Real World Event Discussions
Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 39 of 479
Thursday, February 13, 2025 12:57 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh, do you now?
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Go back over a 100 years and a man like Trump would be with a medicine show. They travelled from town to town fleecing people out of their money with whatever they had made.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this elixir will cure whatever ails you. Sir, do you have lumbago? Well, sir what's in this bottle will get rid of that right away."
And people would give him their money and the next time they had an ache or whatever they would take some and wait and wait for it do something for them and it never would. The salesman was just taking their hard earned money. Sometimes these shows were run out of town by the local law if there was any and sometimes the people trying to get their money back once they realized they'd been conned.
And that is all Trump is.
Perhaps you're only hearing one side of the story, purposefully framed in a particular way.
Unlike Joe Biden* who probably only spoke in front of cameras about 100 hours within 4 years, Trump has already been filmed talking that much in 3 weeks.
He's not hiding anything. In fact, I think he's been pretty brutally honest about everything.
You can watch hours upon hours of what he has to say.
But if all you've heard is a few soundbytes here and there, then you're only hearing things framed in such a way to make you have that opinion without you being aware of it.
There is a reason why more minorities voted for Trump than any Republican in history. Quite a few, actually.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 2:15 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh, do you now?
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Go back over a 100 years and a man like Trump would be with a medicine show. They travelled from town to town fleecing people out of their money with whatever they had made.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this elixir will cure whatever ails you. Sir, do you have lumbago? Well, sir what's in this bottle will get rid of that right away."
And people would give him their money and the next time they had an ache or whatever they would take some and wait and wait for it do something for them and it never would. The salesman was just taking their hard earned money. Sometimes these shows were run out of town by the local law if there was any and sometimes the people trying to get their money back once they realized they'd been conned.
And that is all Trump is.
BRENDA, which is worse: having a blowhard salesman in office who really believes in making your nation better? Or a smooth-talking salesman who's under undercutting your nation at every step?
Bc I think you underestimate Trump. I know he sounds like a blowhard salesman, but I also believe that he's sincere, about wanting to make America better.
After all, if he was in it for himself, would he have persisted after years of being unfairly villified as a "Putin stooge", and BEING SHOT?
Yes, he's a billion-dollar real estate developer and TV personality with galloping ADHD, so how else do you expect him to sound?
There are things that I think he's wrong about. Being joined at the hip with Israel's genocidal program makes me angry. And in the end I don't believe he can fix our economy the way he wants; I think it would take running roughshod over our own set of oligarchs. But if he manages to control our borders, end our "forever wars" and our ceaseless regime change" operations, stop our unconstitutional censorship and snooping into everyone's lives, and stop the sexism and racism that we practice in the name of "equality" I think we'll be in far better shape. Maybe if a real diversity of opinions is allowed we can craft better policies.
Also, you were wrong about what "liberalism" accomplished. For example, many women sent to work during WWII since there was a labor shortage at home. Don't you remember Rosie the Riviter?
When men came home from war, women were expected to forget all that, put on an apron, and go back into the kitchen.
It was all economics and geopolitics.
BTW that was a nice piece of writing.
----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 3:50 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Well, Trump has to provide Ukraine with sufficient weapons to win. Trump can't collect his $500 billion bribe until after Ukraine wins because Russia would simply bomb the mineral extraction operations during the war. By the time Ukraine wins, Trump might be out of office, unless Trump is super generous with the amount of ammo he sends.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Sounds like a good deal to me.
What did your guy get for all of the military aid that he gave Ukraine?
Oh right. We paid them to take it.
Part of the rug pull.
The war is basically already over. And he's got Child Rapist Zelensky to just agree to give us $500 Billion, which should more than cover the tab so far.
With the war over, Zelensky can not give Trump the $500 billion bribe. Maybe Putin will give Trump the $500 billion bribe? Or maybe Putin will keep the money for himself. Putin did invade Ukraine to steal its wealth and the $500 billion worth of minerals is part of that wealth.
We will see if Trump realizes that with Russia winning, the American weapon makers can't make money and Trump can't either.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 3:54 PM
The guy Trump released has plenty of money to pay Trump for the release secretly.
Kremlin Embarrasses Trump With Truth About U.S. Teacher Marc Fogel’s Release
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the school teacher’s freedom was “not in return for anything.” “There wasn’t some deal here where we had to release, like, 10 spies,” Rubio added.
The deal Donald Trump brokered with Russia to release American school teacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday was, in fact, a prisoner swap — even though the president had tried to suggest otherwise.
The Russian man freed in the deal is Alexander Vinnik, 45, who stands accused of laundering billions through the digital currency exchange website he ran. Vinnik, who ran the exchange BTC-e, was extradited to the U.S. after being arrested in Greece in 2017. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in May 2024.
Trump on Tuesday evaded questions about what exactly the U.S. gave up to free Fogel. The president would only repeat his evaluation that the deal was “very fair.” “I think there’s good will, in terms of the war,” Trump said. “I think this … could be a big, important part in getting the war over.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-embarrasses-donald-trump-with-tr
uth-about-marc-fogels-release/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 4:59 PM
Quote:Co-President Elon Musk is also selling snake oil:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Oh, I know Trump is a snake-oil salesman because of the way he talks.
Elon Musk Is Faking It
He thinks Americans are stupid. The fraudster who cried “fraud”
Did you hear the one about how USAID spent $50 million — or was it $100 million? — providing condoms to Hamas? This claim played a big role in the public relations campaign to rationalize the sudden, illegal dismantling of an agency that provides humanitarian aid to millions of people, and is also a key element of US foreign policy.
Reporters were puzzled by the claim because there didn’t appear to be any evidence. You will be happy to know that the mystery has been solved. Some DOGE staffers noticed that USAID had disbursed grants to local groups trying to limit the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in Gaza. But they didn’t read far enough in to learn that the Gaza in question isn’t the war-ravaged strip; it’s a province in the African nation of Mozambique. Oh well, southern Africa, the Middle East, what’s the difference?
Elon Musk actually admitted the mistake, albeit with minimal grace, during his extraordinary Oval Office press conference with President Trump on Tuesday. (Trump hasn’t acknowledged the error.) That conference consisted mainly of Musk pacing around, declaiming, while Trump sat passively at his desk, occasionally expressing agreement. Musk behaved as if he were the actual president and Trump merely a heavily made-up prop.
Anyway, the incident demonstrated the level of care and understanding that DOGE is bringing to its alleged mission of identifying waste, fraud and abuse.
But both Trump and Musk insisted that DOGE has already found billions, maybe tens of billions, of waste and fraud. Here’s a complete list of the specific examples Musk gave during the press conference:
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
That’s right: Musk has yet to offer any specific examples of government waste. The closest Musk came to specifics was his assertion that DOGE had done
Quote:Is this true? Can we have some names please? It wouldn’t be a violation of privacy if the people are already dead.
just cursory examination of Social Security, and we got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone that's 150? I don't know. They should be on the Guinness Book of World Records. So that's a case where I think they're probably dead.
Musk also asserted that
Quote:Is this true? What are these peoples’ stories, if they exist? Sorry, Elon, but why should we believe you when the obvious explanation is that you are taking us for fools?
there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position, which is what happened at USAID
I am, however, sure that Musk knows that DOGE’s efforts to find waste and fraud have come up empty. If he had anything real to talk about, he would.
Whether Trump realizes that Musk is faking it is less clear. But as Tuesday’s event showed, it’s not clear whether Trump matters at this point.
In any case, Musk imagines that he can con the American people, that he can keep his racket going by talking fast and throwing around what sound like big numbers.
And I wish I were sure that he’s wrong.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/elon-musk-thinks-americans-are-stup
id
Bring Your Children to Work Day in the Oval Office
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 5:52 PM
Quote:
The following are 12 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind…
#1 According to Google AI, our nation has lost almost 70,000 factories since the year 2000…
The United States has lost nearly 70,000 factories since 2000. This is part of a larger decline in the US manufacturing sector that has also resulted in the loss of over 5 million jobs.
#2 In July 1979, 19.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today, only 12.8 million Americans have manufacturing jobs even though our population is much larger than it was in 1979.
#3 According to a survey that was recently conducted by the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. has lot more than it has gained from free trade.
#4 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. At the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, manufacturing represented only 11.5 percent of all U.S. economic output. Today, manufacturing represents just 10.3 percent of all U.S. economic output.
#5 More than a billion cellphones are sold worldwide each year. Only a few thousand of them are actually manufactured in the United States.
#6 The size of our trade deficit with China in 2024 was $295,000,000,000.
#7 At this point, China produces approximately 4 times as many vehicles each year than the United States does.
#8 In the early days of the industry, 100 percent of all semiconductors were manufactured in the United States. Today, that number is down to just 8 percent.
#9 Russia is producing three times as many artillery shells as the U.S. and Europe combined.
#10 The United States spends approximately $3.00 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.
#11 Our stores are absolutely overflowing with products that are made in China. Meanwhile, soybeans are the number one export from the U.S. to China.
#12 More than 36 million Americans are now living in poverty, homelessness in the U.S. is at an all-time record high, and demand at food banks in the U.S. is at record levels all over the nation.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 7:10 PM
Quote:Farmers cast their votes for Trump. Now Musk’s cuts are hitting them.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA(N Farmers)
By Simon Montlake | Feb. 13, 2025, 5:15 a.m. ET
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0213/elon-musk-trump-voter
s
It’s no exaggeration to say that America’s farmers helped put Donald Trump in the White House. Of the 444 counties classified as farm-dependent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of which are located west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies, Mr. Trump won all but 11 last November.
But now, some of these same communities are reacting with a sense of dismay and concern as they watch the Trump administration dismantle federal agencies and freeze Biden-era financing programs that directly impact their own economic livelihood.
Farmers who sell surplus crops to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for overseas distribution are fretting about future purchases and calling their state delegations. Business owners that qualified for USDA grants and invested in renewable energy technology and climate-resistant crops are unsure if they will be paid. Contract lawyers are getting involved.
“When you start ripping wires out of the federal government ... the unintended consequences could be strong and unexpected,” says Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire.
Impact on farmers
Farmers who signed contracts with the USDA under programs funded by President Joe Biden’s 2022 clean energy law, the Inflation Reduction Act, are now calling on lawmakers to defend them. The law provided grants and loan guarantees for farmers to invest in renewable energy systems and plant crops that could withstand climate change. After Mr. Trump signed an executive order to rescind Biden-era initiatives, the USDA and other agencies were instructed to freeze funding in order to comply with new policies.
Among the funds frozen by the Trump administration is a $3 billion program called the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities. The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) said last week that its members were at financial risk because of suspended reimbursements.
Farmers “are contractually owed $11 million for practices implemented in 2024,” the association’s president, Brent Swart, wrote in a letter to Iowa’s congressional delegation, all of whom are Republicans. “We ask for your support in advocating USDA honor its contractual obligation to ISA and its commitment to Midwestern farmers.”
Skylar Holden, a cattle farmer in Missouri, said he had invested in new fencing and a well on his farm after signing a $240,000 contract with the USDA to share costs, and had been told that he would have to wait on reimbursement. In a series of TikTok videos, he said he’d already spent more on materials for further improvements on his farm, including for water systems, and was counting on the promised federal funding. “I’ve already done a bunch of the work, already paid for the material and the labor, so I’m out all that cost,” he said.
In addition to the funding freeze, farmers also stand to lose out from Mr. Musk’s dismantling of USAID, which distributes food aid globally, including U.S.-grown crops. Republicans in Congress are reportedly preparing legislation to salvage a $1.8 billion USAID crop-purchasing program by transferring it to the USDA. The bill’s sponsors include GOP lawmakers from Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Arkansas. The program, called Food for Peace, is the largest donor of food to the United Nations’ World Food Programme.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump fired the inspector general of USAID, a Biden appointee, after he issued a report that detailed how DOGE’s abrupt dismissal and recall of employees made it impossible to guarantee safe delivery of food aid.
At some point, Mr. Musk’s “sledgehammer approach” to government programs could become a political liability for Republicans, warns Mr. Wylie, the GOP strategist who is based in South Carolina.
GOP lawmakers who don’t assert c
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 7:29 PM
Quote:I'm not gonna correct you, Signym, because you never understand anything, but I will point out that manufacturing is following the same path that farming did. What path? Fewer farms and farmers and yet more food. Fewer factories and factory workers and yet more manufactured goods.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
The following are 12 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind…
#1 According to Google AI, our nation has lost almost 70,000 factories since the year 2000…
The United States has lost nearly 70,000 factories since 2000. This is part of a larger decline in the US manufacturing sector that has also resulted in the loss of over 5 million jobs.
#2 In July 1979, 19.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today, only 12.8 million Americans have manufacturing jobs even though our population is much larger than it was in 1979.
#3 According to a survey that was recently conducted by the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. has lot more than it has gained from free trade.
#4 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. At the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, manufacturing represented only 11.5 percent of all U.S. economic output. Today, manufacturing represents just 10.3 percent of all U.S. economic output.
Millions of farmers have lost their jobs. That must mean Americans are starving! Or maybe not. A whopping 40% of all food grown and produced in the U.S. is never eaten. Farming accounts for about 1% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
https://www.fb.org/newsroom/fast-facts
Percentage of Labor Force in Agriculture
1860 53%
1870 52%
1880 51%
1890 43%
1900 40%
1910 31%
1920 26%
1930 21%
1940 23.1%
1950 15.2%
1960 8.7%
1970 4.7%
1980 2.7%
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/stat
istics-trends-american-farming
The oats for my oatmeal breakfast were grown in Canada. Oh my goodness! Canadians are stealing American farm jobs and they could starve us if they wanted to. Grow Oats In America To Make America Great Again!
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 10:10 PM
Quote:With the war over, Zelensky can not give Trump the $500 billion bribe. Maybe Putin will give Trump the $500 billion bribe? Or maybe Putin will keep the money for himself. Putin did invade Ukraine to steal its wealth and the $500 billion worth of minerals is part of that wealth.
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Well, Trump has to provide Ukraine with sufficient weapons to win. Trump can't collect his $500 billion bribe until after Ukraine wins because Russia would simply bomb the mineral extraction operations during the war. By the time Ukraine wins, Trump might be out of office, unless Trump is super generous with the amount of ammo he sends.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Sounds like a good deal to me.
What did your guy get for all of the military aid that he gave Ukraine?
Oh right. We paid them to take it.
Part of the rug pull.
The war is basically already over. And he's got Child Rapist Zelensky to just agree to give us $500 Billion, which should more than cover the tab so far.
We will see if Trump realizes that with Russia winning, the American weapon makers can't make money and Trump can't either.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Trump doesn't need to make any money. He isn't a career Democrat who got rich rapeing the American Public.
Speaking of which, Nancy had better make sure her passport is up to date.
We're looking into how these rich politicians made their money next.
Tick Tock
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thursday, February 13, 2025 10:43 PM
'The Trump Swamp Is Growing': President Fires Ethics Chief as DOJ Moves to Drop Eric Adams Charges
"Nothing says corruption like firing the top ethics cop on the beat," said Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics as his administration — packed with billionaires and riddled with conflicts of interest — abandons even the pretense of opposing corruption and lawlessness, a course underscored by the Justice Department's push to drop bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The removal of OGE chief David Huitema was announced in a brief statement on the office's website, which was inaccessible as of Tuesday morning.
By Jake Johnson | Feb 11, 2025
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fires-ethics-director
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME