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 91 of 479
John Cleese
Putin’s pompous mouthpiece Lavrov has, of course, done a complete obligatory volte-face about America. Someone should ask him why, if Western Europe is now Russia’s sole enemy, his daughter ( by his mistress ) chooses to live in England
https://substack.com/@johncleese/note/c-98613934
More from https://johncleese.substack.com/notes
John Cleese
I note Trump has made English the official language of America. He needs to be careful. It he demands that it be spoken properly, he will lose most of his voters
John Cleese
A New Zealand official has been asked to resign because he said he doubts whether President Trump understands history. Of course he doesn’t. Knowing anything about history requires reading books, and the President has never read a book. But unfortunately, he is the king of ‘strong’ man who is hypersensitive to criticism
John Cleese
I see that Trump and his shoeshine boys are expecting an apology from Zelensky. Something along the lines of: ‘I’m really sorry Russia invaded us three years ago, and that we provoked them by trying to establish a democracy’ ?
John Cleese
I’m quite surprised at how many sensible people wonder, like me, if Putin doesn’t have something on President Trump. If it WAS true, what would have been happening that isn’t happening now ? This is an inquiry made in complete seriousness. Abuse will not count as evidence, for or against
John Cleese
Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy advances the theory that people of low socio-economic status do not want anyone in charge who is smarter then they are. Is that why we finished up with Trump ?
John Cleese
7d
I don’t expect that the MAGA fans know much about WW2, even if Trump’s billionaires do. After the war ended in 1945, there was a consensus that Hitler had become more and more belligerent because, every time concessions were made to him, it encouraged him. ‘Appeasement’ was always to be avoided when dealing with aggressive dictators.
We know that Putin regards 1989, when the USSR collapsed, as the worst thing that has ever happened in world history, and that his ambition is to restore the old USSR and become the Russian all-time hero. His aim is to destroy democracy in all the European countries that have adopted it since the Berlin Wall came down, and install Communist dictatorships instead in a new USSR.
At this time, the President of the United States chooses to abandon all his European allies ( who are democratic ) and embrace these dictatorships - Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Hungary, Haiti and the Central African Republic, by voting with them all at the United Nations
Is it in the United States interest to line up with these dictators against Western democracies ?
Or is it just good business ?
John Cleese
Trump’s thinking is making me reconsider World War 2. All Britain had to do was to avoid that terrible [war] was to surrender to Hitler. Why on earth didn’t Churchill think of that ?
John Cleese
Feb 26
All the great philosophers and founders of religions have warned us about greed. I think I’m beginning to see why.
John Cleese
Feb 25
I’m glad Trump is playing so much golf. It always cheers me up, because I remember that Hitler shot himself in a bunker.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
John Cleese
Putin’s pompous mouthpiece Lavrov has, of course, done a complete obligatory volte-face about America. Someone should ask him why, if Western Europe is now Russia’s sole enemy, his daughter ( by his mistress ) chooses to live in England
https://substack.com/@johncleese/note/c-98613934
More from https://johncleese.substack.com/notes
John Cleese
I note Trump has made English the official language of America. He needs to be careful. It he demands that it be spoken properly, he will lose most of his voters
John Cleese
A New Zealand official has been asked to resign because he said he doubts whether President Trump understands history. Of course he doesn’t. Knowing anything about history requires reading books, and the President has never read a book. But unfortunately, he is the king of ‘strong’ man who is hypersensitive to criticism
John Cleese
I see that Trump and his shoeshine boys are expecting an apology from Zelensky. Something along the lines of: ‘I’m really sorry Russia invaded us three years ago, and that we provoked them by trying to establish a democracy’ ?
John Cleese
I’m quite surprised at how many sensible people wonder, like me, if Putin doesn’t have something on President Trump. If it WAS true, what would have been happening that isn’t happening now ? This is an inquiry made in complete seriousness. Abuse will not count as evidence, for or against
John Cleese
Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy advances the theory that people of low socio-economic status do not want anyone in charge who is smarter then they are. Is that why we finished up with Trump ?
John Cleese
7d
I don’t expect that the MAGA fans know much about WW2, even if Trump’s billionaires do. After the war ended in 1945, there was a consensus that Hitler had become more and more belligerent because, every time concessions were made to him, it encouraged him. ‘Appeasement’ was always to be avoided when dealing with aggressive dictators.
We know that Putin regards 1989, when the USSR collapsed, as the worst thing that has ever happened in world history, and that his ambition is to restore the old USSR and become the Russian all-time hero. His aim is to destroy democracy in all the European countries that have adopted it since the Berlin Wall came down, and install Communist dictatorships instead in a new USSR.
At this time, the President of the United States chooses to abandon all his European allies ( who are democratic ) and embrace these dictatorships - Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Hungary, Haiti and the Central African Republic, by voting with them all at the United Nations
Is it in the United States interest to line up with these dictators against Western democracies ?
Or is it just good business ?
John Cleese
Trump’s thinking is making me reconsider World War 2. All Britain had to do was to avoid that terrible [war] was to surrender to Hitler. Why on earth didn’t Churchill think of that ?
John Cleese
Feb 26
All the great philosophers and founders of religions have warned us about greed. I think I’m beginning to see why.
John Cleese
Feb 25
I’m glad Trump is playing so much golf. It always cheers me up, because I remember that Hitler shot himself in a bunker.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
I care much more about what Rowan Atkinson would think today, given that he was actually putting his career on the line to stand up for Freedom of Speech in the UK, as it's been under even greater attack there than it was here up until the Democratic Party eradicated itself from American politics.
I don't remember Mr. Cleese doing that.
Wise words, and the complete antithesis of the Democratic Party over the last 12 years.
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OMG.
RUSSIA!
HITLER!
RUSSIA!
HITLER!
WWII!!
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"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
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Quote:
DHS Ends TSA Collective Bargaining After Bombshell Finding Of 'More Full-Time Union Workers' Than Airport Screeners
According to the report, The TSA has more people doing "full-time union work" vs. performing actual screening functions at 86% of US airports. Put another way, 374 out of 432 federalized airports have fewer than 200 TSA Officers to perform screening functions, while the rest are paid by the government but work "full-time on union matters" and do not retain certification to perform screening....
What's more, DHS cited a recent TSA employee survey which found that over 60% of "poor performers" are allowed to stay employed and "not surprisingly, continue to not perform."
... DHS Ends TSA Collective Bargaining After Bombshell Finding Of 'More Full-Time Union Workers' Than Airport Screeners ...
No wonder they gutted the NLRB first.
The problems this article cites are MANAGEMENT problems, not union problems. Keeping on poor performers and excess employees?
Fire the management. THEY'RE NOT COVERED BY A UNION, IT SHOULD BE EASY TO DO THAT
I was a supervisor in a government agency. It was difficult to get long-term poor performers fired, but it was possible. I worked with HR and manager. You just had to go thru all the steps.
And AFA excess staff... again, it was within management's authority to defund positions. This seems a case of gross mismanagement.
-----------
"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
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So, to get back to the problem of reindustrialization ....
Re-industrialization requires sacrifice.
Even in the most equitable of societies, development ... or redevelopment ... requires that at least some portion of the workforce be dedicated to making factories and infrastructure ... work that doesn't lead to immediate production of the goods or services. So people overall will be working harder without an immediate improvement in living standards.
China is an example of successful development. (They followed the Japan model). Start by making cheap goods for export using low-wage labor: plastic crap for Walmart, Nike shoes etc then climb the value ladder (Bosch tools, computer chips etc) For quite a while, the workforce conditions were pretty grim: factory/ dormitories with suicide netting, unsafe working conditions full of chemical exposure etc. And despite what people think, the money wasn't creating a class of rich entrepreneurs, it was (mostly) being plowed back into further development.
Russia is an example of successful reindustrialization. In Russia's case, they had to first corral the gangster-oligarch class (get them out of politics), and then partially re-nationalize major resources (oil, gas, electricity, telecom, aeronautics etc) usually by becoming majority shareholder in major industries. The government also loaned money in sectors such as farming that needed further development. However, note that Russia's internal economy didn't take off until it was divorced from western companies and finance.
By withdrawing western companies from Russia and cutting off Russian banks from western finance, that forced profits to be reinvested in Russia instead of being constantly drained off to the west.
I think there's a lesson in there for us as to where are real economic problems come from. It's not Dems or Repubs, not the deep state, not even inefficient government. Its the constant draining away of capital by the already wealthy, with the complicity of our government. .
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"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
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We should find a way to be building houses too.
REAL houses. Not the bullshit McMansions I used to help remodel back in the day.
You'd get these stupid sized houses with 5 or 6 bedrooms, and they'd all be bought by boomer retirees, or very close to retirement. Every one of them came with a bathroom bigger than my Master Bedroom, and they had a huge step-up Jacuzzi that they were terrified to use without any bars. I can't even tell you how many huge walk-in showers with all the extras we put in those things after ripping those beautiful Jacuzzis out. Broke my heart every time because here I was, 22 year old idiot that I was, just dreaming of owning a bathroom setup like that one day... and it was the first thing they all removed.
And I don't even understand the desire of having houses that big at any age, but especially at that age. Some of these people were paying over $20k per year in property taxes. I don't even want to know what it costs to heat those things in the winter. One of the most common styles saw one half of the house wide open from the front door all the way to the back glass doors and a ceiling that peaked at 20 feet tall. All of the upper bedrooms and bathrooms surrounded that opening.
Why????????
We need 2 bedroom / 1.5 bathroom houses and we need a lot of them.
How do you make it affordable to build these again? They're not getting built because they can't even be sold for enough money to offset the costs of materials and labor.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:How Giant White Houses Took Over America
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
We should find a way to be building houses too.
REAL houses. Not the bullshit McMansions I used to help remodel back in the day.
You'd get these stupid sized houses with 5 or 6 bedrooms, and they'd all be bought by boomer retirees, or very close to retirement. . . .
We need 2 bedroom / 1.5 bathroom houses and we need a lot of them.
How do you make it affordable to build these again? They're not getting built because they can't even be sold for enough money to offset the costs of materials and labor.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
They’re huge. They’re unsightly. They’re everywhere. When one went up next door, I went on a quest for answers.
By Dan Kois | March 06, 2025 5:40 AM
https://slate.com/business/2025/03/houses-real-estate-luxury-sale.html
Across America, in neighborhoods just like ours, the ubiquity of the Giant White House signifies a neighborhood evolving from one for the middle class to one for the sort of rich to one for the very rich.
The House may be occupied by a Republican or a Democrat, but whoever they are, they are rich. Once the house next door was finished, it went on the market for $2.5 million. The house has five bedrooms and six baths and is 5,600 square feet. According to the listing, it has top-end appliances and European Oak Select Grade hardwood and heated floors in the en suite bath and a wet bar in the basement.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump killing PEPFAR means killing millions of people
By Kelsey Piper | Mar 8, 2025, 6:00 AM CST
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/402944/pepfar-hiv-donald-trump-elon
-musk-global-health
About a million people will die terrible deaths every single year for the foreseeable future if PEPFAR doesn’t get reversed. All to save 0.08 percent of the budget.
Some of the 20 million people we threw off their lifesaving medication will find other sources, but many won’t. And every day, 1,400 babies will be born with HIV who would otherwise be HIV-free if we hadn’t frozen the programs meant to help their mothers.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump says Putin launching massive strike on Ukraine is ‘what anybody would do’
US president says he finds Russia easier to deal with than Ukraine after cutting off intelligence and weapons to Kyiv
By Andrew Roth in Washington and Luke Harding in Kyiv | Fri 7 Mar 2025 13.23 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/trump-says-it-is-easie
r-to-deal-with-russia-and-putin-wants-to-end-the-war
Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities on Friday in the wake of the US decision to halt intelligence sharing with Ukraine that had helped it target incoming fire.
Asked whether the Russian leader was taking advantage of the pause in US intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine, Trump replied: “I actually think he is doing what anybody else would do.”
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said: “We’re doing very well with Russia. But right now they’re bombing the hell out of Ukraine.”
He added: “I think he [Putin] wants to get it stopped and settled and I think he’s hitting them harder than he’s been hitting them and I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now.”
The Numbers:
Russian forces conducted one of the largest ever missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of March 6 to 7 as Russian forces continue to adapt strike packages to overwhelm Ukraine's air defense umbrella by increasing the total number of Shahed and decoy drones in each strike. Russian forces launched the largest combined strike package against Ukraine since November 2024 on the night of March 6 to 7.[1] The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched 67 missiles including 35 Kh-101/Kh-55 cruise missiles, eight Kalibr cruise missiles, three Iskander-M/Kn-23 ballistic missiles, four S-300 air defense missiles, eight Kh-59/69 cruise missiles, and 194 Shahed and decoy drones.[2] The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces downed 25 Kh-101/Kh-55 cruise missiles, all eight Kalibr cruise missiles, one Kh-59/69 cruise missile, and 100 Shahed and decoy drones and that 86 decoy drones and up to 10 missiles did not reach their targets, likely due to Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) interference.
Russian Drone and Missile Strikes on Ukraine January 1, 2025 - March 7, 2025
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-7-2025
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump Is Nero While Washington Burns
By Claude Malhuret | March 8, 2025, 7 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/03/claude-malhe
uret-speech/681947/
Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, the French senator Claude Malhuret gave a powerful speech about the implications for Europe of the reversal of American policy toward Ukraine. Malhuret is the former mayor of the town of Vichy as well as a doctor and an epidemiologist, and the former head of Doctors Without Borders. He is a member of the center-right Horizons party representing the district of Allier. The speech, whose dark urgency and stark rhetorical force made it a social-media sensation, follows, translated and adapted by The Atlantic.
Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.
This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you.
The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.
Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to the enemy. Never has one supported an aggressor against an ally, issued so many illegal decrees, and sacked so many military leaders in one go. Never has one trampled on the American Constitution, while threatening to disregard judges who stand in his way, weaken countervailing powers, and take control of social media.
This is not a drift to illiberalism; this is the beginning of the seizure of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution.
Read: How Hitler dismantled democracy in 53 days https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/hitler-germany-const
itution-authoritarianism/681233/
I have confidence in the solidity of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in the four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator; now we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor.
Eight days ago, at the very moment when Trump was patting French President Emmanuel Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the United Nations with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Two days later, in the Oval Office, the draft-dodger was giving moral and strategic lessons to the Ukrainian president and war hero, Volodymyr Zelensky, before dismissing him like a stable boy, ordering him to submit or resign.
That night, he took another step into disgrace by halting the delivery of promised weapons. What should we do in the face of such betrayal? The answer is simple: Stand firm.
And above all: make no mistake. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic states, Georgia, and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to the Yalta Agreement, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.
The countries of the global South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe, or whether they are now free to trample it.
What Putin wants is the end of the world order the United States and its allies established 80 years ago, in which the first principle was the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.
This idea is at the very foundation of
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