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

It is almost time for the 10th national emergency since January!

List of national emergencies in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies_in_the_Unit
ed_States#Trump_(2)

Early emergencies were WWI, WWII, and Korean War. There were only 6 emergencies between 1917 and 1970. Trump has 9 "emergencies" so far this year. Trump declares "emergencies" whenever he feels like people aren't paying enough attention to him.

-----------

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that President Donald Trump may declare a national housing emergency in the coming months.

Since entering office, Trump has declared nine national emergencies, allowing him to expand his executive powers to address issues such as immigration and trade. He also declared a “crime” emergency in August to tackle violent crime in Washington.

The treasury secretary declined to list specific actions the president may take, beyond possibly declaring a national emergency, but he suggested that administration officials are directly studying ways to standardize local building and zoning codes and decrease closing costs. Bessent even suggested that Trump may consider some tariff exemptions for certain construction materials.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can do, and we don’t want to step into the business of states, counties, and municipal governments,” he continued, through bites of his omelette. “I think everything is on the table.”

Bessent’s full interview with the Washington Examiner will run on Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3789052/scott-bess
ent-big-economic-pickup-2026-national-housing-emergency/

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 5:09 PM

Thursday, September 28, 2017 5:39 PM _ I posted, "I am an independent myself."

TROLL COUNTRY

test

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Monday, September 1, 2025 16:46
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 9299
PAGE 1 of 1

http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM

http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.

Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.

Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.

This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.

Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.

It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.

BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.

JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.

The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.

And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.

But most importantly, he's boring.

Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.

And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.

Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.

T

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Monday, September 1, 2025 5:46 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on.

“Once he got money, Cormac bought all his books in hardback if possible, and for the last 40 years of his life he read almost no fiction at all.”

Why? The answer stems from McCarthy’s deeply disparaging view of modern society, which he considered lost, divorced from nature, history and tradition and heading toward social collapse and apocalypse. “Cormac considered contemporary fiction a waste of time,” said Dennis, “because contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls.”

That is quote from Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth

September/October 2025

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/two-years-cormac-mccarthys
-death-rare-access-to-personal-library-reveals-man-behind-myth-180987150/

Repeat: McCarthy’s deeply disparaging view of modern society, which he considered lost, divorced from nature, history and tradition and heading toward social collapse and apocalypse. Contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls. They have Trump shouting at maximum volume, discombobulating the country.

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 9:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.

I've never once failed a single class. I dropped out 4 times, and got 4 "incomplete" grades, meaning I bailed early enough where it wasn't held against me.

The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. Because it's something that almost anybody who takes it never uses again in their life the second they pass that mandatory class. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.

I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago, and ever since I paid off my last car loan back in 2000 I haven't paid a single dime of interest to anybody. I've only spent about half of my adult life working for somebody else and I've managed to do all that, and half of those years were working retail only 20 or so hours per week.

Meanwhile, you're sad and alone in your tiny apartment without a penny to your name, living paycheck to paycheck on that Social Security without any friends and a lifetime of regret.

It's time for you to finally grow up.

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

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 9:48 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 THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.

I dropped out 4 times.

The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.

I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.

You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade. I was doing my taxes as a 12 year old. I still have the copy. $1200 income in 1964. I could go on and on about marrying, buying a house, my 4 daughters, my this and my that. It is all more than 6ix can do. But I've only got an IQ of 99 so 6ix must be an idiot. NO WONDER HE IS BITTER! He is loser. The losers joined together to elect Trump, who would be their retribution against ordinary people such as myself who achieved far more than the self-identified geniuses like 6ix or that goddamn Trumptard next door who could not understand why his Cadillac would not start, but an ordinary person, myself, fixed it:

I Should Have Seen This Coming (The Uprising of The Stupid Assholes Who Think They Are Geniuses)

When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.

By David Brooks | April 7, 2025

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trumpism-maga-pop
ulism-power-pursuit/682116/

Charles de Gaulle began his war memoirs with this sentence: “All my life I have had a certain idea about France.” Well, all my life I have had a certain idea about America. I have thought of America as a deeply flawed nation that is nonetheless a force for tremendous good in the world. From Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and beyond, Americans fought for freedom and human dignity and against tyranny; we promoted democracy, funded the Marshall Plan, and saved millions of people across Africa from HIV and AIDS. When we caused harm—Vietnam, Iraq—it was because of our overconfidence and naivete, not evil intentions.

Until January 20, 2025, I didn’t realize how much of my very identity was built on this faith in my country’s goodness—on the idea that we Americans are partners in a grand and heroic enterprise, that our daily lives are ennobled by service to that cause. Since January 20, as I have watched America behave vilely—toward our friends in Canada and Mexico, toward our friends in Europe, toward the heroes in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office—I’ve had trouble describing the anguish I’ve experienced. Grief? Shock? Like I’m living through some sort of hallucination? Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful.

George Orwell is a useful guide to what we’re witnessing. He understood that it is possible for people to seek power without having any vision of the good. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake,” an apparatchik says in 1984. “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.” How is power demonstrated? By making others suffer. Orwell’s character continues: “Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation.”

Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s budget director, sounds like he walked straight out of 1984. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains,” he said of federal workers, speaking at an event in 2023. “We want to put them in trauma.”

Since coming back to the White House, Trump has caused suffering among Ukrainians, suffering among immigrants who have lived here for decades, suffering among some of the best people I know. Many of my friends in Washington are evangelical Christians who found their vocation in public service—fighting sex trafficking, serving the world’s poor, protecting America from foreign threats, doing biomedical research to cure disease. They are trying to live lives consistent with the gospel of mercy and love. Trump has devastated their work. He isn’t just declaring war on “wokeness”; he’s declaring war on Christian service—on any kind of service, really.

If there is an underlying philosophy driving Trump, it is this: Morality is for suckers. To borrow from Thucydides, the strong do what they want, and the weak suffer what they must. This is the logic of bullies everywhere. And if there is a consistent strategy, it is this: Day after day, the administration works to create a world where ruthless people can thrive. That means destroying any institution or arrangement that might check the strongman’s power. The rule of law, domestic or international, restrains power, so it must be eviscerated. Inspectors general, judge advocate general officers, oversight mechanisms, and watchdog agencies are a potential restraint on power, so they must be fired or neutered. The truth itself is a restraint on power, so it must be abandoned. Lying becomes the language of the state.

Trump’s first term was a precondition for his second. His first term gradually eroded norms and acclimatized America to a new sort of regime. This laid the groundwork for his second term, in which he’s making the globe a playground for gangsters.

We used to live in a world where ideologies clashed, but ideologies don’t seem to matter anymore. The strongman understanding of power is on the march. Power is like money: the more the better. Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the rest of the world’s authoritarians are forming an axis of ruthlessness before our eyes. Trumpism has become a form of nihilism that is devouring everything in its path.

The pathetic thing is that I didn’t see this coming even though I’ve been living around these people my whole adult life. I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, when I worked in turn at National Review, The Washington Times, and The Wall Street Journal editorial page. There were two kinds of people in our movement back then, the conservatives and the reactionaries. We conservatives earnestly read Milton Friedman, James Burnham, Whittaker Chambers, and Edmund Burke. The reactionaries just wanted to shock the left. We conservatives oriented our lives around writing for intellectual magazines; the reactionaries were attracted to TV and radio. We were on the political right but had many liberal friends; they had contempt for anyone not on the anti-establishment right. They were not pro-conservative—they were anti-left. I have come to appreciate that this is an important difference.

I should have understood this much sooner, because the reactionaries had revealed their true character as far back as January 1986. A group of progressive students at Dartmouth had erected a shantytown on campus to protest apartheid. One night, a group of 12 students, most of them associated with the right-wing Dartmouth Review, descended on the shanties with sledgehammers and smashed them down.

Even then I was appalled. Apartheid was evil, and worth opposing. A nighttime raid with sledgehammers seemed more Gestapo than Burkean. But conservative intellectuals didn’t take this seriously enough. In large part, I think this was because we looked down on the Dartmouth Review mafia, whose members had included Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza. Their intellectual standards were so obviously third-rate. I don’t know how to put this politely, but they just seemed creepy—nakedly ambitious in a way that I thought would destroy them in the end.

Instead, history has smiled on them. A prominent publisher of right-wing authors once told me that the way to sell conservative books is not to write a good book—it’s to write a book that will offend the left, thereby causing the reactionaries to rally to your side and buy it. That led to books with titles such as The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, and to Ann Coulter’s entire career. Owning the libs became a lucrative strategy.

. . .

Trumpian nihilism has eviscerated conservatism. The people in this administration are not conservatives. They are the opposite of conservatives. Conservatives once believed in steady but incremental reform; Elon Musk believes in rash and instantaneous disruption. Conservatives once believed that moral norms restrain and civilize us, habituating us to virtue; Trumpism trashes moral norms in every direction, riding forward on a tide of adultery, abuse, cruelty, immaturity, grift, and corruption. Conservatives once believed in constitutional government and the Madisonian separation of powers; Trump bulldozes checks and balances, declaiming on social media, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Reagan promoted democracy abroad because he thought it the political system most consistent with human dignity; the Trump administration couldn’t care less about promoting democracy—or about human dignity.

How does this end? Will anyone on the right finally stand up to the Trumpian onslaught? Will our institutions withstand the nihilist assault? Is America on the verge of ruin?

. . .

I understand the seductive power of a demagogue who tells you that the people who look down on you are evil. I understand the seductive power of being told that your civilization is on the verge of total collapse, and that everything around you is degeneracy and ruin. This message gives you a kind of terrifying thrill: The stakes are apocalyptic. Your life has meaning and urgency. Everything is broken; let’s burn it all down.

I understand why people who feel alienated would want to follow the leader who speaks about domination and combat, not the one who speaks about healing and cooperation. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve read Edmund Burke or the Gospel of Matthew — it’s still tempting to throw away all of your beliefs to support the leader who promises to be “your retribution.”

. . .

But the most salient historical parallel might be the America of the 1830s. Andrew Jackson is the American president who most resembles Trump — power-hungry, rash, narcissistic, driven by animosity. He was known by his opponents as “King Andrew” for his expansions of executive power. “The man we have made our President has made himself our despot, and the Constitution now lies a heap of ruins at his feet,” Senator Asher Robbins of Rhode Island said. “When the way to his object lies through the Constitution, the Constitution has not the strength of a cobweb to restrain him from breaking through it.” Jackson brazenly defied the Supreme Court on a ruling about Cherokee Nation territory (a defiance, it should be noted, that Vice President Vance has explicitly endorsed). “Though we live under the form of a republic,” Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote, “we are in fact under the absolute rule of a single man.”

But Jackson made the classic mistake of the populist: He overreached. Fueled by personal hostility toward elites, he destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, an early precursor to the Federal Reserve System, and helped spark an economic depression that ruined the administration of his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren.

. . .

Yes, we have reached a point of traumatic rupture. A demagogue has come to power and is ripping everything down. But what’s likely to happen is that the demagogue will start making mistakes, because incompetence is built into the nihilistic project. Nihilists can only destroy, not build. Authoritarian nihilism is inherently stupid. I don’t mean that Trumpists have low IQs. I mean they do things that run directly against their own interests. They are pathologically self-destructive. When you create an administration in which one man has all the power and everybody else has to flatter his voracious ego, stupidity results. Authoritarians are also morally stupid. Humility, prudence, and honesty are not just nice virtues to have—they are practical tools that produce good outcomes. When you replace them with greed, lust, hypocrisy, and dishonesty, terrible things happen.

. . .

When Trump creates an unnecessary crisis, it’s unlikely to be a small one. The proverbial “adults in the room” who contained crises in Trump’s first term are gone. Whatever the second-term crisis—runaway inflation? a global trade war? a cratered economy and plummeting stock market? an out-of-control conflict in China? botched pandemic management? a true hijacking of the Constitution precipitated by defiance of the courts?—it is likely to crater his support and shift historical momentum.

. . .

In the long term, Trumpism is doomed. Power without prudence and humility invariably fails. Nations, like people, change not when times are good but in response to pain. At a moment when Trumpism seems to be devouring everything, the temptation is to believe that this time is different.

But history doesn’t stop moving. Even now, as I travel around the country, I see the forces of repair gathering in neighborhoods and communities. If you’re part of an organization that builds trust across class, you’re fighting Trumpism. If you’re a Democrat jettisoning insular faculty-lounge progressivism in favor of a Whig-like working-class abundance agenda, you’re fighting Trumpism. If you are standing up for a moral code of tolerance and pluralism that can hold America together, you’re fighting Trumpism.

Over time, changes in values lead to changes in relationships, which lead to changes in civic life, which eventually lead to changes in policy and then in the general trajectory of the nation. It starts slow, but as the Book of Job says, the sparks will fly upward.

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 9:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.

I dropped out 4 times.

The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.

I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.
You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade.

Nobody cares. You're still a mindless drone loser without any ability for Critical Thinking, and one of the least interesting people anybody who has ever known you has had to deal with. And calculus is worthless for 99% of the people who go out into the work force, so there's that too.

You've wasted your entire life and now you're nothing but a miserable old man waiting to die. You have no friends. You have no family who gives a single shit about you. And you've got nothing better to do every day of your life than post about Trump 20 times per day. That's your life. What a sad story.

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

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 9:56 PM

And what is up with the personal insults from you two losers today, huh?

You must really be on tilt.

And you know that Second must be SUPER desperate because he's addressed Ted more in the last 8 hours than he has in the prior 8 years.

You two halfwits looking to team up against me now? That's cute. Even with the two of your brains combined you still can't hit a 3 digit IQ. Be my guest. This should be fun. I welcome your new pathetic alliance and the joy it will bring me going forward.

Just wait. We're only getting warmed up now. Everything I've told you was going to happen has happened, and things just keep getting worse for you every single day.

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

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 10:13 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Six StringJack:

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

SECOND:
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.

SIX:
I dropped out 4 times.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.

I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.

SECOND:
You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade. [

SIX:
Nobody cares. You're still a mindless drone loser without any ability for Critical Thinking, and one of the least interesting people anybody who has ever known you has had to deal with. And calculus is worthless for 99% of the people who go out into the work force, so there's that too.

You've wasted your entire life and now you're nothing but a miserable old man waiting to die. You have no friends. You have no family who gives a single shit about you. And you've got nothing better to do every day of your life than post about Trump 20 times per day. That's your life. What a sad story.

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

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

Trig isn't required for college level work, unless you're majoring in math. AFA algebra, it's useful for solving real world problems, and you've probably used the concepts without knowing it IRL. Maybe you had crappy teachers.

Some forms of math are a blast! I hated differential equations(I) bc I had a teacher who treated math like it was arcana given to us by gods. My next teacher for diff eqs (II) showed it to be the fun tool that it really was.

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 10:23 PM

Thursday, September 28, 2017 5:39 PM _ I posted, "I am an independent myself."

Jefferson feared that it would only be a matter of time before the American system of government degenerated into a form of “elective despotism” (1785)

"Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume. The public money and public liberty, intended to have been deposited with three branches of magistracy, but found inadvertently to be in the hands of one only, will soon be discovered to be sources of wealth and dominion to those who hold them… They [the assembly] should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price. Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered."

https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/jefferson-feared-that-it-would-only
-be-a-matter-of-time-before-the-american-system-of-government-degenerated-into-a-form-of-elective-despotism-1785

Hey SECOND, Jack doesn't realize all the negative possibilities worried about by our forefathers and set in motion by Trump, is fueled by him and his sick desperate angry group of morons.

He's too stupid to realize the life he's describing to us in real world shows he's had many of the opportunities this country has to offer. He brags about his successes every chance he gets. All he's accomplished and possesses, all he claims he can still accomplish if he wants. Yet still, he's become an uncaring vengeful piece of waste. That's a mental health issue. 100%, no doubt.

T

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Monday, September 1, 2025 10:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trig isn't required for college level work, unless you're majoring in math.

My major was called something like "Information Systems" or something. Tech/computer related. I took a lot of programming courses, along with finishing all other necessary General Education requirements. Straight A's across the board except for "Sociology" which was just boring bullshit, and one other class I was getting an A in but I had to miss my final test because of work and my teacher was a bitch. Both of those were just mistakes on my part because they were among the Gen Ed requirements that we had quite a few different choices. I could have taken Home Ec. and been washing dishes or whatever they do in that class and got an A while being around a bunch of girls instead. Shame on me.

I actually have 20 more credits than I need to graduate, but I never got that associates because of that one stupid class. Things have probably changed over the years because of just how stupid the kids are today when we graduate them from high school, but those were the requirements back then.

Quote:
AFA algebra, it's useful for solving real world problems, and you've probably used the concepts without knowing it IRL. Maybe you had crappy teachers.

I understand basic algebra. I took an algebra class Freshman year of high school and got an A in it. Anything that's possible to do without the need for having a Texas Instruments $100 graphing calculator was easy enough for me to do. They put me in Advanced Geometry the following year and that was fine too. But then they put me in Advanced Trig/Algebra in Jr. year, and honestly the only reason I even passed that class is because the teacher liked me and she gave me a "D" so I wouldn't fail. I did not deserve that D grade. And because that was an Advanced class, it was still worth what a "C" would have been in a regular class, so not too big a hit on my GPA. Then in Senior year I didn't even take math at all since we were only required to do 3 years of Math.

Quote:
Some forms of math are a blast! I hated differential equations(I) bc I had a teacher who treated math like it was arcana given to us by gods. My next teacher for diff eqs (II) showed it to be the fun tool that it really was.

Unless you consider Logic Puzzles/Tests as Math, it has never really been fun for me. I guess Geometry had its moments and was kind of fun, doing those proofs.

I was always more "English" brained when it came to the meaningful classes, and my favorite classes were Art and what they called "Science and Tech" which was really just a way for two male teachers to try to save Wood/Metal/Auto shop by combining all of them into a 2 hour class and giving it a fancy name. I spent most of my time doing woodwork when I was in there because they just kind of let us do whatever we wanted to do and gave us guidance. At one point though we got this cool miniature CNC Router, and they put me in charge of learning AutoCAD and getting it to put out some cool shit on auto pilot once you put your stock in there and fired her up. We had a Job Fair at the school in the 2nd half of Senior Year and I was able to take an entire day off of school with my own table and show that thing off to all the other students.

I feel the only class I ever took on any level, including college that helped me at any job I ever worked was a 1 semester Keyboarding class, and the other semester taught by the same awesome teacher was Economics, which was probably not so helpful with work, but just life in general. I really loved those two classes and it's a shame they weren't both 1 full year and they combined them like that.

Back in the day I enjoyed doing taxes and even did them for my brother for years and some other people from time to time, but I hate even doing mine now and I'm stuck doing my aunts. But she retires next year so I won't have to do that much longer.

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

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 10:41 PM

Thursday, September 28, 2017 5:39 PM _ I posted, "I am an independent myself."

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice? The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.

I dropped out 4 times.

The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.

Actually, I used Trig while roofing. That said, I went back to school when I was 60 and got a four-year degree; try that. Everything you say about yourself suggests you can. If you chose not to then shut up about it.

T

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Monday, September 1, 2025 10:47 PM

I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.

Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.

We'll see how it goes. The way I figure it, I only need to make roughly $100k for the rest of my life before SS kicks in and never worry about a bill. As long as inflation doesn't go crazy and make our currency worthless, of course. Right now I like all my free time too much to think about working 40 hours a week doing anything important.

Although, they are paying quite a bit more these days than they were the last time I worked. And a lot of people are saying that more and more businesses are looking for GenXers who don't have degrees because of the current crop of recent college grads and how disappointing most of them end up being. Maybe something drops into my lap that I wouldn't absolutely hate doing that allows me to sock away as much as I was back in my mid-to-late 20's and actually offers health insurance one day.

Hell... if I made another $300 or $400k in the next 18 or so years, I'd be living like a king in retirement. So maybe it's not such a bad thing that they're going to be taking away my Medicaid in December of 2026 and forcing me to re-evaluate my situation before I probably would have gotten around to doing it on my own. I usually have to be forced into doing things I don't want to do, and I've set myself up so well that there's nothing financial otherwise that is pushing me back into the workforce anytime soon.

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

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

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Monday, September 1, 2025 11:46 PM

Thursday, September 28, 2017 5:39 PM _ I posted, "I am an independent myself."

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.

Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.

Trigonometry is used when doing a hip roof for one thing. It is essential for calculating the angles and lengths of the rafters, ensuring a proper pitch and stability of the roof. Trigonometric formulas help determine the hip rafter backing angle.

You would also use it to strike your lines from the gutter to the ridge when shingling. With a hip roof there is no straight edge to measure off of.

T

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Monday, September 1, 2025 11:53 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264

Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.

THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.

And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.

KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.

I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.

I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.

YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.

Capisce?

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 12:18 AM

Thursday, September 28, 2017 5:39 PM _ I posted, "I am an independent myself."

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264

Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.

THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.

And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.

KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.

I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.

I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.

YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.

Capisce?

No, you think everything, and everyone is corrupt. Except Russia of course. I believe that based on your posts. My posts are contradictory to yours. I realize government works for the people. It is also full of people and people are fallible. They in no way deserve the bullshit they get, and, in many instances, they perform at a higher level than private businesses. And many of their departments, like the department of defense, are way larger than any private company. Yet they still run more efficiently than these smaller private businesses.

The government works for the people, and most people are clueless as to how much it makes their lives better. Or how much the government does. I don’t get into those discussions much here because I am always defending them against attack. That’s where you come in comrade. Unless it’s Russia. Isn’t that right comrade; capisce?

T

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 12:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.

Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.

I've never built a house or done the rafters on a roof. The closest I got to that was building garages for about a half a year, but the foreman made all the cuts. Trust me... that dude didn't know shit about Trig. All done with standard tools, just like they've done it since the dawn of time.

Edited to Add: Okay... That was for sure hyperbolic. That hasn't been true since the dawn of time. The architects of the great historical monuments and buildings from hundreds of years ago sure used it. But let's just say that when we kind of made building most houses a "Paint By Number" affair since the boys came back from WWII and we needed to build the suburbs quickly, we haven't been using much trig in architecture unless you're building something important for somebody important. The types of structure that somebody is actually paying an architect to create for them.

Unless that was you and you were just building Paint By Numbers homes, you were over-educated for the job you were in, but good for you... it came in handy for a while and I bet your employer was thrilled to have you around until you found something better suited to your education.

When I said I did roofing, I just meant pulling off old shingles and putting new ones on. We've never used Trig for that and never had one single complaint. I doubt very much you're going to find any people today that do new shingle roofs that know anything about Trig and/or apply it to the job when it's wholly unnecessary with basic tools that anybody should be carrying around in their tool belt.

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

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 5:06 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264

Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.

THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.

And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.

SIGNY:
KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.

I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.
I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.
YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.
Capisce?

THUGR:
No, you think everything, and everyone is corrupt. Except Russia of course. I believe

Well, just like I've been saying: That's your problem, right there.

Quote:
THGR
I realize government works for the people

The government is indeed full of people, and MOST of them are honest. Unfortunately many at the top ARE NOT.

I worked in government, remember? People up thru about the manager level were honest, well educated, motivated to do their jobs. If there was anything screwed up, it was the inability to fire people who REALLY needed to be fired. That would have lit a fire under some asses that really needed to move more. But there were truly honorable, impressive, people who worked there. Some were personal heroes of mine, people I held in very high regard.

Above manager, it got kind of sketchy. At at our Board level ... politicians all, for many this was just some sort of side gig that allowed them to collect a salary for meeting once a month. They ranged from knowledgeable to clueless to downright corrupt. And the worst was the Chairman of the Board, a skeezy DEI hire who threw contracts to his friends, pushed policies that favored corporations, and ran the LA Marathon like his personal piggyback. His equally skeezy DEI wife and County Supervisor ran an entire brand new hospital (King Drew) into the ground with years of DEI policies that rewarded the incompetent and punished the hardworking.

So.

If government "works for the people" why are they doing such a fucked up job? Why are things going from bad to worse, even when Dems are in power??

I'll give you one specific example: Obama [WHO I VOTED FOR, ONCE] and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. The problem was a bunch of variable-rate mortgages that banks (and other lenders) issued that the homebuyers couldn't afford, and that were beyond any reasonable valuation of the property. Those mortgages were bundled with other mortgages, sold in "tranches" to investors like retirement funds, traded in Credit Default Swaps with other banks, insured by AIG, until they contaminated the entire financial system. When things started to go south, Obama could have halted the slide by paying off at-risk mortgages. Not the entire amount, just enough to make the loans affordable. EVERYTHING would have been shored up ... the homeowners, the original lenders, the subsequent investors, the banks that had swapped credit lines, insurers. Instead, Obama paid off all of the banks, in essence paying off on the same mortage several times over, while banks repossessed the homes and families were kicked to the street, in the biggest land grab and transfer of wealth from the poor to the banks ever. He could have appointed Sheila Bair, who would gave whipped errant banks into shape. Instead, he appointed Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-presid
ent-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders

Needless to say, I didn't vote for Obama the second time.

Fixing up the USA isn't fucking rocket science, for chrissake!

So, what about Russia? Is it a paradise?

No, it isn't. I know there's corruption in Russia. The entire space program upper staff was sacked. Governors and generals have been sacked. It still plagues Russia at the local and regional level, especially in areas far from the Kremlin's beady eyes.

BUT .

Russia has made an EXCEPTIONAL comeback, from the alcohol-sodden, oligarch-ridden gangland of 2000 to today, and that's due to the diligent work of many dedicated patriotic Russians in upper government. And one of the things they did was put their oligarchs under bootheel and make a diligent effort to root out corruption. They're STILL working on that.

When I look at nations that "fail to thrive" the thing they have in common in corruption in upper government. If government is run by banks and investment companies, oligarchs and monopolies, how can it POSSIBLY work "for the people"? The people in charge have NO INTEREST whatsoever in "the people". The only thing they have their eyes on is money and power, and they'll grind people into paste to get it.

America is an oligarchy. Why don't we have Medicare for all, if most people wanted it? Why do we wind up in so many wars, even if most people vote against it? Why did we offshore so many industries, even tho 19% voted against "that giant sucking sound" that we were warned about with NAFTA?

Here's the Cambridge paper, published in 2014, that demonstrates it.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/artic
le/abs/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

Corruption is the deathknell of nations and empires. There is no institution so large that can survive once it's been infected beyond a certain point. If we really want our government to work for the people, we [you] have to stop being in denial about the corruption that runs thru Congress and the WH, the all-pervasive need for campaign contributions, the revolving door, secrecy, and insider trading. It's a clusterfuck, and it's not just Trump or Republicans.

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 6:34 AM

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

Trump is facing a completely self-inflicted disaster here. He probably could have gotten Republicans in Congress to vote for insane trade policy. But he was impatient, and wanted to start ruling as a dictator right away.

I see that Scott Bessent is saying that ruling that Trump’s illegal tariffs are, in fact, illegal will embarrass the United States. I’m not a lawyer, but last I heard you weren’t allowed to act illegally if obeying the law would be embarrassing. Anyway, let’s be clear: It won’t embarrass America. It will embarrass Trump and Bessent. If anything, it might reassure the rest of the world that some vestige of rule of law yet remains in this nation.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/an-emergency-non-emergency-post

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 6:37 AM

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

The Bonfire of Trump’s Vanities

A richness of embarrassments

By Paul Krugman | Sep 02, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-bonfire-of-trumps-vanities

Busy day yesterday, so all I have this morning is a brief follow-up on last week’s post about the decision by an appeals court to uphold the Court of Trade’s ruling that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal — which they clearly are.

Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, has argued that this ruling should not stand because it would embarrass the United States. (Actually, it would mainly embarrass Bessent and his boss.) As I noted, this is a novel legal principle: It’s OK to do illegal things when obeying the law would be embarrassing. What I failed to note is the sheer chutzpah of the argument.

Many of my readers probably know the concept — hey, “chutzpah” is in the Oxford English dictionary. In any case, the classic explanation of chutzpah is that it’s when you murder your parents, then plead for leniency because you’re an orphan. Here we have officials engaging in blatantly illegal actions, then saying that they should be let off the book because admitting that their actions were illegal would be humiliating.

Actually, the embarrassment would run deeper than many people realize. Who actually pays tariffs? Mostly American businesses, who have to pay a tax on goods they import. If those taxes were illegal, surely the government will have to refund the money. Sound implausible? Not to investors who have been buying up refund rights.

And who’s facilitating these bets that Trump’s whole tariff strategy will collapse? Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment bank run by the sons of Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary.

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 6:56 AM

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

Soldiers are doing landscaping in DC parks. I’m thrilled for them

They were deployed to fight crime. Instead, some are spreading mulch. It’s almost sweet – if you remove the context

By Dave Schilling | Sept 1, 2025

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/01/soldiers-landsca
ping-washington-dc-crime

If soldiers are going to be deployed to your city, what would you prefer they do: point a rifle in your face or mow your grass? This is not a question I ever expected to have to consider in my days on this planet, but life is full of surprises. As part of Donald Trump’s military deployment to address Washington DC’s so-called “crime emergency”, national guard troops are being tasked with various groundskeeping duties around the United States capital. These duties include spreading mulch around cherry trees, picking up trash and general maintenance of public spaces. The president must have been too embarrassed to get Four Seasons Total Landscaping involved again, so he got the military to do it instead.

It’s a real “swords into ploughshares” moment, or in this case, “M4 rifles into those grabber sticks you use to pick up plastic bottles full of piss.” It’s almost sweet, if you separate the move from literally all outside context and just think about a part-time soldier pruning your bush. The national guard is actually trained for sanitation and groundskeeping, but they are usually deployed for such purposes in a crisis like a natural disaster or even during the height of the Covid pandemic. Except: there’s no natural disaster, no stay-at-home orders due to a deadly virus, no wildfires, no floods. The only crisis here is man-made.

It’s usually the responsibility of the National Parks Service to beautify spaces in DC, but amid recent cuts by the Trump administration, the number of parks employees in the city fell from 200 to a mere 20, according to the Washington Post. Still, the guard wasn’t deployed to toss cigarette butts. This is happening because of alleged rampant crime in a city where the violent crime rate before Trump’s deployment was down by about 20% over the same period in earlier years. Some estimates place the cost of the DC military deployment at around a $1m a day. I will happily rake your leaves for half that.

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 7:15 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I'll give you one specific example: Obama [WHO I VOTED FOR, ONCE] and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. The problem was a bunch of variable-rate mortgages that banks (and other lenders) issued that the homebuyers couldn't afford, and that were beyond any reasonable valuation of the property. Those mortgages were bundled with other mortgages, sold in "tranches" to investors like retirement funds, traded in Credit Default Swaps with other banks, insured by AIG, until they contaminated the entire financial system. When things started to go south, Obama could have halted the slide by paying off at-risk mortgages. Not the entire amount, just enough to make the loans affordable. EVERYTHING would have been shored up ... the homeowners, the original lenders, the subsequent investors, the banks that had swapped credit lines, insurers. Instead, Obama paid off all of the banks, in essence paying off on the same mortage several times over, while banks repossessed the homes and families were kicked to the street, in the biggest land grab and transfer of wealth from the poor to the banks ever. He could have appointed Sheila Bair, who would gave whipped errant banks into shape. Instead, he appointed Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-presid
ent-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders

Needless to say, I didn't vote for Obama the second time.

Signym, you never surprise me by correctly diagnosing a problem. You always are wrong. How do you do it?

A primary factor in the 2008 financial crisis was the issuance of inflated bond ratings by credit rating agencies (CRAs) for complex, risky mortgage-backed securities. CRAs gave high ratings to mortgage-backed securities (MBS) despite the underlying mortgages being of poor quality, which helped channel capital into the subprime market and fueled the housing bubble. When the housing market collapsed and homeowners defaulted, these assets were downgraded, leading to massive losses for investors and contributing to the widespread financial panic and the crisis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_
crisis

The closest mechanical engineering analog is that the banks claimed aluminum was titanium and so the whole system of mortgage-based securities sold by banks to investors would melt when heated. (Aluminum is shiny. So is titanium. Who will know the difference? Who will notice the difference between 1% and 10% likelihood of a home owner defaulting on their mortgage? ) Titanium melting point is around 1668°C (3034°F), compared to aluminum, which melts at approximately 660°C (1220°F).

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

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025 10:07 AM