REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Sunday, February 22, 2026 12:07
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PAGE 87 of 87

Friday, February 20, 2026 8:37 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Did you bother looking at the side-bar on the right to see where this information was sourced from, you stupid fuck?

The question was rhetorical and we both already know the answer to that question is no.

So shut your fucking big stupid mouth for once and allow me to enlighten you...

6ix, you and Trump really are committed to the idea that you are the smartest guys in the room. That hasn't worked for either of you, yet you keep repeating it.

Here is another set of facts you will refuse to believe:

The government first began gathering detailed information on benefits use by citizenship status in 1994. The data show:

• For each year from 1994 to 2023, the US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government.

• Over that period, immigrants created a cumulative fiscal surplus of $14.5 trillion in real 2024 US dollars, including $3.9 trillion in savings on interest on the debt.

• Without immigrants, US government public debt at all levels would be at least 205 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—nearly twice its 2023 level.

https://www.cato.org/white-paper/immigrants-recent-effects-government-
budgets-1994-2023


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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 8:54 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by second:

The government first began gathering detailed information on benefits use by citizenship status in 1994. The data show:

• For each year from 1994 to 2023, the US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government.

• Over that period, immigrants created a cumulative fiscal surplus of $14.5 trillion in real 2024 US dollars, including $3.9 trillion in savings on interest on the debt.

• Without immigrants, US government public debt at all levels would be at least 205 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—nearly twice its 2023 level.

https://www.cato.org/white-paper/immigrants-recent-effects-government-
budgets-1994-2023

In contrast to the poorest people in America paying taxes that keep the government operating, the richest people aren't paying, thanks to the Republican Party's manipulation of the tax collection system, particularly under Donald Trump:

The Ultra-Rich Are Different from You and Me

Only the little people pay taxes, redux

By Paul Krugman | Feb 20, 2026

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-ultra-rich-are-different-from

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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 1:58 PM

SECOND

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


Supreme court ruled, 6 to 3, that the President does not have the authority to impose tariffs. The constitutional structure reserves tariff powers to Congress.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/607/24-1287

Trump told a news conference he’s “absolutely ashamed” of justices who voted to strike down his tariffs. Trump called the majority decision “a disgrace.”

https://fox4kc.com/news/national/ap-the-latest-supreme-court-strikes-d
own-trumps-tariffs-upending-central-plank-of-economic-agenda


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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 2:19 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Uh huh...

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/who-what-why/

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Ask Google if this is true: “THE UNITED STATES TRADE DEFICIT HAS BEEN REDUCED BY 78% BECAUSE OF THE TARIFFS BEING CHARGED TO OTHER COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Google's answer:

Based on 2025 data, that statement is false. The U.S. trade deficit for goods and services in 2025 dropped by only about 0.2% ($2.1 billion), not 78%, according to Census Bureau data released on February 19, 2026. The claim likely used a selective, short-term, or volatile monthly figure rather than the total annual reduction.

Key Details:

• The 78% Figure: This likely refers to a volatile monthly, short-term reduction between a peak in March and a low in October 2025, rather than a sustained annual decrease.

• Actual 2025 Data: The total annual trade deficit only decreased by $2.1 billion (0.2%), a "meager decrease" compared to the high percentage claimed.

• Tariff Impact: While tariffs were intended to reduce the deficit, imports of goods actually increased to a record $1.24 trillion, indicating the trade gap did not shrink as claimed.

• Costs: Research indicates that U.S. businesses and consumers, rather than foreign countries, paid for the bulk of these tariffs.

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





Did you bother looking at the side-bar on the right to see where this information was sourced from, you stupid fuck?

The question was rhetorical and we both already know the answer to that question is no.

So shut your fucking big stupid mouth for once and allow me to enlighten you...



Trump’s Trade Deficit Lie Gets Exposed Within a Day

https://whowhatwhy.org/economy/business/trumps-trade-deficit-lie-gets-
exposed-within-a-day
/

Gee... I think we've seen them before. Actually I believe we've seen this very article before, haven't we?





Here are the other two sources for that Google AI slop you chugged down greedily like it was Dick Cheney's cock when he said he supported Kamala Harris...



LEX 18's (Kentucky's NBC Affiliate)

https://www.facebook.com/lex18/posts/trade-deficit-reduction-president
-donald-trump-stated-that-the-us-trade-deficit-/1422356303269256
/

They simply posted an image with Trump's quote. They made no comment one way or another about it. It's very likely that Google AI grabbed this source because of one or a plurality of the 580 comments, and very likely citing your bullshit website "whowhatwhy.org" as their source.



And the third...

Trump says US trade deficit reduced by 78% due to tariffs

Foreign trade deficit to ‘go into positive territory’ in 2026 for 1st time ‘in many decades,’ US president says

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/trump-says-us-trade-deficit-reduced-
by-78-due-to-tariffs/3834413


Written by FUCKING Mucahithan Avcioglu from an outfit called https://www.aa.com.tr

What country uses the TR domain? Turkey.

Turkey, who's pissed off about the flat 15% tariff levied against them, despite the fact that they levy tariffs on American goods at percentages ranging anywhere from 15.4% to 145.8% on agricultural goods, and up to 220% on vehicles, as is evidenced here:

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/Turkey.pdf


No... I'm SURE there's no bias and/or incentive for Turkey to help spread lies to you stupid brainfucked white college "educated" America-Hating liberals.




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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 2:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Supreme court ruled, 6 to 3, that the President does not have the authority to impose tariffs. The constitutional structure reserves tariff powers to Congress.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/607/24-1287

Trump told a news conference he’s “absolutely ashamed” of justices who voted to strike down his tariffs. Trump called the majority decision “a disgrace.”

https://fox4kc.com/news/national/ap-the-latest-supreme-court-strikes-d
own-trumps-tariffs-upending-central-plank-of-economic-agenda


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




Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Supreme Court says no to Trumps tariffs!!! Oh no, I was right again and again, Jacks is wrong.

T





No. You weren't, dummy.

The Atlantic (A FAR left news outfit): The Tariffs Will Be Back

Even after losing at the Supreme Court, the president has plenty of ways to reconstruct his trade regime.

https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026/02/supreme-court-trump-tariff
s/686083
/

https://archive.ph/cci5O


Quote:

The Trump tariffs are dead. Long live the Trump tariffs?

This morning, in a 6–3 opinion, the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of the president’s sweeping global tariffs. The majority ruled that the law Donald Trump had used to carry out most of his trade policies does not, in fact, allow the president to impose tariffs at all. This is a major setback for Trump’s trade agenda, but it is far from a fatal one. The president has several alternatives that he can use to reconstruct his tariff regime, and his administration has spent months putting a plan in place to do so. Those efforts, too, may eventually be challenged in court, but fully litigating them would take years. Unless the president suddenly has a change of heart, Trump’s tariff adventure is far from over.

The case before the court centered on a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or IEEPA, which authorizes the president to “regulate” the importation of goods in a national emergency that arises from an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The Trump administration had interpreted this vague statute, which had never been used to justify tariffs, to mean that the president can issue tariffs of whatever kind he wants, whenever he wants, on any country he wants, so long as he says an emergency exists, all without getting congressional approval. IEEPA was the basis of Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China last February, the “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on almost every country in the world on Liberation Day, and most of the one-off tariffs he has issued or threatened to impose on trade partners such as Brazil, India, and, more recently, Europe and Canada. (Industry-specific tariffs on goods like steel and aluminum have been imposed under separate, more legally sound authorities, and are not affected by the ruling.)

Last year, the lower courts ruled that although IEEPA might allow some tariffs, it certainly didn’t allow these tariffs—many of which were set at arbitrary levels, on an arbitrary set of countries, using justifications that could hardly be thought of as a true national emergency (such as the existence of a trade deficit or an imaginary surge of fentanyl shipments from Canada). The Supreme Court went even further. “We hold that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs,” Chief Justice John Roberts declared.

But even as it insisted that the law was on its side, the administration spent much of the past year preparing a backup plan to rebuild Trump’s tariff wall in case the courts ruled against them. Because, as the president observed on Truth Social a few hours after the ruling, “the Supreme Court did not overrule TARIFFS, they merely overruled a particular use of IEEPA TARIFFS.”

According to top Trump-administration officials such as National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the administration’s plan draws on two main authorities. The first is Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That law allows the president to levy tariffs of up to 15 percent on any country for up to 150 days to address “large and serious balance-of-payment deficits,” a term that refers to more money leaving the country than coming into it. After the initial window, the tariff must be reauthorized by Congress. According to estimates by Clark Packard and Stan Vueger, trade experts at the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, respectively, this technique alone would allow Trump to reinstate 70 percent of the tariff revenue struck down by the Supreme Court. This would be a temporary solution, and overbroad use of Section 122 could also be invalidated by the courts. It would most likely be intended only as a stopgap measure to buy time while the administration begins work on the second part of its plan.

Phase two would draw on Section 301 of the same law. Section 301 allows a presidential administration to levy essentially permanent tariffs of any kind on any country in response to “unfair” trade practices. The catch is that the tariffs can only come into effect after the federal government has navigated several layers of bureaucratic process, including launching an official investigation into the unfair practices of the country in question, compiling a report detailing those practices, and offering a public notice-and-comment period. That’s where the 150 days comes in. The administration could use that time to launch investigations into the U.S.’s major trading partners so that once the five months are expired, the paperwork is already in place to switch to indefinite tariffs under Section 301. This authority rests on stronger constitutional grounds. The first Trump administration and the Biden administration both used section 301 to impose or raise tariffs on Chinese goods. Courts have generally been deferential to how presidents use the authority as long as the proper process has been followed.

Trump has already signaled that he plans to use all the legal authorities at his disposal. “Therefore, effective immediately, all National Security TARIFFS, Section 232 and existing Section 301 TARIFFS, remain in place, and in full force and effect,” he wrote in his Truth Social post. “Today I will sign an Order to impose a 10% GLOBAL TARIFF, under Section 122, over and above our normal TARIFFS already being charged, and we are also initiating several Section 301 and other Investigations to protect our Country from unfair Trading practices.”

Most experts I spoke with think that this one-two combination will allow Trump to functionally rebuild most of the current tariff regime in a way that could survive in court. “Nearly 90 percent of U.S. trade comes from our 20 largest trading partners,” Peter Harell, who served as a top trade adviser in the Biden administration, told me before the ruling came down. “I don’t think it would be too difficult to reconstitute tariffs on most of them in 150 days.”




This ruling changed nothing. All Tariffs are going to remain in place exactly as they have been, and in fact, they already are. Not only that, but on many of the worst countries he's now just raised their tariffs an additional 10% on top of what they were being charged before SCOTUS's ruling.

This was Trump's Plan B all along, and the fact that he was able to put it into effect immediately shows you that he expected that this ruling was a real possibility. But even your Leftist "experts" agree that Trump's going to be able to rebuild the entire tariff plan he initially laid out, and this time it won't be something that SCOTUS will be able to strike down.

And these tariffs will be long-term, and would require somebody to actively come in and reverse them. And not even a future Democratic Party regime would dare do that if the tariffs actually do lead to a better economy and bring a lot of manufacturing jobs back to the US. It would be political suicide for them to do so by that point.

You got played again.


And the best part is, we get to throw this SCOTUS ruling right in your face when you're all crying about how unfair Trump's SCOTUS is when all your illegals start getting shipped out by the millions. I'd argue that Trump "losing" this case in SCOTUS while not actually losing anything is even more valuable in that regard than SCOTUS upholding California's gerrymander after they upheld Texas's just a few months prior.



You're so fucking dumb, Ted. That's why you always lose. Every time.




You too, Second.

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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 3:43 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You too, Second.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Trump lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.

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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 5:32 PM

SECOND

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


JD Vance Accuses the Supreme Court of ‘Lawlessness’ After Trump Tariff Ruling

Trump insisted that he still didn’t need Congress, directly contradicting the SCOTUS ruling.

Feb 20, 2026, 4:38 pm

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/jd-vance-accuses-the-supreme-court-o
f-lawlessness-after-trump-tariff-ruling
/

With these justifications, tariffs must continue. If the Supreme Court doesn't approve, tough titty, according to Trump/Vance, the two finest legal minds in the administration.

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

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Friday, February 20, 2026 7:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You too, Second.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Trump lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.



Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

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Saturday, February 21, 2026 6:15 AM

SECOND

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


From Venezuelan oil to the Board of Peace, Trump is constantly looking for new sources of cash he can control.

Trump’s dream is a giant slush fund Congress can’t touch

By Tad DeHaven | Feb 20, 2026

https://www.vox.com/politics/479821/trumps-slush-fund-venezuela-oil-ga
za-board-of-peace-tariffs


After President Donald Trump launched a military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, he announced that America planned to take control of its oil revenue. More specifically, one American.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” he proclaimed in a statement.

This wasn’t the first time he’d used that kind of language. Earlier, he announced “deals” with allies Japan and South Korea, in which the countries received tariff relief in exchange for pledging massive investments in the United States that Trump himself would allegedly oversee.

And in Davos, Switzerland, Trump unveiled a new international initiative called the “Board of Peace.” It’s being pitched by the White House as a global problem solver, starting with Gaza.

According to an alleged draft charter, countries would serve limited terms unless they pay $1 billion to fund the board. And, not coincidentally, the chairman (Trump) would have substantial control over its operations. Many American allies quickly balked at the arrangement, with France’s foreign minister citing the “very extensive powers” granted to the board’s chairman.

These recent episodes are all part of a broader story of Trump’s second term: his endless quest to secure a slush fund that he can use to personally control large sums of money.

The slush fund, explained

To say that Trump is in an endless quest for a slush fund is not to suggest that there’s to be a literal White House bank account with his name on it (he’d love that, though).

Rather, it’s a description of a disturbing approach to governing: a relentless push to create discretionary pools of money and leverage points of control that can be used to reward, punish, and command, all while trying to dodge legal and constitutional constraints.

When convenient, he’s gone through Congress, whose decision to grant him a massive $170 billion immigration enforcement fund in a party-line vote outside the normal appropriations process is now central to policy arguments about Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Minneapolis. Of that, ICE is slated to receive $75 billion — tripling its annual budget.

But he’s also looked for ways to find control over investments through the levers of foreign policy — tariffs, trade deals, foreign mergers, military seizures, diplomatic programs — that were never intended to be used this way.

If you’re thinking, “Okay, but governments negotiate deals all the time,” that’s true to a point. What’s striking is that the tariffs Trump unilaterally imposed are being used as leverage to shake down allied countries to feed his insatiable appetite for grandiose headlines about alleged incoming investments.

Instead of enforceable trade agreements, these deals are more like political commitments. Locking in binding obligations and durable tariff changes typically requires congressional action. The enforcement mechanism for these deals is basically his never-ending threat of higher tariffs. For example, the administration reached a trade deal with Europe in July, but the truce didn’t last. After Trump escalated pressure over his demand for Greenland, he revived tariff threats against several European countries.

The concessions Trump announces in these deals are also sometimes less than they seem when the countries fill in the details. Trump claimed: “I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion. That’s our money. It’s our money to invest, as we like.” But Japanese investments are being structured as equity, loans, and guarantees routed through Japanese public finance institutions and an investment committee, not a $550 billion pot of cash that Trump can simply steer at will.

These “deals” are built to generate headlines, not binding obligations that would survive courts, Congress, and the next administration. And if the administration tries to treat these foreign pledges as money it can direct, it would be attempting an end around Congress’s power of the purse and laws meant to prevent exactly that. (More on that later.)

Trump’s dream job: investor-in-chief

None of this came out of nowhere. The slush-fund instinct was hiding in plain sight months before the administration started dangling tariff relief in exchange for headline-grabbing “investment packages.”

The seed was planted weeks into Trump’s second term, when he ordered his administration to plan for a United States sovereign wealth fund (SWF), a government-owned investment fund.

The idea was that the federal government should be in the business of assembling a portfolio of “strategic” assets and directing capital flows, with the president at the center of the decision making. It’s a bad idea — and one more commonly associated with socialist thinkers, who see it as a way to disperse economic gains in the private sector broadly to the public. To Trump, though, the irresistible appeal was that it would put him in the position of dealmaker, developer, and CEO.

The White House eventually realized that a formal SWF would require legislation, which would entail governance rules, statutory limits, and congressional oversight. It would thus be slower, more constrained, and harder for Trump to control. Tellingly, plans for the formal SWF were subsequently shelved.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the pivot away from a formal SWF when, in reference to the aforementioned shakedowns of allied countries, he stated in August, “Other countries, in essence, are providing us with a sovereign wealth fund.” The revealing phrase is “in essence,” because there’s no actual fund; there’s just the executive branch attempting to leverage tariffs and dealmaking to finance projects “owned and controlled by the United States” that would be selected by Trump.

What emerged was the beginning of an improvisational workaround, a series of ad hoc arrangements meant to mimic a fund but without the guardrails.

In June, the White House pressured Japan’s Nippon Steel into giving the president a “golden share” — a non-monetary stake that comes with substantial control over its business decisions — as part of its purchase of U.S. Steel in order to secure a deal approving the sale.

Following Trump’s public humiliation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in August, the government acquired a 10 percent equity stake in the storied, but troubled, semiconductor company. The acquisition was funded by previously awarded — but not yet fully paid — grants to Intel under the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, plus additional money tied to a program to produce chips for the Pentagon. The arrangement wasn’t presented as a temporary emergency tool, as had been the case with past government equity acquisitions; instead, it was portrayed as an indefinite strategic ownership position.

Other equity deals have drawn on different justifications and funding streams. The Pentagon’s recent equity stake in defense contractor L3Harris is a perfect illustration of how the administration makes it up as it goes, deal by deal. On January 13, the Department of Defense announced a $1 billion investment structured to give the government an equity stake in a rocket motor company that L3Harris will spin off later in 2026. The Pentagon framed it as the first “direct to supplier” deal of its kind, tied to multi-year procurement and speeding the production of rocket motors needed for missiles. But the equity stake was unnecessary, as the Pentagon could have achieved its goals with the procurement tools it already has.

That matters, because it creates an obvious conflict of interest. The government becomes the customer, regulator, and partial owner of a firm that will compete for government business. The incentive problem should be obvious: When Washington owns part of a company, it has a stake in the company’s success, and a political stake in ensuring it doesn’t fail. That’s one reason federal equity stakes were historically associated with emergencies rather than peacetime political dealmaking.

As it stands, the administration has acquired equity stakes in 12 private companies, including several mineral producers and an energy company. The administration has made clear its intention to consider acquiring equity stakes in additional companies and industries.

Then, there’s the administration’s “pay-to-play” chip export scheme that takes the slush fund mentality and dispenses with the pretense that the primary motivation is the US’s industrial capacity. In December, the administration said it would allow Nvidia and AMD to export particular chips to China — overruling critics who worried the move would cut into America’s lead on a key technology with security implications — in exchange for a 25 percent cut of the sales. Observers noted that the Constitution bars taxes on exports.

Cue the improvisation. Trump ultimately imposed a narrowly targeted 25 percent tariff on certain advanced chips, including the ones Nvidia and AMD could sell to China, using a national security order tied to a Section 232 investigation under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. As global technology expert Paul Triolo explained, “There is no precedent for this type of approach to tariffs and semiconductor policy. This is a policy designed specifically for Nvidia and AMD to be able to ship advanced GPUs to China and for the US government to attach a ‘chip tax’ to this process in a way that does not violate existing laws.”

It’s a clear example of the administration’s governing style: constantly rejiggering the legal structure of a scheme to preserve the underlying goal — money and control — while avoiding the most obvious legal obstacles. With the direct cut of export sales initially touted by Trump looking constitutionally dicey, the White House shifted to an import tariff ploy that could be framed as the president merely exercising trade powers delegated to him by Congress.

The deeper problem is what this kind of improvisation invites. Even when Congress doesn’t get a vote on an export decision, the system ordinarily runs through agencies, written standards, and a paper trail. Those guardrails exist to make conflicts of interest easier to spot and harder to exploit. That concern reared its head in late January, when the Wall Street Journal reported that a United Arab Emirates-backed entity linked to an Emirati royal purchased 49% of the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, for $500 million, with roughly half paid up front. The report connects the investment timeline to subsequent US-UAE negotiations and, ultimately, to an agreement allowing the export of tightly controlled advanced AI chips.

If accurate, a foreign interest looking to obtain advanced American chips placed a large bet on a fledgling business tied directly to the incoming president, his family, and close associates. Even if no quid pro quo can be proven, the mere appearance of a “pay for play” scheme involving a national security matter is disturbing. And it lands amid broader concerns that the Trump family and associates have been monetizing proximity to presidential power.

Okay, but is any of this legal?

The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, stating that “no money shall be drawn from the Treasury” unless the legislative branch formally allows it. It’s the central guardrail against Trump’s mentality that money can be raised and deployed based on presidential discretion rather than congressional authorization.

Federal budget law reinforces this principle.

The Antideficiency Act bars agencies from obligating or spending federal funds in advance of, or beyond, a congressional appropriation. And the Miscellaneous Receipts statute generally requires that money received by the government be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts unless specifically authorized for deposit elsewhere. Again, these rules exist to prevent agencies — and presidents — from creating their own pots of money outside of Congress’s control.

The revenue from Trump’s tariffs goes to the Treasury, for example, and turning it into spending requires congressional action. That hasn’t stopped the president from wildly claiming he can use tariff revenues to pay for everything from a “Dream Military,” to replacing the federal income tax, to $2,000 stimulus checks. But he’s made no progress on actually advancing these priorities using the money in question.

These constraints don’t automatically resolve every questionable action. Over time, Congress has delegated substantial power to the executive branch. Whether the executive branch has misused that delegated power is a question for the courts. In the meantime, Congress can — and should — conduct oversight of the administration’s maneuvering.

For equity acquisitions, the administration is relying on existing Pentagon industrial base authorities and repurposed funds to acquire stakes in companies. Unresolved issues include whether those statutes and appropriations clearly authorize equity ownership and, if the government later receives dividends or sells the stake, whether congressional budget rules, such as the MRA, require the funds to be returned to the Treasury rather than reused by the agencies.

The legal and constitutional restraints explain why Trump’s slush-fund hunt keeps producing more questions than answers. The schemes are hard to square with the fundamental separation of powers, so creative legal justifications and improvisation are required.

Oil tankers in the ocean

The Venezuelan oil proceeds saga shows how Trump’s abrupt public decrees can turn into complicated schemes after they force his apparatchiks to act. Trump initially said he would control the money, declaring that “I don’t have to consult with anybody” to take control of the oil.

After Trump’s initial claim, the White House issued an executive order invoking emergency powers to keep courts from steering Venezuelan oil revenue to the country’s creditors. It creates “Foreign Government Deposit Funds,” meaning proceeds held in designated Treasury accounts. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control then issued a general license permitting certain Venezuelan oil transactions but requiring payments that would otherwise go to sanctioned Venezuelan entities to be routed first into Treasury accounts.

The order says the money remains Venezuela’s sovereign property, yet the Treasury may release it only at the Secretary of State’s direction. The administration says, “It’s not our money,” but it nevertheless controls the spigot.

Confusion deepened when reports said $500 million from the first sales sat in a US-controlled account in Qatar before being returned to Venezuela. Reuters quoted an administration official saying the Qatar fund is temporary and future proceeds are expected to go into a US-based account.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate that the US controls only the disbursement of funds, that Venezuela will submit monthly budget requests for administration approval, and that audits will ensure the funds benefit Venezuelans. But a Treasury-held, State-directed custodial fund that effectively governs a foreign government’s money is unusual, and the administration hasn’t clearly identified the statute authorizing this structure or explained how it can realistically audit and enforce spending inside Venezuela.

The ongoing murkiness blurs who controls what, where, and under what legal authority.

The administration’s Board of Peace initiative holds similar concerns. According to the draft charter, a country’s membership would be limited to a three-year term unless it contributes $1 billion “in cash funds” to extend it. Even if the White House claims this isn’t a “fee,” the obvious questions remain. Where would the money go? Who would control it? What is the legal authority for the president to solicit contributions from foreign governments? What about Congress?

On Thursday, Trump announced that the US will contribute $10 billion to his board. That, once again, immediately raised the question of how the president can do it if Congress hasn’t appropriated the money. As CNN reporter Aaron Blake noted, “critics have likened [the Board] to a giant slush fund Trump will control.” Another day, more questions.

This is not a stable way to govern

A reason why these “deals” keep generating questions is that the administration is dancing around the federal government’s core design. Congress is supposed to control the purse, and presidents aren’t supposed to create their own financing mechanisms.

Even if you assume the administration is acting in good faith — an unwarranted assumption — its approach erodes the idea that federal power should be exercised through general rules rather than personalized deals. Trade policy shouldn’t be a means for the president to shake down allies. Export controls are supposed to be about security, not revenue generation. Subsidy programs are supposed to be debated and authorized by Congress, not converted into partial government ownership of private companies. And emergency powers are supposed to be extraordinary, not an excuse to act on autocratic instincts.

The question, “Is this legal?” therefore can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. As the Supreme Court’s looming ruling on Trump’s “emergency” tariffs portends, some actions may survive judicial review; others may not.

But the long-term risk is not just that Trump might be doing something illegal. The long-term risk is that his presidency is normalizing treating the receipt and disbursement of money as instruments of personal power. Were this happening under a Democratic administration, congressional Republicans would be outraged. Instead, they’ve collectively buried their heads in the sand. If and when a future Democratic administration takes advantage of the precedents being set by Trump, they’ll have only their own willful cowardice to blame.

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

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Saturday, February 21, 2026 7:23 AM

SECOND

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


Feb. 20, 2026, 9:51 PM CST

The Department of Justice fired longtime litigator James Hundley from his appointment to interim U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, just hours after federal judges unanimously appointed him to the position.

Chief U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck signed off on Hundley's appointment Friday evening and administered the oath of office in Richmond, Virginia, according to court documents.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X shortly after, announcing Hundley had been fired.

Hundley's appointment to the Eastern District of Virginia followed the departure of Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who left the job in late January after a federal judge ruled that she held the role unlawfully.

Halligan, who was a former insurance attorney with no prosecutorial experience, led unsuccessful cases against New York Attorney General Leticia James and former FBI Director James Comey, both perceived Trump foes.

Federal law allows judges to appoint a U.S. attorney if a presidential nominee has not been confirmed within 120 days of their appointment.

This is not the first time the Justice Department has fired a U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges.

In July, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Desiree Leigh Grace after she was appointed as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Grace was set to succeed the state's interim U.S. attorney, Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump.

Just last week, a New York prosecutor was fired by the Justice Department the same day he had been appointed by federal judges to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Veteran attorney Donald Kinsella — who had been appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York — told NBC News that he was fired after receiving an email from the White House stating that the “president directed that I be removed."

In both cases, federal judges appointed U.S. attorneys after a judge had ruled that the interim U.S. attorney appointed by Trump was serving in the role unlawfully.

Hundley has more than 30 years of experience litigating complex criminal and civil cases, having represented clients in state and federal courts across Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland. He has successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has been appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to serve as a Council Member at Large to the Virginia State Bar.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/deputy-ag-fires-
interim-us-attorney-rcna260012



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

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Saturday, February 21, 2026 7:53 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

GM Gilbert was the chief psychologist who interviewed Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. His words are as valid today.

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

https://mike-scialom.medium.com/a-short-history-of-evil-f379da5723f7

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

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Saturday, February 21, 2026 12:06 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Trump lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.



Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

GM Gilbert was the chief psychologist who interviewed Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. His words are as valid today.




No they aren't. You've completely destroyed the meaning of the word Nazi.

Its 2026. If you feel the need to bring the word Nazi into any argument, it means that you've already lost said argument.




Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.


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Sunday, February 22, 2026 8:50 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.


After Hitler was dead, the place names honoring him were changed back.

Feb 21, 2026

Trump’s naming mania has attached itself to Palm Beach International airport, just a few miles from his Mar-a-Lago Club. The Miami Herald reported this week that a bill to rename the facility as Donald J. Trump International Airport is quickly moving through the state Legislature and destined for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature to be signed into law. But Trump could be getting more than just ego gratification from the renaming. The newspaper said that even before the bill won approval in the Florida House, a Trump Organization affiliate called DTTM Operations LLC filed applications to trademark the new airport name.

The newspaper said the trademarks “would cover dozens of goods and services, according to the applications, including airport buses, parking garages, suitcases and more.” Trademark attorney Josh Gerben said in his blog that trademark applications for airport names are typically filed by the government entities that own the airports, not private citizens or companies. He called the trademark filing “completely unprecedented” and noted that it might put the Trump Organization in a position to charge licensing fees for the use of the Trump name. https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/trumps-private-company-files-trademark-
for-president-donald-j-trump-international-airport
/

For now, we can only sit back and ponder the significance of a sitting President filing a trademark application with his own intellectual property office to protect the name of an airport he is pressuring politicians to rename.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/travelers-southwest-revenues-213
67582.php


Hitler had too much dignity to trademark his name and profit from it, unlike Trump, making him better than Donald.

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

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Sunday, February 22, 2026 9:11 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.


After Hitler



Shut the fuck up.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, February 22, 2026 12:07 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

DOJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as federal officers’ lies are exposed in court

Department of Justice prosecutors across the US have suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in their aggressive pursuit of criminal cases against people accused of “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers.

In recent months, the federal government has relentlessly prosecuted protesters, government critics, immigrants and others arrested during immigration operations, often accusing them of physically attacking officers or interfering with their duties.

But many of those cases have recently been dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts.

In several high-profile cases, the prosecutions fell apart because they relied on statements by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers that had no supporting evidence or in some instances were proven by video footage to be blatantly false.

Criminal defense lawyers said it was unusual for federal prosecutors to pursue a high volume of charges over minor clashes with law enforcement, and that it was extraordinary to see the DoJ lose case after case across jurisdictions.

Still, the costs for defendants, even if ultimately exonerated, have been enormous, with many having their mugshots blasted by the government and some forced to languish in jail or have criminal charges hang over them for weeks and months.

The most recent significant fumble came from Minneapolis prosecutors, who last week dismissed felony assault charges they had filed against two Venezuelan men accused of “violently beating” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer “with weapons” on 14 January.

In a press release issued after their arrest, the DHS had described the men as “violent criminal illegal aliens”. The department said officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop to detain an undocumented man from Venezuela, and as he “began to resist and violently assault the officer”, two other men came out of a nearby apartment and “attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle”. The officer shot one of them in the leg.

Two of the men were arrested and charged, with a 16 January affidavit providing a vivid account of them attacking an officer identified as ERO 1, referring to ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. But on 12 February, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss both men’s cases, saying: “Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit.”

The motion, which a judge granted, sought to have the cases dismissed “with prejudice”, meaning the government could not re-file charges.

ICE director Todd Lyons said ICE and the DoJ had opened an investigation into the case after videos revealed “sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements”, marking a rare acknowledgement of possible wrongdoing by DHS officials.

“It is very unusual for the government to move to dismiss its own case with prejudice,” Frederick Goetz, a lawyer for one of the men, said in an interview. He praised the government for launching investigations: “If you make false statements to a federal agent, that is a crime.”

Continue reading at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/doj-protesters-federal
-agents-cases


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

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