Elections; 2024 by THG

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Only 1/3rd, huh?

Guess we're back to Trump bashing everyday now that it's been realized that you're going to have to run against him now.

The media lied to you again. Imagine that.

The media did NOT lie. I can attest from decades of personal experience at work that Trumptards won't stop embellishing their capabilities unless you frighten them into telling the unvarnished truth. When measured, it is pitiful how large the gap is between Trumptards' imagined grand claims and their actual itty-bitty achievements.

The Media: “Trump sent his followers to attack our Capital and assassinate his vice-president.”

Trumptards: “He didn’t send them. They did it on their own.”

The Media: “He waited hours to stop it. That shows he still approved of it.”

Trumptards: “He didn't approve of it.”

The Media: “Then if he didn't approve of it and still didn't stop it, he must have just choked and didn't know what to do. It can only be one or the other. Either way, how can he be trusted to protect our country?”

Trumptards: “Trump will be fine. He will be the next President.”

The Media: “You really don’t see what is wrong with Trump??”

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

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Wednesday, September 6, 2023 4:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Only 1/3rd, huh?

Guess we're back to Trump bashing everyday now that it's been realized that you're going to have to run against him now.

The media lied to you again. Imagine that.
The media did NOT lie.

Yes. They did.

Quote:
The Media: “Trump sent his followers to attack our Capital and assassinate his vice-president.”

Trumptards: “He didn’t send them. They did it on their own.”

Incorrect. The event you keep saying happened never actually happened in the first place.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 6:18 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Incorrect. The event you keep saying happened never actually happened in the first place.

You forget that I am around Nazis, the East Texas version, all day long. You Nazis screw up your private lives, just like Trump does with his divorces, adultery, gluttony, and tax cheating. The Pièce de Résistance? Your crappy behavior births a life unique to yourself. But instead of owning your deviant personal creations, you blame the Democrats for your ugly life.

How Trump still taps into America's cultural animus

He's uniquely dangerous. But he's also a product of forces that will outlast him.

by Scott G. Nelson and Bradley S. Klein, Sept 6, 2023

Following the fourth wave of indictments of former President Donald J. Trump on August 15, most commentary has addressed the legal details of the accusations, speculated on likely legal tactics, and explored the political consequences of a trial during an election year.

What has been missing is a discussion of why so many otherwise “reasonable” people continue to embrace an anti-democratic and authoritarian leader so much so that recent polls show Trump and President Joe Biden effectively tied.

Dismissing Trump supporters as “deplorables” or as nut cases misses the point. The Democratic Party in particular, and liberalism in general, seriously underestimate the emotional and affective dimensions of right-wing authoritarianism in America.

It’s probably too late to try to convince most Trump supporters to abandon their willingness to endorse openly fascist, racist, science-denying policies. Instead, we need to understand what’s behind their support and how those on the margins — still leaning, but perhaps not quite in either camp — could be persuaded to embrace a more inclusive set of policies that honor the country’s diversity, address major public issues like the climate crisis, and exert leadership relative to a host of foreign policy challenges.

Transgression is at the core Trumpism

When Trump first won the presidency in 2016, legacy media outlets, including the New York Times, wrung their hands in anguish for having missed the story of profound public anxiety about the future. They raced to diners and truck stops across the Midwest in an effort to find out what “ordinary Americans” — those who rejected the Roosevelt coalition and bicoastal liberalism — were thinking and feeling.

The stories that resulted painted a picture of the American Dream in a considerable state of decay, if not outright shambles. To anyone familiar with those areas, this was less a revelation than a confirmation that the myth of the hard-working family building a better future in the land of opportunity was just that. The deep residues of racism from the Civil War and its aftermath in the Jim Crow South were just the most flammable components of a promise gone awry, thanks to persistent ethnocentrism and racism, the enduring power of class stratification, and the ability of the wealthiest to game the system for advantage in taxes, regulatory neglect, and evasion of legal accountability.

Trump’s success as a demagogue was to give voice to growing frustration in a way that had never been done publicly before. Until he came along on the national stage, the anger, resentment, and entitlement of lawless transgression was always present, but relegated to the margins of mainstream politics.

Of course, this is a contestable point. Anyone who has studied the KKK, or Father Coughlin, or lynchings in the deep South, the Tulsa massacre of 1920 or sundown laws in the North would know that overt racism was always deeply embedded in both political parties. But by the 1960s the most extreme manifestations were fighting uphill battles against the Civil Rights movement and a succession of Supreme Court decisions made during Earl Warren’s tenure as chief justice.

Still, the underlying rage of white supremacists and others allied with the right, or the so-called “conservative” wing, never went away. The Nixon administration harnessed that anger and resentment into an electoral strategy, with its appeals to a “Silent Majority” and a “Southern Strategy” that sought to loosen the hold of the Democratic Party on the South by becoming more overtly allied with the forces of “law and order.”

The Reagan administration continued the rhetoric of obfuscation even as the republic’s condition as a land of opportunity tilted toward the affluent deepened. Everything was wrapped in a strange combination of vapid avuncularity and film-trailer profundity: “morning in America,” “a bear in the woods, “tear down this wall,” “just say no,” “evil empire.” Reagan’s message seemed an innocent product of small-town Americana — even as his administration dismantled the social programs so desperately needed by the rural and urban poor and further militarized urban policy through the War on Drugs.

This whole Republican effort has, over the years, been geared towards masking the malignancy of its message. In the 2008 presidential campaign the party discovered that large sections of the public would eagerly consume messages of fear. In a sop to the extreme right-wing, the GOP hauled Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from obscurity to within five points of becoming the country’s vice president. Barack Obama’s candidacy, and his two-term presidency, obscured the extent to which Palin’s openly deranged campaign actually came to represent a strong contingent of the Republican base — one that the party’s lead candidate, John McCain, understood all too well, though much to his later regret.

Trump’s approach has been to take this many steps further, stripping off all pretense of niceties and revealing the underlying animus toward immigrants and people of color, as well as toward those in power. He made this clear at the outset in June 2015 when he declared his candidacy by attacking immigrants — notably those crossing the Mexican/US border — as the embodiment of a criminal presence in our midst. Since then, it’s been a steady stream of the kind of invective that would previously have brought a candidate to ruin — attacks on the physically disabled, on veterans, on prisoners of war and even the war dead. His “American carnage” inauguration speech turned “a city on the hill” into a city in ruins.

For all the attention focused on Trump’s proclivity for transgressive speech, what needs to be appreciated is the reason he gets away with it. At some level that commentators prefer to overlook, the message resonates with a percentage of the population who view themselves as existing in a state of precarity and impending doom.

More at https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-republican-appeal-cultural-animus-
2024

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

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 11:26 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

For all the attention focused on Trump’s proclivity for transgressive speech, what needs to be appreciated is the reason he gets away with it. At some level that commentators prefer to overlook, the message resonates with a percentage of the population who view themselves as existing in a state of precarity and impending doom.
More at https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-republican-appeal-cultural-animus-
2024

I hope Trump is nominated for President. The following will encourage Trumptards more than before to vote for him in the general election, but decent people won't go near Mr. Radioactive Man:

Yesterday, a federal judge found former President Donald Trump liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll for a second time after he claimed she was a liar following allegations that he raped her in the 1990s.

Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision means that an upcoming civil trial in the case will simply determine how much Trump owes Carroll in damages, rather than focusing on his liability. It’s the second time Trump has been found liable for defamation after a jury came to the same conclusion earlier this year. Kaplan concluded that since that jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, the question of whether his claims about her fabricating the incident constituted defamation had been settled, negating the need for another trial on the matter.

https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/9/7/23862786/trump-e-jean-carroll-de
famation

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

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 11:44 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Incorrect. The event you keep saying happened never actually happened in the first place.
You forget that I am around Nazis, the East Texas version, all day long.

No. I don't forget that you're retarded.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 5:04 PM

Uh-Oh, Spaghetti-O...

CNN just put out a poll that has Trump up +1.

Biden went from +2.0 in the aggregate before the last sham Trump arrest to only +0.4 today.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/general-ele
ction-trump-vs-biden-7383.html

Woke trash Salon.com puts this article out yesterday...

The antidote to "Democratic panic syndrome": Putting Joe Biden's poll numbers in perspective

14 months before an election, nobody should be losing any sleep over a poll

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/06/the-antidote-to-democratic-panic-synd
rome-putting-joe-bidens-poll-numbers-in-perspective/

Oh... the COPE!

Woke trash Vox.com puts this article out today...

Will I just keep spending more and more money forever?

How to cope with both inflation and lifestyle creep.

https://www.vox.com/even-better/23842804/inflation-lifestyle-creep-adv
ice-budgeting-money

I thought you motherfuckers were still telling everyone that inflation under Biden* was a myth.

FUCK YOU VOX.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 6:21 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Incorrect. The event you keep saying happened never actually happened in the first place.
You forget that I am around Nazis, the East Texas version, all day long.

No. I don't forget that you're retarded.

I listen to Trump voters talking at lunchtime and after work. It goes like this:
Trump is wonderful
Details of their latest adultery
Trump won the last election
Angry about an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend or their own mother
Trump will be fine
Hinting about how they cheat on taxes
Trump will deport those Mexicans
Stories about their kids on drugs
Trump will bomb Mexico
The importance of Christ in their life
Another story about fornication/adultery being the center of their life
Trump will win the next election
Stories about their drunkenness
Trump is unfairly treated by the MSM
Stories about their numerous illnesses caused by their excesses
We need Trump
Stories about being sued/going into Bankruptcy/home foreclosure/not buying insurance/latest financial tragedy
It goes on forever.

That is the messy life of East Texas Trumptards. I listen because I don't have any stories since I never messed up my life, except that one time, and still have the scarred leg 50 years later as a reminder to not vote for a Republican such as Nixon.

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

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 6:29 PM

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

I heard a second-hand version of this story at lunch from Trumptards excitedly condemning Obama. They believed every word spoken by Tucker and will vote for Trump:

Tucker Carlson has gone nuts

Published on September 7, 2023

In case you haven't heard, Tucker Carlson's latest is that in 1999 Barack Obama had a night of coke-fueled sex with a guy named Larry Sinclair, a serial con artist with a very long rap sheet and a slew of aliases. Seriously.

I say "latest," but only because it's new for Tucker. For the rest of us it's just ancient conspiracy theory twaddle. Sinclair wrote a whole book about it back in 2008 and it was as laughable then as it is now. He even dramatically agreed to take a lie detector test—and failed it. In true Trumpian style, he then insisted that one of Obama's aides had bribed the polygraph folks to rig the test.

So why do I care about this? I don't. But it goes to show something unexpected: apparently Fox News really did keep a lid on Tucker while he worked there. It often seemed as if his ranting could hardly get worse, but it's now obvious that it could—and has. No wonder they fired him. He must have been even more of a loose cannon than we imagined.

https://jabberwocking.com/tucker-carlson-has-gone-nuts/

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

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 6:55 PM

Get fucked, ya goon.

Democrats are done.

Where's Ted? He isn't posting shit because he knows that Democrats are fucked.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 9:34 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Get fucked, ya goon.

Democrats are done.

Where's Ted? He isn't posting shit because he knows that Democrats are fucked.

Warnings about you were issued, 6ix: “Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential.” (For Trumptards and Trump that means your lack of middle-class values [e.g. cheating on taxes or wife or customers or employees or loans or work or . . .] is the reason why your lives are melodramatic and chaotic, repeatedly veering toward dysfunction and even total breakdown.)

13 presidential libraries issue rare joint warning about U.S. democracy | September 7, 2023

The Associated Press reports:

Concern for U.S. democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to the country’s bedrock principles, including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs.

The statement released Thursday, the first time the libraries have joined to make such a public declaration, said Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home.”

“But that interest,” it said, “is undermined when others see our own house in disarray.”

The joint message from presidential centers, foundations and institutes emphasized the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible elections.

The statement noted that “debate and disagreement” are central to democracy but also alluded to the coarsening of dialogue in the public arena during an era when officials and their families are receiving death threats.

“Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential,” it said.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/presidential-centers-warning_n_64f9bb3d
e4b04a65c3cc1bfa

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

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 10:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Concern for U.S. democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to the country’s bedrock principles, including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs.

Fuck you.

Your hive mind has no diversity of beliefs.

You are about to be destroyed.

Consider that YOUR fucking warning.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Thursday, September 7, 2023 11:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Uh-Oh, Spaghetti-O...

CNN just put out a poll that has Trump up +1.

Biden went from +2.0 in the aggregate before the last sham Trump arrest to only +0.4 today.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/general-ele
ction-trump-vs-biden-7383.html

Woke trash Salon.com puts this article out yesterday...

The antidote to "Democratic panic syndrome": Putting Joe Biden's poll numbers in perspective

14 months before an election, nobody should be losing any sleep over a poll

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/06/the-antidote-to-democratic-panic-synd
rome-putting-joe-bidens-poll-numbers-in-perspective/

Oh... the COPE!

Woke trash Vox.com puts this article out today...

Will I just keep spending more and more money forever?

How to cope with both inflation and lifestyle creep.

https://www.vox.com/even-better/23842804/inflation-lifestyle-creep-adv
ice-budgeting-money

I thought you motherfuckers were still telling everyone that inflation under Biden* was a myth.

FUCK YOU VOX.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Oh... and when's the last time that CNN put a poll that had Trump above Biden?

NEVER. The answer is NEVER.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_ele
ction_trump_vs_biden-6247.html

2022:
10/23 - 10/26 - Biden +12
10/1 - 10/4 - Biden +15
8/28 - 9/1 - Biden +8
8/12 - 8/15 - Biden +4
6/2 - 6/5 - Biden +14
5/7 - 5/10 - Biden +5
4/3 - 4/6 - Biden +11
3/4 - 3/7 - Biden +10
1/16 - 1/19 - Biden +9

2021:
12/12 - 12/15 - Biden +5
10/17 - 10/20 - Biden +10
4/25 - 4/29 - Biden +6
1/14 - 1/18 - Biden +17

How about Hillary? How many times did CNN say that Trump was above Hillary?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_ele
ction_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html#polls

2016:
10/20 - 10/23 - Clinton +6
9/28 - 10/2 - Clinton +6
9/1 - 9/4 - Trump +1
7/29 - 7/31 - Clinton +9
7/22 - 7/24 - Trump +3
7/13 - 7/16 - Clinton +7
6/16 - 6/19 - Clinton +5
4/28 - 5/1 - Clinton +13
3/17 - 3/20 - Clinton +12
2/24 - 2/27 - Clinton +8
12/17 - 12/21 - Clinton +2

2015:
11/27 - 12/1 - Clinton +3
10/14 - 10/17 - Clinton +5
9/4 - 9/8 - Tie
8/13 - 8/16 - Clinton +6
7/22 - 7/25 - Clinton +16
6/26 - 6/28 - Clinton +24

2 times out of 17 polls. The highest they ever put Trump was +3, while 12 of the polls were higher than that for Clinton, 4 of the polls calling Clinton the winner were in double digits, and the highest one being +24 for Clinton.

And we all know how that turned out.

Even when Biden* "won" in 2020, not only did he do it by half of what the polling aggregate said he was going to win by, but he was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than any CNN polls were predicting. Especially those last two that had Biden* up by 12 and 15 points.

Democrats are fucked.

That's why Ted isn't saying shit in here right now. All that celebrating, spewing dumb shit all over the boards and updating all of his threads to say "I told you so Jack" are being shoved right up his ass.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Friday, September 8, 2023 8:17 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Fuck you.

Your hive mind has no diversity of beliefs.

You are about to be destroyed.

Consider that YOUR fucking warning.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Democrats are fucked.

That's why Ted isn't saying shit in here right now. All that celebrating, spewing dumb shit all over the boards and updating all of his threads to say "I told you so Jack" are being shoved right up his ass.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

If you were alone, 6ix, I would be shocked by your behavior but since EVERY TRUMPTARD I know acts the same way, even Trump, this is "normal" behavior for a pack of Trumptards. It is also the reason why the lives of Trumptards are full of melodrama, chaos and the occasional mental breakdown. Life is tough for Trumptards but they bring trouble and woe down upon themselves.

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 9:45 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND, YOU are permanently mentally broken down. We can tell from the lies, threats, and self-contradictory bullshit you spew every time you post. And if you have a moral compass, it only points in one direction: hate.

The way you assure yourself that you're not a bag of loose nuts and bolts is bc you have MONEY, and you tell yourself that it's so because you're superior being, instead of recognzing that it was a stroke of good luck. It's a common mental failing among the wealthy, and you demonstrate it in spades with every post, too..

Unless, of course, you're lying about that as well.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled topic....

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 9:47 AM

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

A thought about our former president, our laws, and our future

Dear Republicans,

I woke up this morning to read a number of Republican elected representatives assigning themselves the role of judge and jury in the Trump espionage case. Why do I write "judge and jury"? Because to declare the man not guilty is to take the place of the judicial branch.

It's one thing when an average citizen does this. We can all have our opinions. But it's quite another when a senator or a representative makes such a claim. The basis of our Constitution is the separation of powers. When elected representatives take the place of judges and juries, they violate that spirit. They tell citizens that the laws they make are in fact meaningless.

I read also of Republicans who suddenly talk about unequal treatment of Americans in our judicial system. Yes, that is a problem, one recognized by the millions of people who don't have the money to fund your campaigns or your lobbyists, or to fund teams of lawyers like Trump's. It's a problem for all of the typical Americans who see that people like Trump get off over and over again. Trump says that he is a wealthy man. To say that a wealthy man is above the law is making the real problem worse.

I read Republican politicians claim that a former president cannot be tried. If that were true, then every wealthy criminal would run for office, seeking their lifelong get-out-of-jail card. If that were true, then presidents in office and out of office would be incentivized to commit crimes. If that were true, Americans would quickly lose all confidence in the office of the presidency.

The job of the executive is to enforce the law. Putting the executive above the law makes nonsense of the Constitution. Does trying a former president make us a banana republic? No, not doing so makes us a banana republic, or really something worse. The moment we say that one person is above the law, we no longer have the rule of law. The moment we no longer have the rule of law, we cease to exist as any kind of republic.

In other republics with the rule of law (recent examples are France and Italy) former heads of state or government are in fact tried, and are sometimes, after due process, found guilty and sentenced. It happens and it has to happen. Citizens lose their trust otherwise. To say that it does not happen is simply wrong.

In our country, citizens play some interesting roles in the judicial branch. For example, they serve on grand juries, such as the one that issued the indictment of Trump on espionage and other charges. This is a process, one to be respected, especially by elected representatives.

None of this is political advice. These are just the words of a citizen who cares about the country. The political advice, however, would be this: if you commit yourself now to an anti-constitutional position, you will have a hard time extracting yourself later. Leaders come and go. A republic endures.

Respectfully

Timothy Snyder

TS 9 June 2023

https://snyder.substack.com/p/dear-republicans

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 10:37 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
originally posted by second:
A thought about our former president, our laws, and our future

Dear Republicans,

I woke up this morning to read a number of Republican elected representatives assigning themselves the role of judge and jury in the Trump espionage case. Why do I write "judge and jury"? Because to declare the man not guilty is to take the place of the judicial branch.

Not giulty until proven otherwise. Don't you know how US law works?

Quote:
It's one thing when an average citizen does this.

Well, the average citizen SHOULD do this. Of course, they should also be open to evidence.

Quote:
We can all have our opinions. But it's quite another when a senator or a representative makes such a claim. The basis of our Constitution is the separation of powers. When elected representatives take the place of judges and juries, they violate that spirit. They tell citizens that the laws they make are in fact meaningless.

Again, not guilty until proven otherwise. Not RUMORED otherwise. Not OPINED otherwise. Not ASSUMED otherwise. PROVEN otherwise in a court of law, on the basis of the truth, and the whole truth. That hasn't happened yet. If THAT doesn't happen then the law is indded meaningless.

But you want us to be outraged over bullshit.

Quote:
I read also of Republicans who suddenly talk about unequal treatment of Americans in our judicial system. Yes, that is a problem, one recognized by the millions of people who don't have the money to fund your campaigns or your lobbyists, or to fund teams of lawyers like Trump's.

or OJ. Or who have the weight of the media and the FIB, and the establishment covering for them like Biden* and Hillary.

Quote:
It's a problem for all of the typical Americans who see that people like Trump get off over and over again.

Wow, speaking of reaching a verdict BEFORE the trial! Trump has NOT "gotten off". He was thoroughly investigated on totally fabricated charges and found not to be involved. The IRS has his tax returns. And he has not been tried on any of the pending charges, so far. This asshole is assuming that Trump is guilty, and he wants you to assume it too, using emotive faux outrage.

Now, if you want to talk about people who have never been credibly investigated BUT SHOULD be, let's start crawling up Biden's and Hillary's (and Pelosi's and McConnell's) asses.

Quote:
Trump says that he is a wealthy man. To say that a wealthy man is above the law is making the real problem worse.

Nobody is saying that but you. And you want us to believe that is true, too, and be outraged over a non-event.
Sheesh!

Quote:
I read Republican politicians claim that a former president cannot be tried.

It depends on for what. If it has to do with documents, top secret or otherwise, they are the President's documents to do with as they wish. Many former Presidents have retained "Top Secret" documents and never turned them over to the National Archives, or anyone. Including Bill Clinton
If it criminalizes free speech, or challenging elections then that would violate his Constitutional rights. One must draw lines between Constitutionall preocted behavior and criminal behavior.

Quote:
If that were true,

Yes, if you're not misrpresenting what was said

Quote:
then every wealthy criminal would run for office, seeking their lifelong get-out-of-jail card. If that were true, then presidents in office and out of office would be incentivized to commit crimes. If that were true, Americans would quickly lose all confidence in the office of the presidency.

Well, wealthy people who are most likey criminals HAVE run for office and won. Bill Clinton, for example, guilty of being a sexual predator.

Quote:
The job of the executive is to enforce the law.

No, that is the job of law enforcement. This guy is confused. And we hope law enforcement is carried out as "blind justice" but we're pretty sure it isn't.

Quote:
ing the executive above the law makes nonsense of the Constitution. Does trying a former president make us a banana republic?

No, but a bad DOJ and investigative agencies do.

Quote:
No, not doing so makes us a banana republic, or really something worse. The moment we say that one person is above the law,

Nobody is saying that. But you misinterpret both the law and the legal process to reach a predetermined verdict, and you want us to assume it, too.

Quote:
we no longer have the rule of law. The moment we no longer have the rule of law, we cease to exist as any kind of republic.

OK, I've had just about all the bullshit I can stomach. Another carefully constructed splatter of manipulative hoghwash.

Fuck you, Tim Snyder, DNC operative.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 11:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Fuck you.

Your hive mind has no diversity of beliefs.

You are about to be destroyed.

Consider that YOUR fucking warning.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Democrats are fucked.

That's why Ted isn't saying shit in here right now. All that celebrating, spewing dumb shit all over the boards and updating all of his threads to say "I told you so Jack" are being shoved right up his ass.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.
If you were alone, 6ix, I would be shocked by your behavior... yada, yada, yada...

Uh huh.

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=65116

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Friday, September 8, 2023 12:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
originally posted by second:
A thought about our former president, our laws, and our future

Dear Republicans,

I woke up this morning to read a number of Republican elected representatives assigning themselves the role of judge and jury in the Trump espionage case. Why do I write "judge and jury"? Because to declare the man not guilty is to take the place of the judicial branch.
Not giulty until proven otherwise. Don't you know how US law works?

Quote:
It's one thing when an average citizen does this.
Well, the average citizen SHOULD do this. Of course, they should also be open to evidence.

Quote:
We can all have our opinions. But it's quite another when a senator or a representative makes such a claim. The basis of our Constitution is the separation of powers. When elected representatives take the place of judges and juries, they violate that spirit. They tell citizens that the laws they make are in fact meaningless.
Again, not guilty until proven otherwise. Not RUMORED otherwise. Not OPINED otherwise. Not ASSUMED otherwise. PROVEN otherwise in a court of law, on the basis of the truth, and the whole truth. That hasn't happened yet. If THAT doesn't happen then the law is indded meaningless.

But you want us to be outraged over bullshit.

Quote:
I read also of Republicans who suddenly talk about unequal treatment of Americans in our judicial system. Yes, that is a problem, one recognized by the millions of people who don't have the money to fund your campaigns or your lobbyists, or to fund teams of lawyers like Trump's.
or OJ. Or who have the weight of the media and the FIB, and the establishment covering for them like Biden* and Hillary.

Quote:
It's a problem for all of the typical Americans who see that people like Trump get off over and over again.
Wow, speaking of reaching a verdict BEFORE the trial! Trump has NOT "gotten off". He was thoroughly investigated on totally fabricated charges and found not to be involved. The IRS has his tax returns. And he has not been tried on any of the pending charges, so far. This asshole is assuming that Trump is guilty, and he wants you to assume it too, using emotive faux outrage.

Now, if you want to talk about people who have never been credibly investigated BUT SHOULD be, let's start crawling up Biden's and Hillary's (and Pelosi's and McConnell's) asses.

Quote:
Trump says that he is a wealthy man. To say that a wealthy man is above the law is making the real problem worse.
Nobody is saying that but you. And you want us to believe that is true, too, and be outraged over a non-event.
Sheesh!

Quote:
I read Republican politicians claim that a former president cannot be tried.
It depends on for what. If it has to do with documents, top secret or otherwise, they are the President's documents to do with as they wish. Many former Presidents have retained "Top Secret" documents and never turned them over to the National Archives, or anyone. Including Bill Clinton
If it criminalizes free speech, or challenging elections then that would violate his Constitutional rights. One must draw lines between Constitutionall preocted behavior and criminal behavior.

Quote:
If that were true,
Yes, if you're not misrpresenting what was said

Quote:
then every wealthy criminal would run for office, seeking their lifelong get-out-of-jail card. If that were true, then presidents in office and out of office would be incentivized to commit crimes. If that were true, Americans would quickly lose all confidence in the office of the presidency.
Well, wealthy people who are most likey criminals HAVE run for office and won. Bill Clinton, for example, guilty of being a sexual predator.

Quote:
The job of the executive is to enforce the law.
No, that is the job of law enforcement. This guy is confused. And we hope law enforcement is carried out as "blind justice" but we're pretty sure it isn't.

Quote:
ing the executive above the law makes nonsense of the Constitution. Does trying a former president make us a banana republic?
No, but a bad DOJ and investigative agencies do.

Quote:
No, not doing so makes us a banana republic, or really something worse. The moment we say that one person is above the law,
Nobody is saying that. But you misinterpret both the law and the legal process to reach a predetermined verdict, and you want us to assume it, too.

Quote:
we no longer have the rule of law. The moment we no longer have the rule of law, we cease to exist as any kind of republic.
OK, I've had just about all the bullshit I can stomach. Another carefully constructed splatter of manipulative hoghwash.

Fuck you, Tim Snyder, DNC operative.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

People like Tim Snyder only have gainful employment because idiots like Second and Ted exist.

Otherwise, he'd be a WalMart greeter.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Friday, September 8, 2023 9:46 PM

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

What Republicans believe, 2023 edition

I'm talking about simple, factual matters that are 100% contrary to expert opinion but are accepted routinely by most Republicans. Here are a few:

1. Trump won the election.

2. COVID came from a lab leak.

3. Climate change is a hoax.

4. Joe Biden took bribes from Hunter's clients.

5. Masks don't affect COVID transmission.

6. Tire FBI is engaged in a partisan war against Republicans.

7. Ukraine is not a cause worth supporting and Putin is worthy of being an ally.

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 10:21 PM

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Friday, September 8, 2023 10:25 PM

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

Republican rebrand 'pro-life'

A group affiliated with Senate Republicans said this week that the term "pro-life" is no longer resonating with voters. Republicans move away from "pro-life" messaging on abortion to boost their electoral prospects after a series of election losses when reproductive rights were on the ballot. But are the GOP candidates anti-abortion in secret? More than before! You will learn precisely how extremely anti-abortion they are if you vote for them!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-say-republica
n-effort-rebrand-life-wont-presuade-voters-rcna104132

GOP Sen. Wants to Defund the Military Over Abortion Policy

Mike Lee tweeted his support for Tommy Tuberville, who has been stonewalling military appointments in protest of the Pentagon’s health care policies. On Friday, the Republican senator from Utah tweeted out a defense of his colleague from Alabama, who has been holding a months-long one-man embargo against critical military promotions. Lee even called for Republicans to “de-fund” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-lee-defund-mi
litary-abortion-1234820837/

Learn how crazy Republican politicians are by voting for them! IT IS THE ONLY SCIENTIFIC WAY TO KNOW HOW NUTTY THEY REALLY ARE! EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR GOVERNMENT BY GIVING TRUMPARDS THE POWER THEY CRAVE! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG BY LETTING THE MENTALLY ILL BE IN CHARGE??

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

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Saturday, September 9, 2023 4:30 PM

THG

'Wake-Up Call': Trump's Inner Sanctum 'Fretting' Over Lagging Iowa Campaign Operation

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wake-up-call-trump-s-inner-san
ctum-fretting-over-lagging-iowa-campaign-operation/ar-AA1gu2E2?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d5711b5036d743e19b5e2eaf9cef441a&ei=19

tick tock

T

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Saturday, September 9, 2023 11:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
'Wake-Up Call': Trump's Inner Sanctum 'Fretting' Over Lagging Iowa Campaign Operation

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wake-up-call-trump-s-inner-san
ctum-fretting-over-lagging-iowa-campaign-operation/ar-AA1gu2E2?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d5711b5036d743e19b5e2eaf9cef441a&ei=19

tick tock

T

Nobody cares about DeSantis dude. And if you haven't noticed, Trump isn't even campaigning.

And you REALLY need to break that habit of only reading headlines and actually read to the end of every article you post.

From the same article:

Quote:
According to Real Clear Politics, former President Trump currently has 52% support in the 2024 Iowa Republican Primaries, 27.8 points ahead of DeSantis at 16.7% and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott at 9.5 in third place.

Yeah... It sure sounds like they should be worried. If Trump is worried about that lead, Biden must be fucking terrified about his 0.4 point lead in the aggregate.

Meanwhile... In reality...

Vox is pissing it's pants about Trump.

https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/9/8/23861488/polls-trump-biden-2024

What?

I thought he was going to be put in prison or the 14th Amendment was going to save you?

Are you tired of being lied to yet?

Nah... I didn't suppose that you were.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 5:04 AM

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

Speaking with the conservative host Glenn Beck, Trump said he has no choice if he is re-elected but to lock his opponents away.

Specifically, Trump was asked, "Do you regret not locking [Hillary Clinton] up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?” to which Trump replied, "The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”

Dr. Lance Dodes, the supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, questioned Trump's ability to think straight.

"Trump's latest threats to place opponents in jail, including President Biden, fit with the limitless nature of psychopaths," he stated. "Lacking a conscience or morality to limit his sadism, and believing in his worth above all others, leads Trump to think he has the right to destroy anyone who does not submit to him."

Dodes then added, "Trump is an extreme outlier in human psychology."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-psychopath/

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 5:39 AM

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

Here are 23 of Joe Biden’s greatest accomplishments as president of the United States.

1. Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.

2. Helped get more than $500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan.

3. Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the "boyfriend" loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.

4. Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

5. Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.

6. Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year.

7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.

8. Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.

9. Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits.

10. Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.

11. Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.

12. Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement.

13. Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland.

14. Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden.

15. Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending.

16. Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions.

17. Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue.

18. Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.

19. Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan.

20. Signed the PACT Act to address service members' exposure to burn pits and other toxins.

21. Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.

22. Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.

23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.

https://www.upworthy.com/joe-biden-s-23-greatest-achievements-as-presi
dent-of-the-united-states-so-far

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 5:58 AM

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

Trump is explaining exactly how wild and extreme his second term would be

Donald Trump is conjuring his most foreboding vision yet of a possible second term, telling supporters in language resonant of the run-up to the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol that they need to “fight like hell” or they will lose their country.

The rhetorical escalation from the four-times-indicted ex-president came at a rally in South Dakota on Friday night where he accused his possible 2024 opponent, President Joe Biden, of ordering his indictment on 91 charges across four criminal cases as a form of election interference.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a darkness around our nation like there is now,” Trump said, in a dystopian speech in which he accused Democrats of allowing an “invasion” of migrants over the southern border and of trying to restart Covid “hysteria.”

The Republican front-runner’s stark speech raised the prospect of a second presidency that would be even more extreme and challenging to the rule of law than his first. His view that the Oval Office confers unfettered powers suggests Trump would indulge in similar conduct as that for which he is awaiting trial, including intimidating local officials in an alleged bid to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Characteristically, Trump also turned criticism of his behavior against his political foes, implicitly arguing that the true peril for America’s political freedoms did not spring from his attempt to invalidate a free and fair election, but from efforts to make him face legal accountability for doing so. “It’s really a threat to democracy while they trample our rights and liberties every single day of the year,” he said.

“This is a big moment in our country because we’re either going to go one way or the other, and if we go the other, we’re not going to have a country left,” he told supporters in South Dakota. “We will fight together, we will win together and then we will seek justice together,” he added. This followed a March rally in which he billed his 2024 campaign and potential second term as a vessel of “retribution” for supporters who believe they’ve been wronged.

Trump is a highly skilled demagogue whose facility for injecting falsehoods and conspiracies into the country’s political bloodstream creates a swirl of chaos and acrimony in which he alone seems to prosper. And his words shape public opinion. In a recent CNN poll, for example, only 28% of Republicans thought Biden legitimately won sufficient votes to win the 2020 election. This comes after years of Trump incessantly denying he lost, and despite courts throwing out his multiple challenges to the result.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/11/politics/trump-wild-rhetoric-2024/index
.html

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:05 AM

THG

Trump can't win a general election; period. And, he will be in jail before it comes to that.

tick tock

T

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:05 AM

THG

tick tock

T

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Here are 23 of Doe Biden’s greatest accomplishments as president of the United States.

Joe, but your Freudian slip is amusing.

Quote:
1. Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.

Record inflation.

Quote:
2. Helped get more than $500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan.

FORCED. Also gave the pharmaceutical companies complete immunity from lawsuits when things go south.

Quote:
3. Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the "boyfriend" loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.

Tried as all Democrats do to kill the 2nd Amendment.

Quote:
4. Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Record inflation.

Quote:
5. Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.

Botched it, and it was the timeline that Trump set in motion.

Quote:
6. Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year.

NPR (August 31st): President Biden's big loan relief plan, to erase between $10,000 and $20,000 of student loan debt for most borrowers, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1196875027/student-loan-repayment-forgi
veness

Quote:
7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.

Record inflation erased this.

Quote:
8. Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Citation needed.

Quote:
9. Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits.

This was an election bribe by Democrats to get Raphael Warnock elected, and they paid exactly what they said the bribe would be.

Quote:
10. Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.

Jobs that came back after Democrats destroyed them by calling 22 Million Americans non-essential.

Quote:
11. Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.

Yeah. We'll see about that. Also, record inflation if true.

Quote:
12. Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement.

~This message sent from my iPhone I replace every year made in Chinese sweatshops by 12 year olds in cities so full of smog you can cut it with a knife.

Quote:
13. Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland.

Fuck Ukraine. Also, record inflation.

Quote:
14. Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Who the fuck cares.

Quote:
15. Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending.

Meaningless. Drug prices are insane and that hasn't changed.

Quote:
16. Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions.

Fuck Ukraine. And also, record inflation.

Quote:
17. Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue.

87,000 more IRS agents on staff to go after nobody but low-income earners.

Quote:
18. Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.

You can't create what you destroyed. These were simply jobs that came back after Democrats destroyed business in the country with lockdowns.

Quote:
19. Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Big whoop when you're still paying $600 a month or more for them.

Quote:
20. Signed the PACT Act to address service members' exposure to burn pits and other toxins.

Only because he happened to be President when the government was backed into a corner in view of the public on this one. Anyone who didn't do this would have been viewed as a monster.

Quote:
21. Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.

Record inflation. Also, Nancy Pelosi's husband made a killing off insider trading on that one.

Quote:
22. Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.

So?

Quote:
23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.

Really reaching on that one.

--------------------------------------------------

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:54 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Here are 23 of Joe Biden’s greatest accomplishments as president of the United States.

Quote:
23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.

Really reaching on that one.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

As Trump was leaving office, he ordered executions because he is crazy:

In Trump’s final days, a rush of federal executions
Published, 16 January 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260

How Trump did this is how he does everything -- in a rush, without thinking through the consequences, because he is crazy. As for the rest of your comments, you didn't go to a doctor for 19 years and that damaged your brain, 6ix. It's like not changing the oil on your car for 19 years, just adding more oil as the level goes down, then the engine seizes up, as has your brain and endocrine system.

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 11:02 AM

Your list is bullshit.

--------------------------------------------------

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 3:18 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your list is bullshit.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Trump is bullshit:

Polarization is a choice
Trump justified polarizing decisions with self-fulfilling prophesies

On Election Day 2016, Donald Trump was seen as a flawed candidate with a moderate ideology. He lost that moderate image pretty quickly after taking office, and that’s because he didn’t do moderate stuff.

Interestingly, that pivot to the right involved him directly violating promises he made during the GOP primary campaign. In other words, it’s not that Trump “had to” pivot right in order to win the nomination. He ran and won saying that he would protect Medicaid (along with Social Security and Medicare) and tax the rich, but then he endorsed congressional Republican efforts to do the reverse.

And you saw something similar in the way he staffed his administration. Even though he clearly beat the party establishment to secure the nomination and largely won the general election without much help from the official GOP apparatus, in office he governed as a fairly conventional conservative who just really loved tariffs. Over time, he’s succeeded in bringing more and more of the conservative movement around to his indulgence of Russian nationalism, which is interesting but not really a gesture of moderation.

Anytime I bring this stuff up, people say it’s silly to act like the Trump phenomenon was or is about public policy. But I think that’s a fallacy. All the normal things people say about American
politics of 2015-2023 are true. But these things are also true:

• If Trump hadn’t pushed hard for ACA repeal and an unpopular regressive tax bill, Republicans would have done much better in the 2018 midterms.

• If Trump had caved to Nancy Pelosi on additional Covid aid in the fall of 2020, he would have been re-elected.

• If Trump had slid one slightly squishy Supreme Court justice onto the bench, the Dobbs decision would have reflected Chief Justice Roberts’ strategy of chipping away at abortion rights while minimizing public backlash, and Republicans would have done better in the 2022 midterms.

The Trump Show has many dimensions and the part where the star often does totally normal conservative Republican things is the least interesting part of the program, but it’s still important. And it’s important to recognize that this was not forced on him by primary voters; it reflects choices he made about alliances and staffing and his own personal priorities.

https://www.slowboring.com/p/polarization-is-a-choice

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 2:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.

Record inflation erased this.

Hey. Remember #7?

That didn't age well, did it?

CBSNEWS: America's poverty rate soared last year. Children were among the worst hit.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poverty-rate-census-income/

Quote:
Millions of American families fell into poverty last year as the well of government-funded pandemic aid dried up and incomes shrank, according to new data from the U.S. Census. Children were particularly hard-hit, with the poverty rate for kids doubling compared with 2021.

The surge in poverty is "stunning," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement. Parrott pointed to the end of the expanded federal Child Tax Credit in 2022 as a cause of the sharp increase in child poverty and called for lawmakers to reinstate the benefit.

The rise in poverty amounts to an increase of 15.3 million people around the U.S. living in poverty, according to the left-leaning think tank.

Get fucked, Second.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 2:47 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yanno it's hard for me to be engaged in this thread. Most of the candidates are just meat puppets and Punch-n-Judy shows. Distractions to keep people off balance and derail push for REAL policy changes.

Biden* or Camel? Doesn't matter who you pick the policy stays the same.

At least we have Trump and RFK Jr running, tho. Now, if they can drag honest Congressional candidates after them, that would be great.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:59 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Hey. Remember #7?

That didn't age well, did it?

Republicans did not want to make it permanent, and so it ended. Democrats now want to extend it, but Republicans vote against it.

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:59 AM

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

What Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán Understand About Your Brain

Why do some people who support Trump also wind up believing conspiracy theories? There’s a scientific explanation for that.

By Marcel Danesi, 07/30/2023 07:00 AM EDT

Marcel Danesi is a professor of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of the recent book, Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective.

My research analyzes real speeches made by politicians past and present, including those of Trump, Orba´n and Putin, using cognitive linguistics — a branch of linguistics that examines the relationship between language and the mind. What I have found is that throughout history, speeches by dictators and autocrats have one thing in common: they use dehumanizing metaphors to instill and propagate hatred of others.

It is well-documented that for example words like “reptiles” and “parasites” were used by the Nazi regime to compare outsiders and minorities to animals. Strongmen throughout history have referred to targeted social groups as “rats” or “pests” or “a plague.” And it’s effective regardless of whether the people who hear this language are predisposed to jump to extreme conclusions. Once someone is tuned into these metaphors, their brain actually changes in ways that make them more likely to believe bigger lies, even conspiracy theories.

These metaphors are part of a cognitive process that entraps some people in this kind of thinking while others are unaffected. Here’s how it works.

The first step to manipulating the minds of the public, or really the precondition, is that listeners need to be in the right emotional state.

In order to hack into the minds of the public, people need to feel fear or uncertainty. That could be caused by economic instability or pre-existing cultural prejudices, but the emotional basis is fear. The brain is designed to respond to fear in various ways, with its own in-built defense mechanisms which produce chemicals in the response pattern, such as cortisol and adrenaline. These chemical responses, which zip straight past our logical brains to our fight-or-flight reactions, are also activated by forms of language that instill fear, either directly (as in a vocal threat) or, more insidiously, by twisted facts which allay fears through lies and deceptive statements.

In this state, dehumanizing metaphors are very effective. My research shows that this language taps into and “switches on” existing circuits in the brain that link together important and salient images and ideas. In effect, metaphors bypass higher cognitive reasoning centers to make linkages that may not have a basis in reality. And when that happens, a person is less likely to notice the lie, because it “feels” right.

This pattern becomes more effective the more it is used. According to studies, the more these circuits are activated the more hardwired they become, until it becomes almost impossible to turn them off. What this means is these repetitive uses of dehumanizing metaphors are incredibly powerful to those brains already willing to hear them, because they direct their thoughts, making it easy to focus on certain things and ignore others.

The same is true of conspiracy theories. The neuroscientific research shows that people who believe them develop more rigid neural pathways, meaning they find it difficult to rethink situations once this pattern of thinking is established.

This also means that if someone is already more susceptible to believing lies in the form of dehumanizing metaphors and this same person comes across a big lie or a conspiracy theory that fits into that well-trodden neural pathway, they are more likely to believe it and be influenced by it.

This is how language that might seem like harmless hyperbole winds up literally changing the way people think. And once they think differently, they can act in ways that they might not have before.

More at https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/07/30/the-connection-betwe
en-political-lies-and-conspiracy-theories-00108378

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 8:21 AM

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

The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Texas Gov Greg Abbott for not allowing the state’s National Guard to shoot migrants at the US-Mexico border.

“How many Texans do you think are all on board with letting 7 million people cross into their state illegally?” Carlson asked the audience at an event on Sunday in Utica, Michigan, according to Newsweek.

“What percentage? Zero. I don’t care what your race or national origin — nobody is for that. Has the governor of Texas done anything meaningful to stop it? No,” Carlson added.

Carlson suggested that Mr Abbott could succeed in securing the border “in a week” if he lined up the National Guard along the southern border.

“He refuses to do that. He won’t do it,” Carlson said. “And it’s not like no one suggested it. I’ve suggested to him three times, including in private at a cocktail party in Dallas last year. ‘What are you doing, man? Don’t you have a National Guard? Why don’t you seal the border?’”

Carlson recalled that the Texas governor told him that idea was “complicated.”

“No, it’s not,” Carlson said on Sunday. “If someone’s trying to break into my house, it’s not complicated to repel the person. Do you have a firearm or don’t you? Are you willing to defend your house and your children or aren’t you?”

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/tucker-carlson-viciously-attacks-gre
g-183757178.html

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The Republican governor should kill Mexicans and sue any survivors. That is a "winning" combination for the 2024 Election by which I mean Democrats win. And since Abortion is Murder, Republicans should arrest women who get abortions which would be another winner for Democrats.

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 10:18 AM

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

Sept. 11, 2023 - Conan O’Brien on Trump Jokes

What you can never do is parody the National Enquirer because the National Enquirer cannot be parodied. If you go and buy a real National Enquirer, it says “Elvis sighted in UFO; he has tentacles for arms. Ghost baby turns into vampire and attacks Michael Jackson’s ghost.” There’s no way to parody that. You can’t parody something that already has that crazy irregular shape. It’s not possible.

So I always thought when Trump came along, what a lot of people have to revert to is: “Doesn’t he suck? I hate that guy. He’s an asshole.” And those aren’t jokes. And so I think it’s just … I’m really going on a limb here saying: That’s his greatest crime, that I think he’s hurt political comedy by being so outlandish himself. I think the January 6 thing is a blip compared to how much he’s hurt comedy.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/on-with-kara-swisher-conan-obr
ien-on-late-nights-decline.html

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 10:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Hey. Remember #7?

That didn't age well, did it?
Republicans did not want to make it permanent, and so it ended. Democrats now want to extend it, but Republicans vote against it.

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

Sure. Just like they want Medicare for all, to remove the Electoral College and cheap drugs, but they don't ever actually do anything they ever say they're going to do, do they?

Democrats are just the party that lies and says they want it when they don't want it.

But they'll be super-quick to vote with all those Republicans to give themselves raises every year. They all show up for that one.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 12:55 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

When Democrats ... or Republicans ... seriously start describing to me HOW they intend to reach a goal, using testable and practical steps (and BTW not relying on 'magical thinking' and propaganda like the Laffer curve or "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country') then I know they're serious about it.

"Medicare for all"? Great! How will it be funded? How will costs be controlled? How can competition be re-introduced into the healthcare system? How will it fold in the millions of currently unwell, addicted, homeless and indigent?

Until someone starts hammering out the "how tos" it's all just election promises.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 3:28 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:
When Democrats ... or Republicans ... seriously start describing to me HOW they intend to reach a goal, using testable and practical steps (and BTW not relying on 'magical thinking' and propaganda like the Laffer curve or "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country') then I know they're serious about it.

"Medicare for all"? Great! How will it be funded? How will costs be controlled? How can competition be re-introduced into the healthcare system? How will it fold in the millions of currently unwell, addicted, homeless and indigent?

Until someone starts hammering out the "how tos" it's all just election promises.

It has already been worked out by Democrats, but every solution is opposed by Republicans, who will fight to the death in order to make sure nothing is passed in Congress.

Until Democrats understand viscerally that Republicans would rather die than allow Medicare for All, the program is doomed to be talked about but never passed into law. Many different Republicans in Congress must either die or not be reelected for this program to become a reality.

Sadly, Democrats keep believing they can persuade Republican Congressmen who will never change their minds to become enlightened. It won't happen. Those Republicans must leave Congress, either dead or alive. Slavery could never be made illegal until a large number of stubborn fools in Congress were violently forced out of the room. The same is even more true for the passage of a Medicare for All bill.

How would Medicare for all be funded?
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+would+medicare+for+all+be+funded

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 3:30 PM

Yup.

Meanwhile, in reality...

The FDA just said that the active ingredient in Benedryl and many other antihistamines and decongestants does not work and it's theorized that all of these over-the-counter drugs will be pulled from store shelves right before cold and flu season.

Everybody better run out and get their 18th booster shot.

Tell me again that our government isn't trying to actively kill everybody.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:45 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yup.

Meanwhile, in reality...

The FDA just said that the active ingredient in Benedryl and many other antihistamines and decongestants does not work and it's theorized that all of these over-the-counter drugs will be pulled from store shelves right before cold and flu season.

Everybody better run out and get their 18th booster shot.

Tell me again that our government isn't trying to actively kill everybody.

The story is that the panel’s vote reflects damning evidence provided by the FDA that found that when phenylephrine is taken orally, only a very small amount of the drug actually reaches the nose to relieve congestion.

The moral: buy the spray rather than the pills. The panel is not questioning the effectiveness of nasal spray phenylephrine, which is still thought to provide temporary relief from congestion.

But 6ixStringJack, being a complete asshole, does NOT understand something even that simple. That is why something complex, Medicare for All, will be fought to the death by Republicans. Republicans are born complete assholes about everything, not just politics.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-panel-says-common-count
er-decongestant-phneylephrine-doesnt-work-rcna104424

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 10:24 PM

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Saturday, September 16, 2023 6:02 AM

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

Indictments? Who cares? Donald Trump backers say they don't trust government anyway

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/15/indictments-so
-what-trump-backers-dont-trust-the-system-anyway/70784897007/

WASHINGTON -Never mind the indictments in four separate criminal cases - Donald Trump has persuaded millions of Republicans that prosecutors are only playing politics, and he has actually increased his lead in the GOP presidential race.

And it has been a pretty easy sell: Most supporters of the former president never liked the government anyway

Distrust of institutions - from Congress to the media to the legal system - fueled Trump's journey to the presidency; nowadays, disdain for "the establishment" is sustaining his comeback bid as he faces up to four criminal trials on charges that would have destroyed previous candidates, according to a variety of Trump supporters and political analysts.

Trump voters such as Janet Cozzone, a retiree who lives in Trenton, Florida, said the businessman-turned-presidential-candidate "opened the eyes" of people who once had faith in public officials to do the right thing.

"Donald Trump taught us that we may be great, but we are not as great as we think we are," she said.

'I'm being indicted for you'

Since the start of his political career, and throughout a tumultuous presidency that included two impeachments, Trump has cast the various investigations into his conduct as attacks on his political supporters and their movement.

"I'm being indicted for you," Trump has told his followers, appealing to people who have long been suspicious of what he calls "the swamp" of government.

Tobias Hernandez, 32, a trucking company manager from Warwick, Rhode Island, said Trump "might be on to something" when he says that too many officials are only out for themselves - and that sometimes includes Trump himself, he added.

"I support the movement, but I don't really support him personally," Hernandez said. "I don't know what his true intentions are."

'Getting burned'

Other Republicans said that too many Trump supporters are fooling themselves and that the former president is only looking to protect himself. They also said Trump's legal problems will hurt him with independents voters who could decide the 2024 general election.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has mocked Trump's claim of being "indicted for you," noted this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin - a dictator who is considered an enemy of the U.S. - echoed his claim that a rotten system is targeting an ex-president.

"Trump is under indictment because of his conduct," Christie said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter "He played with fire and is getting burned."

The former president was expected to spotlight his message Friday with two speeches in Washington, D.C. One is to the organization Concerned Women for America, and the other is at a "Pray Vote Stand Summit."

'It's a sham'

Trump faces two legal cases involving alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, another one involving obstruction of justice and hiding classified documents, and another involving hush money payments - yet many of his supporters are sticking with him out of distrust of the accusers.

Jacob A. Fokken, 28, an automotive repairman from Las Vegas, said the government wants only to "help the people they want" and go after opponents like Trump.

"You can say what you want against anybody without any proof," he said.

As for the system itself, he said: "It's a sham."

Many Republicans seem to agree. The Real Clear Politics average of national polls gives Trump more than 56% of the Republican vote. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is far behind at 13%.

Local polls also give Trump huge leads in early contest states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Can you believe what you're told?

Trump's long-term campaign against institutions features another prominent target: the news media. His supporters agree with that message.

Carrie Park, 45, a truck driver who lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, said the news media overemphasizes the negative, particularly about Trump: "Can you believe everything that's being told to you by the news media? No, you can't."

Park said that Trump is "the lesser of evils" and that she has no faith in government officials anyway.

"Everybody has been so corrupt," she said.

'How stupid are our leaders?'

Trump has pounded an anti-government theme his entire public life, especially in his presidential announcement speech of June 16, 2015. Speaking from Trump Tower in New York City, the new candidate said national leaders had let people down on border security, international trade, health care, and the influence of special interests.

"How stupid are our leaders?" Trump said at one point in declaring his presidential bid. "How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they?"

During the 2016 campaign, his term in the White House and his post-presidency legal defense, Trump continued to play off "crisis levels" of "distrust, polarization, and frustration" within the electorate, said Jennifer Mercieca, author of a book called "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump."

Historically, distrust of government has been a political mainstay ever since colonists revolted against Great Britain and created the United States of America.

Attitudes toward institutions have worsened, on and off, since the national traumas of the Vietnam war, Watergate and other scandals of the 1960s and '70s.

In July, Gallup reported that an annual survey showed that "historically low faith in U.S. institutions continues."

A majority of Americans - more than 50% - expressed confidence in only two of the 16 institutions surveyed: small business and the military.

Reported Gallup: "The five worst-rated institutions - newspapers, the criminal justice system, television news, big business and Congress - stir confidence in less than 20% of Americans, with Congress, at 8%, the only one in single digits."

'Don't trust the elites'

Most of Trump's Republican opponents in the 2024 campaign have avoided attacking him for his indictments, in part because they don't want to alienate Trump's anti-institutional base.

For years, many Republicans have followed Trump's lead in opposing "the establishment," however it is defined. Two years ago, DeSantis titled a Wall Street Journal op-ed on COVID restrictions: "Don't Trust the Elites."

There are signs, however, that some candidates are starting to push back on Trump-style populism.

In a highly promoted speech this month, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared to reference Trump's mindset by criticizing a style of populism that strays from true conservativism.

A "growing faction" of voters, he said, would "substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values" for an agenda that consists of little more than "personal grievances and performative outrage."

'It's become a cult'

Republicans who have left the party during the Trump years said too many of his followers are racists, sexists and xenophobes, the kinds of people who like government when it does things for them but don't like it when it does things for others.

"It's become a cult," said Rich Galen, a former Republican political strategist.

To many of them, Galen said, the criminal charges are "more evidence that Trump is being persecuted," and they will continue to defend him no matter how many times he is put on trial.

The only question is how many diehards will stick with Trump when the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary roll around in January.

Trump's world: Us versus them

Mercieca, a professor of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University, said Trump uses "strategies to take advantage of negative qualities in the electorate."

"It is us versus them," she said, adding that Trump is telling his people: "'I'm on your side, and you should be on my side.'"

Some Trump supporters said they like it that way

Carlos Pacheco, 44, a general contractor from Oregon City, Oregon, said people sense that things are "messed up," and Trump connects with those who feel that way - and there are a lot of them.

"There's something about him that captures people."

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

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Saturday, September 16, 2023 6:30 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Trump was one of two presidents who left office with fewer jobs in the U.S. than when they began.

“One was President Hoover, and the other was Donald Hoover Trump,” Biden said to laughter. “My predecessor promised to be the greatest job president in history. Well, it didn’t really work out that way. He lost 2 million jobs over the course of his presidency.”

According to Fortune in January 2021, Trump would “become the first post–World War II president to see employment fall during his presidency. It last occurred when Herbert Hoover left office in 1933 amid the early years of the Great Depression.”

Citing Labor Department figures, The Washington Post put the tally at 3 million lost jobs on Trump’s watch.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joe-biden-nickname-donald-trump-145024738.h
tml

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18Vms

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

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Saturday, September 16, 2023 9:06 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

The young conservatives trying to make eugenics respectable again

Adam Serwer writes:

The pseudoscience of eugenics is making a comeback on the American right. In August, the HuffPost reporter Christopher Mathias unmasked the Substack writer and academic Richard Hanania as “Richard Hoste,” a pseudonym under which Hanania blogged for white-supremacist websites about the evils of “race mixing,” advocated for the sterilization of people with a “low IQ” and for the deportation of all “post-1965 non-White migrants from Latin America,” and declared that “women’s liberation = the end of human civilization.” He also wrote a tribute to Sarah Palin in 2009, gushing that her candidacy had made the “ugly, secular and barren White self-hating and Jewish elite absolutely mad.” (There’s a lot going on there.)

“White nationalism,” Hanania wrote as “Hoste,” is “the only hope that part of what made the American nation great will survive somewhere.”

Two days after Mathias’s story, Hanania responded, stating, “Over a decade ago I held many beliefs that, as my current writing makes clear, I now find repulsive.” He rejected Mathias’s characterization of his “creepy obsession with so-called race science” as “dishonest,” insisting that he does not believe that Black people are “inherently more prone to violent crime” than white people.

People can and do change, even those with extreme views like these, but there’s not much evidence that happened here. As the writer Jonathan Katz notes, Hanania recently wrote, “These people are animals, whether they’re harassing people in subways or walking around in suits,” in an angry tweet about the Black district attorney of Manhattan indicting a white man who strangled a homeless Black man on the subway.

It is understandable that Hanania prefers to present himself as a mainstream, respectable intellectual than as a creep interested in the attractiveness of cartoon characters and the genitalia of the Founding Fathers. The eagerness of some of his allies to accept his rather superficial apology—Katz notes that Substack CEO Chris Best praised him for “an honest post on a difficult subject”—is a little more puzzling. As Mathias writes, Hanania’s genetic determinism appears to be popular among wealthy Silicon Valley types, several of whom have blurbed his forthcoming book arguing that civil-rights laws should be dismantled.

Buried in Hanania’s statement responding to Mathias’s reporting is a crucial tell about his ideological project, and why his response is formatted like an apology even though it is not one. “The reason I’m the target of a cancellation effort is because left-wing journalists dislike anyone acknowledging statistical differences between races,” Hanania wrote.

As Hanania knows perfectly well, “acknowledging statistical differences between races” is not a controversial idea on the left. In fact, it’s central to the egalitarianism he opposes. He has elsewhere defined wokeness in part as the idea that “any disparities in outcomes favoring whites over non-whites or men over women are caused by discrimination.” The implication that his critics rightfully find abhorrent is that those statistical differences are biologically determined by race and therefore reflect an inferiority that is inherent and immutable to state interventions. Being coy about this, instead framing the conflict as a liberal reluctance to acknowledge uncomfortable facts, suggests that his views haven’t changed much at all, and that his vague repudiation of them is little more than an attempt to preserve the mainstream credibility he’s accumulated since his days railing against “race mixing” pseudonymously.

One explanation for the resurgence of scientific racism — what the psychologist Andrew S. Winston defines as the use of data to promote the idea of an “enduring racial hierarchy” — is that some very rich people are underwriting it. Mathias notes that “rich benefactors, some of whose identities are unknown, have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into a think tank run by Hanania.” As the biological anthropologist Jonathan Marks tells the science reporter Angela Saini in her book Superior, “There are powerful forces on the right that fund research into studying human differences with the goal of establishing those differences as a basis of inequalities.”

There is no great mystery as to why eugenics has exerted such a magnetic attraction on the wealthy. From god emperors, through the divine right of kings, to social Darwinism, the rich have always sought an uncontestable explanation for why they have so much more money and power than everyone else. In a modern, relatively secular nation whose inequalities of race and class have been shaped by slavery and its legacies, the justifications tend toward the pseudoscience of an unalterable genetic aristocracy with white people at the top and Black people at the bottom.

“The lay concept of race does not correspond to the variation that exists in nature,” the geneticist Joseph L. Graves wrote in The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium. “Instead, the American concept of race is a social construction, resulting from the unique political and cultural history of the United States.”

Because race is a social reality, genuine disparities among ethnic groups persist in measures such as education and wealth. Contemporary believers in racial pseudoscience insist these disparities must necessarily have a genetic explanation, one that happens to correspond to shifting folk categories of race solidified in the 18th century to justify colonialism and enslavement. They point to the external effects of things like war, poverty, public policy, and discrimination and present them as caused by genetics. For people who have internalized the logic of race, the argument may seem intuitive. But it is just astrology for racists.

“The claims that genetics defines racial groups and makes them different, that IQ and cultural differences among racial groups are caused by genes, and that racial inequalities within and between nations are the inevitable outcome of long evolutionary processes are neither new nor supported by science (either old or new),” write Aaron Panofsky, Kushan Dasgupta, and Nicole Iturriaga in their study of how white nationalists weaponize genetics online. “They're the basic, tired evergreens of ancient racist thought.”

Race is a sociopolitical category, not a biological one. There is no genetic support for the idea that humans are divided into distinct races with immutable traits shared by others who have the same skin color. Although qualified geneticists have debunked the shoddy arguments of race scientists over and over, the latter maintain their relevance in part by casting substantive objections to their assumptions, methods, and conclusions as liberal censorship. There are few more foolproof ways to get Trump-era conservatives to believe falsehoods than to insist that liberals are suppressing them. Race scientists also understand that most people can evaluate neither the pseudoscience they offer as proof of racial differences nor the actual science that refutes it, and will default to their political sympathies.

https://attentiontotheunseen.com/2023/09/15/the-young-conservatives-tr
ying-to-make-eugenics-respectable-again/

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

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Saturday, September 16, 2023 10:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.
Trump was one of two presidents who left office with fewer jobs in the U.S. than when they began.

“One was President Hoover, and the other was Donald Hoover Trump,” Biden said to laughter. “My predecessor promised to be the greatest job president in history. Well, it didn’t really work out that way. He lost 2 million jobs over the course of his presidency.”

According to Fortune in January 2021, Trump would “become the first post–World War II president to see employment fall during his presidency. It last occurred when Herbert Hoover left office in 1933 amid the early years of the Great Depression.”

Citing Labor Department figures, The Washington Post put the tally at 3 million lost jobs on Trump’s watch.

You know that's fake news.

Did you already forget about the Democrat-China released bioweapon and the two weeks to slow the curve that turned into 2.5 years of Democrat enforced misery?

You guys did that.

And on the flip side, Joe* didn't make any jobs. People were finally allowed to go back to work.

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