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Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, I know better. I didn't fall for the other thing he posted in tag a good while ago. But today I forgot all of that.

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Like the old saying goes Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

Welp, I do have egg on my face. Back to ignoring him.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, I know better. I didn't fall for the other thing he posted in tag a good while ago. But today I forgot all of that.

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Yeah... I know you didn't. I saw that bait but I think he only posted it one or two times and didn't spam the hell out of the tags with it like he did this time.

That all happened after or during while I was putting this thread together, so I'm really glad that I made this thread just so we had this dialog. I know you don't like being involved in any of this and I do my best to respect that and keep you out of it. But I'm glad you came in here because I really think it's important that you see what's really going on here.

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Tried to read the article but had a hard time. So, I gave up on it.

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That's exactly as the articles are designed to be, Brenda.

Intentionally obfuscate everything. Put in so much contradictory stuff that it makes your head spin and either walk away no more knowledgeable than you were before you tried or make you give up entirely. 20 paragraphs of nothing is what most of these articles end up being, and any real truth they put in them usually take up about 2 or 3 of the last 5 paragraphs in most of them, where most people who even bother trying to read the articles have already given up.

This trains behavior to stop bothering even to read the articles and just read the headlines and repeat them and repost them. It's why there are studies out there showing that 75% of the articles that are shared on social media sites like Facebook are never opened before they're passed on to other friends and family members. Everyone is just sharing headlines with each other. The 20 paragraphs of nothing is just a delivery vehicle for the Headline they want people believing is the truth.

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Like the old saying goes Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

Welp, I do have egg on my face. Back to ignoring him.

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No worries. I'm not judging at all. I get it. I wasn't born immune to all of this. It took some learning. It took some actual book reading, like the amazing book "Amusing Ourselves To Death" to open up my third eye to all the manipulation tactics that have been used against all of us long before any of us living today were even born.

But as you saw, he went immediately to attacking you, just like we knew he would.

He's as racist as they come, as most of the middle and upper class, white, college "educated" folk are. They talk the talk all the time, yet they live in exclusionary neighborhoods with the motto "Not in My Back Yard". They scream for de-funding the police, and then walk away to put on their new "Pin of the Week" and forget completely about those minority neighborhoods that fell into complete chaos when the cops disappeared and the Legacy Media goes complete blackout on all of the good black people in the more dangerous neighborhoods that are begging to be heard and are begging for the police to come back.

They'll tell you all day, every day that they care, but when any of you step one hair out of line from what they believe, they immediately turn on you and shame you and use your race against you. "How dare you not agree with me that these other people aren't Super Mega Nazi Hitler because they disagreed with me??? You're a minority and everything I say is what you should believe!!!!! You must be a no good dirty race traitor!!!!!"


It's shit like this why nobody takes them seriously anymore. Everyone is opening their eyes to this now. They see who the real authoritarians are and always were. Who the bullies were. The ones calling everyone else sexist or racist or nazi are the ones who actually behave that way. Neither Ted nor Second have ever had a real conversation with you before. And that might not even be out of racisim in particular. It is because they are both incapable of having a real conversation with anybody about anything.

Their brains have been cored right out of their heads with all that media brainwashing they put themselves through everyday for well over a decade now. They have no opinion worth sharing. They have no ability to debate anything. You either agree with them and every headline they read that day, or you are the enemy.

Don't feel any pressure to speak about this issue further with me anymore and feel completely free to drop it if you'd like. But I think this was important.

I appreciate ya, Brenda.



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, that time I think was only once or twice and I managed to ignore that.

You do a good job about keeping me out of it. This is on me. I walked into it. That is not your fault.

I do try to read the article but ignore the headlines.

I know and I figured he would. But I just had to walk into it.
I've heard the "Not in my backyard" thing a good portion of my life and it stinks.

Been there and done that with the "shut up and be a good little Indian". It leaves you wondering and it makes you angry.

It was important and I think we can both let it lay.

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Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman argues that television has transformed public discourse, reducing serious subjects like politics, news, and history to mere entertainment through visual imagery, ultimately making citizens passive consumers of trivialized information. Published in 1985, the book critiques how the medium of television, with its emphasis on entertainment, dictates the form and substance of public communication, leading to a decline in rational, complex debate.

Central Thesis:

The book's core argument is that the shift from a print-based culture to a television-based culture has fundamentally altered how we think and engage with information, prioritizing amusement over substance.

Key Idea:

Postman contends that television's format, which favors short, visually stimulating segments, makes it impossible for complex ideas to be discussed meaningfully, turning everything into a form of show business.

Impact:

It's considered a seminal work in media criticism, warning that a society obsessed with entertainment risks losing its capacity for critical thought and civic engagement.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Beware, the Dark Empath...

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, that time I think was only once or twice and I managed to ignore that.

You do a good job about keeping me out of it. This is on me. I walked into it. That is not your fault.

I do try to read the article but ignore the headlines.

I know and I figured he would. But I just had to walk into it.
I've heard the "Not in my backyard" thing a good portion of my life and it stinks.

Been there and done that with the "shut up and be a good little Indian". It leaves you wondering and it makes you angry.

It was important and I think we can both let it lay.

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Sounds good to me, Brenda.

I'm really glad you took the time to check that article out though and see what I mean. There's just so much of that type of manipulation in the media today that it's hard to trust anything any of them say. Adding AI to everything now is even going to muddy those waters further.

But that's their tactic. Pure emotional manipulation, on full blast every day from every direction all at once. It's easy to get swept up into it and become a cultist like they did with Ted and Second.


If your library has it, I seriously, HIGHLY recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death", by Neil Postman.

Here's a breif synopsis from Google AI:

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Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman argues that television has transformed public discourse, reducing serious subjects like politics, news, and history to mere entertainment through visual imagery, ultimately making citizens passive consumers of trivialized information. Published in 1985, the book critiques how the medium of television, with its emphasis on entertainment, dictates the form and substance of public communication, leading to a decline in rational, complex debate.

Central Thesis:

The book's core argument is that the shift from a print-based culture to a television-based culture has fundamentally altered how we think and engage with information, prioritizing amusement over substance.

Key Idea:

Postman contends that television's format, which favors short, visually stimulating segments, makes it impossible for complex ideas to be discussed meaningfully, turning everything into a form of show business.

Impact:

It's considered a seminal work in media criticism, warning that a society obsessed with entertainment risks losing its capacity for critical thought and civic engagement.

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Now... I read the 1985 original version that my local-paper journalist Uncle had in the collection he left behind in my Grandma's basement when I was living there. The version that you will probably find is going to be one of I believe 2 or even 3 updates he's made to it over the years to include modern technology that wasn't available back in 1985.

I read it back when I was probably around 23 years old, and it was because of Postman's book that I went on to read Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, since it was obvious he thought very highly of both of those books. To this day, 1984 is the single scariest thing I've ever read in my life. And 20 years later with the tech available today it is just that much more scary.

Orwell's Animal Farm is probably the 2nd most terrifying read of my life.

In the case of Animal Farm, it goes deep into the lore behind the creation of little real-life monsters like Ted and Second and just how easily they are created and weaponized like they have been.


If you're reading this too, Sigs, I highly recommend you read Amusing Ourselves to Death as well.





And you could be right about Ted, I dunno. Every once in a while he posts something uncharacteristically coherent and well thought out without all the regular punctuation, grammar, spelling and general misuses of the English language, but unlike in the case of Second, I've never been able to catch Ted in the act of ever actually plagiarizing other people's work. It's pretty easy for me to do, as is evidenced by just how many times I've caught Second red-handed doing this, and yet I came up empty any time I've tried to catch Ted in the act.

Maybe he just has some moments of otherwise silent lucidity? Maybe he's hopped up on SSRI's most of the time and every once in a while he takes a break or just forgets to take his pills and he wakes up a bit?

I don't think he's a collaborative effort. And unlike Second, I don't believe that deep down he is an evil person. Just highly, highly brainwashed and manipulated into thinking that his way of "thinking" is correct. Extremely misguided and misplaced is all. I think that deep down his "heart" is probably 10 times the size of his brain.

There was a time when it kind of made me sad to speak to Ted the way that I do here because of this. But I've had something of an awakening myself recently, and my empathy is no longer a wide net, and now only reserved for the few in my circle who have earned it. And with the amount of abuse that I've taken here from the both of them over the years, I think I'm going to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of seeing what becomes of them over the course of 2026, and NGL... I'm going to get more than a what is probably a healthy dose of enjoyment of twisting that knife whenever the opportunity arises.

Beware, the Dark Empath...

A Tick, a Tock, A Tick a to the, Tick a to the Tick, Tick, Tock and you don't stop...



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, that time I think was only once or twice and I managed to ignore that.

You do a good job about keeping me out of it. This is on me. I walked into it. That is not your fault.

I do try to read the article but ignore the headlines.

I know and I figured he would. But I just had to walk into it.
I've heard the "Not in my backyard" thing a good portion of my life and it stinks.

Been there and done that with the "shut up and be a good little Indian". It leaves you wondering and it makes you angry.

It was important and I think we can both let it lay.

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Sounds good to me, Brenda.

I'm really glad you took the time to check that article out though and see what I mean. There's just so much of that type of manipulation in the media today that it's hard to trust anything any of them say. Adding AI to everything now is even going to muddy those waters further.

But that's their tactic. Pure emotional manipulation, on full blast every day from every direction all at once. It's easy to get swept up into it and become a cultist like they did with Ted and Second.


If your library has it, I seriously, HIGHLY recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death", by Neil Postman.

Here's a breif synopsis from Google AI:

Quote:

---

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman argues that television has transformed public discourse, reducing serious subjects like politics, news, and history to mere entertainment through visual imagery, ultimately making citizens passive consumers of trivialized information. Published in 1985, the book critiques how the medium of television, with its emphasis on entertainment, dictates the form and substance of public communication, leading to a decline in rational, complex debate.

Central Thesis:

The book's core argument is that the shift from a print-based culture to a television-based culture has fundamentally altered how we think and engage with information, prioritizing amusement over substance.

Key Idea:

Postman contends that television's format, which favors short, visually stimulating segments, makes it impossible for complex ideas to be discussed meaningfully, turning everything into a form of show business.

Impact:

It's considered a seminal work in media criticism, warning that a society obsessed with entertainment risks losing its capacity for critical thought and civic engagement.

---

Now... I read the 1985 original version that my local-paper journalist Uncle had in the collection he left behind in my Grandma's basement when I was living there. The version that you will probably find is going to be one of I believe 2 or even 3 updates he's made to it over the years to include modern technology that wasn't available back in 1985.

I read it back when I was probably around 23 years old, and it was because of Postman's book that I went on to read Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, since it was obvious he thought very highly of both of those books. To this day, 1984 is the single scariest thing I've ever read in my life. And 20 years later with the tech available today it is just that much more scary.

Orwell's Animal Farm is probably the 2nd most terrifying read of my life.

In the case of Animal Farm, it goes deep into the lore behind the creation of little real-life monsters like Ted and Second and just how easily they are created and weaponized like they have been.


If you're reading this too, Sigs, I highly recommend you read Amusing Ourselves to Death as well.





And you could be right about Ted, I dunno. Every once in a while he posts something uncharacteristically coherent and well thought out without all the regular punctuation, grammar, spelling and general misuses of the English language, but unlike in the case of Second, I've never been able to catch Ted in the act of ever actually plagiarizing other people's work. It's pretty easy for me to do, as is evidenced by just how many times I've caught Second red-handed doing this, and yet I came up empty any time I've tried to catch Ted in the act.

Maybe he just has some moments of otherwise silent lucidity? Maybe he's hopped up on SSRI's most of the time and every once in a while he takes a break or just forgets to take his pills and he wakes up a bit?

I don't think he's a collaborative effort. And unlike Second, I don't believe that deep down he is an evil person. Just highly, highly brainwashed and manipulated into thinking that his way of "thinking" is correct. Extremely misguided and misplaced is all. I think that deep down his "heart" is probably 10 times the size of his brain.

There was a time when it kind of made me sad to speak to Ted the way that I do here because of this. But I've had something of an awakening myself recently, and my empathy is no longer a wide net, and now only reserved for the few in my circle who have earned it. And with the amount of abuse that I've taken here from the both of them over the years, I think I'm going to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of seeing what becomes of them over the course of 2026, and NGL... I'm going to get more than a what is probably a healthy dose of enjoyment of twisting that knife whenever the opportunity arises.

Beware, the Dark Empath...

A Tick, a Tock, A Tick a to the, Tick a to the Tick, Tick, Tock and you don't stop...



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
That's why I won't go near things like Chatgp or whatever the heck it is called. Bad enough Google uses it and you can't turn it off.

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And that "Amusing Ourselves to Death", I am sure is into its 3 or 4th printing. A lot of books go through that. I'll look the title up on my library's web page for their catalogue.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Not sure if I believe or not that your government has secret files on aliens or not. I'll explain : I always thought if they did a reporter or someone from the pentagon would find a way to leak the actual information. Documents or pictures and such to the public. There would be denial from the government and the pentagon. But finally they would have to confess and show all their evidence to Congress and the public.

Of course the Canadian government would be dragged into it as your closest ally. It would become what did we know. What was shared between our countries and the like.

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second: The president was asked about an American Tomahawk cruise missile destroying an Iranian girls’ school. Trump replied, “Well, I haven’t seen it, and I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is sold and used by other countries. And whether it’s Iran, who also has some Tomahawks—I wish they had more—but whether it’s Iran or somebody else... a Tomahawk is very generic, it’s sold to other countries.” Another reporter asked, “You just suggested that Iran got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war.” Trump replied, “Tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks; they buy them from us,” Despite what Trump said, Iran did NOT buy a Tomahawk. [go to link]

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Nobody cares that The Daily Beast pretends to know who bought what.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-beast/


You are sick dude.

You are pure evil.

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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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second: The president was asked about an American Tomahawk cruise missile destroying an Iranian girls’ school. Trump replied, “Well, I haven’t seen it, and I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is sold and used by other countries. And whether it’s Iran, who also has some Tomahawks—I wish they had more—but whether it’s Iran or somebody else... a Tomahawk is very generic, it’s sold to other countries.” Another reporter asked, “You just suggested that Iran got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war.” Trump replied, “Tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks; they buy them from us,” Despite what Trump said, Iran did NOT buy a Tomahawk. [go to link]

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-cornered-on-wild-new-excuse
-for-bombing-iran-school/ar-AA1XRLFG

Nobody cares that The Daily Beast pretends to know who bought what.

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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Tags?

maybe I will put in the Music part IV thread

traditional dancer

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
second: At Rice University, Chief Justice John Roberts says Trump’s personal attacks on judges have 'got to stop' By Isaac Yu, Staff Writer | March 17, 2026 [go to link] Chief Justice John Roberts said some criticism of the U.S. Supreme Court is “quite dangerous,” but sidestepped directly addressing President Donald Trump’s increasingly vocal jabs at his court during a Tuesday visit to Houston.

6ixStringJack: Oh yeah, Second? Is this you? https://archive.ph/OaT3U

"The 2nd Amendment was written by slave-owners to prevent abolitionists from forbidding state militias hunting down and killing runaway/rebellious slaves. The Republicans on the Supreme Court would change their minds about the 2nd Amendment if a gunman entering the Supreme Court hunted down and killed Republican Supreme Court justices as if they were rebellious slaves. In 2008, the Court made a 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Kill those 5 Republicans and the decision would go the other way. The Supreme Court is in the District of Columbia, which means it would be particularly ironic that the judges killed are the ones who changed the law so that they could be killed."

Shut your mouth.


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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Democrats have intensified criticism of the Supreme Court, labeling it "illegitimate" and a "cesspool of corruption" due to conservative rulings on abortion and ethics concerns. Key actions include proposing ethics investigations for Justice Thomas, pushing for mandatory ethics codes, and discussing court-packing to dilute the conservative majority.

Key Aspects of Democratic Criticism

- Ethics and Corruption Allegations: Democrats, including Rep. Cori Bush, have labeled the Court a "cesspool of corruption" over revelations of luxury travel and gifts received by conservative justices, asserting the Court is "controlled by creepy right-wing billionaires".

- Decisions on Rights: Critics argue the Court is prioritizing ideological agendas over the Constitution, specifically attacking the overruling of Roe v. Wade and rulings regarding voter rights and immigration.

- Proposed Reforms: Due to the 2023 ethics code lacking enforcement, lawmakers are proposing legislation to mandate strict ethics rules and questioning the Court's transparency.

- Court Expansion ("Packing"): Some Democrats have discussed increasing the number of Justices to counteract the conservative majority, a move Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham argue is designed to delegitimize the Court, according to an article from NPR.

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second: MORE NEWS: Trump's profit from this one stock transaction is larger than his salary as President. See why he is rich and you are not? BREAKING: Bombshell new reporting from CNBC reveals that Trump bought millions in Axon stock just two weeks before ICE sought a $220,000,000 deal to buy tasers from Axon. [go to link]
second: BREAKING: Bombshell new reporting from CNBC reveals that Trump bought millions in Axon stock just two weeks before ICE sought a $220,000,000 deal to buy tasers from Axon. https://qz.com/trump-axon-stock-ice-taser-contract-062926

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second: Why Trump has to cheat to get rich: In 1991, legendary investor Warren Buffett was lecturing at the University of Notre Dame when he recounted how Donald Trump made his assets appear to be worth much more than they really were. Trump's secret was simple: He locked in property loans at prices far higher than their true value, but this meant he also incurred significant debt to acquire them in the first place. In recounting where and how Trump went astray in his business ventures, Buffett observed simply that "the big problem with Donald Trump was he never went right." And he is not the only one to think that. In fact, Trump's debts are legendary. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-reveals-big-problem-1717
00964.html

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second: "Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty," Trump said from Mount Rushmore. "It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11." Trump's language evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America, from Washington to Hollywood. https://www.npr.org/2026/07/04/g-s1-132025/mount-rushmore-speech-trump
-july-4-250

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second: Judge rejects Trump bid to delay $5.8M payment to E. Jean Carroll. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York denied the request in a one-sentence order July 4: "Pay now, you goddamn asshole." I think the judge is losing patience with Trump. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/07/04/trump-e-jean-c
arroll-5-million-payment/90807219007

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Originally posted by second:
While it was chartered to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, reports from groups like the Partnership for Public Service estimate that the initiative left an $11 billion gap in the budget and cost taxpayers more than $100 billion in lost productivity, litigation, and rehiring.

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Originally posted by second:
‘I’m Now Broke’: Meet The Investors Who Lost Billions Buying Trump Stocks And Crypto

Even though Trump-tied investments have crumbled in the public markets, the first family is still doing quite well. There's plenty more they can salvage, too.

By Dan Alexander, Senior Editor.
Dan Alexander covers Trump’s business.

Jul 06, 2026, 06:30am EDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2026/07/06/im-now-broke-meet
-the-investors-who-lost-billions-buying-trump-stocks-and-crypto/

Desperate to rebuild his fortune, Donald Trump asked his political supporters to become his business partners. Those who trusted him most got hurt the worst.

Vadim Fistikan started working at 17 and built the kind of savings that usually takes years of overtime, delayed purchases and adult restraint: more than $100,000 by the time he hit his late twenties. In 2021, the Washington State truck driver eyed a house near family in Florida, with a pool and a waterway that led to a river, and then the ocean. “We were thinking about pulling the trigger,” he says. “Then I saw this whole Trump thing going on.”

This Trump thing was the Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social. In October 2021, the president unveiled the business, promising a censorship-free platform and giving supporters a chance to invest via a special purpose acquisition company. Shares of the SPAC jumped 1,650% in two days, then fell about 30% by the start of the third. To Fistikan, that looked less like a warning than a discount. “I’m like, ‘I’m getting in,’” says the three-time Trump voter who added to his bet until it hit $205,000.

That investment is now worth $30,000.

Fistikan logged onto Truth Social last fall to voice his frustrations. “I’m like, ‘Hey, this is a scam,’” he says. “And a lot of people were like, ‘No, you’re just a Trump hater.’ I’m like, ‘No. I was on board since day one. … I’m now broke.”

He’s not alone. Katherine Chiles, the SPAC’s former chief financial officer, now uses her Truth Social account to promote a song accusing the president of selling out his supporters—“Donald Trump is a b----.” Chad Nedohin, a worship leader who once moonlighted as the unofficial captain of Trump Media’s retail shareholders, now describes the company as a vehicle for enriching the president and his inner circle. “We’re just poor cattle to them,” Nedohin says. “He doesn’t care about anyone.”

Throughout the president’s life, his most remarkable creations—whether casinos in Atlantic City, public offerings on the New York Stock Exchange or political movements across America—all relied on one thing: believers. In 2021, Trump left the White House with an abundance of them—and quickly got to work monetizing. To do so, he followed a process with three distinct stages. First, the invention: come up with a business concept, invest almost nothing, take a big chunk of equity. Second, the sale: stir up a frenzy among the faithful, cash out what you can. Third, the mess: watch the assets collapse, salvage the scraps. From 2021 to 2025, five Trump-family ventures reached public investors: Trump Media, World Liberty Financial, Trump’s memecoin, Melania Trump’s memecoin and American Bitcoin.

Now, they are all hitting the messy stage. Trump Media shares are down 89% from their peak. World Liberty tokens have fallen 82%. The president’s memecoin is off 98%. Melania’s version has dropped 99%. Shares of American Bitcoin are down 95%. The Trumps, after cashing out $1.9 billion, are still up $3.1 billion overall, according to Forbes calculations. Their supporters are down an estimated $7 billion.

Representatives of the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did spokespeople for Trump Media, which sued Forbes and other publications over allegedly inaccurate reporting about losses during the company’s first year of operation. The White House ignored questions about the president’s moneymaking ventures, issuing a statement on his policies instead. “President Trump cares deeply about the patriotic Americans who elected him to office and fights for them daily,” said deputy press secretary Anna Kelly.

The human cost of all this lies in accounts like Fistikan’s. He didn’t just buy a stock. He bought a story, that Trump views his supporters as partners rather than tools. “Pretty much my whole life savings [was] in this one stock,” says Fistikan. “This is the greatest theft, con job he has ever done.”

Nick Pinto was sitting inside Champions, the wood-heavy, leather-laden restaurant at Trump’s Miami golf resort, in January 2025 when a Robinhood notification lit up his phone: Trump had launched a memecoin.

Pinto, 26, makes most of his money creating videos for social-media platforms. His due diligence consisted of Googling around and hopping on X. “I was like, ‘Oh, let me buy some of this—never know what’s going to happen.” He initially invested $7,000.

Pinto was part of a frenzy that delivered the first family an extraordinary windfall as Trump returned to the White House. The roots of it lay in World Liberty Financial, the crypto project the president had launched the previous September. Billionaire Justin Sun, facing allegations from the Securities and Exchanges Commission, invested $45 million in its token after Trump won the election, then put another $100 million into the president’s memecoin. Melania Trump added a coin of her own. The three tokens traded furiously as Trump ascended to the throne, throwing off hundreds of millions in cash.

Then the president added a perk: dinner at his Virginia club for the top 220 memecoin investors.

“I went crazy,” says Pinto, who upped his bet to $480,000, allocating about 60% of his entire investment portfolio to the memecoin. That was enough to get him into the dinner, a scene both surreal and shoddy. Pinto says it felt like a wedding, with mediocre food and poor service. “They didn’t even give me soda—all I had was water.”

Another attendee remembers offering a cigarette to former NBA player Lamar Odom, who took a FaceTime call while they were standing outside. “I’m with these crypto kids!” Odom told his caller, Khloe Kardashian.

The memecoin slid downward after the event and never really recovered, losing two-thirds of its value by the end of the year. It was around that time that one of Pinto’s friends, who had also attended the dinner, convinced him to turn on the coin.

“This is something that the Trump family kind of came up with out of the blue,” Pinto says his friend told him, “and there’s not really a way for us to predict the future of the coin or what their plans for it are.”

Convinced, Pinto ditched 75% of his position, locking in roughly $250,000 in losses. He held onto the rest in case something wild happened.

Something did. In April, Trump hosted another event, this one at Mar-a-Lago. Attendees received goodie bags with Trump trading cards, statuettes of the president filled with cologne and Trump watches. “I almost didn’t get one because people kept stealing mine,” says Pinto, who recalls one attendee slipping out with six bags. “Mine got swiped, and then I saw a chair that was empty, so I swiped one, too.”

Memecoin Merch

The president hosted two events for his memecoin holders, one at his golf course in Virginia and another at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Attendees walked away with bags full of Trump-branded tchotchkes.

"I'm trying to convince the president to do this every six months," Trump business partner Bill Zanker said during an event for memecoin holders at Mar-a-Lago in April.

Smells Like Victory

Among the goodies: bottles of cologne, packaged in golden statuettes of Donald Trump that retail for $249 online. “I haven’t used it yet,” says two-time memecoin event attendee Nick Pinto. “I have it for decoration.”

Watch Your Back

Red-faced watches became hot items at the Mar-a-Lago event. Online, the president sold other varieties, including one with pieces of the tie and suit he wore in his mugshot photo at the Fulton County Jail after he was indicted on racketeering and other charges in 2023.

Face Value

Trump trading cards featured words the president shouted after a bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania: “Fight, Fight, Fight.”

Blackout

Red MAGA hats are old news. Memecoin diners received black caps featuring the president, his signature and the name of his token, $TRUMP.

Some attendees wanted more than trumpery. Before the initial dinner, Huma Finance cofounder Erbil Karaman upped his investment, knowing the White House was considering legislation related to stablecoins, dollar-tracking cryptocurrencies that his company uses to help people move money overseas. Karaman says he did not do any lobbying at the event. Two months later, he accepted an invitation to the White House for a bill signing.

The people who did best with Trump’s memecoin tended to be the ones who cared least about it. Morten Christensen, founder of the crypto site airdropalert.com, bought the coin right after it launched, then ditched it when the hype started to fade a few days later. He says he made about 30 times his money on the trade. To attend Trump’s dinner, he bought and shorted the coin simultaneously, securing a seat for the first event for about $1,200 in fees and a spot at the second for $500.

“The MAGA people, they really believe,” Christensen says. “I'm just here for the profit. I'm in some group chats with believers, and they are really good at ignoring facts or data. … I kind of feel sorry for them.”

Even Justin Sun no longer pretends Trump’s crypto offerings are good investments. In a lawsuit filed in April, he alleged World Liberty pushed him to increase his investment, then froze his assets after he balked. Sun accused World Liberty of defrauding and extorting him. World Liberty said it had the right to freeze Sun’s tokens and countersued for defamation. Sun also alleges that, after World Liberty sent so much money to Trump and other insiders, the venture began taking on risky loans. The man who, more than anyone not named Trump, sold the project to the masses now describes it as “on the verge of collapse.”

How A Capitol Uprising Led To Capital Raising

January 6, 2021

Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol building. Twitter boots Trump, giving him a story to sell. Amazon drops web hosting for Parler, a right-wing social-media network, creating a void in the market.

January 27, 2021

One week after leaving office, Trump meets with two former Apprentice contestants at Mar-a-Lago to discuss creating a media and technology empire.

October 20, 2021

The president reveals the Trump Media and Technology Group, a social-media company that aims to create a Trump-friendly ecosystem online, starting with a Twitter clone named Truth Social.

October 22, 2021

Shares of Digital World, the special-purpose acquisition company planning to take Trump Media public, hit an all-time high of $175, implying that Trump’s barely-in-existence venture is worth more than $25 billion.

March 25, 2024

After years of holdups, Trump Media finally merges with Digital World, becoming a publicly traded company. Shares jump 59% the next day.

September 30, 2024

In the final stretch of his presidential campaign, Trump delivers an announcement: “I promised to Make America Great Again, this time with crypto,” he writes on Truth Social. “#WorldLibertyFi is planning to help make America the crypto capital of the world!” The project struggles to gain traction.

November 5, 2024

Trump defeats Kamala Harris, becoming the first president to win nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

November 25, 2024

Crypto billionaire Justin Sun, contending with charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission, purchases $30 million of World Liberty tokens, energizing the project, which eventually delivers more than $800 million to Trump.

January 17, 2025

Three days before his inauguration, Trump launches a memecoin. The fine print warns buyers that it is not intended to be an investment. The president’s supporters pile in anyway, sparking a trading frenzy that ultimately provides more than $600 million to the president.

January 19, 2025

Melania Trump announces a memecoin of her own, part of a broader effort to enhance her personal balance sheet. A financial disclosure suggests the token, which has fallen 99% from its high, supplies $6 million to the first lady.

May 12, 2025

American Bitcoin reveals plans to merge with a SPAC. Investors gobble up shares, boosting the price 448%. It has since dropped 96%.

As believers become skeptics, the Trumps are shifting assets in telling ways.

World Liberty, which pitched itself as a vehicle to upend traditional finance, delivered about $850 million to Trump, who has since loaded up on the least exotic asset in finance, municipal bonds. Trump Media, meanwhile, has become less a social-media company than a hoard of bitcoin. It raised $2.4 billion through equity and debt when shares were riding high, then put the proceeds into the cryptocurrency near its peak.

That erased about $1 billion of shareholder capital. It also gave the company an asset that appears to be more enduring than Truth Social, the “free-speech” platform that recently suspended a Forbes reporter who used it to contact shareholders. For a company that promises to give people a voice, Trump Media seems to have a rather narrow view of who should use one.

First sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who manage their fathers’ holdings on a day-to-day basis while he serves as president, have adopted the old man’s playbook for themselves. In March 2025, they struck a deal with a data-center company for 20% of its bitcoin-mining machines, then rebranded the business as American Bitcoin.

What did the data-center company receive in return? A crowd of investors wrapped up in a Trump-tied hype cycle, into which it could dump enough shares to more than make up for the 20% of forfeited equity. The companies announced a deal to go public via SPAC on May 12, 2025, and shares of the SPAC jumped 448%.

Ryan Kenney, a 41-year-old military spouse who studied architecture but now spends much of his time raising two kids, thought he was getting into American Bitcoin early and cheap when he invested $60,000 after prices pulled back the next week. The stock’s value was in its buzz, not the fundamentals. That made the standard meme-stock rallying cries—“Buy the dip!” “Average down!”—especially dangerous. Kenney kept buying, ultimately upping his investment to $98,000. It’s now worth $9,000.

Lately, he has been thinking about others in a similar predicament. And the scale of their losses. “Maybe people didn’t lose as much as I did,” he says, “but that might be hundreds of thousands of Americans all losing five grand.”

Then there is Fistikan, still dreaming of that Florida house. With his savings wiped out, he settled for an overgrown, $18,000 lot, figuring he could build on it. Someday. The Iran war drove diesel prices above $6 in the Pacific Northwest, where he hauls loads, cutting into his earnings.

“I would make the same amount of money if I was flipping burgers,” he says.

Recently, short on cash, Fistikan had to sell something. He could have liquidated his Trump Media shares, which still appear overheated as the company bleeds hundreds of millions of dollars a year while maintaining a market cap more than triple the value of its underlying bitcoin holdings. But Trump-tied investments are not moved chiefly by discounted cash flow. It’s more loyalty and the hope that another rally is just one frenzy away.

So Fistikan sold his F-150 pickup.

That’s the Trump trade in miniature. The dream was a house in Florida near the water. The outcome, for now, is an overgrown lot, a clobbered investment account and just enough cash to stay afloat.

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

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The human cost of all this lies in accounts like Fistikan’s. He didn’t just buy a stock. He bought a story, that Trump views his supporters as partners rather than tools. “Pretty much my whole life savings [was] in this one stock,” says Fistikan.

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"This is the greatest theft, con job he has ever done.”

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

. . . We're never going to hear a follow up to this story though.

I give it 50%/50% that it's not just a completely fabricated story about a family that didn't even exist anywhere other than inside the "journalist's" mind until they put it into print.

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