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 84 of 479
Trump's Strategic Crypto Reserve to Hold Assets Backed by His Crypto Czar
By Jesus Mesa | Mar 03, 2025 at 9:51 PM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/david-sacks-crypto-reserve-donald-trump-bitco
in-solana-2038902
David Sacks, a billionaire venture capitalist who backed Trump during the 2024 campaign, was appointed to oversee crypto policy.
Sacks has invested in Bitwise Asset Management. Notably, Bitwise's top holdings include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Cardano — the exact assets named by Trump for inclusion in the strategic reserve.
Sacks forcefully denied any conflict of interest. (He is lying but the Dept. of Justice will not be investigating because Musk fired the investigators.)
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
Trump has made at least five Moscow-friendly moves just in the last two weeks.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/04/trump-russia-ukraine-policy-pro-putin
1. The White House asked Treasury and State to identify sanctions on Russia that could be loosened as part of the process of improving relations, Reuters reports.
• Trump didn't deny that Monday, telling reporters: "We want to make deals with everybody."
2. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered U.S. Cyber Command to suspend offensive cyber and information operations against Russia.
• The suspension is intended to last as long as negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war play out, officials told the Washington Post.
3. Trump has called for elections in Ukraine, and he and his allies suggested after the Oval Office spat that Zelensky might need to go.
• Regime change in Kyiv was one of Putin’s original objectives for invading. It remains unlikely he'll be able to install a Kremlin stooge any time soon.
• Still, Trump’s comments denouncing Zelensky — and his moves to freeze him out after the meeting — have weakened the position of a leader the Kremlin has long sought to discredit internationally.
• Reality check: Ukraine has been under martial law since the invasion began, and its constitution does not allow for elections in such a scenario.
4. The U.S. voted with Russia and 16 other mostly authoritarian countries to oppose a UN resolution last week that condemned Russia's "aggression" in Ukraine.
• The Biden administration repeatedly used such votes to depict Russia as a pariah state. This time, the U.S. voted with Moscow and against nearly all its Western allies.
5. Suspending weapons shipments — which the Trump administration had already dramatically slowed — is the latest dramatic step.
• Billions of dollars of equipment committed under Biden were in different stages along the delivery pipeline, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.
• Zelensky told NBC’s "Meet the Press” last month that Ukraine had only a "low chance to survive” without U.S. military support.
• Trump and his team have also discussed whether to limit U.S. intelligence cooperation with Ukraine.
The big picture: Trump's friendliness toward Putin isn't a new phenomenon. Investigations into the president’s ties to Russia dogged much of his first term, and pursuing revenge for the "Russia hoax" has become core to MAGA’s political identity.
• Trump pushed back Monday on the notion that his foreign policy matches the Kremlin’s, pointing to the fact that Russia’s past invasions — Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, and all of Ukraine in 2022 — took place while he was out of his office.
• "Under President Trump they got nothing, and under President Biden they tried to get the whole thing. If I didn't get in here they would have gotten the whole thing,” Trump argued.
• The White House, Pentagon, State Department and Treasury all declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump is outraged that Ukraine won’t surrender to his friend Putin.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/trump-zelenskyy-end-ru
ssia-ukraine-war
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US,” Trump continued.
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
Trump Hates Canada
By Paul Krugman | Mar 04, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-hates-canada-for-its-decency
. . .
The newspapers this morning all contain analysis pieces trying to explain why Trump is imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You can see the writers struggling because this is a profoundly self-destructive move — it will impose huge, possibly devastating costs on U.S. manufacturing, while significantly raising the cost of living — without any visible justification. Yet the conventions of mainstream journalism make it hard to say directly that the president’s actions are just vindictive and senseless.
To its credit, the New York Times analysis comes closest, acknowledging that for some reason Trump personally loathes Canada, a nation most of the world stereotypes as “nice.” Obviously not every Canadian is a nice person. But Canadians are relatively courteous on average, and the country’s social and economic policies are relatively decent by international standards.
And it seems clear to me that Trump hates them for their decency.
To be fair, there are some efforts to explain what’s happening that go beyond Trump’s personal pathology. Some Canadians think Trump covets their mineral wealth. And there’s always the possibility that Trump knows how big Canada looks on standard maps, unaware both of the way that its land area is exaggerated by the Mercator projection and the fact that much of it is tundra, and thinks, “Real estate!”
Trump also goes on about Canada’s trade surplus with the United States, which he keeps saying is $200 billion a year — it’s actually less than a third of that size. And nobody has offered a coherent justification for his claim that when Canada sells us cheap oil and electricity, we are somehow subsidizing them.
In any case, efforts to find some kind of economic justification for Trump’s Canada-hatred have the feeling of desperate efforts to avoid the obvious. Canada is a pretty decent place, as nations go. And Trump, whom nobody would describe as a decent person, dislikes and maybe even fears people who are.
I mean, look at the people Trump has chosen to play prominent roles in his administration. I guess if you search hard enough you can find officials without a sex scandal, a financial scandal, a history of anti-semitism or racism, or a record of substance abuse in a senior position. But it isn’t easy. It really looks as if being vile is a fundamental job qualification.
And so we’re having a trade war. Trump appears to believe that we don’t need anything from Canada. Automobile manufacturers who rely on Canadian parts, Midwestern oil refineries that rely on Canadian oil, builders who rely on Canadian lumber, and households that rely on Canadian hydropower for their electricity will soon learn otherwise.
Trump may imagine that he can bully Canada into submission. But he can’t; Canadians of all political persuasions are furious. Doug Ford, the conservative premier of Ontario, has the right attitude: he has threatened to cut off U.S. electricity “with a smile on my face.” And remember that Canada can’t concede to U.S. demands, even if it were in a mood to do so (which it very much isn’t) because there aren’t any coherent U.S. demands; Canada has done nothing wrong!
So I don’t know how this ends. But U.S. voters will soon be feeling real pain, and I very much doubt that it will end in a Trump victory.
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
Trump’s honeymoon is over
by Christian Paz | Mar 4, 2025, 6:00 AM CST
https://www.vox.com/trump-administration/402337/trump-presidential-hon
eymoon-is-over-unpopular-approval-rating-disapprove
How this unraveling happened is no great mystery: Views of the economy, and Trump’s handling of it, have taken a negative turn, and Americans largely think that the president isn’t giving enough attention to the issues that they care about. Paired with controversial policy positions, the perceived influence of Elon Musk, and a pretty small mandate to begin with, the public’s turn against Trump is right on time.
The CBS/YouGov poll finds that Trump’s reforms of the government are breaking through — some 81 percent think he’s making major changes — but a plurality say that those changes are “for the worse.”
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
As Trump halts aid to Ukraine, EU unveils $840 billion defense investment "ReArm Europe" plan
By Haley Ott | March 4, 2025 / 8:27 AM EST
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-war-trump-eu-defense-inves
tment-rearm-europe-plan/
"What will count most of all is how far the U.K. and Europe are prepared to help Ukraine in defiance of the U.S."
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
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
As Trump halts aid to Ukraine
Good. Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
America Using Domestic Food Supplies As Statecraft Tool Faces Pressures
Monday, Mar 03, 2025 - 06:20 PM
Tariff D-Day arrives tomorrow, with President Trump set to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. The timing comes as US imports of agricultural goods hit record levels, far outpacing exports. The new levies risk driving up imported food costs, which could heavily weigh on consumer sentiment and pressure cash-strapped households.
The US Department of Agriculture warned in its trade outlook report last week that the nation's agricultural trade deficit could hit a record high this year, forecasted at around $49 billion. Meanwhile, the US continues to lose market share in key agricultural markets worldwide. In other words, exports are declining while record volumes of food are being imported into the country.
"It's a stark turnaround for a nation that once used its abundant food supplies as a tool of statecraft, with the US now facing a future of persistent agricultural trade deficits," Bloomberg wrote in a report.
The inflection point for the ag trade deficit began in 2019 but exploded under the Biden-Harris regime and will continue in Trump's second term.
Trump's next round of tariffs is set to take effect on Tuesday, imposing 25% levies on all imports from Canada and Mexico (and 10% on China). This move could further strain cash-strapped consumers, with prices of everything from avocados to coffee to cocoa to sugar, beef, orange juice, eggs, and all other imported ag goods from those countries set to move higher.
At the same time, China's state-backed Global Times warned that tomorrow's next round of tariffs could prompt Beijing to impose countermeasures on US ag exports. If enacted, the US would continue to lose out on one of the largest ag markets.
Bloomberg noted that the only other annual deficits besides 2019, 2020, 2023, and 2024 occurred several years before 1960.
America's ability to maintain the world's top ag exporter spot appears to be waning, which may only suggest that its ability to use food as a tool of statecraft also wanes in a world that is fracturing into a multi-polar state.
-----------
"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that 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
Quote:I mean, look at the people Trump has chosen to play prominent roles in his administration. I guess if you search hard enough you can find officials without a sex scandal, a financial scandal, a history of anti-semitism or racism, or a record of substance abuse in a senior position. But it isn’t easy. It really looks as if being vile is a fundamental job qualification.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
As Trump halts aid to Ukraine
Good. Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Trump named the fathers-in-law of two of his children to senior government positions—Massad Boulos, the Lebanese-born dad of Tiffany Trump’s husband, will be Trump’s senior Middle East adviser, and Charles Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law and a seven-figure Trump donor, will be nominated for Ambassador to France. The Kushner appointment, in particular, was the kind of Trump troll that might have, at another, less frenetically troubled time in our history, caused an uproar. In 2004, Kushner pleaded guilty to eighteen counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering; during the case, it emerged that he had hired a prostitute in an attempt to entrap a brother-in-law who Kushner feared was ratting him out. Chris Christie, the former Trump ally who prosecuted Kushner, called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had handled as a U.S. Attorney. Trump, on his way out of office in 2020, pardoned Kushner. Now, in elevating him to one of America’s premier diplomatic postings, Trump has managed to both insult our oldest ally and flout whatever remaining standards there are for holding a senior U.S. position. “In the madness of Trump’s nominations, there is expressed the near total contempt for human respect, customs and the law,” Gérard Araud, who was the French Ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s first term, said in response.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-scand
al-of-trumps-cabinet-picks-isnt-just-their-personal-failings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kushner#Nomination_as_U.S._ambas
sador_to_France
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
Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer writes, that for this president, the personal is often political: “Trump gets along with Putin personally, while Trump believes (correctly) that most European leaders neither like nor respect him.”
“It’s really unthinkable that the leader of the United States would act this way,” said Sasha de Vogel, a political scientist and Russia specialist at the University of North Carolina. “It’s incredibly bizarre to see the leader of the United States celebrating Putin and making decisions that play directly into the hands of Russia, which is not our ally, and which considers us their enemy. I would expect to see Russia trying to take every advantage that they can.”
https://www.vox.com/russia-ukraine/402389/trump-putin-russia-ukraine
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
counter attacks, Trudeau hits back with his own tariffs and sanction
Tariffs are a very dumb thing to do, Canada's Trudeau tells Trump as stock markets fall
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvgpdk4257zt
Stock Market Collapse
Trudeau: 'Canada will be implementing 25% tariffs against C$155 billion worth of American goods'
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME