A thread for Democrats Only by THGRRI

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I think you should read these indictments - the genuine originals - rather than continue to steep your brain in US media swill. https://www.justice.gov/sco

You'll find that in regards to the non-Russian nationals like Manafort, zero charges have anything to do with Trump or the election.

Trump is familiar with the method Robert Mueller used to jail NY gangster John Gotti: charge Gotti's lieutenants, offer them a deal if they testify against Gotti. New Yorker Trump is New Yorker Gotti and Mueller is still Mueller.: How Scared Should Trump Be of Mueller? Ask John Gotti or Sammy “The Bull”
www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/how-scared-should-trump-be-of-mueller-
ask-john-gotti-or-sammy-the-bull

If history is any guide, Mueller will put up with 19 murders to get his mark.

Trump is, as a matter of policy, literally ripping children from the arms of their parents and putting them in fenced enclosures (which officials insist aren’t cages, oh no). The U.S. president is demanding that law enforcement stop investigating his associates and go after his political enemies instead. He has been insulting democratic allies while praising murderous dictators. And a global trade war seems increasingly likely.

What do these stories have in common? Obviously they’re all tied to the character of the man occupying the White House. But there’s also a larger context, and it’s not just about Donald Trump. What we’re witnessing is a systematic rejection of longstanding American values — the values that actually made America great.

. . . while you might be tempted to view international trade deals, which Trump says have turned us into a “piggy bank that everyone else is robbing,” as a completely separate story, they are anything but. Trade agreements were meant to (and did) make America richer, but they were also, from the beginning, about more than dollars and cents.

In fact, the modern world trading system was largely the brainchild not of economists or business interests, but of Cordell Hull, F.D.R.’s long-serving secretary of state, who believed that “prosperous trade among nations” was an essential element in building an “enduring peace.” So you want to think of the postwar creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as part of the same strategy that more or less simultaneously gave rise to the Marshall Plan and the creation of NATO.

All the things happening now are of a piece. Committing atrocities at the border, attacking the domestic rule of law, insulting democratic leaders while praising thugs, and breaking up trade agreements are all about ending American exceptionalism, turning our back on the ideals that made us different from other powerful nations.

And rejecting our ideals won’t make us stronger; it will make us weaker. We were the leader of the free world, a moral as well as financial and military force. But we’re throwing all that away.

What’s more, it won’t even serve our self-interest. America isn’t nearly as dominant a power as it was 70 years ago; Trump is delusional if he thinks that other countries will back down in the face of his threats. And if we are heading for a full-blown trade war, which seems increasingly likely, both he and those who voted for him will be shocked at how it goes: Some industries will gain, but millions of workers will be displaced.

So Trump isn’t making America great again; he’s trashing the things that made us great, turning us into just another bully — one whose bullying will be far less effective than he imagines.

www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/opinion/immigration-trump-children-american
-empire.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 5:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
But Manafort is not charged with colluding with Russia to throw the election. In fact, none of the charges relate to Russia, or the election, either separately or together ... at all.

https://www.justice.gov/sco

U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr. and Konstantin Kilimnik (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia)

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a third superseding indictment on June 8, 2018, against Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., and Konstantin Kilimnik, of Moscow, Russia. Manafort is charged with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, and false statements. Manafort and Kilimnik are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.

U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., and Richard W. Gates III (1:18-cr-83, Eastern District of Virginia)

Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., and Richard W. Gates III, of Richmond, Va., were indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb. 22, 2018, in the Eastern District of Virginia. The indictment contains 32 counts: 16 counts related to false individual income tax returns, seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, five counts of bank fraud conspiracy, and four counts of bank fraud. On March 1, 2018, the court granted a motion to dismiss without prejudice the charges against Richard Gates, following his guilty plea in a related case in the District of Columbia (1:17-cr-201).

Wow - that's a great read. What stands out to me is Manafort's and Gates level of corruption. There were no goof ups here, they were out and out fraudsters. You make a good point that there is no "willfully acted to throw the 2016 election in favor of Donnie Asshat." At least not yet and not explicitly. Some of those money indictments might be connected to manipulation - we don't know what the payments were for. There were some early signs of collusion when the Rep platform was changed in favor of Russia during the campaign. I wouldn't be too sure just yet though - either way.

Cold dose of Reality: the Justice dept brought these charges, and they don't like losing. Dear Paul: Flip or Flop.

Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?

Emails turned over to investigators detail the former campaign chair's efforts to please an oligarch tied to the Kremlin.

Trump hired the political consultant Paul Manafort to lead his campaign’s efforts to wrangle Republican delegates, Manafort emailed his old lieutenant Konstantin Kilimnik, who had worked for him for a decade in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

“I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?” Manafort wrote.

“Absolutely,” Kilimnik responded a few hours later from Kiev. “Every article.”

“How do we use to get whole,” Manafort asks. “Has OVD operation seen?”

According to a source close to Manafort, the initials “OVD” refer to Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and one of Russia’s richest men. The source also confirmed that one of the individuals repeatedly mentioned in the email exchange as an intermediary to Deripaska is an aide to the oligarch.

Manafort attempted to leverage his leadership role in the Trump campaign to curry favor with a Russian oligarch close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Manafort was deeply in debt, and did not earn a salary from the Trump campaign.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/emails-suggest-ma
nafort-sought-approval-from-putin-ally-deripaska/541677/

T

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 5:20 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Do you believe in trial by press? Or do you believe in the American justice system? I kinda think you're not a real American, since you disrespect its laws and procedures so thoroughly.

To review: what WAS Manafort indicted for, again?

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 7:51 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Do you believe in trial by press? Or do you believe in the American justice system? I kinda think you're not a real American, since you disrespect its laws and procedures so thoroughly.

To review: what WAS Manafort indicted for, again?

1kiki, John Gotti made the exact same argument as you are making. Three times he went to trial and three times declared "innocent". But after the fourth trial, Gotti died in jail (real tragedy that such a fine American died horribly) and it was Robert Mueller who put him there. Real tragedy if Trump dies horribly of cancer in jail. Such a fine American hero for Russian trolls.

www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/how-scared-should-trump-be-of-mueller-
ask-john-gotti-or-sammy-the-bull

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 8:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

Do you believe in trial by press? Or do you believe in the American justice system? I kinda think you're not a real American, since you disrespect its laws and procedures so thoroughly.

To review: what WAS Manafort indicted for, again?

Mueller's prosecutors indicated in court this week, and in previous filings, that the charges could be related to Russian collusion, after all.

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-ukraine-charges-related-t
o-russia-mueller-says-2018-5

How many times and different ways do we have to prove you wrong comrade? My mistake, because you're nothing more than a troll you never will acknowledge the truth.

T

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 9:04 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
When Dreeben (prosecutor) countered and said the allegations in the Virginia case were within the scope of Mueller's mandate, Ellis (judge) replied, referencing one of the charges: "The scope covers bank fraud from 2005?"

"How does this have anything to do with the campaign?" Ellis asked, according to The Wall Street Journal. When Dreeben said Manafort had been in contact with individuals in Ukraine who are affiliated with Russia and pro-Russian interests, Ellis accused Dreeben of "running away from my question."

Dreeben said Mueller's office takes its "primary mission" of investigating Russia's election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign "very seriously." He added that had prosecutors found evidence of criminal activity that was not necessarily related to Mueller's mandate, they would have referred it to another office.

And there's evidence (not supposition, guesswork, or gossip, but evidence) here of ... what, exactly?

So far, everything stops at 2014, well before Trump's campaign. Knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone is not collusion. For collusion to take place, you'd have to have actual communication that furthers interests during the relevant time period.

I'll tell you what, THUGGER.

You stop posting meaningless, vacuous, drivel, and I'll stop making fun of you.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 9:09 PM

tick tock
T

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 9:21 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Yep, THUGGER, drinking the Kool-Aid - again.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 9:49 PM

Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has signaled to friends that he is "willing to give" investigators information on the President if that's what they are looking for, and is planning on hiring a new lawyer to handle a possible indictment from federal prosecutors

T

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Tuesday, June 19, 2018 10:33 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I suspect Trump's done all manner of corrupt business practices. That makes him like every other politician. But Russian collusion? What if they never find any? Will you have enough smarts to feel stupid?

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 7:15 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I suspect Trump's done all manner of corrupt business practices. That makes him like every other politician. But Russian collusion? What if they never find any? Will you have enough smarts to feel stupid?

Trump makes 20 stupid decisions per day. He is not even trying to understand what he is doing and why he made the wrong decisions. But he has been very clear from the beginning that Russia did nothing at all. How did Trump know? Why is he absolutely certain? Putin told him in a phone call. That is another stupid decision Trump made to believe the head of state of the country accused of interfering in elections. Criminally stupid? Yes, even if the GOP controls enough Senators that will say it is not. Trump has already convicted himself of criminal stupidity.
www.wired.com/story/did-russia-affect-the-2016-election-its-now-undeni
able/

Quote:
For some time, there has been a conflation of issues—the hacking and leaking of illegally obtained information versus propaganda and disinformation; cyber-security issues and the hacking of elections systems versus information operations and information warfare; paid advertising versus coercive messaging or psychological operations—when discussing “Russian meddling” in the 2016 US elections. The refrain has become: “There is no evidence that Russian efforts changed any votes.”

But the bombshell 37-page indictment issued Friday by Robert Mueller against Russia’s Internet Research Agency and its leadership and affiliates provides considerable detail on the Russian information warfare targeting the American public during the elections. And this information makes it increasingly difficult to say that the Kremlin's effort to impact the American mind did not succeed.

The indictment pulls the curtain back on four big questions that have swirled around the Russian influence operation, which, it turns out, began in 2014: What was the scope of the Russian effort? What kind of content did it rely on? Who or what was it targeting, and what did it aim to achieve? And finally, what impact did it have?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 7:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Senators and Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is having the knowledge necessary to manage finances efficiently. Financially literate people know how to achieve long-term goals and make healthy financial decisions.

On the other hand, those who are not financially literate have difficulty applying financial decision-making skills to real-life situations. Not only do they tend to make unhealthy money decisions that create financial problems, they have trouble reaching financial milestones. In America today, financial illiteracy has become an epidemic. A study done by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Foundation estimated that nearly two-thirds of Americans can't pass a basic financial literacy test. That's a problem.
www.cnbc.com/2018/06/15/8-great-financial-lessons-i-learned-from-my-fa
ther.html

Financial illiteracy among Senators is even worse than among ordinary Americans. The 2019 military budget was approved by an overwhelming 85 to 10 margin. Why that was illiterate is here:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/u-s-military-budget-inc
hes-closer-to-1-trillion-mark-as-concerns-over-federal-deficit-grow/?utm_term=.d4e2235b026b

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 7:46 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Is Trump's focus on pipeline cybersecurity a ruse to prop up coal? YES.

More than 300,000 miles of natural gas transmission lines crisscross the United States, fueling electricity and industrial plants and heating homes, while also providing an alluring target for hackers looking to disrupt the American economy.

Now those pipelines are at the center of a debate in Washington about the future of the power grid, as Energy Secretary Rick Perry argues that an increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threat makes relying on natural gas to the exclusion of coal and nuclear plants a disaster waiting to happen.

“You have a greater reliance on natural gas than you’ve ever had before,” Bruce Walker, assistant secretary of electricity and energy reliability, said in an interview. “Because of the interdependence on the gas infrastructure, if you take out a pipeline you can also take out 10 to 15 [power] generators.”

The administration’s concern about cybersecurity comes as the White House considers next steps in its bid to halt the closure of coal power plants, which have come under increasing economic pressure from the huge glut of cheap gas coming out of shale fields in Texas and other states.

That has set the administration and Perry in direct conflict with natural gas producers, many of whom believe the administration is raising the issue of cyber security of gas pipelines to justify bailing out a coal sector that President Donald Trump has promised to revive.

“They are certainly using every argument they can come up with to try and justify it,” said one pipeline executive, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of talks with the White House. “The challenge is we don’t want to advertise all the measures we're taking to deal with the threat. You’re trapped.”

More at www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Is-focus-on-pipeline-
cyber-security-ruse-to-prop-13006642.php

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 8:15 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Trump makes 20 stupid decisions per day. He is not even trying to understand what he is doing and why he made the wrong decisions. But he has been very clear from the beginning that Russia did nothing at all.

Er, no. The refrain that I hear from Trump is that TRUMP did nothing at all. No meetings, no telephone calls, no "collusion", no nothing.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 9:21 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Er, no. The refrain that I hear from Trump is that TRUMP did nothing at all. No meetings, no telephone calls, no "collusion", no nothing.

And that may be true or, at least not that can be proved. He is old enough and smart enough and selfish enough to know that you get someone else to be the mule.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2018 9:47 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Trump makes 20 stupid decisions per day. He is not even trying to understand what he is doing and why he made the wrong decisions. But he has been very clear from the beginning that Russia did nothing at all.
Er, no. The refrain that I hear from Trump is that TRUMP did nothing at all. No meetings, no telephone calls, no "collusion", no nothing.

Since when did Trump's responsibilities get that small? When will he start doing his job on Russian interference with the election? Or when will he start taking responsibility for even this extremely simply to understand example: Trump is ignoring the corruption of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, an extraordinarily wealthy man who, according to blockbuster reporting out this week from Forbes’s Dan Alexander, has never divested from major financial conflicts of interests.

The whole story is worth your time and much, much simpler than Russia interfering in American elections. But to highlight, Ross spent most of 2017 in office while maintaining partial ownership of, among other things:

a) Chinese state-owned enterprises

b) shipping company tied to Russian oligarchs

c) Cypriot bank that’s involved in Robert Mueller’s investigation

d) major player in the auto parts industry with a direct stake in Commerce’s trade policy decisions

Ross then passed off his assets to a family trust, meaning that the conflicts of interest are still present. When will Trump react? On this or on Russia? There is nobody that can force Trump to do the actual job of being President, a job that includes both controlling Wilbur Ross and preventing interference in elections by Russia and other specific responsibilities that Trump has not responded to.

www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17479170/wilbur-ross-corruption

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 7:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

In the mid-19th century, the Methodists and Baptists were (as they still are) the nation's largest Protestant churches. Two decades before the Civil War, these two denominations wrestled with the most controversial social issue of the day: slavery.

1845 proved to be a crucial year for both groups. In the Methodist case, antislavery leaders voted to suspend a bishop who held slaves; in the Baptist case, antislavery members attempted to bar slaveholders from missionary work. In both churches, antislavery activists attempted to limit slavery by making it morally unacceptable and geographically constrained. By 1845, all neutrality and all compromises were off the table. Although antislavery forces won crucial votes and changed important church policies, aggrieved proslavery church members left -- forming the Southern Baptist Convention and the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

At the time, clergy, politicians and journalists noted that the schisms were a blow to the Union. Most historians believe these actions were the prelude to the Civil War and, in many ways, contributed to the nation's further political fracturing.

Is something similar happening now? Does this ecclesiastical tumult foreshadow an even larger political crisis awaiting us?

The answers are, yes and maybe.

As difficult as this moment seems, I think that historian Jon Meacham is correct when likening our time to a "Dred Scott" moment, referring to the Supreme Court decision that people held in slavery were denied the rights of full citizenship. Meacham, like many other historians, has insisted the primary divide was between those who recognized enslaved people as fully human and those who did not.

As the rights of citizenship were at stake in Dred, during the 1845 schisms the rights of church membership were the basic question. Did fully baptized people held in slavery have the same freedoms -- in theological language, "freedom in Christ" -- as slaveholders? The churches argued about the Bible's moral teaching regarding slaves and territorial expansion of slavery (as related to Western mission work), in effect struggling with whether black people in slavery were fully human. These Methodist and Baptist ecclesiastical arguments would re-emerge as secular issues at the fore in the Dred Scott case. The churches argued these concerns a full decade before the courts did. And the results were strikingly similar: divides and schism.

Today, the Methodists and Baptists are not really fighting over mere "issues." They are fighting about whether women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ people should, on the basis of human dignity and worth, have full rights, responsibilities and respect in their church communities.

We are in the run-up, that time of uncertainty when a whole lot of people are making terrible decisions that eventually result in an even worse conflict. To have both Methodists and Baptists echoing their past slavery fights now is stunning. History, however, is not predestination.

www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/opinions/methodist-and-southern-baptists-church
-issues-opinion-bass/index.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 8:13 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Trump makes 20 stupid decisions per day. He is not even trying to understand what he is doing and why he made the wrong decisions. But he has been very clear from the beginning that Russia did nothing at all. - SECOND

Er, no. The refrain that I hear from Trump is that TRUMP did nothing at all. No meetings, no telephone calls, no "collusion", no nothing.- SIGNY

Since when did Trump's responsibilities get that small? - SECOND

So, you concede that your "big point" about Trump "knowing" that "Russia did nothing at all" was 100% hooey?

Let's get THAT point clear before we move on to the rest of your "argument" (which isn't really yours but yet another second-hand opinion).

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 8:20 AM

REAVERFAN

Trolls don't seem to know fact from opinion. Surprise, surprise.

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 9:20 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Trump makes 20 stupid decisions per day. He is not even trying to understand what he is doing and why he made the wrong decisions. But he has been very clear from the beginning that Russia did nothing at all. - SECOND

Er, no. The refrain that I hear from Trump is that TRUMP did nothing at all. No meetings, no telephone calls, no "collusion", no nothing.- SIGNY

Since when did Trump's responsibilities get that small? - SECOND
So, you concede that your "big point" about Trump "knowing" that "Russia did nothing at all" was 100% hooey?

Let's get THAT point clear before we move on to the rest of your "argument" (which isn't really yours but yet another second-hand opinion).

There are, of course, a great many people cheering Trump on, from out-and-out Klansmen to the corrupt and greedy to tens of millions of really wonderful people struggling to make ends meet, looking for someone they think feels their pain (I would argue Trump feels nothing for anyone but himself) and who they think has a solution to their problems. If only he can vanquish the bad guys on their behalf (the press, the FBI, the Canadians) he will get them “great health care at a tiny fraction of the price.”

He claims he never read the compendium of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, though (because he constantly lies) it is more likely that he did, as Ivana alleged.

Either way, it’s Germany 1934. General background at http://spartacus-educational.com/GER1933.htm

https://andrewtobias.com/cause-for-hope/

Trent Reznor: ‘You’re seeing the fall of America in real time’

“It feels like things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally,” says Reznor. “The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism; the celebration of stupidity. I’m ashamed, on a world stage, at what we must look like as a culture. It’s seeing life through the eyes of having four small kids – what are they coming into? And who am I in this world where it feels like every day the furniture got moved a bit while I slept?”

www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/21/trent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-you
re-seeing-the-fall-of-america

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 10:05 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by reaverfan:
Trolls don't seem to know fact from opinion. Surprise, surprise.

Will Russian troll Signym think this is a second hand opinion or a fact? I will ask Sig, who might consider it only opinion since Trump has not admitted to it, same as he has not clearly admitted Russia elected him in 2016. www.factcheck.org/2018/02/words-trump-russian-meddling/

Trump plans to propose a reorganization of the federal government as early as Thursday that includes a possible merger of the Education and Labor Departments, coupled with a reshuffling of other domestic agencies to make them easier to cut or revamp, according to administration officials briefed on the proposal.

The plan includes relocating many social safety net programs into a new megadepartment, which would replace the Department of Health and Human Services and possibly include the word “welfare” in its title.

Trump and his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, the architect of the plan, have sought to redefine as welfare subsistence benefit programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and housing aid. It is part of a rebranding effort, championed by conservative think tanks and House Republicans, to link them to unpopular direct-cash assistance programs that have traditionally been called welfare.

“They have been using the word welfare because it is pejorative,” said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “The programs you can call welfare are actually very small in comparison to SNAP, which is an income support necessary to help families, workers and millions of kids.”

At the heart of the plan is expected to be an attempt to shift SNAP, which serves more than 42 million poor and working-class Americans, to the new agency from the Agriculture Department. Conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation and Koch-related entities, have long sought to de-link food aid from agriculture in hopes of cutting costs.

As recently as earlier this month, Mr. Mulvaney was also considering merging the Labor and Education Departments, either in the new welfare agency or in a new stand-alone department, according to a person with knowledge of his plans. The proposed merger of the Education and Labor Departments was first reported by Education Week. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/06/trump_administrat
ion_mulls_labor_education_merger.html

Mr. Mulvaney and White House officials have closely guarded details of their plan, sharing them with political appointees but not career staff members at cabinet departments.

Calls to the White House and its budget office were not returned.

www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/politics/trump-welfare-department-reorga
nization.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 21, 2018 8:52 PM

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Friday, June 22, 2018 1:58 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Trump has not admitted to it, same as he has not clearly admitted Russia elected him in 2016

When you say shit like that SECOND, it just shows how far off the deep end you've gone.

More than 59,400,000 AMERICANS voted for Trump in 2016, and that's what got Trump elected, and it doesn't matter how deeply in denial you are or how many alternate realities you live in, that is fact.

You burn with hatred for a fair number of your countrymen and women, and deeply disrespect the democratic process, and all because it didn't get you the result that YOU wanted. So you figure that if you alienate a lot of people and try to undo the election results, that will help?

Well, reality doesn't work that way so stop calling everyone that you disagree with a "Russian troll", try screwing your head on straight, and figure out what the Democratic party did wrong, and maybe you can change the result the next time. Because I can tell you, the path that you're on? It's not a winning one.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Sunday, June 24, 2018 7:43 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

You burn with hatred for a fair number of your countrymen and women, and deeply disrespect the democratic process, and all because it didn't get you the result that YOU wanted. So you figure that if you alienate a lot of people and try to undo the election results, that will help?

They alienate themselves with their poor personal choice on how to live. Their votes are just one manifestation, once every 4 years. They are stuck being their sad selves the other 1460 days, beyond help.

Why robots helped Donald Trump win.

Toledo has more robots per worker than any other US city. They’re producing a healthy economy—and lots of anxiety. What makes the story in Toledo hard for many politicians and even economists to understand is that the anxiety goes well beyond automation and the number of jobs. For many people, your job defines your life. The disruptions caused by robots and other technologies are deeply affecting the communities involved. These technological forces have joined many others—some cultural, some political—to create a generalized anguish that much is being lost. People have come to believe that they, their jobs, their communities, and the social contract that binds them to work and place and each other are under threat. And they’re not wrong.

They need the money, and they want the money, but money alone isn’t why anybody worked 40 years in the Cove. They stood on the line and welded or painted or bolted because they were auto workers in a country in which what you do is who you are. They could look at a Wrangler, or a glass windshield, or a Whirlpool washer, and say “I made that.”

Probably nobody voted for Trump just because of technology. But when people feel powerless, they’ll gravitate toward any object, person, or belief they think might return some autonomy to them, or help them preserve what they fear they’re losing.
More at www.technologyreview.com/s/611422/why-robots-helped-donald-trump-win/

Three key states won by Trump — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — could have swung in favor of Clinton, had robot adoption in the U.S. been just 2 percent lower, according to Frey's research.
More at www.cnbc.com/2017/10/30/hillary-clinton-president-fewer-robots-workpla
ce-study.html

Trump and his surrogates beat a drum about the hollowing out of the US middle class and the jobs that once supported it. In their telling, it was illegal immigration and catastrophic trade deals that caused the damage. In power, the Trump administration has hewed to the same position. Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said the problem of job displacement by robots is “not even on our radar screen” since it will only come “in 50 to 100 more years.”

But the Trump team’s claims were spurious. The US is manufacturing much more stuff with many fewer workers, mainly because of automation. As for Mnuchin’s remarks, they made him the subject of immediate, brutal public snickering. Larry Summers, who held Mnuchin’s job in the Clinton administration, compared his successor’s views on robots with “what global climate change denial is to atmospheric science or what creationism is to biology.”
More at https://qz.com/940977

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, June 24, 2018 8:28 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
They alienate themselves with their poor personal choice on how to live. Their votes are just one manifestation, once every 4 years. They are stuck being their sad selves the other 1460 days, beyond help.

The DNC alienated themselves with ITS poor choices, and yet you don't hate them!

SECOND, you'll use any excuse in the book to flog your personal prejudices and contempt. You're one twisted hate-filled person, yanno that? There's no point even discussing anything with you, which us why I skip past most of your posts.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Sunday, June 24, 2018 9:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
They alienate themselves with their poor personal choice on how to live. Their votes are just one manifestation, once every 4 years. They are stuck being their sad selves the other 1460 days, beyond help.
The DNC alienated themselves with ITS poor choices, and yet you don't hate them!

SECOND, you'll use any excuse in the book to flog your personal prejudices and contempt. You're one twisted hate-filled person, yanno that? There's no point even discussing anything with you, which us why I skip past most of your posts.

In terms of demographics, Trump’s supporters are a bit older, less educated and earn less than the average Republican. Slightly over half are women. About half are between 45 and 64 years of age, with another 34 percent over 65 years old and less than 2 percent younger than 30.

Political 'Counterculture': Young Republicans Hold Unique Space In The Trump Era

Lee, a self-described atheist, insists he doesn't "want to spend one dollar building a wall with Mexico." Magee, a 33-year-old in suburban Atlanta, says if you want to marry someone of the same sex then it's "between you, your spouse and God." And Chambers insists a "true Republican" shouldn't care about same-sex marriage because "the government shouldn't be so involved in everyone's every day lives."

But they are all Republican activists. Lee is the former president of the Georgia Young Republicans, where Chambers is now state chairman.
Poll: Democrats Fired Up Against Trump In Midterms, But GOP Rallying Around Him

Research has consistently shown that on LGBT rights, climate change and immigration, young Republicans are adopting more socially liberal policies than their elders.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/24/619659609/political-counterculture-youn
g-republicans-hold-unique-space-in-the-trump-era

T

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Sunday, June 24, 2018 9:48 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Pretty sure that Trump is getting re-elected in 2 years.

I'm hoping in the mid-terms that the Dems take either the house or senate still. Never a good thing when either side holds all the cards.

What people need to remember is that most Democrats aren't as off the reservation as the ones that post here. The equal and opposite can also be said.

It's easy to forget this when the loudest voices are the ones the other "side" tends to judge.

The fatal flaw of the 2-party system in a country with over 250 million voters.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, June 24, 2018 2:49 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
They alienate themselves with their poor personal choice on how to live. Their votes are just one manifestation, once every 4 years. They are stuck being their sad selves the other 1460 days, beyond help.
The DNC alienated themselves with ITS poor choices, and yet you don't hate them!

SECOND, you'll use any excuse in the book to flog your personal prejudices and contempt. You're one twisted hate-filled person, yanno that? There's no point even discussing anything with you, which us why I skip past most of your posts.

Signym, I was 66 years old in April. I am familiar with whining Republicans from the Nixon vs Kennedy and Nixon vs Humphrey elections. I am familiar with "Democrats" that switched over to being Republicans because they hated niggers and Mexicans and Gooks. The GOP became the new home for racists when the Democrats stopped being the racist party.

You Republicans have always been bitching about the Democrats. As time goes on, I realized that you guys are crazy and it has nothing to do with Democrats. You are simply defective. Signym and Trump in particular are lying sacks of shit, but not all Republicans are like that. Being crazy, racist, and in some cases a liar is a tremendous disadvantage to getting ahead in the real world, far away from wacko GOP politics.

Unsurprisingly, many Republicans don't do well in a world that does not give special prizes for being incompetent or racist or untruthful or prickly or quickly offended or paralyzed by anxiety and fear. Too bad for you, but it's not my problem. It's yours to fix all by yourself.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, June 25, 2018 6:16 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Few lawmakers enter the legislature prepared to debate the ins and outs of arms transfers, trade, or international aid. On issues of war and peace, Congress has more or less abdicated its historical oversight responsibility, choosing instead to defer to the executive branch. And look where Trump is going:

You might not know it from watching the news these days, but the U.S. is engaged in multiple wars across the world, both declared and undeclared. The so-called targeted killing program continues unabated under Donald Trump, and the civilian death toll has been skyrocketing over the past year and a half in Syria and Iraq. Trump famously tore up the Iran nuclear deal, and he has conspired with Israel, the Saudis, and the United Arab Emirates to lay the groundwork for regime change in Iran. The scorched earth bombing of Yemen is nothing short of a genocidal massacre — one that is aided, funded, supported, and armed by the United States. The U.S. also continues to conduct drone strikes in Yemen, as the Saudis pummel the poorest country in the Arab world nonstop. The war in Afghanistan is still on and drone strikes are re-emerging in Pakistan.

In Iraq, recent parliamentary elections saw the fiery nationalist, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc win more seats than any other party. And there is talk of building a coalition with the once-banned and persecuted Iraqi Communist Party. Sadr and his Mahdi Army were one of the fiercest forces fighting the U.S. occupation and it represents a major rejection of the American project in Iraq.

In the midst of all of this, we also have Trump’s Muslim ban being challenged in courts; open anti-Muslim rhetoric emanating from the most prominent political offices in the land.

More at https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/sohail-daulatzai-on-islam-white-su
premacy-and-the-myth-of-the-empire-of-liberty/
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/20/congress-has-willfully-abdicated-i
ts-responsibility-over-war/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, June 25, 2018 6:35 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by SECONAL:
You Republicans have always been bitching about the Democrats.

WRONG AGAIN!!!

You crack me up! Your trolling is always so cartoonishly wrong! Please, try something else. I can hardly wait!

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Monday, June 25, 2018 6:48 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Quote:
Originally posted by SECONAL:
You Republicans have always been bitching about the Democrats.
WRONG AGAIN!!!

You crack me up! Your trolling is always so cartoonishly wrong! Please, try something else. I can hardly wait!

1kiki, you are up very early in California or late in Moscow, but you are always a lying sack of shit and you do it in so few words. The nicest interpretation is you don't know Texas Republicans. If you did, you won't be writing "wrong again".

America's closest allies are furious about Trump's tariffs, and now an unorthodox idea to go after him is gaining steam

Op-eds in The Houston Chronicle and the Canadian news magazine Maclean's suggested the only way to quell the rising trade tensions is to strike at Trump's businesses.

"I propose that instead of taxing the import of American serviettes, we tax Trump," Gilmore said. "In the spirit of the Magnitsky Act, Canada and the western allies come together to collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and their assets." https://goo.gl/v654RC

Specifically, Gillmore suggested the use of Canada's Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky Act. The law was designed to punish foreign officials engaged in corruption by allowing the Canadian government to crack down on their businesses.

Gilmore's suggestion picked up enough steam to gain the attention of Canada's lawmakers. Canadian Foreign Minster Chrystia Freeland — the country's chief trade negotiator — was asked about the use of the Magnitsky Act by Erin Weir, a member of the Canadian parliament, during a question-and-answer session.

"We are now in a consultation period, we welcome ideas from all Canadians on what should and what should not be in our retaliation list," Freeland said.

Brett Bruen, a former US diplomat and the president of the consulting firm Global Situation Room, told Business Insider that he doesn't expect such "non-traditional responses" to Trump's trade actions "to be widespread." But he said there "may well be efforts to scrutinize or tighten the screws on President Trump's companies."

More at www.businessinsider.com/canada-france-trump-organization-tariffs-trade
-response-2018-6

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, June 25, 2018 7:03 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECONDRATE, resorting to lying, again.

Quote:
You Republicans [referring to KIKI] have always been bitching about the Democrats.- SECONDRATE

WRONG AGAIN!!! You crack me up! Your trolling is always so cartoonishly wrong! Please, try something else. I can hardly wait! - KIKI

1kiki, you are up very early in California or late in Moscow - SECONDRATE

And then you go off on some irrelevant rant about Canadian papers? YOUR ERROR, SECONDRATE, was referring to us as a "republican", and then you compounded your mistake by insinuating that Kiki is Russian. So, KIKI is a Republican Russian? What the hell is wrong with you? You're so confused you can't even keep your own trolling straight?

Here's a suggestion: Try the truth. It always stays the same, so it's less confusing. That might help.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Monday, June 25, 2018 7:08 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Pretty sure that Trump is getting re-elected in 2 years.

I'm hoping in the mid-terms that the Dems take either the house or senate still. Never a good thing when either side holds all the cards.

What people need to remember is that most Democrats aren't as off the reservation as the ones that post here. The equal and opposite can also be said.

You are so out of touch. I am not a Dem but I will vote straight Dem with Trump in the WH and the Reps in congress like Ryan, McConnell, etc. Those f*ckers are just as bad as Trump. The people you think are Dems are bringing truth - you just don't like their tone. SIGNYM scratches under your chin, "Hahaha funny 6!" and you roll right over. Classic salesman 101 manipulation and you buy it with an extra bag of sh*t.

Whatever - I do think you are right about Trump in 2020. The Dems have no one and don't appear to be trying. Every time Warren opens her mouth she racks up new voters for Trump. Don't me wrong, she is on a higher evolutionary plane than Trump and has a heart 20 times larger than Trump's, but she's not going to win any Trump voters over - just the opposite. Bernie? Booker? Bueller? No one.

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Monday, June 25, 2018 7:09 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Signym and Trump in particular are lying sacks of shit- SECONDRATE

And yet, you have not demonstrated me to be wrong in one single instance.
But hey! Feel free! Just bring up a few instances where you thought I was "lying" to validate your point, and we can debate. I'll bet that you can't. So that makes WHO the liar, again?

That's a funny thing ... when you (not just you, SECONDRATE, but also GSTRING, THUGR, KRAPO, and our latest addition to the troll farm: REAVERFAN) read something that you "don't like", you call it a "lie". It's your first go-to response, and it leaves you terribly unprepared for reality.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Tuesday, June 26, 2018 7:13 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Signym and Trump in particular are lying sacks of shit- SECONDRATE
And yet, you have not demonstrated me to be wrong in one single instance.
But hey! Feel free! Just bring up a few instances where you thought I was "lying" to validate your point, and we can debate. I'll bet that you can't. So that makes WHO the liar, again?

That's a funny thing ... when you (not just you, SECONDRATE, but also GSTRING, THUGR, KRAPO, and our latest addition to the troll farm: REAVERFAN) read something that you "don't like", you call it a "lie". It's your first go-to response, and it leaves you terribly unprepared for reality.

Long ago I decided you were either a Russian troll or nuts. Reasons don't work on either. I am not wasting my time explaining to you, unless I could get my hands on you. I would like to get my hands on U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. She needs physical help to understand something she does not wish to understand: The U.N. says 18.5 million Americans are in ‘extreme poverty.’ Trump’s team says just 250,000 are.

The U.N. has nothing to gain by lying. Trump has much to gain by lying. Who is the liar?

The U.N.'s numbers come from the official Census definition that has been kept for decades by the U.S. government, defining extreme poverty as having an income lower than half the official poverty rate. (For 2016, that was about $12,000 a year for a family of four.) Trump’s numbers come from nowhere, a conservative "think tank". Again, who is the liar?

The Census in 2009 created a “supplemental” poverty rate that accounts for government benefits like food stamps. That number shows about 15.7 million Americans are in “deep poverty” in 2016. Trump is still quoting 250,000. Who is the liar?

Princeton University economist Angus Deaton found about 5.3 million Americans live on less than $4 a day, including government transfers. Trump is not changing his number of 250,000. So, who do you think is lying? How do you get a deliberate liar to stop lying? Reason cannot change a liar. More facts cannot force a liar into admitting they lied.

More at www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/25/trump-team-rebukes-u-n-
saying-it-overestimates-extreme-poverty-in-america-by-18-million-people/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f30b173107ba

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, June 26, 2018 7:58 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Long ago I decided you were either a Russian troll or nuts. Reasons don't work on either.

So, in other words, you won't (or can't) find any single instance where you can show me to be "lying".

You can't disprove, for example, that our illegal immigration crisis is at least partly caused by our continuous "interventions" south of the border.

You can't disprove that we funded jihadists in the Middle East, and left mountains of bodies and great swathes of smoking, cluster-fucked, jihadist-filled failed states in our wake

You can't disprove that the wealth gap under Obama continued to widen at the SAME RATE as under Bush, or that Obama destroyed just as many nations (He just did it less expen$ively), or that he illegally surveilled more Americans than Bush.

You can't disprove that banks get to create money out of thin air (Money that ordinary people have to sweat for) through the magic of fractional reserve banking, that "rentier" capitalism is a zero sum model, and that the worst form of "rentier" capitalism is "renting" money that you can make up out of thin air.

You can't disprove that "free trade" agreements have cost us most of our manufacturing jobs and slowly stripped us of our national decision-making capacity, and that this has left our economy in a weakened state and worked counter to our national security and prosperity.

You can't demonstrate that the person who HATES democracy or who is working against our "democratic institutions" is me and NOT YOU, because you clearly hate free speech, you hate the vote, and you hate about half of the United States.

You can't even disprove that Elon Musk is nuts.

And the reason WHY you can't disprove any of these statements is because they are FACTS. FACTS, which- in your biased mind- are anathema because they don't fit into your virtue-signaling and yet oh-so-hate-filled world.

Quote:
I am not wasting my time explaining to you, unless I could get my hands on you.

And so, because facts and logic fail you and because you're so immutably wedded to your hate-filled biased POV that you can't POSSIBLY change your mind about anything, you resort to threats.

The person who's incapable of discussion, SECONDRATE, is you, not me. If KIKI ever decides to go forward with her lawsuit, I'll be PMing her to add my name to the lawsuit. Maybe we can go for double damages.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Wednesday, June 27, 2018 7:04 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Americans felt bad about their economic future at least three times over the centuries.

1) Most recently, when America ran out of jobs that require a college education. How do you get richer without a degree? Where do you use it when all the jobs already have somebody with a college degree who got there before you?

2) A little back in time when the frontier was declared closed in 1890. There was no more free land from the Federal government for Americans to exploit. Where is that new forest waiting for its first logger? Where is that new pasture that has never had cattle grazing? Where is that new land that no farmer ever plowed and planted?

3) What happens to ambitious Americans who wants to be rich but cannot find a slave to do the work?

I’ve got three examples of those three economic crises to entertain you:

#1) Running out of new jobs requiring College. There is already an American in every one of those high status jobs that you wanted so much:

For those of us at the top, one of the founding myths of America’s meritocracy is that our success has nothing to do with other people’s failure. It’s a pleasant idea. But around the world and throughout history, the wealthy have advanced the crystallization process in a straightforward way. They have taken their money out of productive activities and put it into walls. Throughout history, moreover, one social group above all others has assumed responsibility for maintaining and defending these walls. Its members used to be called aristocrats. Now we’re the 9.9 percent. The main difference is that we have figured out how to use the pretense of being part of the middle as one of our strategies for remaining on top. . . .

It’s one of the delusions of our meritocratic class to assume that if our actions are individually blameless, then the sum of our actions will be good for society. We may have studied Shakespeare on the way to law school, but we have little sense for the tragic possibilities of life. The fact of the matter is that we have silently and collectively opted for inequality, and this is what inequality does. It turns marriage into a luxury good, and a stable family life into a privilege that the moneyed elite can pass along to their children. How do we think that’s going to work out? . . .

Consider the all-consuming difference between “good” schools and the rest. Ten years after starting college, according to data from the Department of Education, the top decile of earners from all schools had a median salary of $68,000. But the top decile from the 10 highest-earning colleges raked in $220,000—make that $250,000 for No. 1, Harvard—and the top decile at the next 30 colleges took home $157,000. (Not surprisingly, the top 10 had an average acceptance rate of 9 percent, and the next 30 were at 19 percent.)

It is entirely possible to get a good education at the many schools that don’t count as “good” in our brand-obsessed system. But the “bad” ones really are bad for you. For those who made the mistake of being born to the wrong parents, our society offers a kind of virtual education system. It has places that look like colleges—but aren’t really. It has debt—and that, unfortunately, is real. The people who enter into this class hologram do not collect a college premium; they wind up in something more like indentured servitude.

More at The Birth of a New American Aristocracy
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-americ
an-aristocracy/559130/

#2) Running out of land to exploit. Where do you start your new farm when all the free farmland has been taken?

The new managerial and professional elites have a heavy investment in the notion of social mobility, the only kind of equality they understand. They would like to believe that Americans have always equated opportunity with upward mobility, that “the opportunity for social mobility for everyone is the very fabric of the ‘American Dream,’ ” as Lloyd Warner wrote in 1953. But a careful look at the historical record shows that the promise of American life came to be identified with social mobility only when more hopeful interpretations of opportunity had begun to fade, that the concept of social mobility embodies a fairly recent and sadly impoverished understanding of the ‘American Dream’ and that its ascendancy, in our own time, measures the recession of the dream and not its fulfillment. . . .

It would be foolish to deny that competing versions of the good life appealed to many Americans in the nineteenth century. Those who spoke for the union of manual and mental employments recognized the seductive lure of wealth and fashion, the growing contempt for manual labor, and the desire to inspire envy instead of settling for respect. But it was only when the hierarchical structure of American society became unmistakable that opportunity came to be widely associated with the achievement of superior standing in an increasingly stratified, money-mad, and class-conscious society. By the end of the nineteenth century the “dignity of labor” had become an empty phrase, uttered without conviction on ritual occasions. The “laboring classes” no longer referred to the vast majority of self-reliant, self-respecting citizens; the term now referred to a permanent class of hirelings, escape from which appeared to be the only compelling definition of opportunity.

It is significant that “social mobility” entered the academic vocabulary around this time, in the context of uneasiness about the closing of the frontier. The Census Bureau’s announcement, in 1890, that the country no longer “had a frontier of settlement” almost immediately took on enormous symbolic importance. This “brief official statement,” wrote Frederick Jackson Turner, marked the “closing of a great historic movement.” It gave new urgency to debates about the “social question.” More than any other development, the closing of the frontier forced Americans to reckon with the proletarianization of labor, the growing gulf between wealth and poverty, and the tendency of each to become hereditary.

More at The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, Chapter 3, Opportunity in the Promised Land, by Christopher Lasch
http://onhiat.us/index.php/books/download/id=141707&type=file
www.amazon.com/Revolt-Elites-Betrayal-Democracy-ebook/dp/B00D8UOBRW/

#3) Running out of slaves to exploit:

Slavery, then, cannot be attributed to some deadly atmospheric miasma or some irresistible force in the South’s economic evolution. The use of slaves in southern agriculture was a deliberate choice (among several alternatives) made by men who sought greater returns than they could obtain from their own labor alone, and who found other types of labor more expensive. “For what purpose does the master hold the servant?” asked an ante-bellum Southerner. “Is it not that by his labor he, the master, may accumulate wealth?” The rise of slavery in the South was inevitable only in the sense that every event in history seems inevitable after it has occurred.

Southerners who chose to develop and to preserve slavery could no more escape responsibility for their action than they could escape its consequences. But to judge them without compassion is to lack both the insight and the sensitivity needed to understand the nature of their tragedy. For the South began with good human material; its tragedy did not spring from the inherent depravity of its people. Southerners did not create the slave system all at once in 1619; rather, they built it little by little, step by step, choice by choice, over a period of many years; and all the while most of them were more or less blind to the ultimate consequences of the choices they were making. Somehow, at crucial times, their vision failed them; somehow it was their misfortune to have built a social structure wanting in flexibility. Ultimately Southerners became the victims of their own peculiar institution; they were unwilling to adjust it, or themselves, to the ideological and cultural realities of the nineteenth century.

Not that slavery failed as a practical labor system. In that narrow sense it was a success, and it was still flourishing as late as 1860. In terms of its broad social consequences for the South as a whole, however, slavery must be adjudged a failure. Few slaves ever really adapted successfully to their servitude, and few whites could defend the system without betraying the emotional stresses to which slavery subjected them. Eventually the omnipresent slave became the symbol of the South and the cornerstone of its culture. When that happened, disaster was close at hand—in fact, that in itself was a disaster.

The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth M. Stampp
www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Institution-Slavery-Ante-Bellum-South/dp/B0035
E1PKM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, June 27, 2018 8:59 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Mitt, a proto-Trump nativist and shameless opportunist

Mitt Romney was a quintessential New England moderate when I voted for him back in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, promising to protect a woman’s right to choose and in office signing a bill that became a model for what eventually became Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Then after Massachusetts’s Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Romney reinvented himself as a fire-breathing social conservative and champion of traditional values — discovering a newfound faith-based opposition to abortion rights that had somehow gone missing over the previous decade to stand alongside his commitment to the then-traditional definition of marriage.

That persona didn’t secure the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, but four years later Romney bested Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich with a proto-Trump nativist message. As the Republican nominee, he broke with his party’s free trade consensus to slam Obama for going too soft on Chinese imports.

Romney didn’t run in the 2016 cycle but did briefly audition as a spokesperson for the #NeverTrump movement — slamming nativism and protectionism as inauthentic to the conservative movement. He pegged Trump himself as a fraud, though of course when it came time for the general election Romney couldn’t bring himself to endorse actually voting for the one candidate who could stop the fraud from becoming president.

Tuesday night, he wrapped up the GOP nomination to run for Senate in Utah (where I guess he moved at some point?) which makes his elevation to Congress all-but-certain. Romney fans like McKay Coppins say that possession of such a safe seat will make Romney “free — perhaps for the first time in his political career — to be unabashedly who he is, without any serious threat of electoral blowback.” Coppins continued, “That could lead him to hold the president accountable in ways that other Capitol Hill Republicans have shied away from.”

In truth, the best hope for these fantasies would have been for Romney to bow out of running at the last minute, leaving people free to dream of what Sen. Romney might have been. As an actual elected official, Romney will inevitably end up being unabashedly who he is — one of the most shameless opportunists in the history of American public life, who invariably ends up disappointing people who expect him to stick to anything for long.

www.vox.com/2018/6/26/17503028/election-results-south-carolina-new-yor
k-utah-and-colorado

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 28, 2018 6:24 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Democratic voters sat out the 2014 midterms and lost the Supreme Court for a generation.

This year, many Supreme Court rulings are 5 to 4, the Democrats always the 4, which is to say they’re not triumphs of legal reasoning, they’re triumphs of political power. These cases were decided not during oral arguments but during the 2014 midterms.

Four weeks before the 2014 election, the Pew Research Center released a report detailing the American public’s disinterest in the campaign. Pew called it the “Meh Midterm,” and they were proven right: When the votes were counted, weeks later, turnout was 36.3 percent — the lowest it had been in 72 years. Some commentators argued that there was no such thing as a dull election when both the Senate and the Supreme Court were so closely divided, but such arguments fell on deaf ears.

The absence of enthusiasm favored Republicans: They picked up nine Senate seats, ripping control of the chamber away from the Democrats for the first time since 2006. And did it matter? It did. Republican Antonin Scalia unexpectedly died, choking on fried chicken during a late night snack, opening a vacancy that could have swung the Supreme Court to the Democrats for a generation.

Liberals will forever loathe Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for denying Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland so much as a hearing for the vacant seat. McConnell insisted that a Supreme Court vacancy could never and should never be filled in an election year. No Senate had ever before refused to vote on a Supreme Court justice.

It was a ridiculous argument, and everyone knew it. Here’s the test: 2018 is an election year. The election is 130 days from now. Raise your hand if you believe McConnell and the Senate Republicans will refuse to consider any replacement candidates until after the election, to make sure the people get to weigh in.

Anyone? I didn’t think so. https://howmanydaystill.com/its/election-day-2018

McConnell’s 2016 gambit wasn’t about principle, it was about power: He wanted a conservative Supreme Court, and he had the votes to protect that preference. McConnell could stop Obama from picking a Supreme Court justice because Democrats sat out the 2014 election, letting Republicans amass the majority needed to block Obama’s appointees.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/26/17506054/anthony-kennedy-ret
irement-supreme-court

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 28, 2018 6:25 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Supreme Court swing vote Anthony Kennedy to retire; Trump gets 2nd appointment

Part of the genius of Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority leader, is that he not only blocks the Democratic politicians, he frustrates the Democratic voters. Angry and frightened by the prospect of the Supreme Court moving further rightward, much of the progressive voting base is inevitably going to take out their rage not on Trump, McConnell, and vulnerable Senate Republicans like Dean Heller (R-NV) but on Democratic politicians for not being able to block him — just as much of the progressive rank-and-file voters reacted to disappointment with Democratic politicians’ legislative productivity in 2009-2010 by sitting out the midterms.

More about how Democratic voters shoot themselves in the foot, year after year, instead of shooting Republican politicians at www.vox.com/2018/6/27/17511048/mitch-mcconnell-supreme-court-anthony-k
ennedy-retirement

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, June 28, 2018 8:10 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
I am not wasting my time explaining to you, unless I could get my hands on you.
And so, because facts and logic fail you and because you're so immutably wedded to your hate-filled biased POV that you can't POSSIBLY change your mind about anything, you resort to threats.

The person who's incapable of discussion, SECONDRATE, is you, not me. If KIKI ever decides to go forward with her lawsuit, I'll be PMing her to add my name to the lawsuit. Maybe we can go for double damages.

Do it, Signym. Do it, 1kiki. Do it now. Please, please, pretty please. There is nothing stopping you, other than you live in Russia and you'd have to hire an American lawyer who will inform you that it is impossible to malign the character or make believable death threats against imaginary persons going by the designations "Signym" and "1kiki". You have to use your real names. Disney couldn't win a suit if Mickey Mouse received death threats. Putin can't win a suit if "Signym" and "1kiki" receive death threats.

Was it Republicans that did the following? Or Democrats? It was Republicans. Signym and 1kiki have aligned themselves with the GOP. You two are to blame, if you actually are Republicans and not Russians. Please sue me. It is a legal way for my lawyers to terrorize you, but only if you live inside the USA. I can't touch you in Moscow. Lucky you.

How trauma surgeons can prevent gun violence
www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/How-can-trauma-surgeo
ns-prevent-gun-violence-13031927.php

R. Mario Vera is a trauma and acute care surgeon at Ben Taub Hospital and director of the surgical simulation programs for the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Beginning in the early 1990s, researchers examined whether having a gun in the home was more likely to protect occupants from crime (e.g., self-defense) or more likely to increase their risk of violent crime. Several studies showed that individuals with guns in the home were nearly three times more likely to die from homicide or suicide than those who did not.

This research was so damning that the NRA sent lobbyists to strong-arm politicians to stop it. Since several of those early studies had been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the NRA demanded that Congress eliminate all funding for gun violence research from the NIH budget. They succeeded, but only in curtailing NIH research.

CDC continued to fund studies despite pressure from pro-gun groups. Again, the gun lobbyists descended on lawmakers and convinced them to put the industry’s profits first. In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment, which effectively banned the CDC from funding any research on gun violence as a public health issue. In the 22 years since, more than 600,000 Americans have died from gun violence.

Private organizations have stepped in to fund some research. But these efforts lack the power and reach of NIH and CDC. And they are hampered by a shortage of reliable data. While motor vehicle deaths are carefully researched, there is no equivalent funding for gun deaths. And the NRA has managed to make the work more difficult by pushing Congress to block the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from distributing information from its national database on guns used in crimes.

The inability of legitimate research institutions to weigh in on the public health impact of gun violence has left an information vacuum that has been filled by the NRA and its assertions that a gun in the home is the best protection for families; that arming teachers will protect students; that the best defense against abad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Despite the NIH’s research to the contrary, a recent Pew Research Center poll found that 57 percent of Americans believe that owning a gun protects them from crime while only 38 percent believe that it endangers their safety. This is a tragic failure of our representatives to safeguard their constituents.

As a surgeon who repairs the damaged organs and torn blood vessels left in a bullet’s wake, I want to know how to keep it from happening in the first place. Just as primary care doctors help control their patients’ cholesterol and blood pressure in an effort to prevent heart attacks and stroke, those of us who care for traumatic injury need to know where to focus our efforts.

Lifting the ban on firearm related research is one step in the right direction. With more reliable information, I may see fewer 20-year-old gunshot victims in the trauma center, and parents will be able to send their children to school with some assurance that they won’t be shot and killed.

Shooting Mickey Mouse with a 12 gauge shotgun

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, June 29, 2018 6:01 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

An autopsy of the American dream

Sean Illing: You used the phrase “common good” a couple times, and I think that gets to the core problem. We don’t have a common good anymore — if we ever did have one. We live in country with almost no social capital, no real civic bonds. A generation of Americans have exploited the rules of our system, hoarded all the gains for themselves, and then rigged the game in their favor. And they did it because they feel no obligation whatsoever to the country that provided the opportunities or to their fellow citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital

Steven Brill: No question. In many cases, the people doing the most damage aren’t breaking any laws or consciously trying to hurt anyone else. They’re simply doing what they were told to do — go to prestigious law schools, get a job at a prestigious law firm, and make lots of money. But the end result of what they’ve done is to create a country that is more unequal and less fair.

Sean Illing: Has America been victimized by its own meritocracy? Have the people who worked or innovated their way to the top used their advantages to engineer what amounts to an aristocracy?

Steven Brill: It’s been victimized by its own failures. The way it was victimized is that the smartest, most driven, most talented people were able to take those values and use them to their own advantage at the expense of the common good.

For a country to work, you have to have balance between personal ambition and personal achievements and the common good.

The way you do that is to have all kinds of guardrails on the system. In finance, you have regulatory guardrails. You have labor laws that produce something like a level playing field between employer and employee. You have consumer protection laws. You do all kinds of things to create these guardrails so that the winners can’t win in a way that hurts everybody else. That’s what we’ve lost.

More at www.vox.com/2018/6/28/17469080/american-dream-steven-brill-inequality-
poverty-tailspin

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, June 29, 2018 2:13 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump’s top economic adviser said Friday that the federal deficit is “coming down rapidly,” contradicting estimates by nonpartisan analysts, Congress's official scorekeeper and a branch of the White House.

Kudlow, director of the White House's National Economic Council, said on Fox Business that stronger economic growth was creating enough new tax revenue to bring down the deficit.

“The deficit — which was one of the other criticisms [of the GOP tax law] — is coming down, and it's coming down rapidly,” Kudlow said. “It's throwing up enormous amounts of new tax revenue.”
https://pic.twitter.com/H375h7rV0a
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) June 29, 2018

It's hard to know where Kudlow is getting his numbers. The deficit from January through April was $161 billion, according to Treasury, up from $135 billion at the same point last year. And it will deteriorate further from here, since the Treasury collects a large amount of tax revenue during April when taxes are due for most Americans.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget says the deficit is rising from $665 billion in 2017 to $832 billion in 2018, and will approach $1 trillion annually in 2019.

More at https://goo.gl/WZQewM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 9:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The GOP refuses to be responsible: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized the UN report for critiquing the United States' treatment of its poor, arguing that the United Nations should instead focus on poverty in Burundi or Congo. The U.N. report also faulted the Trump administration for pursuing policies it said would exacerbate U.S. poverty. http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1

10. Defenders of the status quo point to the United States as the land of opportunity and the place where the American dream can come true because the poorest can aspire to the ranks of the richest. But today’s reality is very different. The United States now has one of the lowest rates of inter-generational social mobility of any of the rich countries. Zip codes, which are usually reliable proxies for race and wealth, are tragically reliable predictors of a child’s future employment and income prospects. High child and youth poverty rates perpetuate the inter-generational transmission of poverty very effectively, and ensure that the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion. The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class White workers.

“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America,” Haley wrote in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday. “In our country, the President, Members of Congress, Governors, Mayors, and City Council members actively engage on poverty issues every day. Compare that to the many countries around the world, whose governments knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 9:25 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

‘Star Wars: Episode I’ is really about President Trump

We all owe George Lucas an apology.

For a long time, it seemed difficult to come up with a more disappointing way for “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” to begin than with the words “the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.”

It was as if a million voices suddenly cried out in boredom and were suddenly silenced by sleep. Their fandom couldn't repel tedium of that magnitude.

As we're finding out today, though, this might actually be a pretty prescient story about how democracies and the international (or interplanetary) order they've created fall apart. “Episode I,” then, might now be the most consequential Star War movie there is, even if you'd have to get rid of a lot of the acting, most of the dialogue and all the Jar Jar Binks to be able to get through it.

Thanks, President Trump.

More at www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/13/star-wars-episode-i-is-
really-about-president-trump/?utm_term=.a54ab667281b

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 10:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

No. It wasn't.

Star Wars - Episode 1 was about GWB.

Not buying your revisionist history, especially when it would necessitate a working crystal ball.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 12:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
As we're finding out today, though, this might actually be a pretty prescient story about how democracies and the international (or interplanetary) order they've created fall apart. - SECOND

And a good thing, too! There is nothing "democratic" about the WTO, or other "free trade" deals, or the BIS and it's coterie of central banks, or the Troika and its administration of the EU currency, or the various western military alliances.

What voting booth is that, where we elect the bureaucrats and technocrats that administer this "international order"? Where are those venues where we can have our complaints adjudicated according to democratically- written laws? Where do we have representation of our national economic interests?

Oh, nowhere, you say?

That's right: Nowhere.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 1:53 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
As we're finding out today, though, this might actually be a pretty prescient story about how democracies and the international (or interplanetary) order they've created fall apart. - SECOND
And a good thing, too! There is nothing "democratic" about the WTO, or other "free trade" deals, or the BIS and it's coterie of central banks, or the Troika and its administration of the EU currency, or the various western military alliances.

What voting booth is that, where we elect the bureaucrats and technocrats that administer this "international order"? Where are those venues where we can have our complaints adjudicated according to democratically- written laws? Where do we have representation of our national economic interests?

Oh, nowhere, you say?

That's right: Nowhere.

I worked as an engineer and we never put anything to a vote by the people. We didn't poll citizens for input on how to design petrochemical plants or who we buy equipment from or who we hire directly or subcontract with. And you know damn well why: Americans don't know a fucking thing about technical questions and they won't even try to learn. And I know perfectly well that Signym knows nothing, nothing at all. But sadly, she believes she does. Prove you are not completely a black hole of ignorant opinion once in a while, Signym.
https://bigthink.com/praxis/why-are-americans-so-ignorant
www.nationalobserver.com/2017/11/15/opinion/are-americans-just-stupid
www.macleans.ca/society/why-americans-have-come-to-worship-their-own-i
gnorance/

Besides engineering, Americans don't know a fucking thing about banking, finance, trade, manufacturing, engineering, design, etc. They know their favorite TV show. Big damn worthless deal. Their gigantic ignorance and their misplaced self-confidence in their judgment is why they get their asses kicked by the top 1% -- people like me.

I guess in theory the government will look after the people's interests, but when the UN pointed out that Trump was not, I repeat not, looking after the people's interests, the American ambassador to the UN threw a temper tantrum when she read this report: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, June 30, 2018 3:18 PM