BrownCoats; America Is Being Turned Into An Authoritarian State; What, You Don't Care? by THG

Keep it real please

BrownCoats; America Is Being Turned Into An Authoritarian State; What, You Don't Care?

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Thursday, October 23, 2025 7:15 PM

Shut the fuck up, idiot.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 23, 2025 7:58 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I guess he's hoping for a response from the ppl he says aren't lurking.

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

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Thursday, October 23, 2025 8:34 PM

We just had a President that shut down the world for over 2 years and forced people to take vaccines by threatening their ability to provide for themselves and their family, and the guy who hasn't started any foreign wars or done a single authoritarian act against American Citizens is the Authoritarian.

I'm just sick of his hypocrisy and his shit. He's so fucking stupid and annoying.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 24, 2025 6:44 AM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
BrownCoats; America Is Being Turned Into An Authoritarian State; What, You Don't Care?

Of course we care.
After almost 2 decades of authoritarian Libtard Obamination devastation, we continue to fight against it.
After the past half decade of authoritarian Libtard Lord Darth Obiden destruction, we continue to fight against it.

What took you so long to finally get a clue?

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Sunday, October 26, 2025 7:19 PM

Keep it real please

SCARY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

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Sunday, October 26, 2025 9:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

THGR'S mind is only cartoon- capable.

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

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Wednesday, October 29, 2025 9:27 AM

Keep it real please

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

THGR'S mind is only cartoon- capable.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 1:49 PM

Keep it real please

MAGA not only supports this. They are the ones doing it.

T

TRUMP'S KEYHOLE PEEPERS

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Friday, October 31, 2025 4:15 PM

Stop protecting illegals and there isn't a problem.

Period.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 6:30 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Stop protecting illegals and there isn't a problem.

Period.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 7:00 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Stop protecting illegals and there isn't a problem.

Period.

Trump is murdering illegals, but he is not bragging about how many are killed. It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/23/nx-s1-5538090/ice-detention-custody-imm
igration-arrest-enforcement-dhs-trump

It got real when Trump began executing people rather than arresting them. At least 61 people have been killed on 15 vessels at sea. There is even a wiki page keeping track of how many people Trump murders:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_military_strikes_on_a
lleged_drug_traffickers

Nazis kept secret how many people Hitler murdered, but Trump is proud of his murders. He brags!

Getting Away with Murder

Trump has now ordered the killing of at least seventeen people on the high seas—with no accountability.

By David Cole | October 23, 2025 issue

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/10/23/getting-away-with-murder-t
rump-strikes/

During his first presidential campaign Donald Trump famously claimed that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose any voters. At the time it felt like an empty boast. No more.

Between September 2 and September 19 the US military, acting on President Trump’s orders, bombed three boats traveling in international waters, reportedly killing seventeen civilians in cold blood. Ordinarily when US armed forces kill civilians, the president does not brag about it, yet Trump is apparently so proud of the executions that he posted video footage of them on Truth Social. And while ordinarily the killing of any civilian prompts investigations and apologies, in this instance the administration has promised only that there are more to come. “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America,” Trump said during his speech at the UN General Assembly on September 23, “please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.”

There was no conceivable legal authority for these killings. We are not at war with drug traffickers. The “war on drugs” is a metaphor, not a legal term of art that authorizes killing the “enemy.” The human beings on these boats were civilians, and even if there were an actual war going on, the laws of war prohibit targeting civilians unless they are directly engaged in hostilities. Even if the boats’ occupants were, as the administration alleges, carrying illegal drugs, that offense would at most have authorized their arrest, trial, and, if convicted, incarceration for a period of years. It would not authorize the death penalty, much less their summary execution without trial.

Trump has called the dead “narcoterrorists” and has asserted that the eleven killed in the first strike were associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a “foreign terrorist organization.” But that designation authorizes only economic sanctions against the group, such as freezing their assets, and criminal penalties against Americans who do business with them. It does not authorize any use of military force, much less the intentional lethal targeting of civilians.

The boats did not pose any conceivable threat to the United States requiring lethal force. They were found on the high seas, reportedly coming from Venezuela. The first boat, according to The New York Times, had turned around before it was bombed, and the military reportedly continued to bomb it even after it had been disabled. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that they could have interdicted the vessel, but said that instead they bombed it to send a message: “This president is not a talker; he’s a doer—he’s going to do it.”

Trump has maintained that drug cartels kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, presumably through overdoses, and that other nations are not doing enough to stop the trade. The result, he insisted in a letter to Congress after the first strike, is that “we have now reached a critical point where we must meet this threat to our citizens and our most vital national interests with United States military force in self-defense.” But the fact that drugs are a scourge in the US in no way gives the president the authority to start killing drug dealers—here, abroad, or at sea. And it is farcical to cite “self-defense” to justify bombing these ships to smithereens, without even a shred of evidence that they threatened to attack us.

In the absence of any conceivable military justification for these acts, it is difficult to view them as anything but premeditated murder, pure and simple. Federal law makes it a crime to kill a human being “with malice aforethought” on the high seas, and to conspire to do so. As my Georgetown Law colleague Marty Lederman, a former Justice Department official in the Office of Legal Counsel, has explained in an essay on the website Just Security, not only is it “questionable whether the President had any affirmative legal authority to order” the attack, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that, “absent further facts that haven’t yet been disclosed, the strike would appear to have implicated the federal felony murder statutes.”

Maybe “most alarming,” in Lederman’s estimation, is how dramatically these killings break from the Defense Department’s stated commitment, required by international law, not to target civilians, even in wartime. Indeed, Trump’s actions are so indefensible that even John Yoo, who as a Justice Department official authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture against suspected al-Qaeda detainees, and who takes about as robust a view of executive authority over national security as anyone, has seriously questioned the legal basis for the strikes, insisting that it is dangerous to blur the line between law enforcement and war.

But the White House couldn’t care less. This was made crystal clear when Vice President J.D. Vance, ever the good learner at the foot of his boss, posted on X that “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.” When Brian Krassenstein, a critic of the Trump administration, replied that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” the vice-president of the United States responded, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”

This is not normal. Prior presidents have invoked war authorities on dubious grounds to justify the use of lethal force and other unlawful measures, as when Ronald Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada on the pretense of protecting Americans in medical school there, or when George W. Bush asserted the authority to disappear suspected al-Qaeda terrorists into secret CIA “black sites” and torture them, or when Barack Obama resorted to drones to assassinate suspected members of al-Qaeda or ISIS. Each questionable exercise of executive authority eases the way for further expansions. But never before has a US president asserted the authority to order the cold-blooded execution of civilians outside any even arguable military conflict. And never before has a US president then turned around and boasted about his own crimes to the public at large. If the president can order the summary killing of drug dealers on the high seas, why not elsewhere—say, Mexico, or Chicago?

Now a draft bill is reportedly circulating in Congress and the White House that would expressly authorize Trump to execute more “narcoterrorists,” a veritable license to kill civilians without trial. The fact that the White House and its allies are considering such a bill only underscores the absence of existing authority for the strikes. Such a blank check, moreover, would not change the fact that targeting civilians who are not directly engaged in combat is illegal under international law. It would just make Congress complicit in Trump’s crimes.

When the Supreme Court last year granted President Trump absolute immunity from any criminal prosecution for “official” acts taken while in office, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in her dissent that the Court was giving presidents a green light to kill. Trump has now apparently acted on that opportunity — by his own count, on at least three separate occasions. Yet, in keeping with his 2016 campaign boast, as far as we can tell Trump has not lost any support to speak of as a result. Indeed, amid the White House’s barrage of daily assaults on the rule of law, the killings seem barely to have registered on the nation’s conscience.

So much of what Trump has done since taking office is beyond the pale that it’s easy to lose track. He’s pardoned the January 6 rioters, even those convicted of violent attacks on police. He’s invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority, to summarily deport Venezuelans, even though we are not at war with that country. He’s dismantled agencies that Congress established, and refused to spend billions of dollars that Congress directed him to spend. He’s tried to deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants, in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. He’s used pretextual charges of antisemitism to target universities he considers too liberal, and imposed blatantly unconstitutional penalties on law firms for filing cases or hiring attorneys he does not like.

But since long before the founding of this nation, the law has recognized that in the hierarchy of illegal and immoral acts, premeditated murder sits at the very apex. The US remains one of the only democracies to continue to employ the death penalty, a punishment most of the world has rejected as cruel and unusual. But at least there are limits on that sanction. It can only be imposed for homicide (not drug smuggling), and only after a full trial and a robust round of appeals. The hapless—and thus far nameless—persons on board the boats that Donald Trump literally had blown out of the water this month did not even get that.
—September 25, 2025

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

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Friday, October 31, 2025 7:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Stop protecting illegals and there isn't a problem.

Period.
Trump is murdering illegals, but he is not bragging about how many are killed. It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse

You should probably leave now then. Don't want to end up in ICE custody.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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

Friday, October 31, 2025 7:27 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Stop protecting illegals and there isn't a problem.

Period.
Trump is murdering illegals, but he is not bragging about how many are killed. It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse

You should probably leave now then. Don't want to end up in ICE custody.

6ix, Trump is murdering people who are hundreds of miles outside of the USA. No place is safe from his killing rampage:

Trump Administration Admits It Doesn’t Know Who It’s Killing In Boat Strikes

Officials acknowledged they don’t know the identities of the people they’re killing and can’t meet the evidentiary burden to prosecute survivors.

By Nick Turse | October 31 2025, 4:30 p.m.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/31/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-unpri
vileged-belligerants/

The Trump administration has made a series of startling admissions about the people it is killing in its undeclared war against suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Trump officials acknowledged in separate briefings provided to lawmakers and staffers on Thursday that they do not know the identities of the victims of their strikes, and that the War Department cannot meet the evidentiary burden necessary to hold or try survivors of the attacks. Such victims who find themselves in the water are now deemed “unprivileged belligerents,” a murky designation under international humanitarian law.

Since September 2, the U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 60 civilians. The Trump administration insists the slayings are permissible because the U.S. is engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” or DTOs. Two government officials told The Intercept that the administration secretly declared a “non-international armed conflict” weeks before the first attack of the campaign.

Trump has justified the attacks, in a War Powers report to Congress, under his Article II constitutional authority as commander in chief of the U.S. military and claimed to be acting pursuant to the United States’ inherent right of self-defense as a matter of international law. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has also produced a classified opinion that provides legal cover for the lethal strikes.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trump-offers-first-legal-justific
ation-for-venezuela-boat-strike

Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress say the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement arrested suspected drug smugglers.

“We are not in an armed conflict with these cartels. And so this is just murder.”

The administration has no plans to seek an authorization for the use of military force similar to the 2001 AUMF, which authorized counterterrorism operations by the U.S. military against those responsible for 9/11, Pentagon briefers told lawmakers on Thursday. “Even if Congress authorized it, this would still be illegal under U.S. and international law because we are not in an armed conflict with these cartels,” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who attended the briefing, told The Intercept. “And so this is just murder.”

Jacobs said the Pentagon officials who briefed her on Thursday admitted that the administration does not know the identities of all the individuals who were killed in the strikes. “They said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessels to do the strikes,” Jacobs told The Intercept. “They just need to show a connection to a DTO or affiliate.”

Three people are known to have survived the U.S. attacks: two on an October 16 strike, and one during a series of attacks on October 27. But none have been prosecuted for the supposed drug smuggling for which Trump claims the right to summarily kill them. “They said they could not actually hold or try the individuals that survived one of the attacks — in our country or one of the repatriating countries — because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden,” said Jacobs. “It led some to speculate that there’s a higher evidentiary standard to hold someone than to kill them, which is problematic.”

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson did not reply to questions about why the Department of War is unwilling to positively identify the people it is killing and cannot satisfy the evidentiary burden necessary to hold or prosecute suspects.

Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, noted that Trump administration’s inability to identify the people it is killing “certainly undermines the labelling of these individuals as ‘narco-terrorists.’”

Jacobs and other government officials who spoke to The Intercept conjectured that the administration may not want to reveal its sources and methods of determining that the targeted craft are smuggling drugs. “These individuals don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It’s not worth it. If it’s not the leader of the cartel, you’re not burning your sources,” said one government official, referring to so-called top secret sensitive compartmented information involving human sources and signals intelligence integral to the U.S. attacks.

Three government officials who spoke to The Intercept said that the Pentagon deems survivors of strikes in the water to be “unprivileged belligerents,” a term for those who are not entitled to immunity from prosecution for lawful acts of war and do not benefit from prisoner of war status if they fall into enemy hands. The term has been used to designate members of a non-state armed group in a non-international armed conflict. Experts noted that the designation was used during the global war on terror for Al Qaeda and associated groups.

“The problem with DoD calling cartels ‘unprivileged belligerents’ is that the U.S. is not actually in a non-international armed conflict — a legal term of art that, to be applicable, requires specific facts that just aren’t the current reality — and so cannot lawfully use lethal force as a first resort,” said Sarah Harrison, who advised military leaders on extrajudicial killings in her former role as associate general counsel at the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel, International Affairs. “Notwithstanding the fictional narrative being pushed by the White House, the U.S. is not in a war with these groups and the people DoD is targeting are civilians who should be afforded due process.”

Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, did not reply to a request for comment about the reasons behind the War Department’s use of unprivileged belligerent status for attack survivors.

The Thursday House briefing was led by Rear Adm. Brian H. Bennett, a military officer overseeing Special Operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff with assistance from Richard Tilley who serves as the acting assistant secretary of war for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Military lawyers had been scheduled to join them but were withdrawn at the last moment on orders from the Trump administration, according to two government officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity. As a result, the Pentagon officials were unable to provide a full explanation of the legal basis for the military strikes.

“At a classified HASC briefing on recent counternarcotics operations in the Pacific and Caribbean, the Pentagon pulled its lawyers — the exact people who would supply a legal justification for these strikes — from the briefing with no notice,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., explained. “If the Trump Administration thinks these strikes are legally justified, hiding from Congress sends the opposite message.”

“I found their justification for what they’re doing so flimsy that it makes the case for the Iraq War look like a slam dunk,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It was that bad.”

The Pentagon has been withholding key information about the attacks and the list of DTOs for almost two months. During a Wednesday press conference, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, blasted the Trump administration for conducting a secret briefing on the legal rationale for the strikes for a select group of Republican senators on Wednesday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio had assured Warner that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion would be provided.

“Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous. Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party,” Warner said in a statement. “This partisan stunt is a slap in the face to Congress’ war powers responsibilities and to the men and women who serve this country. It also sets a reckless and deeply troubling precedent. The administration must immediately provide to Democrats the same briefing and the OLC opinion justifying these strikes, as Secretary Rubio personally promised me that he would in a face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill just last week.”

Two government officials told The Intercept that a select group of lawmakers were able to see the OLC opinion and list of DTOs in a restricted setting on Thursday, following Warner’s press conference. Warner’s office did not return a request for comment about whether he was one of those lawmakers.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., believes that there may be “dozens” of DTOs. Jacobs agreed. “Dozens is the range,” she told The Intercept.

Jacobs, despite her role on the Intelligence and Special Operations subcommittee, has yet to see either the Justice Department opinion or DTO list. “They told us is that they’re working on getting the OLC memo, the list of DTOs, and one or two other things that we’d asked for over to us, but that they wouldn’t give us a timeline,” she said.

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

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Friday, October 31, 2025 8:01 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I guess killing people in speedboats is different from droning wedding parties in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Quote:
Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert
-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush/

Where were you then, SECOND?

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

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Friday, October 31, 2025 10:07 PM

No shit, right?

We're fucking tired of your bullshit and fake outrage, Second.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, November 3, 2025 3:51 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No shit, right?

We're fucking tired of your bullshit and fake outrage, Second.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

Yeah, especially since SECOND advocates extra-judicial killing in the form of "two bullets to the head".

What a hypocritical pearl-clutching Karen.

-----------

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 4:12 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No shit, right?

We're fucking tired of your bullshit and fake outrage, Second.

Yeah, especially since SECOND advocates extra-judicial killing in the form of "two bullets to the head".

What a hypocritical pearl-clutching Karen.

Did American social workers, psychiatrists, and philosophers parachute into Germany to persuade the Nazis with words? Or was it American killers sent in with bullets and bombs?

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 4:27 PM

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

Trump regime isn’t fascist, claims leading intellectual: It just looks that way

Opinion by Mike Lofgren | November 1, 2025

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-regime-isn-t-fascist-clai
ms-leading-intellectual-it-just-looks-that-way/ar-AA1PCE0I

Any critical examination of the Trump regime in relation to fascism must attempt to define fascism and compare it with what we are now enduring. What follows is a partial roster of policies, attitudes and habits usually common to the various strains of fascism. They can be present to varying degrees depending on the system, and the absence of one or more does not mean the system isn’t fascist:

National renewal: The country must be reinvigorated from its decadence by a kind of shock therapy; this trait is a function of an exaggerated nostalgia and a hatred of the present.

Nationalism and xenophobia: There are endless proclamations of national superiority and hatred of foreigners; yet despite this claimed superiority, wily foreigners are always seen to be getting the better of the national community.

Militarism, love of violence and machismo: Trump and Hegseth’s performance before the generals at Quantico offers a trenchant example.

Cult of the infallible leader: While the leader is of course indispensable, his supremacy and dominance would be impossible to maintain without the sycophancy and unquestioning obedience of millions of members of the national community.

Anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and feverish emotion: These traits best express themselves in a hatred of universities, science and learning more generally, and a superstitious embrace of faith, intuition and gut feelings.

Misogyny: This is the flip side of obligatory machismo, whereby women are not equal to men; their only value lies in conceiving and nurturing the chosen race.

Hatred of minorities: Fascism lacks a rationale and focus for its followers’ emotional intensity without an insidious internal enemy.

Cultural pessimism and an obsession with culture in general: This relates to fascism’s false nostalgia and its discomfort with the pluralism and nonconformity of liberal society.

Economic nationalism: This leads to a preference for tariffs and autarky in manufacturing, both as a symbol of strength and to isolate the country from foreign commercial and cultural influence.

Privileging of business interests and hostility to workers’ rights: This, however, is conditional on business leaders obediently supporting the regime (which they are mostly happy to do); paradoxically, it is conjoined with a loudly proclaimed but false populism and identification with the “working class.”

Hostility to parliamentary democracy: There is no need for a legislative body when the leader decrees the laws; nevertheless, fascist leaders typically maintain a Duma or a Reichstag as a marionette theater, a role for which Republican congressmen and senators are well suited.

Monumentalism, spectacle and kitsch: Fascist leaders need gargantuan physical symbols of their greatness (as in Hitler’s plan to transform Berlin into Germania); militarized parades and other gaudy spectacles also qualify, and both the architecture and the spectacles, as I have previously described, inevitably trend toward kitsch.

Lying as an existential need: Poland attacked the Third Reich. All true Ukrainians wish to join Mother Russia. Jan. 6, 2021, was a patriotic lovefest. Foreigners will pay the tariffs.

Nihilism: There are no enduring principles or values apart from the changeable whims of the leader; this annihilative impulse is contemptuous of human life and will ultimately lead to social and physical destruction, including widespread violence and death.

This is my own summary list, but it overlaps considerably with the characteristics of fascism described by Umberto Eco in an essay written 30 years ago. https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/s
ites/226/2015/12/Eco-urfascism.pdf

Having grown up in Mussolini’s Italy, Eco presumably knew what he was talking about. The reader can compare either summary with the current regime in Washington and decide whether Lilla is correct to exclude fascism as an inspiration for Trump and his paladins.

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 6:04 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No shit, right?
We're fucking tired of your bullshit and fake outrage, Second.

SIGNY:
Yeah, especially since SECOND advocates extra-judicial killing in the form of "two bullets to the head".
What a hypocritical pearl-clutching Karen.

SECOND:
Did American social workers, psychiatrists, and philosophers parachute into Germany to persuade the Nazis with words? Or was it American killers sent in with bullets and bombs?

Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination, you fascist.

-----------

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 6:08 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination and Trump with Hitler, you fascist.

For whom it may concern, Signym wants Russia to win and claims the Ukrainians are the Nazis.

Signym being sympathetic toward Russia:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12326
63#1232663

Furthermore, Signym was for ending USAID, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races:

How many died because USAID ended?
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+died+because+USAID+ended

As of late 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially ceased operations and been largely dismantled, with most functions transferred to the State Department

While the exact total number of deaths directly attributed to the agency's closure is still being tracked and modeled, researchers have made significant estimates of immediate and projected mortality increases due to the termination of aid programs:

Projected Deaths (by 2030): A major study published in The Lancet in mid-2025 estimated that the cuts could result in more than 14 million additional, avoidable deaths worldwide by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under the age of five.

Immediate Deaths (Tracked): As of October 1, 2025, a live "impact counter" created by a Boston University researcher estimated that over 526,610 deaths had occurred as a result of the immediate funding discontinuation across various health programs, including over 355,620 children.

Specific Programs:

The termination of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding freeze alone was projected to lead to millions of deaths over the coming years, with one estimate tracking an adult life lost every 3 minutes and a child every 31 minutes shortly after the cuts were implemented.

Cuts to global malnutrition programs are estimated to result in 163,500 additional child deaths per year.

In specific locations, individual cases of death have been documented after patients were discharged from now-unfunded clinics.

The Trump administration officials responsible for the closure, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk (who led the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which oversaw the cuts), have claimed that no one has died as a result of the changes. This claim is widely disputed by humanitarian organizations, researchers, and documented field reports.

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 6:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination and Trump with Hitler, you fascist.
For whom it may concern, Signym wants Russia to win and claims the Ukrainians are the Nazis.

Signym being sympathetic toward Russia:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12326
63#1232663

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

#Rootin4Putin

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, November 3, 2025 6:27 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

#Rootin4Putin

Furthermore, 6ixStringJack was for ending USAID, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races:

How many died because USAID ended?
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+died+because+USAID+ended

As of late 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially ceased operations and been largely dismantled, with most functions transferred to the State Department

While the exact total number of deaths directly attributed to the agency's closure is still being tracked and modeled, researchers have made significant estimates of immediate and projected mortality increases due to the termination of aid programs:

Projected Deaths (by 2030): A major study published in The Lancet in mid-2025 estimated that the cuts could result in more than 14 million additional, avoidable deaths worldwide by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under the age of five.

Immediate Deaths (Tracked): As of October 1, 2025, a live "impact counter" created by a Boston University researcher estimated that over 526,610 deaths had occurred as a result of the immediate funding discontinuation across various health programs, including over 355,620 children.

Specific Programs:

The termination of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding freeze alone was projected to lead to millions of deaths over the coming years, with one estimate tracking an adult life lost every 3 minutes and a child every 31 minutes shortly after the cuts were implemented.

Cuts to global malnutrition programs are estimated to result in 163,500 additional child deaths per year.

In specific locations, individual cases of death have been documented after patients were discharged from now-unfunded clinics.

The Trump administration officials responsible for the closure, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk (who led the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which oversaw the cuts), have claimed that no one has died as a result of the changes. This claim is widely disputed by humanitarian organizations, researchers, and documented field reports.

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

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Monday, November 3, 2025 9:11 PM

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

#Rootin4Putin
Furthermore, 6ixStringJack was for ending USAID

This is true.

Quote:
, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races.

This is false.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 1:31 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination and Trump with Hitler, you fascist

SECOND:
For whom it may concern, Signym wants Russia to win and claims the Ukrainians are the Nazis.

You're right about the Nazis in Ukraine.

Quote:
Furthermore, Signym was for ending USAID, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races

Wow, hysterical much?
You think people don't have any agency and can't survive without Uncle Sugar Daddy?
Yanno, maybe if we stopped "protecting" people to death they might actually survive.

Pity would be no more
If we did not make someone poor.

-----------

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 7:09 AM

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

The Big Smirk

The cruelty is the point, party edition

By Paul Krugman | Nov 04, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-big-smirk

There’s been plenty of scathing commentary about the lavish, Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party Donald Trump threw at Mar a Lago — a party complete with sequined, feathered dancers and, yes, a scantily-clad woman in a giant martini glass. The party, held just hours before 42 million Americans were about to lose federal food assistance, as 1.4 million federal workers are going without pay, was grotesque. It was also, like everything Trump, unspeakably vulgar.

But many commenters described the festivities as “tone deaf,” as if Trump didn’t realize how it would look to be holding such a party as tens of millions of Americans are facing severe hardship. C’mon. Of course he realized how it would look. He understood perfectly well that he was partying while ordinary Americans were suffering. And that understanding — combined with the belief that he can get away with it — was a big reason he enjoyed the event.

During Trump’s first term Adam Serwer wrote a justly celebrated article for The Atlantic titled “The cruelty is the point.” He argued that cruelty, and the joy some people take from inflicting cruelty, are what bind Trump’s most loyal supporters to him:

Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united.

Serwer was thinking of working-class and middle-class Trump supporters, many of whom are voting against their own economic interests. But you can see the same joy in cruelty, not just in Trump, but in most of his top minions, from Stephen Miller and JD Vance to Tom Homans, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth. All of them clearly take a smirking satisfaction in their ability to stick it to the poor and powerless.

What about the guests at the party? What about the oligarchs abasing themselves at Trump’s feet? Some of them may share in the cruelty of Trump’s inner circle. Most probably just don’t care about other people’s suffering, certainly not enough to risk Trump’s wrath by protesting or even failing to show up.

So, to repeat, the party at Mar a Lago wasn’t a case of tone deafness, living it up despite others’ suffering. It was in large part a party held to celebrate others’ suffering.

As it happens, the obscenity in Florida took place at a time when a number of centrist pundits were engaging in their favorite sport, berating Democrats for being out of touch with ordinary Americans. As usual, their critique seems to be aimed at a right-wing caricature of the party rather than actually existing Democrats. But in any case, has any important Democrat ever done anything as remotely out of touch as Trump’s Halloween bash?

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 7:40 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination and Trump with Hitler, you fascist

SECOND:
For whom it may concern, Signym wants Russia to win and claims the Ukrainians are the Nazis.

You're right about the Nazis in Ukraine.

Quote:
Furthermore, Signym was for ending USAID, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races

Wow, hysterical much?
You think people don't have any agency and can't survive without Uncle Sugar Daddy?
Yanno, maybe if we stopped "protecting" people to death they might actually survive.

I'm not surprised that a little old lady like Signym has an inner self that is depraved and supports killing children:

How many died because USAID ended? (Trump ended USAID. Congress provided the funds, but Trump won't spend the money.)
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+died+because+USAID+ended

Immediate Deaths (Tracked): As of October 1, 2025, a live "impact counter" created by a Boston University researcher estimated that over 526,610 deaths had occurred as a result of the immediate funding discontinuation across various health programs, including over 355,620 children.

Projected Deaths (by 2030): A major study published in The Lancet in mid-2025 estimated that the cuts could result in more than 14 million additional, avoidable deaths worldwide by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under the age of five.

Who supports Russia in the war against Ukraine? North Korea and China, which have killed millions of their own people. No surprise that Signym is on this side.
https://cissm.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/north-korean-genoci
de-nuclear-weapons-and-food-assistance

Who supports Ukraine in the war against Russia? The European Union, the UK, Switzerland, and Canada, none of which are murdering millions. Signym is NOT on this side.

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 10:02 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Don't attempt to conflate war with assasination and Trump with Hitler, you fascist

SECOND:
For whom it may concern, Signym wants Russia to win and claims the Ukrainians are the Nazis.

You're right about the Nazis in Ukraine.

Quote:
Furthermore, Signym was for ending USAID, a Trump policy that will kill millions, numbers higher than deaths in Hitler's concentration camps and his dreams of killing inferior races

Wow, hysterical much?
You think people don't have any agency and can't survive without Uncle Sugar Daddy?
Yanno, maybe if we stopped "protecting" people to death they might actually survive.
I'm not surprised that a little old lady like Signym has an inner self that is depraved and supports killing children:

How many died because USAID ended? (Trump ended USAID. Congress provided the funds, but Trump won't spend the money.)
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+died+because+USAID+ended

Immediate Deaths (Tracked): As of October 1, 2025, a live "impact counter" created by a Boston University researcher estimated that over 526,610 deaths had occurred as a result of the immediate funding discontinuation across various health programs, including over 355,620 children.

Projected Deaths (by 2030): A major study published in The Lancet in mid-2025 estimated that the cuts could result in more than 14 million additional, avoidable deaths worldwide by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under the age of five.

USA AID covers it's real mission with a thin smear of "good works" and a hefty covering of PR, but it's literally the State Department's regime change operation, along with NED. It's not surprising that establishment universities would puff up its importance and source of funding .

So, do you know what would save a lot more children than USA AID?
Stop supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza, stop destabilizing entire regions with "regime change" operations, end USA "whole nation" sanctions, forgive IMF and World Bank loans, end corporations ripping off.... well, everyone. Ending what we SHOULDN'T do is more effective than charity.

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not make someone poor".

That's us: making a lot of "someones" poor.

-----------

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 10:33 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

USA AID covers it's real mission with a thin smear of "good works" and a hefty covering of PR, but it's literally the State Department's regime change operation, along with NED. It's not surprising that establishment universities would puff up its importance and source of funding .

Signym, you are so special. The mental gymnastics you do to protect Trump are impressive, but he still killed hundreds of thousands of children because he wouldn't spend the money budgeted by Congress for USAID.

Signym, you've got a choice: either claim that the USAID money spent in the distant past saved no lives or that, starting once Trump was inaugurated, USAID money cannot save lives in the future, or maybe spending money on healthcare is always completely futile, with nobody's life being saved in all history, past, present, and future.

The Trump Administration’s Foreign Aid Review: Status of U.S. Global Maternal and Child Health Efforts

https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/the-trump-administrations-for
eign-aid-review-status-of-u-s-global-maternal-and-child-health-efforts/

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 10:53 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

the authority of the horde, uncivilized stoned alcoholic druggies and foreign alien gangs?

'Berlin is hell.'
https://x.com/RadioGenoa/status/1985572181263233167#m

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:23 AM

Keep it real please

SECOND, we’ve watched Signym defend every strong man on the planet over the years as they’ve suppressed their own citizens and brutalized others. She has always taken their side even as they’ve exposed themselves to be the worst of the worst.

The problem she has always had while posting here is that she has had to constantly deny facts. To make excuses for and deflect conversations away from their behaviors. To never hold them accountable as she does Western democracies. I’ve said it many times here. She exposes her lack of morals every time she does so.

Comrade Signym has been exposed repeatedly as a propagandist for Putin. She posts that Alex Krainer is “one of her fave analysts.” It’s a window into how her thinking is un-American. Krainer says something huge is about to happen. The video suggests it’s a deal between Trump and Putin.

In the video Krainer says a lot of ignorant things. Like suggesting Trump has the power to tell Europe to send all Russian funds frozen there to American banks. That’s how a dictator would act. He does a video, is Putin evil. In it he says Putin in general, is good for Russia.

At 11 minutes into the video, he talks about Trumps opinion that America has been Europe’s errand boy. When in fact it’s been the other way around. America has used soft power to influence our allies for decades. Europe and America both benefited. He talks about paying attention to Zelensky after a face to face with Trump. How his facial expressions suggested to him that Trump offered Zelensky a golden parachute, guarantied his safety. Implying Zelensky wanted that most of all. In the beginning America said it would get him out of Ukraine. He said he didn’t need a ride, “he needed ammunition.”

I found this quote in the garden thread signym because you insisted on playing games. You are still playing with my signature. I've taken a breath but if you continue, I will destroy both garden threads. Last warning...

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yeah, hubby is glued to the war in Ukraine. I can't avoid it if I want to be sociable. Also, there ARE some things I'm still interested in. But reading or listening to Trump ... I'm sorry, but it's just downright painful. So I follow what Alex Krainer (one of my fave analysts) says: Don't pay attention to what he says, pay attention to what he does in the long run. So I do.

T

Alex Krainer, you have to watch the video at YouTube.

“Nobody Expected This to Happen... | Alex Krainer”

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:35 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
In fiscal year 2024, the top recipients of USAID-managed funds were Ukraine,

where we overthrew the govt to turn it into an anti-Russian proxy

Quote:
Democratic Republic of Congo,

Oil and gas, friendly to Western money, IMF-dependent

Quote:
Jordan

a critical ally in the ME

Quote:
Ethiopia

"a strategic deployment of American resources to exert soft power and secure political leverage in Ethiopia“
https://addisfortune.news/the-intriguing-tale-of-u-s-investments-in-af
rica/

Quote:
and the West Bank and Gaza.

And yet, people are getting killed and being starved to death

-----------

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:40 AM

Keep it real please

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

THGR'S mind is only cartoon- capable.

SPEAKER JOHNSON HAS NO PLANS TO REOPEN THE HOUSE

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:43 AM

Keep it real please

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

SECOND, we’ve watched Signym defend every strong man on the planet over the years as they’ve suppressed their own citizens and brutalized others. She has always taken their side even as they’ve exposed themselves to be the worst of the worst.

The problem she has always had while posting here is that she has had to constantly deny facts. To make excuses for and deflect conversations away from their behaviors. To never hold them accountable as she does Western democracies. I’ve said it many times here. She exposes her lack of morals every time she does so.

Comrade Signym has been exposed repeatedly as a propagandist for Putin. She posts that Alex Krainer is “one of her fave analysts.” It’s a window into how her thinking is un-American. Krainer says something huge is about to happen. The video suggests it’s a deal between Trump and Putin.

In the video Krainer says a lot of ignorant things. Like suggesting Trump has the power to tell Europe to send all Russian funds frozen there to American banks. That’s how a dictator would act. He does a video, is Putin evil. In it he says Putin in general, is good for Russia.

At 11 minutes into the video, he talks about Trumps opinion that America has been Europe’s errand boy. When in fact it’s been the other way around. America has used soft power to influence our allies for decades. Europe and America both benefited. He talks about paying attention to Zelensky after a face to face with Trump. How his facial expressions suggested to him that Trump offered Zelensky a golden parachute, guarantied his safety. Implying Zelensky wanted that most of all. In the beginning America said it would get him out of Ukraine. He said he didn’t need a ride, “he needed ammunition.”

I found this quote in the garden thread signym because you insisted on playing games. You are still playing with my signature. I've taken a breath but if you continue, I will destroy both garden threads. Last warning...

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yeah, hubby is glued to the war in Ukraine. I can't avoid it if I want to be sociable. Also, there ARE some things I'm still interested in. But reading or listening to Trump ... I'm sorry, but it's just downright painful. So I follow what Alex Krainer (one of my fave analysts) says: Don't pay attention to what he says, pay attention to what he does in the long run. So I do.

Alex Krainer, you have to watch the video at YouTube.

“Nobody Expected This to Happen... | Alex Krainer”

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 12:49 PM

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

The Pivot To Confront China Was Really A Pivot To Work With Authoritarian China

By Phillips P. OBrien | Nov 4, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-pivot-to-confront-china-was
-really

Since Donald Trump’s first term, it has been widely stated he was keen to pivot to the Pacific and face down Chinese power in the region. It was one of the reasons we were widely told that Trump and his enablers wanted to cut aid to Ukraine, such as in this piece by Elbridge Colby put out by the Heritage Institute. In this brave, new Trumpian world, Ukraine was supposedly a distraction, a waste of US resources that were desperately needed in the Pacific to confront the Chinese behemoth that threatened the USA.
https://www.heritage.org/china/commentary/the-correct-conservative-app
roach-ukraine-shifts-the-focus-china

It was a fiction that, finally, the Trump administration has stopped spreading.

The idea that Trump wanted to take down China was, as I wrote more than a year ago, always a story that had only the most tenuous link with reality.

Trump has no real desire to confront China or, indeed, protect US allies in the Pacific against Chinese aggression. During the 2024 campaign, Trump surrogates amazingly started admitting that their get tough on China rhetoric was BS.

Trump’s number 1 priority in Asia has always been to reach a deal with China, to make money from China (which the Trump family does) and if US allies needed to be disregarded in the process, so be it. Indeed, it remains more likely that Trump would want to work with China (and Russia) to establish spheres of interest than to defend democracies against either power.

This was all on display last week, during Trump’s visit to Asia and his meeting (and agreements) with President of Xi of China. In the end, Trump caved in to the Chinese, accepted an inferior deal where the US had nothing it did not possess months ago, but at the same time offered China some major concessions.

There was a great piece by Paul Krugman yesterday that went into this. Basically, after all the Trump huffing and puffing, Trump has ended up putting the US in an inferior position vis-à-vis China. As Krugman points out, there is no real differential between the tariff rates that the US is asking of China versus the rest of the world.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/were-number-two

The concessions that Trump supposedly got from the Chinese were a return to the status quo ante—access to Chinese rare earth minerals and a Chinese statement that they will return to buying US soybeans. In exchange, China is being given greater access to some US high-tech.

In fact, the US is now in a situation where it will have higher tariffs on many of its old allies than it has on the Chinese is indicative of the reality and those allies had better understand the reality of the situation soon. In much the same way that the US should now be understood as a security liability for Europe, its unlikely that the US would fight for its allies in the Pacific.

Certainly, the Trump Administration has gone out of its way to de-emphasize the strategic importance of Taiwan. It very publicly turned down a $400 million arms sale to Taiwan in September. Moreover, Trump has bent over backwards for months to say that Taiwan is not particularly important to US security. In his interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump basically admitted that Taiwan is in China’s orbit, and that was that. Here was his only mention of Taiwan (except when he happily reported that microchip production was supposedly leaving Taiwan to come to the USA).

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This (Taiwan) never even came up yesterday, as a subject. He (Xi) never brought it up. People were a little surprised at that. He never brought it up, because he understands it, and he understands it very well. Taiwan is a very interesting case. It’s 69 miles away from China. We’re 9,500 miles away. But that doesn’t matter. He understands-- what will happen. He and I have spoken about it. But it was never even brought up during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting we had yesterday.

I’m sure, btw, that the Taiwanese were not reassured by this gushing homage to US-Chinese cooperation that was put out by Defense Secretary Hegseth right after meeting with his Chinese counterparts.

Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth
I just spoke to President Trump, and we agree — the relationship between the United States and China has never been better. Following President Trump’s historic meeting with Chairman Xi in South Korea, I had an equally positive meeting with my counterpart, China’s Minister of National Defense Admiral Dong Jun in Malaysia. And we spoke again last night. The Admiral and I agree that peace, stability, and good relations are the best path for our two great and strong countries. As President Trump said, his historic “G2 meeting” set the tone for everlasting peace and success for the U.S. and China. The Department of War will do the same — peace through strength, mutual respect, and positive relations. Admiral Dong and I also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and deescalate any problems that arise. We have more meetings on that coming soon. God bless both China and the USA!
10:21 PM • Nov 1, 2025 • 4.2M Views

Why this is so important is because the fate of Taiwan will determine the fate of the remaining US allies in the Asia-Pacific, particularly Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. If China were able to incorporate Taiwan and use it as a staging post of military equipment (think at a minimum, long-range anti-ship missiles), then the US would be almost powerless to help these three states get shipping in and out of their ports. The US facilities at Guam would be under threat of constant bombardment (as would those in Japan), meaning the US Navy would have to be based thousands of miles away. I wrote a piece about this in January.

If the Chinese take Taiwan, therefore, it's not like they would have to even go to war with Japan or South Korea — they would not need to. They could just threaten to cut Japanese or South Korean seaborne trade, and bring both states to their knees. Without access to international trade, the economies of both would collapse in short order.

And it's unlikely that this US administration would care that much.

So here we are. The pivot to confront China has been shown to be what it really is, a pivot to work with China. Hopefully, US allies in the region grasp this reality more quickly than some of their European counterparts.

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 3:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

SECOND, we’ve watched Signym defend every strong man on the planet over the years as they’ve suppressed their own citizens and brutalized others.

Well, that would also be Trump, Biden [*in reality Blinken and Sullivan], Obama, GW Bush [* in reality Cheney] and Clinton. Show me how they did NOT suppress their own citizens and brutaliz others?

Quote:
She has always taken their side even as they’ve exposed themselves to be the worst of the worst.

Putin and Xi materially and SIGNIFICANTLY benefitted their people. China, unlike India, raised almost a billion people out of poverty. Russia, prostrate under USA depredations, transformed itself into a modern, independent economy. Vastly improved living standards is the source of popular support, which is expressed in Russia in the form of electoral success. (China doesn't hold elections.)

Quote:
The problem she has always had while posting here is that...

I always have to deal with your lies and bullshit.

Quote:
To make excuses for and deflect conversations away from their behaviors. To never hold them accountable as she does Western democracies.

Have I ever posted an extended diatribe about France's policies, or Germany's, or Britain's, or any other "western democracy's" besides our own? I may make snide comments from time to time if I think they're doing something incredibly stupid, but I don't hold "western democracies" accountable any more than I hold Russia or China because they're not my country.

In fact, I'm not universally supportive of China, which I find alien and prone to strategic mistakes. But IMHO Russia, so far, has followed the best course for itself and its people since about 2000. Time will tell how successfully.

Quote:
Comrade Signym has been exposed repeatedly as a propagandist for Putin. She posts that Alex Krainer is “one of her fave analysts.” It’s a window into how her thinking is un-American. Krainer says something huge is about to happen. The video suggests it’s a deal between Trump and Putin.

When was the video posted?

Quote:
In the video Krainer says a lot of ignorant things. Like suggesting Trump has the power to tell Europe to send all Russian funds frozen there to American banks.

I don't recall him saying that. Please repost the link.

Quote:
That’s how a dictator would act. He does a video, is Putin evil.[i.e. "Is Putin Evil?"] In it he says Putin in general, is good for Russia.

Putin has been VERY good for Russians. That's a fact. That's how he built up a LOT of goodwill among Russians since 2000. If, over time, the war in Ukraine drains too much of that goodwill, he'll be voted out of office.

Quote:
At 11 minutes into the video, he talks about Trumps opinion that America has been Europe’s errand boy. When in fact it’s been the other way around. America has used soft power to influence our allies for decades. Europe and America both benefited.

Which direction had money been flowing since WWII? While the USA paid for most of Europe's "defense", European nations used that "peace dividend" to pay for healthcare, education, and social services. Britain SPECIFICALLY refers to itself as "the brain" directing USA "brawn".
And what have they done for us, really?

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He talks about paying attention to Zelensky after a face to face with Trump. How his facial expressions suggested to him that Trump offered Zelensky a golden parachute, guarantied his safety. Implying Zelensky wanted that most of all. In the beginning America said it would get him out of Ukraine. He said he didn’t need a ride, “he needed ammunition.”

You've never listened to someone with a different POV and, INSTEAD OF GETTING ANGRY you thought .. "Oh, how interesting!" ?

Krainer has a different POV and sees things we can't. But, like everyone, he's not 100%.

One thing I found interesting is his laser focus on Britain as the ultimate source of our hatred for Russia. Just as we innoculated post WWII European political elites with our agendas, Britain ... seeing the end of its Empire approaching... innoculated the USA with ITS agendas thru Oxford and Rhodes scholarships, the collaboration between Chatham House (Britain) and the Council on Foreign Relations, the collaboration between the BoE and The Fed, and between MI6 and the CIA. It's a story that goes back to about 1913.

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I found this quote in the garden thread signym because you insisted on playing games. You are still playing with my signature. I've taken a breath but if you continue, I will destroy both garden threads. Last warning...

Oh big fucking deal.

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T

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

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 6:35 PM

You two little pukes had 3 days worth of involuntary pent up hate to pour onto the board today, huh?

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:16 PM