.
They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it.
Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind.
The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: from JD Vance and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president. And from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk.
Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.
Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian group of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.
Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.
In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.”
The previous two posts in this thread indicated that Trump is likely partly or completely demented.
How is he then able to orchestrate such a complex and deliberate destruction? Even with the speculated manipulation (see above), that’d be difficult.
we don’t think Hanlon shaving applies here and he might lack general aptitude but our souls in charge of the DPRNA are good at what they do and if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
Nup, sorry. Too much obscurity to work out your meaning there.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
The previous two posts in this thread indicated that Trump is likely partly or completely demented.
How is he then able to orchestrate such a complex and deliberate destruction? Even with the speculated manipulation (see above), that’d be difficult.
we don’t think Hanlon shaving applies here and he might lack general aptitude but our souls in charge of the DPRNA are good at what they do and if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
Nup, sorry. Too much obscurity to work out your meaning there.
sorry going to have to disagree let’s see
oh so it’s a thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
guess if someone says that it doesn’t apply, then they’re implying that in this case, we should attribute to malice what could appear adequately explained by stupidity
—
he might lack general aptitude
so apparently this term we thought was used in the 1980s and 1990s is actually “general ability” so maybe you’re right that this was hard to understand but note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude
we meant it as a synonym of intelligence
—
our souls in charge of the DPRNA
perhaps obscure for someone who hasn’t been here in the past year but certainly we’ve used these terms here for “arseholes in charge of the democratic people’s republic of north america” before so we wouldn’t consider it a new descriptor for arseholes in charge of an authoritarian libertarian xenophobic belligerent country in north america
—
if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
this is a literal description of something that isn’t obscure:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
googling, trump drone show florida, brings up a lot of legit appearing reports.
so is it really fake or is this another one of those “he wasn’t being serious he was just struggling with autism” “he didn’t mean actual genocide he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs” episodes
But he actually said he was going to remove the arabs to other countries with arabs. Gaza will be for rich Israelis.
sorry good point let us revise our depiction
“he didn’t mean actual ethnic cleansing he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs”
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
we don’t think Hanlon shaving applies here and he might lack general aptitude but our souls in charge of the DPRNA are good at what they do and if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
Nup, sorry. Too much obscurity to work out your meaning there.
sorry going to have to disagree let’s see
oh so it’s a thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
guess if someone says that it doesn’t apply, then they’re implying that in this case, we should attribute to malice what could appear adequately explained by stupidity
—
he might lack general aptitude
so apparently this term we thought was used in the 1980s and 1990s is actually “general ability” so maybe you’re right that this was hard to understand but note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude
we meant it as a synonym of intelligence
—
our souls in charge of the DPRNA
perhaps obscure for someone who hasn’t been here in the past year but certainly we’ve used these terms here for “arseholes in charge of the democratic people’s republic of north america” before so we wouldn’t consider it a new descriptor for arseholes in charge of an authoritarian libertarian xenophobic belligerent country in north america
—
if some hit man were trying to murder you and you knew you were the wrong target you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots” you’d be trying to stop it
this is a literal description of something that isn’t obscure:
- if some hit man were trying to murder you, and
- you knew you were the wrong target, then
- you still wouldn’t be laughing “oh what a bunch of incompetent idiots”, but
- you’d be trying to stop it
Thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it.
I had gone down another rabbit hole, starting with Occam’s razor, which stuck in my brain and didn’t make any sense, no matter how I manipulated it.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
so is it really fake or is this another one of those “he wasn’t being serious he was just struggling with autism” “he didn’t mean actual genocide he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs” episodes
But he actually said he was going to remove the arabs to other countries with arabs. Gaza will be for rich Israelis.
sorry good point let us revise our depiction
“he didn’t mean actual ethnic cleansing he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs”
You’re too unkind to him. He understands that Arabs/Palestinians must remain in Gaza.
There’ll be fairways to mow, pools to clean, garbage to remove, etc.
Someone has to do it.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
Nup, sorry. Too much obscurity to work out your meaning there.
sorry going to have to disagree let’s see
Thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it.
I had gone down another rabbit hole, starting with Occam’s razor, which stuck in my brain and didn’t make any sense, no matter how I manipulated it.
yeah no worries just like you wouldn’t laugh at a hit man hitting the wrong target, we wouldn’t laugh at the felons running the place just because some of the nasty things they’re doing are also stupid things
reportedly this was foreshadowed in February but now
The Trump administration will be revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Haitian migrants welcomed into the U.S. under a Biden-era sponsorship process, urging them to self-deport or face arrest and removal by deportation agents. The termination of their work permits and deportation protections under an immigration authority known as parole will take effect in late April, 30 days after March 25, according to a notice posted by the federal government. The move will affect immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the U.S. under a Biden administration program, known as CHNV, that was designed to reduce illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border by giving would-be migrants legal migration avenues. A total of 532,000 migrants entered the U.S. under that policy, which was paused soon after President Trump took office, though it’s unclear how many have been able to secure another status that will allow them to stay in the country legally.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-to-revoke-legal-status-of-over-a-half-million-migrants-chnv/
hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
…
…
wait
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
But he actually said he was going to remove the arabs to other countries with arabs. Gaza will be for rich Israelis.
sorry good point let us revise our depiction
“he didn’t mean actual ethnic cleansing he just wanted to build a beautiful resort for those starving Arabs”
You’re too unkind to him. He understands that Arabs/Palestinians must remain in Gaza.
There’ll be fairways to mow, pools to clean, garbage to remove, etc.
Someone has to do it.
that’s … that’s what AutisticNotFascistBoy is for, he knows how to deal with those darkies, he’ll get them trimmed down to efficient work and then replaced by self-driving mowers/cleaners/trashers in no time
SCIENCE said:
hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
…
…
wait
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
gross
kii said:
SCIENCE said:hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
…
…
wait
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
Somehow, Trump is going to have to produce a new child, and quickly, if he wants to have someone who he can shoehorn into a marriage into the Royal Family, and use that as leverage to get a Trump on the Throne of England.
I wonder if Melania would be on board with that?
SCIENCE said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
gross
Hold up. Isn’t the second amendment to prevent the king of England from coming and stealing your land?
How is this going to work?
Arts said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
gross
Hold up. Isn’t the second amendment to prevent the king of England from coming and stealing your land?
How is this going to work?
Like i say, you get your kid married into the line for some other place’s throne. King of England, King of the USA, doesn’t matter, as long as the kid is a king. Or a queen.
captain_spalding said:
Arts said:
SCIENCE said:
gross
Hold up. Isn’t the second amendment to prevent the king of England from coming and stealing your land?
How is this going to work?
Like i say, you get your kid married into the line for some other place’s throne. King of England, King of the USA, doesn’t matter, as long as the kid is a king. Or a queen.
it’s not stealing if it’s sold out at a bargain price
in case it wasn’t clear enough
Arts said:
SCIENCE said:kii said:
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
gross
Hold up. Isn’t the second amendment to prevent the king of England from coming and stealing your land?
How is this going to work?
The King of America is going to steal the lands of the UK.
SCIENCE said:
hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
…
…
wait
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It must be true if it’s written in the Daily Mail.
(I’m pretty sure I haven’t linked that for at least a couple of weeks)
SCIENCE said:
captain_spalding said:
Arts said:
Hold up. Isn’t the second amendment to prevent the king of England from coming and stealing your land?
How is this going to work?
Like i say, you get your kid married into the line for some other place’s throne. King of England, King of the USA, doesn’t matter, as long as the kid is a king. Or a queen.
it’s not stealing if it’s sold out at a bargain price
I’m afraid the USA will forever remain a country.
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
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wait
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wait
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
Somehow, Trump is going to have to produce a new child, and quickly, if he wants to have someone who he can shoehorn into a marriage into the Royal Family, and use that as leverage to get a Trump on the Throne of England.
I wonder if Melania would be on board with that?
What, have an affair with Chucky?
captain_spalding said:
kii said:
SCIENCE said:hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
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wait
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s widely known that trump wanted to “date” Diana after her divorce from Chucky. Also, trump wants to be a king, so maybe he sees a way to make this happen if he and Chucky can just work something out.
Somehow, Trump is going to have to produce a new child, and quickly, if he wants to have someone who he can shoehorn into a marriage into the Royal Family, and use that as leverage to get a Trump on the Throne of England.
I wonder if Melania would be on board with that?
Musk’s influence is likely to have trump trying for an IVF baby via a royal surrogate?
SCIENCE said:
hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
…
wait
…
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wait
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s no longer the British Commonwealth, it’s the Commonwealth of Nations. Includes Rwanda and other countries that were never British colonies or in the British Empire.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:hey hey remember how yous all were laughing that if it weren’t for France the USSA would still be speaking like part of the
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wait
…
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wait
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14523713/trump-agrees-commonwealth-king-charles.html
oh right it’s the dailymail.co.uk guess it’s true
It’s no longer the British Commonwealth, it’s the Commonwealth of Nations. Includes Rwanda and other countries that were never British colonies or in the British Empire.
If the US joins, we should leave.
Divine Angel said:
Fair.
Michael V said:
sarahs mum said:
Divine Angel said:
Fair.
that’s because shooting up fish in a barrel is a personal grievance, whereas putting ink on a vehicle is a stand against potential government tyranny
wait
sarahs mum said:
PMSL
:)
PMSLA
:)
Heather Cox Richardson
15m ·
March 21, 2025 (Friday)
These days, I keep coming back to the quotation recorded by journalist Ron Suskind in a New York Times Magazine article in 2004. A senior advisor to President George W. Bush told Suskind that people like Suskind lived in “the reality-based community”: they believed people could find solutions based on their observations and careful study of discernible reality. But, the aide continued, such a worldview was obsolete. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore…. We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
In 2004 that quotation seemed a reflection on how members of an administration hoped to shape the globe and public perceptions of their actions. Twenty-one years later, it seems we are seeing what happens when members of an administration believe they can shape not just perceptions but reality itself, and discover that reality is stubborn.
After news broke last night that the Pentagon was preparing a top-secret presentation for billionaire Elon Musk on plans for fighting a potential war with China, members of the administration denied that Musk’s visit to the Pentagon would include such a meeting. This morning, Musk posted on social media that the “leakers” “will be found.” “I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” he posted.
Aside from appearing to confirm the story—one can’t “leak” a false story—Sophia Cai, Danny Nguyen, Daniel Payne, Amy MacKinnon, and Eli Stokols of Politico suggest that Musk’s threat has backfired. “We are public servants, not Elon’s servants,” one Food and Drug Administration employee told the reporters, adding, “he public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive, and deceptive all of this has been and continues to be.”
A senior Federal Aviation Administration official said, referring to Musk, “He IS A LEAKER. When you put hard drives on data systems at government agencies you are creating the biggest security breaches we have seen in years and years. Possibly ever.” A Department of Agriculture staffer said: “If the Biden administration or Obama had acted like this, no one would have tolerated it. The Trump administration doesn’t get a pass.”
Those angry at Musk and the cuts his Department of Government Efficiency team has made to the government have demonstrated their anger by launching a grassroots movement called “TeslaTakedown” that protests peacefully at Tesla dealerships. Law enforcement officers and experts in domestic extremism say they have found no evidence that acts of vandalism against cars, charging stations, and dealerships—there have been at least ten such instances—are coordinated.
Trump tried to shore up the brand with a sales pitch for Teslas at the White House on March 11, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday urged the Fox News Channel audience to buy Tesla stock, an endorsement that violated federal ethics rules but did nothing to prop up the stock price.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi called vandalism of Teslas “domestic terrorism,” and today President Donald Trump insisted that the vandalism of Tesla products is far more serious than the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol when rioters tried to stop the counting of electoral votes and thus overturn the will of American voters. Trump issued a blanket pardon for those rioters, including those convicted of violence against law enforcement officers, but today he posted about Tesla vandals on social media: “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”
At the Social Security Administration, acting commissioner Leland Dudek is threatening to shut down the agency in response to the temporary restraining order issued yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander. In that order, Hollander noted that the “Department of Government Efficiency” was “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” and “never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems.”
She prohibited Social Security officials from sharing with DOGE any personally identifiable information (PII) that would make it possible to identify specific individuals. Dudek suggested that Hollander’s order could apply to all SSA employees because the administration has ordered them to cooperate with DOGE. “Everything in this agency is PII,” he said. “Unless I get a clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here.”
Dudek was a mid-level staffer at SSA until he won his position atop the agency by secretly cooperating with DOGE’s demands to review sensitive records after SSA’s head, Michelle King, stood in the way. “I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
SSA oversees Social Security benefits for nearly 70 million people and, according to the agency, was expected to distribute about $1.6 trillion in benefits in 2025. For many people, that check is vital to survival. But billionaire Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick suggested that concerns about a stoppage in checks were overblown. He told billionaire podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya: “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining.”
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, disagreed: “For almost 90 years, Social Security has never missed a paycheck—but 60 days into this administration, Social Security is now on the brink…. Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has proven again that he is in way over his head, compromising the privacy of millions of Americans, shutting down services that senior citizens rely on and planning debilitating layoffs, all in service to Elon Musk’s lies.”
Hollander responded to Dudek’s threat by calling his interpretation of the order “inaccurate” and specifying that SSA employees who are not members of DOGE or working on DOGE’s agenda are not subject to the order. “Moreover, any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.” After Dudek continued to insist that SSA employees and DOGE are intertwined, Hollander issued another clarification tonight, saying that if that is the case, she “was misled by counsel for the government,” who said that just ten people at SSA are working for DOGE.
“More to the point,” she added, “in my earlier letter today…I directed the government to contact immediately if there is any need for clarification of the . As I write this letter, it is well after 6:00 p.m. and the government has yet to contact the Court.”
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post observed today that “the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ the federal government almost comically inefficient.” She wrote that Internal Revenue Service employees line up at shared computers on Mondays to submit their “five things I did last week” emails to DOGE while taxpayer service calls go unanswered. Federal surveyors at the Bureau of Land Management are no longer allowed to buy replacement equipment, so when a shovel breaks they can’t simply replace it; they have to locate a manager authorized to file an official procurement form and order one. Many have had to ignore their actual jobs in order to scrub words from official documents.
After interviewing frustrated civil servants for weeks, Rampell said, she has learned that “routine tasks take longer to complete, grinding down worker productivity,” while DOGE bogs workers down with “meaningless busywork, which sets them up to be punished for neglecting their actual duties.”
“All this talk of warfighter ethos, and our ‘priority’ is making sure there are no three-year-old tweets with the word ‘diversity’ in them,” one Pentagon staffer told Rampell. “Crazy town.”
Administration officials are discovering that their idea of slashing through government might not have adequately considered how actual people might react to that destruction. As constituents erupt with anger, Republican lawmakers are refusing to hold town hall meetings. Yesterday, Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) responded to boos and heckling by saying: “It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government…. our hysteria is just really over the top.” When protesters dressed as chickens to goad Representative James Comer (R-KY) into holding a town hall, he issued a statement: “Congressman Comer does not plan on holding therapy sessions for left-wing activists suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
In place of Republican town halls, Democrats are holding their own packed events in Republican districts. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour across the country because, as Sanders says, people are “profoundly disgusted with what is going on here in Washington, D.C.”
Today, 11,000 people turned out to hear Sanders and AOC in Republican-led Greeley, Colorado. Another 34,000 turned out in Denver.
Thanks sm. This bit is interesting.
>>In place of Republican town halls, Democrats are holding their own packed events in Republican districts. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour across the country because, as Sanders says, people are “profoundly disgusted with what is going on here in Washington, D.C.”
Today, 11,000 people turned out to hear Sanders and AOC in Republican-led Greeley, Colorado. Another 34,000 turned out in Denver.<<
buffy said:
Thanks sm. This bit is interesting.>>In place of Republican town halls, Democrats are holding their own packed events in Republican districts. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour across the country because, as Sanders says, people are “profoundly disgusted with what is going on here in Washington, D.C.”
Today, 11,000 people turned out to hear Sanders and AOC in Republican-led Greeley, Colorado. Another 34,000 turned out in Denver.<<
It seems a bit of too little too late to me.
sarahs mum said:
Maybe they’ll buy something from Sweden, instead.
sarahs mum said:
Quite a salesman
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Quite a salesman
meanwhile
Donald Trump revokes security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and others
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Quite a salesman
meanwhile
Donald Trump revokes security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and others
Seems fairly confident he’s never going to be an ex-President himself, requiring same.
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
sarahs mum said:
Quite a salesman
meanwhile
Donald Trump revokes security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and others
has he done similar to Obama?
Or does he fear Obama too much?
LOL
SCIENCE said:
LOL
Don’t worry, it will trickle down.
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
Don’t worry, it will trickle down.
Literally downward as shown in this diagram
dv said:
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:
LOL
Don’t worry, it will trickle down.
Literally downward as shown in this diagram
ah well we guess 60% of them will be better off so this is a clever a vote winner at no cost
SCIENCE said:
LOL
In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Extreme right wing are nazis, extreme left wing are communists.
Try to stay in the middle somewhere.
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
esselte said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Nope, that’s the right wingers talking.
If a communist got into power, they would tax billionaires at around 95% and return it to schools, hospitals, and roads.
Where is the Elon Musk Hospital, or the Elon Musk University?
The billionaires should not even exist. The fact they do is because of a failure of the tax system.
Kingy said:
esselte said:
Kingy said:In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Nope, that’s the right wingers talking.
If a communist got into power, they would tax billionaires at around 95% and return it to schools, hospitals, and roads.
Where is the Elon Musk Hospital, or the Elon Musk University?
The billionaires should not even exist. The fact they do is because of a failure of the tax system.
Quite./s :p
esselte said:
Kingy said:
esselte said:Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Nope, that’s the right wingers talking.
If a communist got into power, they would tax billionaires at around 95% and return it to schools, hospitals, and roads.
Where is the Elon Musk Hospital, or the Elon Musk University?
The billionaires should not even exist. The fact they do is because of a failure of the tax system.
Quite./s :p
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
esselte said:
esselte said:
Kingy said:Nope, that’s the right wingers talking.
If a communist got into power, they would tax billionaires at around 95% and return it to schools, hospitals, and roads.
Where is the Elon Musk Hospital, or the Elon Musk University?
The billionaires should not even exist. The fact they do is because of a failure of the tax system.
Quite./s :p
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
A cat looks down on a man
A dog looks up to a man
But a pig will look a man in the eye and see his equal.
Winston Churchill
esselte said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Note that the Democrats are a right wing party, and the Republicans are a far right party.
dv said:
esselte said:
Kingy said:In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Note that the Democrats are a right wing party, and the Republicans are a far right party.
I don’t think labelling political parties that represent broadly either the left or right in a particular nation something else based on some idealized description of the political spectrum is particularly helpful. You might as well categorise historical examples based on modern ideals: something that would be as equally unenlightening. I mean was the Eisenhower administration leftwing? Menzies?
Witty Rejoinder said:
. I mean was the Eisenhower administration leftwing?
High taxes on the rich, massive expansion of social programs … so yeah
SCIENCE said:
LOL
FMD
esselte said:
esselte said:
Kingy said:Nope, that’s the right wingers talking.
If a communist got into power, they would tax billionaires at around 95% and return it to schools, hospitals, and roads.
Where is the Elon Musk Hospital, or the Elon Musk University?
The billionaires should not even exist. The fact they do is because of a failure of the tax system.
Quite./s :p
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
This is Hasan Piker.
Hasan, nephew to The Young Turks co-creator Cenk Uyghur, is an on-linepolitical commentator and “influencer” and is one of the most popular and watched streamers on the platform Twitch.
He is a Marxist and a communist. He openly promotes himself as such, and his fan-base is oriented around these principles. Hasan is “the voice” of young people who find themselves attracted to these political theories. He recently interviewed Bernie Sanders and AOC together.
Hasan drives a $300,000 Porsche and lives in a house in West Hollywood which is worth ten times the median house price of Los Angeles, and three times the median house price in his immediate, up-market area. Hasan wears designer clothes, $1,000 sweaters, socks that cost more than a dollar, that kind of thing, and enjoys on occasion hiring a private jet to fly himself and his friends to the Coachella Festival.
Todays up and coming future communists don’t even bother with the initial noble, ideological phase of their political infatuation; they skip straight to the final version of the Animal Farm Commandments, wherein the pigs get to sleep in the farm house rather than the barn, and some… are more equal than others.
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
. I mean was the Eisenhower administration leftwing?
High taxes on the rich, massive expansion of social programs … so yeah
We’ll have to get the Ministry of Truth to reprint a hell of a lot of newspapers.
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347
dv said:
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347
Sooner or later we’re going to have to set up a refugee program for Americans fleeing the prospect of dying of shame in their own country.
dv said:
FMD
tnuc
dv said:
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347
Heck!
dv said:
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347
How will the kids send messages to their parents when the active shooter is at the classroom door?
party_pants said:
dv said:
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347Sooner or later we’re going to have to set up a refugee program for Americans fleeing the prospect of dying of shame in their own country.
seems more like they’re proud of it gotta own dem libs
esselte said:
esselte said:
esselte said:
Quite./s :p
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
This is Hasan Piker.
Hasan, nephew to The Young Turks co-creator Cenk Uyghur, is an on-linepolitical commentator and “influencer” and is one of the most popular and watched streamers on the platform Twitch.
He is a Marxist and a communist. He openly promotes himself as such, and his fan-base is oriented around these principles. Hasan is “the voice” of young people who find themselves attracted to these political theories. He recently interviewed Bernie Sanders and AOC together.
Hasan drives a $300,000 Porsche and lives in a house in West Hollywood which is worth ten times the median house price of Los Angeles, and three times the median house price in his immediate, up-market area. Hasan wears designer clothes, $1,000 sweaters, socks that cost more than a dollar, that kind of thing, and enjoys on occasion hiring a private jet to fly himself and his friends to the Coachella Festival.
Todays up and coming future communists don’t even bother with the initial noble, ideological phase of their political infatuation; they skip straight to the final version of the Animal Farm Commandments, wherein the pigs get to sleep in the farm house rather than the barn, and some… are more equal than others.
shrug the DPRNA calls itself a democracy
dv said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
esselte said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:
LOL
In case anyone is wondering what the difference between right wing and left wing governments are, it’s the people in power using their power to move money. Specifically, the movement of money from the poor to the rich or vice versa.
Nah. It’s all about moving money from the poor to the rich, regardless of wing, these days.
Note that the Democrats are a right wing party, and the Republicans are a far right party.
I don’t think labelling political parties that represent broadly either the left or right in a particular nation something else based on some idealized description of the political spectrum is particularly helpful. You might as well categorise historical examples based on modern ideals: something that would be as equally unenlightening. I mean was the Eisenhower administration leftwing? Menzies?
. I mean was the Eisenhower administration leftwing?
High taxes on the rich, massive expansion of social programs … so yeah
and there we see the beauty of transforming systems of governance into team sports, why care about objective measures when you can just fight it out on culturally relative ground
kii said:
dv said:
RFKJ wants cellphones banned from schools saying they “produce electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day, and to cause cellular damage and even cancer.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/kennedy-cell-phone-bans-schools-rcna197347How will the kids send messages to their parents when the active shooter is at the classroom door?
Oh, that sort of thing isn’t going to happen under the wonderful new administration. Everyone is completely safe…
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2075431846199819&set=gm.2133230987099912&idorvanity=1077620615994293
Canadian ‘American Pie’ actress Jasmine Mooney was detained byTrump’s ICE agents at the US-Mexico border and jailed for 12 days.
There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
Lots more at link.
ChrispenEvan said:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2075431846199819&set=gm.2133230987099912&idorvanity=1077620615994293Canadian ‘American Pie’ actress Jasmine Mooney was detained byTrump’s ICE agents at the US-Mexico border and jailed for 12 days.
There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
Lots more at link.
She’s not white enough.
LOL
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
A sobering message from a history teacher:I’ve spent years teaching American and international government — from strong democracies like the UK to authoritarian regimes like russia and China.
But lately, the most alarming lesson comes from home.
1/n
1:48 AM · Mar 23, 2025
·
460.2K Views
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
2/ One thing I always tell my students:Democracy doesn’t collapse overnight.
There’s no moment where a leader says, “I’m a dictator now.”
The fall is gradual. Legal. Publicly tolerated. And often cheered on by millions.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
3/ Take russia.When Putin took power in 2000, russia had elections, a constitution, and a separation of powers.
Today, those same structures exist on paper — but they mean nothing. Putin rules absolutely.
And yes, Donald Trump admires him.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
4/ So how do we know when a democracy is backsliding?Every intro-level political science student learns the warning signs.
Here are a few I teach in my classroom:
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
5/ When Congress yields to the President.Our system was built on checks and balances.
But if Congress becomes silent or complicit, that balance breaks — as it did in russia, when Putin sidelined dissenters and filled parliament with loyalists.
Sound familiar?
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
6/ When corporatism is normalized.In backsliding states, oligarchs thrive if they support the leader. Critics are exiled or jailed.
Here? Think tax cuts for the ultra-rich, media consolidation, and regulatory favors — all benefiting Trump’s allies.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
7/ When the Constitution becomes optional.Rule of law isn’t a suggestion — it’s the backbone of democracy.
But we’ve already seen moments when Trump flouted the Constitution — and faced little consequence.
That alone should’ve been disqualifying.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
8/ When internal enemies are manufactured.Autocrats stay in power by creating enemies — minorities, immigrants, the press, historic allies.
It’s about fear. Division. “Protecting” the nation from threats that don’t exist.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
9/ When loyalty shifts from country to one man.Public servants swear oaths to the Constitution — not to a person.
But when law enforcement, military, and elected officials show fealty to one leader, democracy is on life support.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
10/ Here’s the hardest truth:If democracy dies in America, it won’t be in secret.
It won’t be a coup in the night.
It’ll happen slowly. Legally. In broad daylight. With our permission.
Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@rshereme
·
7h
11/ Democracy isn’t self-sustaining.It requires us to choose it — again and again.
Not with platitudes. But with vigilance, accountability, and courage.
We still have time. But not forever.
ChrispenEvan said:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2075431846199819&set=gm.2133230987099912&idorvanity=1077620615994293Canadian ‘American Pie’ actress Jasmine Mooney was detained byTrump’s ICE agents at the US-Mexico border and jailed for 12 days.
There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
Lots more at link.
The lesson: stay away from the US of A.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Bernie and AOC DESTROY Trump at BIGGEST RALLIES YET
Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
ChrispenEvan said:
good news apparently it could be worse
ChrispenEvan said:
LOLOLOL
ChrispenEvan said:
where is drumpft from
ChrispenEvan said:
:)
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
where is drumpft from
Scotland.
ChrispenEvan said:
Oklahoma rates 1st in the height of corn, though, hey what but.
High as an elephant’s eye, it is.
ChrispenEvan said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Bernie and AOC DESTROY Trump at BIGGEST RALLIES YET
Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Bernie and AOC DESTROY Trump at BIGGEST RALLIES YET
Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
It’s too little too late. They needed this before the election.
Woodie said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Oklahoma rates 1st in the height of corn, though, hey what but.
High as an elephant’s eye, it is.
And 1st in Surreys with fringes on top.
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
It’s too little too late. They needed this before the election.
and there has been stuff all support for Bernie until this too late stage.
After two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a train platform in St. Louis, police detectives faced a daunting challenge: identifying the attackers. Police turned to facial recognition technology, feeding a blurry image from a small surveillance camera into the software.
The software gave them the mugshot of a man who says he had nothing to do with the crime. Christopher Gatlin spent over a year in jail awaiting trial before the case was dropped.
Gatlin is one of at least eight people in the United States who have been wrongfully arrested after being identified by facial recognition technology. All of those cases were eventually dropped by prosecutors – but only after the suspects fought to clear their names.
Business and tech investigations reporter Doug MacMillan unpacks his research into how police are using AI-driven facial recognition and how people like Gatlin have been wrongfully arrested as a result.
https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/arrested-by-ai/id1444873564?i=1000683980560&l=ms
There was a mass shooting in a park near me. Last night. Three dead, 15 injured. They’ll all be thinking and praying no doubt.
Link
Tamb said:
ChrispenEvan said:
They were told not to use a f word.
The language it evolves¡
sarahs mum said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
It’s too little too late. They needed this before the election.
and there has been stuff all support for Bernie until this too late stage.
Americans wanted this.
dv said:
After two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a train platform in St. Louis, police detectives faced a daunting challenge: identifying the attackers. Police turned to facial recognition technology, feeding a blurry image from a small surveillance camera into the software.
The software gave them the mugshot of a man who says he had nothing to do with the crime. Christopher Gatlin spent over a year in jail awaiting trial before the case was dropped.
Gatlin is one of at least eight people in the United States who have been wrongfully arrested after being identified by facial recognition technology. All of those cases were eventually dropped by prosecutors – but only after the suspects fought to clear their names.
Business and tech investigations reporter Doug MacMillan unpacks his research into how police are using AI-driven facial recognition and how people like Gatlin have been wrongfully arrested as a result.
https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/arrested-by-ai/id1444873564?i=1000683980560&l=ms
good news they can soon get out of the country that has mistreated them so
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Bernie and AOC DESTROY Trump at BIGGEST RALLIES YET
Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
Oligarchs? I though Russia had dibs on them all.
Woodie said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
Oligarchs? I though Russia had dibs on them all.
Woodie said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
Oligarchs? I though Russia had dibs on them all.
The Trump mission is to overturn the US government and economy and turn it into a copy of Russia.
Woodie said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
party_pants said:
Trump is still intact and still president. These are just words.
34000 attended one event.
Growing concerns across America.
Oligarchs? I though Russia had dibs on them all.
…exactly, they do…
ChrispenEvan said:
I had to go and look up the krek spilling of twelfth. :)
The Rev Dodgson said:
ChrispenEvan said:
I had to go and look up the krek spilling of twelfth. :)
it’s #12
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
dv said:
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
Did you link that profile into the comments?
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
Yeah. me too.
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
chlorine bleach or peroxy bleach
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
Had a bit of a back and forth with a chap on Youtube comments who was trying to downplay DJT’s criminality. Fellow had his full name on his profile and sure enough
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
chlorine bleach or peroxy bleach
Let’s live on the edge and go chlorine
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:Divine Angel said:
I feel like I need to bleach my fingers just clicking on that post
chlorine bleach or peroxy bleach
Let’s live on the edge and go chlorine
Members of the punk rock band UK Subs have said they were denied entry and detained in the US, according to accounts from the band themselves.
Bassist Alvin Gibbs shared details of the incident in a Facebook post on Wednesday, which comes amid widespread reports of people being denied entry to the US, including a French scientist who said he was barred because of anti-Donald Trump comments he had made.
Gibbs, along with bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detainment. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.
He recounted how after he landed at the LA airport with his partner, he was told he would be questioned after being flagged. He was informed the flagging was for two reasons: first, he was told he had an incorrect visa, but he was also told that there was another reason that the agents would not disclose to him.
“I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role – or perhaps I’m simply succumbing to paranoia,” he said.
The band, considered pioneers in the genre of British punk rock, have been outspokenly critical of Trump and his policies in the past. They are known to often make political statements during live performances.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/uk-subs-band-detained-deported
sarahs mum said:
Members of the punk rock band UK Subs have said they were denied entry and detained in the US, according to accounts from the band themselves.Bassist Alvin Gibbs shared details of the incident in a Facebook post on Wednesday, which comes amid widespread reports of people being denied entry to the US, including a French scientist who said he was barred because of anti-Donald Trump comments he had made.
Gibbs, along with bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detainment. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.
He recounted how after he landed at the LA airport with his partner, he was told he would be questioned after being flagged. He was informed the flagging was for two reasons: first, he was told he had an incorrect visa, but he was also told that there was another reason that the agents would not disclose to him.
“I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role – or perhaps I’m simply succumbing to paranoia,” he said.
The band, considered pioneers in the genre of British punk rock, have been outspokenly critical of Trump and his policies in the past. They are known to often make political statements during live performances.
more..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/uk-subs-band-detained-deported
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Gestapo.
Gestapo who?
VE VILL ASK ZEE QUESTIONS!
The UK and Germany have started issuing travel warnings to their citizens going over to the US.
dv said:
After two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a train platform in St. Louis, police detectives faced a daunting challenge: identifying the attackers. Police turned to facial recognition technology, feeding a blurry image from a small surveillance camera into the software.The software gave them the mugshot of a man who says he had nothing to do with the crime. Christopher Gatlin spent over a year in jail awaiting trial before the case was dropped.
Gatlin is one of at least eight people in the United States who have been wrongfully arrested after being identified by facial recognition technology. All of those cases were eventually dropped by prosecutors – but only after the suspects fought to clear their names.
Business and tech investigations reporter Doug MacMillan unpacks his research into how police are using AI-driven facial recognition and how people like Gatlin have been wrongfully arrested as a result.
https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/arrested-by-ai/id1444873564?i=1000683980560&l=ms
Shit.
Michael V said:
dv said:
After two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a train platform in St. Louis, police detectives faced a daunting challenge: identifying the attackers. Police turned to facial recognition technology, feeding a blurry image from a small surveillance camera into the software.The software gave them the mugshot of a man who says he had nothing to do with the crime. Christopher Gatlin spent over a year in jail awaiting trial before the case was dropped.
Gatlin is one of at least eight people in the United States who have been wrongfully arrested after being identified by facial recognition technology. All of those cases were eventually dropped by prosecutors – but only after the suspects fought to clear their names.
Business and tech investigations reporter Doug MacMillan unpacks his research into how police are using AI-driven facial recognition and how people like Gatlin have been wrongfully arrested as a result.
https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/arrested-by-ai/id1444873564?i=1000683980560&l=ms
Shit.
Now we’ll be afraid to enter a Bunnings store or self serve at the supermarkets.
Just in case like. Wouldn’t want to end up in jail for walking past a camera.
kii said:
There was a mass shooting in a park near me. Last night. Three dead, 15 injured. They’ll all be thinking and praying no doubt.
Link
MAGA.
—————————————-
FMD
Should be noted that most of the code talkers were deployed to the Pacific theatre though a few groups operated in Africa and Europe.
dv said:
they teach mathematics wow
dv said:
Should be noted that most of the code talkers were deployed to the Pacific theatre though a few groups operated in Africa and Europe.
but Japan are the good guys
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 22, 2025 (Saturday)
Perhaps in response to the growing outcry over last weekend’s rendition of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under a legal justification a federal judge has found questionable, President Donald Trump last night told reporters that he didn’t sign the proclamation that set that legal process in motion.
When asked when he signed the proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, by which Trump claimed that Venezuela is invading the United States by sending alleged gang members over the border, Trump answered: “I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it.” Trump was on his way to his golf club in New Jersey, and seemed to be handing off responsibility for the declaration to someone else, perhaps Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Other people handled it,” he said. “But Marco Rubio’s done a great job. And he wanted them out, and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”
But, as Matt Viser said in the Washington Post today, on Friday White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump personally signed the proclamation, and his signature appears on the document in the Federal Register of official government documents. The gap between the two versions of events raises questions about who is in charge of White House policy.
Trump’s habit of deflection might explain last night’s statement, and his habit of distraction might explain today’s social media post, in which the president returned to an exchange of words between him and Maine governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, more than three weeks ago. At a meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House on February 21, in a rambling speech in which he was wandering through his false campaign stories about transgender athletes, Trump turned to his notes and suddenly appeared to remember his executive order banning transgender student athletes from playing on girls sports teams.
The body that governs sports in Maine, the Maine Principals’ Association, ruled that it would continue to allow transgender students to compete despite Trump’s executive order because the Maine state Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender identity. Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room.
“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Governor Mills.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she said.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t….”
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” he said.
Mills answered: “See you in court.”
As Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing of Politico recounted today, after the exchange between Trump and Governor Mills at the White House the administration opened investigations by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture into Maine’s policies. The Department of Agriculture temporarily paused funding for the University of Maine, then restored it and cleared the university system of Title IX violations, saying it had “clearly communicated its compliance.” The University of Maine system said it was “relieved” and added that it had never violated Title IX compliance.
On March 11 the Department of Education abolished more than half of the offices in its Civil Rights Division, getting rid of more than half of the division’s employees. Last Wednesday it said it had concluded its investigation into the Maine Department of Education and had determined that the state was violating Title IX by permitting transgender youth to play in the boys’ or girls’ sports that conform to their gender identity. It gave the state ten days to follow the administration’s interpretation of the law.
This morning, the president posted on social media: “While the State of Maine has apologized for the Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is that one that matters in such cases. Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled. I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily. Thank you for your attention to this matter and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! DJT.”
Mills was a former state attorney general, and her position is that it is her job as governor to follow state and federal law. But Trump seems to be trying to make his fight with her personal. So long as she is willing to kowtow to him, the “case” can be “settled.” Exactly what she is supposed to be apologizing to him for is unclear, unless it is that she stood up to him, a rare enough event that at the time, Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted: “Something happened at the White House Friday afternoon that almost never happens these days. Somebody defied President Trump. Right to his face.”
At the White House, Governor Mills was not only reinforcing the rule of law in the face of an authoritarian who is working to shatter that principle; she was standing up to a bully who claims to be protecting women and girls but who has bragged about sexual assault, been found guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, and barged in on teenaged girls dressing in the Miss Teen USA changing room.
Trump’s political stances have also belied his claim to protect women. He has worked to deny women and girls access to health care, including the right not to die needlessly from a miscarriage. He has undermined women’s right to control their own bodies and defunded or stopped the programs that protect their right to be safe from domestic violence and sexual assault. He has ended programs designed to protect women’s employment and has fired women from positions of authority.
Mills stands in dramatic contrast to Trump. Her career has focused on helping women and girls to overcome domestic violence, the threat of sexual assault, and inequities in the workplace. As a district attorney—the first woman elected as a DA in New England—she grew frustrated with the ways in which the criminal justice system failed victims of domestic violence. She co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby to advocate for battered and abused women, which then led to her election to the Maine legislature and from there to state attorney general and then to the governorship.
While Trump’s demand that Mills make a “full throated apology” to him is in keeping with his habitual attempts to dominate women, Mills follows in a tradition of women from Maine who stood up for the principles of American democracy against bullies who would destroy it.
In a similar moment, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, of Skowhegan, Maine, stood up to Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy. McCarthy and his supporters were hoping to gain votes in the 1950 midterm elections by stoking fear that the communists who had recently taken control of China threatened the U.S. On February 9, 1950, during a speech to a group gathered in Wheeling, West Virginia, to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, McCarthy, a Republican, claimed that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department and that the Democrats refused to investigate these “traitors in the government.”
Sympathetic newspapers trumpeted McCarthy’s charges—which kept changing, and for which he never offered proof—and many of his colleagues cheered him on, while Republicans who disapproved of his tactics kept their heads down to avoid becoming the target of his attacks.
All but one of them did, that is. Senator Smith recognized the damage McCarthy and his ilk were doing to the nation. On June 1, 1950, with McCarthy sitting two rows behind her, Smith stood up in the Senate to speak. “Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism,” she said. Americans have the right to criticize, to hold unpopular beliefs, to protest, and to think for themselves, she said. She condemned those trying to stifle dissent.
“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear,” she said. “As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.”
Senator Smith ended with a warning: “It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
the last time someone demanded an or else apology from me I left home.
LOL still talking and patting themselves on the back
only if you think NASA is the only moon tourism programmer
SCIENCE said:
only if you think NASA is the only moon tourism programmer
FMD
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/
DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
it does look like his signature.
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
Apparently White House bods explained that it meant he didn’t sign the original Act….in 1798
Neophyte said:
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/
DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
Apparently White House bods explained that it meant he didn’t sign the original Act….in 1798
damn our mistake they almost had us confused about that for a bit there
The latest episode of Pod Save America is worth a listen – it’s an interview with Democrat Congressman Adam Smith where he discusses what the Democrats need to do differently to broaden their coalition as well as how they should approach Trump v2.0.
https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-america/
Neophyte said:
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
Apparently White House bods explained that it meant he didn’t sign the original Act….in 1798
From the context of the conversation, that assertion is false. Unless he thought Marco Rubio signed it in 1798,
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
maybe the auto pen has become self aware.
ABC News:
‘Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff says Vladimir Putin is not planning to invade “all of Europe”, as US officials meet Ukrainian counterparts for negotiations.’
No, not all of it. Just the nice bits.
captain_spalding said:
ABC News:
‘Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff says Vladimir Putin is not planning to invade “all of Europe”, as US officials meet Ukrainian counterparts for negotiations.’
No, not all of it. Just the nice bits.
And not all at this moment. Maybe later, after I’ve exploited Ukraine’s resources.
dv said:
Neophyte said:
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17gydMkQY8/DJT appears to claim that he did not sign an executive order that bears his signature
Apparently White House bods explained that it meant he didn’t sign the original Act….in 1798
From the context of the conversation, that assertion is false. Unless he thought Marco Rubio signed it in 1798,
You can see the proclamation in question here, in the US Federal Register:
6https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-03-20/pdf/2025-04865.pdf
Trump’s signature appears at the end of it.
If Trump signed it, then it’s his doing. He’s responsible for the proclamation.
If it was signed by autopen, then, in line with Trump’s own statements that other Presidents’ orders signed by autopen are not valid, this proclamation is also invalid.
If it was signed by aother person, imitating Trump’s signature, then someone is forging the signature of the US President on official documents. Which raises the question of what other orders might be ‘forgeries’.
If Trump ‘recalls’ now that he didn’t sign it, then why did he not recall that earlier, and question the origin of the order?
There is no easy way out for him
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Neophyte said:Apparently White House bods explained that it meant he didn’t sign the original Act….in 1798
From the context of the conversation, that assertion is false. Unless he thought Marco Rubio signed it in 1798,
You can see the proclamation in question here, in the US Federal Register:
6https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-03-20/pdf/2025-04865.pdf
Trump’s signature appears at the end of it.
If Trump signed it, then it’s his doing. He’s responsible for the proclamation.
If it was signed by autopen, then, in line with Trump’s own statements that other Presidents’ orders signed by autopen are not valid, this proclamation is also invalid.
If it was signed by aother person, imitating Trump’s signature, then someone is forging the signature of the US President on official documents. Which raises the question of what other orders might be ‘forgeries’.
If Trump ‘recalls’ now that he didn’t sign it, then why did he not recall that earlier, and question the origin of the order?
There is no easy way out for him
Fixed.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 23, 2025 (Sunday)
Fifteen years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, into law. In addition to making healthcare more affordable, the law eliminated lifetime limits on benefits, prohibits discrimination because of pre-existing conditions, and allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until they are 26. In 2024, about 24 million people signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025, while another 21 million adults were covered by the law’s expansion of Medicaid. The ACA has increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance and slowed the rise of health care costs across the board.
Republicans immediately vowed to get rid of the ACA because they object to government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, and promotion of infrastructure. Such a government, Republicans argue, is essentially socialism: it prohibits individuals’ ability to control their businesses without government interference, and it redistributes wealth from the haves to the have-nots through taxes.
This is not a modern-day stance, by the way: it was actually Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who first proposed universal healthcare at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who first tried to muscle such a program into being with the help of the new department created under him: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which in 1979 became the Department of Health and Human Services. Its declared mission was “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.” In contrast to their forebears, today’s Republicans do not believe the government has such a role to play.
In 2014, Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly explained Republicans’ opposition to the law, saying: “Obamacare is a pure income redistribution play. That means President Obama and the Democratic Party want to put as much money into the hands of the poor and less affluent as they can and the healthcare subsidies are a great way to do just that. And of course, the funds for those subsidies are taken from businesses and affluent Americans who have the cash…. Income redistribution is a hallmark of socialism and we, in America, are now moving in that direction. That has angered the Republican Party and many conservative Americans who do not believe our capitalistic system was set up to provide cradle to grave entitlements…. Obamacare is much more than providing medical assets to the poor. It’s about capitalism versus socialism.”
In contrast, in 2022, former president Obama explained why the Democrats worked so hard to begin the process of getting healthcare coverage for Americans. “e’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power,” he said. “We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
The ACA shows, he said, that “if you are driven by the core idea that, together, we can improve the lives of this generation and the next, and if you’re persistent—if you stay with it and are willing to work through the obstacles and the criticism and continually improve where you fall short, you can make America better—you can have an impact on millions of lives.”
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 23, 2025 (Sunday)
Fifteen years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, into law. In addition to making healthcare more affordable, the law eliminated lifetime limits on benefits, prohibits discrimination because of pre-existing conditions, and allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until they are 26. In 2024, about 24 million people signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025, while another 21 million adults were covered by the law’s expansion of Medicaid. The ACA has increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance and slowed the rise of health care costs across the board.
Republicans immediately vowed to get rid of the ACA because they object to government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, and promotion of infrastructure. Such a government, Republicans argue, is essentially socialism: it prohibits individuals’ ability to control their businesses without government interference, and it redistributes wealth from the haves to the have-nots through taxes.
This is not a modern-day stance, by the way: it was actually Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who first proposed universal healthcare at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who first tried to muscle such a program into being with the help of the new department created under him: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which in 1979 became the Department of Health and Human Services. Its declared mission was “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.” In contrast to their forebears, today’s Republicans do not believe the government has such a role to play.
In 2014, Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly explained Republicans’ opposition to the law, saying: “Obamacare is a pure income redistribution play. That means President Obama and the Democratic Party want to put as much money into the hands of the poor and less affluent as they can and the healthcare subsidies are a great way to do just that. And of course, the funds for those subsidies are taken from businesses and affluent Americans who have the cash…. Income redistribution is a hallmark of socialism and we, in America, are now moving in that direction. That has angered the Republican Party and many conservative Americans who do not believe our capitalistic system was set up to provide cradle to grave entitlements…. Obamacare is much more than providing medical assets to the poor. It’s about capitalism versus socialism.”
In contrast, in 2022, former president Obama explained why the Democrats worked so hard to begin the process of getting healthcare coverage for Americans. “e’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power,” he said. “We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
The ACA shows, he said, that “if you are driven by the core idea that, together, we can improve the lives of this generation and the next, and if you’re persistent—if you stay with it and are willing to work through the obstacles and the criticism and continually improve where you fall short, you can make America better—you can have an impact on millions of lives.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 23, 2025 (Sunday)Fifteen years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, into law. In addition to making healthcare more affordable, the law eliminated lifetime limits on benefits, prohibits discrimination because of pre-existing conditions, and allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until they are 26. In 2024, about 24 million people signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025, while another 21 million adults were covered by the law’s expansion of Medicaid. The ACA has increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance and slowed the rise of health care costs across the board.
Republicans immediately vowed to get rid of the ACA because they object to government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, and promotion of infrastructure. Such a government, Republicans argue, is essentially socialism: it prohibits individuals’ ability to control their businesses without government interference, and it redistributes wealth from the haves to the have-nots through taxes.
This is not a modern-day stance, by the way: it was actually Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who first proposed universal healthcare at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who first tried to muscle such a program into being with the help of the new department created under him: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which in 1979 became the Department of Health and Human Services. Its declared mission was “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.” In contrast to their forebears, today’s Republicans do not believe the government has such a role to play.
In 2014, Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly explained Republicans’ opposition to the law, saying: “Obamacare is a pure income redistribution play. That means President Obama and the Democratic Party want to put as much money into the hands of the poor and less affluent as they can and the healthcare subsidies are a great way to do just that. And of course, the funds for those subsidies are taken from businesses and affluent Americans who have the cash…. Income redistribution is a hallmark of socialism and we, in America, are now moving in that direction. That has angered the Republican Party and many conservative Americans who do not believe our capitalistic system was set up to provide cradle to grave entitlements…. Obamacare is much more than providing medical assets to the poor. It’s about capitalism versus socialism.”
In contrast, in 2022, former president Obama explained why the Democrats worked so hard to begin the process of getting healthcare coverage for Americans. “e’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power,” he said. “We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
The ACA shows, he said, that “if you are driven by the core idea that, together, we can improve the lives of this generation and the next, and if you’re persistent—if you stay with it and are willing to work through the obstacles and the criticism and continually improve where you fall short, you can make America better—you can have an impact on millions of lives.”
It shows how indoctrinated the population are that decency is associated with communism.
Some weird idea that corporations have people’s welfare at heart if you work hard for below minimum wage
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 23, 2025 (Sunday)Fifteen years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, into law. In addition to making healthcare more affordable, the law eliminated lifetime limits on benefits, prohibits discrimination because of pre-existing conditions, and allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until they are 26. In 2024, about 24 million people signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025, while another 21 million adults were covered by the law’s expansion of Medicaid. The ACA has increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance and slowed the rise of health care costs across the board.
Republicans immediately vowed to get rid of the ACA because they object to government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, and promotion of infrastructure. Such a government, Republicans argue, is essentially socialism: it prohibits individuals’ ability to control their businesses without government interference, and it redistributes wealth from the haves to the have-nots through taxes.
This is not a modern-day stance, by the way: it was actually Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who first proposed universal healthcare at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who first tried to muscle such a program into being with the help of the new department created under him: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which in 1979 became the Department of Health and Human Services. Its declared mission was “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.” In contrast to their forebears, today’s Republicans do not believe the government has such a role to play.
In 2014, Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly explained Republicans’ opposition to the law, saying: “Obamacare is a pure income redistribution play. That means President Obama and the Democratic Party want to put as much money into the hands of the poor and less affluent as they can and the healthcare subsidies are a great way to do just that. And of course, the funds for those subsidies are taken from businesses and affluent Americans who have the cash…. Income redistribution is a hallmark of socialism and we, in America, are now moving in that direction. That has angered the Republican Party and many conservative Americans who do not believe our capitalistic system was set up to provide cradle to grave entitlements…. Obamacare is much more than providing medical assets to the poor. It’s about capitalism versus socialism.”
In contrast, in 2022, former president Obama explained why the Democrats worked so hard to begin the process of getting healthcare coverage for Americans. “e’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power,” he said. “We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
The ACA shows, he said, that “if you are driven by the core idea that, together, we can improve the lives of this generation and the next, and if you’re persistent—if you stay with it and are willing to work through the obstacles and the criticism and continually improve where you fall short, you can make America better—you can have an impact on millions of lives.”
It shows how indoctrinated the population are that decency is associated with communism.
Some weird idea that corporations have people’s welfare at heart if you work hard for below minimum wage
objection, communism is decency
though if posted without context it might look like something that boomers would judge
alleged
https://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/comments/1jg02rc/funding_cuts_will_only_get_worse/
There is currently a lot of doom and gloom over several R1 universities mentioning hiring freezes due to federal grant cuts. But what most people don’t realize is that it will get much worse from here.
The problem is that the current assumptions made by university admin is that federal grants will be cut, but everything else remains. There are a few issues with this. For the highly prestigious R1s, many of them have endowments that are a sizable portion of their funding. However, the endowments are all invested in 1. Private assets losing money 2. Private assets that are highly illiquid (and can’t be used for a few years) or 3. Public assets. As the S&P500 has performed terribly in the past month, this means that the public assets may not be as liquid or usable as they initially imagined. Soon, admin staff at universities will receive messages from their finance team explaining that their usable endowment funding for the year will be dramatically reduced.
The last piece of funding source is tuition. But with US reputational risk, macro policy risk, foreign visa cuts, and internal DOE removal, we should expect this source of funds to also go down.
In summary: it’s not that bad atm, give it a month.
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitol
I suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Andrew Bolt discussing Tucker Carlson.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/putin-fanboy-steve-witkoff-s-disgraceful-interview-slammed/ar-AA1Bx5GD?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=c01ccb42c9734c00903abc528d17a840&ei=13
ChrispenEvan said:
Ha!
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
perhaps he doesn’t like the artist.
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
LOL
Start putting eggs in cases labelled fentanyl
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
LOL
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
LOL
They can chuck it in with that portrait Gina didn’t like
:)
Fair enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x002yRpmeT0
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, jailed for 22 years over the US Capitol riots but then freed by Donald Trump, has a chilling message for the world. | 60 Minutes Australia
coming up what does it mean to be a
proud boy we’re the villains for the
left or the heroes of the right jailed
for 22 years for trying to destroy
democracy we won we won but thanks to
Donald Trump full part Enrique tario is
free proud now he and his menacing proud
boys they made my family suffer are set
to settle old schools and the people who
made them suffer will pay that’s next on
60 Minutes
it can’t be understated just how
momentous January the 6th 2021 was for
American democracy two months earlier
Donald Trump had lost but claimed he won
the 2020 presidential election the LIE
became Trump’s Mantra as well as the
Catalyst for the storming of the US
capital building one of the instigators
of the violence that day in January was
Enrique tario the leader of the far Rush
Neo fascist group The Proud boys he
ended up being jailed for 22 years for
seditious conspiracy 1500 others were
also sent to prison but remarkably now
they’re all free beneficiaries of trump
presidential Pardons and armed with
their get out of jail cards tario and
his proud boys are not only empowered
they say they’re invincible and a
warning this story contains Co
language here come on here right here
walk up like this let’s go it’s a
surreal and for many a deeply unsettling
sight all right here we go are we going
this way can we go through there the
ring leaders of the January 6 2021
Insurrection back in Washington DC
returning to the scene of the crimewho house the last time these men
marched on the US capital building it
was inAnger Circle breach the line we back
up an unbelievable assault on Democracy
that landed them lengthy sentences
Behind
Bars leading the pack on their return is
Enrique Mario boss of the far right
proud
boys back in the driving seat it’s my
microne and bristling with Defiance do
you still maintain in the face of all
the evidence that was tended to the
courts your
conviction that you did nothing wrong I
can’t regret something that I didn’t do
and that day I did not attempt to
overthrow the US government we did what
the cops won’t do and cleaned up the streets
tonight the Resurgence of Enrique tario
and his proud
boys what they did to me and my brothers
was wrong the ugly new reality for a
nation on
edge they’re emboldened empowered and
hungry for
Revenge they made my family suffer for 3
years and the people who made them
suffer will pay
thank you very much everybody appreciate
it thank you for all of his
unpredictability and you know tonight
I’m going to be signing on the j6
hostages pardons it was a promise made
and kept by President Donald
Trump on his first day in office he
freed the rioter who stormed the
capital so this is January 6th and these
are the
hostages approximately 1,500 for a
pardon yes full
pardon proud boys leader INRI tario was
the highest profile release of
all so how does it feel to be a free man
it feels amazing
but the moment hasn’t I guess hit yet
found guilty of orchestrating the riot
he received the longest sentence 22
years for sedici
conspiracy USA USA USA USA before
January the 6th the proud boys were best
known for clashes with antifa and other
left-wing groups during the ugly civil
unrest of the first Trump presidency
they were a street gang that became
synonymous with violence and
intimidation to achieve their political
aims I am a proud boyaoud what does it mean to be a proud boy
people think that we’re a political
group we’re not um we’re drinking Club
first and we’re fraternity first and
we’re Brotherhood first before anything
to do with Politics As a matter of fact
um with us
the goal is just to make better men
better Brothers better Sons better
fathers better neighbors better husbands
extremists Neo fascists racists
misogynists violent thugs MH this is how
you’re
perceived in many parts of society we’re
the villains for the
left and we’re the heroes of the right
and I think both of them are wrong so
when they call us Neo fascists when they
call us white supremacists um when they
call us you know all those anything ISM
or isst uh it’s and I think
that people are using it for
propaganda a Cuban American and a native
of Miami 42-year-old Enrique makes an
unlikely leader of a farri group he’s a
Shameless self-promoter who plays up to
his controversial image when you talk
about being as a villain yes you guys do
lean in in a sense to the you know the
black caps and the the sunglasses and
all the gear yeah I mean you you’re
player character don’t you yeah I do I
lean into it yes of course I do I I I
wouldn’t be me if I
didn’t Enrique boldly claims his group
has 35,000 members in the US and 10,000
overseas including a chapter in
Australia I think you see threats from
across the Spectrum it’s a figure that
John Lewis insists is
overinflated like much of what the proud
boys leader says what do you make of
Enrique tario he is an enormously
talented grifter um he is a phenomenal
propagandist and and someone who knows
how to lie and manipulate someone who
knows how to get headlines John is an
expert in domestic terrorism and
extremism at George Washington
University he’s watched the Resurgence
of The Proud boys with
alarm I found it quite difficult to
pinpoint their ideology how would you
define it I think they’re they’re
intentionally obus skating that right
they largely support far-right
conspiracies they support far-right
ideologies their their core idea is that
they’re against any globalist Marxist
forces that they think are operating
against the the white Western world
you leave me alone I’ve been stabbed
enough times in my life Enrique tario
says the stage was set for January 6
long before his boys breached the first
barricade on Capitol Hill we were
already angry for very long time and
then fast forward 2020 you had these
riots in the streets with no arrest
right and then you had the covid
lockdowns you know
so if you add in a stolen election I
think it was a powder keg this was a
fuse waiting to be lit yes moving on to
the
next for the proud boys their Call to
Arms came in September 2020 When Donald
Trump mentioned them by name in the
first presidential debate with Joe
Biden stand back and stand by stand back
and stand by what impact did that have
on your group when he said that it
changed my life like this the that
moment it changed everything four months
later the proud boys went into battle
yeah just for awareness ADV there’s
probably about 300 uh proud boys they’re
marching eastbound towards the United
States capital convinced the
presidential election was
stolen they spearheaded the breach of
the capital
building
back Enrique tario wasn’t actually there
that day he’d been arrested 2 days
earlier and banned from entering the
city as the mob breached barricades
smashed windows and stormed the chambers
of
Congress Enrique sat in a hotel room and
fanned the flames on social media so 2
38 don’t leave don’t leave yes
what did you mean by this I meant don’t leave I was rooting for my team
at that time keep doing what you’re
doing keep doing what you’re doing yes I
did 2:41 p.m. proud of my boys in my
country mhm make no mistake we did this
yeah and what I meant by we at the time
was the American
people despite his conviction he still
denies plotting the insurrection and
insists he had no role in what his proud
boys did that day I mean he is
absolutely determined that he had no
responsibility for January 6 because he
wasn’t there on the day what’s the
reality narcissists are very good liars
I mean you know uh the evidence at at
his trial was uh very open and shut that
the the proud boys led by Enrique tario
conspired to attack the capital on
January 6 to prevent the peaceful
transfer of Presidential Powerare you proud of what happened that
day yes I am I’m never going to deny
celebrating that day I still celebrate
that day but celebrating it is not akin
to
sedition
right coming
up the brave cop who almost died
defending the capital
that’s the moment where I was first uh
struck with a taser on my neck comes
face to face with enri tra in this
country former DC police officer Michael
fenon was nearly killed by the mob that
descended on Washington DC on January
the 6th 2021
he’s become one of the most outspoken
critics of Donald Trump and those who
stormed the capital in his name making
him a sworn enemy of Enrique taro’s
proud
boys I think they’re a uh domestic
terrorist
organization how dangerous are they I
mean when uh when put together in in
numbers I I think they’re incredibly
dangerous Enrique
tario tells us the proud boys are a a
drinking Club you know they just want to
make better men stronger
men that’s the dumbest I’ve ever
heard they are violent criminals and
they should be in prison unfortunately
many of them were released by Donald
Trump’s
pardons push them
back seeing what Michael went through
you can understand why he SE
this extraordinary footage was captured
by his police body camera as he and his
fellow officers tried desperately to
hold back the all you really couldn’t
slide a credit card between two
people I got one suddenly he is grabbed
in a headlock and dragged down the steps
into the crowdwhere he is beaten and repeatedly
tasered into
unconsciousness really the the last you
know independent recollection I have is
is um is yelling out that I had kids you
after that it just kind of becomes a a
blur we your
now what was the physical extent of your
injuries I suffered a traumatic brain
injury as well as a heart
attack you nearly died
correct once faded as heroes in the
poisonous polarized world of American
politics it’s Michael and his fellow
officers who are now viewed by many as
the bad guys Mike stay in there buddy
you had a lot of time to think about
this but you clearly you’re still angry
I’m outraged I’m angry and there’s also
a strong sense of betrayal you know
Donald Trump himself uh referred to us
as um violent vicious thugs it really is
it’s a National Disgrace I feel like I
went to hell and back to protect them
and the people in this
room but too many are now telling me
that hell doesn’t exist or that hell
actually wasn’t that
bad the indifference shown to my my
colleagues is
disgraceful Michael phone’s Defiance has
attracted plenty of enemies and
countless threats from extremists like
the proud boys yeah this is from Michael
bone too bad didn’t beat the out of
you more you’re a piece of you’re a
little you
scumbag end of message you know I should
be one of them I look like one of them I
talk like one of them
um but I’m not and I stand in opposition
to everything that the proud boys and
enri tario uh stand for because of this
because of this you know on January 6th
I was Law and Order Enrique tario was
criminal for all of his defensiveness
and denials while we were in Washington
DC Enrique tario showed his true colors
with phone cameras rolling he paid a
visit to a hotel where Michael fenon and
other j6 officers were speaking we need
to defeat Maga and we need to make sure
that every insurrectionist member of
Congress and member of our government is
ousted and never holds office ever
again what followed was an ugly
confrontation in the hotel lobby
card you were card that day you were cow
after go you’re a traitor to this
country you this country you tracked down some of the
police officers who were doing their
jobs on January 6th and they were
dragged and some of them very badly
beaten almost to death MH and you I mean
you you intimidated them you hold abuse
of
them why one of the police officers out
were there sat right next to my mother
and my
wife in court as they sentenced me to 22
years when I turned around he laughed
you guys were Brave at my sentencing and
you sat there you laugh when I got 22 years now you don’t even want to
look in my eyes you coward
you’re talking about a man who was
tasered suffered a traumatic brain
injury on January 6th while he was doing
his job I’m not talking about what he
suffered that day I’m talking about what
they did at my sentencing with my family
there everything’s off the table when
you when you excuse my language when you with my
family that’s where I draw the line
little failure run for me
run for me he
not oh you you can say that while you’re
over there yeah I think
what was most troubling was that my
family was
there and you know it takes things I
think to a different level
when somebody with your family
Enrique tario says he’s targeting you
because you with his
family
by uh laughing at his sentencing
laughing at his fiance and his mother I
didn’t even go to his
sentencing you weren’t there
nope there you go yeah Enrique Taro
needs to take off those stupid son
glasses get his sight
checked coming up is there going to be
like a battle between videographers and
photographers a Victory lap for the
leaders of the January 6 attack so you
came back for Retribution yes Revenge
retribution proud boy boss Enrique tario
and the other leading J Sixers pardoned
by President Trump thought this day
would never come uh right right just 2
months ago they were behind bars serving
lengthy sentences hands off thefence now they’re back at the US capital
building as free men is there going to
be like a battle between videographers
and photographers cuz I’m here for it we
want see a throw down no wonder they’re
savoring the moment and the attention
who
house whose house our house who house
our house what’s it like to be back with
all the boys I mean this is a lot better
uh than I expected uh that it’s just
it’s it’s it’s it’s unreal that you know
we’re here with everybody there was some
energy drain after January 6 in on the
conservative side and I think we just
brought it back on the fringes we came
across Richard Barnett one of the most
recognizable faces of the Insurrection
Richard what have you got there uh this
is a presidential
paron not too many people ever get to
see one of these I have one and it feels
good Richard was famously photographed
with his feet propped on then speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s desk where he left money
for an envelope he stole I left the
quarter on her desk to pay for it even
though the wasn’t worth it and I
still mean that thank you closely
watched by police the insurrectionists
made something of a lap of Honor why AR
the terrorist removed why is the
domestic terrorist removed am made the
screams of their
opponents they held a media conference
to announce their next
steps let me be clear I’m not talking
about violent retribution I’m talking
about something much more powerful
accountability and the rule of law y
exactly ludicrously in the upside down
world that is America
2025 those convicted of plotting The
Assault on the capital now feel
empowered to head to the courts so you
came back for Retribution yes Revenge
retribution and what does that look like
it means these people that did this to
us need to be investigated and I believe
if they are investigated there will be a
crime found and if there’s a crime found
I can next to guarantee you there will
be convictions so you’re suing the
Department of Justice we’re suing them
for multiple reasons and the main reason
is violation of civil
rights the courts didn’t release you the
courts in fact prosecuted and convicted
you and threw you in jail do you really
have confidence in the legal system yes
I believe the rule of law is back I
believe
um the weaponization of the doj for at
least 4 years
what wherever Enrique tario goes trouble
seems to follow on the day of his
triumphant return to the capital he
assaulted a protester and was
immediately but briefly arrested doing
good what are you arrested for
some lady put a phone right in my face
so I threw her phone I think that police
officer was dying to arrest a trumpsupporter Amic
dream thank you are a patri thank thank
you so much than you as controversial as
he is to the Maga faithful gathered in
Washington Enrique has become a hero
hie thank you and like all who were
convicted over the January 6 Riot many
of whom plad guilty to their crimes he
knows he has the full support of the
White House it’s it’s it’s extraordinary
I I think it’s it’s it’s a sign of where
where we’re at as a as a country and as
a society right um we have increasingly
accepted uh what 10 15 years ago would
have been Fringe extremist beliefs for
domestic terrorism expert John Lewis the
release of the J Sixers puts us
democracy on ever more Shaky Ground now
they’ve been pardoned in most cases
charges dropped release from jail what
message does that send it emboldens them
right it it tells them that the next
time that you want to attack a capital
that you will not face any consequences
for it it tells them that the next time
that you want to go offline and engage
in violence that we will have your back
that we will support you and I think
that tells them that they can do
whatever they want at this
point as for Michael Fone his life will
never be the same after being beaten and
tasered by the mob Michael’s career as a
DC police officer was ruined and now his
attackers are free to do as they please
evil persists when good men don’t do and we’ve got a lot of that right
now going on in this
country um you know it’s like Co it’s
infecting
everyone could a situation like January
6 happen
again to that scale I I don’t know uh
but violence is an
inevitable uh reality it’s not about
could it happen or or would it happen it
will happen
there’s no doubt Enrique tario is
enjoying his Newfound freedom and
fame to some he’s a patriot to others
he’s a dangerous man with a warped
ideology and you get the feeling that
he’s quite happy to be both we’ve spent
a few days with you now yes you seem to
be hated and adored in equal measure
what is villain yeah right you’re a
villain what is it like to be Enrique
tario feels good man you know
um God has given me a bull horn um and I
intend to use
it I intend to use it to promote my
values I intend to use it to promote my
people um and I intend to use it more
importantly to make
changes and I think I’m going to use
this bullhorn and you know maybe one day
you see Congressman en
rarel is that a threat or a promise it
might be
both hello I’m Amelia Adams thanks for
watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Pensive look?
Donald probably likes a more aggressive look.
Tau.Neutrino said:
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Pensive look?
Donald probably likes a more aggressive look.
Not strong enough appearance.
Dictators like the strong look.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Pensive look?
Donald probably likes a more aggressive look.
Not strong enough appearance.
Dictators like the strong look.
Bear chested on a horse.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Pensive look?
Donald probably likes a more aggressive look.
Not strong enough appearance.
Dictators like the strong look.
Bear chested on a horse.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Tau.Neutrino said:Not strong enough appearance.
Dictators like the strong look.
Bear chested on a horse.
Replace the pensive look with that and Donald will admire it.
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Reckon they should use his police mugshot.
Thoughts from Brian Eno about selfish billionaires
roughbarked said:
buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Reckon they should use his police mugshot.
Trump would agree with you. He hung his mugshot just outside the Oval Office; he’s proud of it. A symbol of how he has been persecuted by the “deep state” or the “Biden crime family” or some such shit.
Kinda surprised he didn’t use the pic from when his ear was shot, the one with his mighty fist pump as he dodges death.
esselte said:
roughbarked said:buffy said:
Donald Trump calls for removal of his portrait in Colorado’s state capitolI suppose they could take it down and put it out in a storeroom somewhere and just put a little notice in its place on the wall saying “Portrait of Donald Trump removed because he didn’t like it”.
Reckon they should use his police mugshot.
Trump would agree with you. He hung his mugshot just outside the Oval Office; he’s proud of it. A symbol of how he has been persecuted by the “deep state” or the “Biden crime family” or some such shit.
A living martyr yet.
The Atlantic magazine editor ‘accidentally’ included in Trump national security team’s group chat
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine says he was sent confidential plans for a military operation after being added to a group chat that appeared to include top Trump administration officials.
Jeffrey Goldberg says he was added to the chat, on the Signal app, by an account under the name of Michael Waltz, the Trump aide who leads the National Security Council.
What’s next?
The National Security Council says it’s investigating how “an inadvertent number was added to the chain”.
FMD^1,000,000
Spiny Norman said:
FMD^1,000,000
Sheer stupidity.
FMD, etc.
Spiny Norman said:
FMD, etc.
She is a proponent of prosperity theology. I presume that is using theology to make herself prosperous.
From TATE:
“Along with other televangelists, her ministry Without Walls International Church was the subject of an inconclusive 2007–2011 Senate Finance Committee investigation. The committee had investigated financial improprieties that could have affected the religious organization’s tax-exempt status. According to the report, Without Walls church spent $900,000 in tax-exempt ministry funds to pay the mortgage on the couple’s waterfront mansion, paid salaries to extended family members and also paid for their private jet. No additional action was taken on the issued report.”
Spiny Norman said:
FMD, etc.
That’s only 4 blessings.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Spiny Norman said:
FMD, etc.
She is a proponent of prosperity theology. I presume that is using theology to make herself prosperous.
From TATE:
“Along with other televangelists, her ministry Without Walls International Church was the subject of an inconclusive 2007–2011 Senate Finance Committee investigation. The committee had investigated financial improprieties that could have affected the religious organization’s tax-exempt status. According to the report, Without Walls church spent $900,000 in tax-exempt ministry funds to pay the mortgage on the couple’s waterfront mansion, paid salaries to extended family members and also paid for their private jet. No additional action was taken on the issued report.”
Televangelists spending tax free money on themselves again.
Hey, thats like the 1 percent.
Tau.Neutrino said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Spiny Norman said:
FMD, etc.
She is a proponent of prosperity theology. I presume that is using theology to make herself prosperous.
From TATE:
“Along with other televangelists, her ministry Without Walls International Church was the subject of an inconclusive 2007–2011 Senate Finance Committee investigation. The committee had investigated financial improprieties that could have affected the religious organization’s tax-exempt status. According to the report, Without Walls church spent $900,000 in tax-exempt ministry funds to pay the mortgage on the couple’s waterfront mansion, paid salaries to extended family members and also paid for their private jet. No additional action was taken on the issued report.”
Televangelists spending tax free money on themselves again.
Hey, thats like the 1 percent.
Deport those not paying tax.
Tau.Neutrino said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Spiny Norman said:
FMD, etc.
She is a proponent of prosperity theology. I presume that is using theology to make herself prosperous.
From TATE:
“Along with other televangelists, her ministry Without Walls International Church was the subject of an inconclusive 2007–2011 Senate Finance Committee investigation. The committee had investigated financial improprieties that could have affected the religious organization’s tax-exempt status. According to the report, Without Walls church spent $900,000 in tax-exempt ministry funds to pay the mortgage on the couple’s waterfront mansion, paid salaries to extended family members and also paid for their private jet. No additional action was taken on the issued report.”
Televangelists spending tax free money on themselves again.
Hey, thats like the 1 percent.
they too can have 4320 virgins waiting for them in heaven
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
captain_spalding said:
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
Vice President JD Vance advised against a military strike in Yemen, according to a secret Signal chat about the proposed operation with President Donald Trump ‘s national security team.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic revealed that Trump’s national security team added him to the secret chat, and published details of the conversation on Monday .
In the conversation, the user identified as ‘JD Vance’ wrote that ‘Andy baker for VP’ was messaging for the vice president.
‘Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan . But I think we are making a mistake,’ the Vance user stated to the group that included National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio , Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard .
‘There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message,’ the Vance user continued.
The military strike against the Houthis, the team argued, was necessary to keep shipping lanes open on the Red Sea, as the insurgents were targeting ships .
Vance’s account expressed concerns about the timing of the proposed operation, warning of oil prices spiking as a result.
‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,’ he wrote. ‘There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.’
https://www.newsbreak.com/daily-mail-560402/3869900916601-jd-vance-split-with-trump-in-secret-signal-war-chat-i-think-we-are-making-a-mistake
Then there is the question of using Signal at all for such a matter — and whether any laws may have been broken in the process.As Goldberg notes in his story, the use of Signal to discuss a military strike “may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of ‘national defense’ information.”
A separate but related question is whether Waltz’s apparent actions in setting some of the messages to self-delete violated laws about the preservation of official records.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
Vice President JD Vance advised against a military strike in Yemen, according to a secret Signal chat about the proposed operation with President Donald Trump ‘s national security team.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic revealed that Trump’s national security team added him to the secret chat, and published details of the conversation on Monday .
In the conversation, the user identified as ‘JD Vance’ wrote that ‘Andy baker for VP’ was messaging for the vice president.
‘Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan . But I think we are making a mistake,’ the Vance user stated to the group that included National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio , Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard .
‘There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message,’ the Vance user continued.
The military strike against the Houthis, the team argued, was necessary to keep shipping lanes open on the Red Sea, as the insurgents were targeting ships .
Vance’s account expressed concerns about the timing of the proposed operation, warning of oil prices spiking as a result.
‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,’ he wrote. ‘There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.’
https://www.newsbreak.com/daily-mail-560402/3869900916601-jd-vance-split-with-trump-in-secret-signal-war-chat-i-think-we-are-making-a-mistake
Then there is the question of using Signal at all for such a matter — and whether any laws may have been broken in the process.As Goldberg notes in his story, the use of Signal to discuss a military strike “may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of ‘national defense’ information.”
A separate but related question is whether Waltz’s apparent actions in setting some of the messages to self-delete violated laws about the preservation of official records.
what was that about private email servers again…
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
Vice President JD Vance advised against a military strike in Yemen, according to a secret Signal chat about the proposed operation with President Donald Trump ‘s national security team.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic revealed that Trump’s national security team added him to the secret chat, and published details of the conversation on Monday .
In the conversation, the user identified as ‘JD Vance’ wrote that ‘Andy baker for VP’ was messaging for the vice president.
‘Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan . But I think we are making a mistake,’ the Vance user stated to the group that included National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio , Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard .
‘There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message,’ the Vance user continued.
The military strike against the Houthis, the team argued, was necessary to keep shipping lanes open on the Red Sea, as the insurgents were targeting ships .
Vance’s account expressed concerns about the timing of the proposed operation, warning of oil prices spiking as a result.
‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,’ he wrote. ‘There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.’
https://www.newsbreak.com/daily-mail-560402/3869900916601-jd-vance-split-with-trump-in-secret-signal-war-chat-i-think-we-are-making-a-mistake
Then there is the question of using Signal at all for such a matter — and whether any laws may have been broken in the process.As Goldberg notes in his story, the use of Signal to discuss a military strike “may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of ‘national defense’ information.”
A separate but related question is whether Waltz’s apparent actions in setting some of the messages to self-delete violated laws about the preservation of official records.
what was that about private email servers again…
Hillary, wasn’t it?
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:what was that about private email servers again…
Hillary, wasn’t it?
hilarious
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
pretty sure Russians throw them out high windows
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
Apparently, he has released some or all of the content as it has been appearing in news stories. That could cause him some trouble. Though Trump had never heard of the Atlatic, then he said it was some inconsequential rag or words to that effect. Trump makes it all up as he goes or as it hits the headlines.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
pretty sure Russians throw them out high windows
Double glazed windows at that?
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
pretty sure Russians throw them out high windows
Defenestration is such a great word.
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
Nah. Trump will blither about it for a little while, then he, or his minions, will do something else either ridiculously inconsequential (but highly bragged about), or something monumentally stupid.
good news when our good friend ally USSA annexes Australia they can get rid of all these pesky laws that misogynists could trip over
captain_spalding said:
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
Nah. Trump will blither about it for a little while, then he, or his minions, will do something else either ridiculously inconsequential (but highly bragged about), or something monumentally stupid.
This is just a classic “whoospie-daisy” by an inexperienced governance team – in their normal day job using these platforms of making these sorts of mistakes isn’t newsworthy, but now it is.. you’ll see more of this sort of thing and Trump will most likely not talk about it very much (other than to say how the person copied in broke some law or was very very bad, etc..) and will quickly point in another direction and say “look over there”
captain_spalding said:
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
I think I’d have left off the word “accidentally”. If he knows that it’s been sent by accident, he may not have legal immunity for publishing Top Secret stuff.
Being privy to this information is one thing, publishing it is another even if you don’t reveal the full details.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
It’s like there’s some meeting every morning, where The Screw-Up of the Day is decided upon.
You can read the whole article here:
I think I’d have left off the word “accidentally”. If he knows that it’s been sent by accident, he may not have legal immunity for publishing Top Secret stuff.
Well, it stopped being ‘top secret’ at the moment that the first bomb exploded.
Divine Angel said:
Being privy to this information is one thing, publishing it is another even if you don’t reveal the full details.
Now… How Did That All Work Out For Julian Assange
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Divine Angel said:
So will this editor of The Atlantic wind up deceased in a mysterious manner?
Nah. Trump will blither about it for a little while, then he, or his minions, will do something else either ridiculously inconsequential (but highly bragged about), or something monumentally stupid.
This is just a classic “whoospie-daisy” by an inexperienced governance team – in their normal day job using these platforms of making these sorts of mistakes isn’t newsworthy, but now it is.. you’ll see more of this sort of thing and Trump will most likely not talk about it very much (other than to say how the person copied in broke some law or was very very bad, etc..) and will quickly point in another direction and say “look over there”
It appears to be an unprecedented breach.
Divine Angel said:
Fair.
Divine Angel said:
I mean, they don’t actually hang people for this..
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Nah. Trump will blither about it for a little while, then he, or his minions, will do something else either ridiculously inconsequential (but highly bragged about), or something monumentally stupid.
This is just a classic “whoospie-daisy” by an inexperienced governance team – in their normal day job using these platforms of making these sorts of mistakes isn’t newsworthy, but now it is.. you’ll see more of this sort of thing and Trump will most likely not talk about it very much (other than to say how the person copied in broke some law or was very very bad, etc..) and will quickly point in another direction and say “look over there”
It appears to be an unprecedented breach.
so more shit they’ll get away with because of 1 all the apologists painting it as a minor accident nothing to see here hey shiny thing and 2 state capture so anything done in official capacity is legal
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Nah. Trump will blither about it for a little while, then he, or his minions, will do something else either ridiculously inconsequential (but highly bragged about), or something monumentally stupid.
This is just a classic “whoospie-daisy” by an inexperienced governance team – in their normal day job using these platforms of making these sorts of mistakes isn’t newsworthy, but now it is.. you’ll see more of this sort of thing and Trump will most likely not talk about it very much (other than to say how the person copied in broke some law or was very very bad, etc..) and will quickly point in another direction and say “look over there”
It appears to be an unprecedented breach.
who would have thunk that security protocols are there for a reason
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
I mean, they don’t actually hang people for this..
Exactly, in the US Federal executions are strictly by lethal injection.
Who knew there would be a downside to putting a television personality in charge of the defence department.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
I mean, they don’t actually hang people for this..
Exactly, in the US Federal executions are strictly by lethal injection.
so they hang a drip
dv said:
Who knew there would be a downside to putting a television personality in charge of the defence department.
or the entire country
dv said:
Who knew there would be a downside to putting a television personality in charge of the defence department.
puts up had and steps forward
adjusts toger and clears throat
I didn’t.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
Who knew there would be a downside to putting a television personality in charge of the defence department.
puts up had and steps forward
adjusts toger and clears throatI didn’t.
see what happened to the Ukraine after they put a comedian in charge this is serious
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Who knew there would be a downside to putting a television personality in charge of the defence department.
or the entire country
Yeah.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:
Divine Angel said:
I mean, they don’t actually hang people for this..
Exactly, in the US Federal executions are strictly by lethal injection.
correct
diddly-squat said:
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I mean, they don’t actually hang people for this..
Exactly, in the US Federal executions are strictly by lethal injection.
correct
Tamb said:
diddly-squat said:
dv said:Exactly, in the US Federal executions are strictly by lethal injection.
correct
Would that be considered “cruel and unusual” to a needle phobic person?
You’d think a needle would be the least of their worries.
Well said Pete
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14nH88oxop/
Interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief at The Atlantic about the Signal messaging app scandal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJQwmGEcwmU
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-room
Looks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
alleged
U.N. tells all its staff members in NY in an email to carry UN ID cards & copies of their passports showing their visas at all times in case ICE agents stop them. First time UN has ever done this, spox says. U.N. directive to staff came after ICE agents stopped several U.N. staff, inciting anxiety that they were being targeted. Last week, a marked van with the ICE logo parked on First Avenue near UN HQ for an extended period of time, according to two senior UN officials.
Day 1000000 of “merit-based hiring” being code for “hiring utterly incompetent yesmen”.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
U.N. tells all its staff members in NY in an email to carry UN ID cards & copies of their passports showing their visas at all times in case ICE agents stop them. First time UN has ever done this, spox says. U.N. directive to staff came after ICE agents stopped several U.N. staff, inciting anxiety that they were being targeted. Last week, a marked van with the ICE logo parked on First Avenue near UN HQ for an extended period of time, according to two senior UN officials.
Getting more like Nazi Germany every day.
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
U.N. tells all its staff members in NY in an email to carry UN ID cards & copies of their passports showing their visas at all times in case ICE agents stop them. First time UN has ever done this, spox says. U.N. directive to staff came after ICE agents stopped several U.N. staff, inciting anxiety that they were being targeted. Last week, a marked van with the ICE logo parked on First Avenue near UN HQ for an extended period of time, according to two senior UN officials.
Getting more like Nazi Germany every day.
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
U.N. tells all its staff members in NY in an email to carry UN ID cards & copies of their passports showing their visas at all times in case ICE agents stop them. First time UN has ever done this, spox says. U.N. directive to staff came after ICE agents stopped several U.N. staff, inciting anxiety that they were being targeted. Last week, a marked van with the ICE logo parked on First Avenue near UN HQ for an extended period of time, according to two senior UN officials.
Getting more like Nazi Germany every day.
Yeah I was trying to think what they would call themselves the state secret police in the USA
Section 47 state secret police
roughbarked said:
Tamb said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
U.N. tells all its staff members in NY in an email to carry UN ID cards & copies of their passports showing their visas at all times in case ICE agents stop them. First time UN has ever done this, spox says. U.N. directive to staff came after ICE agents stopped several U.N. staff, inciting anxiety that they were being targeted. Last week, a marked van with the ICE logo parked on First Avenue near UN HQ for an extended period of time, according to two senior UN officials.
Getting more like Nazi Germany every day.
look it was just alleged, we haven’t seen any other evidence to corroborate this claim, but then again it wouldn’t be all that surprising since we know the kind of country that targets UN facilities
Anyone here texting war plans?
Tau.Neutrino said:
Anyone here texting war plans?
Leeeeeeroy Jenkiiiiiiiiins
Tau.Neutrino said:
Anyone here texting war plans?
Anyone received any war plans?
dv said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Anyone here texting war plans?Leeeeeeroy Jenkiiiiiiiiins
I wonder if they did measuring ?
dv said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Anyone here texting war plans?Leeeeeeroy Jenkiiiiiiiiins
Guess they will change their plans a bit.
buffy said:
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-roomLooks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
nah, the reporter was probably in another group that also included walz and walz inadvertently added him to this group chat. either fumble fingers or forgot who he was.
8 hours after the publication, DJT is unaware of the issue.
“Who is running the govt?” is surely rhetorical.
buffy said:
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-roomLooks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
You’re ruling out incompetence?
dv said:
8 hours after the publication, DJT is unaware of the issue.
Wrestling does cause brain damage if you get too many pile drivers
ChrispenEvan said:
buffy said:
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-roomLooks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
nah, the reporter was probably in another group that also included walz and walz inadvertently added him to this group chat. either fumble fingers or forgot who he was.
Yes…I forgot © incompetence.
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 24, 2025 (Monday)
Today the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, dropped the story that senior members of the Trump administration planned the March 15 U.S. attack on the Houthis in Yemen over Signal, a widely available encrypted app that is most decidedly not part of the United States national security system. The decision to steer around government systems was possibly an attempt to hide conversations, since the app was set to erase some messages after a week and others after four weeks. By law, government communications must be archived.
According to Goldberg, the use of Signal may also have violated the Espionage Act, which establishes how officials must handle information about the national defense. The app is not approved for national security use, and officials are supposed either to discuss military activity in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, or to use approved government equipment.
The use of Signal to plan a military attack on Yemen was itself an astonishingly dangerous breach, but what comes next is simply mind-boggling: the reason Goldberg could report on the conversation is that the person setting it up included Goldberg—a reporter without security clearance—in it.
Goldberg reports that on March 11 he received a connection request from someone named Michael Waltz, although he did not believe the actual Michael Waltz, who is Trump’s national security advisor, would be writing to him. He thought it was likely someone trying to entrap him, although he thought perhaps it could be the real Waltz with some information. Two days later, he was included in the “Houthi PC small group,” along with a message that the chat would be for “a principles group for coordination on Houthis.”
As Goldberg reports, a “principals committee generally refers to a group of the senior-most national-security officials, including the secretaries of defense, state, and the treasury, as well as the director of the CIA. It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on national-security matters, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.”
The other names on the app were those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Brian McCormack from the National Security Council, Central Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator Steve Witkoff, White House chief of staff Suzy Wiles, perhaps White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Trump’s nominee for head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent.
Goldberg assumed the chat was fake, some sort of disinformation campaign, although he was concerned when Ratcliffe provided the full name of a CIA operative in this unsecure channel. But on March 14, as Vance, for example, took a strong stand against Europe—“I just hate bailing Europe out again”—and as Hegseth emphasized that their messaging must be that “Biden failed,” Goldberg started to think the chat might be real. Those in the chat talked of finding a way to make Europe pay the costs for the U.S. attack, and of “minimiz risk to Saudi oil facilities.”
And then, on March 15, the messages told of the forthcoming attack. “I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts,” Goldberg writes. “The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
On the chat, reactions to the military strikes were emojis of a fist, an American flag, fire, praying hands, a flexed bicep, and “Good Job Pete and your team!!,” “Kudos to all…. Really great. God Bless,” and “Great work and effects!”
In the messages, with a reporter on the line, Hegseth promised his colleagues he would “do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC,” or operations security. In a message to the team outlining the forthcoming attack, Hegseth wrote: “We are currently clean on OPSEC.”
Two hours after Goldberg wrote to the officials on the chat and alerted them to his presence on it by asking questions about it, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes responded: “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.”
When asked about the breach, Trump responded: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it. You’re saying that they had what?” There is nothing that the administration could say to make the situation better, but this made it worse. As national security specialist Tom Nichols noted: “If the President is telling the truth and no one’s briefed him about this yet, that’s another story in itself. In any other administration, would have been in the Oval within nanoseconds of learning about something like this.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is evidently going to try to bully his way out of this disaster. When asked about it, he began to yell at a reporter that Goldberg is a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” Hegseth looked directly at the camera and said: “Nobody was texting war plans.” But Goldberg has receipts. The chat had “the specific time of a future attack. Specific targets, including human targets…weapons systems…precise detail…a long section on sequencing…. He can say that it wasn’t a war plan, but it was a minute-by-minute accounting of what was about to happen.”
Zachary B. Wolf of CNN noted that “Trump intentionally hired amateurs for top jobs. This is their most dramatic blunder.” Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) told Brian Tyler Cohen: “My first reaction… was ‘what absolute clowns.’ Total amateur hour, reckless, dangerous…. his is what happens when you have basically Fox News personalities cosplaying as government officials.” Foreign policy scholar Timothy Snyder posted: “These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house.”
Many observers have noted that all of these national security officials knew that using Signal in this way was against the law, and their comfort with jumping onto the commercial app to plan a military strike suggests they are using Signal more generally. “How many Signal chats with sensitive information about military operations are ongoing within the Pentagon right now?” Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) posted. “Where else are war plans being shared with such abject disregard for our national security? We need answers. Right now.”
National security journalists and officials are aghast. Former commanding general of United States Army Europe and the Seventh Army Mark Hertling called the story “staggering.” Former CIA officer Matt Castelli posted: “This is more than ‘loose lips sink ships’, this is a criminally negligent breach of classified information and war planning involving VP, SecDef, D CIA, National Security Advisor—all putting troops at risk. America is not safe.” Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who spent seven years as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, posted: “From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f**kup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.”
Rhode Island senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said: “If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen. The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration immediately.” Armed Services Committee member Don Bacon (R-NE), a former Air Force brigadier general, told Axios that “sending this info over non-secure networks” was “unconscionable.” “Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone.”
That the most senior members of Trump’s administration were sharing national security secrets on unsecure channels is especially galling since the people on the call have used alleged breaches of national security to hammer Democrats. Sarah Longwell and J.V. Last of The Bulwark compiled a series of video clips of Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe, and especially Pete Hegseth talking about the seriousness of handling secret information and the need for accountability for those who mishandle it. When they were accusing then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton of such a breach, they called for firings, accountability, and perhaps criminal charges. Indeed, Trump rose to power in 2016 with the charge that Clinton should be sent to prison for using a private email server. “Lock her up!” became the chant at his rallies.
Today, for her part, Clinton posted a link to the story along with an eyes emoji and wrote: “You have got to be kidding me.”
dv said:
buffy said:
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-roomLooks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
You’re ruling out incompetence?
Never rule out incompetence.
The history of the world would be vastly different, were it not for incompetence.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:buffy said:
ABC analysis of the journalist in the war-roomLooks to my inexpert eye to be either (a) a hacking – someone outside the US seeking to make them look bad, or (b) an inside leak/deliberate move to make sure the world knows what is going on. Either way, no-one else is likely to consider communications safe with the US.
You’re ruling out incompetence?
Never rule out incompetence.
The history of the world would be vastly different, were it not for incompetence.
Conspiracy theorists have far too much belief in the competence of governments to carry out and then hide said conspiracy
You’d have to think that the maga mob really aren’t too bright.
FWIW …
Spiny Norman said:
You’d have to think that the maga mob really aren’t too bright.
luckily the journo had a better understanding of opsec.
Spiny Norman said:
You’d have to think that the maga mob really aren’t too bright.
It would apear that there are no sheep in many of those top paddocks.
i hope this isn’t true.
Taken together, these proposals would, on average, lead to a tax cut for the richest 5 percent of Americans and a tax increase for all other income groups.
https://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/
_
If this is true then we have, as they say, reverse robin hood.
Not unexpected
Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
SCIENCE said:
Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
That’s what the Europeans heard.
SCIENCE said:
Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
SCIENCE said:
Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
:(
Mr Trump also criticised the artist, who has painted portraits of several US presidents, including Barack Obama and George W Bush.
“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” he said on Truth Social. “She must have lost her talent as she got older.”Speaking to the Denver Post in 2019, the artist said it was crucial her subjects looked apolitical.
“In today’s environment it’s all very up-front, but in another five, 10, 15 years he will be another president on the wall,” Ms Boardman said.
“And he needs to look neutral.”
Following Mr Trump’s complaint, Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s office issued a statement to multiple outlets.
The statement said the governor was “surprised” the US president was an “aficionado” of the Colorado State Capitol and its artwork.
“We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building,” the statement said.
“ are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.” Linkroughbarked said:
Mr Trump also criticised the artist, who has painted portraits of several US presidents, including Barack Obama and George W Bush. “The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” he said on Truth Social. “She must have lost her talent as she got older.”Speaking to the Denver Post in 2019, the artist said it was crucial her subjects looked apolitical.
“In today’s environment it’s all very up-front, but in another five, 10, 15 years he will be another president on the wall,” Ms Boardman said.
“And he needs to look neutral.”
Following Mr Trump’s complaint, Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s office issued a statement to multiple outlets.
The statement said the governor was “surprised” the US president was an “aficionado” of the Colorado State Capitol and its artwork.
“We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building,” the statement said.
“ are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.” Link
A replacement painting has already been found:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
:(
I mean that part was not exactly a shock
dv said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Anonymous
@YourAnonCentral
·
9h
The real story isn’t that the Trumpians let a journalist into a group chat, it is that they are plotting against Europe.
:(
I mean that part was not exactly a shock
Apparently, Trump is talking about becoming an associate member of the Commonwealth.
I dont know if he means him personally or the US.
who are the dirty 15?
Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
diddly-squat said:
Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
also.. Tulsi Gabbard is claiming that no classified information was shared in the conversation on the Signal messaging app about the military action taken against the Houthi rebels.
diddly-squat said:
Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Pants on fire.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
I doubt Jeff Goldbloom should have been invited to that group text chat either
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Leaks, uh, find a way
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
dv said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Leaks, uh, find a way
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
The last sentence says it all. Other than that it should read ; They are stupid to go against established protocols and destabilise the whole country.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
Encryption. Works for everyone else?
dv said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:Mike Waltz is claiming he doesn’t know, nor has he ever spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Leaks, uh, find a way
Those cunning Welsh people.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
For sure
Michael V said:
dv said:
Cymek said:Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Leaks, uh, find a way
Those cunning Welsh people.
That was Assange’s problem. Should have called it Wikileeks.
Russia-backed hacking groups have developed techniques to compromise encrypted messaging services, including Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram, placing journalists, politicians and activists of interest to the Russian intelligence service at potential risk.
Google Threat Intelligence Group disclosed today that Russia-backed hackers had stepped up attacks on Signal Messenger accounts to access sensitive government and military communications relating to the war in Ukraine.
Analysts predict it is only a matter of time before Russia starts deploying hacking techniques against non-military Signal users and users of other encrypted messaging services, including WhatsApp and Telegram.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366619473/Warning-over-privacy-of-encrypted-messages-as-Russia-targets-Signal-Messenger
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Michael V said:
dv said:
Cymek said:Is he getting confused with Jeff Goldbloom
Leaks, uh, find a way
Those cunning Welsh people.
:)
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Like Zelansky Zelensky attempts to do but the cameras follow him around.
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
dv said:
Michael V said:
dv said:Leaks, uh, find a way
Those cunning Welsh people.
:)
Cap’n sir, I’ve found leeks in the hold.
I think these fears of Russia hacking the comms of high ranking US officials are a bit twee. I have already assumed that this admin is fully briefing the Kremlin.
dv said:
I think these fears of Russia hacking the comms of high ranking US officials are a bit twee. I have already assumed that this admin is fully briefing the Kremlin.
probably by phone or meeting in person…
Arts said:
dv said:
I think these fears of Russia hacking the comms of high ranking US officials are a bit twee. I have already assumed that this admin is fully briefing the Kremlin.
probably by phone or meeting in person…
As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-signal-text-group-chat-russia-putin/
President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal, a CBS News analysis of open-source flight information and Russian media reporting has revealed.
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/25/ice-irs-undocumented-immigrants-taxes
The fiscal hit from the IRS sharing immigration information
https://youtube.com/shorts/N38-OKFxQ14?si=-X21yY0JvJcygW9k
Cymek said:
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
Tamb said:
Cymek said:
Arts said:and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
Burn before reading.
never write anything down… espionage 101, people… c’mon
Cymek said:
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
one time pads are the only way to be sure of security.
Arts said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
Burn before reading.never write anything down… espionage 101, people… c’mon
ChrispenEvan said:
Cymek said:
Arts said:and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.one time pads are the only way to be sure of security.
Mr Robot tv series had them use cheap old laptops for hacking then microwaving the circuit boards and then smashing them
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I assume they wanted to not have it on record for whatever reason
Some bright spark said lets use a commercial encryption messaging service.
They did but being tech challenged messed it up
So not only are they going against established protocols but are stupid as well
also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
I mean secure in-person facilities are available for these sorts of conversations
Arts said:
dv said:
I think these fears of Russia hacking the comms of high ranking US officials are a bit twee. I have already assumed that this admin is fully briefing the Kremlin.
probably by phone or meeting in person…
DJT has added VP to the chat
diddly-squat said:
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
I mean secure in-person facilities are available for these sorts of conversations
Cymek said:
Arts said:
diddly-squat said:also, I think there is a legitimate need for a high side instant messaging service – this is the way people communicate now and systems need to adapt to suit the times or people will look to find alternatives.
and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
Eat the messages.
Arts said:
Tamb said:
Cymek said:Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.
Burn before reading.never write anything down… espionage 101, people… c’mon
Also, patient records. Very occasionally I needed to pass on some information about a patient to a colleague that could not be written on their record. (written records, telephones, no computers time). You did it personally by talking to them, or on the phone.
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
Arts said:and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.Eat the messages.
I imagine AI could create a language with encryption keys that expire.
It could make sure repeated words don’t have the same word in the created language so you can’t even find a pattern
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.Eat the messages.
I imagine AI could create a language with encryption keys that expire.
It could make sure repeated words don’t have the same word in the created language so you can’t even find a pattern
The zodiac killer was pretty good at writing encrypted codes… maybe they can sign them up
Arts said:
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:Eat the messages.
I imagine AI could create a language with encryption keys that expire.
It could make sure repeated words don’t have the same word in the created language so you can’t even find a pattern
The zodiac killer was pretty good at writing encrypted codes… maybe they can sign them up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz%E2%80%93Zodiac_Killer_meme
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
Arts said:and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
I mean secure in-person facilities are available for these sorts of conversations
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
kii said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:I mean secure in-person facilities are available for these sorts of conversations
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
I just watched the senate intelligence committee hearing and Ratcliffe got fucking eviscerated Jon Ossoff… Gabbard just pled the 5th and refused to even acknowledge that she was even involved in the conversation…
diddly-squat said:
I just watched the senate intelligence committee hearing and Ratcliffe got fucking eviscerated Jon Ossoff… Gabbard just pled the 5th and refused to even acknowledge that she was even involved in the conversation…
The attempts by the conservative press to normalwash this are pathetic but also kind of funny
fsm said:
kii said:
Cymek said:
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Another excellent device.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:I just watched the senate intelligence committee hearing and Ratcliffe got fucking eviscerated Jon Ossoff… Gabbard just pled the 5th and refused to even acknowledge that she was even involved in the conversation…
The attempts by the conservative press to normalwash this are pathetic but also kind of funny
I’ve not see conservative media on this yet.. most I’;ve seen is the direct response by those involved..
Can’t wait until JDV is put in front of a camera.
Reporter: would it be a problem if the Atlantic released all the text messages if they’re not classified?
Trump: … well you’d have to ask the military …
https://www.threads.net/@vincedmonroy/post/DHon5NqpdEu?xmt=AQGzFn9CPkhC8rOJhB9RCPh2FQBO3J65wwxVuf8Nnkc0FQ
dv said:
Reporter: would it be a problem if the Atlantic released all the text messages if they’re not classified?
Trump: … well you’d have to ask the military …https://www.threads.net/@vincedmonroy/post/DHon5NqpdEu?xmt=AQGzFn9CPkhC8rOJhB9RCPh2FQBO3J65wwxVuf8Nnkc0FQ
meanwhile John Bolton is loving every minute of this
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
Arts said:and yet when my colleagues and I want to communicate ‘off the record’ we are smart enough to just phone or meet and talk in person about it…
Yes I mean you could meet in public somewhere with lots of noise.
Communicate with paper messages you pass to each other and tear up when finished.Eat the messages.
hence the passing reference
training videos ¿ref
“You Were Not Supposed to Message It Through” – Marsh Family parody of the Bee Gees on #Signalgate
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
March 25, 2025 (Tuesday)
On March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins was visiting with a friend who lived near Washington Square in New York City when they heard fire engines and screams. They rushed out to the street to see what the trouble was. A fire had broken out in a garment factory on the upper floors of a building on Washington Square, and the blaze ripped through the lint in the air. The only way out was down the elevator, which had been abandoned at the base of its shaft, or through an exit to the roof. But the factory owner had locked the roof exit that day because, he later testified, he was worried some of his workers might steal some of the blouses they were making.
“The people had just begun to jump when we got there,” Perkins later recalled. “They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump, the were trying to get that out and they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The…weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle.”
By the time the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was out, 147 young people were dead, either from their fall from the factory windows or from smoke inhalation.
Perkins had few illusions about industrial America: she had worked in a settlement house in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood in Chicago and was the head of the New York office of the National Consumers League, urging consumers to use their buying power to demand better conditions and wages for workers. But even she was shocked by the scene she witnessed on March 25.
By the next day, New Yorkers were gathering to talk about what had happened on their watch. “I can’t begin to tell you how disturbed the people were everywhere,” Perkins said. “It was as though we had all done something wrong. It shouldn’t have been. We were sorry…. We didn’t want it that way. We hadn’t intended to have 147 girls and boys killed in a factory. It was a terrible thing for the people of the City of New York and the State of New York to face.”
The Democratic majority leader in the New York legislature, Al Smith—who would a few years later go on to four terms as New York governor and become the Democratic presidential nominee in 1928—went to visit the families of the dead to express his sympathy and his grief. “It was a human, decent, natural thing to do,” Perkins said, “and it was a sight he never forgot. It burned it into his mind. He also got to the morgue, I remember, at just the time when the survivors were being allowed to sort out the dead and see who was theirs and who could be recognized. He went along with a number of others to the morgue to support and help, you know, the old father or the sorrowing sister, do her terrible picking out.”
“This was the kind of shock that we all had,” Perkins remembered.
The next Sunday, concerned New Yorkers met at the Metropolitan Opera House with the conviction that “something must be done. We’ve got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action….” One man contributed $25,000 to fund citizens’ action to “make sure that this kind of thing can never happen again.”
The gathering appointed a committee, which asked the legislature to create a bipartisan commission to figure out how to improve fire safety in factories. For four years, Frances Perkins was their chief investigator.
She later explained that although their mission was to stop factory fires, “we went on and kept expanding the function of the commission ‘till it came to be the report on sanitary conditions and to provide for their removal and to report all kinds of unsafe conditions and then to report all kinds of human conditions that were unfavorable to the employees, including long hours, including low wages, including the labor of children, including the overwork of women, including homework put out by the factories to be taken home by the women. It included almost everything you could think of that had been in agitation for years. We were authorized to investigate and report and recommend action on all these subjects.”
And they did. Al Smith was the speaker of the house when they published their report, and soon would become governor. Much of what the commission recommended became law.
Perkins later mused that perhaps the new legislation to protect workers had in some way paid the debt society owed to the young people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. “The extent to which this legislation in New York marked a change in American political attitudes and policies toward social responsibility can scarcely be overrated,” she said. “It was, I am convinced, a turning point.”
But she was not done. In 1919, over the fervent objections of men, Governor Smith appointed Perkins to the New York State Industrial Commission to help weed out the corruption that was weakening the new laws. She continued to be one of his closest advisers on labor issues. In 1929, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt replaced Smith as New York governor, he appointed Perkins to oversee the state’s labor department as the Depression worsened. When President Herbert Hoover claimed that unemployment was ending, Perkins made national news when she repeatedly called him out with figures proving the opposite and said his “misleading statements” were “cruel and irresponsible.” She began to work with leaders from other states to figure out how to protect workers and promote employment by working together.
In 1933, after the people had rejected Hoover’s plan to let the Depression burn itself out, President-elect Roosevelt asked Perkins to serve as Secretary of Labor in his administration. She accepted only on the condition that he back her goals: unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. She later recalled: “I remember he looked so startled, and he said, ‘Well, do you think it can be done?’”
She promised to find out.
Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration’s massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934.
In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, providing ordinary Americans with unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services.
In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours. It banned child labor.
Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation’s basic social safety net.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
March 25, 2025 (Tuesday)On March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins was visiting with a friend who lived near Washington Square in New York City when they heard fire engines and screams. They rushed out to the street to see what the trouble was. A fire had broken out in a garment factory on the upper floors of a building on Washington Square, and the blaze ripped through the lint in the air. The only way out was down the elevator, which had been abandoned at the base of its shaft, or through an exit to the roof. But the factory owner had locked the roof exit that day because, he later testified, he was worried some of his workers might steal some of the blouses they were making.
“The people had just begun to jump when we got there,” Perkins later recalled. “They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump, the were trying to get that out and they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The…weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle.”
By the time the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was out, 147 young people were dead, either from their fall from the factory windows or from smoke inhalation.
Perkins had few illusions about industrial America: she had worked in a settlement house in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood in Chicago and was the head of the New York office of the National Consumers League, urging consumers to use their buying power to demand better conditions and wages for workers. But even she was shocked by the scene she witnessed on March 25.
By the next day, New Yorkers were gathering to talk about what had happened on their watch. “I can’t begin to tell you how disturbed the people were everywhere,” Perkins said. “It was as though we had all done something wrong. It shouldn’t have been. We were sorry…. We didn’t want it that way. We hadn’t intended to have 147 girls and boys killed in a factory. It was a terrible thing for the people of the City of New York and the State of New York to face.”
The Democratic majority leader in the New York legislature, Al Smith—who would a few years later go on to four terms as New York governor and become the Democratic presidential nominee in 1928—went to visit the families of the dead to express his sympathy and his grief. “It was a human, decent, natural thing to do,” Perkins said, “and it was a sight he never forgot. It burned it into his mind. He also got to the morgue, I remember, at just the time when the survivors were being allowed to sort out the dead and see who was theirs and who could be recognized. He went along with a number of others to the morgue to support and help, you know, the old father or the sorrowing sister, do her terrible picking out.”
“This was the kind of shock that we all had,” Perkins remembered.
The next Sunday, concerned New Yorkers met at the Metropolitan Opera House with the conviction that “something must be done. We’ve got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action….” One man contributed $25,000 to fund citizens’ action to “make sure that this kind of thing can never happen again.”
The gathering appointed a committee, which asked the legislature to create a bipartisan commission to figure out how to improve fire safety in factories. For four years, Frances Perkins was their chief investigator.
She later explained that although their mission was to stop factory fires, “we went on and kept expanding the function of the commission ‘till it came to be the report on sanitary conditions and to provide for their removal and to report all kinds of unsafe conditions and then to report all kinds of human conditions that were unfavorable to the employees, including long hours, including low wages, including the labor of children, including the overwork of women, including homework put out by the factories to be taken home by the women. It included almost everything you could think of that had been in agitation for years. We were authorized to investigate and report and recommend action on all these subjects.”And they did. Al Smith was the speaker of the house when they published their report, and soon would become governor. Much of what the commission recommended became law.
Perkins later mused that perhaps the new legislation to protect workers had in some way paid the debt society owed to the young people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. “The extent to which this legislation in New York marked a change in American political attitudes and policies toward social responsibility can scarcely be overrated,” she said. “It was, I am convinced, a turning point.”
But she was not done. In 1919, over the fervent objections of men, Governor Smith appointed Perkins to the New York State Industrial Commission to help weed out the corruption that was weakening the new laws. She continued to be one of his closest advisers on labor issues. In 1929, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt replaced Smith as New York governor, he appointed Perkins to oversee the state’s labor department as the Depression worsened. When President Herbert Hoover claimed that unemployment was ending, Perkins made national news when she repeatedly called him out with figures proving the opposite and said his “misleading statements” were “cruel and irresponsible.” She began to work with leaders from other states to figure out how to protect workers and promote employment by working together.
In 1933, after the people had rejected Hoover’s plan to let the Depression burn itself out, President-elect Roosevelt asked Perkins to serve as Secretary of Labor in his administration. She accepted only on the condition that he back her goals: unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. She later recalled: “I remember he looked so startled, and he said, ‘Well, do you think it can be done?’”
She promised to find out.
Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration’s massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934.
In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, providing ordinary Americans with unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services.
In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours. It banned child labor.
Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation’s basic social safety net.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
They haven’t progressed very far have they.
Americans get surprised I believe when they move somewhere else and realise all these human rights others enjoy especially employment related.
Cymek said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
March 25, 2025 (Tuesday)On March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins was visiting with a friend who lived near Washington Square in New York City when they heard fire engines and screams. They rushed out to the street to see what the trouble was. A fire had broken out in a garment factory on the upper floors of a building on Washington Square, and the blaze ripped through the lint in the air. The only way out was down the elevator, which had been abandoned at the base of its shaft, or through an exit to the roof. But the factory owner had locked the roof exit that day because, he later testified, he was worried some of his workers might steal some of the blouses they were making.
“The people had just begun to jump when we got there,” Perkins later recalled. “They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump, the were trying to get that out and they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The…weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle.”
By the time the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was out, 147 young people were dead, either from their fall from the factory windows or from smoke inhalation.
Perkins had few illusions about industrial America: she had worked in a settlement house in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood in Chicago and was the head of the New York office of the National Consumers League, urging consumers to use their buying power to demand better conditions and wages for workers. But even she was shocked by the scene she witnessed on March 25.
By the next day, New Yorkers were gathering to talk about what had happened on their watch. “I can’t begin to tell you how disturbed the people were everywhere,” Perkins said. “It was as though we had all done something wrong. It shouldn’t have been. We were sorry…. We didn’t want it that way. We hadn’t intended to have 147 girls and boys killed in a factory. It was a terrible thing for the people of the City of New York and the State of New York to face.”
The Democratic majority leader in the New York legislature, Al Smith—who would a few years later go on to four terms as New York governor and become the Democratic presidential nominee in 1928—went to visit the families of the dead to express his sympathy and his grief. “It was a human, decent, natural thing to do,” Perkins said, “and it was a sight he never forgot. It burned it into his mind. He also got to the morgue, I remember, at just the time when the survivors were being allowed to sort out the dead and see who was theirs and who could be recognized. He went along with a number of others to the morgue to support and help, you know, the old father or the sorrowing sister, do her terrible picking out.”
“This was the kind of shock that we all had,” Perkins remembered.
The next Sunday, concerned New Yorkers met at the Metropolitan Opera House with the conviction that “something must be done. We’ve got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action….” One man contributed $25,000 to fund citizens’ action to “make sure that this kind of thing can never happen again.”
The gathering appointed a committee, which asked the legislature to create a bipartisan commission to figure out how to improve fire safety in factories. For four years, Frances Perkins was their chief investigator.
She later explained that although their mission was to stop factory fires, “we went on and kept expanding the function of the commission ‘till it came to be the report on sanitary conditions and to provide for their removal and to report all kinds of unsafe conditions and then to report all kinds of human conditions that were unfavorable to the employees, including long hours, including low wages, including the labor of children, including the overwork of women, including homework put out by the factories to be taken home by the women. It included almost everything you could think of that had been in agitation for years. We were authorized to investigate and report and recommend action on all these subjects.”And they did. Al Smith was the speaker of the house when they published their report, and soon would become governor. Much of what the commission recommended became law.
Perkins later mused that perhaps the new legislation to protect workers had in some way paid the debt society owed to the young people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. “The extent to which this legislation in New York marked a change in American political attitudes and policies toward social responsibility can scarcely be overrated,” she said. “It was, I am convinced, a turning point.”
But she was not done. In 1919, over the fervent objections of men, Governor Smith appointed Perkins to the New York State Industrial Commission to help weed out the corruption that was weakening the new laws. She continued to be one of his closest advisers on labor issues. In 1929, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt replaced Smith as New York governor, he appointed Perkins to oversee the state’s labor department as the Depression worsened. When President Herbert Hoover claimed that unemployment was ending, Perkins made national news when she repeatedly called him out with figures proving the opposite and said his “misleading statements” were “cruel and irresponsible.” She began to work with leaders from other states to figure out how to protect workers and promote employment by working together.
In 1933, after the people had rejected Hoover’s plan to let the Depression burn itself out, President-elect Roosevelt asked Perkins to serve as Secretary of Labor in his administration. She accepted only on the condition that he back her goals: unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. She later recalled: “I remember he looked so startled, and he said, ‘Well, do you think it can be done?’”
She promised to find out.
Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration’s massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934.
In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, providing ordinary Americans with unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services.
In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours. It banned child labor.
Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation’s basic social safety net.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
They haven’t progressed very far have they.
Americans get surprised I believe when they move somewhere else and realise all these human rights others enjoy especially employment related.
but you can be rich and have guns
bomb the yesmen
dv said:
LOLOL
:)
kii said:
Ha!
:)
kii said:
:)
sarahs mum said:
FMD
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
16m ·
March 25, 2025 (Tuesday)snip…
Nice one.
Ta.
Michael V said:
dv said:
LOLOL
:)
oh we thought it was defined as the political compass with DPRNA politicians charted on it
fsm said:
kii said:
Cymek said:
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
How to share germs.
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
kii said:
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
How to share germs.
stérilisé them
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
How to share germs.
stérilisé them
Duncan Swish? Dunkem in Dettol and swishem aboot.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
Nope. Gotta sign up.
he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
This is just fucking gold…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz65ZLIFWDU
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
Nope. Gotta sign up.
he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
That’s really scary. Nobody told him about the bloke who went yellow and died.
diddly-squat said:
This is just fucking gold…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz65ZLIFWDU
What is?
Can’t be clicking on all the clickbait. ;)
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:This is just fucking gold…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz65ZLIFWDU
What is?
Can’t be clicking on all the clickbait. ;)
This used to be considered bad writing
diddly-squat said:
This is just fucking gold…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz65ZLIFWDU
director of the CIA??? Ye gods.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
Nope. Gotta sign up.
he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
ah well as they say the survivors survive
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
kii said:
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
Nope. Gotta sign up.
he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
Bloody!
(Oh, and can you still get YouTube? It is blocking me because of the ad-blocker.)
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Nope. Gotta sign up.
he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
Bloody!
(Oh, and can you still get YouTube? It is blocking me because of the ad-blocker.)
youtube still ok here.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:he advocates Vit A. parents have been giving large doses to their kids. liver damage ensues.
Bloody!
(Oh, and can you still get YouTube? It is blocking me because of the ad-blocker.)
youtube still ok here.
Hmmm.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Bloody!
(Oh, and can you still get YouTube? It is blocking me because of the ad-blocker.)
youtube still ok here.
Hmmm.
you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
diddly-squat said:
I am too stupid to work out how to do that.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:youtube still ok here.
Hmmm.
you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.
Michael V said:Hmmm.
you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
well if you send a remote desktop request to us …
and your login passwords as well …
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.
Michael V said:Hmmm.
you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
if you want to disable ublock for a while click on the little red shield with UB in it. this will open the control panel click on the pause button, hover to highlight. it looks like two vertical bars in a circle.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
well if you send a remote desktop request to us …
and your login passwords as well …
Yeah, OK…
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
if you want to disable ublock for a while click on the little red shield with UB in it. this will open the control panel click on the pause button, hover to highlight. it looks like two vertical bars in a circle.
Is that how you get YouTube to run?
I see the octagon with the U in it. It’s not red.
one of the guys in that group chat on signal…was in Russia.
Sheer, unfettered, Olympian incompetence’: Hayes on the Trump war plans breach
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.if you want to disable ublock for a while click on the little red shield with UB in it. this will open the control panel click on the pause button, hover to highlight. it looks like two vertical bars in a circle.
Is that how you get YouTube to run?
I see the octagon with the U in it. It’s not red.
how about clicking on it to see what happens?
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
diddly-squat said:I am too stupid to work out how to do that.you need to add an exception to your ad blocker
if you want to disable ublock for a while click on the little red shield with UB in it. this will open the control panel click on the pause button, hover to highlight. it looks like two vertical bars in a circle.
FWIW I’m also running Ublock (on Opera) and Youtube loads just fine for me.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:if you want to disable ublock for a while click on the little red shield with UB in it. this will open the control panel click on the pause button, hover to highlight. it looks like two vertical bars in a circle.
Is that how you get YouTube to run?
I see the octagon with the U in it. It’s not red.
how about clicking on it to see what happens?
Done.
It seems I have to allow ads to get YouTube to work.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Is that how you get YouTube to run?
I see the octagon with the U in it. It’s not red.
how about clicking on it to see what happens?
Done.
It seems I have to allow ads to get YouTube to work.
well, yes. go back in a little while and turn it back on and see what happens.
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:how about clicking on it to see what happens?
Done.
It seems I have to allow ads to get YouTube to work.
well, yes. go back in a little while and turn it back on and see what happens.
maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
ChrispenEvan said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Done.
It seems I have to allow ads to get YouTube to work.
well, yes. go back in a little while and turn it back on and see what happens.
maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
sarahs mum said:
one of the guys in that group chat on signal…was in Russia.Sheer, unfettered, Olympian incompetence’: Hayes on the Trump war plans breach
i’m just going to assume he was at the kremlin.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
one of the guys in that group chat on signal…was in Russia.Sheer, unfettered, Olympian incompetence’: Hayes on the Trump war plans breach
i’m just going to assume he was at the kremlin.
And that his initials are V.P.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
one of the guys in that group chat on signal…was in Russia.Sheer, unfettered, Olympian incompetence’: Hayes on the Trump war plans breach
i’m just going to assume he was at the kremlin.
And that his initials are V.P.
Psst, got any war plans?
War plans for sale. War plans for sale.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Psst, got any war plans?
or whore plans
Tau.Neutrino said:
War plans for sale. War plans for sale.
Whore plans indeed.
sarahs mum said:
LOL
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
War plans for sale. War plans for sale.
Whore plans indeed.
Putin has those in a safe in his office.
And Trump knows it.
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
War plans for sale. War plans for sale.
Whore plans indeed.
Putin has those in a safe in his office.
And Trump knows it.
Some New Yorkers let Shitler know how they feel about him.
ChrispenEvan said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Done.
It seems I have to allow ads to get YouTube to work.
well, yes. go back in a little while and turn it back on and see what happens.
maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
sarahs mum said:
Ha!
:)
dv said:
LOL
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
ChrispenEvan said:well, yes. go back in a little while and turn it back on and see what happens.
maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Only uBlockOrigin lite is available for Chrome. I’ll install that and see how it goes.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Only uBlockOrigin lite is available for Chrome. I’ll install that and see how it goes.
Installed. I’ll check YouTube in the morning – I don’t want to wake Mrs V. I’ll let you know the result.
Thanks for your help.
Michael V said:
dv said:
LOL
it’s the land of opportunity¡
what the fuck
In its submission, PHrMA said the PBS was “egregious and discriminatory”. It noted the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee’s (PBAC) slow approval processes and called for an end to Australia’s “damaging pricing policies”. It also blamed the PBS for unreasonable delays in access to medicines for Australian patients and for always taking the lowest cost option.
we thought capitalism was ideal and we thought competition was perfection
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the political earthquake that just hit as a very safe +15 Trump State Senate Seat in Pennsylvania flipped to blue as Democrat James Malone pulled off a stunning upset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFEMl5iZR0
sarahs mum said:
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the political earthquake that just hit as a very safe +15 Trump State Senate Seat in Pennsylvania flipped to blue as Democrat James Malone pulled off a stunning upset.
a political earthquake has just jolted
the United States of America as a ruby
red state senate district in
Pennsylvania in the Lancaster area has
flipped in a
+5 Trump Senate district to the Democrat
Democratic candidate James Malone will
now be Pennsylvania State Senator James
Malone He has flipped the Pennsylvania
State Senate District 36 the district
voted for Trump by 15 points just five
months ago Nobody thought this was
possible How Republican how ruby red is
this area well the last time Lancaster
County elected a Democrat to the
Pennsylvania Senate was in
1889 when John S Hoover won a special
election 136 years later James Malone
joins the club Let’s talk about this
special election that took place on
Tuesday where Lancaster County residents
in Senate District 36 got their chance
to vote in the special election There
were three candidates on the ballot
Lancaster County Commissioner Josh
Parsons the Republican who was viewed as
a rising star in the Republican party in
Pennsylvania someone who had his sights
on higher offices even behind behind the
state senate seat Then in East
Petersburg you had the East Petersburg
mayor James Malone And then you had a
Libertarian candidate Zachary Moore This
race came after Republican state senator
Ryan Alment left his seat in December to
work as a state director for Republican
US Senator Dave McCormick’s office Let’s
take a look at some of the other
headlines here This from Newswire
Democrats flip Pennsylvania Senate
District 36 in special election A deep
red seat Trump won by 15 points State
Representative or Commonwealth
Representative Malcolm Kenyatta says
major Democrat James Malone flips a
state senate seat in Pennsylvania This
was Ruby Red Trump plus 15 in November
And you see there with all precincts in
James Andrew Malone won the 36th
senatorial seat and he won precincts in
Etown in Elizabeth Town which is heard
of within unheard of for Democrats The
governor of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro issued the
following statement Tonight in Lancaster
County Pennians rejected a candidate who
embraced the extremism and division
coming out of DC In a district carried
comfortably by Donald Trump just a few
months ago they chose a better way
forward an embrace of competence common
sense and a desire to bring people
together Congratulations to Malone for
Senate looking forward to working with
you in Harrisburg to continue delivering
results and getting stuff done for all
Pennians As Zach Picas writes alarm
bells are going off in Republican
circles right now Democrats just took
the Pennsylvania state house and flipped
a state senate seat that Trump won by 15
points Voters are deeply turned off by
the Trump agenda and they will exact
electoral consequences We shared this
with you from Fox Business about two
weeks ago where you’re seeing all people
affected in Pennsylvania From the
farmers to the butchers to the teachers
to people on social security to people
on Medicaid people are getting gutted by
Trump and Elon Musk’s horrific Doge
regime that is crushing the average
people and most people other than the
billionaires And now we’re seeing
validation of the data that a new
political environment a new political
movement is among us right now Take a
look at this clip where a butcher in
Pennsylvania spoke to Fox about Trump
tariffs Here play this clip We get you
fortunately what you sell here this is
all domestic but as you know you used to
work at Costco Uh the big chains they
get a lot of their beef from Canada and
Mexico If you get a 25% tariff on that
what’s that do it’s going to it’s going
to increase the price It’s going to you
know the consumer is going to pay for it
You on board with that uh well listen I
mean you have no choice in a way I mean
I me my my philosophy is to sell it as
low as you can to uh show a savings a
value to the customer and hopefully you
have more customers to generate your
revenue And here I want to share with
you about a week or so ago you had
Lancaster County Commissioner Josh
Parsons the Doy Boy the Trump candidate
going on the local TV network and they
were like “Oh so you know it’s a pretty
safe seat.” And and Parsons was so cocky
and confident and he was like “Yeah you
know let me tell you what separates me
from uh the other guy here Play this
clip It’s been a pretty secure
Republican seat What’s it like being the
favorite and trying to hold that down
versus maybe the underdog and trying to
rally support for change change change
well I think you know my record is one
of working hard whether that’s on the
policy side or the political side And
we’re working hard We’re not taking
anything for granted whether you know
we’re doing doortodoor we’re doing calls
uh we’re doing mailers uh you name it Uh
we’re running a full campaign A special
election is a little different because
um you know you have to get the word out
that the the election is actually
happening and then you also have to talk
to uh voters um and certainly try to win
over undecided voters like you would in
any other election All right So your
opponent from the Democratic side we had
him on a couple weeks ago I asked him
this question I’ll ask you as well
Biggest differences between you two well
I think my record of results for
Lancaster County is a huge difference um
you know the things we just talked about
whether you’re a Democrat Republican or
independent I think you probably love a
lot of the things about Lancaster County
and that record I also think he’s uh way
way outside of the mainstream on a lot
of things He’s posted some really crazy
things on social media on Fourth of July
He talked about how you know America he
compared America to cancerous tumors He
said Thanksgiving was bizarre So I think
whether you’re a Democrat Republican or
independent that’s outside the
mainstream for voters in the 36
districts So I do think there’s some big
differences between us Seriously And
James Malone who’s now state senator
James Malone Commonwealth Senator James
Malone he was just putting in the work
folks He was just putting in the time
and talking about things that mattered
Education for example and making sure
that this wasn’t just about oligarchs or
helping the billionaires It’s about
helping the people Here’s what Senator
Malone has to say Commonwealth Senator
Malone has to say Play this clip Work on
education funding for public schools and
also work on how we’re managing our
academics for students And another thing
I’ I’d really like to focus on working
on is a a better tax model We’re
typically lessening or minimizing
taxes on corporations
and we’re not really getting a good
return for that And in addition to that
we’re
consistently making people more and more
dependent on property taxes which just
creates a winner loser situation Yeah
Based on where you happen to live and
what your house happens to be assessed
at and and then what we end up doing is
we end up leaving a lot of our
communities the children in the
communities high and dry and that’s not
appropriate for anyone you know it’s
just not helpful So I’d really like to
work on seeing a better model Um so
that’s a big deal You know I had the
opportunity to interview
uh the Commonwealth Governor Josh
Shapiro recently and about a week or so
ago when I interviewed him I was asking
him I said “Hey governor can you tell me
about you know I’m see remember I said
I’m seeing things in Pennsylvania It
looks like I’m seeing dramatic change on
the ground Governor Are you seeing it
that’s why we’re paying attention to
what’s going on the ground in these
locations.” And here’s what uh Shapiro
had to say Play this clip going on in
the Commonwealth and what’s what’s
happening You know literally Ben just a
couple hours ago I was up in what we
call the northern tier of Pennsylvania
You can’t get any further north
otherwise you’re going to be in New York
And these are really conservative
Republican voting communities A lot of
voters voted for me there but by and
large these are communities that
overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump
And two things were brought up uh to me
by folks there folks in the media and
folks just when I got pulled aside who
were you know wanting to talk to me One
they said “Thank you for protecting us
Thank you for making sure that we are
seen.” This was a member of the LGBTQ
community who came over to me and said
that The other thing uh is people are
really worried about the impact of these
federal cuts on their communities Let’s
talk just for a moment about Medicaid
right they’re talking about cutting
Medicaid in Washington I get $30 billion
a year coming to Pennsylvania to pay for
Medicaid There are three million
Pennians who get health care through
Medicaid There are 13 million total
Pennians 3 million of them are on
Medicaid And by the way Ben a high
percentage of them are in these rural
communities where I was just a few hours
ago I’ve made clear uh to our federal
officials that a cut to Medicaid
directly hurts your constituents here in
Pennsylvania It would have a devastating
impact on these rural communities I’m
going to do everything I can uh to both
educate our lawmakers to help them
understand that cuts to Medicaid are
going to harm our citizens especially in
rural Pennsylvania and hold them
accountable if they make those cuts If
they even cut 10% out of Medicaid that’s
a $3 billion hit And that’s something
that is going to be very difficult for
us to make up here in the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania through our state budget
Now there might be some people out there
going “Well I mean the federal
government what’s their role in sending
money to Pennsylvania or any other
state?” Well here’s the thing Folks in
that rural community where I just was
they pay federal taxes and they want
that money to come back to our state
Nearly every state in the nation gets
you know somewhere between 30 and 40% of
their overall annual budgets from
federal tax dollars from federal money
that comes back to their states The idea
that that’s going to be cut and we’re
going to make it harder to build roads
and bridges cover kids with autism
protect our veterans just to name a few
things That is really really concerning
to me And we’ve got to push back on that
And so you know if if Mike Johnson
thinks that this is just made up or
astrourfed or whatever you said uh how
about he shows up in some of these rural
communities in Pennsylvania and actually
listens to the real concerns on people’s
minds By the way the people that voted
for a Republican representative who made
Mike Johnson speaker the people who
voted for Donald Trump to make him
president they don’t want to see their
communities be harmed And these cuts
that they’re talking about would be
really devastating you know And here was
a Pennsylvania auto dealer also torching
Trump’s tariffs And you see this is
impacting this is impacting everybody in
com It’s impacting everybody in the
country Trump Doge Musk all these idiots
They are taking a wrecking ball with
their hostile takeover of our government
and destroying people’s lives And the
people are pissed That’s why I did an
intro I’m going to play this clip for
you in a second but I did an interview
with uh with some of these uh special
elections in Florida plus 30 Trump
districts I think we’re going to see
similar types of stuff And let me play
you this clip Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
Yeah Impact Uh dramatic dramatic I I
I has sold order for a customer $80,000
truck It’s $100,000 now So he’s not
going to buy the truck It’s going to sit
on my lot at uh you know the higher
interest rates we’re paying right now
for floor plan and nobody’s going to buy
the truck because it just had a $20,000
price increase right kelly Blue Book
will put the number up They say the
average vehicle will go up by about
$3,000 Does it sound right to you no No
it will No we don’t have the broad
stroke We don’t have the the linear the
tight strokes but to me it’s a 25% in
you know tariff So that affects our
parts that that come from over uh these
countries uh and a whole bunch of our
cars And you’ve been basing your
business model on free trade Basically
uh this is what the American auto
automakers policy council says Maria uh
in response to this They say our
American automakers invested billions in
the US to meet the requirements of the
current free trade agreement They
shouldn’t have their competitiveness
undermined by tariffs that’ll raise the
cost of building vehicles in the US and
sty investment in the American workforce
while competitors from the outside uh of
North America benefit The German no
tariff on the German cars
coming they’re going to be okay But um
but think about it We we built our
business around that The OEMs built
their business around that Uh and now it
changes on a dime And we can’t build a
four billion dollar plant overnight in
in the United States So I I think
building in the United States is great I
think enhancing u the participation from
the other countries on the other things
but we this is pretty radical I hear you
There you go Maria Where the rubber
meets the road here All right Great Yeah
Pennsylvania Yeah exactly Jeff thank you
Thank you so much Jeff Lock at the Dodge
uh Ram U plant there I mean uh not plant
It’s not a plant Chris They’re selling
cars Thank you dealership But you know
what let me let me ask you this Okay Yes
How many Dodge Rams do you see driving
around Europe okay How many Dodge Rams
do you see driving around India i mean
not many I bet Why because they don’t
buy our cars And that’s what President
Trump is trying to change Maybe Dodge
should start building them here and
selling them here
So a huge huge I can’t even stress how
seismic this is A massive flip Democrat
James Malone has flipped the
Pennsylvania State Senate District 36 in
the plus 15 Trump district Wild stuff
folks And good news to start the day
Thank you everybody for watching Hit
subscribe and let’s get to 5 million
Spiny Norman said:
Some New Yorkers let Shitler know how they feel about him.
When we both retired mr kii and I took a silver-smithing course at the local old activity centre for old people. It was run by a New Yorker who had very strong feelings about trump. It was interesting to hear some of her stories about how much New Yorkers hate him and have done so for many years. I had only recently, as in during the presidential campaign, become aware of who he was, apart from the guy on the cover at the bookstore. The Art of the Deal had a dedicated shelf bay used to promote it. It had always been there since I started work in 2007 and I basically ignored it, only noticing it when I had to walk past it to get to the loos.
sarahs mum said:
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the political earthquake that just hit as a very safe +15 Trump State Senate Seat in Pennsylvania flipped to blue as Democrat James Malone pulled off a stunning upset.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFEMl5iZR0
kii said:
New like how a wave and a shout about sending people your heart are new¡
Divine Angel said:
Hmmmm.
I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
diddly-squat said:
I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
The more of the latter the better.
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
The more of the latter the better.
nobody could have foreseen security breaches
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:maybe you have uBlock and not uBlock Origin. I run uBlock Origin. they are not the same.
Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
diddly-squat said:
I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
Unconfirmed if legit.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
His fault that he invited the journalist. It’s not his fault that Hegseth is a drunken idiot.
Though if course it would be Hegseth ultimate responsibility for using Signal even with the OK of Vance, Miller, Rubio etc.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Ah. Yes, I have uBlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
go to Opera. Been using it for years and works well.
Quick point fingers and assign blame to some fall guy¡
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
100% legit
was released by The Atlantic yesterday
diddly-squat said:
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
100% legit
was released by The Atlantic yesterday
good to know the theocracy is the one in the middle east
Spiny Norman said:
Unconfirmed if legit.
FMD
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
go to Opera. Been using it for years and works well.
Ta.
:)
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin
uninstall uBlock and install uBlock Origin
https://ublockorigin.com
Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
go to Opera. Been using it for years and works well.
Which is odd, as Opera is based on Chrome.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:I would not fall off my chair if Pete Hegseth gets the arse as a result of this Signal chat thing.
Congressional Republicans seem pissed.
Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
go to Opera. Been using it for years and works well.
Which is odd, as Opera is based on Chrome.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
Getting caught
Spiny Norman said:
ChrispenEvan said:
Michael V said:Thanks.
uBlock Origin no longer works on Chrome, but I installed uBlock Origin Lite instead. That kills the ads, but is a bit clunky at the start of the YouTube sometimes. I can live with that.
If it gets too annoying, I’ll change the browser. Firefox, maybe.
Appreciate the help.
go to Opera. Been using it for years and works well.
Which is odd, as Opera is based on Chrome.
chromium.
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
Like.
Divine Angel said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
Getting caught
^
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
cowards who won this round too, now the base will cheer their heroic mother who stuck it to those dirty UKese reporters and told them where to go and owned the Biden libs with their fake news media questioning, it’s genius
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
Spiny Norman said:
Like.
It is for the best.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Seems to be mainly Michael Waltz’s fault.
yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
the issues are that (1) they were discussing the details of coordinated attacks on another country on an unsecure application, (2) that classified details of a specific attack were discussed on an unsecured platform and that (3) a person with no reason to be involved in the discussion was added to the conversation.
Congressional Republicans are pissed because Hegseth’s nomination has exploded in their faces.
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
cowards who won this round too, now the base will cheer their heroic mother who stuck it to those dirty UKese reporters and told them where to go and owned the Biden libs with their fake news media questioning, it’s genius
They seem to think that by changing the channel, the rest of the world just … goes away.
roughbarked said:
Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
they only watch fox.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
they only watch fox.
That’s the issue. Their world exists on A single media outlet, ignoring all the rest as fake. Europe is not there. It is only used as a swear word.
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
they only watch fox.
and so many are in tune with the ugly. reading the comments in mercury yesterday re sarah hansen young’s stunt with the dead salmon in parliament…they were so…almost violent.
Didn’t realise that so many US presidents were Moonies.
It’s a church US intelligence said helped overthrow a government, invited Donald Trump to speak at its events and saw former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet its founder.The Unification Church, a religious movement derived from Christianity, has had deep connections to world politics for decades.
But the shooting of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe might have been the beginning of the end.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
they only watch fox.
and so many are in tune with the ugly. reading the comments in mercury yesterday re sarah hansen young’s stunt with the dead salmon in parliament…they were so…almost violent.
People want to be shocked. They love something to throw vile hate speech at.
Read the messages Trump officials exchanged on leaked Signal thread
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn04d4xdz93o
fsm said:
Read the messages Trump officials exchanged on leaked Signal threadhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn04d4xdz93o
They even named the group Houthi?
Spiny Norman said:
Some New Yorkers let Shitler know how they feel about him.
LOLOL
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
MTG is an angry and fucked up woman. She is so consumed by her hatred and fear that she can’t see straight. She wanted Obama shot, a bullet to Pelosi’s head. Her boyfriend is the idiot who made fun of Zelenskyy not wearing a suit.
Remember her chasing David Hogg down the street harassing him?
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
March 24, 2025 (Monday)snip……………………….
Ta.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
roughbarked said:Wish more Americans could read this and realise what they have done.
they only watch fox.
and so many are in tune with the ugly. reading the comments in mercury yesterday re sarah hansen young’s stunt with the dead salmon in parliament…they were so…almost violent.
I’ve mentioned it before, there is a woman who owns a bakery in Texas…Hive Bakery. She is very progressive. Her parents are MAGA nutters.
This woman and her brother have a weekly podcast with their parents about the situation with the USA.
I’ve only been able to listen to a short part of a recent podcast. Her parents are disgusting.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-necessary-conversation/id1640311112
fsm said:
Nods.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:yes, but Pete Hegseth is the one that shared the classified information
But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
the issues are that (1) they were discussing the details of coordinated attacks on another country on an unsecure application, (2) that classified details of a specific attack were discussed on an unsecured platform and that (3) a person with no reason to be involved in the discussion was added to the conversation.
Congressional Republicans are pissed because Hegseth’s nomination has exploded in their faces.
So you reckon using Signal was just lazy and not the whole point?
roughbarked said:
Didn’t realise that so many US presidents were Moonies.
It’s a church US intelligence said helped overthrow a government, invited Donald Trump to speak at its events and saw former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet its founder.
The Unification Church, a religious movement derived from Christianity, has had deep connections to world politics for decades.
But the shooting of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe might have been the beginning of the end.
read more
so the allegations of deep statism were actually darvo and diversionary imagine that this is our surprised face ahahahahaha
Michael V said:
fsm said:
Nods.
‘Trump to fight baboon’.
Gosh, i hope that they wear easily-distinguishable shirts.
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
the issues are that (1) they were discussing the details of coordinated attacks on another country on an unsecure application, (2) that classified details of a specific attack were discussed on an unsecured platform and that (3) a person with no reason to be involved in the discussion was added to the conversation.
Congressional Republicans are pissed because Hegseth’s nomination has exploded in their faces.
So you reckon using Signal was just lazy and not the whole point?
Could it be both?
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:But what is the major error of judgement, using Signal, trusting Waltz or simply not exercising the due care of his area of responsibility? I mean using Signal seems to be a decision based on not being accountable or subject to record keeping with the full support of Trump.
What is the congressional Republicans most pissed about?
the issues are that (1) they were discussing the details of coordinated attacks on another country on an unsecure application, (2) that classified details of a specific attack were discussed on an unsecured platform and that (3) a person with no reason to be involved in the discussion was added to the conversation.
Congressional Republicans are pissed because Hegseth’s nomination has exploded in their faces.
So you reckon using Signal was just lazy and not the whole point?
I think they used Signal because it was mainly because it easy. I think the notion that they are deliberately trying to hide decisions from official record keeping is (at least in this case) unlikely because they talk about their high side comms in the message thread.
That said, using an app like this to share confidential information is just straight up and down a bad idea as it’s simply not as secure as it needs to be.
I do think there is obviously a need for some form of high-side instant messaging service because this is how people communicate these days. Apparently the US Army use Signal pretty extensively for non-operational troop communications.
diddly-squat said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
diddly-squat said:the issues are that (1) they were discussing the details of coordinated attacks on another country on an unsecure application, (2) that classified details of a specific attack were discussed on an unsecured platform and that (3) a person with no reason to be involved in the discussion was added to the conversation.
Congressional Republicans are pissed because Hegseth’s nomination has exploded in their faces.
So you reckon using Signal was just lazy and not the whole point?
I think they used Signal because it was mainly because it easy. I think the notion that they are deliberately trying to hide decisions from official record keeping is (at least in this case) unlikely because they talk about their high side comms in the message thread.
That said, using an app like this to share confidential information is just straight up and down a bad idea as it’s simply not as secure as it needs to be.
I do think there is obviously a need for some form of high-side instant messaging service because this is how people communicate these days. Apparently the US Army use Signal pretty extensively for non-operational troop communications.
So does the Australian armed forces.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Didn’t realise that so many US presidents were Moonies.
It’s a church US intelligence said helped overthrow a government, invited Donald Trump to speak at its events and saw former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet its founder.
The Unification Church, a religious movement derived from Christianity, has had deep connections to world politics for decades.
But the shooting of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe might have been the beginning of the end.
so the allegations of deep statism were actually darvo and diversionary imagine that this is our surprised face ahahahahaha
wait why might
The church’s recruitment and fundraising tactics have often come under scrutiny. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was accused of brainwashing followers into pouring huge portions of their salaries into the organisation. It denied the allegations, saying many new religious movements face similar accusations in early years.
this be then how strange
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
Didn’t realise that so many US presidents were Moonies.
It’s a church US intelligence said helped overthrow a government, invited Donald Trump to speak at its events and saw former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet its founder.
The Unification Church, a religious movement derived from Christianity, has had deep connections to world politics for decades.
But the shooting of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe might have been the beginning of the end.
so the allegations of deep statism were actually darvo and diversionary imagine that this is our surprised face ahahahahaha
wait why might
The church’s recruitment and fundraising tactics have often come under scrutiny. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was accused of brainwashing followers into pouring huge portions of their salaries into the organisation. It denied the allegations, saying many new religious movements face similar accusations in early years.
this be then how strange
Isn’t that what all churches do and recruit cannon fodder for wars
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
so the allegations of deep statism were actually darvo and diversionary imagine that this is our surprised face ahahahahaha
wait why might
The church’s recruitment and fundraising tactics have often come under scrutiny. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was accused of brainwashing followers into pouring huge portions of their salaries into the organisation. It denied the allegations, saying many new religious movements face similar accusations in early years.
this be then how strange
Isn’t that what all churches do and recruit cannon fodder for wars
What, brainwash followers and take their money¿ Surely not¡
But yeah we’re SCIENCE so we might be biased, anyway, it’s probably a sideshow to the stupider stuff going on.
DOGE staffer calling himself ‘big balls’ provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
By Georgie Hewson with wires
roughbarked said:
DOGE staffer calling himself ‘big balls’ provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
Topic:Law, Crime and Justice
By Georgie Hewson with wires
nobody could have foreseen an administration packed full of criminals hiring criminal supporters
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
dv said:
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
I think my ovaries shrank and dried up when I read that.
MTG and the British reporter…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh8ZfqumWfA
dv said:
That’s a good one. Your own?
dv said:
You know, there’s talk that Musk uses IVF to ensure only XY embryos are implanted.
What kind of neo Aryan racial shit is Musk tryna pull with the president’s blessing?
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
DOGE staffer calling himself ‘big balls’ provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
Topic:Law, Crime and Justice
By Georgie Hewson with wiresnobody could have foreseen an administration packed full of criminals hiring criminal supporters
it would seem so.
dv said:
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
Stored in high transit?
dv said:
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
…
Don Bacon, a retired US Air Force brigadier general and intelligence specialist, told The Hill:
“The WH is in denial that this was not classified or sensitive data. They should just own up to it and preserve credibility.”Democrats’ calls for heads to roll have only intensified.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot who served in Iraq, posted online:
“Pete Hegseth is a f***ing liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “someone made a big mistake” but the Pentagon had told him the information wasn’t classified.
Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and White House Situation Room senior director, told the ABC:
“I’ve never seen the kind of information that Mr Goldberg showed us today as not being classified … It is really ludicrous to claim that it is not classified.” ABC key takeaways from the group chat transcriptMichael V said:
dv said:
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
…
He’s always been a dirtbag.
dv said:
Ha!
Witty Rejoinder said:
dv said:
That’s a good one. Your own?
Yeah
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
He does remind me a bit of a bag of fertiliser
…
He’s always been a dirtbag.
Divine Angel said:
dv said:
You know, there’s talk that Musk uses IVF to ensure only XY embryos are implanted.
What kind of neo Aryan racial shit is Musk tryna pull with the president’s blessing?
I’ll see if team at A Current Affair can run that one to ground for us…
From Quora:
“Carl Sagan commented in The Demon Haunted World:
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
fsm said:
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:…
He’s always been a dirtbag.
Looks like a cry-baby there.
kii said:
Very fair question.
:)
Michael V said:
fsm said:
roughbarked said:He’s always been a dirtbag.
Looks like a cry-baby there.
When does he not?
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 26, 2025 (Wednesday)
Monday’s astounding story that the most senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration planned military strikes on Yemen over an unsecure commercial messaging app, on which they had included national security reporter and editor in chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, has escalated over the past two days.
On Monday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looked directly at a reporter’s camera and said: “Nobody was texting war plans.” Throughout the day Tuesday, the administration doubled down on this assertion, apparently convinced that Goldberg would not release the information they knew he had. They tried to spin the story by attacking Goldberg, suggesting he had somehow hacked into the conversation, although the app itself tracked that National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had added him.
Various administration figures, including Trump, insisted that the chat contained nothing classified. At a scheduled hearing yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats, during which senators took the opportunity to dig into the Signal scandal, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said: “There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group.” Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe agreed: “My communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.” In the afternoon, Trump told reporters: “The attack was totally successful. It was, I guess, from what I understand, took place during. And it wasn’t classified information. So this was not classified.”
After Gabbard said she would defer to the secretary of defense and the National Security Council about what information should have been classified, Senator Angus King (I-ME) seemed taken aback. “You’re the head of the intelligence community. You’re supposed to know about classifications,” he pointed out. He continued, “So your testimony very clearly today is that nothing was in that set of texts that were classified…. If that’s the case, please release that whole text stream so that the public can have a view of what actually transpired on this discussion. It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified.”
Meanwhile, reporters were also digging into the story. James LaPorta of CBS News reported that an internal bulletin from the National Security Agency warned staff in February 2025 not to use Signal for sensitive information, citing concerns that the app was vulnerable to Russian hackers. A former White House official told Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel of Politico, “Their personal phones are all hackable, and it’s highly likely that foreign intelligence services are sitting on their phones watching them type the sh*t out.”
Tuesday night, American Oversight, a nonprofit organization focusing on government transparency, filed a lawsuit against Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—all of whom were also on the Signal chain—and the National Archives for violating the Federal Records Act, and suggested the administration has made other attempts to get around the law. It notes that the law requires the preservation of federal records.
Today it all got worse.
It turned out that administration officials’ conviction that Goldberg wouldn’t publicly release receipts was wrong. This morning, Goldberg and Shane Harris, who had worked together on the initial story, wrote: “The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.”
The Atlantic published screenshots of the message chat.
The screenshots make clear that administration officials insisting that there was nothing classified on the chat were lying. Hegseth uploaded the precise details of the attack before it happened, leaving American military personnel vulnerable. The evidence is damning.
The fury of Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), an Army pilot who was nearly killed in Iraq, was palpable. “Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar,” she wrote. “This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.” Legal analyst Barb McQuade pointed out that it didn’t even matter if the information was classified: it is “a crime to remove national defense information from its proper place through gross negligence…. Signal chat is not a proper place.”
The screenshots also raise a number of other issues. They made it clear that administration officials have been using Signal for other conversations: Waltz at one point typed: “As we stated in the first PC….” Using a nongovernment system is likely an attempt to get around the laws that require the preservation of public records. The screenshots also show that Signal was set to erase the messages on the chat after 4 weeks.
The messages reveal that President Trump was not part of the discussion of whether to make the airstrikes, a deeply troubling revelation that raises the question of who is in charge at the White House. As the conversation about whether to attack took place, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote about Trump’s reasoning that attacking the Houthis in Yemen would “send a message”: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.” Later, he texted to Hegseth: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again. Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here. And if there are things we can do upfront to minimize risk to Saudi oil facilities we should do it.”
Hegseth responded: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”
The decision to make the strikes then appears to have been made by deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who ended the discussion simply by invoking the president: “As I heard it,” he wrote, “the president was clear: green light, but we soon make it clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement.” If Europe doesn’t cover the cost of the attack, “then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
“Agree,” Hegseth messaged, and the attack was on.
Also missing from the group message was the person who is currently acting as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Christopher Grady. In February, Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr., who took on the position in 2023 having served more than 3,000 hours as a fighter pilot, including 130 hours in combat, and commanded the Pacific Air Forces, which provides air power for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region; the U.S. Air Forces Central Command, responsible for protecting U.S. security interests in Africa through the Persian Gulf; the 31st Fighter Wing, covering the southern region of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the 8th Fighter Wing, covering southeast Asia; U.S. Air Force Weapons School for advanced training in weapons and tactics for officers; and 78th Fighter Squadron.
Hegseth publicly suggested that Brown had been appointed because he is Black. “Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt,” Hegseth wrote. With Trump’s controversial replacement for Brown still unconfirmed, Admiral Grady, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, is fulfilling the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But he was not in the chat. The Pentagon’s highest-ranking officer would normally be included in planning a military operation.
Also in the chat, participants made embarrassing attacks on our allies and celebrated civilian deaths in Yemen in the quest to kill a targeted combatant.
Attempts to defend themselves from the scandal only dug administration officials in deeper. On Monday night, independent journalist Olga Lautman, who studies Russia, noted that Trump’s Russia and Ukraine specialist Steve Witkoff had actually been in Russia when Waltz added him to the chat, underscoring the chat’s vulnerability to hackers. By Tuesday, multiple outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, picked up Lautman’s story.
Witkoff fought back against the Wall Street Journal story with a long social media post about how he had traveled to Moscow with a secure government phone and now it was not until he got home that he had “access to my personal devices” to participate in the Signal conversation, thus apparently confirming that he was discussing classified information with the nation’s top officials on an unsecure personal device.
Tonight, news of other ways in which the administration is compromised surfaced. The German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed that the contact information for a number of the same officials who were on the Signal chat is available online, as well as email addresses and some passwords for their private accounts, making it easy for hackers to get into their personal devices. Those compromised included National Security Advisor Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth. Wired reported that Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Walker Barrett of the National Security Council, who was also on the Signal messaging chain, had left their Venmo accounts public, demonstrating what national security experts described as reckless behavior.
In the New York Times tonight, foreign affairs journalist Noah Shachtman looked not just at the Signal scandal but also at the administration’s lowering of U.S. guard against foreign influence operations, installation of billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet terminals at the White House, and diversion of personnel from national security to Trump’s pet projects, and advised hostile nations to “savor this moment.
It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.”
Trump today did not seem on top of the story when he told reporters: “I think it’s a witch hunt. I wasn’t involved with it, I wasn’t there, but I can tell you the result is unbelievable.” When asked if he still believed there was no classified information shared, he answered: “Well, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know, I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know.” He said the breach was Waltz’s fault—“it had nothing to do with anyone else”—and when reporters asked about the future of Defense Secretary Hegseth, who uploaded the attack plans into the unsecure system, he answered: “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this…. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, look, it’s all a witch hunt. I don’t know that Signal works. I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you….”
The administration appears to be trying to create a distraction from the damning story. Yesterday evening, Trump signed an executive order that would, if it could be enforced, dramatically change U.S. elections and take the vote away from tens of millions of Americans. But, as Marc Elias of Democracy Docket put it, the order is “confused, rhetorical and—in places—nonsensical. It asserts facts that are not true and claims authority he does not possess. It is not meant to be taken seriously or literally. Rather, it is the empty threat of a weak man desperate to appear strong.”
After today’s revelations, Trump announced new 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts including those from Canada and Mexico, despite a deal worked out earlier this month that items covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement Trump signed in his first term would not face a new tariff levy. The 25% tariff is a major change that will raise prices across the board and hit the automotive sector in which more than a million Americans work. Upon the news, the stock market fell again.
And yet, despite the attempts to bury the Signal story, the scandal seems, if anything, to be growing. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote a public letter to Trump yesterday calling for him to fire Hegseth, accurately referring to him as “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history.” Jeffries wrote: “His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law.” “ey Sen Ernst and Sen Tillis,” Jen Rubin of The Contrarian wrote tonight, “proud of your votes for Hegseth? This is on too as much as Hegseth. You knew he was not remotely qualified.”
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 26, 2025 (Wednesday)Monday’s astounding story that the most senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration planned military strikes on Yemen over an unsecure commercial messaging app, on which
sorry what’s wrong with commercial, we thought this was capitalist heaven
4 American soldiers killed in a training exercise in Lithuania.
kii said:
4 American soldiers killed in a training exercise in Lithuania.
“training”
Divine Angel said:
So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
Michael V said:
Divine Angel said:
SCIENCE said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
cowards who won this round too, now the base will cheer their heroic mother who stuck it to those dirty UKese reporters and told them where to go and owned the Biden libs with their fake news media questioning, it’s genius
So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
so it was about pooning the lubz after all
—
but yeah we were going to say something like Michael V suggested, try to disguise manipulation as incompetence
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
“Do you care about American lives—” the reporter began.
“Nonono!” said Greene. “No. No. No. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
“Do you care about—” attempted the reporter.
“No do you care— Okay, you’re done,” stammered Greene. “I’m not— Nope! You know what I don’t care— I don’t—”
“Do you care about American lives being put at risk? About service members fighting for your country?” managed the reporter.
“I don’t care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question? Yeah, this is an American journalist, thank you,” Green said, turning her attention to someone else.
“Yeah, I’m an American and I would like to hear your answer to what she’s asking,” said the second reporter.
“I’m not answering her question because I don’t care about her network. If you would like to ask I can answer,” said Greene.
“Do you have any concerns whatsoever about the complete disregard of operational security from the top level of this administration?” asked the reporter.
“You want to know about complete disregard about operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorists, cartel, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years,” said Greene.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“So you have no comment whatsoever?” asked the reporter.
“My comment to you is I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars, that he is ending the war in Ukraine where American lives could have been killed if Joe Biden was still president today whether he liked it or not,” said Greene.
“We’re talking about NPR and PBS today. We’re talking about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers,” she continued. “That’s what this is about today. Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country.”
At that point, Greene fled from the reporters in a desperate attempt to avoid more questions that she lacks the courage to answer.
This pathetic performance from the congresswoman is emblematic of her entire party. These Republicans simply have no excuse for the deeply incompetent actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump officials.
Obviously, migrants in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with the Trump administration leaking sensitive information about pending attacks in a Signal group chat.
But of course Greene and her ilk are consummate cowards. They will never criticize Trump’s administration because their entire political career is built on pandering to his cult-like followers.
And the Planet America guys are on a break at the moment. They would have used this, I’m sure.
As President Donald Trump continues to crack down on undocumented immigrants, states like Florida are predictably running into a manpower shortage.
But don’t worry, they have a solution.
On Tuesday, the Florida legislature advanced a bill that would loosen child labor laws, allowing children as young as 14 years old to work overnight shifts.
And not just overnight shifts, but ones on school days.
sarahs mum said:
As President Donald Trump continues to crack down on undocumented immigrants, states like Florida are predictably running into a manpower shortage.
But don’t worry, they have a solution.
On Tuesday, the Florida legislature advanced a bill that would loosen child labor laws, allowing children as young as 14 years old to work overnight shifts.
And not just overnight shifts, but ones on school days.
Nice, that should increase productivity in the short run and the long run¡
Michael V said:
Divine Angel said:
So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
As i said the other day, never underestimate the potential of incompetence/stupidity.
Were it not for those traits, world history would be vastly different.
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”
Reporters need to ask more fun questions e.g. ‘are you still stupid?’.
sarahs mum said:
As President Donald Trump continues to crack down on undocumented immigrants, states like Florida are predictably running into a manpower shortage.But don’t worry, they have a solution.
On Tuesday, the Florida legislature advanced a bill that would loosen child labor laws, allowing children as young as 14 years old to work overnight shifts.
And not just overnight shifts, but ones on school days.
Fk Florida.
Interestingly, a lot of signs in Florida (road signs included) are in Spanish as well as English. I suppose the DEI-outlawing order from KKK (DJT) may have caused those signs to be removed or the Spanish painted over.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
Divine Angel said:
So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
As i said the other day, never underestimate the potential of incompetence/stupidity.
Were it not for those traits, world history would be vastly different.
At least one of them has a law degree. Law degrees don’t come in Corn Flakes packets.
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”Reporters need to ask more fun questions e.g. ‘are you still stupid?’.
That’d be good.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
As i said the other day, never underestimate the potential of incompetence/stupidity.
Were it not for those traits, world history would be vastly different.
At least one of them has a law degree. Law degrees don’t come in Corn Flakes packets.
Even medical degrees aren’t that hard to get in the US.
Who remembers the US incursion into Grenada?
One of the justifications for that was that a lot of American medical students at a university there were being held captive/hostage by the Cuban ‘advisory’ forces.
That university was renowned for being pretty much guaranteed to award you your qualification, if you paid up as required. It was known colloquially as the ‘The University of Snorkelling and Sunbathing’, or something similar. A not-too-heavy-at-all study regime, and a relaxed attitude towards examinations.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:As i said the other day, never underestimate the potential of incompetence/stupidity.
Were it not for those traits, world history would be vastly different.
At least one of them has a law degree. Law degrees don’t come in Corn Flakes packets.
Even medical degrees aren’t that hard to get in the US.
Who remembers the US incursion into Grenada?
One of the justifications for that was that a lot of American medical students at a university there were being held captive/hostage by the Cuban ‘advisory’ forces.
That university was renowned for being pretty much guaranteed to award you your qualification, if you paid up as required. It was known colloquially as the ‘The University of Snorkelling and Sunbathing’, or something similar. A not-too-heavy-at-all study regime, and a relaxed attitude towards examinations.
TV and movies always portray them as going off to university and the massive cost involved.
It pretty much seems true, you can’t just to your classes then go home.
It is another example of money making and exploitation
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:sarahs mum said:
Occupy Democrats
3h ·
BREAKING: MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a humiliating meltdown when confronted by a reporter about SignalGate: “NONONO!”
The Republicans are starting to realize that they’re in deep, deep trouble this time…
“Should the Defense Secretary—” began a reporter.
“What country are you— Wait, what country are you from?” snapped Greene.
“From the UK,” replied the reporter.
“Okay, we don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting,” said Greene. “Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and—”
“NONONO!” Greene continued, talking over the reporter. “You should care about your own borders.”Reporters need to ask more fun questions e.g. ‘are you still stupid?’.
That’d be good.
There was a bit of a game among Australian political reporters about 30 years ago.
Amid the scrum of microphones and voices, someone would ask the politiican under question (apropos of nothing at all), ‘are you proud of yourself?’.
This usually took the subject by surprise, and produced a variety of reactions. One, i can’t recall which, but some bloke, instantly looked appallled and crestfallen, and wailed, ‘oh, what have i done now?!’.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:Reporters need to ask more fun questions e.g. ‘are you still stupid?’.
That’d be good.
There was a bit of a game among Australian political reporters about 30 years ago.
Amid the scrum of microphones and voices, someone would ask the politiican under question (apropos of nothing at all), ‘are you proud of yourself?’.
This usually took the subject by surprise, and produced a variety of reactions. One, i can’t recall which, but some bloke, instantly looked appallled and crestfallen, and wailed, ‘oh, what have i done now?!’.
I enjoyed watching last night’s re-runs of “Yes Minister”. It still works; it has survived the test of time.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:That’d be good.
There was a bit of a game among Australian political reporters about 30 years ago.
Amid the scrum of microphones and voices, someone would ask the politiican under question (apropos of nothing at all), ‘are you proud of yourself?’.
This usually took the subject by surprise, and produced a variety of reactions. One, i can’t recall which, but some bloke, instantly looked appallled and crestfallen, and wailed, ‘oh, what have i done now?!’.
I enjoyed watching last night’s re-runs of “Yes Minister”. It still works; it has survived the test of time.
That’s because there’s nothing new in politics, just as there’s nothing new in human nature.
People are still subject tothe same motivations, weaknesses, foibles, corruptions, ideas, misconceptions, failings, and virtues as those who came before them.
It’s said that history repeats itself. It does that most frequently in politics, where it constantly repeats itself between elections.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:So, either they are all completely stupid (which I guess they are not), or they wanted Mr Atlantic added for some reason. I wonder what that reason was? Maybe to cause the ruckus that they have now caused…
As i said the other day, never underestimate the potential of incompetence/stupidity.
Were it not for those traits, world history would be vastly different.
At least one of them has a law degree. Law degrees don’t come in Corn Flakes packets.
pretty sure they’re exploiting the traditional application of Hanlon’s just like we told yous before, act stupid to make people laugh while you pick their pockets and grab their purses sorry we mean cats and they won’t even notice
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 26, 2025 (Wednesday)Monday’s astounding story that the most senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration planned military strikes on Yemen over an unsecure commercial messaging app, on which they had included national security reporter and editor in chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, has escalated over the past two days.
snip…………….
Ta.
Good news for we Gen Xers and Boomers is that we can finally start blaming those Millennials for fking everything up. Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Miller … all Millennials, and they don’t know how to adhere to basic security protocols.
dv said:
Good news for we Gen Xers and Boomers is that we can finally start blaming those Millennials for fking everything up. Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Miller … all Millennials, and they don’t know how to adhere to basic security protocols.
Can we now start asserting that THEY are the deep state?
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Good news for we Gen Xers and Boomers is that we can finally start blaming those Millennials for fking everything up. Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Miller … all Millennials, and they don’t know how to adhere to basic security protocols.
Can we now start asserting that THEY are the deep state?
nah they’re just trying to play on hard mode by giving themselves a greater handicap
Neophyte said:
dv said:
Good news for we Gen Xers and Boomers is that we can finally start blaming those Millennials for fking everything up. Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Miller … all Millennials, and they don’t know how to adhere to basic security protocols.
Can we now start asserting that THEY are the deep state?
Derp state
sarahs mum said:
Flatly authoritarian’: New video shows masked agents arresting Tufts student
that’s just fked.
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
Flatly authoritarian’: New video shows masked agents arresting Tufts student
that’s just fked.
It sure is.
sarahs mum said:
Flatly authoritarian’: New video shows masked agents arresting Tufts student
This is exactly what i queried several months ago.
During Trump’s first Presidency, we saw protesters against his government’s stupidity assaulted by people with batons, wearing balaclavas and masks, in clothing with no identifying or authorising badges, bundled into black vans with no identifying marks, and simply carted away.
I asked, where are those vans today? Where are those masks, those batons? Where are the people who did those things? Have they they just ‘gone to ground’, waiting for a new call to action from a new Trump administration?
Well, here’s the answer.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-not-briefed-us-army-soldiers-missing-lithuania-nato-2051222
Donald Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About US Soldiers Missing in Lithuania
——
Trump only heard about the Signal debacle from a journalist in a press briefing. He only heard about 4 missing or dead US servicemen in Lithuania from a journalist in a press briefing. He was not included in the group correspondence during the attack on the Houthis.
Is no one communicating with him?
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-not-briefed-us-army-soldiers-missing-lithuania-nato-2051222Donald Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About US Soldiers Missing in Lithuania
——
Trump only heard about the Signal debacle from a journalist in a press briefing. He only heard about 4 missing or dead US servicemen in Lithuania from a journalist in a press briefing. He was not included in the group correspondence during the attack on the Houthis.
Is no one communicating with him?
He doesn’t want to hear about any of it – that way he can deny all knowledge and not be held accountable.
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-not-briefed-us-army-soldiers-missing-lithuania-nato-2051222Donald Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About US Soldiers Missing in Lithuania
——
Trump only heard about the Signal debacle from a journalist in a press briefing. He only heard about 4 missing or dead US servicemen in Lithuania from a journalist in a press briefing. He was not included in the group correspondence during the attack on the Houthis.
Is no one communicating with him?
I suspect his staff don’t want to risk upsetting the lad…
“He was not included in the group chat”
Have we asked any random journalists if they were included?
Divine Angel said:
“He was not included in the group chat”Have we asked any random journalists if they were included?
LOL
:)
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-not-briefed-us-army-soldiers-missing-lithuania-nato-2051222Donald Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About US Soldiers Missing in Lithuania
——
Trump only heard about the Signal debacle from a journalist in a press briefing. He only heard about 4 missing or dead US servicemen in Lithuania from a journalist in a press briefing. He was not included in the group correspondence during the attack on the Houthis.
Is no one communicating with him?
Trump is kept quite busy, and quite happy, with his campaign of revenge against those who he considers ‘betrayed’ him earlier: the ‘left, the ‘woke’, the Democrats, the ‘deep state’, the ‘liberals’, the Latinos/illegal immigrants, he transgenders, the gays, the Europeans, the NATO members, the Canadians, the Mexicans, the Chinese, ‘foreigners’ in general, women, the lower courts, the legal system, the civil service, you name it.
He gets presented with ‘executive orders’ to scrawl on, which enact punitive measures against his ‘enemies’, as the payback that he considers to be more important than anything else, for what he perceives as their lack of respect for his superiority and genius.
He doesn’t know about, or want to know about, anything other than his payback campaign.
Elon is his run-around go-for, operating interference between him and the actual operation of government. Elon tells Trump about how they’re really ramming it to all those ‘traitors’ and making them suffer, whch is all that Trump wants to hear.
The real ‘business’ of government is in the hands of Vance and the kind of people who were in on the Houthi conference. And they see that ‘business’ as looking after the well-being of their corporate sponsors’ interests. Note the concern in the Houthi conference for the possibility of blow-back towards the Saudis, and the risks to oil prices.
Trump is in a situation not unlike that of Salazar in Portugal some 50-60 years back, where he was quietly replaced as ‘dictator’ by Caetano, but no-one told Salazar, and he was given nonsensical busywork to occupy him, so that he went to his grave firmly convinced that it was him who was still running Portugal.
captain_spalding said:
Trump is in a situation not unlike that of Salazar in Portugal some 50-60 years back, where he was quietly replaced as ‘dictator’ by Caetano, but no-one told Salazar, and he was given nonsensical busywork to occupy him, so that he went to his grave firmly convinced that it was him who was still running Portugal.
Ooooh – a history reference i don’t know. I’ll have to look that up.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Trump is in a situation not unlike that of Salazar in Portugal some 50-60 years back, where he was quietly replaced as ‘dictator’ by Caetano, but no-one told Salazar, and he was given nonsensical busywork to occupy him, so that he went to his grave firmly convinced that it was him who was still running Portugal.
Ooooh – a history reference i don’t know. I’ll have to look that up.
60 years ago, Portugal was quite medieval.
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Trump is in a situation not unlike that of Salazar in Portugal some 50-60 years back, where he was quietly replaced as ‘dictator’ by Caetano, but no-one told Salazar, and he was given nonsensical busywork to occupy him, so that he went to his grave firmly convinced that it was him who was still running Portugal.
Ooooh – a history reference i don’t know. I’ll have to look that up.
60 years ago, Portugal was quite medieval.
Yet, in thirty years, their literacy rate increased from 33% to 97%.
Trump names ‘first buddy’ and DOGE leader Elon Musk to investigate Signal blunder
Musk offered ‘his technical experts’ to help investigate how a journalist was added to a group chat with national security officials
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-elon-musk-doge-investigation-signal-b2722194.html
Hilarious
Former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg has been sentenced to 10 years prison for child sex tourism.
dv said:
Former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg has been sentenced to 10 years prison for child sex tourism.
NHOH – but i’m sure it is some leftie deep-state conspiracy behind it.
party_pants said:
dv said:
Former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg has been sentenced to 10 years prison for child sex tourism.
NHOH – but i’m sure it is some leftie deep-state conspiracy behind it.
Joe Biden’s fault. For sure.
Or Obama’s.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
dv said:
Former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg has been sentenced to 10 years prison for child sex tourism.
NHOH – but i’m sure it is some leftie deep-state conspiracy behind it.
Joe Biden’s fault. For sure.
Or Obama’s.
Hillary’s pizza shop.
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:NHOH – but i’m sure it is some leftie deep-state conspiracy behind it.
Joe Biden’s fault. For sure.
Or Obama’s.
Hillary’s pizza shop.
The one with the basement that it doesn’t have?
Yep, in it for sure.
dv said:
Trump names ‘first buddy’ and DOGE leader Elon Musk to investigate Signal blunder
Musk offered ‘his technical experts’ to help investigate how a journalist was added to a group chat with national security officialsHilarious
we hear that
President Donald Trump suggested that Goldberg may have added himself, saying the technology allows for someone to “get onto those things.”
some of those experts are able to turn on a computer
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
Joe Biden’s fault. For sure.
Or Obama’s.
Hillary’s pizza shop.
The one with the basement that it doesn’t have?
Yep, in it for sure.
shrug most schools and hospitals in gaza have … basements …
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-not-briefed-us-army-soldiers-missing-lithuania-nato-2051222
Donald Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About US Soldiers Missing in Lithuania
——
Trump only heard about the Signal debacle from a journalist in a press briefing. He only heard about 4 missing or dead US servicemen in Lithuania from a journalist in a press briefing. He was not included in the group correspondence during the attack on the Houthis.
Is no one communicating with him?
Trump is kept quite busy, and quite happy, with his campaign of revenge against those who he considers ‘betrayed’ him earlier: the ‘left, the ‘woke’, the Democrats, the ‘deep state’, the ‘liberals’, the Latinos/illegal immigrants, he transgenders, the gays, the Europeans, the NATO members, the Canadians, the Mexicans, the Chinese, ‘foreigners’ in general, women, the lower courts, the legal system, the civil service, you name it.
He gets presented with ‘executive orders’ to scrawl on, which enact punitive measures against his ‘enemies’, as the payback that he considers to be more important than anything else, for what he perceives as their lack of respect for his superiority and genius.
He doesn’t know about, or want to know about, anything other than his payback campaign.
Elon is his run-around go-for, operating interference between him and the actual operation of government. Elon tells Trump about how they’re really ramming it to all those ‘traitors’ and making them suffer, whch is all that Trump wants to hear.
The real ‘business’ of government is in the hands of Vance and the kind of people who were in on the Houthi conference. And they see that ‘business’ as looking after the well-being of their corporate sponsors’ interests. Note the concern in the Houthi conference for the possibility of blow-back towards the Saudis, and the risks to oil prices.
Trump is in a situation not unlike that of Salazar in Portugal some 50-60 years back, where he was quietly replaced as ‘dictator’ by Caetano, but no-one told Salazar, and he was given nonsensical busywork to occupy him, so that he went to his grave firmly convinced that it was him who was still running Portugal.
Ooooh – a history reference i don’t know. I’ll have to look that up.
thankfully that busy work don’t include signing thousands of executive orders and those executive orders don’t got no negative impact on lives of disadvantaged
yeah it’s all fucked
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
Flatly authoritarian’: New video shows masked agents arresting Tufts student
This is exactly what i queried several months ago.
During Trump’s first Presidency, we saw protesters against his government’s stupidity assaulted by people with batons, wearing balaclavas and masks, in clothing with no identifying or authorising badges, bundled into black vans with no identifying marks, and simply carted away.
I asked, where are those vans today? Where are those masks, those batons? Where are the people who did those things? Have they they just ‘gone to ground’, waiting for a new call to action from a new Trump administration?
Well, here’s the answer.
hey got a surprise for yous
LOL
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Trump names ‘first buddy’ and DOGE leader Elon Musk to investigate Signal blunder
Musk offered ‘his technical experts’ to help investigate how a journalist was added to a group chat with national security officialsHilarious
we hear that
President Donald Trump suggested that Goldberg may have added himself, saying the technology allows for someone to “get onto those things.”
some of those experts are able to turn on a computer
aha
The Department of Government Efficiency lead speculated that official government channels weren’t used because they are “shockingly primitive.”
can rescue stranded astronauts, can’t code up a secure official government channel instead of complaining about the lack of one
I feel that the death of drumpfs previous wife never got enough media attention. She just “fell down the stairs”, which is probably maga for defenestration.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15uiSJBGFy/
Kingy said:
I feel that the death of drumpfs previous wife never got enough media attention. She just “fell down the stairs”, which is probably maga for defenestration.
Grave covered in weeds, and used as a tax break for one of his golf clubs.
Kingy said:
I feel that the death of drumpfs previous wife never got enough media attention. She just “fell down the stairs”, which is probably maga for defenestration.
Tribunalis deiectae?
ready before fire, that’s generous
Tau.Neutrino said:
Kingy said:
I feel that the death of drumpfs previous wife never got enough media attention. She just “fell down the stairs”, which is probably maga for defenestration.
Grave covered in weeds, and used as a tax break for one of his golf clubs.
You’d think one of the kids would do something
the Venezuelan gang members sent to Guantanamo are really Venezuelan gays?
sarahs mum said:
the Venezuelan gang members sent to Guantanamo are really Venezuelan gays?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9azpbpT7ipg
kii said:
Oh no!
Anyway…
sarahs mum said:
sarahs mum said:
the Venezuelan gang members sent to Guantanamo are really Venezuelan gays?
gang members can be gay, we didn’t think they were following a requirement to avoid DEI recruitment
Today’s daily dose of Quora:
“I know a little something that so many do not appreciate about Donald, but that those of us who worked with him in the financial services game have known for many
decades—LONG before he ever made a run at politics.
His stated motives rarely reveal his true agenda. His showmanship and charisma bedazzles the uninformed, which is exactly how he likes it.
He never signed a contract or met an agreement he wouldn’t violate or wriggle out of if it suited his hidden agenda. He never met an investor whose purse he didn’t consider his own in some strategic way. And he never met a human being he wouldn’t screw in order to advance or satisfy himself.
If you want to understand his beef with Panama, don’t look at the canal to which he now points. Look at Trump enterprises and their fraught financial and criminal relationship with Panama, and look to the Russian oligarchs who bought condos in his Panama Tower.
If you want to understand his fixation with Gaza, don’t look at the Palestinian or Israeli people; look at the real estate value he now perceives that Gaza holds, and he’d like to unlock.
If you want to understand his insane, obsessive beef with energy renewable windmills, don’t look at the wind energy aspect; look at his beef with Scotland over his golf course and the nearby windmills that damaged his idea of its aesthetics.
If you want to understand his irrational hatred of Obama, don’t look at the policies of the Obama administration; look to the annual press corp dinner where Obama poked fun at him and bruised his ego. If you want to understand his demonization of Democrats, look not to Democratic social policy, but to the fact they didn’t want him to run under color of their party.
If you want to understand his hatred of “immigrants” don’t look to the actual contributions and challenges related to immigration, but to his own germophobia and personal disgust for all things “dirty and brown.”
What he does SO masterfully, as many sociopaths do, is figure out how to align, however temporarily, his own personal agenda with the drives of those he can then USE to help him execute it. And the GOP fell right in line with that abusive strategy.
The GOP now looks much like a battered wife who would LOVE to quit Trump, but who also knows their financial security, personal comfort, and social status would collapse if they ran away. And they fear they won’t get much sympathy or support from the people who tried to warn them not to marry the dude—a serial, liar, cheater, thief, sadist, and a generally Bad Person.
Many of the GOP politicians today are busily masking their own abuse from the general public; at some point, however, as they watch their power continue to erode, their reputations get smashed, and themselves get blamed for the extensive abuse they now suffer, something’s gonna give.
I don’t know what it is, but every bone in my body FEELS an energetic convergence heading toward a massive, MASSIVE explosion—coming soon.
Author ~ Eilene Workman”
kii said:
I’m sorry kii, I thought this must have been a joke – but goodness me! It’s not only the door to door thing. Pretty much everything they thought they were going to do has been cancelled.
And this bit from that link amused me a lot…
>>Residents aren’t the only ones snubbing the Second Lady ahead of her high-profile visit to the island; Tupilak Travel, which is based in Greenland’s capital city, Nuuk, initially said it would host Usha Vance, but pulled out on Thursday.
In a post on Facebook, the company said that the US Consulate called and asked if it wanted the visit, and the company initially said yes, but then backed out.
“After closer consideration, however, we have now informed the consulate that we do not want her visit, as we cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that, quite, of course, comes with it. No thanks to nice visit… Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” the company said.
The cancellation comes on the same day that Vice President JD Vance announced that he would join his wife’s upcoming trip to Greenland.
“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video posted to X. <<
Using the analogy of a battered wife is rather vile.
buffy said:
kii said:
I’m sorry kii, I thought this must have been a joke – but goodness me! It’s not only the door to door thing. Pretty much everything they thought they were going to do has been cancelled.
And this bit from that link amused me a lot…
>>Residents aren’t the only ones snubbing the Second Lady ahead of her high-profile visit to the island; Tupilak Travel, which is based in Greenland’s capital city, Nuuk, initially said it would host Usha Vance, but pulled out on Thursday.
In a post on Facebook, the company said that the US Consulate called and asked if it wanted the visit, and the company initially said yes, but then backed out.
“After closer consideration, however, we have now informed the consulate that we do not want her visit, as we cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that, quite, of course, comes with it. No thanks to nice visit… Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” the company said.The cancellation comes on the same day that Vice President JD Vance announced that he would join his wife’s upcoming trip to Greenland.
“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video posted to X. <<
Divine Angel said:
Using the analogy of a battered wife is rather vile.
Is it though?
Not drag queen or a trans-person
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
Oh no!
Anyway…
I wonder how many times they got told to fuck off?
ChrispenEvan said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
Oh no!
Anyway…
I wonder how many times they got told to fuck off?
Never ever enough times.
SCIENCE said:
FMD
SCIENCE said:
Ha!
dv said:
Former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg has been sentenced to 10 years prison for child sex tourism.
Heck!
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357
Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
ChrispenEvan said:
Divine Angel said:
kii said:
Oh no!
Anyway…
I wonder how many times they got told to fuck off?
what if they trade Greenland for Ukraine how about that for a deal
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-28/trump-serious-greenland-takeover-putin/105106424
dv said:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
Fair.
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
Fair.
As i said last night, he’s a shop-dummy President, just a window-dressing figure who stands behind a microphone now and then.
He just wants to pursue his revenge campaign, isn’t interested in anything else.
Republican/corporate/ Russian/criminal interests are happy to let him do that, as long as he stays out of the way of their activities.
Divine Angel said:
Using the analogy of a battered wife is rather vile.
It is, but the situation in America becomes increasingly vile, day by day. Witness a young woman’s ‘arrest’ on a public street, and her secret transportation to the other end of the country.
The analogy of a battered wife does not necessarily diminish the ugliness and loathsomeness of domestic violence, but it’s a very effective analogy, capturing the concepts of abuse without retaliation, fear, stigma, and hopelessness.
Not an analogy to be used lightly, but, where the continued freedom, in fact, the continued existence, of a large and important nation is clearly at stake, its use might be excused just one time.
Tulsi Gabbard was today questioned on why she lied in her original testimony regarding the Signal chat scandal. Her response, “I misremembered”.
Pressure is growing on Pete Hegseth to face questioning when he returns from his latest overseas trip – to quote Trump “this is going to be great television”
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
Fair.
As i said last night, he’s a shop-dummy President, just a window-dressing figure who stands behind a microphone now and then.
He just wants to pursue his revenge campaign, isn’t interested in anything else.
Republican/corporate/ Russian/criminal interests are happy to let him do that, as long as he stays out of the way of their activities.
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Fair.
As i said last night, he’s a shop-dummy President, just a window-dressing figure who stands behind a microphone now and then.
He just wants to pursue his revenge campaign, isn’t interested in anything else.
Republican/corporate/ Russian/criminal interests are happy to let him do that, as long as he stays out of the way of their activities.
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
But is he, or are Elon Vance and Co. doing it through him?
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:As i said last night, he’s a shop-dummy President, just a window-dressing figure who stands behind a microphone now and then.
He just wants to pursue his revenge campaign, isn’t interested in anything else.
Republican/corporate/ Russian/criminal interests are happy to let him do that, as long as he stays out of the way of their activities.
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
But is he, or are Elon Vance and Co. doing it through him?
don’t worry concentrating power and influence in a single or triple executive is all about the checks and balances
dv said:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
During the pandemic Trump kept saying he wanted to be a “cheerleader for the country”. I’d yell at the TV “The country needs a ‘leader’ you idiot, not a ‘cheerleader’!”
diddly-squat said:
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
Well, you can read soemone else’s opinion on the degree to which Trump is steeringthe ship of state:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/signalgate-is-bad-stupidfuckingidiotgat
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:As i said last night, he’s a shop-dummy President, just a window-dressing figure who stands behind a microphone now and then.
He just wants to pursue his revenge campaign, isn’t interested in anything else.
Republican/corporate/ Russian/criminal interests are happy to let him do that, as long as he stays out of the way of their activities.
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
But is he, or are Elon Vance and Co. doing it through him?
um.. I think it’s pretty clear that Trump is the one calling the shots.. Vance is a sycophant, Musk, however, does have influence with Trump but even his influence is limited. As a “special government employee” he can only work a total of 130 days in a calendar year so his tenure has a deadline. Now he may be brought back in a formal nature but his unpopularity is an anchor on Trump and DJT knows it.
diddly-squat said:
I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
LOLOLOLOL….you’re kidding, aren’t you?
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
Well, you can read soemone else’s opinion on the degree to which Trump is steeringthe ship of state:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/signalgate-is-bad-stupidfuckingidiotgat
I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
diddly-squat said:
um.. I think it’s pretty clear that Trump is the one calling the shots.. Vance is a sycophant, Musk, however, does have influence with Trump but even his influence is limited. As a “special government employee” he can only work a total of 130 days in a calendar year so his tenure has a deadline. Now he may be brought back in a formal nature but his unpopularity is an anchor on Trump and DJT knows it.
LOLOLOLOL…..they lie, they constantly lie.
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
Well, you can read soemone else’s opinion on the degree to which Trump is steeringthe ship of state:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/signalgate-is-bad-stupidfuckingidiotgat
I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
esselte said:
dv said:
Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”
“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.
A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.
During the pandemic Trump kept saying he wanted to be a “cheerleader for the country”. I’d yell at the TV “The country needs a ‘leader’ you idiot, not a ‘cheerleader’!”
someone’s probably already mentioned how these malicious actors exploit Hanlon’s epilator to advance their agenda under cover of the impression of incompetence which is weaponised just like darvo but nah nobody will foresee this
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Well, you can read soemone else’s opinion on the degree to which Trump is steeringthe ship of state:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/signalgate-is-bad-stupidfuckingidiotgat
I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
¿ref
kii said:
diddly-squat said:um.. I think it’s pretty clear that Trump is the one calling the shots.. Vance is a sycophant, Musk, however, does have influence with Trump but even his influence is limited. As a “special government employee” he can only work a total of 130 days in a calendar year so his tenure has a deadline. Now he may be brought back in a formal nature but his unpopularity is an anchor on Trump and DJT knows it.
LOLOLOLOL…..they lie, they constantly lie.
exactly, if only a dictator were removed, regime would change as there is nobody to replace a dictator
diddly-squat said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
diddly-squat said:I think it’s a bit of stretch to suggest that Trump is just “sitting in the shop window”. He alone, is the one that is actively setting the policy platform for the entire GOP and on an international standpoint is in essence setting US foreign policy.
It’s hard say that last POTUS that has had such wide reaching influence.
But is he, or are Elon Vance and Co. doing it through him?
um.. I think it’s pretty clear that Trump is the one calling the shots.. Vance is a sycophant, Musk, however, does have influence with Trump but even his influence is limited. As a “special government employee” he can only work a total of 130 days in a calendar year so his tenure has a deadline. Now he may be brought back in a formal nature but his unpopularity is an anchor on Trump and DJT knows it.
That’s assuming the rule of law is understood and adhered to.
I think that that’s a bad assumption.
RFK Jr is cutting numbers at the Dept of Health and Human Services by 25% (approx 10,000 employees) in an aim to save upwards of $1.8B. Along with the cuts the Department’s existing 28 divisions will be consolidated down to 15. The new look HHS will include a newly formed division called the Administration for Healthy America, whose acronym with be A-HA.
People at HHS be like
Janet Yawn
Yesterday at 05:39 ·
Oh don’t worry guys, our top intelligence official is just casually boosting Russian state media, but it’s fine because it’s her personal account. Totally normal.
Rest of conversation -
HIMES: Do you think it’s responsible for you, as head of the intelligence community, to retweet posts from individuals affiliated with Russian state media?
GABBARD: That retweet came from my personal account.
HIMES: Personal account? You’re the Director of National Intelligence, not an Instagram influencer. There’s no such thing as “personal” when you’re elevating Kremlin propaganda.
GABBARD: I have the right to share information—
HIMES: Information? You mean Russian disinformation. You sit in high-level intelligence briefings, then turn around and boost the same narratives Moscow is pushing. Should we just CC the Kremlin on your next meeting and cut out the middleman?
GABBARD: This is just an attempt to smear me—
HIMES: Smear you? You lied under oath in a Senate hearing yesterday, claiming you knew nothing about classified information, while sitting in Signal chats where war plans were discussed. You retweet Kremlin-backed sources, then act shocked when people question your loyalties.
GABBARD: I’m focused on national security—
HIMES: National security? While pushing Russian propaganda and pretending you’re clueless about intelligence leaks? If a Democrat had done half of this, you’d be screaming treason on national TV.
GABBARD: This is about free speech—
HIMES: Free speech? You’re the President’s top intelligence advisor, not some random guy on Twitter. Every word you amplify has consequences. And right now, you’re handing America’s enemies exactly what they want—straight from your “personal account.”
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1904907517261705605
kii said:
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:Well, you can read soemone else’s opinion on the degree to which Trump is steeringthe ship of state:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/signalgate-is-bad-stupidfuckingidiotgat
I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
One wonders if perhaps they were trying to get weed using Signal and were all confused.
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I understand JT’s position, but I find his OpEds about as helpful as Tucker Carlson’s
Trump is clearly distancing himself from SignalGate, he’ll pretend not to know and say that he hasn’t been briefed or that his team are looking into it and then he’ll wait, he’ll see which way the political winds blow and if necessary he’ll cut ties with any of his appointees he thinks are weighing him down.
trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
I disagree.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
I think he’s very savvy at the things he’s good at. He likes winning and he’ll do anything to stack the deck in his favor. He’ll also discard any person in his orbit that he feels is either (1) taking attention away from him or (2) is making him look bad. His also have a very keen sence for how media works and how he can make the media work for him.
I think he bores quickly, I think he has no interest in detail and I think one of the big difference in his second term is that he’s become far more of an ideologue than he used to be.
He craves respect and acknowledgment and is a clear narcissist.
The Dems underestimated him to their folly
sarahs mum said:
Janet Yawn
Yesterday at 05:39 ·
Oh don’t worry guys, our top intelligence official is just casually boosting Russian state media, but it’s fine because it’s her personal account. Totally normal.
Rest of conversation -
HIMES: Do you think it’s responsible for you, as head of the intelligence community, to retweet posts from individuals affiliated with Russian state media?
GABBARD: That retweet came from my personal account.
HIMES: Personal account? You’re the Director of National Intelligence, not an Instagram influencer. There’s no such thing as “personal” when you’re elevating Kremlin propaganda.
GABBARD: I have the right to share information—
HIMES: Information? You mean Russian disinformation. You sit in high-level intelligence briefings, then turn around and boost the same narratives Moscow is pushing. Should we just CC the Kremlin on your next meeting and cut out the middleman?
GABBARD: This is just an attempt to smear me—
HIMES: Smear you? You lied under oath in a Senate hearing yesterday, claiming you knew nothing about classified information, while sitting in Signal chats where war plans were discussed. You retweet Kremlin-backed sources, then act shocked when people question your loyalties.
GABBARD: I’m focused on national security—
HIMES: National security? While pushing Russian propaganda and pretending you’re clueless about intelligence leaks? If a Democrat had done half of this, you’d be screaming treason on national TV.
GABBARD: This is about free speech—
HIMES: Free speech? You’re the President’s top intelligence advisor, not some random guy on Twitter. Every word you amplify has consequences. And right now, you’re handing America’s enemies exactly what they want—straight from your “personal account.”
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1904907517261705605
Hey Zeus!
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
Yeah, i know the ‘2025’ thing.
But, damn, most plans, you following in a logical sequence.
You don’t try to implement all of the phases at the same time.
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
I think there is destination – how they get there is probably open to the weave somewhat
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
he’s the man. Panama!
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
I think he’s very savvy at the things he’s good at. He likes winning and he’ll do anything to stack the deck in his favor. He’ll also discard any person in his orbit that he feels is either (1) taking attention away from him or (2) is making him look bad. His also have a very keen sence for how media works and how he can make the media work for him.
I think he bores quickly, I think he has no interest in detail and I think one of the big difference in his second term is that he’s become far more of an ideologue than he used to be.
He craves respect and acknowledgment and is a clear narcissist.
The Dems underestimated him to their folly
He’s quite likely sociopathic and who knows how far he would go.
He’d have the power to have people killed off the books
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
kii said:trump doesn’t know wtf is going on! FFS, wake up!
I disagree.
If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
totally not taking advantage of Hanlon and their lathe
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
he’s the man. Panama!
They could invade blasting Van Halen
captain_spalding said:
Yeah, i know the ‘2025’ thing.But, damn, most plans, you following in a logical sequence.
You don’t try to implement all of the phases at the same time.
their plan includes taking advantage of the chaos so how is that an accident
ChrispenEvan said:
why are they waiting around
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
captain_spalding said:If he isn’t clueless about what’s occurring, then he’s quite a good actor.
But, no-one who had anything to do with him in the production of ‘The Apprentice’ would acknowledge that.
He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
A 20 year project of reorientation of the US economy around import substitution could be his game and he just doesn’t realise how badly things will go for the first few years because he gets no feedback from allied who know better.
There is also an outside chance that he is wily enough to think he may as well use his power to seriously slash entitlements to take the US economy back to some semblance of fiscal rectitude which could be his legacy.
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
why are they waiting around
Some bloke with a gun iside?
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
why are they waiting around
Some bloke with a gun iside?
inside
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
why are they waiting around
For the kid to finish class.
Seen in Arlington, Va.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
Witty Rejoinder said:He’s clueless because he’s an idiot but I think he’s quite sure that everything is going to plan.
There’s a plan?
he’s the man. Panama!
Even though DJT seems to be unaware of events and circumstances, he does seem to still be the moral Id of the government, driving overall sentiment (betray Europe, kick blacks, deport browns, disrupt government, fellate Putin, spruik Musk) rather than specific actions on a day to day basis.
dv said:
Seen in Arlington, Va.
:)
dv said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:There’s a plan?
he’s the man. Panama!
Even though DJT seems to be unaware of events and circumstances, he does seem to still be the moral Id of the government, driving overall sentiment (betray Europe, kick blacks, deport browns, disrupt government, fellate Putin, spruik Musk) rather than specific actions on a day to day basis.
Has the EO for The Smithsonian been posted yet?
Anyhoo I found this. The top answer, which didn’t fit into the screenshot, was “he’s after our natural resources”.
DJT’s nominee for ambasador to South Africa is Brent Bozell, who was a pro-Apartheid activist in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ian said:
LOLOLOLOLOL
:)
Divine Angel said:
Anyhoo I found this. The top answer, which didn’t fit into the screenshot, was “he’s after our natural resources”.
^
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
ChrispenEvan said:
why are they waiting around
For the kid to finish class.
shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
why are they waiting around
For the kid to finish class.
shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
Surely they don’t want the other students to be disturbed by what they see.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
For the kid to finish class.
shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
Surely they don’t want the other students to be disturbed by what they see.
Practicing for what to do in case some looney bursts into the school with a machine gun and tries to kill you has probably already disturbed them enough.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
Surely they don’t want the other students to be disturbed by what they see.
Practicing for what to do in case some looney bursts into the school with a machine gun and tries to kill you has probably already disturbed them enough.
Yea, but that’s normal in schools. Everybody does it.
(In the USA.)
misremembered.
Hadn’t heard that excuse before.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
Surely they don’t want the other students to be disturbed by what they see.
Practicing for what to do in case some looney bursts into the school with a machine gun and tries to kill you has probably already disturbed them enough.
Practicing to wait around like they did in Uvalde 2022 right¿
Wait oh right you meant the students not the police…
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
For the kid to finish class.
shrug we mean a bunch of enforcers happy to disappear people while hiding their own identities, andor help black men tell the truth when they say they can’t breathe, seem unlikely to care that class is in session
Surely they don’t want the other students to be disturbed by what they see.
yeah we suppose they’d find it less convenient if the other students turned out to be more than just passive enabler bystanders
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-proposes-bill-punish-supporting-122442691.html
Arkansas Republicans have proposed a bill that would allow lawsuits against people who support transgender youth’s social transitions, including by using their preferred name and pronouns or by giving them a gender nonconforming haircut.
—-
Not sure how they are going to police the haircut thing.
dv said:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-proposes-bill-punish-supporting-122442691.htmlArkansas Republicans have proposed a bill that would allow lawsuits against people who support transgender youth’s social transitions, including by using their preferred name and pronouns or by giving them a gender nonconforming haircut.
—-Not sure how they are going to police the haircut thing.
Yeah, weird. I wonder whether Mrs V would go to jail (she gets a #2 buzz-cut).
Heather Cox Richardson
53m ·
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)
Today, Wired reported that it had found four more Venmo accounts associated with the Trump administration officials who participated in the now-infamous Signal chat about a planned military attack on the Houthis in Yemen. A payment on one of them was identified only with an eggplant emoji, which is commonly used to suggest sexual activity.
The craziness going on around us in the first two months of the second Trump administration makes a lot more sense if you remember that the goal of those currently in power was never simply to change the policies or the personnel of the U.S. government. Their goal is to dismantle the central pillars of the United States of America—government, law, business, education, culture, and so on—because they believe the very shape of those institutions serves what they call “the Left.”
Their definition of “the Left” includes all Americans, Republicans and Independents as well as Democrats, who believe the government has a role to play in regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, and protecting civil rights and who support the institutional structures Americans have built since World War II.
In place of those structures, today’s MAGA leaders intend to create their own new institutions, shaped by their own people, whose ideological purity trumps their abilities. As Vice President J.D. Vance explained in a 2021 interview, he and his ilk believe that American “conservatives…have lost every major powerful institution in the country, except for maybe churches and religious institutions, which of course are weaker now than they’ve ever been. We’ve lost big business. We’ve lost finance. We’ve lost the culture. We’ve lost the academy. And if we’re going to actually really effect real change in the country, it will require us completely replacing the existing ruling class with another ruling class…. I don’t think there’s sort of a compromise that we’re going to come with the people who currently actually control the country. Unless we overthrow them in some way, we’re going to keep losing.” “We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,” he said.
This plan is central to Project 2025, the plan President Donald Trump insisted before the election he knew nothing about but which, now that he’s in office, has provided the blueprint for a large majority of the administration’s actions. Project 2025 author Russell Vought, who is now Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, called for a “conservative President” to “use…the vast powers of the executive branch” aggressively “to send power away from Washington and back to America’s families, faith communities, local governments, and states.”
Last month, journalist Gil Duran of The Nerd Reich noted that Curtis Yarvin, a thinker popular with the technological elite currently aligned with the religious extremists at Project 2025, laid out a plan in 2022 to gut the U.S. government and replace it with a dictatorship. This would be a “reboot” of the country, Yarvin wrote, and it would require a “full power start,” a reference to restarting a stalled starship by jumping to full power, which risks destroying the ship.
Yarvin called for “giving absolute sovereignty to a single organization,” headed by the equivalent of the rogue chief executive officer of a corporation who would destroy the public institutions of the democratic government. Trump—whom Yarvin dismissed as weak—would give power to that CEO, who would “run the executive branch without any interference from the Congress or courts…. Most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut down and replaced with new and efficient systems.” Once loyalists have replaced civil servants in a new ideological “army,” the CEO “will throw it directly against the administrative state—not bothering with confirmed appointments, just using temporary appointments as needed. The job of this landing force is not to govern.” The new regime must take over the country and “perform the real functions of the old, and ideally perform them much better.” It must “seize all points of power, without respect for paper protections.”
Earlier this month, Yarvin cheered on the idea of hacking existing infrastructure “to operate in an unusual way that its designers, its previous operators, or both, did not expect,” and complimented DOGE for the way it has hacked into existing bureaucracies. The key performance indicator of DOGE, he wrote, “is its ability to take power from the libs, then keep it.”
Far from saving money for the United States, as Jacob Bogage at the Washington Post reported on March 22, billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has cost the government $500 billion, 10% of what the Internal Revenue Service took in last year. Bogage reports that the administration has demolished the IRS, firing nearly 20,000 employees, especially in the divisions that focus on enforcement, and dropping investigations of corporations and the richest taxpayers. Officials project that these changes will result in more tax evasion, and they are expecting a sharp drop in tax revenue this spring.
If the administration is working not to save money but rather to destroy the government, the cuts that threaten the well-being of American citizens make more sense. Today, Emily Davies and Jeff Stein of the Washington Post reported that Trump officials are looking for cuts of between 8% and 50% of the employees in federal agencies. They obtained an internal White House document that calls for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be cut in half, the Interior Department to lose nearly 25% of its workforce, and the Internal Revenue Service to lose about one third of its people. The Justice Department is set to lose 8% of its workforce, the National Science Foundation 28%, the Commerce Department 30%, and the Small Business Administration 43%.
Cuts to the government have led to the Social Security Administration’s website crashing four times in ten days this month, and there are not enough workers to answer phones. Yesterday, Sahil Kapur and Julie Tsirkin of NBC News reported that lawmakers, including Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), have been kept in the dark as the men working for DOGE have cut SSA phone services and instituted new rules requiring that beneficiaries without access to the internet prove their identity with an in-person visit to an SSA office.
Washington Post reporters Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson warn that “Social Security is breaking down.” Senator Angus King (I-ME) told them: “What’s going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it’s accelerating…. What they’re doing now is unconscionable.”
In a televised Cabinet meeting on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she planned to “eliminate FEMA,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency that responds to national emergencies like hurricanes. This news comes on top of Trump’s executive order last week calling for the Department of Education to be shuttered, along with cuts of about half of its workforce.
Yesterday, Apoorva Mandavilli, Margot Sanger-Katz, and Jan Hoffman reported in the New York Times that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suddenly cancelled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states. That money supported mental health services, addiction treatment, and programs to track infectious diseases. Today HHS announced it will be cutting 10,000 employees on top of the 10,000 who have already left and the more than 5,000 probationary workers who were fired last month. These cuts will include 3,500 full-time employees from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and 2,400 employees from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to slashing and burning through government agencies, the administration is trying to undermine the rule of law. Trump has signed executive orders suspending security clearances for law firms that represent Democratic clients and barring the government from hiring employees from those firms.
Trump and his team have challenged the judges who have ruled against Trump, working to destroy faith in the courts. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has suggested that Republicans in Congress could eliminate some federal courts, telling reporters: “We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things.”
Trump’s administration is also working to take over colleges and universities, beginning with a high-profile fight against Columbia University in which the administration withheld $400 million in grants, allegedly over antisemitism at the school, until the university bent to the administration’s will. Columbia’s leaders did so, only to have the administration say the changes are only “early steps” and that Columbia “must continue to show they are serious in their resolve to end anti-Semitism…through permanent and structural reform. Other universities…should expect the same level of scrutiny and swiftness of action if they don’t act to protect their students and stop anti-Semitic behavior on campus,” a member of the administration said.
Chillingly, on Tuesday federal authorities in plain clothes took Tufts University international student Rumeysa Ozturk into custody on the street in Somerville, Massachusetts, saying she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” apparently a reference to a pro-Palestinian op-ed she had written for the Tufts newspaper. On Wednesday the Department of Homeland Security said she was being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Louisiana.
The administration is also working to reshape American culture according to their vision. The project of stripping words like “climate crisis,” “diversity,” “health disparity,” “peanut allergies,” “science-based,” “segregation,” “stereotypes,” and “understudied” from government communications are an explicit attempt to reshape the way Americans think. Today, in an executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” Trump tried to change the ways in which Americans understand our history, too. He called for Vance, who as vice president serves on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, “to work to eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.”
The problem for those who embrace this vision of America is that it is not popular. Before the election, only 4% of voters liked Project 2025, and it has not gained in popularity as the dramatic cuts to the government have hurt farmers by killing grain purchases for foreign aid, cut funding for cancer research, and thrown people out of work. Because Republican-dominated counties rely more heavily on government programs than Democratic-dominated counties do, cuts to government services are hitting Republican voters particularly hard.
On Tuesday, Democrat James Andrew Malone won a special election for a state senate seat in a Pennsylvania district that Trump won in November with 57% of the vote. Today, Trump was forced to withdraw New York Republican representative Elise Stefanik’s name from consideration for ambassador to the United Nations out of concern that a Democrat might win her vacant seat, although Trump won her district in 2024 by 21 points.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
53m ·
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)Earlier this month, Yarvin cheered on the idea of hacking existing infrastructure “to operate in an unusual way that its designers, its previous operators, or both, did not expect,” and complimented DOGE for the way it has hacked into existing bureaucracies. The key performance indicator of DOGE, he wrote, “is its ability to take power from the libs, then keep it.”
Right. Well what are you going to do with the 300 million people who really don’t want you to do that. The country belongs to them, not you.
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
53m ·
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)Earlier this month, Yarvin cheered on the idea of hacking existing infrastructure “to operate in an unusual way that its designers, its previous operators, or both, did not expect,” and complimented DOGE for the way it has hacked into existing bureaucracies. The key performance indicator of DOGE, he wrote, “is its ability to take power from the libs, then keep it.”
Right. Well what are you going to do with the 300 million people who really don’t want you to do that. The country belongs to them, not you.
Their ideal is a country where money, guns, and private armies to use those guns, ensure the comfort and well-being of a very select elite.
The rest of the country can be left to a dog-eat-dog form of savage feudalism, fighting every minute of every day for their existence, upon which the elite can impose their will and organise labour as and when they feel the need, and from which they can plunder whatever the elite feel that they need.
it seems it is getting harder for heather to a short precis.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
53m ·
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)cut……………………
Ta.
Musk vs. Zuckerberg:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
53m ·
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)Earlier this month, Yarvin cheered on the idea of hacking existing infrastructure “to operate in an unusual way that its designers, its previous operators, or both, did not expect,” and complimented DOGE for the way it has hacked into existing bureaucracies. The key performance indicator of DOGE, he wrote, “is its ability to take power from the libs, then keep it.”
Right. Well what are you going to do with the 300 million people who really don’t want you to do that. The country belongs to them, not you.
Their ideal is a country where money, guns, and private armies to use those guns, ensure the comfort and well-being of a very select elite.
The rest of the country can be left to a dog-eat-dog form of savage feudalism, fighting every minute of every day for their existence, upon which the elite can impose their will and organise labour as and when they feel the need, and from which they can plunder whatever the elite feel that they need.
Leave them to eat their pets?
sarahs mum said:
it seems it is getting harder for heather to a short precis.
She says it all.
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:Right. Well what are you going to do with the 300 million people who really don’t want you to do that. The country belongs to them, not you.
Their ideal is a country where money, guns, and private armies to use those guns, ensure the comfort and well-being of a very select elite.
The rest of the country can be left to a dog-eat-dog form of savage feudalism, fighting every minute of every day for their existence, upon which the elite can impose their will and organise labour as and when they feel the need, and from which they can plunder whatever the elite feel that they need.
Leave them to eat their pets?
Leave them to eat each other, who cares, they’re peasants, right?
captain_spalding said:
Musk vs. Zuckerberg:
ozzyman. I was watching a warthog defence video earlier. he does a lot of Ukraine stuff. anyway, he had some tesla stuff on and ozzyman was giving the commentry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oQ-NQV-9rA
8:07
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Their ideal is a country where money, guns, and private armies to use those guns, ensure the comfort and well-being of a very select elite.
The rest of the country can be left to a dog-eat-dog form of savage feudalism, fighting every minute of every day for their existence, upon which the elite can impose their will and organise labour as and when they feel the need, and from which they can plunder whatever the elite feel that they need.
Leave them to eat their pets?
Leave them to eat each other, who cares, they’re peasants, right?
All them lefties who didn’t think we were right? yeah the pigs, imagine them bludgiing off us?
Roger Gently, our correspondent in Bangkok, is currently on the road to Mandalay.
There’ll always be a Canada:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dhs-staffer-faces-serious-punishment-accidentally-adding-reporter-grou-rcna198233
A federal worker accidentally includes a journalist on a detailed message in advance of a government operation.
While that sounds like the case of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief being added to a group Signal chat by Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed military attack plans in Yemen, it’s not.
It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)
But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dhs-staffer-faces-serious-punishment-accidentally-adding-reporter-grou-rcna198233A federal worker accidentally includes a journalist on a detailed message in advance of a government operation.
While that sounds like the case of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief being added to a group Signal chat by Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed military attack plans in Yemen, it’s not.
It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)
But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”
They should all be sacked, for using a third party platform. All of this stuff should be on secured internal communications channels, and recorded and minuted etc. Having a general open chat group on a third party platform is unforgiveable for top level security clearance staff. This is not a switch hunt.
dv said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dhs-staffer-faces-serious-punishment-accidentally-adding-reporter-grou-rcna198233A federal worker accidentally includes a journalist on a detailed message in advance of a government operation.
While that sounds like the case of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief being added to a group Signal chat by Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed military attack plans in Yemen, it’s not.
It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)
But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”
Double standards, double standards. Do you really expect anything less?
Michael V said:
Do you really expect anything less?
No.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
party_pants said:
dv said:
A federal worker accidentally includes a journalist on a detailed message in advance of a government operation.
While that sounds like the case of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief being added to a group Signal chat by Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed military attack plans in Yemen, it’s not.
It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)
But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”
They should all be sacked, for using a third party platform. All of this stuff should be on secured internal communications channels, and recorded and minuted etc. Having a general open chat group on a third party platform is unforgiveable for top level security clearance staff. This is not a switch hunt.
Do you really expect anything less?
No.
maybe maybe but she should have sent the classified details before they were declassified and then it would have been all good
looks like free speech
calibration
alleged
As Trump mayhem spreads, MAGA unity cracks
From the Wall Street Journal editorial board to Fox News, capitulation is on the way out.
March 28, 2025 at 7:45 a.m. EDT Yesterday at 7:45 a.m. EDT
Wednesday found White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doing what she does every other day of the week.
“This is classic Fake News,” she announced, in her briefing and in a social media post, from a news outlet that doesn’t “care … about the truth” and is instead “running these lies,” which are “absolutely false” and “erroneous.”
The only unusual thing this time was the diatribe was directed at the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. And not just any part of the Journal but its editorial board, which has been a clarion voice of the right in the United States for 135 years. Now, it is using that voice to defend its longtime motto — “free markets and free people” — by becoming a daily scold of the Trump administration for its constant violations of both.
Leavitt’s particular objection was over a minor point, about whether an adviser to President Donald Trump was on the now-infamous Signal group chat while in Moscow, but the White House was no doubt stung by Wednesday’s editorial overall, which criticized “JD Vance’s contempt for allies” and the vice president’s apparent willingness “to let the Houthis shut down shipping to spite the Europeans.” The editorial suggested Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been “cavalier about the details of incoming military strikes” and was “silly” to try to “shift the blame for the fiasco on the journalist who was put on the chat.” It suggested Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff “is out of his depth in dealing with world crises,” and it warned that “America’s allies may conclude they can no longer trust the U.S. in a crisis.”
After Leavitt’s rebuke, the Journal came back at the administration even harder in Thursday’s paper. “The White House won’t let bad enough alone when it comes to the Signal app fiasco,” it thundered. While conceding the White House’s point about the adviser’s phone, it blasted the administration’s “defensive insistence that the chat didn’t disclose any ‘war plans,’ which is a weak attempt at obfuscation.” Criticizing Hegseth for trying to dismiss the flap as a hoax, it concluded that the administration “seems to think it can bully its way through anything by shouting Fake News and attacking the press” but should instead “take the loss.”
The Journal paired this with another editorial in Thursday’s paper on Republicans’ “shock” loss of a special election in a heavily Republican area of Pennsylvania. “Even voters who like the GOP’s policy agenda could be jolted by the impression of chaos in Washington, plus Mr. Trump’s recent focus on retribution,” it wrote, warning against following “out-of-touch leaders down ideological rabbit holes.” The day before, the Journal denounced the “dumb-and-dumber trade war” and Trump’s desire to “sabotage America with protectionism.”
We have seen entirely too much cowering and capitulation in the face of Trump’s threats: by the Paul Weiss law firm and Columbia University, by Meta and much of Silicon Valley, by Big Pharma and other industries, by mostly supine congressional Republicans, by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (in the eyes of many on the left), and by media outlets. But in a crisis, courage can be found in unexpected places. This is why it’s heartening to see some on the right (beyond the usual never-Trumpers) beginning to speak out about Trump’s overreach. We might be seeing the first cracks in MAGA unity, which Trump has maintained by threats and fear.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama), who lead the Senate and House Armed Services committees, respectively, pushed back firmly against the administration’s plans to restructure the military and retreat from Europe, saying they “will not accept” changes without congressional approval. Wicker has also said he is directing the administration to preserve documents in the Signal group chat matter, as his committee begins an inquiry into the fiasco. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) and others pushed back firmly against the administration in the Signal screwup, directing them to “own it and fix it,” as Thune put it. A Republican Jewish Coalition board member and GOP fundraiser called on Trump’s lead peace negotiator, Steve Witkoff, to resign for his “utter incompetence” in dealing with Vladimir Putin and with Hamas.
Some in the MAGA echo chamber are likewise pushing back. Fox News host Laura Ingraham was skeptical of national security adviser Michael Waltz as he tried to explain how he added Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s number to his group chat (“Somehow it gets sucked in”). Fox News’s chief national security correspondent said her sources told her “what was shared may have been FAR MORE sensitive” than the term “war plans” conveys. Broadcaster Piers Morgan pointed out that if “this had happened on Biden’s watch, Republicans would have rightly gone berserk.” The (Murdoch-owned) New York Post branded the flap “OPERATION OVERSHARE,” and Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy wrote a piece for the paper arguing: “It is undeniable, or at least it should be, that ‘information providing advance warning that the US or its allies are preparing an attack’ is to be classified as ‘top secret.’”
The courts have risen to the occasion in restraining Trump, from dozens of trial judges across the country to the chief justice. When an appeals court this week rejected the administration’s appeal of Judge James Boasberg’s order in the Venezuelan deportation case, Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote in her opinion that the administration was “incorrect” to claim that it was immune from judicial review and that the lower-court judge’s order was written “for a quintessentially valid purpose.”
The Journal’s editorial board has been tough on Trump from the start of his term. But lately, it has run one editorial after the other excoriating his positions on trade, national security and the law. It blasted “the administration’s propensity to fall for Russian propaganda,” warning that it might be following in Neville Chamberlain’s footsteps when it comes to Ukraine. It admonished that “Taunting John Roberts is a lousy strategy,” that Trump “can’t defy court orders” and that Trump’s military reorganization “sounds more like an American retreat.” It said the calls to impeach “judges who rule against Trump are a corrosive stunt.” And it righteously declared, “Mr. Trump’s decision to use government power to punish firms for representing clients breaks a cornerstone principle of American justice going back to John Adams and the Founders.”
Amen.
The administration has richly earned condemnation from right, left and center for its fast-and-loose handling of the government and the law. Let’s consider this week’s parade of horribles.
Trump and senior advisers called the Signal scandal a “hoax,” a “witch hunt” and “bulls—-,” while blaming the “scumbags” at the Atlantic and a “defective” Signal app, while maintaining the ludicrous position that no classified information was shared in the chat. (“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). … 1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts — also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on cars and threatened to impose 25 percent across-the-board tariffs next week against China and other countries that buy oil or gas from Venezuela. Trump said he will also impose sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” next week against a broad range of countries. Amid the turmoil, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell in March for the fourth-straight month, to the lowest in more than four years.
Trump publicly agreed with Vance in disparaging European allies: “Yeah, I think they’ve been freeloading.” Vance’s wife, Usha, had to abandon plans to make a public visit to Greenland with Waltz, after furious reaction from Greenlanders over the Americans’ “highly aggressive” effort to “demonstrate power over us.” The Vances will instead visit a U.S. military base on the island. Danish media reports that shopkeepers and residents refused when “Americans” over the last week “knocked on doors and rang doorbells” to ask whether Greenlanders would meet with Usha Vance: “They have been told no, no, no, no, no, every time they have asked if they would like the vice president’s wife to visit.”
Witkoff gave a stunning interview to Tucker Carlson in which he said that Putin was “straight up” and not a “bad guy.” Witkoff accused Britain and France of “a posture and a pose” in their pro-Ukraine positions and said he was “100 percent” certain that Russia “doesn’t want to overrun Europe,” while embracing the Russian claim that people in the seized Ukrainian territory “want to be under Russian rule.” Witkoff recounted how “President Putin had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist” and how “when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president.” (National intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, meanwhile, testified to Congress that it was her “First Amendment right” to repost a social media message from a contributor to RT, a Russian propaganda outlet.)
The administration’s slash-first-ask-questions-later approach to the federal government hit the Department of Health and Human Services, which is reportedly cutting 20,000 jobs and dramatically scaling back the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a time when measles is spreading and avian flu is threatening. The White House has canceled funding for studies of antiviral drugs and vaccines to fight future pandemics, as well as grants to track infectious diseases. It has hired a man who promotes the false claim that immunization causes autism to do a study on the topic. This comes as the administration is cutting off payments by paper checks to Social Security recipients, even as it backs away from its plans to cut phone services because of a fierce backlash. Its cuts to the IRS have been so severe that Treasury Department and IRS officials predict a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax revenue — or more than $500 billion — the Post’s Jacob Bogage reports.
In the rule-of-law category, Trump attacked the “Rigged System” of the federal judiciary, alleging “Corruption and Radicalism” in federal courts in New York and D.C. He linked to an article from a conspiracy site arguing that judges who oppose him could be guilty of “Sedition and Treason.” He issued an order attempting to destroy another law firm, Jenner & Block, by seeking to deny it security clearances and access to federal buildings and contracts because it once employed a lawyer who worked on a Justice Department probe of Trump during his first term. The president issued an order mandating proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, seizing a power the Constitution assigns to the states and Congress. He mulled offering financial compensation to those convicted (and pardoned by Trump) for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. And his cryptocurrency business launched a new coin to further enrich him and his family.
Finally, under the heading of miscellaneous weirdness, Trump expressed his wish at a Women’s History Month event to “be known as the fertilization president.” He complained that a portrait of him in the Colorado state capitol was “purposefully distorted.” And, hours after the first reports that four U.S. soldiers had gone missing during a NATO exercise in Lithuania near the border of Belarus, Trump appeared unaware. Asked by reporters whether he had been briefed, he replied, “No, I haven’t.”
When it comes to opposing Trump’s overreach, courage hasn’t been lacking. The law firm Perkins Coie, represented by Williams & Connolly, is fighting back against Trump’s vindictiveness. The Associated Press took the administration to court on Thursday over Trump’s banishment of the news organization from the Oval Office and Air Force One. Countless Americans have stood up to Trump — in court, on the streets, at town-hall events and rallies.
Still, the resistance from his natural allies appears to sting Trump in particular. Last week, he attacked the “absolutely terrible” work of Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, apparently because she asked on air about the propriety of Trump hosting a Tesla marketing event at the White House. Brit Hume and others at the network came to her defense.
Trump has likewise seethed over Wall Street Journal editorials. When one argued late last month that his tariffs would “harm U.S. auto workers and Republican prospects in Michigan,” Trump fired off a post saying he “greatly appreciate” when the Journal sides with him, “but then they come out with some real CLINKERS, like today’s Editorial. … They are sooo WRONG.”
When the Journal condemned Trump’s proposed tariffs against Mexico and Canada in late January as “the dumbest trade war in history” and an “economic assault on our neighbors,” the White House issued a statement saying the “Journal’s editorial page has supported America Last policies such as open borders and outsourcing for years now.” Days later, Trump denounced the “Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal” for supporting the “RIPOFF OF AMERICA.”
But the editorials keep coming. Politicizing the judiciary is a “disreputable racket.” Trump must act “within the bounds of American law.” The administration is pursuing the “Fool’s Gold of a Crypto Reserve.” Hegseth shut down the Pentagon’s internal think tank “for no good reason.” Trump’s “willy-nilly” tariffs “Whack Trump Voters” and “someone should sue” him for claiming emergency powers. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “dangerous to public health.” Ending Secret Service protection for former aides facing threats from Iran is a “vindictive whim” and a “new low.” The Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Vance instigated “only helps Russia’s dictator.” The administration’s “rehabilitation of Vladimir Putin is especially hard to take.” Witkoff “parroted one specious Russian talking point after another.” Vance promotes an “abandon Ukraine strategy”; Trump “won’t tell the truth about which country started the war”; and the president’s vision is “less a brave new world than a reversion to a dangerous old one.”
When Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 offenders, the Journal denounced this “rotten message from a president about political violence done on his behalf. … What happened that day is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy. By setting free the cop beaters, the president adds another.”
If the Journal’s editorialists can keep saying all this while neither fearing the wrath of Trump nor feeling the hammer of Murdoch, there might yet be hope for us all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/28/maga-pushback-trump-resistance/?
Content warning: miscarriage, abortion laws
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The issue seems to be that the foetal remains were put into a dumpster.
https://thegeorgiasun.com/news/woman-arrested-after-miscarriage-in-georgia-under-abortion-law/
Saw a comment on one of these posts where a Republican said, “we’re tired of the Dems lying and cheating, sit down because it’s our turn now” and I don’t think that’s the flex they think it is.
“His argument is that Denmark hasn’t done enough to protect you from people like us 😆😆. What a great pitch…”
Link
I didn’t watch the video. A lot of comments on a video of him sitting down to eat with troops are very critical of him wearing his hate…I mean hat…indoors.
Divine Angel said:
Saw a comment on one of these posts where a Republican said, “we’re tired of the Dems lying and cheating, sit down because it’s our turn now” and I don’t think that’s the flex they think it is.
But back then it was classified information.
dv said:
well someone has to secure the existence of their people and a future for white children
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
SCIENCE said:
In some ways, you can’t blame President Frump for using the orange make-up.
He lookseven worse without it:
SCIENCE said:
LOLOLOLOL
:)
Michael V said:
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
Don’t forget which states are red states.
Is that “Dueling Banjos” I hear?
Michael V said:
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
The wife of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was 10 when they married. She continued to live with her parents until puberty.
btm said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
The wife of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was 10 when they married. She continued to live with her parents until puberty.
I think 18 is still a good minimum age for marriage. Should be treated as a different thing to the age of consent. IMAO.
Elon Musk has sold X to his own company, xAI, at a lost.
I can’t tell whether this is a great move or not. There could in fact be tax advantages since his personal losses can count against his personal income.
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
It’s very complicated. Many teenage girls are groomed by older men. It’s quite different to the teens being of a similar age.
There are other issues such as access to reproductive health care.
kii said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
It’s very complicated. Many teenage girls are groomed by older men. It’s quite different to the teens being of a similar age.
There are other issues such as access to reproductive health care.
Yeah in Germany for instance if two 15 year olds have sex it is legal, but if a 15 year old and an adult do, the adult can be prosecuted ( if the younger person chooses to press charges).
One thing I didn’t pick up on is that the speech in which DJT called himself the Fertilization President was at an event to celebrate Women’s History Month.
kii said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
It’s very complicated. Many teenage girls are groomed by older men. It’s quite different to the teens being of a similar age.
There are other issues such as access to reproductive health care.
Every other country seems to manage this, teens of a similar age it is fine and legal, but laws apply to adults and people in positions of authority.
dv said:
One thing I didn’t pick up on is that the speech in which DJT called himself the Fertilization President was at an event to celebrate Women’s History Month.
He thought he was taking credit for something about fertilisation. The bit I missed was why fertilisation came up at all?
roughbarked said:
dv said:
One thing I didn’t pick up on is that the speech in which DJT called himself the Fertilization President was at an event to celebrate Women’s History Month.
He thought he was taking credit for something about fertilisation. The bit I missed was why fertilisation came up at all?
Gotta keep ‘em dumb, barefoot, and pregnant?
Before the election Trump’s campaign vigorously distanced itself from the project with Trump himself declaring he knew nothing about it (link, below).
So far, its 42% done. Considering Trump’s quoted “lack of interest” that is amazingly fast.
https://www.project2025.observer
… he knew nothing … https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-biden-9d372469033d23e1e3aef5cf0470a2e6captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:
One thing I didn’t pick up on is that the speech in which DJT called himself the Fertilization President was at an event to celebrate Women’s History Month.
He thought he was taking credit for something about fertilisation. The bit I missed was why fertilisation came up at all?
Gotta keep ‘em dumb, barefoot, and pregnant?
Here’s his remarks at the Women’s History Month event, with full context.
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025/
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday putting Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of ‘removing improper ideology’ from the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo.
The order complained that ‘Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
dv said:
‘…a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
I find myself agreeing with the words, but probably not the interpretation.
dv said:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday putting Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of ‘removing improper ideology’ from the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo.The order complained that ‘Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
So they are going to put the Flinstones in the dinosaur display?
dv said:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday putting Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of ‘removing improper ideology’ from the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo.The order complained that ‘Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
FMD Orwell couldn’t write this stuff.
everyone knows the real danger is ASIANS c’m‘on
btm said:
party_pants said:
Michael V said:
Hmmmmm.
Is that why some Republicans want the ages of consent and marriage lowered a lot?
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
The wife of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was 10 when they married. She continued to live with her parents until puberty.
so the USSA should be an absolute mathematical powerhouse by 2040 performing far above those ASIAN nerds we knew it
SCIENCE said:
btm said:
party_pants said:
In about half the states the age of consent is 16, in the other half 17 or 18. Which seems a bit unreasonably high to me. So I can’t blame the 18 states wanting to bring it down to 16.
In parts of Europe it is as low 14 or 15. Yet I don’t see anyone jumping up and down demanding it be raised.
The wife of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was 10 when they married. She continued to live with her parents until puberty.
so the USSA should be an absolute mathematical powerhouse by 2040 performing far above those ASIAN nerds we knew it
WTF are you on about??
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
btm said:
The wife of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was 10 when they married. She continued to live with her parents until puberty.
so the USSA should be an absolute mathematical powerhouse by 2040 performing far above those ASIAN nerds we knew it
WTF are you on about??
at a time when STEM advancement is sorely needed surely that was the implication that the best mathematical minds of the era were as a consequence of child marriage
dv said:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday putting Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of ‘removing improper ideology’ from the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo.The order complained that ‘Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
Well, if that isn’t what’s already happened, then it’s just about to.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:He thought he was taking credit for something about fertilisation. The bit I missed was why fertilisation came up at all?
Gotta keep ‘em dumb, barefoot, and pregnant?
Here’s his remarks at the Women’s History Month event, with full context.
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025/
Thanks.
dv said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:He thought he was taking credit for something about fertilisation. The bit I missed was why fertilisation came up at all?
Gotta keep ‘em dumb, barefoot, and pregnant?
Here’s his remarks at the Women’s History Month event, with full context.
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025/
i read half of that but I felt myself becoming increasingly stupid so I stopped.
sarahs mum said:
dv said:
captain_spalding said:Gotta keep ‘em dumb, barefoot, and pregnant?
Here’s his remarks at the Women’s History Month event, with full context.
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025/
i read half of that but I felt myself becoming increasingly stupid so I stopped.
I found the bit about fertilisation by searchiing for fert. Otherwise it is all brain deadening stuff.
AussieDJ said:
Before the election Trump’s campaign vigorously distanced itself from the project with Trump himself declaring he knew nothing about it (link, below).So far, its 42% done. Considering Trump’s quoted “lack of interest” that is amazingly fast.
https://www.project2025.observer
… he knew nothing … https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-biden-9d372469033d23e1e3aef5cf0470a2e6
Trump would always prefer to lie, especially when he has been caught out.
dv said:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday putting Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of ‘removing improper ideology’ from the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo.The order complained that ‘Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.’
Oh, Trump’s complaining about his stuff…
Michael V said:
AussieDJ said:
Before the election Trump’s campaign vigorously distanced itself from the project with Trump himself declaring he knew nothing about it (link, below).
So far, its 42% done. Considering Trump’s quoted “lack of interest” that is amazingly fast.
https://www.project2025.observer
… he knew nothing … https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-biden-9d372469033d23e1e3aef5cf0470a2e6Trump would always prefer to lie, especially when he has been caught out.
man imagine if they weren’t so incompetent this project would have been 270% complete by now and we’d still be misattributing it to malice
dv said:
wait until they hear that child rearing and domestic keeping is not counted in GDP and they eliminate all women
wait
dv said:
FMD
Michael V said:
dv said:
FMD
I’m not productive to the United States.
kii said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
FMD
I’m not productive to the United States.
Run, run as fast as you can.
Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a full break-up speech on live TV.
“The era of deep economic, security, and military ties between Canada and the United States is over.”
Heather Cox Richardson ·
March 28, 2025 (Friday)
“Another wipeout walloped Wall Street Friday,” Stan Choe of the Associated Press wrote today. The S&P 500 had one of its worst days in two years, dropping 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 715 points, losing 1.7% of its value. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7%. On Tuesday, news dropped that the administration’s blanket firings and wildly shifting tariff policies have dropped consumer confidence to a low it has not hit since January 2021. Today’s stock market tumble started after the Commerce Department released data showing that consumer prices are rising faster than economists expected.
AIG chief international economist James Knightley said: “We are moving in the wrong direction and the concern is that tariffs threaten higher prices, which means the inflation prints are going to remain hot.”
Business leaders like lower interest rates, which reduce borrowing costs and make it cheaper to finance business initiatives, but with rising inflation, the Federal Reserve will be less likely to cut interest rates.
Makena Kelly of Wired reported today that billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is planning to move the computer system of the Social Security Administration (SSA) off the old programming language it uses, COBOL, to a new system. In 2017, the SSA estimated that such a migration would take about five years. DOGE is planning for the migration to take just a few months, using artificial intelligence to complete the change.
Experts have expressed concern. Dan Hon, who runs a technology strategy company that helps the government modernize its services, told Kelly: “If you weren’t worried about a whole bunch of people not getting benefits or getting the wrong benefits, or getting the wrong entitlements, or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead.” More than 65 million Americans currently receive Social Security benefits. Today Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) recorded himself calling the SSA and being told by a recording that the wait times were more than two hours and that he should call back. And then the system hung up on him.
Musk told the Fox News Channel today that he plans to step down from DOGE in May, apparently at the end of the 130-day cap for the “special government employee” designation that enables him to avoid financial disclosures. In February, White House staffers suggested Musk would stay despite the limit.
Today the State Department told Congress it is shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) altogether by July 1. Whatever agency functions the administration approves will move into the State Department. Founded by President John F. Kennedy and enjoying bipartisan support, USAID administers programs for global health, disaster relief, long-term economic development, education, environmental protection, and democracy. It is widely perceived to be a key element of U.S. “soft power.”
USAID was created by Congress, and its funds are appropriated by Congress. Congress and the courts have established that the executive branch—the branch of government overseen by the president—cannot kill an agency Congress has created and cannot withhold appropriations Congress has made. The authors of Project 2025 want to challenge that principle and consolidate government power in the hands of the president. It appears they have chosen USAID as the test case.
As Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shatters science and health agencies, the nation’s top vaccine regulator, Dr. Peter Marks, submitted his resignation today after being given the choice to resign or be fired. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post noted that Marks has been at the Food and Drug Administration since 2012 and has been at the head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since 2016.
In his resignation letter, Diamond says, Marks expressed his deep concern over the ongoing measles outbreak in the Southwest—now more than 450 cases—and warned that the outbreak “reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined.” Marks said that although he was willing to work with Kennedy on his plan to review vaccine safety, “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
On Tuesday, news broke that Kennedy has tapped anti-vaccine activist David Geier to lead a study looking to link autism to vaccines, although that alleged link has been heavily studied and thoroughly debunked. Infectious disease journalist Helen Branswell notes that Geier does not have a medical degree and was disciplined in Maryland for practicing medicine without a license.
British investigative journalist Brian Deer, who has written about the hoax that vaccines cause autism, told Branswell: “If you want an independent source,… wouldn’t go to somebody with no qualifications and a long track record of impropriety and incompetence.” But, he said, “f you wanted to get in anybody off the street who would come up with the result that Kennedy would like to see, this would be your man.”
Tara Copp of the Associated Press reported today that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has done some targeted staffing, too. His younger brother Phil Hegseth is traveling to the Indo-Pacific with the secretary in his role at the Pentagon as a liaison and senior advisor to the Department of Homeland Security. Hegseth also employed his brother when he ran the nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America, where the younger Hegseth’s salary was $108,000 for his media work. Copp notes that a 1967 law “prohibits government officials from hiring, promoting or recommending relatives to any civilian position over which they exercise control.”
Hegseth and his colleagues are still in the hot seat for uploading the military’s attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen to Signal, an unsecure commercially available messaging app. Yesterday, Nancy A. Youssef, Alexander Ward, and Michael R. Gordon of the Wall Street Journal reported that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz identified a Houthi missile expert whose identity Israel had provided from a human source in Yemen, angering Israeli officials.
Americans, especially those with ties to the military, aren’t happy either. Military, the leading news website for service members, veterans, and their families, titled a story about the scandal “‘Different spanks for different ranks’: Hegseth’s Signal scandal would put regular troops in the brig.” Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times reported that the story had “angered and bewildered” fighter pilots, who say “they can no longer be certain that the Pentagon is focused on their safety when they strap into cockpits.”
At a raucous town hall held today by Republican representative Victoria Spartz (R-IN), the crowd booed Spartz loudly when she said she would not call for the resignations of Waltz, Hegseth, and the rest of the people on the group chat.
All the mayhem created by the administration has created enough backlash that the White House appears concerned about upcoming special elections on April 1. One is for the seat in Florida’s District 6 that Waltz vacated when he became national security advisor. In 2024, Trump won that district by 30 points, and Republicans considered their candidate, state senator Randy Fine, whom Trump has strongly endorsed, to be such a shoo-in that he barely campaigned. His website features pictures of him with Trump but has only bullet points to explain his stand on issues.
Democrat Josh Weil, a middle-school math teacher who has outraised Fine by almost 10 to one, is polling within the margin of error for a victory in a contest where even a 10- to 15-point loss would show a dramatic collapse in Republican support. Weil has tied Fine to Musk’s unpopular DOGE and to the president, as well as to cuts to Social Security and Medicaid.
Trump is now personally campaigning for Fine and for the Republican candidate to fill the seat vacated by former representative Matt Gaetz in Florida District 1. There, Democratic candidate Gay Valimont is running against Republican Jimmy Patronis in a district that elected Trump with about 68% of the vote. Like Fine, Patronis is strongly backed by Trump and wants more cuts to the federal government; Gay is a former state leader for Moms Demand Action and focuses on healthcare and veterans’ services. She has criticized DOGE’s cuts to VA hospitals. Like Weil, she has significantly outraised her opponent.
Republicans are concerned enough about holding the seats that billionaire Elon Musk, who poured more than $291 million into the 2024 election to help Republicans, has begun to contribute to Republicans in Florida. On Tuesday he spent more than $10,000 apiece for texting services for the Florida candidates.
Musk has contributed far more than that—more than $20 million—to the April 1 election for a ten-year seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Trump loyalist Brad Schimel is running against circuit court judge Susan Crawford in a contest that has national significance. Wisconsin is evenly split between the parties, but when Republicans control the legislature and the supreme court, they suppress voting and heavily gerrymander the state in their favor. When liberals hold the majority on the court, they ease election rules and uphold fair maps. Currently, the state gerrymander gives Republicans 75% of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives although voting in 2024 was virtually dead even. The makeup of the court could well determine the congressional districts of Wisconsin through 2041, through the redistricting that will take place after the 2030 census.
Musk has told voters that if Crawford wins, “then the Democrats will attempt to redraw the districts and cause Wisconsin to lose two Republican seats.” Not only has Musk said he is going to Wisconsin to speak before the election, but also he is handing out checks to voters who sign a petition against “activist judges,” a suggestion that it would not be fair to unskew the Republican gerrymander. Last night, Musk advertised a contest that would award two voters a million dollars each, with the condition that the winners had to have already voted.
This morning, Wisconsin Democrats issued a press release noting that Musk had “committed a blatant felony,” directly violating the Wisconsin law that prohibits offering anyone anything worth more than $1 to get them to “vote or refrain from voting.” Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said that if Schimel “does not immediately call on Musk to end this criminal activity, we can only assume he is complicit.”
Musk deleted the tweet and then, eliminating the language that said people had to have voted, posted that he would give the checks to spokespeople for his petition. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to stop Musk “from any further promotion of the million-dollar gifts” and “from making any payments to Wisconsin electors to vote.” “The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that elections in Wisconsin are safe, secure, free, and fair,” Kaul said in a statement. “We are aware of the offer recently posted by Elon Musk to award a million dollars to two people at an event in Wisconsin this weekend. Based on our understanding of applicable Wisconsin law, we intend to take legal action today to seek a court order to stop this from happening.”
MeidasTouch reposted Musk’s offer to “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote” and noted: “No matter what side of the aisle you are on, you should be appalled that a billionaire thinks he has the right to buy elections like this.” Former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party David Pepper posted: “Have some pride, America. We are so much better than this guy thinks we are.”
sarahs mum said:
The cruelty is the point.
Do I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first recession/financial crisis to be named after one person: and certainly the first that could be attributed to the actions of one person and one person alone.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Do I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first recession/financial crisis to be named after one person: and certainly the first that could be attributed to the actions of one person and one person alone.
sure.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Do I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first recession/financial crisis to be named after one person: and certainly the first that could be attributed to the actions of one person and one person alone.
The next person who runs should have the slogan ‘let’s fix America up again’
Witty Rejoinder said:
Do I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first recession/financial crisis to be named after one person: and certainly the first that could be attributed to the actions of one person and one person alone.
Ooops… That Do should be So.
dv said:
WTAF?
sarahs mum said:
FMD
captain_spalding said:
sarahs mum said:
The cruelty is the point.
Seems like it.
Witty Rejoinder said:
Do I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first recession/financial crisis to be named after one person: and certainly the first that could be attributed to the actions of one person and one person alone.
Probably.
Hundreds of international students in the US are getting an email from the US Department of State (DOS) asking them to self-deport owing to campus activism. Immigration attorneys’ contacted by TOI affirmed this development and added a few Indian students may also be at the receiving end of such emails – for something as innocuous as sharing a social media post.
Spiny Norman said:
Hundreds of international students in the US are getting an email from the US Department of State (DOS) asking them to self-deport owing to campus activism. Immigration attorneys’ contacted by TOI affirmed this development and added a few Indian students may also be at the receiving end of such emails – for something as innocuous as sharing a social media post.
They have repurposed the ve ry app that the Biden Admin produced to assist immigrants, so that they can voluntarily be assisted to deport themselves rather than be forced to be deported.
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”
seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”
here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
ChrispenEvan said:
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
FFS …
I really hope someone’s keeping a record of White House tweets during this administration. I read “vice president” and “freedom seeds”, I’m thinking couch.
Divine Angel said:
I really hope someone’s keeping a record of White House tweets during this administration. I read “vice president” and “freedom seeds”, I’m thinking couch.
LOLOLOL….that is hysterical. Freedom seeds!
Spiny Norman said:
Hundreds of international students in the US are getting an email from the US Department of State (DOS) asking them to self-deport owing to campus activism. Immigration attorneys’ contacted by TOI affirmed this development and added a few Indian students may also be at the receiving end of such emails – for something as innocuous as sharing a social media post.
FMD
ChrispenEvan said:
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
Lunacy.
Divine Angel said:
I really hope someone’s keeping a record of White House tweets during this administration. I read “vice president” and “freedom seeds”, I’m thinking couch.
Heh!
I don’t believe it either.
Spiny Norman said:
I don’t believe it either.
Yes, a rare statement of reality from a Republican.
*reminds Kii to come home.
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
Lunacy.
I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
Spiny Norman said:
I don’t believe it either.
Because it is untrue.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Spiny Norman said:
I don’t believe it either.
Yes, a rare statement of reality from a Republican.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
Lunacy.
I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
All train and bus drivers are vaccinated…. I mean, that’s just common knowledge.
Spiny Norman said:
Please show working for your result.
Arts said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Lunacy.
I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
All train and bus drivers are vaccinated…. I mean, that’s just common knowledge.
aren’t they self driving yet under felon’s enlightened leadership
Tamb said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Spiny Norman said:
I don’t believe it either.
Yes, a rare statement of reality from a Republican.
He’s talking about the Democrats.
By and large, the Democrats have not done anything in those 65 days that deserves respect.
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:
ChrispenEvan said:
“I don’t wanna fly on a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous.”seriously? how are you making this determination, Tucks? because if there’s one thing pilots absolutely fucking love, it’s being pestered by jackasses about their vaccination status.
“hi, may I speak to the pilot?”
“excuse me?”
“I need to know if he’s vaccinated.”
“sir, please find your seat.”
“no, I need to speak to the pilot.”
“sir, please don’t make us call security.”here’s a fun fact: in 2022, a bunch of conspiracy cranks sent a definitely-not-insane letter to the FAA demanding that vaccinated pilots be grounded, because reasons.
The letter argues that adverse events from vaccination would cause “a pilot (to lose) control of his aircraft” and lead to “untold devastation.” The letter offers no solid data to support its claims.
you’ll never guess who was among the brainiacs who signed the letter.
The letter was signed by seven people including Cole, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, and Robert Kennedy Jr.
we’re being governed by reckless nitwits.
Jeff.
Lunacy.
I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
Robert Reich:
“Friends,
I’m not going to sugarcoat this. We’re in the worst national emergency of our lives.
It is not coming directly from threats we should be coping with — climate change destroying our planet, another pandemic threatening millions of lives, artificial intelligence taking over our jobs and brains, nuclear proliferation threatening the future of life on earth.
No. This national emergency is coming from a madman determined to turn America into a dictatorship and from his crazed assistants, including the richest person in the world.
What can I say that’s even remotely encouraging at this point?
Six things.
1. Voters are furious.
On Tuesday, Democrats flipped a Trump-voting seat in the Pennsylvania state Senate. James Malone defeated a well-funded and well-known Republican, Josh Parsons, in Lancaster County. Malone openly campaigned against Trump and Musk and made sure his opponent was tied to them.
This was a red Republican area that went +15 for Trump in 2024. The last time a Democrat won this seat was in 1889.
Other state and federal districts are showing the same trajectory — away from Trump and Musk.
2. Bernie and AOC are drawing record crowds.
Some 34,000 people turned out at Civic Center Park in Denver to hear Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.” As Bernie said: “We will not allow America to become an oligarchy. This nation was built by working people, and we are not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government.”
It was the biggest rally of Bernie’s entire career, including his presidential races. Hours later, the two spoke before a crowd of about 11,000 at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
Elon Musk was so spooked he started peddling conspiracy theories about inflated crowd sizes and “paid” protesters.
According to YouGov, Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, with a +7 favorability. (Trump is -5, Vance is -8, Musk is -12, GOP is -15. Schumer is -33, and the Democratic Party as a whole is -35.)
3. April 5 protests are planned everywhere.
On April 5, 2025, Americans are hitting the streets. The “Hands Off!” movement — in response to Trump’s and Musk’s devastation — is the product of a large coalition. You can find the action nearest you by typing in “April 5 demonstration near me” on your browser. General information from one of the sponsoring organizations can be found here.
4. Trump is fumbling on all fronts.
— “Signalgate” — the group chat scandal — isn’t just an embarrassment for Trump and his regime. It also demonstrates that they cannot govern. They can’t even manage the most elementary of steps, like making sure they’re meeting secretly and securely.
At best, both Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz — not to mention the White House comms operation — are damaged goods. There is no administration in the world, beyond this one, where a blunder of these proportions happens and nobody gets fired or resigns.
Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — have sent a letter to the Pentagon’s acting inspector general requesting a formal investigation over “the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”
— The economy is in deep trouble. Consumer confidence continues to plummet amid growing worries about inflation and recession. Trump’s tariffs — both those already implemented and those proposed — are already raising prices across the board.
— The Trump-Musk DOGE is threatening popular programs. DOGE cuts caused the Social Security website to crash four times in 10 days, leaving millions of recipients unable to log in. Office managers are answering phones instead of receptionists because so many Social Security employees have been laid off. Phone services have been eliminated. Field offices are being cut.
Meanwhile, Trump-Musk DOGE cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency are already causing thousands of Americans who have lost their homes in floods and fires to do without any aid.
5. Trump’s polls are plummeting.
As a result of all of the above, Americans are turning on Trump. Although I’m not a huge believer in individual polls, I pay attention when every major poll shows the same thing:
YouGov poll taken 3/22 to 3/25, Trump’s disapproval (49 percent) exceeds approval (48 percent).
Reuters/Ipsos taken 3/21 to 3/23 is even worse. His disapproval is 51 percent and approval only 45 percent.
Morning Consult poll taken 3/21 to 3/23 shows his disapproval at 50 percent and approval at 47 percent.
American Research Group poll taken 3/17 to 3/20 shows his disapproval at 51 percent and approval at 45 percent.
An NBC News poll taken 3/7 to 3/11 shows that a majority of Americans (52 percent) are disappointed with Trump’s appointees — a higher percentage than at the start of Trump’s first term, or at the start of Obama’s, George W. Bush’s, or Clinton’s.
6. The courts continue to hold Trump and Musk in check, but for how long?
Federal judges are requiring that Trump reinstate 25,000 federal workers he fired; blocking the Trump regime from banning transgender people from the military; stopping ICE and the Department of Homeland Security from detaining several international graduate students for participating in demonstrations or adding their names to dissenting publications; and stopping ICE from deporting people without due process of law.
All told, hat there are more than 130 cases pending against Trump and his Administration challenging the legality of their actions. More than 40 injunctions have been issued and more than a dozen rulings have already found that the Administration has either violated, or probably violated, the law.
Another case is expected to be filed soon challenging Trump’s executive order issued Tuesday, requiring proof of citizenship before voting. This could prevent millions of eligible citizens from voting in future elections. The Constitution gives the states and Congress – not the President – the power to regulate elections and voting. Trump’s EO is unconstitutional.
The massive pushback from the federal courts has led Trump to threaten federal judges. It has also led Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to suggest potentially defunding, restructuring, or eliminating the federal courts altogether. “We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court,” Johnson said.
***
These six morsels of hope are small relative to the damage Trump and Musk are doing, but I wanted to let you know that all is not lost; there is push-back against them.
The damage is likely to accelerate in weeks to come.
Trump is gearing up his attacks on lawyers and law firms that during Trump’s first term challenged him or offered pro bono services to nonprofits that challenged him.
His Justice Department is just beginning to target his enemies.
His mass raids on alleged undocumented workers and deportations are just getting started.
His (and RFK Junior’s) campaign against vaccinations is already costing lives, including those of children who were not vaccinated against measles.
America has never been subject to this degree of cruelty, incompetence, and disregard for democratic norms.
My hope is that this horrific experience will lead to a new era of fundamental reform — of our economy, our democracy, and our commitment to social justice and the rule of law.
I hope this is not too much to hope for.
What do you think?”
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:
The Rev Dodgson said:Yes, a rare statement of reality from a Republican.
He’s talking about the Democrats.By and large, the Democrats have not done anything in those 65 days that deserves respect.
And a lot of the previous four years. They had more than ample time and evidence to put Shitler in prison, where he belongs, but just didn’t do it.
And yes I know that the Democrats don’t control the various legal processes but they certainly could have help accelerate it.
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:
Michael V said:Lunacy.
I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
Oh you city people with your trains and busses.
Is your town/region entirely bereft of non-private transport, Tamb? Inaccessible except by private car, or perhaps by aeroplane?
sarahs mum said:
*reminds Kii to come home.
Thanks for the reminder.
kii said:
sarahs mum said:*reminds Kii to come home.
Thanks for the reminder.
^
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:I mean…he could just take the train. Or a bus.
Oh you city people with your trains and busses.Is your town/region entirely bereft of non-private transport, Tamb? Inaccessible except by private car, or perhaps by aeroplane?
captain_spalding said:
Spiny Norman said:
Please show working for your result.
For a start, you get into trouble if you aren’t wearing a suit in the Whitehouse.
Not that any of them had a suit on Jan 6.
Tamb said:
captain_spalding said:
Tamb said:Oh you city people with your trains and busses.
Is your town/region entirely bereft of non-private transport, Tamb? Inaccessible except by private car, or perhaps by aeroplane?
There’s a school bus.
Which you can catch if you use the right bus stop.
The peasants are revolting outside the Tesla showrooms.
buffy said:
The peasants are revolting outside the Tesla showrooms.
I think they need to burn down the White House.
party_pants said:
buffy said:
The peasants are revolting outside the Tesla showrooms.I think they need to burn down the White House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7jlFZhprU4
Tamb said:
kii said:
Link
They’ve been doing it since the 40s
That’s how Trump got elected, mind control by all chemtrails, either that or the Democrats candidate was crap.
Michael V said:
kii said:
Link
I’m laughing, but the reality is not funny, not funny at all.
Stupid is just stupid. There’s silly and that can be laughed at or with but stupid breaks all the laws of education.
party_pants said:
kii said:
Link
I sometimes wonder how people that stupid actually survive.
Do they stop breathing everytime a jet flys over?
party_pants said:
buffy said:
The peasants are revolting outside the Tesla showrooms.I think they need to burn down the White House.
Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
buffy said:
The peasants are revolting outside the Tesla showrooms.I think they need to burn down the White House.
Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
ChrispenEvan said:
Was that the war of 1812?
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:I think they need to burn down the White House.
Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:I think they need to burn down the White House.
Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
Well we the people elected them.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
Well we the people elected them.
and we the people can burn him. It is the American way.
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
Well we the people elected them.
and we the people can burn him. It is the American way.
That is not how democracy works.
Peak Warming Man said:
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:Well we the people elected them.
and we the people can burn him. It is the American way.
That is not how democracy works.
You and I know that but how many in the USofA do?
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
ChrispenEvan said:it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
Well we the people elected them.
Not me. I am not part of their culture or society.
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:I think the White House and its occupants are the more immediate problem. The Congress might be salvageable.
Well we the people elected them.
Not me. I am not part of their culture or society.
Thankfully we can think that. However, … we are tied to them anyway.
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
roughbarked said:and we the people can burn him. It is the American way.
That is not how democracy works.
You and I know that but how many in the USofA do?
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:Well we the people elected them.
Not me. I am not part of their culture or society.
Thankfully we can think that. However, … we are tied to them anyway.
Economically of course. But not culturally.
I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
diddly-squat said:
I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Apart from being able to cause forty years of getting back on track?
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Apart from being able to cause forty years of getting back on track?
that’s how the system works
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Apart from being able to cause forty years of getting back on track?
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:I think they need to burn down the White House.
Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.[
diddly-squat said:
I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
Some people find it a way to relieve their own tension?
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Apart from being able to cause forty years of getting back on track?
and didn’t we spend 5 years or so on violence and property damage some decades ago? maybe we should of just let the shit happen because we’d get over it in a while.
Making Europe stand on its own two feet is a good thing and something that is way overdue, the US is going to have it’s hands full with China in a few years time.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Apart from being able to cause forty years of getting back on track?
and didn’t we spend 5 years or so on violence and property damage some decades ago? maybe we should of just let the shit happen because we’d get over it in a while.
When enough blood was shed.
Peak Warming Man said:
Making Europe stand on its own two feet is a good thing and something that is way overdue, the US is going to have it’s hands full with China in a few years time.
Maybe Trump can stimulate the economy?
Peak Warming Man said:
Making Europe stand on its own two feet is a good thing and something that is way overdue, the US is going to have it’s hands full with China in a few years time.
I think the notion that Europe doesn’t do enough for it’s own security is somewhat of an overegged meme. But there is no doubt that China is a very real and emerging threat in the Pacific and it’s one of the key reasons Australia needs to redesign it’s strategic defenses
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
Agree. But thinking about it with no capacity to actually carry the thought out is simply a fantasy and should be treated as such?
Apparently not for so many.
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Making Europe stand on its own two feet is a good thing and something that is way overdue, the US is going to have it’s hands full with China in a few years time.
Maybe Trump can stimulate the economy?
stimulate then fertilize.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Making Europe stand on its own two feet is a good thing and something that is way overdue, the US is going to have it’s hands full with China in a few years time.
Maybe Trump can stimulate the economy?
stimulate then fertilize.
I’m going to have a hard time not to visualise that image.. Wish you hadn’t
erk.
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:Well that would upstage the last attempt to attack it.
it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
Looking more and more that way every day.
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
spalding. left a superfluous tag in.
diddly-squat said:
I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Oh dear, he’s back with his rose-coloured glasses on.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
spalding. left a superfluous tag in.
Takes notes.
kii said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
Oh dear, he’s back with his rose-coloured glasses on.
He is playing that song.
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
spalding. left a superfluous tag in.
…USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.[
this.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
ChrispenEvan said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:So who fucked the tags?
spalding. left a superfluous tag in.
…USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
Thanks for saving me looking back.
I/m getting a litte better at trying to fix my own typo’s as whatever splint I have on may be pressing buttons never intended.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
Change is inevitable. In which direction is not always for the best but I’d say all of us agree that trump politics is likely what nobody else really wants.
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:
ChrispenEvan said:spalding. left a superfluous tag in.
…USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
this.
Thanks for saving me looking back.
I/m getting a litte better at trying to fix my own typo’s as whatever splint I have on may be pressing buttons never intended.
see how that bracket fucks quote?
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:…USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
this.
Thanks for saving me looking back.
I/m getting a litte better at trying to fix my own typo’s as whatever splint I have on may be pressing buttons never intended.
see how that bracket fucks quote?
Yeah. It is not like I didn’t already know that but do tell me.
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:Thanks for saving me looking back.
I/m getting a litte better at trying to fix my own typo’s as whatever splint I have on may be pressing buttons never intended.
see how that bracket fucks quote?
Yeah. It is not like I didn’t already know that but do tell me.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:Thanks for saving me looking back.
I/m getting a litte better at trying to fix my own typo’s as whatever splint I have on may be pressing buttons never intended.
see how that bracket fucks quote?
Yeah. It is not like I didn’t already know that but do tell me.
Do try quoting that post. ;)
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
Approx 1% of USA runs the country. Big Bucks in the GOP?
we think anyone who has been wronged by the current fascists needs to just sit down and calm down and address their concerns through the Proper Channels we mean come on fair is fair law is justice
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:We’ve been through all this. I think real democracy in the US is already a dead horse, and you’re dreaming if you think the problems can be solved at the next election or two or three.
There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
But my point is that there are processes whereby these things can be changed. If anything is clear from this Trump administration it’s that political change if a function of public support.
SCIENCE said:
we think anyone who has been wronged by the current fascists needs to just sit down and calm down and address their concerns through the Proper Channels we mean come on fair is fair law is justice
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
Approx 1% of USA runs the country. Big Bucks in the GOP?
It doesn’t matter which party. The Dems can’t select a reformist politician as their candidate, because the big vested interests block them and ensure the selection of someone more timid and manageable.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
But my point is that there are processes whereby these things can be changed. If anything is clear from this Trump administration it’s that political change if a function of public support.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
Approx 1% of USA runs the country. Big Bucks in the GOP?
It doesn’t matter which party. The Dems can’t select a reformist politician as their candidate, because the big vested interests block them and ensure the selection of someone more timid and manageable.
They basically blocked much of what Obama tried.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
Approx 1% of USA runs the country. Big Bucks in the GOP?
It doesn’t matter which party. The Dems can’t select a reformist politician as their candidate, because the big vested interests block them and ensure the selection of someone more timid and manageable.
Then the next problem is that media are openly biased. But they can’t be curtailed either. They can’t be forced to be objective and neutral.
I wander which side of the political divide diddly-squat’s in-laws are?
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
JD Vance.
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
ChrispenEvan said:fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
So who fucked the tags?
JD Vance.
Did he have his suit on?
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:There are structural issues with electoral politics in the US and there are also the underlying social drivers. Both will change with time.
The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
But my point is that there are processes whereby these things can be changed. If anything is clear from this Trump administration it’s that political change if a function of public support.
Yes.
My point is that the system itself is broken. But any peaceful reform of the system needs to use that system, but the system is broken. So how can it ever be reformed?
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:The major underlying structural issue is the big money and corporate donations and their systemic capture of the whole system. There was an attempt to limit the political donations of corporations but this got struck down by the Supreme Clowns as being in violation of the first amendment right to free speech. They need to get big business and vested interests out of government as the first step, but that is petty hard to do when they have the same constitutional rights as individuals.
But my point is that there are processes whereby these things can be changed. If anything is clear from this Trump administration it’s that political change if a function of public support.
Yes.
My point is that the system itself is broken. But any peaceful reform of the system needs to use that system, but the system is broken. So how can it ever be reformed?
It can’t be done. Though I did see an interesting post about change.. .I’ll try to find it.
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:it was burnt the last time by the canadians. i even linked to a song. the whitehouse isn’t the capitol.
It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
Yeah, i cheated with a bit of copy/paste there, because (a) i knew where to find the sentences i wanted, and (b) i was too lazy to type them out myself from scratch.
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:
captain_spalding said:It wasn’t Canadians who set fire to Washington, including the White House.
It was British troops, under British command. Specifically, the 1st Battalion, the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion, the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, the 85th Regiment of Foot and a battalion of Royal Marines. They burnt the Capitol building, as it then was, then the White House, as well as some other buildings.
The Americans had already burned much of the Washington Navy Yard, founded by Thomas Jefferson, to prevent capture of stores and ammunition, as well as the 44-gun frigate USS Columbia and the 22-gun USS Argus, both new vessels nearing completion.
fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
Yeah, i cheated with a bit of copy/paste there, because (a) i knew where to find the sentences i wanted, and (b) i was too lazy to type them out myself from scratch.
We are over it.
kii said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:But my point is that there are processes whereby these things can be changed. If anything is clear from this Trump administration it’s that political change if a function of public support.
Yes.
My point is that the system itself is broken. But any peaceful reform of the system needs to use that system, but the system is broken. So how can it ever be reformed?
It can’t be done. Though I did see an interesting post about change.. .I’ll try to find it.
https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-nature-of-our-power-a-conversation-with-political-scientist-erica-chenoweth/
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
Yeah, i cheated with a bit of copy/paste there, because (a) i knew where to find the sentences i wanted, and (b) i was too lazy to type them out myself from scratch.
We are over it.
Thank you. I never meant to cause any distress.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
we think anyone who has been wronged by the current fascists needs to just sit down and calm down and address their concerns through the Proper Channels we mean come on fair is fair law is justice
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
no way the wise ones promise that things will change in the end they always will look one day the sun will swallow the earth and then a little while later the universe will big rip or something so you just need to enjoy the abuse and be happy that there will be an end to it eventually
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
we think anyone who has been wronged by the current fascists needs to just sit down and calm down and address their concerns through the Proper Channels we mean come on fair is fair law is justice
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
no way the wise ones promise that things will change in the end they always will look one day the sun will swallow the earth and then a little while later the universe will big rip or something so you just need to enjoy the abuse and be happy that there will be an end to it eventually
Yeah I’m well stocked with popcorn.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
no way the wise ones promise that things will change in the end they always will look one day the sun will swallow the earth and then a little while later the universe will big rip or something so you just need to enjoy the abuse and be happy that there will be an end to it eventually
Yeah I’m well stocked with popcorn.
exactly, why try to fight or stop the fascists now, they’ll all be dead in the end
Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICE
Kseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna198528
I’ve sometimes had to travel to the US for work. I think I probably wouldn’t, right now. The admin has flatly stated that non-citizens are not entitled to due process.
dv said:
Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICEKseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna198528
I’ve sometimes had to travel to the US for work. I think I probably wouldn’t, right now. The admin has flatly stated that non-citizens are not entitled to due process.
Like everyone has been begging kii to leave the place, I wouldn’t try to travel there if it could end up in detention.
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
we think anyone who has been wronged by the current fascists needs to just sit down and calm down and address their concerns through the Proper Channels we mean come on fair is fair law is justice
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
no way the wise ones promise that things will change in the end they always will look one day the sun will swallow the earth and then a little while later the universe will big rip or something so you just need to enjoy the abuse and be happy that there will be an end to it eventually
You might be able to develop a religion out of that with a bit more workshopping.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
All who tried that with Hitler, simply tired his patience.
no way the wise ones promise that things will change in the end they always will look one day the sun will swallow the earth and then a little while later the universe will big rip or something so you just need to enjoy the abuse and be happy that there will be an end to it eventually
You might be able to develop a religion out of that with a bit more workshopping.
As long as you stock that other than koolaid stuff.
dv said:
Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICEKseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna198528
I’ve sometimes had to travel to the US for work. I think I probably wouldn’t, right now. The admin has flatly stated that non-citizens are not entitled to due process.
For her, that fked.
For you, that’s sensible.
Michael V said:
:)
dv said:
Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICEKseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna198528
I’ve sometimes had to travel to the US for work. I think I probably wouldn’t, right now. The admin has flatly stated that non-citizens are not entitled to due process.
For her, that fked.
For you, that’s sensible.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Russian medical researcher at Harvard, who protested the Ukraine war, detained by ICEKseniia Petrova has been in the U.S. on a J-1 scholar visa since May 2023, working at Harvard University. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said Petrova is fighting the possible deportation back to Russia for fear of persecution and jail time over her protests decrying the Ukraine war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna198528
I’ve sometimes had to travel to the US for work. I think I probably wouldn’t, right now. The admin has flatly stated that non-citizens are not entitled to due process.
For her, that fked.
For you, that’s sensible.
Like even sensible doesn’t make any when you look at her case. If Putin doesn’t execute her it will be the salt mines.
roughbarked said:
Trump Getting BANNED FROM GREENLAND after SHOCKING Speech
Trump is actually making it easier for Russia.
At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.
used to eh
LOL
SCIENCE said:
At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.
used to eh
LOL
As brainy as Hezbollah.
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Trump Getting BANNED FROM GREENLAND after SHOCKING Speech
Trump is actually making it easier for Russia.
Other countries should follow Greenland’s example.
Ban him, here, there and everywhere.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.
used to eh
LOL
As brainy as Hezbollah.
Does Hezbollah needs any hands.
Tau.Neutrino said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.
used to eh
LOL
As brainy as Hezbollah.
Does Hezbollah needs any hands.
The demand is up.
dv said:
Mr Mutant laughed and said, “what can go wrong?”
sarahs mum said:
Now do one with a map of red states overlaying that one.
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:
diddly-squat said:I think advocating for violence or destruction of public property is not justifiable in any sense.
This is just one administration.. sure this is bad and there will a lot of very real consequences but four years is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.
If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
What word got whited out?
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:
party_pants said:If the violence is already happening anyway it is better to redirect it towards the guilty parties. Setting Tesla cars and dealerships on fire is not going after the real problem.
to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
Too many words. It needs to be simplified or be more dramatic.
Divine Angel said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:to be clear, I think people perpetrating violence or destroying property should be prosecuted in line with the laws that they break.
there is really is no place for it at all and I think the notion of “redirecting it” makes it feel like you want authoritarian rule.
What word got whited out?
Public?
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:
ChrispenEvan said:fixed fucked tags.
they were canadians at the time, kinda.
Yeah, i cheated with a bit of copy/paste there, because (a) i knew where to find the sentences i wanted, and (b) i was too lazy to type them out myself from scratch.
We are over it.
speak for yourself. I have lots of pent up rage to vent. i’ll probably get over it in a few months, or until the next time!
ChrispenEvan said:
roughbarked said:
captain_spalding said:Yeah, i cheated with a bit of copy/paste there, because (a) i knew where to find the sentences i wanted, and (b) i was too lazy to type them out myself from scratch.
We are over it.
speak for yourself. I have lots of pent up rage to vent. i’ll probably get over it in a few months, or until the next time!
I treat each day as a get over it stile.
From the May issue of Astronomy magazine
Divine Angel said:
From the May issue of Astronomy magazine
how powerful is the emperor he can control the heavens
Divine Angel said:
From the May issue of Astronomy magazine
‘Ken idiots – Trump et al.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
From the May issue of Astronomy magazine
how powerful is the emperor he can control the heavens
Cnut can’t even control the oceans.
sarahs mum said:
And, this is American ‘college’.
I remember a conversation with an American colleague about a scientific principle (although i can’t recall what; might have had to do with heat).
I raised a point or two, ask a few questions. He said ‘i never knew you went to ‘college’‘.
We worked out that the matters we were discusing had been part of his ‘college’ education, but had also been part of Year 9 science at high school for me.
The US supreme court’s 1927 decision to uphold forcible sterilization in Virginia has never been overturned. It remains legal in at least 31 states and Washington DC to forcibly sterilize a disabled person.
Brian Tyler Cohen & Glenn Kirschner discuss texting war plans and deportations of Venezuelans.
Jamie Raskin drops BAD NEWS on Trump over group text scandal
no no you have it wrong
this is what democracy is
alleged
In an entirely unsurprising turn of events Jeffery Goldberg has come out and said that despite the fact that Mike Waltz has said they the two have never spoken, he and Waltz have indeed both met and spoken before and that the reason his number was in his phone was because that was how they last communicated.
diddly-squat said:
In an entirely unsurprising turn of events Jeffery Goldberg has come out and said that despite the fact that Mike Waltz has said they the two have never spoken, he and Waltz have indeed both met and spoken before and that the reason his number was in his phone was because that was how they last communicated.
Falls directly off chair, clutching chest
dv said:
diddly-squat said:In an entirely unsurprising turn of events Jeffery Goldberg has come out and said that despite the fact that Mike Waltz has said they the two have never spoken, he and Waltz have indeed both met and spoken before and that the reason his number was in his phone was because that was how they last communicated.
Falls directly off chair, clutching chest
I am thoroughly looking forward to Hegseth being questioned by oversight – I think he has intentionally lengthened his trip overseas but what goes up must come down so he’ll be back sooner or later…
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Have we mentioned Hegseth’s wife and brother yet?
Mike Ingram: “I had no idea that Pete’s third wife (in ten years) was a Fox & Friends producer.
Wow, what a trailblazer for women’s rights, bringing her along to meetings she has no business in! While also texting military plans in an unsecured group text, and at the same time arguing that women don’t belong in the military.
He’s doubly keeping it in the family (this time with someone he can’t cheat on, at least) by getting his brother Phil a sweet gig at the Pentagon.
And did you know that, as a National Guardsman in D.C., Hegseth was actually kept from serving at the Biden inauguration because another guardsman reported him as an “inside threat”?
We are feeling super safe, aren’t we folks?”
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Hand out brown shirts and knives
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
yeah everyone needs more Donald, Donald is forever
the guy wants to extend his presidency already past his term, explicitly
FMD
transition said:
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
yeah everyone needs more Donald, Donald is forever
the guy wants to extend his presidency already past his term, explicitly
FMD
Imagine the transfer of power at the end of his tenure.
Cymek said:
transition said:
roughbarked said:Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
yeah everyone needs more Donald, Donald is forever
the guy wants to extend his presidency already past his term, explicitly
FMD
Imagine the transfer of power at the end of his tenure.
He plans to die at the helm and one of his heirs to take his crown.
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
transition said:
roughbarked said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
yeah everyone needs more Donald, Donald is forever
the guy wants to extend his presidency already past his term, explicitly
FMD
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
As a two term President he would not be eligible under the current Constitution.
12th Amendment: “….But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
esselte said:
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
As a two term President he would not be eligible under the current Constitution.
12th Amendment: “….But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
tips hat
I did not know that
seems like a good rule
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
They are already disappearing people off the streets.
esselte said:
diddly-squat said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
As a two term President he would not be eligible under the current Constitution.
12th Amendment: “….But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
probably create a war, become a war president
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.
nobody could have foreseen this and therefore nobody foresaw this
Last month, a Ukrainian man named Maksym Chernyak died in immigration detention at the Krome Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade. A month earlier, a Honduran man named Genry Guillen Ruiz died inside the same facility. Both Florida residents went into detention healthy, only to die within a matter of weeks. Chernyak, 44, had received humanitarian parole to find refuge in the United States from his worn-torn country. Like hundreds of people before him, he instead found harsh and inhumane detention conditions that very likely led to his premature and what his family believes was a preventable death while the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Chernyak will return to his family in an urn.
Little is known about the death of 29-year-old Guillen Ruiz, who passed away Jan. 23, also at Krome. But Chernyak and Guillen-Ruiz’s cases are not unique. They are among at least three individuals who have died in ICE custody within the first month of the Trump administration. The third ICE detainee died in Arizona. We feel these are three people who would likely be alive today but for their encounter with ICE. Now, the thousands surviving in ICE detention are experiencing daily conditions eroding their health and human dignity. As immigrant attorneys, activists and founders of Sanctuary of the South — a refuge and a new model for building community power, justice and resources and providing pro bono legal services, with a special focus on immigration — we have seen how the overcrowding at Krome is so severe that legal visitation rooms have been turned into holding cells without water or toilets: Krome, an “all-male” facility, forces transgender women into packed cells with men. ICE has even started to transport women into Krome, who are crammed into small rooms without beds, water or toilets and most recently moved to buses where they sleep without access to showers or necessary amenities for days at a time. Medical care is rare.
In Chernyak’s case, his family reports that he had no pre-existing medical conditions prior to entering Krome. Once detained after an arrest for charges that his family disputes, he fell sick in freezing, overcrowded cells, experiencing extremely high blood pressure. It is unclear if he received any medical attention for his condition. He suffered a stroke and was transported to nearby HCA Kendall Hospital where he died on Feb. 20. This sounds like the stuff of nightmares. It is. It is also the current reality in the U.S. — a daily government-sponsored terrorism inflicted on millions of immigrants physically and emotionally targeted by the Trump administration. Many of these people were forced to flee their home countries due to violently destabilizing foreign policies by the U.S. government. Yet today, the U.S. is not a beacon of hope, but a country that has declared war on undocumented immigrants, against its own democratic values. So what do we do? The answer is not an easy one. Immigration enforcement under Trump is playing out in a system that has a long history of human rights abuses with little-to-no accountability. For far too long, the U.S.. has relied on the nonprofit industrial complex as a siloed effort to protect our democracy. Yet many large nonprofit organizations depend on government funding, and are thus subject to the whims of the state (and currently under attack by the federal government). Major nonprofits are often more beholden to wealthy foundations or funders than the communities they are meant to serve. In short, there is no well-resourced, unified system of resistance to rely upon. We believe we must open our hearts more than our wallets. While yes, you should absolutely give to worthy causes, the most important thing we can do is to boldly reject the government’s own rejection of undocumented immigrants and provide them sanctuary however we can.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article302035954.html#storylink=cpy
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
If you have enough people with guns, it doesn’t matter whow many Democrats are in Congress, or what any ‘Blue’ state thinks about the idea.
The US Constitution only works as the majority of politicians, the courts, the military, and (last, and certainly least) the people agree to apply its provisions to American life.
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
You have to give up this idea that the US Constitution cannot be violated by mere men (it doesn’t work like the bit from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where the Nazis get melted for their hubris).
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
As was mentioned days back, there’s plenty of countries that have scrapped a constitution, or two, or three.
No reason why the US should find it impossible to do the same.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
If you have enough people with guns, it doesn’t matter whow many Democrats are in Congress, or what any ‘Blue’ state thinks about the idea.
The US Constitution only works as the majority of politicians, the courts, the military, and (last, and certainly least) the people agree to apply its provisions to American life.
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
You have to give up this idea that the US Constitution cannot be violated by mere men (it doesn’t work like the bit from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where the Nazis get melted for their hubris).
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
As was mentioned days back, there’s plenty of countries that have scrapped a constitution, or two, or three.
No reason why the US should find it impossible to do the same.
and why civil war might be the war they are going to have.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
If you have enough people with guns, it doesn’t matter whow many Democrats are in Congress, or what any ‘Blue’ state thinks about the idea.
The US Constitution only works as the majority of politicians, the courts, the military, and (last, and certainly least) the people agree to apply its provisions to American life.
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
You have to give up this idea that the US Constitution cannot be violated by mere men (it doesn’t work like the bit from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where the Nazis get melted for their hubris).
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
As was mentioned days back, there’s plenty of countries that have scrapped a constitution, or two, or three.
No reason why the US should find it impossible to do the same.
ok.. well I guess I just think that it’s highly unlikely that all out civil war will break out.
diddly-squat said:
ok.. well I guess I just think that it’s highly unlikely that all out civil war will break out.
Probably not.
Unless Trump sees a way to make a few bucks out of it, or grab a few new sites for ‘golf resorts’.
slavery does make labour cheap.
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
If you have enough people with guns, it doesn’t matter whow many Democrats are in Congress, or what any ‘Blue’ state thinks about the idea.
The US Constitution only works as the majority of politicians, the courts, the military, and (last, and certainly least) the people agree to apply its provisions to American life.
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
You have to give up this idea that the US Constitution cannot be violated by mere men (it doesn’t work like the bit from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where the Nazis get melted for their hubris).
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
As was mentioned days back, there’s plenty of countries that have scrapped a constitution, or two, or three.
No reason why the US should find it impossible to do the same.
and why civil war might be the war they are going to have.
ok.. well I guess I just think that it’s highly unlikely that all out civil war will break out.
Probably not.
Unless Trump sees a way to make a few bucks out of it, or grab a few new sites for ‘golf resorts’.
what’s with all the violence fetishism and gushing about civil war anyway, we thought the idea of getting support was literally what democracy is about
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-
A couple of things:
On the global arena:
(1) At what point does the shredding of every doctrine we grew up with involving international allies & treaties result in int’l treaties involving IP, copyright, and trademark laws being trashed?
As in, other countries deciding, “you know what, screw this. You don’t own your greatest export, IP, any longer, we do. If it’s in our country, it’s ours, we don’t owe anything to any American corporation, period.”
In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
fsm said:
They are.
Cymek said:
diddly-squat said:I think the most likely version of a third term is him running as VP to someone like Vance
I seriously could see him installing himself as a dictator.
Stranger things have happened in history
The USA is set up to become a fascist state.
Military bases everywhere, fanatic militias who would be recruited as the USA equivalent of the SS.
Blind patriotism drummed into them since childhood.
Flags everywhere, fascists love that
They are already disappearing people off the streets.
SCIENCE said:
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.
nobody could have foreseen this and therefore nobody foresaw this
This was posted here the other day.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/trump-defy-constitution-third-term-00200239
link
diddly-squat said:
captain_spalding said:
diddly-squat said:He can’t install himself as a dictator, it’s just not constitutionally possibly while there are so many Dems in Congress and Blue states.
If you have enough people with guns, it doesn’t matter whow many Democrats are in Congress, or what any ‘Blue’ state thinks about the idea.
The US Constitution only works as the majority of politicians, the courts, the military, and (last, and certainly least) the people agree to apply its provisions to American life.
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
You have to give up this idea that the US Constitution cannot be violated by mere men (it doesn’t work like the bit from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where the Nazis get melted for their hubris).
Secure enough support to disregard it, and it ceases to matter.
As was mentioned days back, there’s plenty of countries that have scrapped a constitution, or two, or three.
No reason why the US should find it impossible to do the same.
ok.. well I guess I just think that it’s highly unlikely that all out civil war will break out.
It is a very divided place when you look at it state by state. Who is going to be on whose side if it breaks out?
I don’t have any way of estimating the probability of this or that but it is at least noteworthy that major parts of the military leadership are opposed to the direction of this government. DJT has often hinted at unconstitutional use of the military and I suppose the test will come if he actually does issue unconstitutional orders.
dv said:
I don’t have any way of estimating the probability of this or that but it is at least noteworthy that major parts of the military leadership are opposed to the direction of this government. DJT has often hinted at unconstitutional use of the military and I suppose the test will come if he actually does issue unconstitutional orders.
That might well be it. Because the military swear to the constitution. Trump doesn’t.
removal of revolutionary war website.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1282761716283134
fsm said:
US President Donald Trump says he is “not joking” about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/trump-says-there-are-methods-to-introducing-a-third-term/105115852
FMD
kii said:
Have we mentioned Hegseth’s wife and brother yet?Mike Ingram: “I had no idea that Pete’s third wife (in ten years) was a Fox & Friends producer.
Wow, what a trailblazer for women’s rights, bringing her along to meetings she has no business in! While also texting military plans in an unsecured group text, and at the same time arguing that women don’t belong in the military.
He’s doubly keeping it in the family (this time with someone he can’t cheat on, at least) by getting his brother Phil a sweet gig at the Pentagon.
And did you know that, as a National Guardsman in D.C., Hegseth was actually kept from serving at the Biden inauguration because another guardsman reported him as an “inside threat”?
We are feeling super safe, aren’t we folks?”
Heck!
sarahs mum said:
transition said:
roughbarked said:Hopefully he’ll somehow never get there.
yeah everyone needs more Donald, Donald is forever
the guy wants to extend his presidency already past his term, explicitly
FMD
Nods.
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
I was thinking similar when I watched that video a couple of days ago. what if someone thought it was a kidnapping and decided to be the hero.
ChrispenEvan said:
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
I was thinking similar when I watched that video a couple of days ago. what if someone thought it was a kidnapping and decided to be the hero.
There are so many movies that depict all of this stuff happening. They make it all look so real.
ChrispenEvan said:
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
I was thinking similar when I watched that video a couple of days ago. what if someone thought it was a kidnapping and decided to be the hero.
Some page on Facebook had nations and what do you associate with them.
For most it was an animal, for the USA it was the gun
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 30, 2025 (Sunday)
On the Fox News Channel this morning, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said: “President Trump has a long run vision of a golden age of America and we’re working really, really hard to get it out there in time. But I can’t give you any forward-looking guidance on what’s gonna happen this week. The president has got a heck of a lot of analysis before him, and he’s gonna make the right choice, I’m sure.”
The National Economic Council is the primary group the president uses to develop domestic and international economic policy, so the fact that Hassett appears to have no idea what’s coming is concerning. Trump has declared April 2 “Liberation Day” because he will announce big new tariffs, posting on his social media site on March 21: “For DECADES we have been ripped off and abused by every nation in the World, both friend and foe. Now it is finally time for the Good Ol’ USA to get some of that MONEY and RESPECT, BACK. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”
Other Trump regime officials appear similarly uninformed about Trump’s plans. Fox News Channel personality Shannon Bream asked Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, what to say to consumers who worry that tariffs are going to raise prices, he answered: “Trust in Trump.” He then claimed that “tariffs are tax cuts,” which makes sense only if he means that tariffs, which raise prices on consumers, might provide enough revenue for the government to enable Republicans to justify tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.
Trump campaigned on the promise to “immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” but his tariffs have already helped to push inflation upward. Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton of the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump warned the chief executive officers of “some of the country’s top auto manufacturers not to raise prices because of the 25% tariffs he has just put on cars and car parts, telling them that the tariffs are good for them.
On Saturday, Trump denied he had made such a request and told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars.”
“I couldn’t care less,” he repeated. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty.” A White House aide told NBC News that the president was referring to foreign car prices.
And then there is Friday’s story that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been taking not only his brother but also his wife along with him to “meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.” Katherine Long, Max Colchester, Daniel Michaels, and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal note that her inclusion in such meetings is unusual. Jennifer Hegseth also accompanied Hegseth to his private meetings with senators during the process of his Senate confirmation, “making it awkward to ask questions about allegations related to infidelity and sexual misconduct.”
Both Trump and Hegseth have made it their goal to purge the United States of what they call “Marxism” and what Hegseth calls “woke sh*t”: that is, the racial, gender, and religious diversity that Americans have embraced since World War II. That means taking the government the country has built over the past 80 years down to the ground and rebuilding it as they imagine it was before, with men like them in charge.
The Trump regime is the result of at least 45 years of Republican rhetoric that undermined the idea of a government that worked for the good of everyone by claiming that such a government was “socialism” or “Marxism.” That argument had nothing to do with actual Marxism, which called for the people to take over farms and factories, and everything to do with America’s peculiar history.
During the Civil War of the 1860s, the Republicans in Congress both ended human enslavement in the U.S. except as punishment for crime and invented the nation’s first system of national taxation, including the income tax. After the war, racist former Confederates in the South refused to accept the idea that Black Americans were equal to their white neighbors and tried to force formerly enslaved people into subservience. To stop that from happening, Americans in 1868 added the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, putting the weight of the federal government behind equal rights. In 1870, Americans added to the Constitution the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing the right of Black men to vote. Also in 1870, Congress established the Department of Justice to prosecute those in the South who continued to persecute their Black neighbors on grounds of race.
In response, former Confederates in 1871 began to maintain—falsely—that they had never objected to Black rights on racial grounds. What they opposed, they said, was that poor Black men, impoverished because of their time in slavery, had the right to vote. Those men would, they said, vote for services like roads and schools and hospitals, and such services could be paid for only through tax levies on propertied Americans who overwhelmingly were white men. Thus, permitting Black men to vote meant “socialism” that would destroy the United States. To restore true American values, former Confederates and their northern counterparts insisted, Black Americans must be shut out of a voice in government.
That rhetoric resurfaced after World War II. In that era, the vast majority of Americans embraced a government that worked for everyone by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, and protecting civil rights. But those Republicans eager to avoid regulation and taxation reached back to Reconstruction to insist that a government that worked in the interest of all Americans was redistributing wealth from hardworking Americans to undeserving minorities and women. Restoring true American values, they said, meant making sure that “Marxists” and minorities could not influence politics, especially after the 1965 Voting Rights Act restored voting rights to Black Americans and people of color.
That rhetoric that tied racism and taxes elected Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980, and it has since metastasized until the top seven donors to the 2024 political cycle together gave almost a billion dollars to Republicans, with Elon Musk alone contributing more than $291 million. The list, compiled by Open Secrets, shows that Democratic donors don’t kick in until number eight on the list, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave slightly more than $64 million to Democrats. George Soros, the Republican supervillain, didn’t make the top 25. As those wealthy donors wish, the Trump administration is shredding the post–World War II government and has prioritized tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
Trump’s government is also firing women, Black and Brown Americans, and gender minorities from public positions and working to erase them from our history. MAGA Republicans have fired up their base against immigrants they claim are “invading” the United States, an exaggerated vision in which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, for example, claims that “e were invaded and occupied. Entire neighborhoods were conquered. Entire towns were subjugated. Our treasury was in the plundered. ”
That wildly exaggerated vision has enabled Republicans to justify throwing overboard the due process on which American rights are based. On Friday, Representative Victoria Spartz (R-IN) told booing constituents: “You violated the rules, you are not entitled to due process.” In fact, in the United States, the due process of law is what establishes whether someone has violated the “rules,” otherwise known as the law.
Just how profoundly the administration is violating civil rights came through today when news broke of an “Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide” obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The guide lays out a point system by which officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can determine if an immigrant is eligible for rendition to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador. The guide tags people as members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang if they reach 8 points on a point system in which officers determine what seems to them a “gang tattoo” or a gang sign, or interact with those ICE says are gang members.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council notes that nearly all of the criteria on the list are subjective, which helps to explain why so many people who are apparently unaffiliated with TdA were swept up in the rendition. “With this checklist,” Reichlin-Melnick writes, “ICE can declare any Venezuelan an ‘Alien Enemy’ without ANY concrete evidence—based solely on an ICE officer’s interpretation of tattoos and hand signs which may be completely innocent or the bad luck of having a roommate ICE thinks is TDA.”
The MAGA Republicans’ worldview is the same as that of the Confederates who preceded them: some people are better than others and have the right to rule. It is no coincidence that Trump recently called for the restoration of Confederate statues. But if that worldview is correct, then getting rid of President Joe Biden’s inclusive economy and hiring practices and putting white men in charge of everything should mean exactly what Trump is promising: a golden age of America.
Instead, the strong economy the Biden administration created is tumbling, and Trump administration officials seem to have no plan to stop it except to “Trust in Trump.” The officers in charge of keeping the nation safe have instead broken the law in an epic fail demonstrating that they have no foreign policy plan except military strikes highlighted with emojis. They appear to disdain national security procedures.
And the Signal scandal appears to have been just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight, Alexander Ward, Josh Dawsey, and Meridith McGraw of the Wall Street Journal reported that two U.S. officials told them that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz “has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members.”
When the former Confederates called for cutting Black men out of the vote in the 1870s by insisting their votes would usher in socialism, Americans didn’t know whether a government elected by a wider range of Americans than in the past would thrive. In 2025 we have experienced not only 80 years of a government that created a strong economy and a stable world as it worked for all Americans. We have also experienced the four years recently past, in which the Biden administration demonstrated that such a government worked. It left us with a booming economy and strong national security that the Trump regime is now mangling.
Nonetheless, Trump is digging into the position that some people are better than others and have the right to rule. Today he told NBC News that he is considering a third presidential term, although that is explicitly unconstitutional. “I’m not joking,” he said, “There are methods which you could do it.”
sarahs mum said:
Last month, a Ukrainian man named Maksym Chernyak died in immigration detention at the Krome Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade. A month earlier, a Honduran man named Genry Guillen Ruiz died inside the same facility. Both Florida residents went into detention healthy, only to die within a matter of weeks. Chernyak, 44, had received humanitarian parole to find refuge in the United States from his worn-torn country. Like hundreds of people before him, he instead found harsh and inhumane detention conditions that very likely led to his premature and what his family believes was a preventable death while the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Chernyak will return to his family in an urn.Little is known about the death of 29-year-old Guillen Ruiz, who passed away Jan. 23, also at Krome. But Chernyak and Guillen-Ruiz’s cases are not unique. They are among at least three individuals who have died in ICE custody within the first month of the Trump administration. The third ICE detainee died in Arizona. We feel these are three people who would likely be alive today but for their encounter with ICE. Now, the thousands surviving in ICE detention are experiencing daily conditions eroding their health and human dignity. As immigrant attorneys, activists and founders of Sanctuary of the South — a refuge and a new model for building community power, justice and resources and providing pro bono legal services, with a special focus on immigration — we have seen how the overcrowding at Krome is so severe that legal visitation rooms have been turned into holding cells without water or toilets: Krome, an “all-male” facility, forces transgender women into packed cells with men. ICE has even started to transport women into Krome, who are crammed into small rooms without beds, water or toilets and most recently moved to buses where they sleep without access to showers or necessary amenities for days at a time. Medical care is rare.
In Chernyak’s case, his family reports that he had no pre-existing medical conditions prior to entering Krome. Once detained after an arrest for charges that his family disputes, he fell sick in freezing, overcrowded cells, experiencing extremely high blood pressure. It is unclear if he received any medical attention for his condition. He suffered a stroke and was transported to nearby HCA Kendall Hospital where he died on Feb. 20. This sounds like the stuff of nightmares. It is. It is also the current reality in the U.S. — a daily government-sponsored terrorism inflicted on millions of immigrants physically and emotionally targeted by the Trump administration. Many of these people were forced to flee their home countries due to violently destabilizing foreign policies by the U.S. government. Yet today, the U.S. is not a beacon of hope, but a country that has declared war on undocumented immigrants, against its own democratic values. So what do we do? The answer is not an easy one. Immigration enforcement under Trump is playing out in a system that has a long history of human rights abuses with little-to-no accountability. For far too long, the U.S.. has relied on the nonprofit industrial complex as a siloed effort to protect our democracy. Yet many large nonprofit organizations depend on government funding, and are thus subject to the whims of the state (and currently under attack by the federal government). Major nonprofits are often more beholden to wealthy foundations or funders than the communities they are meant to serve. In short, there is no well-resourced, unified system of resistance to rely upon. We believe we must open our hearts more than our wallets. While yes, you should absolutely give to worthy causes, the most important thing we can do is to boldly reject the government’s own rejection of undocumented immigrants and provide them sanctuary however we can.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article302035954.html#storylink=cpy
FMD
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-A couple of things:
On the global arena:
(1) At what point does the shredding of every doctrine we grew up with involving international allies & treaties result in int’l treaties involving IP, copyright, and trademark laws being trashed?
As in, other countries deciding, “you know what, screw this. You don’t own your greatest export, IP, any longer, we do. If it’s in our country, it’s ours, we don’t owe anything to any American corporation, period.”In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
Definitely food for thought.
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 30, 2025 (Sunday)On the Fox News Channel this morning, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said: “President Trump has a long run vision of a golden age of America and we’re working really, really hard to get it out there in time. But I can’t give you any forward-looking guidance on what’s gonna happen this week. The president has got a heck of a lot of analysis before him, and he’s gonna make the right choice, I’m sure.”
The National Economic Council is the primary group the president uses to develop domestic and international economic policy, so the fact that Hassett appears to have no idea what’s coming is concerning. Trump has declared April 2 “Liberation Day” because he will announce big new tariffs, posting on his social media site on March 21: “For DECADES we have been ripped off and abused by every nation in the World, both friend and foe. Now it is finally time for the Good Ol’ USA to get some of that MONEY and RESPECT, BACK. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”
Other Trump regime officials appear similarly uninformed about Trump’s plans. Fox News Channel personality Shannon Bream asked Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, what to say to consumers who worry that tariffs are going to raise prices, he answered: “Trust in Trump.” He then claimed that “tariffs are tax cuts,” which makes sense only if he means that tariffs, which raise prices on consumers, might provide enough revenue for the government to enable Republicans to justify tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.
Trump campaigned on the promise to “immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” but his tariffs have already helped to push inflation upward. Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton of the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump warned the chief executive officers of “some of the country’s top auto manufacturers not to raise prices because of the 25% tariffs he has just put on cars and car parts, telling them that the tariffs are good for them.
On Saturday, Trump denied he had made such a request and told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars.”
“I couldn’t care less,” he repeated. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty.” A White House aide told NBC News that the president was referring to foreign car prices.
And then there is Friday’s story that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been taking not only his brother but also his wife along with him to “meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.” Katherine Long, Max Colchester, Daniel Michaels, and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal note that her inclusion in such meetings is unusual. Jennifer Hegseth also accompanied Hegseth to his private meetings with senators during the process of his Senate confirmation, “making it awkward to ask questions about allegations related to infidelity and sexual misconduct.”
Both Trump and Hegseth have made it their goal to purge the United States of what they call “Marxism” and what Hegseth calls “woke sh*t”: that is, the racial, gender, and religious diversity that Americans have embraced since World War II. That means taking the government the country has built over the past 80 years down to the ground and rebuilding it as they imagine it was before, with men like them in charge.
The Trump regime is the result of at least 45 years of Republican rhetoric that undermined the idea of a government that worked for the good of everyone by claiming that such a government was “socialism” or “Marxism.” That argument had nothing to do with actual Marxism, which called for the people to take over farms and factories, and everything to do with America’s peculiar history.During the Civil War of the 1860s, the Republicans in Congress both ended human enslavement in the U.S. except as punishment for crime and invented the nation’s first system of national taxation, including the income tax. After the war, racist former Confederates in the South refused to accept the idea that Black Americans were equal to their white neighbors and tried to force formerly enslaved people into subservience. To stop that from happening, Americans in 1868 added the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, putting the weight of the federal government behind equal rights. In 1870, Americans added to the Constitution the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing the right of Black men to vote. Also in 1870, Congress established the Department of Justice to prosecute those in the South who continued to persecute their Black neighbors on grounds of race.
In response, former Confederates in 1871 began to maintain—falsely—that they had never objected to Black rights on racial grounds. What they opposed, they said, was that poor Black men, impoverished because of their time in slavery, had the right to vote. Those men would, they said, vote for services like roads and schools and hospitals, and such services could be paid for only through tax levies on propertied Americans who overwhelmingly were white men. Thus, permitting Black men to vote meant “socialism” that would destroy the United States. To restore true American values, former Confederates and their northern counterparts insisted, Black Americans must be shut out of a voice in government.
That rhetoric resurfaced after World War II. In that era, the vast majority of Americans embraced a government that worked for everyone by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, and protecting civil rights. But those Republicans eager to avoid regulation and taxation reached back to Reconstruction to insist that a government that worked in the interest of all Americans was redistributing wealth from hardworking Americans to undeserving minorities and women. Restoring true American values, they said, meant making sure that “Marxists” and minorities could not influence politics, especially after the 1965 Voting Rights Act restored voting rights to Black Americans and people of color.
That rhetoric that tied racism and taxes elected Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980, and it has since metastasized until the top seven donors to the 2024 political cycle together gave almost a billion dollars to Republicans, with Elon Musk alone contributing more than $291 million. The list, compiled by Open Secrets, shows that Democratic donors don’t kick in until number eight on the list, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave slightly more than $64 million to Democrats. George Soros, the Republican supervillain, didn’t make the top 25. As those wealthy donors wish, the Trump administration is shredding the post–World War II government and has prioritized tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
Trump’s government is also firing women, Black and Brown Americans, and gender minorities from public positions and working to erase them from our history. MAGA Republicans have fired up their base against immigrants they claim are “invading” the United States, an exaggerated vision in which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, for example, claims that “e were invaded and occupied. Entire neighborhoods were conquered. Entire towns were subjugated. Our treasury was in the plundered. ”
That wildly exaggerated vision has enabled Republicans to justify throwing overboard the due process on which American rights are based. On Friday, Representative Victoria Spartz (R-IN) told booing constituents: “You violated the rules, you are not entitled to due process.” In fact, in the United States, the due process of law is what establishes whether someone has violated the “rules,” otherwise known as the law.Just how profoundly the administration is violating civil rights came through today when news broke of an “Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide” obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The guide lays out a point system by which officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can determine if an immigrant is eligible for rendition to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador. The guide tags people as members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang if they reach 8 points on a point system in which officers determine what seems to them a “gang tattoo” or a gang sign, or interact with those ICE says are gang members.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council notes that nearly all of the criteria on the list are subjective, which helps to explain why so many people who are apparently unaffiliated with TdA were swept up in the rendition. “With this checklist,” Reichlin-Melnick writes, “ICE can declare any Venezuelan an ‘Alien Enemy’ without ANY concrete evidence—based solely on an ICE officer’s interpretation of tattoos and hand signs which may be completely innocent or the bad luck of having a roommate ICE thinks is TDA.”
The MAGA Republicans’ worldview is the same as that of the Confederates who preceded them: some people are better than others and have the right to rule. It is no coincidence that Trump recently called for the restoration of Confederate statues. But if that worldview is correct, then getting rid of President Joe Biden’s inclusive economy and hiring practices and putting white men in charge of everything should mean exactly what Trump is promising: a golden age of America.Instead, the strong economy the Biden administration created is tumbling, and Trump administration officials seem to have no plan to stop it except to “Trust in Trump.” The officers in charge of keeping the nation safe have instead broken the law in an epic fail demonstrating that they have no foreign policy plan except military strikes highlighted with emojis. They appear to disdain national security procedures.
And the Signal scandal appears to have been just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight, Alexander Ward, Josh Dawsey, and Meridith McGraw of the Wall Street Journal reported that two U.S. officials told them that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz “has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members.”
When the former Confederates called for cutting Black men out of the vote in the 1870s by insisting their votes would usher in socialism, Americans didn’t know whether a government elected by a wider range of Americans than in the past would thrive. In 2025 we have experienced not only 80 years of a government that created a strong economy and a stable world as it worked for all Americans. We have also experienced the four years recently past, in which the Biden administration demonstrated that such a government worked. It left us with a booming economy and strong national security that the Trump regime is now mangling.
Nonetheless, Trump is digging into the position that some people are better than others and have the right to rule. Today he told NBC News that he is considering a third presidential term, although that is explicitly unconstitutional. “I’m not joking,” he said, “There are methods which you could do it.”
Is this on a parallel universe Earth ?
Shouldn’t if be, for decades the USA has bullied it’s allies into supporting its genocidal wars against the Middle East.
Exploited minorities and repressed anything that even looks like universal health care.
Sent manufacturing off shore to maximise profit and then complain when nothing is made here anymore.
Determined our greatness by our military and economic might with the happiness and wellness indicator for our population not even in the top 10
Michael V said:
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-A couple of things:
On the global arena:
(1) At what point does the shredding of every doctrine we grew up with involving international allies & treaties result in int’l treaties involving IP, copyright, and trademark laws being trashed?
As in, other countries deciding, “you know what, screw this. You don’t own your greatest export, IP, any longer, we do. If it’s in our country, it’s ours, we don’t owe anything to any American corporation, period.”In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
Definitely food for thought.
Isn’t that why the CIA introduced crack into black ghettos to stop them becoming organised and instead kill each other.
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-A couple of things:
On the global arena:
(1) At what point does the shredding of every doctrine we grew up with involving international allies & treaties result in int’l treaties involving IP, copyright, and trademark laws being trashed?
As in, other countries deciding, “you know what, screw this. You don’t own your greatest export, IP, any longer, we do. If it’s in our country, it’s ours, we don’t owe anything to any American corporation, period.”In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
Definitely food for thought.
Isn’t that why the CIA introduced crack into black ghettos to stop them becoming organised and instead kill each other.
Opium Wars Are Totally Not A Strategy
sarahs mum said:
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 30, 2025 (Sunday)…………cut…………..
Nonetheless, Trump is digging into the position that some people are better than others and have the right to rule. Today he told NBC News that he is considering a third presidential term, although that is explicitly unconstitutional. “I’m not joking,” he said, “There are methods which you could do it.”
Thanks.
Cymek said:
Michael V said:
Neophyte said:
Posted elsewhere online….
————————-A couple of things:
On the global arena:
(1) At what point does the shredding of every doctrine we grew up with involving international allies & treaties result in int’l treaties involving IP, copyright, and trademark laws being trashed?
As in, other countries deciding, “you know what, screw this. You don’t own your greatest export, IP, any longer, we do. If it’s in our country, it’s ours, we don’t owe anything to any American corporation, period.”In the domestic arena:
(2) At what point do the ICE (and faux-ICE: they don’t identify themselves, they’re masked, they arrest whoever they want, so who is to say a gang claiming to be ICE are gov’t ICE, really?) agents interfere with the wrong person, household, neighborhood, community, city?
There’s more firearms than people in America (since 2018: estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents), and at some point, that shinola is gonna hit the wrong fan.
Definitely food for thought.
Isn’t that why the CIA introduced crack into black ghettos to stop them becoming organised and instead kill each other.
I have no idea about that. It could be just a rumour.
Trump seeks takeover of elections in a bid for more presidential power
Rooted in the president’s false claims of election fraud, Trump’s executive order is illustrative of governing through dictates rather than legislation.
March 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.
Analysis by Dan Balz
Almost no part of government is immune from President Donald Trump’s thirst for power and control. Last week he signed executive orders aimed at the Smithsonian Institution, the District of Columbia and the administration of elections. No president has sought more change in more institutions more rapidly, through executive orders than Trump.
The order on elections is more than 2,500 words and at times densely written. It may have received less attention than warranted as it was issued amid the controversy over how sensitive military operational details were shared in a Signal chat group that accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic.
The order is illustrative of how the president is attempting to govern, largely through dictates rather than legislation. It is rooted in Trump’s long-standing, though false, claims that the election system is rife with fraud. Its legal foundations are questionable. But like other executive orders the president has signed, it could produce chaos and change before it is fully litigated.
Trump’s reach for power overrides any ideological consistency, though there is nothing new in that. He is dismantling the Department of Education, arguing that states and local governments should run the nation’s schools (which they already do). Now he is attempting to order state and local election administrators to adopt his rules for running future elections.
The Constitution grants most power over elections to the states. When Democrats were pushing a multifaceted voting rights bill known as H.R. 1 during the administration of President Joe Biden, conservative opponents decried the measure as a federal takeover. So far, there’s been no notable public outcry on the right over the federal takeover that Trump is seeking.
“This is clearly an attempt to federalize election administration to a historic degree, as was H.R. 1,” said Charles Stewart III, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Certainly liberals and Democrats are going to press the federalism button really hard. And you will get probably some Republican secretaries not pressing it quite as hard, but privately, many of them are going to be pushing back.”
Another election analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid opinion described what he saw as the goal of the order: “It is to reduce turnout by people he thinks won’t vote for him,” the analyst said.
Trump has repeatedly alleged election fraud over the years. After 2016, when he won an electoral college majority but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, he said her popular vote margin resulted from millions of undocumented immigrants voting illegally. He even set up a commission to prove it — a commission that sank amid internal and external controversy while failing to produce anything to substantiate Trump’s assertions.
Everyone knows what happened after he lost the 2020 election to Biden. Without evidence and despite losing scores of court challenges, he claimed (and still claims) that the election had been stolen. His contentions helped incite an attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His baseless assertions were nonetheless widely accepted by his followers, which then provided the pretext for Republican lawmakers to claim new laws were needed because people had lost faith in the integrity of the system.
The new executive order, therefore, is a present for Trump’s base, delivering on a promise to fix a system that he claims is broken and that many of his loyalists therefore believe is broken. A key paragraph of the new executive order reads as follows:
“Under the Constitution, State governments must safeguard American elections in compliance with Federal laws that protect Americans’ voting rights and guard against dilution by illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error. Yet the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit noncitizens from registering to vote.”
Take those in order — the counting of ballots received after Election Day first and then the issue of noncitizens attempting to register and vote.
The issue of counting ballots received after Election Day has long been decried by Trump. Many states, however, have laws that allow mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day, even if they arrive later.
The executive order says that federal law establishes a “uniform Election Day” and adds: “It is the policy of my Administration to enforce those statutes and require that votes be cast and received by the election date established in law.”
The order cites the findings of an election law case, Republican National Committee v. Wetzel, decided last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In that case, a three-judge panel struck down a Mississippi law that allowed for ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted after the election. The ruling overturned a lower court decision upholding the Mississippi law.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the UCLA School of Law, said he thinks the ruling is based on a “bogus theory,” adding, “There are conflicting rulings in other parts of the country, so eventually, if this gets pushed by the Trump administration, it will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.”
Taken to its extreme, say some legal analysts, the assertion of a “uniform Election Day” could be read to require that all voting must take place on that designated day, eliminating not only the counting of ballots received later but also early voting, which many states have adopted in recent years. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
The second broad claim in the executive order cites possible malfeasance in attempts to register or vote by noncitizens. This too has been a Trump hobby horse.
It is illegal for a noncitizen to try to register and vote, with severe penalties if they are caught. Meanwhile, the evidence of voting by noncitizens is minuscule. “The data is pretty clear that the number of noncitizens who make up registry is tiny, and the number of voters voting is tinier,” Stewart said, though he added, “It’s not zero.”
The executive order seeks to require documented proof of citizenship — the order mentions passports and several other types of identification, if they include citizenship documentation — for anyone who registers using the federal voter registration form. The order would require state or local officials “to record on the form the type of document” used by the applicant. Currently, no such documented proof is required.
Some election experts warn that if this were to take effect, millions of potential voters who are citizens but who lack a passport or have no easy access to a document verifying citizenship could be denied the right to vote.
The executive order empowers various federal agencies to assist in the changes, from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security to the State Department to the Social Security Administration. It employs the federal government’s resources to try to root out potential violators. The potential use of, or merging of, different databases inevitably could penalize innocent people, according to election analysts.
The executive order is more than a federal takeover of elections. It is a bid for greater presidential power, and the latest example of Trump seeking to wrest power from an independent agency. As Hasen put it, “Most ambitiously, it is an attempt to shift power from the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and from states that generally have the power to administer elections to the presidency.”
The EAC is a small and little-known commission that was established under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. It was created by Congress as an independent, bipartisan commission and designed to be as insulated as possible from purely partisan politics.
The EAC is composed of four commissioners, two Republicans and two Democrats. Nothing of note can be approved by the commission without the votes of at least three commissioners. That would appear to be a roadblock for Trump. Any attempt to get rid of the commissioners would be met with legal challenges.
Trump’s governing strategy has been to overload the circuits of government and overwhelm his opponents. It also has been a strategy of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Long before the courts resolve the challenges, he will have the opportunity to bend the system in his direction. Changing the administration of elections is part of that plan.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/30/trump-seeks-takeover-elections/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Trump seeks takeover of elections in a bid for more presidential power
Rooted in the president’s false claims of election fraud, Trump’s executive order is illustrative of governing through dictates rather than legislation.March 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.
Analysis by Dan BalzAlmost no part of government is immune from President Donald Trump’s thirst for power and control. Last week he signed executive orders aimed at the Smithsonian Institution, the District of Columbia and the administration of elections. No president has sought more change in more institutions more rapidly, through executive orders than Trump.
The order on elections is more than 2,500 words and at times densely written. It may have received less attention than warranted as it was issued amid the controversy over how sensitive military operational details were shared in a Signal chat group that accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic.
The order is illustrative of how the president is attempting to govern, largely through dictates rather than legislation. It is rooted in Trump’s long-standing, though false, claims that the election system is rife with fraud. Its legal foundations are questionable. But like other executive orders the president has signed, it could produce chaos and change before it is fully litigated.
Trump’s reach for power overrides any ideological consistency, though there is nothing new in that. He is dismantling the Department of Education, arguing that states and local governments should run the nation’s schools (which they already do). Now he is attempting to order state and local election administrators to adopt his rules for running future elections.
The Constitution grants most power over elections to the states. When Democrats were pushing a multifaceted voting rights bill known as H.R. 1 during the administration of President Joe Biden, conservative opponents decried the measure as a federal takeover. So far, there’s been no notable public outcry on the right over the federal takeover that Trump is seeking.
“This is clearly an attempt to federalize election administration to a historic degree, as was H.R. 1,” said Charles Stewart III, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Certainly liberals and Democrats are going to press the federalism button really hard. And you will get probably some Republican secretaries not pressing it quite as hard, but privately, many of them are going to be pushing back.”
Another election analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid opinion described what he saw as the goal of the order: “It is to reduce turnout by people he thinks won’t vote for him,” the analyst said.
Trump has repeatedly alleged election fraud over the years. After 2016, when he won an electoral college majority but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, he said her popular vote margin resulted from millions of undocumented immigrants voting illegally. He even set up a commission to prove it — a commission that sank amid internal and external controversy while failing to produce anything to substantiate Trump’s assertions.
Everyone knows what happened after he lost the 2020 election to Biden. Without evidence and despite losing scores of court challenges, he claimed (and still claims) that the election had been stolen. His contentions helped incite an attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His baseless assertions were nonetheless widely accepted by his followers, which then provided the pretext for Republican lawmakers to claim new laws were needed because people had lost faith in the integrity of the system.
The new executive order, therefore, is a present for Trump’s base, delivering on a promise to fix a system that he claims is broken and that many of his loyalists therefore believe is broken. A key paragraph of the new executive order reads as follows:
“Under the Constitution, State governments must safeguard American elections in compliance with Federal laws that protect Americans’ voting rights and guard against dilution by illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error. Yet the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit noncitizens from registering to vote.”
Take those in order — the counting of ballots received after Election Day first and then the issue of noncitizens attempting to register and vote.
The issue of counting ballots received after Election Day has long been decried by Trump. Many states, however, have laws that allow mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day, even if they arrive later.
The executive order says that federal law establishes a “uniform Election Day” and adds: “It is the policy of my Administration to enforce those statutes and require that votes be cast and received by the election date established in law.”
The order cites the findings of an election law case, Republican National Committee v. Wetzel, decided last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In that case, a three-judge panel struck down a Mississippi law that allowed for ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted after the election. The ruling overturned a lower court decision upholding the Mississippi law.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the UCLA School of Law, said he thinks the ruling is based on a “bogus theory,” adding, “There are conflicting rulings in other parts of the country, so eventually, if this gets pushed by the Trump administration, it will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.”
Taken to its extreme, say some legal analysts, the assertion of a “uniform Election Day” could be read to require that all voting must take place on that designated day, eliminating not only the counting of ballots received later but also early voting, which many states have adopted in recent years. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
The second broad claim in the executive order cites possible malfeasance in attempts to register or vote by noncitizens. This too has been a Trump hobby horse.
It is illegal for a noncitizen to try to register and vote, with severe penalties if they are caught. Meanwhile, the evidence of voting by noncitizens is minuscule. “The data is pretty clear that the number of noncitizens who make up registry is tiny, and the number of voters voting is tinier,” Stewart said, though he added, “It’s not zero.”
The executive order seeks to require documented proof of citizenship — the order mentions passports and several other types of identification, if they include citizenship documentation — for anyone who registers using the federal voter registration form. The order would require state or local officials “to record on the form the type of document” used by the applicant. Currently, no such documented proof is required.
Some election experts warn that if this were to take effect, millions of potential voters who are citizens but who lack a passport or have no easy access to a document verifying citizenship could be denied the right to vote.
The executive order empowers various federal agencies to assist in the changes, from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security to the State Department to the Social Security Administration. It employs the federal government’s resources to try to root out potential violators. The potential use of, or merging of, different databases inevitably could penalize innocent people, according to election analysts.
The executive order is more than a federal takeover of elections. It is a bid for greater presidential power, and the latest example of Trump seeking to wrest power from an independent agency. As Hasen put it, “Most ambitiously, it is an attempt to shift power from the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and from states that generally have the power to administer elections to the presidency.”
The EAC is a small and little-known commission that was established under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. It was created by Congress as an independent, bipartisan commission and designed to be as insulated as possible from purely partisan politics.
The EAC is composed of four commissioners, two Republicans and two Democrats. Nothing of note can be approved by the commission without the votes of at least three commissioners. That would appear to be a roadblock for Trump. Any attempt to get rid of the commissioners would be met with legal challenges.
Trump’s governing strategy has been to overload the circuits of government and overwhelm his opponents. It also has been a strategy of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Long before the courts resolve the challenges, he will have the opportunity to bend the system in his direction. Changing the administration of elections is part of that plan.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/30/trump-seeks-takeover-elections/?
I told ewes so
Not really politics, but…
Jubilee does Doctor Mike vs 20 Anti-Vaxxers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69BiOqY1Ec
diddly-squat said:
Not really politics, but…
Jubilee does Doctor Mike vs 20 Anti-Vaxxers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69BiOqY1Ec
I’ve been watching that.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:Not really politics, but…
Jubilee does Doctor Mike vs 20 Anti-Vaxxers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69BiOqY1Ec
I’ve been watching that.
as much politics as Mama doctor jones discussing abortion and miscarriage in Texas.
she seems so much happier since she moved her family to practice in NZ.
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:Not really politics, but…
Jubilee does Doctor Mike vs 20 Anti-Vaxxers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69BiOqY1Ec
I’ve been watching that.
the guy with the dreadlocks reminds me of character Storm from the Tim Minchin beat poem of the same name
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1A8gGHhXDo/
Lincoln Square Media
29 March at 06:32 ·
Rep. Melanie Stansbury explains the scam that Elon Musk & DOGE are running on the American people—-while lining his own pockets #doge #elonmusk #TrumpAdministration
Witty Rejoinder said:
Trump seeks takeover of elections in a bid for more presidential power
Rooted in the president’s false claims of election fraud, Trump’s executive order is illustrative of governing through dictates rather than legislation.March 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.
Analysis by Dan Balz——————-Snip—————————————————-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/30/trump-seeks-takeover-elections/?
Heck.
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/trump-claims-offshore-wind-energy-is-driving-whales-loco-scientists-disagree/ar-AA1BMYCl
I could name one large mammal that’s been driven loco
diddly-squat said:
sarahs mum said:
diddly-squat said:Not really politics, but…
Jubilee does Doctor Mike vs 20 Anti-Vaxxers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69BiOqY1Ec
I’ve been watching that.
the guy with the dreadlocks reminds me of character Storm from the Tim Minchin beat poem of the same name
so many of them banging on about RFK jnr…like he is legit source. far out.
On Sunday morning, March 30, the Republican Party of New Mexico’s headquarters in Albuquerque went up in flames. It wasn’t a massive blaze — firefighters arrived just before 6 a.m. and quickly extinguished it — but the damage was done. Windows were scorched, the front entryway blackened, and three words spray-painted in stark accusation across the facade: “ICE = KKK.”
Witty Rejoinder said:
/… cut by me master transition the savage cutter of unnecessary text duplication …/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/30/trump-seeks-takeover-elections/?
didn’t quite read it all
the purpose is to draw adverse attention to the status quo, as if it needs fixing, Donald likes the situational forces of the mob where the mob votes him in to do more of what Donald does, a lot of thoughtful people inclined to vote otherwise won’t do, you can’t have too much Donald, a lot of Donald is never enough, Donald should be everywhere, everyone should have a job and nobody should work against Donald
if Donald could postpone elections into non-existence he might do that, but don’t take my word for it, watch and listen to him and make your own mind up
Something worse could be coming for the economy than a recession
Trump’s tariffs are making stagflation a real risk for the United States for the first time since the 1970s.
March 31, 2025 at 7:00 a.m.
President Donald Trump is pushing the economy to a breaking point with sweeping tariffs and rapid cuts to immigration and the federal workforce. There is growing fear of not just a recession but stagflation, a frightful situation — not seen in the United States since the 1970s — in which the economy contracts and people lose jobs but prices remain high.
This is a self-inflicted wound from Trump. Many of his economic advisers, including Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, are urging him to show restraint on tariffs. But Trump is set to unleash the biggest increase in tariffs since the Depression era on Wednesday. He’s calling it “Liberation Day.” It may turn out to be Stagflation Day.
Consumer sentiment has plunged more than 30 percent since November, when Trump won the election. What’s particularly striking in the latest University of Michigan Survey of Consumers is how many people are suddenly worried about rising unemployment and rising prices — a stagflation environment. Two-thirds of consumers expect unemployment to rise in the year ahead, the highest that reading has been since 2009 when the devastating Great Recession sent the jobless rate to 10 percent.
Normally, prices fall during recessions as demand dries up and retailers cut prices to try to lure people back. But Trump’s intention to put tariffs of almost all imports is spooking consumers and businesses. Americans now predict inflation will jump to 5 percent in a year, according to the survey.
While Americans have been dissatisfied with the economy for years, there is something deeper and more worrisome going on now. The latest data shows an economy of gloom and fear.
When Joe Biden was president, people would tell pollsters and surveys that they didn’t think the overall economy was doing well. They were frustrated by the highest inflation in four decades. But when asked about their personal finances, most people said they were doing pretty well. This became known as a “vibe-cession”: People gave Biden and the economy poor grades, but they would continue to go out and spend money in the “revenge spending” era of 2022 and 2023 and the minisplurge era of 2024. They were buoyed by strong job growth, turbocharged stock market gains and hefty leftover savings from the pandemic.
Now when people are asked if they think they will be better off financially a year from now, many say no. The University of Michigan survey showed one of the worst personal financial outlooks in years, with the exception of the hot inflation summer of 2022. And the drop is happening across all income groups. Under Trump, even the rich are worried they will be worse off in a year.
“Even high-income consumers are concerned about their personal finances; only 26 percent of higher-income consumers expect to be better off financially in a year, down from 42 percent in August 2024,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s chief economist.
This is the type of situation that causes people to really pull back on spending as they worry about losing a job, the declining stock market and the end of those pandemic savings. This is what is different than in 2023 or even last year. All the extra financial cushions are gone. And Trump is adding to an already weakening situation with widespread tariffs that are expected to be among the biggest tax hike on Americans in years.
The U.S. economy is propelled largely by the spending and splurges of the rich and upper middle class, and now even those consumers are showing signs of cracking. Many middle-class and lower-income families were already exhibiting strain with record high credit card debt and the growing use of buy now, pay later shopping.
It’s not just in consumer’s minds. The Federal Reserve’s latest economic forecasts show slower growth, higher unemployment and higher prices. The Fed didn’t call it stagflation, but the early signs are there. Bank of America is more explicit. Its economist now say “modest stagflation” is the likely path for the U.S. economy in 2025.
As Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, put it: “Unless we all wake up from this collective tariffs nightmare, the reality is recession. Recession with inflation, which is called stagflation. It’s the worst kind of recession because people lose their jobs and prices stay high along with interest rates.”
While this modest stagflation won’t likely be as severe as that seen in the 1970s, it would still be painful and difficult to stop. Trump is counting on an economic revival from tax cuts later this year, but Goldman Sachs says that is unlikely to be enough to offset the tariff blow.
The biggest problem of all is the Fed won’t be able to cut interest rates if inflation remains elevated. In fact, then-Fed Chair Paul Volcker had to hike rates to the highest in modern history to end the last stagflation episode.
Americans hated high prices under Biden. It could get a lot worse if there’s stagflation under Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/31/trump-stagflation-recession-tariffs/?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Americans hated high prices under Biden.
This has always intrigued me. When I moved here in 2007 I remember being stunned at how a normal weekly supermarket shopping was so cheap. Looking at the trolley that held similar items to what I was buying in Oz, for 2 people instead of 4 and doing a rough conversion of the US$, then wondering why so many Americans were whining about how expensive everything was.
mr kii would always say that prices in Australia were like California prices, ie. high.
Daily dose of Quora:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Daily dose of Quora:
Get those kids back down the coal mines.
He has an article on Patreon about this.
sarahs mum said:
FMD
The Rev Dodgson said:
Daily dose of Quora:
Bloody.
kii said:
He has an article on Patreon about this.
I wouldn’t suggest moving to Russia, though.
China, I am unsure about.
The latest ep of Pod Save America talks Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson about their new book Abundance. Worth a listen if people are interested in ideas around how a progressive future could be built.
diddly-squat said:
The latest ep of Pod Save America talks Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson about their new book Abundance. Worth a listen if people are interested in ideas around how a progressive future could be built.
I did see NS’s review and another.
It does seem a bit US-centric, in that it is about problems that the US hasn’t solved but that other developed economies are doing okay with. The ideas seem reasonable but the fundamental problem is that there’s no major left of centre party in the US to put them forth: no Labour or Social Dem party, just a centre Right party and a far Right party. Citizens United seems have doomed the US because it made it impossible to win elections without the support of at least part of the billionaire class.
dv said:
diddly-squat said:The latest ep of Pod Save America talks Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson about their new book Abundance. Worth a listen if people are interested in ideas around how a progressive future could be built.
I did see NS’s review and another.
It does seem a bit US-centric, in that it is about problems that the US hasn’t solved but that other developed economies are doing okay with. The ideas seem reasonable but the fundamental problem is that there’s no major left of centre party in the US to put them forth: no Labour or Social Dem party, just a centre Right party and a far Right party. Citizens United seems have doomed the US because it made it impossible to win elections without the support of at least part of the billionaire class.
yeah, very US centric but it’s not as though housing isn’t a problem in a bunch of countries. it also seems discuss how progressive government has failed to deliver on its promises as a result of tripping over it’s own feet; again the US is not Robinson Crusoe in this regard.
sarahs mum said:
I wonder if the person who tipped off the Gestapo about Anne Frank’s family woud have accepted crypto for payment?
in Russia they have windows
SCIENCE said:
in Russia they have windows
Yeah. There’s no report of this said bus crash?
This been posted?
Heather Cox Richardson
8m ·
March 31, 2025 (Monday)
On April 1, 1861, Secretary of State William Henry Seward wrote an astonishing letter to President Abraham Lincoln. Less than a month after Lincoln had taken office, Seward had little faith in the apparently uneducated president from the raw West and was angry that the Cabinet had overruled him to provision South Carolina’s Fort Sumter rather than evacuating it. Seward was convinced that he, rather than Lincoln, should lead the administration.
Seward complained that Lincoln had not yet established “a policy either domestic or foreign” and said he had figured out the solution to the nation’s political crisis, in which seven states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—had seceded from the Union in the weeks after Lincoln was elected president but before he took office. “e must,” Seward wrote, “Change the question before the Public from one upon Slavery, or about Slavery for a question upon Union or Disunion.”
The way to do that, he wrote, was to rally Americans around the flag. To do so, he told Lincoln, “I would demand explanations from Spain and France, categorically, at once. I would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico and Central America, to rouse a vigorous continental spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention. And if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France, Would convene Congress and declare war against them.”
Modestly, Seward concluded: “Either the President must do it himself…or Devolve it upon some member of his Cabinet…. It is not in my especial province. But I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility.”
In other words, Seward proposed taking charge of the U.S. government from the elected president, and then bringing Americans together by starting a war with Spain, France, Great Britain, or Russia—who was on the other side really didn’t matter. A crisis could be created with any of them. The point was to quell dissent at home by turning Americans against another country.
Lincoln spoke directly to Seward about his letter and then dropped the matter, leaving the secretary of state’s preposterous suggestion on the floor like the lead balloon it was. The two went on to forge a strong relationship, with Lincoln as the head of the administration and without starting a war with another country.
But Seward’s missive demonstrated a historical truism: when one country invades another, it usually reflects the problems of the invader’s domestic politics, no matter what the justification for the invasion is.
Although President Donald Trump never mentioned taking over Greenland—or Canada, or Panama, or Mexico—during the 2024 campaign, he has made such takeovers a key objective of his administration. On March 6, Trump addressed “the incredible people of Greenland” during a joint session of Congress, telling them that the U.S. needs Greenland “for national security and even international security…. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.” On March 29, Trump told Kristen Welker of NBC News: “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%.” He said that there’s a “good possibility that we could do it without military force” but that “I don’t take anything off the table.”
On Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance led a delegation to Greenland, an island of about 56,000 people that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. As founding members of both the United Nations in 1945 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, Denmark and the United States are allies of long standing. Immediately after World War II, the American military maintained 17 bases and installations in Greenland, with thousands of soldiers, but now it maintains only the Pituffik Space Base on Greenland’s northwest coast with about 200 soldiers. It was there that Vance landed with his wife, as well as disgraced national security advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) on Friday after Greenlanders and Danes opposed a more extended itinerary.
Vance told Denmark it had “underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen dismissed Vance’s assertion, saying that Denmark is “a good and strong ally.” Danish foreign minister Løkke Rasmussen noted that a 1951 agreement between the U.S. and Denmark “offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland. If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it.”
Greenland sits between the United States, Europe, and Russia on the Arctic Circle, where melting ice is making the seas more navigable. Climate change also offers access to Greenland’s rare earth minerals that are of strategic importance for modern economies, as well as oil and gas reserves.
The Trump regime wants those resources, but perhaps even more to the point, the U.S. invading another country—any other country, but particularly an ally—demolishes a key founding principle of the post–World War II order: that countries will respect each other’s borders and sovereignty. In seizing Greenland from Denmark, the U.S. would justify Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian territory.
That the United States is even talking about this is bonkers. Leaders from Greenland and Denmark have said the island is not for sale. National security scholar Tom Nichols posted: “The President of the United States just implied he would use force against an ally in an unprovoked war of aggression and conquest—and the entire world is so used to ignoring him like a crazy grandpa in the attic that it’s not the biggest story on the planet.”
A Fox News poll conducted from March 14 to March 17 showed that only 26% of Americans like the idea of taking over Greenland.
Americans also aren’t keen about the regime sweeping up legal U.S. residents in its deportation programs. A CBS News/YouGov survey from March 27–28 showed that 71% of Americans thought it was “not acceptable” for immigration authorities to mistakenly detain legal U.S. residents as part of the regime’s larger deportation program, while only 29% thought it would be acceptable.
And yet, today Nick Miroff of The Atlantic reported that Trump administration attorneys admitted in a court filing that officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had seized and deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia by accident. Abrego Garcia fled gang threats in El Salvador when he was 16, and came to the U.S. He has no criminal record, works full time as a union sheet metal apprentice, is married to an American citizen, and is the father of a disabled U.S. citizen. He had been granted legal protected status from return to El Salvador after a judge found he was likely to be targeted by gangs if he was sent back.
The U.S. government did not charge Abrego Garcia with a crime but deported him to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) because of an administrative error. “This was an oversight,” the government told the court. But, because he is no longer in U.S. custody, the government said it is beyond the reach of U.S. courts to get him back.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told Miroff he had never seen a case where the government ignored protective legal status and deported someone. “They claim that the court is powerless to order any relief,’’ he told Miroff. “If that’s true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”
Tomorrow, voters will have a chance to weigh in on the government when elections take place in two Florida districts to fill seats vacated by the resignations of Mike Waltz, now national security advisor, and Matt Gaetz. Wisconsin, too, will hold an election, for a ten-year term on the state supreme court. That position will likely determine whether Wisconsin’s congressional maps remain gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, permitting them to pick up more seats than they have earned. Such skewing has made it possible for Republicans to retain control of the House of Representatives, and candidate Susan Crawford is likely to vote in favor of fair maps to replace the gerrymandered ones.
While it is supposed to be a nonpartisan election, President Trump has thrown his weight behind candidate Brad Schimel. Billionaire Elon Musk has thrown his checkbook, putting almost $20 million behind Schimel. On Sunday Musk traveled to Wisconsin, where he said the election could determine “the future of America and Western Civilization,” warning that a court with Crawford on it would redraw the gerrymandered districts and “add seats for Democrats.”
On Sunday, Musk gave away two checks for $1 million each to individuals who attended his rally for Schimel and signed a petition against “activist judges”. Musk got around the Wisconsin law against exchanging an item of value to get someone to vote or not to vote by claiming the checks were for “spokesperson agreements.” But the video recorded by one of the recipients linked her vote to Musk’s check, saying, “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars.”
The other check for a million dollars went to the chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans, who has worked for Republican campaigns.
“Let me talk for a minute or two about my opponent, Elon Musk,” Crawford told supporters on Monday. She announced her candidacy for the race before Trump was elected, and according to Scott Bauer of the Associated Press, she said she never imagined she would be fighting against “the richest man in the world.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said he thought “people do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election. If it works here, he’s going to do it all over the country.”
Meanwhile Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has been speaking on the floor of the Senate since 7:00 tonight because, he said, “I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.” “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/675692521783200
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we don’t need to import this shit.
sarahs mum said:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/675692521783200
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we don’t need to import this shit.
mrs. colleen b
I think that we can makesome confident guesses about what the ‘b’ stands for.
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
Spiny Norman said:
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
On Reddit today there was a thread listing all the Constitutional laws Trump has broken. The OP was about going for a third term. The gist of the comments were, laws mean nothing if they’re not enforced.
Divine Angel said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
On Reddit today there was a thread listing all the Constitutional laws Trump has broken. The OP was about going for a third term. The gist of the comments were, laws mean nothing if they’re not enforced.
Yep. But it’s too late, horse gate etc.
All the protest mean nothing as nothing positive will be done, all that’ll happen is once any protest gets a bit violent Shitler will declare martial law and that’s the way it’ll stay for good.
Spiny Norman said:
Divine Angel said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
On Reddit today there was a thread listing all the Constitutional laws Trump has broken. The OP was about going for a third term. The gist of the comments were, laws mean nothing if they’re not enforced.
Yep. But it’s too late, horse gate etc.
All the protest mean nothing as nothing positive will be done, all that’ll happen is once any protest gets a bit violent Shitler will declare martial law and that’s the way it’ll stay for good.
…… and then have them all shot on sight.
Spiny Norman said:
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
FMD
Michael V said:
Spiny Norman said:
FFS …
Another step on the road to fascism.
FMD
“to”
