Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too? by 6ixStringJack

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Guess we'll find out who was right.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Here is another "Guess we'll find out who was right." Except there will be a bunch of dead people from disease but JFK Jr. and 6ixStringJack will say nobody died. In that case, how will you know whether JFK Jr. and 6ix are lying sacks of shit or not?

RFK Jr is attacking and destroying!

Every year in March a CDC committee meets to decide which flu strains to target with the upcoming season's flu shot. The March meeting is important because (a) flu strains change every year, and (b) manufacturers need plenty of lead time to ramp up production of more than 100 million doses. But RFK Jr. has called off the meeting indefinitely.

RFK Jr. has broke his promise to Sen. Bill Cassidy: To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule. Promise made; promise broken. You could accuse RFK of lying but that won’t stop him from lying some more and accusing you being the real liar. What to do about him? Hitting RFK Jr with a shotgun blast to the face would fix what is wrong with him. Will someone please pull the trigger?

RFK Jr. is also canceling vaccine contracts, vaccine tests, vaccine advertisements.

Many details at https://jabberwocking.com/rfk-jr-makes-his-public-debut-as-hhs-secreta
ry-better-watch-out/

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

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 11:21 PM

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

Guess we'll find out who was right.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Here is another "Guess we'll find out who was right." Except there will be a bunch of dead people from disease but JFK Jr. and 6ixStringJack will say nobody died. In that case, how will you know whether JFK Jr. and 6ix are lying sacks of shit or not?

RFK Jr is attacking and destroying!

Every year in March a CDC committee meets to decide which flu strains to target with the upcoming season's flu shot. The March meeting is important because (a) flu strains change every year, and (b) manufacturers need plenty of lead time to ramp up production of more than 100 million doses. But RFK Jr. has called off the meeting indefinitely.

RFK Jr. has broke his promise to Sen. Bill Cassidy: To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule. Promise made; promise broken. You could accuse RFK of lying but that won’t stop him from lying some more and accusing you being the real liar. What to do about him? Hitting RFK Jr with a shotgun blast to the face would fix what is wrong with him. Will someone please pull the trigger?

RFK Jr. is also canceling vaccine contracts, vaccine tests, vaccine advertisements.

Many details at https://jabberwocking.com/rfk-jr-makes-his-public-debut-as-hhs-secreta
ry-better-watch-out/

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

RFK never made that promise.

This is all excellent news.

I guess you won't ever be leaving the house anymore, huh?

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 11:22 PM

Oh, and I would advise you be REAL careful about your death threats going forward.

Have you not been paying attention to the news recently?

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 11:35 PM

There you go...

https://nypost.com/2025/02/26/us-news/wannabe-influencer-sarah-roberts
-probed-over-calls-for-elon-musks-assassination/

Quote:
A wannabe influencer from New York sickeningly called for Elon Musk to be assassinated while bragging about not paying taxes — quickly getting her on the feds’ radar.

Sarah C. Roberts, who calls herself a Big Apple-based executive producer, shared a video to her 4,000 TikTok followers saying Musk’s name — then gesturing as if slitting his throat.

“We need to X him,” she says of the Tesla and X boss working for President Trump. “And by X, I mean formally known as assassination.”

Smirking, she challenged the FBI to stop her — while seemingly confessing to tax crimes.

“Arrest me. You don’t have enough people to even investigate me at this point. I haven’t filed my taxes in like … eight years and yet no one’s come for me,” she said in the clip.

“So I’m going to f–king say it. Let’s assassinate some motherf–kers,” she concludes in the video.

The short video was reshared on X on Monday by Libs of TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 16 million times — including by Musk himself, who tagged Ed Martin, the US attorney for DC, to make sure the feds were aware.

“Death threat and admission of multiple counts of tax fraud,” wrote Musk, a chief White House adviser, adding: “Uh oh… now she’s in trouble. Don’t you love when they admit their crimes on video for the world to see.”

Martin later responded on X, resharing the viral clip and addressing Roberts in his post.

“Duly noted. Thx for letting us know. We’ll put you in the system. Talk soon, Ma’am,” he warned, with the hashtag #NoOneIsAboveTheLaw.

Roberts has since deleted her TikTok account and made her Instagram account private.

Many commenters were baffled at Roberts’ actions.

“Why do people get on TikTok and just self-snitch? I don’t understand this need to out yourself,” one X user wrote.

“I hope that the FBI takes this woman very seriously – such threats have to be investigated immediately,” a second wrote, tagging the bureau and its new director, Kash Patel.

“I’m amazed at how many people there are online who will openly hand the American justice system a slam dunk like this. At least give your lawyer something to work with,” added a third.

Ted operates under the assumption that there are a lot of people who used to post here who check in and read everything he writes for them. Maybe you ought to do that too.

I think it would be hilarious if Adam Baldwin came back in here one day and saw your post and that ended up with the next 4 years of your life in and out of court once they see the archive I made for you on top of it. Maybe you'll end up in Gitmo with the rapist Illegal Invaders that you love so much.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025 11:41 PM

Oh. And I do want to make it VERY clear to anyone reading this that the call for assassination today was NOT the words of Kevin Drum, although Second wittingly or unwittingly structured his post to give that impression. I've checked it myself and there are no mentions of this either in his linked article or the comment section below it.

These were all second's words.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:39 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Like I said, SECOND is a bitter old man. He's like powerless, feeble Biden: just enough "ooomph" to yell at kids from his porch rocking chair.

I'd be surprised if he outlives the Trump administration.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:00 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
EPSTEIN FILES TOMORROW: AG Pam Bondi Announces Thursday Release As 250 Victim Names Redacted

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:13 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
USAID Sent Millions To Ukraine In Secret Slush Funds, Investigators Found

... “[Funds allegedly] intended to alleviate economic distress in the war-torn nation was spent on such frivolous activities as sending Ukrainian models and designers on junkets to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas,” they said.

Among the secret slush funds was one providing $114,000 to fund purchases of “a premium, limited-edition furniture line,” and another $91,000 used to finance “a trade mission for a Scandinavian-style furniture line.”

Other USAID funding uncovered by the investigators included $148,000 for “a pickle maker,” $255,000 to “a producer of organic tea and coffee,” $104,00o for “an artisanal fruit tea company,” and $89,000 to support “a Ukrainian vineyard.”

USAID funding also provided $300,000 each to a dog collar manufacturer and a company selling a pet tracking application, $161,000 for “a purveyor of contemporary knitwear,” $126,000 for a “photographer for fashion design publications,” and $84,000 to support “a luxury bridal brand.”...

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:46 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh, and I would advise you be REAL careful about your death threats going forward.

Have you not been paying attention to the news recently?

Yes I have. Trumptards are dying all around me. It turns out that Trumptards are killing themselves. Take the hint, 6ix.

Trump Gaza . . . The US president posted the clip on the site Truth Social on Wednesday.

This must have been created as a parody originally but Trump saw it and thought "Wow, they nailed it. This is my vision."

It's official, we are in a South Park episode.
Even the Simpsons couldn't predict this one.
We live in the dumbest of all times!!!

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 8:06 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:
Oh. And I do want to make it VERY clear to anyone reading this that the call for assassination today was NOT the words of Kevin Drum, although Second wittingly or unwittingly structured his post to give that impression. I've checked it myself and there are no mentions of this either in his linked article or the comment section below it.

These were all second's words.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

I'm guessing you misunderstand how the US changes people's minds. Historically, it was not by sending pamphlets written by abolitionists via the mail in order to work on the minds of slave-owners. It was by killing slave-owners and burning their plantations.

More recently, minds were changed not by dropping leaflets on Germany with criticisms of their antisemitism but by firebombing their women and children. Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel about the firebombing of Dresden, Germany in 1945 because he got firebombed, too, since he was a prisoner in Dresden. Kurt didn't understand that firebombing was the only effective way to communicate a clear message. Kurt's novels don't work anywhere near as well.

Off in the Pacific, the US didn't primarily use radio broadcasts of dramas teaching the moral lesson that the Japanese are not racially superior to Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos. Instead the Japs got nuked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japs understood the message when more subtle signalling didn't persuade them.

Recently, Hollywood sent a subtle message to Trumptards with the movie Civil War. Trumptards didn't get the message but they will.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 8:22 AM

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

Cognitive Dissonance

By Andrew Tobias | February 27, 2025

https://andrewtobias.com/cognitive-dissonance/

Mark Aaron James:

This is what sucks about cognitive dissonance. Once you’ve committed, and defended a position, it is VERY difficult to rectify such a mistake with one’s sense of self. Humans are incredibly reluctant to see themselves as less informed, making bad decisions, unknowingly supporting evil, and being fooled. They will, honestly, die defending a choice, rather than admit they were flawed. It is one of our greatest weaknesses as a species. There is a gentle process, where you can lead people to figure it out themselves, but just telling them, even showing them evidence, often causes them to double down. I wish this weren’t true, but there are tons of studies about it. Ignorant people are fragile, and that sucks for anyone hoping to make change.

That’s the problem all right.

Yet . . .

. . . when the 79 million Americans on Medicaid see how hard Trump is trying to cut their benefits . . . while cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires . . . and ballooning the deficit . . .

. . . when farmers lose the sales they used to make to USAID to feed starving children (and win the world’s admiration and goodwill) . . .

. . . when shoppers see the price of eggs double what got them to vote for Trump . . .

. . . and hard-working public servants who voted for him are treated with contempt and laid off . . .

. . . and government services get worse and air safety becomes a concern and measles spreads and 401k’s fall . . .

. . . and they wonder how it makes America great to pardon cop beaters . . .

. . . and to vote with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine and our allies . . .

. . . I think more than a few of the good people who trusted Trump with their vote will feel betrayed.

Whether this will happen in time to save the country — and whether free and fair elections will be allowed in 2026 — I don’t know. They have elections in Russia and North Korea, too.

BONUS

Will it be okay for Trump to murder people as Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim do?

Adam Schiff puts the question to a Trump nominee.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 8:48 AM

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

Cruel and Usual: Republicans Prepare to Gut Medicaid
And their own supporters will be among the biggest victims

By Paul Krugman | Feb 27, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cruel-and-usual-republicans-prepare

West Virginia is a very red state; Donald Trump received more than two thirds of its votes last year.

It’s also a poor state, left behind by the 21st century economy. Because incomes are low, it pays very little in federal income taxes — less per household than any other state.

However, at least the great majority of West Virginians — more than 94 percent — have health insurance. The reason for this good news is that unlike many red states, WV accepted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010 but didn’t fully go into effect until 2014. The effect was dramatic; Medicaid now covers more than a quarter of the state’s population:

Source: KFF

And Medicaid covers 45 percent of the state’s children.

But now the Republicans West Virginia helped put in power are preparing to impose savage cuts on a program that has literally been a lifeline for many in the state, in order to help offset the cost of huge tax cuts for high-income Americans, hardly any of which will trickle down to WV voters. Populism!

We’ll be hearing a lot of lies about Medicaid in the weeks ahead, starting with Trump’s arithmetically impossible claim last week that Medicaid won’t be “touched” by the planned spending cuts. So here are two things you should know about a program Trump and his allies have in their crosshairs: it’s extremely important to many Americans, and it’s much more cost-efficient than the rest of our health care system.

Medicaid is really, really important

I often encounter generally well-informed people who are surprised to learn that Medicaid is a much bigger program, in terms of the number of people covered, than Medicare — 69 million versus 48 million. The perception that Medicare is much more important may reflect the fact that Medicaid still costs taxpayers less than Medicare. This is partly because older people have higher health costs than the young adults and children who make up much of the Medicaid population. But it’s also because Medicaid is quite cost-efficient; more about that shortly.

There’s also, let’s be frank, a perception that Medicaid is politically unimportant, that conservatives can safely target it for cuts, because it’s mainly a program for inner city people of color. But that was never as true as people imagined and is definitely not true now. Again, consider West Virginia. It’s one of America’s most rural states and overwhelmingly — 90 percent — white. Yet as we’ve seen, it’s deeply dependent on Medicaid.

In fact, Medicaid is especially important for rural and small-town Americans, even if they aren’t beneficiaries themselves, because it helps keep health care accessible.

Hospitals have been closing across much of rural America, because there aren’t enough paying patients to keep them operating; the picture at the top of this post shows one such hospital, in Cuthbert, Georgia. Georgia is one of the states that, unlike West Virginia, refused to accept a federally-funded expansion in Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. As a result, fewer Georgians are able to pay for medical care. Rural hospital closures have been overwhelmingly concentrated in these “non-expansion” states.

All in all, if Republicans think they can slash Medicaid without paying a heavy political price, because only Those People will be hurt, they’re going to be mightily surprised. According to one recent poll, 71 percent of Trump voters say that cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable.

Medicaid is cost-efficient

Some conservatives claim that we can achieve big cuts in Medicaid outlays by eliminating wasteful spending, because that’s their rote line.

More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cruel-and-usual-republicans-prepare

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 9:08 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Like I said, SECOND is a bitter old man. He's like powerless, feeble Biden: just enough "ooomph" to yell at kids from his porch rocking chair.

I'd be surprised if he outlives the Trump administration.

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

Signym, fix your signature which includes only the clause of a conditional statement and totally reverses the meaning of the original Kissinger full quote:

"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."

Kissinger said this in late November 1968 after Nixon was elected president, but before Nixon was inaugurated.

It wasn't a public statement, just a statement to William F. Buckley Jr. in a phone call, with Buckley taking notes, so it isn't verifiable beyond Buckley (author of United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey).

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/56470/did-henry-kissinger
-say-it-may-be-dangerous-to-be-americas-enemy-but-to-be-am

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 10:10 AM

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

Elon Musk’s big mistake with the IRS, explained in 3 charts

This DOGE cut could actually cost the government money.

by Nicole Narea | Feb 27, 2025, 5:00 AM CST

https://www.vox.com/politics/401578/musk-doge-irs-tax

Elon Musk’s cut-first, aim-later run through the federal government is predicated on the idea that the nation’s finances are in crisis and that it needs to drastically cut spending to recover. But at least one cut Musk’s team is planning will actually cost the government money, worsening the supposed fiscal crisis that the Trump administration is claiming is a national emergency.

That’s Musk’s plan to cut jobs at the US Internal Revenue Service.

At the behest of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, the IRS reportedly plans to lay off up to 6,700 employees, and the cull began last Thursday. Those affected include over 5,000 workers handling auditing and collections, despite assurances from IRS managers that positions critical to tax filing season have not been impacted. Many of them are probationary employees who have been working for the federal government for less than a year and are not entitled to severance.

So how are these cuts going to cost money?

It turns out that money spent on IRS agents pays for itself many times over, because when there are more people doing tax enforcement, the government takes in more of the revenue it’s legally owed under the tax code.

The Biden administration showed that investing in the US Internal Revenue Service can be a boon to tax revenues, hiring new agents — and focusing enforcement on the highest earners.

The layoffs might only be the beginning: Trump has also proposed the creation of an “External Revenue Service” funded by tariffs, reportedly with the intention of replacing the IRS. It sounds far-fetched, and Trump famously floats a lot of extreme ideas that never come to fruition. But any further significant reduction in the IRS workforce, however, could lead to a corresponding decline in tax collections — especially among the wealthiest Americans who have recently been targeted for tax enforcement.

The IRS got more resources and higher tax revenues followed

In mid-2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included an $80 billion investment over ten years in tax enforcement activities at the IRS, including the hiring of more IRS agents. In the two years that followed, the agency’s workforce grew by more than 15,000 permanent employees.

The IRS has hired over 15,000 people in two years.

A big spike in tax revenues followed, with gross collections jumping from $4.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023 to about $5.1 trillion the next year, according to data from the IRS and the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors that contribute to tax revenue levels, including, most importantly, the state and size of the economy in a given year. But in the 2023-2024 leap, much of the increase came from enforcement activities against people making over $400,000 per year, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. That suggests that stepped-up IRS enforcement played a prominent role.

The agency collected about $1.1 billion from just 1,600 of those wealthiest Americans with unpaid tax debts in fiscal year 2024, up from $38 million the year before. That money was only recovered because the IRS finally had the required staffing levels to investigate, helping to make some progress in closing an estimated $696 billion gap in unpaid US taxes.

The IRS collected more taxes following a hiring spree.

Despite significant boosting funding for the IRS, the costs of tax collection have actually gone down in recent years. For every $100 collected, the IRS only spent 34 cents in fiscal year 2023, near historic lows.

Tax collection has become significantly cheaper.

None of that has proved enough for the Trump administration to save the jobs of the thousands of IRS workers now facing layoffs. Reducing the IRS workforce at a time when revenues and efficiency have been increasing may ultimately backfire, exacerbating the alleged financial crisis that Musk purports to want to solve.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 10:38 AM

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

Elon Musk has been taking a scattershot approach to firing federal employees, mostly focusing on probationary workers who have limited civil service protection.

But today a memo went out from the Office of Personnel Management that made things more official. It demanded that all agencies submit plans by March 13 for "large scale reductions in force" that would be implemented over the following 30-60 days. A second round of plans is due by April 14.

But it's kind of odd. The memo leaves out one thing: how big should the layoffs be? 5%? 10%? More? What counts as "substantial"?

There's no guidance whatsoever on this. No suggestion of how many people they want gone.

Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/latest-memos/guidance-on-age
ncy-rif-and-reorganization-plans-requested-by-implementing-the-president-s-department-of-government-efficiency-workforce-optimization-initiative.pdf

This doesn't look very bloated, but who knows? Maybe it's like an iceberg.

https://jabberwocking.com/the-big-rif-is-coming-but-how-big/

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 11:02 AM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Hey comrade, you didn't answer my question. So, comrade SIGNYM a question from me. What justification does Russia have for going into Ukraine? Both times comrade. First time in 2014 I think it was. It is obvious the Ukrainians don't want them there. I predict you will say elections were held and they want Russia there. Which would explain why they are killing Russians as quick as they can.

T

Come on Signym. Answer the damn question.

T

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 1:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Like I said, SECOND is a bitter old man. He's like powerless, feeble Biden: just enough "ooomph" to yell at kids from his porch rocking chair.

I'd be surprised if he outlives the Trump administration.

I don't see any point for his living as long as he has. Waste of carbon.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 1:55 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Hey comrade, you didn't answer my question. So, comrade SIGNYM a question from me. What justification does Russia have for going into Ukraine? Both times comrade. First time in 2014 I think it was. It is obvious the Ukrainians don't want them there. I predict you will say elections were held and they want Russia there. Which would explain why they are killing Russians as quick as they can.

THUGR: Come on Signym. Answer the damn question.

My answer is:

First time, Russia didn't invade. I've made that point over and over. They were doing in Ukraine what we're doing now: fighting a PROXY WAR. The fighting was done primarily by Donbas militias: locals who took up arms.

Initially, when the NAZIS in Kiev decided to ethnically cleanse Russian-speakers from Ukraine, Donbas locals grabbed whatever arms they had and fought back. There are videos of local men with everything from pistols to hunting rifles to shotguns fighting running street battles with NAZIS from Kiev.

Eventually, like any good guerilla group, they were able to fight with weapons they captured from the NAZIS, and weapons that had been stored in armories across the Donbas. They also organized into semi-formal miltary units: squads, companies, battalions. The most successful leaders bubbled to the top.

Don't you remember the two famous militia leaders from then? Going by the call names "Motorola" and "Givi" they were field commanders from the Donbas, assasinated by Kiev's SRU. There were many other unit commanders, killed in war or assasinated, none of them Russian.

GIVI, Commander of Somali Battalion

MTOROLA, Field commander

The Donbas militias appealed to Russia for help. Russia supplied them with intel and training. Weapons and equipment (helmets, bullets, kit) were purchased on a secondary market and donated, to augment the ones they captured or commandeered from local armories.

There were probably some gung-ho Russian volunteers, just like there are American, French, British, and Polish volunteers in Ukraine now. There were probably some intelligence officers and trainers. There were likely some Spetsnaz, but that's just a guess based on how proxy wars usually go. What Russia did had few direct ties to their official military, on purpose.

Russia tried hard to settle the conflict, which they regarded as a CIVIL WAR (i.e. internal to Ukraine). They helped negotiate MinskI and MinskII, which were supposed to ensure a ceasefire along the line of contact (LOC).

France and Germany were supposed to guarantee Kiev's compliance to the agreements, but they never did. There was continued shelling along the LOC, MOSTLY FROM KIEV AND MOSTLY INTO CIVILIAN AREAS OF DONTESK. The shelling into civilian Donetsk continued, including using cluster "flechette" munitions and "petal mines", all the way into 2024, when Russia captured Avdeevka and Marynka.

Meanwhile, Merkel, Hollande, and Poroshenko openly bragged that they only used the Minsk agreements to buy time to stuff Ukraine with weapons.

So, what triggered Russia's SMO? Was it NATOS'S open commitment to bring Ukraine into NATO, and "arming up" Ukraine? Was is Europe's obvious bragging that they fooled Russia with the Minsk agreements, and their continuous provocations over gas supplies? Was it Zelensky prancing around saying he wanted nuclear weapons? Was it Kiev's continued shelling into Donbas? Was it Kiev massing 100,000 troops on the LOC?

IDK. What I do know is that the SMO turned into a full-on war when Zelensky reneged, ONCE AGAIN, on a peace agreement that had been initialed by his team in Turkey in 2022. I think, at that point, the Kremlin realized they were in a real war, not just against Ukraine but also against NATO.

But if you want to know the real reason, I'm afraid you'll have to ask Putin.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:25 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Like I said, SECOND is a bitter old man. He's like powerless, feeble Biden: just enough "ooomph" to yell at kids from his porch rocking chair.

I'd be surprised if he outlives the Trump administration.

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

SECOND: Signym, fix your signature which includes only the clause of a conditional statement and totally reverses the meaning of the original Kissinger full quote:

"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."

NOPE! Doesn't reverse the meaning at all. In fact, it makes the statement even stronger by providing a specific example (Diem) of one of "America's friends" meeting a sad fate.

There have been many examples since, including Saddam (who was once our "ally" in our fight against Iran), and Noriega (who cooperated with our CIA to provide training grounds in Panama, and -some say- a route for CIA drug smuggling.)

Stop nattering, old fool.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh. And I do want to make it VERY clear to anyone reading this that the call for assassination today was NOT the words of Kevin Drum, although Second wittingly or unwittingly structured his post to give that impression. I've checked it myself and there are no mentions of this either in his linked article or the comment section below it.

These were all second's words.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
I'm guessing you misunderstand how the US changes people's minds. Historically, it was not by sending pamphlets written by abolitionists via the mail in order to work on the minds of slave-owners. It was by killing slave-owners and burning their plantations.

Tell that one to the judge. I'm really going to enjoy watching all the YouTube videos covering your dumb ass in court.

You do whatever you want to do. But this is the least safe you've ever been spouting your particular brand of poison.

You don't have a 4,000 sub follower on TikTok that is going to make what you say here viral, but Firefly isn't exactly an unknown entity. You never know what could happen that would make eyes turn this way again, and you might just end up with feds at your door if you keep it up.

P.S. You know that I'm not going to rat you out. But somebody else could. And they'd have a very long list of your behavior to look over.

What do you feel your chances of not having your life ruined for at least the next 4 years are if somebody sent a link to your posts to Kash Patel or Pam Bondi right now?

Stop digging yourself deeper and get some help.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:41 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Gee, when did the egg-laying hen population decrease? 2020 thru 2024.

Hmmm.... looks like another Biden* fuckup.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:42 PM

If everyone else refused to buy eggs when they're over $2.00 per dozen, they'd figure out a way to get it back below that price pretty fucking quick.

The reason why eggs are $12/dozen in some places is because the idiots there pay that price.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:36 PM

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

Three billionaires: America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed

As Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk alter US media, the connections between wealth and power are in plain sight

By Robert Reich | Thu 27 Feb 2025 12.37 EST

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/27/america-billiona
ires-bezos-zuckerberg-musk

One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing the putrid connections between great wealth and great power for all to see. Oligarchs are fully exposed and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal codes” key on older computers that let you see everything.

On Wednesday, Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in America, who bought the Washington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus on defending “personal liberties and free markets”. Anything inconsistent with this view would not be published, according to his statement. “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, promptly resigned, as he should have.

You’ll recall that Bezos barred the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris in the last weeks of the 2024 election. Subsequently, the paper wouldn’t print its cartoonist’s drawing showing Bezos and other oligarchs bowing to Trump, leading the cartoonist to resign.

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, bought Twitter in 2022, laid off everyone who was filtering out hateful crap on the platform, renamed it X and turned it into a cesspool of lies in support of Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg, the second-richest person, has followed suit, allowing Facebook to emit lies, hate and bigotry in support of Trump’s lies, hate and bigotry.

All three of these men were in the first row at Trump’s inauguration. They, and other billionaires, have now exposed themselves for what they are.

They are the oligarchy. They continue to siphon off the wealth of the nation. They are supporting a tyrant who is promising them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks that will make them even richer.

They are destroying democracy so they won’t have to worry about “parasites” (as Musk calls people who depend on government assistance) demanding anything more from them.

When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for their billionaire babble.

When they talk of “personal liberties and free markets” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear.

When they speak of “freedom”, what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.

This “reveal code” moment is, in a way, a blessing. It allows everyone to see where the money and power have gone.

It is a prerequisite to the long and difficult but necessary process of creating an economy and democracy for the many rather than the few.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 4:04 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:

What do you feel your chances of not having your life ruined for at least the next 4 years are if somebody sent a link to your posts to Kash Patel or Pam Bondi right now?

Stop digging yourself deeper and get some help.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

What is known about Kash Patel? “Surreal” and “Wacky” from today: FBI Director Kash Patel is considering bringing in trainers from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to beef up agents’ martial arts and self-defense skills, according to four people familiar with the plan laid out on a call this week with FBI field offices.

The newly appointed director discussed the idea during his first video conference call with the bureau’s 55 field office supervisors on Wednesday, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the call’s contents because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two people briefed on the matter said current FBI agents described the idea as “surreal” and “wacky.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91286985/fbi-director-kash-patel-wants-ufc
-to-train-agents

What about Pam Bondi? Bondi accused FBI of withholding thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents she has vowed to make public.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/epstein-files-pam-bondi-sends-fiery-note-ka
sh-patel-accusing-fbi-withholding-docs

Is there more about Pam Bondi? Too much more but I will stop with this: 'I just want to introduce her very, very handsome husband. I hate being around him. He looks too good,' joked the President. Before meeting her 'very handsome husband,' Pam went through two divorces and had a third wedding planned that ultimately got called off.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14364827/trump-attorney-gen
eral-pam-bondi-husband-john-wakefield-marriage-divorce.html

“Surreal” and “Wacky” Pam Bondi and Kash Patel. These two nutjobs are grotesquely incompetent and ineffectual which makes them par for the course in the Trumptard White House.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 5:22 PM

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

What do you feel your chances of not having your life ruined for at least the next 4 years are if somebody sent a link to your posts to Kash Patel or Pam Bondi right now?

Stop digging yourself deeper and get some help.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
What is known about Kash Patel?

Doesn't matter, you fucking autist.

Keep posting your death threats and we'll see what happens to you.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 5:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Three billionaires: America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed

As Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk alter US media, the connections between wealth and power are in plain sight

By Robert Reich | Thu 27 Feb 2025 12.37 EST

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/27/america-billiona
ires-bezos-zuckerberg-musk

One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing the putrid connections between great wealth and great power for all to see. Oligarchs are fully exposed and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal codes” key on older computers that let you see everything.

On Wednesday, Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in America, who bought the Washington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus on defending “personal liberties and free markets”. Anything inconsistent with this view would not be published, according to his statement. “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, promptly resigned, as he should have.

You’ll recall that Bezos barred the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris in the last weeks of the 2024 election. Subsequently, the paper wouldn’t print its cartoonist’s drawing showing Bezos and other oligarchs bowing to Trump, leading the cartoonist to resign.

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, bought Twitter in 2022, laid off everyone who was filtering out hateful crap on the platform, renamed it X and turned it into a cesspool of lies in support of Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg, the second-richest person, has followed suit, allowing Facebook to emit lies, hate and bigotry in support of Trump’s lies, hate and bigotry.

All three of these men were in the first row at Trump’s inauguration. They, and other billionaires, have now exposed themselves for what they are.

They are the oligarchy. They continue to siphon off the wealth of the nation. They are supporting a tyrant who is promising them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks that will make them even richer.

They are destroying democracy so they won’t have to worry about “parasites” (as Musk calls people who depend on government assistance) demanding anything more from them.

When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for their billionaire babble.

When they talk of “personal liberties and free markets” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear.

When they speak of “freedom”, what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.

This “reveal code” moment is, in a way, a blessing. It allows everyone to see where the money and power have gone.

It is a prerequisite to the long and difficult but necessary process of creating an economy and democracy for the many rather than the few.

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

They were all your billionaires first, retard.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 5:54 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:

They were all your billionaires first, retard.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Nope. Only Warren Buffett was ever my billionaire. He has not turned Trumptard. I don't think he will because he is old enough to remember the need to brutally murder with firebombs millions of Nazis' wives and children in order to force the leftover Germans back to better behavior. Buffett knows how to fight evil with greater evil. Fighting evil with good does not work. You have to murder evil fuckers like 6ix and Signym to get the others' attention. Make them fear for their lives if you want them to improve their behavior.

Human losses of the Third Reich in World War II. A detailed description is given in the footnotes for Germany and Austria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Nazi_Germany
8.86% of Germans had to die in order to deliver an unmistakable message to the remainder.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 5:56 PM

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

'American backlash' coming at Trump over signature policy: poll

By Brad Reed | February 27, 2025 1:38PM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-tariffs-2671235645/

With inflation showing signs of heating back up, American voters are taking a dimmer view of of president Donald Trump's signature economic policy.

Bloomberg reports that Trump "risks American consumer backlash" if he follows through on threats to slap tariffs on all imported goods from Mexico and Canada, as a new Harris poll conducted on behalf of Bloomberg shows 60 percent of respondents believe that the tariffs will raise prices on everyday consumer goods.

"While many of Trump’s proposed levies are not yet enacted, the findings signal that his plans for a tariff onslaught risk political blowback — and that his messaging on the issue hasn’t landed with many consumers," the publication writes.

Even before the tariffs have kicked in, Bloomberg adds, Americans have reported feeling the pinch of higher prices during Trump's first month back in office and "some 61 percent of US adults said they’d noticed an increase in grocery prices in the last month."

Eliza Winger, US economist for Bloomberg Economics, says that Trump going through with blanket 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada would likely be poorly timed because "people are just worried about anything when it comes to inflation because prices are already so high" and "they are more sensitive to any sort of headline when it comes to inflation numbers."

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 6:46 PM

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

Trump just dealt Russia a devastating blow (Will Trump Land the Punch on Putin's nose? Who Knows?)

By Marc A. Thiessen | Feb 27, 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/27/minerals-deal-ukrai
ne-russia/

The minerals deal negotiated between the United States and Ukraine is a devastating development for Russia. Indeed, it is in some ways more important than any peace deal President Donald Trump might negotiate to end the fighting. Once implemented, it will mean that Russia has effectively lost the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to conquer his neighbor. Instead, the United States has just gone into business with Ukraine — entering into, as the agreement puts it, “a durable partnership” with Kyiv to jointly develop Ukraine’s untapped minerals and other natural resources and pledging “a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”

With this deal, the United States is now invested — literally, not figuratively — in what the deal calls “a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine.” That means the United States now has a massive financial incentive to help safeguard Ukraine’s independence. If Ukraine survives, the United States will stand to gain hundreds of billions of dollars; if Ukraine falls, we get nothing. After all, does anyone think that if Putin conquers Ukraine, he is going to repay the United States for the weapons we gave Ukraine to fight his troops? Of course not.

The deal creates “a Reconstruction Investment Fund” that will be jointly owned and managed by the two countries. Ukraine will contribute 50 percent of all revenue earned from the “future monetization” of all government-owned natural resource assets, including “minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable materials.” The fund will use this revenue to “invest in projects in Ukraine and attract investments to increase the development” of its natural resources, as well as “infrastructure, ports, and state-owned enterprises.”

Those who say Ukraine failed to win security guarantees in exchange for the minerals deal are missing the point: The minerals deal is a security guarantee. Trump has made clear that he is not going to send American troops to Ukraine. But with this deal, he is going to send something better: American workers, bulldozers and earthmovers.

“It’s a great deal for Ukraine, too, because they get us over there,” Trump explained during his Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We’re going to be working over there. We’ll be on the land. And you know, that way it’s this sort of automatic security, because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.”

With the minerals deal done, Trump must now negotiate a peace deal that secures his investment by making sure the war ends — and never resumes. Ukraine’s minerals only have value to America if they are extracted from Ukrainian soil, processed and sold. If Ukraine does not have security, that won’t happen. U.S. businesses won’t be able to mine for minerals under fire from Russian forces and will not make long-term investment in Ukraine if they fear the fighting will resume. And if they don’t invest, American taxpayers won’t get paid.

Trump certainly knows that as soon as there is a peace agreement, China, Iran and North Korea will help Russia rearm — and that in time, Russia will reconstitute its forces and rebuild its defense-industrial base in preparation for a new offensive.

To stop that from happening, the United States needs to help Ukraine establish deterrence. And that will require allowing Ukraine to purchase the American weapons it needs to discourage Russia from ever restarting the conflict. The minerals deal creates a mechanism to repay the United States for the weapons we have given Ukraine over the past three years, but not for Ukraine to buy weapons in the future to defend our joint investments.

Jack Keane, a retired Army general, and I laid out a plan in these pages on transitioning Ukraine from an aid recipient to a defense consumer, and using frozen Russian assets and loans guaranteed by Ukraine’s natural resources to buy weapons. This will be critical if we want to ensure that the war never starts up again, and Ukraine’s resources can be developed for the benefit of both countries. This does not require a new agreement or action by Congress; the mechanisms for such sales exist under existing law.

But this deal is a critical step forward. Russia wanted to diminish Ukraine economically, politically and militarily. With this deal, Trump has enhanced Ukraine economically and politically. Now, to secure our new investments, the United States must enhance Ukraine militarily as well.

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:01 PM

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

They were all your billionaires first, retard.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Nope. Only Warren Buffett was ever my billionaire.

They all worked for the Democratic Party / The NeoCons / The Establishment.

AKA: All of the people you've been blowing every day for the last 8 years.

SPOILER ALERT: Most of them still do, even if they're pretending for the moment not to.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
'American backlash' coming at Trump over signature policy: poll

By Brad Reed | February 27, 2025 1:38PM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-tariffs-2671235645/

With inflation showing signs of heating back up, American voters are taking a dimmer view of of president Donald Trump's signature economic policy.

We had 4 years of rampant inflation under Joe Biden* and RawStory didn't report on it one single fucking time.

Nobody wants to hear out of RawStory today. In fact, 99% of people have never even heard of RawStory before.

It's only been 4 weeks. You spent the last 4 years blaming Trump for Joe Biden*'s terrible economy. Nobody is taking anything you say seriously today.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:05 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:

They all worked for the Democratic Party / The NeoCons / The Establishment.

AKA: All of the people you've been blowing every day for the last 8 years.

SPOILER ALERT: Most of them still do, even if they're pretending for the moment not to.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Climate Change is a Democratic Party Hoax according to Trumptards. Therefore the Democrats are being fired:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is being dismantled by Trump

NOAA has the unfortunate status of being the government's lead scientific agency for climate change. Trump says climate change is a hoax. Today NOAA is paying the price:

Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social
I am now hearing from multiple folks in the past two hours (including some who have personally been fired) that mass firings have now commenced within NOAA--including, yes, at the National Weather Service.
Feb 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
https://bsky.app/profile/weatherwest.bsky.social/post/3lj6svxjtus27

The Hill confirms this:

The cuts, which are said to affect between 560 and 1,830 workers at the agency, were planned for at least a week, contingent upon the confirmation of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the agency. NOAA reported a permanent workforce of 11,758 in fiscal 2023, meaning the cuts could affect more than 10 percent of employees.

....Staffers from the Elon Musk-affiliated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reportedly entered NOAA offices earlier this month, before Lutnick’s confirmation. Lutnick denied any plans to dismantle the agency as Commerce secretary, but Project 2025, the sweeping conservative governance blueprint, calls for privatizing and reassigning nearly all of its functions.

It was nice knowin' you, NOAA.

https://jabberwocking.com/noaa-is-being-dismantled/

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

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Thursday, February 27, 2025 7:32 PM

Awesome. Let France worry about it.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 7:26 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Awesome. Let France worry about it.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Chaos Is Bad for Business

Imagine yourself as the CEO of a U.S. company considering a range of possible investments, whose likely profitability depends on future federal policy. So which investments will you make? A likely answer is, “None of them.”

Early this month Donald Trump announced that he was about to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Then he put them on pause for 30 days. So are they on again next week? Yesterday he insisted that they are. But will they really happen? Nobody knows.

Trump is also threatening a trade war with the European Union, which he says “was formed to screw the United States.” Will he follow through on his threat? Nobody knows.

The legislation currently providing the federal government with the money it needs to stay open will expire on March 14, and it’s by no means clear that Republicans have the votes to continue that funding. So will the U.S. government shut down? Nobody knows (although betting markets say that there’s a better than even chance that it will.)

The real possibility of a general shutdown aside, will DOGE’s efforts to fire large numbers of federal workers — half the staff of the Social Security Administration! — cripple essential government services? Nobody knows.

Most alarming of all, if it’s real: People within the administration appear to be floating the idea of restructuring U.S. debt via a “Mar-a-Lago Accord” that would force investors holding Treasury bills — short-term debt — to exchange them for 100-year bonds. This would effectively be a default on U.S. debt. Since the whole world financial system rests on the perceived safety of U.S. Treasuries, which are universally accepted as collateral for many transactions, such a move would threaten global economic chaos. But is the administration serious about this idea? Nobody knows.

You should know that none of this will show up in “hard” economic data any time soon. Next week we’ll be getting employment numbers for February, but these data actually reflect the “employer pay period that includes the 12th of the month” — that is, they will be data from early February, just a few weeks into Trump’s presidency, far too soon to show any effects of his policies. There are some indications that consumers are already pulling back, but we won’t see the effects of businesses cutting back on investments for at least a few months.

More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/surprise-chaos-is-bad-for-business

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

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Friday, February 28, 2025 10:58 AM

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

Trump has reduced US safeguards against corruption and white-collar crime

President Trump is scaling back enforcement efforts against white-collar crimes. Could that become an invitation to corruption and tax evasion?

By Henry Gass Staff | Feb. 28, 2025, 5:30 a.m. ET

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2025/0228/white-collar-crime-jus
tice-bondi

As the Trump administration signals its intention to crack down on certain crimes, it’s also signaling a major ambivalence toward others.

Criminal prosecutions of white-collar offenses have been declining for decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents. But amid sweeping policy and personnel changes at the Justice Department, that downward trend seems poised to accelerate under President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The new policies, along with the departure of senior career officials, signal a new – and possibly more relaxed – approach to public corruption, tax evasion, and other white-collar crimes. While incoming presidents are entitled to set new DOJ priorities, these new priorities appear more sweeping than usual. They also appear to be shifting resources away from types of investigations that have troubled Mr. Trump and his allies in the past.

How these changes will play out over the coming years is uncertain, but a softened stance can invite foul play, experts say.

The most serious white-collar crime cases are complex and “dependent on proactively policing,” says Henry Pontell, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine. “When investigation is impossible due to both a lack of resources and political will, they are simply relegated to the status of ‘nonissues.’”

Memos from the attorney general

Ms. Bondi’s first day in office played out much like the first days of the president who appointed her. On Feb. 5, the new attorney general issued over a dozen memos outlining new directives and priorities for the Justice Department.

In one memo, Ms. Bondi announced “shifting resources” in the agency’s national security division from foreign interference investigations to cross-border crimes. Specifically, she announced that she would disband a task force set up in 2017 to police foreign-run political influence campaigns. Investigations of Americans lobbying on behalf of foreign governments would also be limited to conduct resembling “traditional espionage.” Enforcement of a law regulating domestic lobbyists for foreign governments, meanwhile, would now be limited to conduct “similar to more traditional espionage.”

Prosecutors in the disbanded Foreign Influence Task Force should now focus on “the total elimination” of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Ms. Bondi wrote. A separate unit, previously tasked with investigating U.S. companies that bribe foreign officials, must now prioritize investigations of cartels, she wrote in another memo.

Some of these laws have only been lightly enforced. That may not change. What is clear, however, is that the Justice Department is signaling a more relaxed approach to certain white-collar crimes.

The new directives “invite more foreign interference in American affairs,” says Aaron Zelinsky, a former federal prosecutor specializing in fraud, public corruption, and national security cases.

“Administrations are entitled to set enforcement priorities,” he adds. But these changes are “different [from] figuring out where to allocate manpower. They’re changes in nature rather than changes in kind.”

Public corruption in the news

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on its new priorities. But the agency’s latest focus has been evident not just in the policy and resource decisions described in Ms. Bondi’s memos, but also in some of its actions.

A stated goal of the Trump administration is to end political “weaponization” of the justice system. This is the reason DOJ officials have given for seeking to drop a public corruption prosecution against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Adams is pleading not guilty to charges that he accepted bribes from Turkish government officials in exchange for favors. Without questioning the legal strength of the case, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove says the case was brought because of Mr. Adams’ criticisms of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

A half dozen federal prosecutors disagreed, and they resigned instead of following Mr. Bove’s order to drop the case. The Adams case, as well as the DOJ’s policy to turn away from white-collar investigations, calls into question other public corruption prosecutions and the prevalence of foreign government influence on American politics more generally.

Such foreign influence has not been difficult to spot in recent years – in part thanks to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law that requires public disclosure of individuals lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.

Robert Menendez, a former U.S. senator from New Jersey, received an 11-year prison sentence this year for secretly lobbying on behalf of Egyptian government officials. Similarly, Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas congressman, was charged last May with acting as a foreign agent for an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank.

Mr. Cuellar’s trial is scheduled for September. But observers believe the centrist Democrat could see the Justice Department drop his case just as it did with Mr. Adams. Per one of Ms. Bondi’s Feb. 5 memos, FARA enforcement is now focusing on “more traditional espionage.”

It’s unclear what “traditional espionage” means in practice, but any shift in this area of the law is significant, experts say. An increase in foreign influence in American government means a decrease in influence for American voters.

“It’s a zero-sum game,” says Mr. Zelinsky, who worked on the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. “The voices of the American people will be lessened, and the voices of foreign actors will be greater.”

What is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?

In addition to potentially limiting investigations of foreign influence in the U.S., new DOJ directives could make it easier for American companies to influence foreign governments overseas.

Since 1977, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has prohibited U.S. companies and individuals from bribing foreign officials to gain a business advantage. In a Feb. 5 memo, Ms. Bondi said the Justice Department will prioritize FCPA investigations related to bribery “that facilitates the criminal operations of cartels and transnational criminal organizations.” A few days later, Mr. Trump signed an executive order pausing enforcement of the law for 180 days, writing that it “impedes the United States’ foreign policy objectives.”

But according to Mike Koehler – a lawyer who runs FCPA Professor, a leading trade publication that focuses on the law – not much may actually change as a result.

“It seemed an odd directive,” he says. “There aren’t many enforcement actions that implicate” cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

In fact, there haven’t been many FCPA enforcement actions of any kind. The Justice Department brought just 17 such actions last year, a third less than its already low yearly average over the past decade, according to data compiled by Stanford University Law School.

“We’re talking about pausing something that hardly ever happened anyway,” says Mr. Koehler.

Significant policy changes at the Justice Department have also been accompanied by an exodus in prosecutorial experience.

David Hubbert had worked in the DOJ Tax Division for four decades, including a long recent stint as a chief prosecutor, until earlier this month. He resigned instead of accepting a move to a sanctuary cities task force. Another top attorney in the division, Stuart Goldberg, had retired weeks earlier.

“I find it extremely concerning that you take someone who’s got 40 years of experience on tax enforcement ... and remove him from that role for no reason that I can see,” says Kathy Keneally, a former assistant attorney general for the Tax Division.

The department’s Criminal Division and Public Integrity Section have seen even more departures.

Kevin Driscoll and John Keller – acting heads of the Criminal Division and Public Integrity Section, respectively – resigned over the Adams case. Two attorneys working on the Cuellar case also resigned. Marco Palmieri left over the Adams case. Corey Amundson – head of the Public Integrity Section before Mr. Keller and a 23-year veteran of the Justice Department – resigned in late January after being told he was getting reassigned to a sanctuary cities task force.

Cases in flux: To prosecute, or not to prosecute?

An interesting feature of this new Trump-era realignment of DOJ priorities is that immigration-related prosecutions have been increasing for decades.

Referrals for public corruption prosecutions at the department fell from around 2,300 in the early 1990s to under 500 in the mid-2010s, according to a 2019 study that cited data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Referrals for immigration prosecutions spiked in the early 2000s, meanwhile, and, by 2017, were five times more common than public corruption referrals.

“Immigration has been a focus of past administrations,” says Kristine Artello, an associate professor of criminal justice at Fisher College in Boston, and a co-author of that 2019 study.

“What I’m concerned about is that other entities that were also looking at white-collar crime ... are also being gutted,” she adds.

Policy and personnel changes at the Justice Department have been accompanied by thousands of layoffs at the IRS, for example.

That is something that separates these actions by the Trump administration from how past administrations have shifted priorities at the Justice Department – including the first Trump administration.

Mr. Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, prioritized enforcement for immigration and violent crimes, but he also targeted economic espionage by the Chinese government. FARA prosecutions also increased during Mr. Trump’s first administration, and the department launched the Foreign Influence Task Force during his first year in office.

“It’s a very substantial and relatively profound change,” says Mr. Zelinsky. “Some worthwhile institutions introduced in the first Trump administration are now being gutted and left by the side of the road.”

Ultimately, however, the practical effects of these shifts remain unclear.

Prioritizing certain types of investigations and prosecutions doesn’t mean that other types will be ignored. In fact, the extent to which the new directives are being followed now is murky. Three weeks after Mr. Trump paused enforcement of the FCPA, two men accused of violating the law are scheduled to go on trial.

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

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Friday, February 28, 2025 12:21 PM

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

The Putinization of America

Trump’s deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.

By Garry Kasparov | February 28, 2025, 7 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/putinization
-america/681837/

We are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America’s government and influence and the preservation of Russia’s.

Unleashing Elon Musk and his DOGE cadres on the federal government, menacing Canada and European allies, and embracing Vladimir Putin’s wish list for Ukraine and beyond are not unrelated. These moves are all strategic elements of a plan that is familiar to any student of the rise and fall of democracies, especially the “fall” part.

The sequence is painfully familiar to me personally, because I marched in the streets as it played out in Russia at the start of the 21st century. With ruthless consistency, and the tacit approval of Western leaders, Putin and his oligarch supporters used his fair-ishly elected power to make sure that elections in Russia would never matter again.

Of course, American institutions and traditions are far stronger than Russia’s fragile post-Soviet democracy was when Putin took over from Boris Yeltsin, who had already done his share of damage before anointing the former KGB lieutenant colonel to be his successor in 1999. But those who dismissed my warnings that yes, it can happen here at the start of Trump’s first term, in 2017, got quieter after the insurrection on January 6, 2021, and are almost silent now.

Trump’s personal affinity for dictators was apparent early on. His praise for Putin and other elected leaders turned strongmen, such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, was tinged with undisguised envy. No feisty parliament to wrangle. The free press turned into a propaganda machine for the administration. The justice system unleashed against the opposition. Elections staged only for show. What’s not to like?

Putin and Russia always held a special place in Trump world, however. Russian intelligence and propaganda worked full-time to promote Trump once he won the Republican nomination to face Hillary Clinton in 2016. WikiLeaks, long in the service of Russian intelligence but still nurturing its old whistleblower image, fed hacked documents to a naively cooperative American media. The Mueller Report makes the degree of cooperation between various Russian assets and the Trump campaign clear—damningly so, despite years of MAGA crying “Russia hoax” because Special Counsel Robert Mueller decided not to prosecute.

Trump made Paul Manafort his campaign chair in May 2016, turning the Russia alarm bells into air-raid sirens for anyone paying attention. Manafort was a former fixer for Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich, who attempted to thwart Ukrainians’ desire to join Europe only to be deposed by the Maidan Revolution of Dignity and forced to flee to Moscow in 2014.

Manafort’s recent expertise was mostly in money and reputation laundering. Adding him to the campaign when Trump’s oddly pro-Putin rhetoric (“strong leader,” “loves his country,” “you think our country is so innocent?”) was already drawing attention seemed a little too on the nose: Why double down? From affinity, the campaign tilted into deeply suspicious fealty toward the Kremlin. Manafort’s subsequent plea of guilty for conspiracy to defraud the United States, and Trump’s later pardon, only threw more wood on the raging collusion fire.

Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, during President Barack Obama’s second term. It annexed Crimea and entered eastern Ukraine, offering up feeble pretexts about protecting Russian speakers (whom it bombed indiscriminately), Nazis in Ukraine (also, naturally, the Jews running Ukraine), NATO expansion, and so-called Ukrainian separatists. Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in the second year of Joe Biden’s presidency, attempting to take Kyiv in what the Kremlin famously planned to be a three-day special military operation. The timing led Trump and his defenders to say that he had been tough on Russia: The invasion would never have occurred on Trump’s watch.

Now that the second Trump administration is racing to tick off every point on Putin’s long wish list, the reason for this has become clear. In Trump’s second term, Putin was expecting him to abandon Ukraine, lift sanctions on Russia, create divisions within NATO, and leave Ukraine relatively defenseless before Europe could get organized to defend it. That is, exactly what is happening today.

But Trump lost to Biden in 2020, and, entering his 23rd year in power, Putin needed a new conflict to distract from the dismal conditions in Russia. Dictators always wind up needing enemies to justify why nothing has improved under their eternal rule, and once the domestic opposition is eliminated, foreign adventures are inevitable. Putin didn’t expect much resistance from Ukraine or from the West, which he had successfully corrupted, bluffed, and bullied for decades. But then an unlikely hero appeared in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and actor who, it turned out, could perform a phenomenal impression of Winston Churchill under enemy fire.

Ukraine’s brave resistance to the supposedly overwhelming might of the Russian military lasted long enough to force the United States and Europe to join its defense, albeit reluctantly and slowly. Three long years have passed. Iranian drones crash nightly into Ukrainian civilian centers; Russian artillery and missiles reduce entire cities to rubble; China supports Russia’s attempt at conquest while hungrily eyeing Taiwan. Three years of documented reports of Russian torture, rape, and the mass kidnapping of children. North Korean soldiers have arrived to fight and die in Russia’s invasion, while NATO nations stand by, letting Ukrainians die in the war NATO was created to fight. Yet somehow Ukraine holds the line while Russia’s military losses grow and its economy wobbles.

Once more unto the breach arrives Donald Trump, back in office with more help from the Kremlin—and the inept Democrats—ready to throw his old pal Putin a lifeline. At his side is someone new: the richest private citizen in the world, Elon Musk. (Putin controls far more money than Musk or Trump—do not underestimate how that affects their perceptions of him as the big boss.) With Musk arrives an overused and misunderstood word in the American vernacular: oligarch.

Although it’s not a Russian word, post-Soviet Russia popularized its use and attempted to perfect the system it described. In the 1990s, those most capable of manipulating the newly privatized markets became the richest people in Russia. They quickly seized the levers of political power to expand their resources and fortunes, persecute their rivals, and blur the lines between public and private power until they were erased.

Putin, a nondescript technocrat, was a useful front for billionaires such as Boris Berezovsky: Putin appeared to be the hard veteran of the KGB, cleaning up corruption—while what he was really doing was bringing it inside, legitimizing it, and creating a mafia state. Oligarchs could bend the knee and profit, or resist and end up in jail or in exile, their assets ripped away.

Russian democracy had no institutional memory, no immune system to fight off these attacks. It was like a baby deer hit by a locomotive. The Russian Duma, purged of real opposition, became a Putin cheer squad under the new United Russia party. Judges and the security services fell in line or were removed in purges. Oversight was twisted into enforcement of the presidential will. Economic policy aimed to nationalize expenses and privatize profits, looting the country to line the pockets of a few dozen well-connected oligarchs. Foreign policy also moved out of public view, conducted by billionaires in resorts and on yachts. A flood of Russian money washed over European politicians and institutions. Kremlin troll farms and bots made social media into a national and then global weapon.

If all of this is starting to sound a little familiar, welcome to the Putinization of America, comrade! Trump’s deference to the Russian autocrat has become full-blown imitation. Musk’s promotion of Kremlin-friendly candidates in Germany and Romania and his attacks on Ukraine are bizarre but not random. Berezovsky, who elevated Putin to power from behind the scenes, was soon exiled and replaced with more compliant oligarchs. He also met a grisly end—found hanged at his Berkshire mansion at 67—a precedent that might give pause to anyone thinking of risking his business empire to play that gray-cardinal role for the likes of Trump and J. D. Vance.

Trump didn’t campaign on cutting cancer research and foreign aid any more than he did on threatening to annex Greenland and Canada or lifting sanctions on Putin’s dictatorship and extorting Ukraine. What these things have in common is that they provoke conflicts with allies, which then allow him to distinguish the truly loyal.

Imitation and servility aren’t the same thing. Trump and Musk could attempt to undermine American democracy and create a Russian-style power vertical without kowtowing to Putin or abandoning Ukraine. But they haven’t. And while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, affinity and envy aren’t enough to explain the abruptness and totality of the Trump administration’s adoption of every Russian position. On Monday, the anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion, the United States even joined Russia in voting against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech supporting Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 in which he said, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size … A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” As a “Reagan Communist” myself back in the U.S.S.R., I sympathize with those who want to shrink and limit government power. But replacing it with a junta of unaccountable elites—the Putin model—is not an improvement.

Cutting bureaucracy isn’t usually associated with despotism and power grabs. We tend to think of wannabe dictators packing the courts and increasing the size and power of the state. But that isn’t what you do when you want to make the government impotent against private power—your private power. The Putin model was to weaken any state institution that might defy him and to build state power back up only when he had total control.

But why has Trump made Putin’s agenda his top priority? The GOP has been compliant with every Trump move so far, but a few members still take issue with Trump calling Zelensky a dictator while cozying up to Putin. So why pick fights with his narrow congressional majorities over Russia so early, with such urgency? The same could be asked of Musk’s reckless slash-and-burn tactics with DOGE, which are beginning to provoke backlash as popular programs are cut and job losses pile up, along with lawsuits.

We may never know why Trump is so perversely loyal to Putin. We don’t know exactly why Musk went all in for Trump and Russia or what his deep conflicts of interest in the U.S. and China portend. But the urgency of their actions I do understand, and it’s a dire warning.

These are not the acts of people who expect to lose power any time soon, or ever. They are racing to the point where they will not be able to afford to lose control of the mechanisms they are ripping up and remaking in their image. What such people will do when they believe that mounting a coup is the lesser risk to their fortunes and power cannot be predicted.

There may be a Pulitzer Prize awaiting the person who discovers the answer to the question “Why?” But stopping Putinization—the looting by cronies, the centralization of authority, the moving of decisions into unaccountable private hands—is the vital matter of the moment. Trump admiring Putin is far less dangerous than Trump becoming him.

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

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Friday, February 28, 2025 2:45 PM

You still don't realize that you are making things worse for yourselves.

You've been warned.

Keep it up.

One of these days you're going to realize that I've been right about everything all along and that you've actively played a role in the demise of the Democratic Party.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 3:46 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Hey comrade, you didn't answer my question. So, comrade SIGNYM a question from me. What justification does Russia have for going into Ukraine? Both times comrade. First time in 2014 I think it was. It is obvious the Ukrainians don't want them there. I predict you will say elections were held and they want Russia there. Which would explain why they are killing Russians as quick as they can.

THUGR: Come on Signym. Answer the damn question.

My answer is:

First time, Russia didn't invade. I've made that point over and over.

No need to repost the rest. Your answer, starting with the words, "Russia didn't invade" is bullshit. And it was followed by nothing but more bullshit. Which is why for a long time now, you've been known as comrade here

T

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:04 PM

Looks like Trump and Vance just shit all over child rapist Zelinsky on live TV for the world to see.

Get fucked, Lil Z.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:10 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:
Looks like Trump and Vance just shit all over child rapist Zelinsky on live TV for the world to see.

Get fucked, Lil Z.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

6ix, that is NOT what happened, you fucking Nazi. Trump demanded Ukraine surrender to Russia and kiss his ass on live TV or no deal. Ukraine bite his ass.

Analysis: A calculated ambush, premeditated and expertly executed by Trump

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/02/28/zelensky-trump-meet
ing-white-house-us/

“What we are witnessing is a stark and unmistakable reflection of the Trump administration’s core approach: a calculated ambush, premeditated and expertly executed. The Ukrainian ambassador’s reaction – her hands clutching her head – said it all.

This moment propels the conversation into even more unsettling terrain. It is no longer about who will protect Ukraine from Russia, but who will protect Ukraine from the United States?

And many within NATO will be left wondering, after hearing today’s rhetoric: would this White House ever come to our defence if we were under attack?”

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

Ukraine deal off, Trump says after public spat with Zelenskyy

By Sasha Vakulina | 28/02/2025 - 20:55 GMT

https://www.euronews.com/2025/02/28/take-the-deal-or-were-out-trump-te
lls-zelenskyy

In an unprecedented argument live on TV, US President Donald Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart on Friday he should "be thankful," accusing Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being "disrespectful" and "gambling with World War III".

After weeks of intense negotiations and statements between Washington and Kyiv, the expectations were running high for the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Yet, probably no one expected it to turn into a heated argument live on TV, and now Trump is saying the raw minerals deal with Ukraine — which brought Zelenskyy to the White House on Friday — was off.

"I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Friday.

"I don’t want advantage, I want peace. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace," he announced.

The Friday meeting did not seem tense at first, but it changed in tone and became less diplomatic when US Vice President JD Vance told Zelenskyy that Ukraine didn't have enough people to continue fighting.

The Ukrainian president replied that JD Vance has not been to Ukraine to say this, adding "come and see".

Things got increasingly heated from this moment onward.

Zelenskyy emphasised the need for security guarantees, which Kyiv has repeatedly insisted upon. Trump interrupted Zelenskyy and told him to "be grateful" for what the US had already done to help Ukraine.

“You have to be more thankful. You don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards. But without us, you don’t have any cards,” Trump said.

"Your country is in big trouble," The US president continued, adding, "You are not winning this."

“If you could get a ceasefire right now, I’d tell you to take it so the bullets stop flying,” Trump said.

Zelenskyy replied, “Of course I want to stop the war,” when Trump interrupted him with “You say you don’t want a ceasefire”. Ukraine’s president then said he wanted a truce, but with security guarantees.

Reiterating that Ukraine could only defend itself for three years now because of the US military aid, Trump said, "If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would be have been over in two weeks."

"In three days, (as) I have heard from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," Zelenskyy retorted.
'Just say thank you'

JD Vance also told Ukraine’s president to "just say thank you," accusing Zelenskyy of being disrespectful. "You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation to the United States of America and the president who is trying to save your country," Vance said.

The US vice president referred to Zelenskyy's visit to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania last autumn.

The press conference by the two presidents, scheduled for after the meeting, has been cancelled, and Zelenskyy left the White House abruptly.

"Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you president, Congress, and the American people," the Ukrainian leader said in a post-meeting message on X on Friday.

"Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."

Furthermore, House Speaker Mike Johnson called on Zelenskyy to fire his ambassador to the US amid the Ukrainian leader's escalating tension with Trump and his allies.

Following the visit, Johnson sent a letter demanding the immediate firing of Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, accusing her of interfering in the presidential election by organising the Ukrainian president's visit in October. He called the visit a "partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats."

"The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because — on purpose — no Republicans were invited," the Louisiana Republican wrote.

Zelenskyy toured the ammunition factory, thanking the employees who produce one of the most critically needed munitions for the war against Russia.

'Putin went through a hell of a lot with me’

During the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting on Friday, one of the journalists asked what the United States would do if Russia violated the ceasefire.

"What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now? What if they break it? I don’t know. They broke it with (former US President Joe) Biden because they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect (former US President Barack) Obama. They respect me," Trump answered.

The sitting US president also brought up an investigation based on suspicions of Russian influence in the 2016 US election and Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

"Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia … Russia, Russia, Russia," Trump added, referring to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Trump also mentioned the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, data from which was then used by the media as evidence of the former US president's alleged corruption.

"And then they said: ‘Oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia ... The whole thing was a scam, and he (Putin) had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff," Trump said.

"All I can say is this: he might have broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden ... Maybe he did, I don't know what happened. But he didn't break them with me. He wants to make a deal," Trump said, expressing his confidence in Putin.

Trump was impeached during his first term as president in 2019 over a phone call he had had with the Ukrainian leader. During the conversation, Trump allegedly asked Zelenskyy about opening an investigation into Joe Biden, his main political rival, and his son.

Various officials said that Trump held up aid to Ukraine at the time over his demands to have its government investigate the Bidens.

Full argument: Trump-Zelensky White House meeting descends into shouting match

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

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:12 PM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Looks like Trump and Vance just shit all over child rapist Zelinsky on live TV for the world to see.

Get fucked, Lil Z.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, that is NOT what happened, you fucking Nazi.

That is exactly what happened.

That little bitch went home with nothing but his tail between his legs.
You would know that if you actually watched the whole thing instead of reading lies from your propagandists.

He even wrote a thank you letter to Trump and America on X only 1 hour after he was booted. Did he even wait until he boarded the plane back to his shithole country before he went back to groveling and begging for money?

And by all means, please keep calling everyone you disagree with a Nazi for another 4 years and see how much more we will take away from you.

We've only just begun.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:19 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:
Looks like Trump and Vance just shit all over child rapist Zelinsky on live TV for the world to see.

Get fucked, Lil Z.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, that is NOT what happened, you fucking Nazi.

That is exactly what happened.

That little bitch went home with nothing but his tail between his legs. He even wrote a thank you letter to Trump and America on X only 1 hour after he was booted.

You would know that if you actually watched the whole thing instead of reading lies from your propagandists.

And by all means, please keep calling everyone you disagree with a Nazi for another 4 years and see how much more we will take away from you.

We've only just begun.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

If I call somebody a Nazi, I am splitting their fucking head open as I do it, little Nazi 6ix. And I won't ask them for a final statement before I do it:

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

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:21 PM

And meanwhile, you've got 2 entire generations of boys looking at Trump right now and seeing one of the only examples of masculine power in the public eye outside of MMA fighters and Marvel Superheros.

You're looking at two incoming generations of future men who will always vote against Democrats.

You still haven't realized that you've lost. Everything.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 4:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
If I call somebody a Nazi, I am splitting their fucking head open as I do it, little Nazi 6ix. And I won't ask them for a final statement before I do it:

Come split my head open then, pussy.

What? You don't know where I live? Why not? I've known your address for years now.

You're a simple-minded, weak little cunt of a half-man.

Nobody cares about anything you have to say about any topic. Everybody you know hates you.

And you'd better consider yourself lucky that you'll never meet me in person because I'd put you right into the fucking ground.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Friday, February 28, 2025 6:00 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:
If I call somebody a Nazi, I am splitting their fucking head open as I do it, little Nazi 6ix. And I won't ask them for a final statement before I do it:

Come split my head open then, pussy.

What? You don't know where I live? Why not? I've known your address for years now.

You're a simple-minded, weak little cunt of a half-man.

Nobody cares about anything you have to say about any topic. Everybody you know hates you.

And you'd better consider yourself lucky that you'll never meet me in person because I'd put you right into the fucking ground.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

6ix is feeling all-powerful because this is the Golden Age for Nazis. Sieg Heil Mein Führer Trump!

I went to CPAC as an anthropologist to see how Trump supporters are feeling - for them, a ‘golden age’ has begun

February 21, 2025 1:35pm EST

By Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark

https://theconversation.com/i-went-to-cpac-as-an-anthropologist-to-see
-how-trump-supporters-are-feeling-for-them-a-golden-age-has-begun-250219

At the start of his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump declared, “The golden age of America begins right now!”

A month later, Trump’s supporters gathered at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, from Feb. 19-22 to celebrate the advent of this golden age.

Gold glitter jackets, emblazoned with phrases like “Trump the Golden Era,” are for sale in the CPAC exhibition hall. There, attendees decked out in other MAGA-themed clothing and accessories network and mingle. They visit booths with politically charged signs that say “Defund Planned Parenthood” and collect brochures on topics like “The Gender Industrial Complex.”

Another booth with a yellow and black striped backdrop resembling a prison cell’s bars was called a “Deportation Center.” Attendees photographed themselves at this booth, posing beside full-size cutouts of Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan.

Former Jan. 6 prisoners, including Proud Boys’ former leader Enrique Tarrio, have also been a visible – and controversial – presence at CPAC.

The conference’s proceedings kicked off on Feb. 20 with an Arizona pastor, Joshua Navarrete, saying, to loud applause, “We are living in the greatest time of our era – the golden age!”

Many subsequent speakers repeated this phrase, celebrating the country’s “golden age.”

For many outside observers, claims of a golden age might seem odd.

Just months ago during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said that an American apocalypse was underway, driven by a U.S. economy in shambles and major cities overrun by an “invasion” of “illegal alien” “terrorists,” “rapists” and “murderers.”

American exceptionalism restored

The golden-age celebration at CPAC centered on Trump and his mission to “make America great again.”

Speaker after speaker, including foreign conservative leaders from around the world, paid homage to Trump and this message.

During her CPAC speech, Liz Truss, the former prime minister of the U.K., stated, “This is truly the golden age of America.” Truss, who does not have a current political position, told the CPAC audience that she wanted to copy the MAGA playbook in order to “make Britain great again.”

The MAGA faithful believe that Trump is restoring an era of American exceptionalism in which the U.S. is an economic powerhouse, common sense is the rule, and traditional values centered on God, family and freedom are celebrated.

And they believe in a future where the U.S. is, as Trump said in his inaugural address, “the envy of every nation.”

Much more at https://theconversation.com/i-went-to-cpac-as-an-anthropologist-to-see
-how-trump-supporters-are-feeling-for-them-a-golden-age-has-begun-250219

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

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