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 SIGNYM:

SECOND, if you REALLY cared about these issues, you wouldn't have your head stuck so far up your ass; you would have KNOWN about this already and wouldn't need me to link them for you. So clearly, you don't REALLY give a shit about "human rights" or whatever your latest screeching on the board indicates. You're just flinging handfuls of poop at the board. So, again, what is your REAL goal here? Clearly, it's not anything at all about human rights or human slaughter (or cow slaughter).

You're sadly incapable of being honest, not just with me but with yourself.

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

Smooth move there, Signym, making this all about me and not about Trump. But you are diverting attention from Trump into issues you don't care about, other than as weapons against Trump's enemies. You are serving Trump, Signym, but then again all Republicans are serving Trump, too. Congratulations for once again revealing yourself as either a crazy Republican or a Russian Troll. The article describing you is "The Slippery Slope of Complicity"
www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/opinion/the-slippery-slope-of-complicity.ht
ml

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, August 18, 2018 6:15 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Smooth move there, Signym, making this all about me and not about Trump. But you are diverting attention from Trump into issues you don't care about, other than as weapons against Trump's enemies. You are serving Trump, Signym, but then again all Republicans are serving Trump, too. Congratulations for once again revealing yourself as either a crazy Republican or a Russian Troll. The article describing you is "The Slippery Slope of Complicity"

Well, SMOOTH MOVE EXLAX. Now that your humanitarian "concern" has been shown to be about as deep as spit on a sidewalk, you try to shift the focus. AGAIN.

I'm not about to get involved in a disingenuous propaganda campaign (ON YOUR PART) where YOU just keep flinging crap at the board over and over, arguing with the voices in your head and shifting the topic as soon as it doesn't work out for you (which is pretty much right away), not responding to what I post. THAT IS NOT A DISCUSSION. THAT IS SECOND'S PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN.

I'm trying to have a discussion with you. I want to know what YOU think. So this is the closest you've come to expressing YOUR opinion (in all the pages and pages of poop flung at the board):

Quote:
Signym, I think you have to be truly fanatical not to see that Trump is every bit as terrible a human being, and every bit as much a menace to the republic, as you were warned when all the cool kids were busy snarking about Clinton’s emails.

So let's start there: Specifically, WHAT aspects of Trump make him a "terrible person" and WHAT has he done to be a "menace to the republic"? Do you think that you could POSSIBLY sustain a discussion on these two points without shifting focus?

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

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

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Sunday, August 19, 2018 8:43 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:

So let's start there: Specifically, WHAT aspects of Trump make him a "terrible person" and WHAT has he done to be a "menace to the republic"? Do you think that you could POSSIBLY sustain a discussion on these two points without shifting focus?

Signym, did it cross your mind that there could be many things wrong with Trump? Probably not, but somebody made list for you to refute, one by one:

Truth-Testing Trump’s 250-Plus Attacks on the Russia Inquiry

An analysis by The New York Times found more than 250 examples of exaggerated, misleading or flat-out false claims by Mr. Trump about the Russia investigation.

More at www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/truth-testing-trump’s-250-plus-attack
s-on-the-russia-inquiry/ar-BBM4Sk5?ocid=spartandhp

Your best strategy as a Trump booster is to fake amnesia, then demand that your enemy reeducation you and then you follow the Trump plan from “No evidence of collusion” to “collusion is no big deal” to “collusion is awesome — and let’s send John Brennan to jail.” That last step you took recently: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=62609

Trump and Signym: Blowhards or “Very Stable Geniuses”?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century American philosopher, wrote: “With his will, or against his will, a man reveals himself with every word.” Much of what Donald Trump reveals about himself seems to be against his will. He thinks he’s making a great impression when, more often than not, just the opposite is true. Trump will, with extraordinary cluelessness, even brag about how humble he is.

More at www.paradisepost.com/2018/08/17/trump-blowhard-or-very-stable-genius/

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, August 19, 2018 9:24 AM

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

Jobs are plentiful, so why aren’t wages rising?

The only employees who did not experience wage stagnation in markets with high plant concentration were those who belonged to unions.
www.nber.org/digest/may18/w24395.shtml

In a competitive labor market, as demand increases, firms will have to bid up the wage to attract more workers. But we have seen very little wage growth, particularly at the lower end of the wage distribution. This suggests that labor markets are not competitive.

Companies in cities with fewer employers offer lower wages. The smaller the number of companies in an industry, the lower average wages are for people who work in that field. In other words, if you are an electrician, you are better off if there are five small companies employing electricians in your city, rather than than one big one, because the firms have to bid against each other for your services.

The authors, in this and a follow-up paper, calculate labor market concentration and show that the average market is highly concentrated. They also show that this concentration is associated with lower wages, consistent with the idea that concentration increases labor market power of firms.
www.marinescu.eu/AzarMarinescuSteinbaum.pdf

More at https://qz.com/1355878/

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, August 19, 2018 9:38 AM

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

Trump may not be speaking to special counsel Robert Mueller, but White House Counsel Don McGahn has.

At length.

Because Trump may be setting him up to take the fall on potential obstruction of justice and that he’d then wind up like John Dean, former White House counsel to President Richard Nixon: in prison.

John Dean in 1973 feared that Nixon was setting him up as a fall guy for Watergate and secretly gave investigators crucial help while still in his White House job.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/18/17752056/don-mcgahn-white-ho
use-counsel-trump-mueller

Watergate’s John Dean Says McGahn Was Smart To Cooperate With Mueller

“Self-preservation is a real motive,” Dean said. “Trump throws almost everyone under the bus.”

McGahn is “doing exactly the right thing, not merely to protect himself, but to protect his client. And his client is not Donald Trump; his client is the Office of the President,” said Dean, who was White House counsel under Richard Nixon.

He also said McGahn was smart to make an early move and avoid the risk of being blamed for any potential illegalities.

More at www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nixon-attorney-john-dean-says-mcgahn-was-
smart-to-cooperate-with-mueller-probe_us_5b78d9aae4b0a5b1febbf635

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, August 19, 2018 3:50 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Signym, did it cross your mind that there could be many things wrong with Trump? Probably not ...

Of course, you fool. There are DOZENS of things wrong with Trump, just as there are dozens of things wrong with any other President.

But I seriously doubt that any (or most) of those "things" that you splatter the board with are important TO YOU .
Lookit, SECOND, if all of the dozens of things that you posted about Trump ..

Human rights!
Immigration!
Global warming!
Taxes!!
Corruption!!
(Small hands!)
Pussy-grabber!
Dishonesty!
(Orange skin!)
War!!!
Deficit!
Wealth for the wealthy!
The environment!
(Pink hair!)
Health care!!
Tariffs!
Financial deregulation!!

... didn't bother before, when these problems were ALSO happening, it's EXTREMELY unlikely that you have suddenly "seen the light" and been transformed on ALL of these issues all of the sudden. Most likely, many -if not all- of your posts are mere rationalizations ... excuses, if you will ... for the REAL reason(s) that you hate Trump.

Because it is very, very clear that you despise the man viscerally, intensely, personally and emotionally, and (as I posted) it is also extremely doubtful that it has anything to do with his actual policies and all about something else. So look into yourself and clear away the bullshit that you're fooling yourself with, and try to pin down WHY you react the way you do. Is it because he talks like a New Yorker? Because he uses Twitter to troll people? Because you think he's dangerously ignorant and/or unstable? Because he's Republican? Yanno, bird-dog than down. Once you've isolated what thing(s) REALLY bother you (you know, not the crap that you post here, but the things you really feel) ask yourself "WHY?" about that (those) too? Then ask yourself "WHY?" again. And again.

I'm not going to jump down your throat and tell you that you shouldn't be feeling the way you feel. Obviously, you have very strong reactions to Trump. But what I would like to understand is WHY. So please, stop posting more and more and more baloney. NONE of that really concerns you, does it? You're just pushing all the buttons and pulling all the strings to try and figure out how to convince me that there is something wrong with Trump. Trust me, I knew that November 2016. Consider this thread a "fire-free" zone, if you will; I just want to know what YOU think, and why.

I look forward to a direct reply.

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

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

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Monday, August 20, 2018 7:22 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, did it cross your mind that there could be many things wrong with Trump? Probably not ...
Of course, you fool. There are DOZENS of things wrong with Trump, just as there are dozens of things wrong with any other President.

But I seriously doubt that any (or most) of those "things" that you splatter the board with are important TO YOU .

Signym, good to know you believe that many things are wrong with Trump/GOP.

Do I have to explain each wrong thing to you because you want more from me? No, Sygnym, and I don't have to be considerate of your feelings about Trump or the GOP. But of my brother-in-law’s feelings, I do have to be considerate. He has a medical condition.

It was so funny yesterday when I started talking to him about Crashed, a book on how a decade of financial crises changed the world. His mind was coming unraveled and face turning red because the history of the 2008 Crash was very different then his mental construction provided by the GOP. I had to change subjects as soon as he realized I was undermining his mythology. His blood pressure soars up into the level of strokes.

He is also very defensive of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. I actually volunteered for Vietnam while he was playing hippie at UT Austin. That was his temporary antiwar phase. I have seen the pictures of his long hair. Ever since that war failed, he has been GOP all the way. For him, that was The Good War, but he could not go to Vietnam because of medical deferments from bone spurs in his heels. (Sounds like Trump, doesn’t it?) I think Nixon is NOT a heroic Communist fighter forced from office before he could win the war. I know the true history, which is the opposite of the fairy-tale my brother-in-law believes in.
www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/12/george-will-confirms-nixons-viet
nam-treason

Will I explain to Signym’s satisfaction? No. Why bother? Her stroke is not my problem.

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, August 20, 2018 7:24 AM

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

With the wisdom of hindsight, the critical intervention that mitigated the 2008 crisis was not the bank bailouts or central bank asset-buying programs but rather “unprecedented transnational action by the American state” to pump dollars into banks all over the world.

Trillions of dollars were provided through various money-market transactions. One key operation was currency swap lines, where the Fed loans dollars out to other countries’ central banks in exchange for those banks’ currency to be repaid later with interest. They were developed in the 1960s but went out of use after about a decade (though they returned briefly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001). Currency swap lines were revived in 2007 between the Fed and global central banks to give loans of dollars to foreign banks. These loans, though by now repaid in full, show how much extra funding was desperately needed by Europe at the time. By September 2010, total lending and repayment on the swap facilities came to $10 trillion.

Reinserting the role of the dollar in the financial history of the 2008 Crash is not just a matter of setting the record straight, writes Tooze, but also essential if we want to adequately prepare for the consequences of Donald Trump’s “declaration of independence from an interconnected and multipolar world.” The dollar locks the global financial system together, and it took the Fed plus a shaky US political coalition — that understood the importance of the US dollar to foreign banks — to take the actions necessary in the aftermath of the crisis to alleviate it. If something were to happen again, Trump’s “America First” policy outlook doesn’t indicate a desire to take actions explicitly designed to help other countries.

More at https://qz.com/1362101/

Crashed by Adam Tooze (.epub)
https://torrentz2.eu/45b7f7297e5397e79b89a286868f15d74305b8a5
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/24031217/

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, August 20, 2018 8:15 AM

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

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist, said Trump's culture wars, which have included public attacks on women and minorities, don't present a problem, calling it his "house style" and saying people should "separate out the signal from the noise." He argued that Trump would benefit from shutting down the government over funding for his border wall, saying it would "galvanize the populist right," though he acknowledged it was a minority view.

On trade, Bannon backed the president's aggressive tariffs, which have drawn criticism in agricultural states crucial to Trump's victory. He argued they were a key part of Trump's nationalistic economic strategy.

"People in Iowa, once it's explained to them, will fully support the president in this," he said. "We don't have a choice. We either win the economic war with China or we're going to be a secondary, a tertiary power."

Steve Bannon says GOP must rally behind Trump to survive
www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/steve-bannon-says-gop-must-rally-behin
d-trump-to-survive/ar-BBM9lmH?ocid=spartandhp

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, August 20, 2018 8:24 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I see that you're continuing your propaganda campaign, and that you're incapable at this point of discussion.

Well, feel free to propagandize all by yourself.

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

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

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Monday, August 20, 2018 9:50 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:
I see that you're continuing your propaganda campaign, and that you're incapable at this point of discussion.

Well, feel free to propagandize all by yourself.

Signym, I return the sentiment: feel free to be a lying sack of shit, as is Trump:

The president woke up angry on Sunday. Very angry. The main source of his ire? Special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump is insisting he has “nothing to hide” and any implication otherwise is nothing but “fake news.” Trump is drawing historical comparisons, calling on his supporters to “study the late Joseph McCarthy.” But even that wouldn’t be an apt parallel because “we are now in in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby!” McCarthy used public hearings to ruin careers when no actual crimes had been committed. Mueller is following due process and prosecuting people for actual crimes the evidence shows they committed. Huge difference.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1031154974942810114

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

“Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”
Wharton Professor William T. Kelley
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/ct-perspec-chapman-donald-
trump-dumb-20171103-story.html

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Monday, August 20, 2018 11:43 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.

I wonder who you think you're talking to.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 11:55 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 wonder who you think you're talking to.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

1kiki, you and Signym won't acknowledge that you are both liars and con artists. Trump won't, either, but his lawyer acknowledged that Trump freely lies. “Truth Isn’t Truth!”: Rudy Giuliani Puts Trump’s Problem With Facts Into Words.

Every once in a while, Trump’s allies give us the gift of phrases that seem to succinctly illustrate the problem that the commander in chief has with truth and facts. First came the infamous “alternative facts,” courtesy of Kellyanne Conway. Then, Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow explained with a straight face that “over time, facts develop.” And now we have another gem, this time courtesy of Rudy Giuliani. “Truth isn’t truth!” yelled Giuliani at one point during his interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday as he tried to explain why the president shouldn’t testify for special counsel Robert Mueller.

More at https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/truth-isnt-truth-rudy-giul
iani-puts-trumps-problems-with-facts-into-words.html

The legal process does not have sympathy toward con artists lying under oath. With me, even when you are not under oath, I don't have any tolerance for people using misleading arguments or outright lies.

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, August 20, 2018 12:25 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.

You talkin' to me?

HA HA HA HA ...

... now I get to watch you spasm another post on the board, which I will diligently scroll past, just like all the=============================================================== ... contribution from little mitts ... other ones. I could do this all day, except ... you're boring.

Maybe I should let the nonsense typist continue with you.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 12:55 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:

HA HA HA HA ...

Trump has responsibility towards media, U.N. rights boss says

The U.N. rights chief said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump bears “a heavy responsibility” for how the media is portrayed and that his remarks could have a knock-on effect that make the situation for journalists more difficult in other countries.

“To label the press in this way is very worrisome,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in an interview before his four-year term ends.

“Because it also has a demonstration effect, other leaders in authoritarian settings will do same thing. We’ve seen now how they mimic President Trump and so what could already be a difficult situation in other countries becomes even more difficult for the press to operate and for journalists to uncover stories and for lawyers to do their work and for human rights defenders to do their work,” Zeid said.

www.reuters.com/article/us-un-rights/trump-has-responsibility-towards-
media-u-n-rights-boss-says-idUSKCN1L51I8

"Beyond the damage done at home, Trump's verbal attacks on reporters — blasting them as 'disgusting' and 'sick' and 'among the most dishonest human beings on earth' — put journalists around the world at greater risk." -- Austin American-Statesman
www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/editorial-journalists-are-watchdog-ne
ighbors-not-enemy-the-people/37IfN4Lc395WGusNLu5zWK/

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, August 20, 2018 2:34 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.

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 3:15 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:

Boo!

Ralph Peters, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, was a Fox military analyst for years. He described the relationship between the president and his favored news network as a "closed loop." "Fox isn't immoral, it's amoral," he said.

"Trump gives us something new to worry about virtually every day, but it's important not to lose sight of the overall picture," Peters said. "This is a distinctly un-American president who really doesn't seem to like America very much, certainly doesn't respect it. And he's a president who appears to be enthralled to a foreign power, a hostile foreign power."

Peters, who was a Russia analyst earlier in his career, has previously said he believes that Vladimir Putin "has a grip on President Trump."

"What we need is people who will speak honestly and say what they believe and not worry about who it offends," Peters said. "I'm just sick and tired of people hedging and hemming and hawing. This is a president of the United States who is a danger to the republic."

Peters resigned from Fox back in March. He wrote in a note to a handful of colleagues at the time saying he "long was proud" of his association with Fox, but now he's "ashamed," calling it a "propaganda machine" for the president. He said he left Fox News because "as a former military officer who took an oath to the Constitution, I could not be part of a channel that to me was assaulting the Constitution, the constitutional order, the rule of law."

More at https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/20/media/ralph-peters-president-trump-fo
x-news/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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Monday, August 20, 2018 3:17 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.

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 3:40 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:

You talkin' to me?

HA HA HA HA ...

Consider if Manafort is found guilty and Cohen is charged and cuts a plea agreement with the special counsel's office. Those twin decisions would ramp up the pressure hugely for Trump to talk to Mueller -- or run the risk of looking like he is hiding something if he doesn't.

Combined with the onrushing 2018 election, the political climate in Washington for Republicans will be beyond toxic right at the worst possible moment.

More at www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/politics/donald-trump-paul-manafort-mcgahn-mich
ael-cohen/index.html

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Monday, August 20, 2018 3:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Hey KIKI, I have tried my darndest to have a conversation with SECOND, but, sadly, the result is that SECOND really only wants to be a "lying sack of shit" and splatter the board with lots and lots and lots of dung. There is absolutely nothing genuine or honest about SECOND.

The more attention SECOND gets, even if only "I'm not paying attention to you", the more SECOND attempts to capture eyeballs for more and more propaganda. Unless SECOND appears ready to have a discussion, I refuse to respond to SECOND because that simply bumps the thread ... and it only encourages him.

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

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

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Monday, August 20, 2018 4:00 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.

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 4:07 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:

I refuse to respond to SECOND because that simply bumps the thread ... and it only encourages him.

And yet you and 1kiki keep coming back, again and again, to "A thread for Democrats Only" and demonstrating the meaning of irony. Trump did the same, today:

Melania Trump warns that social media can be “Destructive and Harmful” as Donald calls people “Thugs” and his attorney general “A Total Joke”

While Melania Trump may not have known that the president would tweet out bullying statements during her anti-bullying event, it would have been a relatively safe assumption. When the first lady was presented with this predictably contradiction, a spokeswoman released a statement acknowledging the argument. “She is aware of the criticism but it will not deter her from doing what is right,” the statement says.

It was not the first time Melania Trump nodded to the irony of the situation. In March, at a similar panel, she acknowledged that she had been criticized for tackling cyberbullying as a cause. “I am well aware that people are skeptical of me discussing this topic,” she said.

People who know the Trumps say that even her husband had been aware that his Twitter bullying would expose her to criticism if she focused on bullying, and he reportedly suggested she choose a different cause to push.

More at https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/melania-trump-be-best-camp
aign-antibullying-event-during-president-tweetstorm.html

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Monday, August 20, 2018 4:47 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.

Hey Signy

I like making SECOND hop to it by posting 'Boo!'. It's such a small investment of my time to get him to waste a lot more of his. Besides, nobody with a brain reads anything SECOND posts.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Monday, August 20, 2018 4:53 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:

Now that your humanitarian "concern" has been shown to be about as deep as spit on a sidewalk, you try to shift the focus. AGAIN.

I'm not about to get involved in a disingenuous propaganda campaign (ON YOUR PART) where YOU just keep flinging crap at the board over and over, arguing with the voices in your head and shifting the topic as soon as it doesn't work out for you (which is pretty much right away), not responding to what I post. THAT IS NOT A DISCUSSION. THAT IS SECOND'S PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN.

I'm trying to have a discussion with you. I want to know what YOU think.

Do I need to convince Signym that Trump murdering children is wrong? :

The Pentagon won’t check if US bombs killed kids in Yemen. Trump does not want to know.

Well, it turns out CNN launched an investigation of its own and reported that the bomb used in the attack did, in fact, come from the United States.

To summarize: The Saudi-led coalition is using American-made weapons dropped from planes refueled by Americans to kill civilians — including children — and the Pentagon won’t look into it. The US is perhaps “complicit in a probable war crime.” And on Monday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a longtime critic of US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said he’ll propose an amendment to cut off funding for America’s support for the war.

It’s unclear, as of now, if it will receive the necessary votes from Republicans in Congress, as similar efforts have failed before.

More at www.vox.com/2018/8/20/17760322/yemen-children-bomb-bus-pentagon

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, August 20, 2018 8:48 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.

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Tuesday, August 21, 2018 5:52 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:
Boo!

It's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt.

Honest Liars: Dishonest Leaders May Be Perceived as Authentic

Donald Trump’s election suggests supporters view an outsider’s lies as symbolic protests against the establishment. New research suggests that sometimes lying can actually make a politician seem more authentic: followers see bald-faced lies by an interloper as symbolic protests against a crooked establishment.

Oliver Hahl, a management researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and the paper's lead author, says his studies have helped him understand Trump's supporters: “It gives me the sense that the world is still rational to some degree.”

More at www.scientificamerican.com/article/honest-liars-dishonest-leaders-may-
be-perceived-as-authentic/

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, August 21, 2018 6:13 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

I like making SECOND hop to it by posting 'Boo!'. It's such a small investment of my time to get him to waste a lot more of his. Besides, nobody with a brain reads anything SECOND posts.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt.

US is axing coal pollution rule that is key to climate change effort

The Trump administration inked a plan to repeal and replace the centerpiece of former president Barack Obama’s climate change initiatives on Monday night, in a major blow to the US’s ability to meaningfully curtail its impact on advancing climate change.

Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, signed the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule, which would ease pollution controls on coal-fired power plants. The Obama-era Clean Power Plan set a course to cut carbon emissions 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Trump administration’s replacement plan does not include any benchmark for carbon emissions.

https://qz.com/1364367/

Why would Republicans do that?

Fifteen years have passed since G.O.P. Senator James Inhofe suggested that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” To take it seriously you have to believe in a vast international conspiracy involving thousands of scientists, not one of whom dares speak out.

Yet this paranoid fantasy has in effect become the official position of the G.O.P.

Climate change deniers have pretty much given up on arguing about the evidence, although the old line “it’s a cold day, so global warming is a myth” still pops up now and then. Instead, it’s all about the supposed conspiracy.

What’s the evidence for this conspiracy? A lot of the argument rests on things like out-of-context quotes from stolen emails (sound familiar?), such as those sent among researchers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. Like the texts between two F.B.I. officials that supposedly prove the existence of a plot against Trump, “Climategate” actually showed nothing more than that the people involved were human. But to a determined conspiracy theorist, everything is evidence of nefarious activity.

And there’s more. Some people seem startled at how quickly Trump has moved to use the power of office to punish and intimidate anyone who doesn’t go along with Dear Leader. But Republicans have long been doing that on climate.

Most famously, Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia, spent several years trying to prove fraud on the part of Michael Mann, one of our leading climate researchers. Cuccinelli’s witch hunt (yes, this was the real thing) was thinly disguised as involving concern over misuse of state funds, but it was obviously an attempt to use political power to censor and suppress inconvenient science.

And where were the Republicans standing up against conspiracy theories and for scientific integrity? Inaudible and invisible.

In short, if you followed the evolution of the G.O.P.’s position on climate change (not that Republicans believe in evolution, either), you shouldn’t be surprised at the party’s intellectual and moral collapse under Trump. For Republicans, ignorance has been strength for a long time.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/opinion/trump-republican-truth-climate-chan
ge.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, August 21, 2018 6:17 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:

Hey KIKI, I have tried my darndest to have a conversation with SECOND, but, sadly, the result is that SECOND really only wants to be a "lying sack of shit" and splatter the board with lots and lots and lots of dung. There is absolutely nothing genuine or honest about SECOND.

Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the U.S., the Trump administration declares in a major new policy statement that threatens to undermine decades of government campaigns for gas-thrifty cars and other conservation programs.

The proposal eventually would increase U.S. oil consumption by 500,000 barrels a day, the administration says. Trump officials falsely say the freeze would improve highway safety, but documents released this month showed senior Environmental Protection Agency staffers calculate the administration’s move would actually increase highway deaths.

The memo made no mention of climate change. Transportation is the single largest source of climate-changing emissions.

The only clear winner is the oil industry. It’s not hard to see whose side President Trump is on.

www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/us-says-conserving-oil-is-no-longer-an-eco
nomic-imperative

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, August 22, 2018 7:44 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:
Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt.

Trump gave me a free ride worth $millions. I didn't vote for him or contribute to the GOP, but I did get a tax cut.

When I try to understand political behavior, I, like many others, often find myself thinking about Mancur Olson’s classic The Logic of Collective Action. Olson’s simple yet profound insight was that political action on behalf of a group is, from the point of view of members of that group, a public good.

What do we mean by that? A public good is something that, if provided, benefits many people – but whoever provides it has no way to limit the benefits to himself or herself, and hence no way to cash in on the good’s provision. The classic example is a lighthouse that steers everyone away from shoals, whether or not they’ve paid the fee; public health measures that limit disease are in the same category. As a result, the fact that a public good is worth providing from society’s point of view is no guarantee that it will actually be provided; it has to be worth some individual’s while.

As Olson pointed out, the same goes for political action. Just because a political candidate’s victory would be good for, say, farmers doesn’t mean that farmers will give him or her money; each individual farmer will have an incentive to free ride on everyone else’s contributions. So political action is normally undertaken by individuals or small, organized groups that stand to benefit directly. Either that, or it’s a byproduct of other activities that are advantageous for their own reasons and can also be harnessed for political action, like memberships in trade associations or unions.

But don’t rich people give money to support the interests of their class? Actually, a lot of the money we see in politics ends up being money spent in the givers’ own, personal interests. For example, you can think of the Koch brothers’ political spending as an investment in themselves: they have benefited immensely from the recent tax cut, with a payoff that far exceeds the amount they spent promoting it. See how a $40 million political outlay yields a $500 million tax cut. http://prospect.org/article/koch-brothers-best-investment

So a lot of political action is driven by people trying to shape policy in a way that benefits them personally. But there are schemes not dreamed of by the Koch brothers even more effective at directing politics.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/opinion/partisanship-parasites-and-polariza
tion.html
on Partisanship, Parasites, and Polarization

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, August 22, 2018 8:35 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:

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt.

Raising the minimum wage is typically a nonstarter in the Texas Legislature. Democrats keep introducing bills to push the state’s minimum wage above the federal level set nearly a decade ago at $7.25 an hour, and Republicans keep rejecting their efforts.

But a recent federal court ruling tying minimum wages to racial discrimination might be the key to higher incomes for lowly paid American workers everywhere.

Several cities have attempted to bypass similarly recalcitrant legislatures, including Birmingham, Ala., whose City Council two years ago passed a bill raising its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The Alabama Legislature responded by imposing a uniform statewide minimum wage that effectively voided Birmingham’s law. The city subsequently filed a federal lawsuit whose ripples could touch other states.

Twenty-five mostly Southern and border states, including Texas, have similar laws that prevent local governments from setting their own minimum wages. Many, like Alabama and Texas, have histories of racial discrimination. The Birmingham lawsuit recounts the racist past of that predominately black city and ties it to the decision of Alabama’s majority-white legislature to override its minimum wage increase.

A lower court dismissed the lawsuit, but in July the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the lawsuit made a valid argument that should be heard in trial. “A sensitive but thorough examination of the plaintiff’s detailed allegations leads us to conclude that they have plausibly alleged a discriminatory motivation behind the Minimum Wage Act, despite the law’s neutrality and rationale,” said the ruling.

If Birmingham prevails, other cities might use the legal precedent to force their states to allow them to set their own minimum wages.

Two Democratic bills before the legislature last year would have raised the state’s minium wage to $15 an hour. More feasible was Houston state Rep. Senfronia Thompson’s proposal to incrementally increase the wage to $10.10 an hour by 2022. But her idea also fell victim to the same discredited canard opponents trot out whenever a minimum wage increase is mentioned: that employers would have to fire workers.

In fact, with the country now at what economists consider “full employment,” with an unemployment rate under 4 percent, many companies are having a hard time finding workers. They’re not looking for excuses to lay anyone off.

Lawmakers who keep blocking attempts to raise the minimum wage give credence to allegations that their stubbornness is rooted in something other than economic principles. To some of the nearly 200,000 Texans being paid the minimum wage or less, that something may look like racism. Federal judges say that possibility exists in Alabama. The Texas legislature can prove it doesn’t exist in this state by raising the minimum wage without being taken to court.

www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Racism-keeping-min
imum-wages-down-Alabama-ruling-13172747.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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Thursday, August 23, 2018 11:46 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:

Hey Signy

"Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

Sure would be nice if Trump acted innocent, but he can't do it on Fox & Friends just a day after Michael Cohen reached a plea deal and a jury convicted Paul Manafort:

“One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial,” Trump said. Manafort the convicted felon gets respect from Trump. You know who doesn’t get his respect? Cooperating with the law. It ought to be illegal in Trump's circle of friends, per Trump:

“If somebody defrauded a bank and he is going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail, but you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you will go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made, in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that,” Trump said of Cohen. “And I have seen it many times. I have had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.”

Trump continued to say criminals should not cooperate with prosecutors. You wonder if he knows lying to a prosecutor is perjury:

“You get 10 years in jail. But if you say bad things about somebody, In other words, if you make up stories — they just make up lies. ... They make up things and now they go from 10 years to now they are a national hero. They have a statue erected in their honor. It’s not a fair thing.”

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/23/17772540/trump-flipping-almo
st-illegal-manafort-cohen

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, August 24, 2018 7:52 AM

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

In a recent interview, Representative Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee declared that, given the size of the budget deficit, the federal government needs to save money by cutting spending on social programs. When pressed about whether that included Social Security and Medicare, he admitted that it did.

And he’s not alone in seeing major cuts in core programs for older Americans as the next step if Republicans win in November. Many major figures in the G.O.P., including the departing speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, and multiple senators, have said the same thing. (Meanwhile, groups tied to Ryan have been running attack ads accusing Democrats of planning to cut Medicare funding — but hey, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. So, apparently, is honesty.)

Now, Republicans who call for cuts in social spending to balance the budget are showing extraordinary chutzpah, which is traditionally defined as what you exhibit when you kill your parents, then plead for mercy because you’re an orphan. After all, the same Republicans now wringing their hands over budget deficits just blew up that same deficit by enacting a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.

So it might seem shocking that only a few months later they’re once again posing as deficit hawks and calling for spending cuts. That is, it might seem shocking if it weren’t for the fact that this has been the G.O.P.’s budget strategy for decades. First, cut taxes. Then, bemoan the deficit created by those tax cuts and demand cuts in social spending. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I keep reading news analyses expressing puzzlement that men who were strident deficit hawks in the Obama years so cheerfully signed on to a budget-busting tax cut under Trump. To say the obvious: These men were never deficit hawks; it was always a pose.

And the gullibility both of the news media and self-proclaimed centrists remains a remarkable story. Remember, Ryan, who was utterly orthodox in his determination to cut taxes on the rich while savaging programs for the poor and the middle class, even received an award for fiscal responsibility.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/opinion/obamacare-medicare-social-security-
midterms-republicans.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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Saturday, August 25, 2018 6:46 AM

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

In America (and also in other countries), an impressive postwar rise in material well-being has had zero effect on personal well-being. The divergence between economic growth and subjective satisfaction began decades ago. Real per capita income has more than tripled since the late 1950s, but the percentage of people saying they are happy has, if anything, slightly declined.

Why?

In 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain was challenged by a Labour member of Parliament on the subject of growing inequality. “All levels of income are better off than they were in 1979,” she retorted. “The honorable member is saying that he would rather that the poor were poorer, provided the rich were less rich. … What a policy!”

That slap-down was an iconic formulation of a premise of the Thatcher-Reagan conservative revolution: Poverty is a social problem, but inequality is not. Governments should aim to increase the incomes and opportunities of all, especially the poor, but to worry about the gap between the rich and the rest is “the politics of envy.”

Mrs. Thatcher and Ronald Reagan should have been right. As long as I am better off, why should I begrudge your doing better still? Yet something was amiss with this consensus — something that goes far to explain why Reagan-Thatcher conservatism has caved in under pressure from the populisms of President Trump on the right and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the left.

. . .

In light of what happiness economists have had to say, the interesting question is not why the Reagan-Thatcher consensus finally failed but why it prevailed for two generations. Partly, I think, because its call to transcend envy is morally appealing, and partly because, in the 1980s and 1990s, pro-growth policies and free-market economics seemed to have turned around a troubled economy. But partly also because there was no viable alternative. Mainstream liberalism worried about inequality but offered only policies that much of the public viewed as discredited or unfair.

Now the Reagan-Thatcherist alternative has crumbled, too. In 2008, the economic meltdown made the system look rigged and ignited a populist backlash. In 2016, the backlash coalesced behind the populisms of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders, each of whom had a compelling story to tell those suffering from real or perceived loss of status: We will de-rig the system with radical solutions like trade wars and socialized medicine. Those may not be correct answers to the problem of inequality, but they are answers, and their appeal is evident.

Like it or not, inequality in today’s America drives politics toward rage and polarization, and toward destabilizing populisms of both left and right.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/opinion/happiness-inequality-prosperity-.ht
ml

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, August 25, 2018 7:23 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 SIGNYM:
Hey KIKI, I have tried my darndest to have a conversation with SECOND, but, sadly, the result is that SECOND really only wants to be a "lying sack of shit" and splatter the board with lots and lots and lots of dung. There is absolutely nothing genuine or honest about SECOND.

The more attention SECOND gets, even if only "I'm not paying attention to you", the more SECOND attempts to capture eyeballs for more and more propaganda. Unless SECOND appears ready to have a discussion, I refuse to respond to SECOND because that simply bumps the thread ... and it only encourages him.

Considering SECOND has no problems at all endlessly talking to itself ...

I refuse to let it drive me away from a thread and interesting conversation just because it might take some random words as an excuse to talk to itself some more.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Sunday, August 26, 2018 6:16 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 refuse to let it drive me away from a thread and interesting conversation just because it might take some random words as an excuse to talk to itself some more.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt.

America’s Never-Ending Culture War

The absence of a stable partisan majority keeps our domestic conflicts on a persistent burn. Richard Nixon’s victory in 1968 and his landslide re-election four years later tore apart the New Deal coalition that had dominated national politics, with barely a pause, since the early 1930s. Of the 11 presidential contests from 1976 to 2016, Republicans have won six and Democrats five.

Control of one or both houses of Congress has swung back and forth too. In 1951, the eminent political scientist Samuel Lubell observed that the Democrats were like the sun, the Republicans the moon. “It is within the majority party that the issues of any particular period are fought out,” he explained, “while the minority party shines in reflected radiance of the heat thus generated.” But for the past half-century, the major parties have been more akin to asteroids that occasionally collide but whose gyrations move neither of them much closer to the center of the political solar system.

Since the late 1960s, officeholders have sought to gain an advantage for their side by stoking the fires of conflict. This has been a consistent habit more on the right than among liberals. “Dividing the American people has been my main contribution to the national political scene,” acknowledged Spiro Agnew, who served as Nixon’s vice president until he resigned in disgrace in 1973. “I not only plead guilty to this charge, but I am somewhat flattered by it.”

The harsh divisions among Americans in 1968 have largely endured. They are rooted in profound disagreements based on culture and creeds that are impervious to compromise. If one thinks abortion is murder or that L.G.B.T.Q. people deserve every right that heterosexuals have, the very idea of finding a middle ground is abhorrent. The mutual hostility between religious conservatives and liberals — and nonbelievers — that emerged in the 1960s also fuels these seemingly irreconcilable differences. Each side is convinced it represents a majority — and a moral one at that.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/opinion/sunday/chicago-protests-1968-cultur
e-war.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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Monday, August 27, 2018 3:43 PM

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

So far, the strength of the US economy and lack of real crisis has shielded the public from Trump’s inexperience and unseriousness. But at any moment, he may be plucked from a golf course and asked to choose life or death for millions of people.

Earlier in 2018, Trump said North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat after he held a summit with Kim. The summit produced no lasting agreement. Before and since, the prediction was that Trump would use any positive signals to declare that he had solved the problem of North Korea’s nuclear threat, and that North Korea would not give up its nuclear weapons. When these two realities collide, Trump will have to lose face, or blame the North Koreans. Or nuke Kim.

More at https://qz.com/1370887/

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, August 27, 2018 11:11 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.

Boo!

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Tuesday, August 28, 2018 6:12 AM

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

We’re very close to becoming another Poland or Hungary. Why is America, the birthplace of democracy, so close to following the lead of other countries that have recently destroyed it?

What Freedom House calls illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we normally understand it is already dead.

In both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the foreseeable future.

And it could all too easily happen here. There was a time, not long ago, when people used to say that our democratic norms, our proud history of freedom, would protect us from such a slide into tyranny. In fact, some people still say that. But believing such a thing today requires willful blindness. The fact is that the Republican Party is ready, even eager, to become an American version of Law and Justice or Fidesz, exploiting its current political power to lock in permanent rule.

Why is America, the birthplace of democracy, so close to following the lead of other countries that have recently destroyed it?

Don’t tell me about “economic anxiety.” That’s not what happened in Poland, which grew steadily through the financial crisis and its aftermath. https://goo.gl/EE69j1

And it’s not what happened here in 2016: Study after study has found that racial resentment, not economic distress, drove Trump voters.
www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxie
ty-study

The point is that we’re suffering from the same disease — white nationalism run wild — that has already effectively killed democracy in some other Western nations. And we’re very, very close to the point of no return.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/trump-republican-party-authoritaria
nism.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, August 28, 2018 8:30 AM

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

Today Trump tweets to complain that Google’s news service is “rigged” against him and has pledged to address this “very serious” situation.

The US president said the existing system was biased and hiding positive stories about his administration. Google response? "You're full of shit up to your eyeballs."

More at www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/28/donald-trump-google-news-servi
ce-is-rigged-against-me

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, August 28, 2018 11:26 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
We’re very close to becoming another Poland or Hungary. Why is America, the birthplace of democracy, so close to following the lead of other countries that have recently destroyed it?

What Freedom House calls illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we normally understand it is already dead.

In both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the foreseeable future.

Everybody in the European Union already did that when they made their elected leaders beholden to unelected EU leadership. The death of Democracy in Europe has been spreading since the EU was founded in 1993.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, August 28, 2018 1:28 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Hey KIKI, I have tried my darndest to have a conversation with SECOND, but, sadly, the result is that SECOND really only wants to be a "lying sack of shit" and splatter the board with lots and lots and lots of dung. There is absolutely nothing genuine or honest about SECOND.

The more attention SECOND gets, even if only "I'm not paying attention to you", the more SECOND attempts to capture eyeballs for more and more propaganda. Unless SECOND appears ready to have a discussion, I refuse to respond to SECOND because that simply bumps the thread ... and it only encourages him.- SIGNY

Considering SECOND has no problems at all endlessly talking to itself ...

I refuse to let it drive me away from a thread and interesting conversation just because it might take some random words as an excuse to talk to itself some more.- KIKI

The problem is that in THIS thread it's impossible t have an intelligent discussion because SECOND endlessly splatters here. I guess this is like SECOND's outhouse.

Out of the roughly 40 posts on this page to-date, 25 comprise SECOND's endless poop-flinging propaganda campaign; there are maybe four direct responses to SECOND (which SECOND doesn't have the courtesy to even respond to), six or seven of you posting "boo!" or some other random phrase just to wind SECOND up again (which BTW I find rather humorous) and some discussion about SECOND.

Does that sound like an intelligent discussion to you?
SECOND has turned this particular thread to shit.
EVEN IF we were to start a discussion on an interesting topic, SECOND would interpolate so much crap that it'd be difficult just scrolling past all of the turds simply to maintain a conversation. I don't know if you remember PIRATENEWS, but he used to spam the board too. At least PN had the excuse of being nuts. I have no idea what SECOND's problem is; maybe it's some sort of borderline personality disorder.

I'm not going to be in this thread because there are no gems to be had here. I prefer to leave this corner of the park and shit-hole to SECOND, he can fart into the wind all he wants. If you want to get my attention on a particular topic, please don't post it here.

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

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

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

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Tuesday, August 28, 2018 7:14 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.

Oh, I'll just post random words here.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018 7:02 AM

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

Trump made some progress in converting evangelicals into his very own private army of brownshirts:

At stake in the November midterms, Trump told the audience, are all the gains he has made for conservative Christians.

“The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable,” he said. “Part of it is because of some of the things I’ve done for you and for me and for my family, but I’ve done them. … This Nov. 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment.”

If the GOP loses, he said, “they [the Democrats] will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently. There’s violence. When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people.”

More at www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-told-christian-leaders-he-got
-rid-law-he-didn-n904471

If Republicans lose, Trump says Democrats are going to overturn free speech and the First Amendment and they’re going to do it “quickly and violently”. The only reason to say something like that is to prep Trump supporters to become violent themselves. Republicans must be ready to take to the streets if Democrats win!

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, August 29, 2018 7:04 AM

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

What’s the most effective way to sabotage economic growth?

According to a new analysis of five-plus decades of economic data and history, it’s often as easy as increasing tariffs and playing favorites among industries and companies. Corruption helps too. Because bad governments are bad in many ways, it’s nearly impossible to tease out specific factors when policy mistakes and protectionism go hand-in-hand.

More at https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/2018/07/
19/institutional-barriers-and-world-income-disparities.pdf

An analysis of ten representative high-growth countries and ten disappointing laggards, published in the Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, helps explain the trends summarized at
www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/28/how-tariffs-corruption-can-
ruin-growing-economy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.523a1b8e3b8f

Almost every slow-growth country raised barriers to international trade and capital markets and favored certain industries and firms -- even when there was no strategic reason to do so.

“We have a lot of the same problems in the U.S. right now,” Wang said. “The government tries to create a lot of trade barriers. The government looks to help select industries -- steel and aluminum, for example.” Government is pursuing an industrial policy that is primarily for “election purposes.”

“Leaving aside big psychological effects, the adverse effects [to America] are likely to take place slowly over time,” Blanchard said. “It took many decades to destroy Argentina.”

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, August 30, 2018 6:31 AM

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

How was that model of the rational economic actor ever plausible? It’s not just that human beings are neurotic; it’s that, on the list of things human beings are neurotic about, money is close to the top. People hoard money; they squander it; they marry for it; they kill for it. Don’t economists ever read novels? Practically every realist novel, from Austen and Balzac to James and Wharton, is about people behaving badly around money. Free markets didn’t change that. They arguably made people even crazier.

And as with money so with most of life.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/francis-fukuyama-postpones-the-e
nd-of-history

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, August 31, 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:
Oh, I'll just post random words here.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

What Republicans Are Saying About Trump

For decades, Republicans, and especially conservative Republicans, insisted that character counted in public life. They were particularly vocal about this during the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, arguing against “compartmentalization” — by which they meant overlooking moral turpitude in the Oval Office because you agree with the president’s policy agenda or because the economy is strong.

Senator Lindsey Graham, then in the House, went so far as to argue that “impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”

All that has changed with Mr. Trump as president. For Republicans, honor and integrity are now passé. We saw it again last week when the president’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen — standing in court before a judge, under oath — implicated Mr. Trump in criminal activity, while his former campaign chairman was convicted in another courtroom on financial fraud charges. Most Republicans in Congress were either silent or came to Mr. Trump’s defense, which is how this tiresome drama now plays itself out.

More at https://andrewtobias.com/what-republicans-are-saying-about-trump/

Mike Pence makes Moral Case for removing Trump

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, August 31, 2018 9:43 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Oh, I'll just post random words here.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

"For most of our country's history, American corporations balanced their responsibilities to all of their stakeholders - employees, shareholders, communities - in corporate decisions. It worked: profits went up, productivity went up, wages went up, and America built a thriving middle class.

"But in the 1980s a new idea quickly took hold: American corporations should focus only on maximizing returns to their shareholders. That had a seismic impact on the American economy. In the early 1980s, America's biggest companies dedicated less than half of their profits to shareholders and reinvested the rest in the company. But over the last decade, big American companies have dedicated 93% of earnings to shareholders - redirecting trillions of dollars that could have gone to workers or long-term investments. The result is that booming corporate profits and rising worker productivity have not led to rising wages.

"Additionally, because the wealthiest top 10% of American households own 84% of all American-held shares - while more than 50% of American households own no stock at all - the dedication to "maximizing shareholder value" means that the multi-trillion dollar American corporate system is focused explicitly on making the richest Americans even richer."

More at www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-introduces-accoun
table-capitalism-act

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, September 2, 2018 6:16 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:
Oh, I'll just post random words here.

THUGGER admits it's not about RUSSIA !!! and is, in fact, a witch hunt. "Trump better be innocent of any wrong doing, anywhere, anytime."

Why Obvious Lies Are An Effective Political Strategy

At first glance, Trump and Vladimir Putin seem to have wildly different communication styles. But what they share is a tendency to repeat big, obvious lies -- a tactic researchers have dubbed the “firehose of falsehood.”

Previously it was believed that big lies worked if they were close to the truth or believable, but now it seems like even obvious lies work pretty well. Whether it’s lying about Russian troops in Crimea or falsely claiming millions of people voted illegally during the 2016 election, Putin and Trump demonstrate a kind of shamelessness when it comes to telling and retelling big lies.

Read the original "firehose of falsehood" report:
www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.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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Sunday, September 2, 2018 6:24 AM