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 second:

Trump told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.

Trump flip-flopped:

Trump Calls For Release of Epstein Documents Following WSJ Article

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-release-of-eps
tein-documents-following-wsj-article/ar-AA1IOR4j

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 7:25 AM

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

The Myth of Antiwar Trump

Revealed: Trump has launched as many air strikes in five months as Biden did in four years.
Despite pledging not to engage in conflict overseas, the US president has sharply escalated attacks.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/16/trump-airstrike-tall
y-matches-biden-four-year-total/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-blows-up-his-war-vow-by-launching-
way-more-bombings-than-biden/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 7:53 AM

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

The Psychology of Trump Voters

They're not following Trump because of what he does. They're following him because of how he makes them feel. Understanding it is the first step in breaking the spell.

By Jayne jayneconverse3 | June 27, 2025

https://www.tiktok.com/@jayneconverse3/video/7520454365123972365 (5 minutes: 36-second long video which is worth checking out)

I’ve been dying to dig into this. I’ve been asking myself why Trump’s followers can’t see reality. So I did my research, and I’m going to share it with you.

Let’s talk about the psychology behind the Trump Cult, because that’s what it is. It’s not a normal political movement anymore, it’s a cult of personality and if we want to fight it, we have to understand it. So, let’s break it down.

First, Trump doesn’t offer policies, he offers identity. He’s not popular because of what he does, but because of what he represents. To many of his followers, he’s a walking, talking middle finger to a system they believe has failed them.¹

They see him as “their guy,” not because he’s honest, not because he helps them, but because he talks like them, rages like them, and punches the people they’ve been told to blame for everything.²

In psychology, there’s a term for this: “Identity fusion.” It’s when your personal identity becomes fused with your group or leader. That’s why criticism of Trump feels like a personal attack to his supporters. It’s not just “he’s being criticized,” it’s “I’m being criticized.”

Second, he offers revenge, not solutions. He doesn’t promise to fix healthcare, or raise wages, or protect your rights; he promises to go after “them.” Whether it’s immigrants, the press, Black activists, LGBTQ people, liberals, college students, elites, anyone outside the tribe… that’s classic authoritarianism.

Give people a sense of loss, tell them who stole it, then promise to make them pay. And to some people, that rage, that promise of vengeance is more emotionally satisfying than actual policy. It doesn’t fix their problems, but it feels like power.

Third: People crave order, and Trump promises strength. When institutions fail, when you don’t trust the media, the courts, elections, schools³, you start to look for a savior: Someone who says, “Only I can fix it.” That’s why Trump acts like a strong man. He creates the crisis, then sells himself as the only one tough enough to stop it. He’s done that over and over and over again. He’s not leading a movement, he’s leading a dependency.

Fourth: His followers are trapped in an information bubble. They don’t just believe lies, they live inside them. Fox News, MAGA influencers, far-right churches, Trump’s own app Truth Social is a closed-loop ecosystem that tells them every day, “The elites hate you, the media lies, only Trump tells the truth.” 4 This is called “epistemic closure.” It’s cult logic. If Trump says it, it’s true. If the world says otherwise, the world is lying.

And then fifth: Shame is too powerful, so they double down, just like Trump does. Some Trump supporters know deep down that they’ve been conned. They’ve seen the cruelty, the corruption, the chaos, but they’ve already invested years of their identity into defending him.5 To walk away now would mean confronting shame, losing their community, admitting they were wrong, and that’s terrifying to them, so instead they dig in deeper.

And finally, and this one matters, Trump makes them feel seen. He tells them, “They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” That line is emotional manipulation, but it works… because for millions of people who feel ignored, dismissed, mocked by elites, Trump says, “You matter. You’re not crazy, they are.” He gives them belonging, and in a country where loneliness is rising and inequality is everywhere, belonging is everything.

So when people ask, “Why do people love him? Why would they follow him off a cliff?” it’s not just politics, it’s psychology, it’s identity, and it’s fear. This is deliberate. Trump didn’t create the cult, he just saw the cracks in our society and weaponized them.

But here’s the thing: not everyone in that cult is unreachable. Some are too far gone, but others are on the edge, quiet, doubting, hurting. We don’t get them back with facts, we get them back by offering something Trump never will: real community, real care, and real solutions. Because people don’t join cults when they are happy and secure. They join when they are scared, isolated, and desperate for meaning.

So here’s your call to action: Keep speaking truth, keep exposing the con, and when you can, offer people a way out that doesn’t begin with shame, but with dignity. This fight isn’t just about defeating Trump, it’s about breaking the spell and building something better in it’s place. That’s how we get them in, that’s how we get them to abandon him.

Let’s do it.

The original video from “Jayne” jayneconverse3 was transcribed and footnoted on June 30, 2025 by The Old Wolf at https://playingintheworldgame.com/2025/06/30/the-psychology-of-trump-v
oters/

For example, here is footnote 4: How sad it must be — believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 8:02 AM

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

How sad it must be — believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 8:04 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Psychology of Trump Voters

They're not following Trump because of what he does. They're following him because of how he makes them feel. Understanding it is the first step in breaking the spell.

By Jayne jayneconverse3 | June 27, 2025

The author of this article has a cult- like belief about a so- called "Trump cult", but I haven't seen any evidence of it. The fact that people are questioning the Epstein case points to continuing reaction against anything that looks like gaslighting, even if it's by Trump.

Seems to me that overall, Trump voters are more skeptical than Biden* or Harris voters, who still believe everything the MSN publishes.

SECOND is a case in point. He obsessively trolls the inet for anti-Trump, anti-Republiczn, or anti-Russian stories and obsessively reposts them here.

I don't see any Trump voters here with that level of slavishness.

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 8:41 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Is the reason why Trump is sucking up to Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConbel so hard is bc he's trying to "impeach-proof" himself?

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 9:06 AM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Is the reason why Trump is sucking up to Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConbel so hard is bc he's trying to "impeach-proof" himself?

Recent polling suggests African American voters, already more disapproving of Trump than other demographic groups, have been souring on the president. Decision Desk HQ aggregates find more than 70 percent disapprove of his job performance, while around a quarter approve, putting him in one of the weakest positions with the group since returning to the White House.

Newsweek's analysis of major surveys since April shows his approval among Hispanic and Latino voters has dropped to 40 percent, with 56 percent disapproving—down from March averages of 43 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval. YouGov's data mirrors this trend, showing Trump's net approval plummeting from -12 in January to -32 in May.

Only 37% of independents approve of Trump’s overall job performance. Just 26% of independent voters support Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).’ Additionally, 52% of independents are less likely to support the OBBBA after hearing concerns about the bill’s potential to significantly increase the debt and deficit – which is a priority for independent voters. And roughly 60% of independent voters approve of elected officials who are able to overcome political tensions and work across the aisle with the opposing party.

And it’s only gotten worse. If republicans lose the house and senate yes, Trump will be impeached and removed. And he knows it.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 10:36 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Psychology of Trump Voters

They're not following Trump because of what he does. They're following him because of how he makes them feel. Understanding it is the first step in breaking the spell.

By Jayne jayneconverse3 | June 27, 2025

The author of this article has a cult- like belief about a so- called "Trump cult", but I haven't seen any evidence of it. The fact that people are questioning the Epstein case points to continuing reaction against anything that looks like gaslighting, even if it's by Trump.

Seems to me that overall, Trump voters are more skeptical than Biden* or Harris voters, who still believe everything the MSN publishes.

SECOND is a case in point. He obsessively trolls the inet for anti-Trump, anti-Republiczn, or anti-Russian stories and obsessively reposts them here.

I don't see any Trump voters here with that level of slavishness.

What do you want me to do? Write local news about my Trumptard neighbors being arrested for rape? Going bankrupt because they are idiots about money? Embezzling Trumptards being fired? Being sued by the Goose Creek School District for real estate taxes they didn't pay? Signym, you'd say it is fake news. I pick national news that you can verify from your desktop computer in Russia. The one good thing in my local Trumptards' lives is that Trump is the only President who can fix it for them.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 1:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Psychology of Trump Voters

They're not following Trump because of what he does. They're following him because of how he makes them feel. Understanding it is the first step in breaking the spell.

By Jayne jayneconverse3 | June 27, 2025

The author of this article has a cult- like belief about a so- called "Trump cult", but I haven't seen any evidence of it. The fact that people are questioning the Epstein case points to continuing reaction against anything that looks like gaslighting, even if it's by Trump.

Seems to me that overall, Trump voters are more skeptical than Biden* or Harris voters, who still believe everything the MSN publishes.

SECOND is a case in point. He obsessively trolls the inet for anti-Trump, anti-Republiczn, or anti-Russian stories and obsessively reposts them here.

I don't see any Trump voters here with that level of slavishness.

Yup.

The only cultlike behavior on display here is the two idiots who continue to say whatever the headlines read on any given day no matter who is President, and no matter how foolish they look in retrospect when those headlines are consistently proven false.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 3:43 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Psychology of Trump Voters

They're not following Trump because of what he does. They're following him because of how he makes them feel. Understanding it is the first step in breaking the spell.

By Jayne jayneconverse3 | June 27, 2025

The author of this article has a cult- like belief about a so- called "Trump cult", but I haven't seen any evidence of it. The fact that people are questioning the Epstein case points to continuing reaction against anything that looks like gaslighting, even if it's by Trump.

Seems to me that overall, Trump voters are more skeptical than Biden* or Harris voters, who still believe everything the MSN publishes.

SECOND is a case in point. He obsessively trolls the inet for anti-Trump, anti-Republiczn, or anti-Russian stories and obsessively reposts them here.

I don't see any Trump voters here with that level of slavishness.
What do you want me to do? Write local news about my Trumptard neighbors being arrested for rape? Going bankrupt because they are idiots about money? Embezzling Trumptards being fired? Being sued by the Goose Creek School District for real estate taxes they didn't pay? Signym, you'd say it is fake news. I pick national news that you can verify from your desktop computer in Russia. The one good thing in my local Trumptards' lives is that Trump is the only President who can fix it for them.

"There you go again". .

Quote:
I pick national news ...

No. What you post isn't "news". You select rumor, opinion, and lies. Mostly fact-free, all against Republicans, Trump, and Russia.

I never saw you post that Biden was mentally compromised, for example. THAT was newsworthy fact.

Never saw you pursue the information in the Biden laptop ("and ten percent for the big guy").

You pursued RUSSIA!TRUMP!COLLUSION! as if it was real.

A level of slavishness exhibited only by you and THGR.

Quote:
that you can verify from your desktop computer in Russia.

And boy, oh boy ... do you LIE.
If you want to start somewhere, why don't you stop telling big fat whoppers?

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, July 18, 2025 7:30 PM

THG

Gotta post this here. Sorry, can't help myself.

T

MAGA’s Nick Fuentes turns on Trump.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 4:02 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
MAGA’s Nick Fuentes turns on Trump.

Who?

*****

Yanno, while I wonder WTH is going on with Trump*, I feel that he has the right to call his (former) supporters "weaklings".

I would guarantee that only a vanishingly small number of his supporters have EVER faced the constant villification; endless, relentless investigations on false pretenses; lawfare; and attempted assassination like he has.

I think people have unrealistic expectations of what one man can do, even if he is the President of tge USA. He's faced more and done more than most people would dream of doing in 1000 lifetimes. Where's the gratitude for what he's done so far?

*I'm wondering if he has PTSD. It can really warp your perceptions and reactions. If he did, I wouldn't be surprised. He has good advisors, I just wish he'd listen to them more often.

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 4:46 AM

You got people like Adam Schiff wearing that shit eating grin that he hasn't had on his face for over 6 months because he finally has something to talk about, as if they didn't have 4 years to release those files themselves, or they surely would have used it against Trump if there was anything inside of them that could have put him away before election day.

I'm willing to wait this one out. I don't believe him when he says that there's nothing there, of course, but that is what he would need to say in public if he was sitting on them until right before an election and/or he was blackmailing foreign leaders with it right now.

Idiot YouTubers need to stop talking about it. I don't think a lot of voters actually are, just because of how much good is happening right now. It's just the extremists on either side and the opportunistic media and Democrat politicians who would never release it themselves who are talking about it today.

This one may persist a bit longer than most other issues, but it will eventually be forgotten when the next big thing comes along. It always does.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 7:00 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I think it very much has to do with protecting Mossad and possibly the CIA. If people got the idea that a Mossad asset was allowed to rape American children, and to set up the rape of American children for Israel's benefit, I think they'd be royally angry. As they should be.

Just to show how complicit DC is, Ghislaine Maxwell said she's ready to testify, but not a single Congressperson has asked for her. It's not just Trump.

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 7:09 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

MEANWHILE

Quote:
"A Treasonous Conspiracy" - DNI Gabbard Exposes Obama At Center Of Trump 'Russia Hoax'
Friday, Jul 18, 2025 - 01:40 PM

Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has declassified documents revealing "overwhelming evidence" showing how then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would become the years-long Trump-Russia collusion investigation after President Trump won the 2016 election.

Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, subverting the will of the American people and undermining our democratic republic.

Here’s how:

For months preceding the 2016 election, the Intelligence Community shared a consensus view: Russia lacked the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections.

But weeks after President Trump’s historic 2016 victory defeating Hillary Clinton, everything changed.

On Dec 8, 2016, IC officials prepared an assessment for the President's Daily Brief, finding that Russia "did not impact recent U.S. election results" by conducting cyber attacks on infrastructure.

Before it could reach the President, it was abruptly pulled “based on new guidance.” This key intelligence assessment was never published.

The next day, top national security officials including FBI Dir James Comey, CIA Dir John Brennan and DNI James Clapper gathered at the Obama White House to discuss Russia.

Obama directed the IC to create a new intelligence assessment that detailed Russian election meddling, even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.

Yep, Obama was a lying weasel.

Quote:
Obama officials immediately leaned on their allies in the [mainstream] media to advance their falsehoods.

Anonymous IC sources leaked classified [mis]information to the Washington Post and others that Russia had intervened to hack the election in Trump's favor.

MORE AT https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treasonous-conspiracy-dni-gabbard-
exposes-obama-center-trump-russia-hoax

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 8:18 AM

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

Trump is deporting fewer people than Obama. He’s just louder and meaner.

July 18, 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/18/trump-deportations-
obama-cruel/

You have seen the blizzard of scary images — immigration agents taking parents away in front of their kids, masked officers raiding neighborhoods, men detained in remote centers — but here is the surprising fact behind the mayhem: Donald Trump has deported fewer people per month than Barack Obama did, and barely more than Joe Biden during a similar span last year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by NBC News.

Trump signals that his administration is fearlessly executing mass deportations. But the numbers reveal a different reality. Since February, his administration has deported 14,700 people per month on average, according to NBC News. That’s far below Obama’s peak in 2013, when he deported 36,000 per month. And it’s not even close to the Trump administration’s reported goal of deporting 1 million people in a year.

Trump’s deportation dragnet is less effective than those of his predecessors because it is chaotic, theatrical and detached from the systems that work. Rather than effectively coordinating with local law enforcement, following rules, laws and norms, or expanding and expediting legal processing, Trump has prioritized optics over outcomes. What his administration lacks in strategy, it tries to compensate for with spectacle — sweeping up schoolchildren, targeting families, broadcasting raids on social media.

But this is a rare case of Trump’s Teflon wearing thin. Immigration was once his strongest issue politically. Today, it is fast becoming a vulnerability. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, Trump’s approval on immigration has dropped sharply, with 55 percent disapproving and only 40 percent approving. A recent Gallup poll showed that the number of Americans who view immigration as a good thing has risen from 64 percent in 2024 to 79 percent now, a record high. Even more telling is the erosion of support among independents, many of them suburban voters who had once been sympathetic to a tougher border stance but are now recoiling at scenes of cruelty and overreach.

The numbers are striking. Support for deporting all undocumented immigrants is below 40 percent. Support for a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants has climbed to nearly 80 percent. Most Americans, including many Republicans, back a path to citizenship for “dreamers.” In short, Trump has managed to move the country not to the right on immigration, but to the center and even left of center.

The public, it seems, is rebelling against extremism in both directions. Under Biden, many Americans accurately perceived chaos and lawlessness at the border, prompting a backlash. Now, under Trump, they are reacting just as strongly to what appears to be a lawless and authoritarian approach — one that disregards legal precedents, court rulings and legislative prerogatives. The lesson is clear: Americans want immigration to be managed with competence and decency, not bombast or cruelty.

If the United States had a functioning political system, this would be the moment for comprehensive immigration reform. The outlines of a deal are obvious and have been for years. First, the asylum system must be totally overhauled. It cannot remain open-ended and unmanageable. There should be clear numerical caps and rules about where and how asylum can be claimed — preferably outside the United States, through a structured process. Second, those who have lived in the U.S. for years, paying taxes and raising families, should be given a path to legal status. Deporting them makes no economic or moral sense. And third, America needs to expand high-skilled immigration if it wants to remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.

This is the litmus test for Trump. Is he actually interested in solving America’s immigration problem? Or does he prefer it as a political cudgel? When he was out of office, he chose the latter — torpedoing a bipartisan Senate immigration deal that would have toughened border enforcement and reformed the asylum process. Now that he is back in power, he has another chance. Will he take it?

Democrats, too, face a crucial choice. The mistake many of them made during Trump’s first term was to define themselves primarily in symbolic opposition to his nasty rhetoric — promising not to enforce the laws and chanting to abolish ICE. That stance energized the base but alienated moderates; in fact, it alienated the country. Remember, this is the issue that has fueled Trump’s movement most since he came down that golden escalator in 2015, and it has helped bring him into the White House a second time. The recent shift in public opinion on immigration is real but fragile. If the Democrats go crazy left, the public will turn against them again. To earn back trust, Democrats should sit solidly in the center — advocating secure borders, strong law enforcement, humane treatment and realistic reforms. That’s good politics. More important, it is the right set of policies for the country.

America is a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of laws. Immigration reform must honor both traditions. It is finally time to replace fearmongering with solutions, and to turn away from performance and toward policy. The polls suggest that the country is ready. Are its leaders?

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, July 19, 2025 4:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think it very much has to do with protecting Mossad and possibly the CIA. If people got the idea that a Mossad asset was allowed to rape American children, and to set up the rape of American children for Israel's benefit, I think they'd be royally angry. As they should be.

Just to show how complicit DC is, Ghislaine Maxwell said she's ready to testify, but not a single Congressperson has asked for her. It's not just Trump.

Could be. But I find that answer unacceptable.

If that information is ever going to see the light of day, it's only going to be because Trump decides to put it out there. Nobody else on either side ever will.

In my mind, that's the 3 scenarios.

1. Trump is waiting until a political opportune time to do a huge info-dump. Right before a close election would be the smartest time to do so, and with all the gambling he's been doing trying to fix our fucked up economy, it's not a bad idea to be saving that, as there's no meaningful political gain to release it this far away from an election day. And at least on RCP, I don't see a single article mentioning Epstein that came out today, so that may have already died in the news cycle, which is what I think they were hoping was going to happen 5 days ago.

2. He's already blackmailing foreign leadership with the list and it's why the trade agreements have been going so well for us after decades of us getting ripped off by everyone else.

And he could be blackmailing US politicians with that list at the same time as well. It might extend beyond politicians if this is the case. Nobody saw Stephen Colbert's show ending abruptly as it did. I could just imagine that smug, shit eating grin being wiped right off his face when he was faced with a video of himself with a 12 year old girl or boy and a note from Trump saying "I'm Putin's cock-holster, huh motherfucker? Why don't we show the world who your cock holster is, shall we?.

3. They've threatened the lives of Trump and his family as well as everyone else involved in the investigation, and everyone involved knows that whoever They are, they've got the capital to cash that check.

We're all fucked if it's 3.

Me...? I'd like to think it was a little of 1 and a little of 2 going on right now.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 6:50 AM

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

The Economics of Immigration and Deportation

Immigration has been good for America. Mass deportation will be a disaster.

By Paul Krugman | Jul 20, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-economics-of-immigration-and

The Trump administration is going after immigrants, and not just those in the country illegally. Trump is seeking to expel immigrants who have been in the United States for decades. His Justice Department says that it is prioritizing “denaturalization,” stripping immigrant citizens of their citizenship. ICE is clearly engaged in racial profiling, as legal residents and citizens have been arrested and detained in ICE raids based on their “physical appearance.”

So the first thing I should say in this post is that human rights and the rule of law are by far the most important things at stake right now. Having the secret police — because that’s what ICE has become — assault and kidnap people, accuse them of trumped-up crimes, hold them incommunicado from legal representation and their families, and fail to give them proper medical care or food is a lot more important than the impact of these actions on GDP. Trump seeks to dehumanize immigrants, by calling them rapists, murderers and thieves. Yet, in fact, immigrants are on average more law-abiding than native-born Americans.

But economic issues matter too. Stephen Miller and his ilk claim that immigrants have inflicted massive economic damage, so it’s important to understand both the economic effects of past immigration and the likely effects of mass deportation and/or imprisonment. I include imprisonment because it looks increasingly likely that many of the people seized by ICE, rather than being sent out of the United States, will be incarcerated in inhumane facilities like Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Today’s primer is therefore about the economics of immigration. In it I’ll provide evidence that overall economic effects of immigration have been generally positive. I’ll also discuss the one area that is somewhat up for debate — the impact of immigration on the wages of less-educated native-born citizens. There is, however, no ambiguity about the effects of Trump’s mass deportations, which will have a devastating economic effect.

Beyond the paywall, I’ll address the following topics:

1. Immigrants in the labor force

2. Immigration, growth and inflation

3. The fiscal effects of immigration

4. The effects of immigration on wages (a somewhat contentious topic)

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 1:57 PM

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

Six characteristics of authoritarian breakthrough, all of which are currently in play.

By Tim Dickinson | July 18, 2025

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-authorit
arian-no-kings-playbook-1235388347/

This dictatorial to-do list includes
“directing investigations against critics”;
“giving license to lawbreaking”;
“regulatory retaliation”;
“deploying the military domestically”;
“federal law enforcement overreach”; and
holding tight to power, i.e. “the autocrat won’t leave.”

Trump is hewing to this well-worn playbook, Hunter said, by
pardoning violent Jan. 6 felons,
sending masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up law-abiding immigrants,
deploying the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles,
making “capricious threats” to deport U.S. citizens like Rosie O’Donnell, and
openly plotting an unconstitutional third term.

The pro-democracy trainer offered the encouragement that “Trump didn’t write this playbook. This is a global phenomena … the growth of autocracies.” He added that the experiences of allies across the globe offer strategies that have succeeded in turning back Trumpian figures in their own countries.

But the odds of success are sobering. The training included a study of 35 countries that experienced “democratic backsliding” in the last 30 years, and their track records for overcoming the authoritarian assault. Without a movement of mass “civil resistance,” less than eight percent of countries were successful at righting the democratic ship of state. Active civil resistance — such as the movement that No Kings is building in the U.S. — has historically increased the odds to 52 percent. “I don’t love those numbers,” said Hunter, but he added that the payoff for victory can be profound. Successful resistance movements typically forge societies that are “more democratic” on the other side — offering “an advancement” rather than a return to the status quo ante.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 7:01 PM

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 9:43 PM

Looking forward to seeing if Tulsi Gabbard is full of shit right now or if she's really got something cooking about the Russiagate Hoax.

That should probably get any remaining temporary floundering over the Epstein files out of the news cycle if she's bringing receipts and we're actually able to nail Barack Obama to a fucking cross over this.

Bonus points if we can put a Pelosi or Clinton or two up there too.

It should be noted that Tulsi has actually used the word treason on several occasions here. I don't think that she's the type of person to use that word lightly.

Please, Tulsi. Don't be pulling another Pam Bondi on us. If you don't actually have anything, it's better that you don't say anything at all until you do.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 10:03 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Accusing anyone one of treason is one of the few things that's automatically considered defamation, unless you can prove your case in court.

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, July 20, 2025 11:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Accusing anyone one of treason is one of the few things that's automatically considered defamation, unless you can prove your case in court.

I didn't know that, but I agree with it.

What if you're wording things in such a way where you've clearly got people in mind that you're investigating and you name them all by name, but then you throw out the word treason nebulously a paragraph or two down the line?

Just asking because that sounds like a very Democratic Party thing to do and that's kind of what Tulsi appears to have done here too. I've seen the word come out, but not explicitly attached to any specific person when it's been said.

Just trying to suss out the liklihood that we're going to see anything that matters on this issue this week or if it's just going to be more hype over another big nothing burger.

It's July 20th and we still don't know what the drones over New Jersey were, what the Chinese weather balloon over half of our country a few years back was about, anything more than we know about the deaths of JFK or MLK than we knew last year, yada, yada, yada...

I'm hoping now that Tulsi's up to bat she feels like at least giving us a base hit if she's not going to be knocking anything out of the park. And throwing around the word treason is like Babe Ruth pointing out of the park before the pitch.

If the whole Epstein thing hadn't been fucked like it was, I would be a little more excited about this right now, but I've got to just sit back and look at this like just more bullshit until we see something meaningful finally drop.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 6:08 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I think Gabbard has been working on this for a while. It may be a convenient time to release the documents, but they are also real.

For anything significant to come out of this, she'd have to refer it to the DOJ. I assume Prsecutors would be assigned. Then there would be trials and verdicts, and if the accused were found guilty of treason, punishment.

Shot by a firing squad? Or just life at Gitmo or a Supermax prison?

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

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 6:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think Gabbard has been working on this for a while. It may be a convenient time to release the documents, but they are also real.

For anything significant to come out of this, she'd have to refer it to the DOJ. I assume Prsecutors would be assigned. Then there would be trials and verdicts, and if the accused were found guilty of treason, punishment.

Shot by a firing squad? Or just life at Gitmo or a Supermax prison?

Up until recently, I've been pretty against the death penalty. I really still am, but I think we might stand something to gain by making a few examples out of people after years of letting everyone get away with everything including murder.

But that's too good for some of these people.

My vote is for Cecot.

Don't put them in the same cage as the M16 gang members. Put them together in the cell opposite a bunch of them and they can spend the rest of their lives looking at each other like zoo animals.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 8:20 AM

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

Hitler didn’t start with concentration camps.

He started with:
• “Make Germany great again”
• Banning books
• Targeting the press/media
• Blaming immigrants
• Creating enemies from neighbors
• Defunding the arts
• Stoking fear of outsiders
• Demonizing educators
• Rewriting history in schools

Sound familiar? Or should I type louder?

https://www.threads.com/@djfunn/post/DL29PgcyPQr/hitler-didnt-start-with-concentration-campshe-started-with-make-germany-great-ag

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 8:28 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think Gabbard has been working on this for a while. It may be a convenient time to release the documents, but they are also real.

For anything significant to come out of this, she'd have to refer it to the DOJ. I assume Prsecutors would be assigned. Then there would be trials and verdicts, and if the accused were found guilty of treason, punishment.

Shot by a firing squad? Or just life at Gitmo or a Supermax prison?

Up until recently, I've been pretty against the death penalty. I really still am, but I think we might stand something to gain by making a few examples out of people after years of letting everyone get away with everything including murder.

But that's too good for some of these people.

My vote is for Cecot.

Don't put them in the same cage as the M16 gang members. Put them together in the cell opposite a bunch of them and they can spend the rest of their lives looking at each other like zoo animals.

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

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

Tulsi Gabbard Sends Mitt Romney Cease and Desist Over Treason Accusation
Published Apr 21, 2022 at 5:08 AM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-mitt-romney-cease-desist-treaso
n-accusation-ukraine-russia-1699552

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 8:36 AM

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

Enshittification and the Bitterness of Billionaire Bros
Hell hath no fury like a tech god scorned

By Paul Krugman | Jul 21, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/enshittification-and-the-bitterness

One of the many weird, ugly developments in these weird, ugly times has been the MAGAfication of a number of Silicon Valley billionaires. In a fully functional democracy the views of a handful of people with anti-democratic ideas wouldn’t matter. But we live in a corrupted democracy in which wealth buys power, so when people who accumulated vast fortunes largely thanks to U.S. scientific preeminence begin backing a deeply anti-scientific movement, it matters quite a lot.

Silicon Valley used to be generally pro-Democratic. So did the Biden administration mishandle its relationship by starting to impose some regulation on the industry?

I don’t think so. The actual regulations imposed during the Biden years wouldn’t have significantly reduced industry profits and were weaker than those in Europe. But the industry was right to see them as a harbinger of more regulation to come, because the public, which used to have a highly favorable view of tech and its leaders, had lost faith.

The thing is, the tech bros haven’t just turned right. Many of them are filled with rage — that special kind of rage exhibited by men who enjoy vast privilege and can’t abide any suggestion that their privilege is unjustified.

I’ve written about this before, but am revisiting the subject for a couple of reasons. One is that I discovered some new data, which I’ll show shortly. Another is that I realized that we’ve seen a version of this movie before.

Do people still remember “Obama rage”? Circa 2010 Wall Street titans — who had become accustomed to being seen, to use Tom Wolfe’s phrase, as Masters of the Universe — erupted in anger over what they insisted was a lack of respect from the Obama administration. Obama had bailed them out, on very generous terms, but he had the temerity to suggest that the industry bore some responsibility for the financial crisis that made bailouts necessary.

Were the Masters of the Universe really that angry over Obama calling them “fat cats”? Or was their outrage performative, aimed at heading off tighter financial regulation? Yes.

Wall Street had good reason to fear increased regulation — in fact, it did face tighter regulation after the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. And the climate of public opinion had turned decisively against finance. Every year Gallup asks for public evaluations of a number of industries. Here’s what happened to views of the banking industry during the runup to Obama rage:

Source: Gallup

In these circumstances, Obama rage served a strategic purpose. In a political system corrupted by money, vehement denunciation of anyone criticizing Wall Street was a warning shot across the bow of politicians considering further regulation. And Wall Street went strongly for Mitt Romney in 2012.

But that doesn’t mean that the rage was fake. On the contrary, nothing makes a privileged man angrier than criticism of his privilege.

The story of Big Tech’s right turn is basically similar, although it was both more gradual and ultimately more extreme.

The Biden administration made some efforts to regulate tech. In part this reflected a perception that the big players had turned their focus from innovation to exploiting their locked in customer bases — a process memorably described by Cory Doctorow as enshittification. In part it represented growing awareness of the psychological and social harm often associated with internet use.

And like Wall Street tycoons a decade or so earlier, tech bros responded with rage. Was this rage performative, a warning to politicians who might be tempted to support regulation? Or was it genuine outrage at the idea that anyone might criticize their brilliance and benevolence? Yes.

Like Wall Street earlier, tech had genuine reason to fear increased regulation, because — probably as a result of enshittification — it no longer had the broad public support it once enjoyed:

Source: Gallup

Note that annual data are noisy, so I’ve also smoothed it out by taking three-year moving averages. But the point is clear: The tech industry, and presumably its leaders, reached a peak of public adulation around 2015-16, and have since lost their aura.

So performative outrage, as a warning shot to politicians, makes sense. But that doesn’t mean that the rage isn’t real. In a recent interview Henry Farrell, who has been writing about the changing political culture of the Silicon Valley elite — and who I’ll be interviewing myself soon — pointed out that “There's a feeling among Silicon Valley elites that [during the Biden years] they did not get the respect that they purportedly deserve.”

If there’s a difference from the Obama rage story, it’s the extremely exalted position tech used to hold in public discourse — but doesn’t hold anymore. Farrell:

When I said that there was a lack of respect, I think that this involves changes in the broader conversation. Over the last number of years, Silicon Valley CEOs and venture capitalists have been treated with a significant degree of worship by the United States press — until around 2015-2016.

If Silicon Valley people wanted to pronounce on something, their grand statements were treated with enormous respect by the press. They had entourages, as if they were presidents. Mark Zuckerberg and other people were deemed by many to be world historical figures.

Now that’s all gone. And the tech bros’ rage over the loss of their aura is real.

But here’s the crucial point: Their rage wouldn’t matter if their wealth weren’t so vast and we didn’t have a political system so corrupted by money. In a more equal society with a less corrupted democracy, people expressing the views we’re hearing from the likes of Peter Thiel or Marc Andreesen would be treated as cranks. In fact, they’d probably be hiding their opinions.

If we now have a political discourse that prominently features crazy ideas, it’s because we have a political system that has made some crazy people incredibly wealthy and lets them translate that wealth into power.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, July 21, 2025 8:47 AM