Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
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There’s a pattern in Trump’s power grabs
By Zack Beauchamp | Mar 24,2025, 5:00 AM CDT
https://www.vox.com/politics/405489/trump-deportations-gang-pro-palest
ine-spech-power-grab
When engaging in unlawful or boundary-pushing behavior, the Trump administration has typically gone after targets who are either highly polarizing or unpopular. The idea is to politicize basic civil liberties questions — to turn a defense of the rule of law into either a defense of widely hated groups or else an ordinary matter of partisan politics.
The administration’s first known deportation of a green card holder targeted a pro-Palestinian college activist at Columbia University, the site of some of the most radical anti-Israel activity. For this reason, Columbia was also the first university it targeted for a funding cutoff. Trump has also targeted an even more unpopular cohort: The first group of American residents sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison was a group of people his administration claimed without providing evidence were Tren de Aragua gang members.
Trump is counting on the twin powers of demonization and polarization to justify their various efforts to expand executive authority and assail civil liberties. They want to make the conversation less about the principle — whether what Trump is doing is legal or a threat to free speech — and more a referendum on whether the targeted group is good or bad.
There is every indication this pattern will continue. And if we as a society fail to understand how the Trump strategy works, or where it leads, the damage to democracy could be catastrophic.
How Trump’s strategy works
To see this Trump strategy in action, watch White House aide Stephen Miller’s recent interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt.
During the interview, Hunt repeatedly presses Miller on whether the administration violated a court order by sending alleged Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador. Miller refuses to engage on that key issue of democratic principle. Instead, he repeatedly tries to reframe the debate around the necessity of confronting the gang, arguing that insisting on legal niceties means handing the country over to marauders.
“How are you going to expel illegal alien invaders from our country, who are raping [and] murdering little girls, if each and every deportation has to be adjudicated by a district court judge?” Miller argues. “That means you have no country. It means you have no sovereignty. It means you have no future.”
This, of course, is not a legal argument. If anything, it sounds like a parody of a political argument: “Oh, so you oppose sending people to be tortured in a Salvadoran prison camp without due process? Guess you must support Tren de Aragua killing little girls.”
But as absurd as this sounds, it’s proven to be a powerful form of logic — and not just in extreme cases like Nazi Germany.
In the years after 9/11, the Bush administration and its allies used similar arguments to discredit critics of its policies who have since been vindicated by events. Observers who warned of the threat to civil liberties from warrantless spying and Guantanamo Bay were dismissed as terrorist sympathizers. Iraq war skeptics were labeled Saddam apologists. This “you’re with us or against us” kind of moral blackmail worked on many, both at home and abroad.
The crucial role of partisan polarization
Of course, this kind of thing worked in the Bush era because there was so much hurt and anger among ordinary Americans in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. As much as many Americans may dislike Tren de Aragua or pro-Palestine campus protesters, there’s nothing like the level of public hysteria that we saw in the wake of one of the country’s greatest disasters.
Which is why the Trump administration’s rhetorical strategy also taps into another kind of dividing logic — the all-powerful force of partisan polarization.
The Trump administration’s rhetoric doesn’t just attempt to link their opponents in general to gang members and terrorists. They also attempt to link judges and oth
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Even I disapprove of the Democrats. Why? Because they (Biden is a particularly relevant example, but Chuck Schumer is another ) are acting like James Buchanan, the President just before the Civil War, the President who could have had the entire leadership of the Confederacy rounded up in Washington DC (where they were serving in Congress and talking openly of destroying America) and executed. But Buchanan wouldn't do a goddamn thing to stop those talkative traitors before they went on a rampage. The necessary job of burning slave owners' plantations and killing those traitors was left to Lincoln's Generals Grant and Sherman. Grant went on to be President and Sherman "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve" became the General of the Army rather than President.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Vanity Fair writing about white trash.
You Dems just keep right on becoming the party of the Elite and see where it gets you.
Under 30% approval in all Lefty media polls and dropping so far.
In 1888, Sherman called upon the South to "let the negro vote, and count his vote honestly", adding that "otherwise, so sure as there is a God in Heaven, you will have another war, more cruel than the last, when the torch and dagger will take the place of the muskets of well-ordered battalions".
Sherman's purpose in 1864: My aim then was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman#General_of_the_
Army
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Tough talk from a little pussy living in his mom's basement, helping usher in the final days of his dead party.
You lost. You are a loser. It's over.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
There’s a pattern in Trump’s power grabs
By Zack Beauchamp | Mar 24,2025, 5:00 AM CDT
https://www.vox.com/politics/405489/trump-deportations-gang-pro-palest
ine-spech-power-grab
When engaging in unlawful or boundary-pushing behavior, the Trump administration has typically gone after targets who are either highly polarizing or unpopular. The idea is to politicize basic civil liberties questions — to turn a defense of the rule of law into either a defense of widely hated groups or else an ordinary matter of partisan politics.
The administration’s first known deportation of a green card holder targeted a pro-Palestinian college activist at Columbia University,
WHAT HAPPENED
Quote:
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents...
The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests of the war in Gaza ...
Khalil is being held at an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, while he awaits immigration court proceedings. His arrest has drawn criticism that he’s being unfairly and unlawfully targeted for his activism while the federal government has essentially described him as a terrorist sympathizer.
Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to remain in the country bysupporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza and has been designated as a terrorist organization.
Khalil has not been convicted of any terrorist-related activity. In fact, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
But experts say the federal government has fairly broad authority to arrest and try to deport a green card holder on terrorism grounds...
So, Khalil hasn't been deported, but is awaiting a hearing in immigration court.
IDK what Khalil did, or didn't do. Trump initially said he was guilty of "antisemitism". IMHO “antisemitism“ isn't a crime. Later alleged guilty of "supporting' terrorists. Again, IMHO speaking in favor of Hamas isn't "support", it's an OPINION. However, it's possible that Khalil organized a VIOLENT protest. Like ANTIFA, that could constitute terrorist actions.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-protections-do-green-card-h
olders-and-foreign-students-have-in-the-u-s
Quote:
the site of some of the most radical anti-Israel activity. For this reason, Columbia was also the first university it targeted for a funding cutoff.
WHAT HAPPENED
Quote:
The Trump administration demanded several changes, including the university enforce its disciplinary policies, implement rules for protests, ban masks, announce a plan to hold student groups accountable, empower its law enforcement, and review its Middle East studies programs and its admissions.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/21/us/columbia-university-policies-funding
-dispute/index.html
I'm good with everything except the last part. Universities are supposed to be where you hear a variety of opinions (not, however, a diversity of facts) and meet different people.
Quote:If you're in the USA illegally, you can't be "law abiding" bc you've already broken the law. I don't have any problems with them being deported, whether they're gang members or not.
Trump has also targeted an even more unpopular cohort: The first group of American residents sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison was a group of people his administration claimed without providing evidence were Tren de Aragua gang members.
Quote:
Trump is counting on the twin powers of demonization and polarization to justify their various efforts to expand executive authority and assail civil liberties. They want to make the conversation less about the principle — whether what Trump is doing is legal or a threat to free speech — and more a referendum on whether the targeted group is good or badNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Greenland did not invite an American delegation to come visit this week, the self-ruling island’s government said Monday, flatly denying a claim made by President Donald Trump.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Tough talk from a little pussy living in his mom's basement, helping usher in the final days of his dead party.
You lost. You are a loser. It's over.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, will land in the Danish territory on Thursday, alongside National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The planned visit has been met with anger in Greenland, with outgoing Prime Minister Múte B. Egede calling it part of the U.S.’ “very aggressive” bid to seize the Arctic island.
“We are now at a level where this cannot in any way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife. … The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” he said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/24/greenland-trump-00246587
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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I DON'T ALWAYS INCLUDE REPORTERS IN UNSECURE WAR PLAN GROUP CHATS.
BUT WHEN I DO, IT'S BECAUSE I’M INCOMPETENT AND DRUNK.
- Pete Hegseth, chosen to be Secretary of Defense as a stunt to taunt the libs
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
By Jeffrey Goldberg | March 24, 2025, 12:06 PM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administrat
ion-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
This is going to require some explaining.
The story technically begins shortly after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, in October 2023. The Houthis—an Iran-backed terrorist organization whose motto is “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam”—soon launched attacks on Israel and on international shipping, creating havoc for global trade. Throughout 2024, the Biden administration was ineffective in countering these Houthi attacks; the incoming Trump administration promised a tougher response.
This is where Pete Hegseth and I come in.
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
The term principals committee generally refers to a group of the senior-most national-security officials, including the secretaries of defense, state, and the treasury, as well as the director of the CIA. It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on national-security matters, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.
One minute later, a person identified only as “MAR”—the secretary of state is Marco Antonio Rubio—wrote
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Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg
Today’s news of an astonishing security failure at the White House, from an operational security perspective, is the highest level of fuckup imaginable.
These people cannot keep America safe.
https://www.thedailypoliticususa.com/p/pete-buttigieg-destroys-trump-w
ith
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Just because he did two Nazi salutes on live television, designed a car that looks like a Nazi tank, supports Germany’s Neo-Nazi party, un-banned Neo-Nazis from twitter, and used a Nazi term to describe poor people, it doesn't mean he's…
OH LORD HE'S A NAZI
Well, his rich gramps wanted to get rid of Jews and coloured people. He's also named after a character from Das Marsprojekt by von Braun, an ideological member of Allgemeine SS. Von Braun's Elon was a leader of the Martian civilisation. Go figure.
Joshua Haldeman, the father of Maye Haldeman-Musk, Elon Musk's grandfather. A chiropractor (ouch.) and a leader of a Canadian technocratic movement, Technocracy Incorporated. Convicted for attempting to install an antidemocratic, authoritarian mode of rule, based upon an elitist government composed of technicians and people of science. It was called Technate, a total subservience of national proceedings to engineers and economists. The technocracy started to rip itself apart in dissent after their predictions about the contemporary economic system falling apart did not come true, which blocked the apocalyptic phase needed to realise their imagined utopia.
Beforehand, Haldeman left the Technocracy and became a member of the famously anti-semitic Social Credit Party of Canada, supporting the release of the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying that "the plan outlined in these protocols has been rapidly unfolding in the period of observation in this generation." Later, in South Africa, he embraced apartheid and the ruling National Party, claiming that South Africa leads "White Christian Civilization" against an international conspiracy of Jewish bankers and "hordes of coloured people".
His grandson's name, Elon, mirrors the title of the ruler of Mars from Wernher's von Braun's Das Mars-projekt. All signs point to Technate still attempting to destabilize the world and realise their vision.
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/joshua-haldeman-elon-musk
-saskatchewan-tech-utopian-conspiracist
https://imgur.com/gallery/well-his-rich-gramps-wanted-to-get-rid-of-je
ws-coloured-people-hes-also-named-after-character-from-das-marsprojekt-by-von-braun-ideological-member-of-allgemeine-ss-von-brauns-elon-was-leader-of-martian-civilisation-go-figure-9VXqRS5
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Worthwhile Canadian Observations
About a “boring” country that definitely isn’t
By Paul Krugman | Mar 25, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/worthwhile-canadian-observations
Economists have never considered Canada boring: It has often been a laboratory for distinctive policies. But now it’s definitely not boring: Canada, which will hold a snap election next month, seems poised to deliver a huge setback to Donald Trump’s foreign ambitions, one that may inspire much of the world — including many people in the United States — to stand up to the MAGA power grab.
So this seems like a good time to look north and see what we can learn. Here are three observations inspired by Canada that seem highly relevant to the United States.
1. Other countries are real
I don’t know what set Trump off on Canada, what made him think that it would be a good idea to start talking about annexation. Presumably, though, he expected Canadians to act like, say, university presidents, and immediately submit to his threats.
What he actually did was to rally Canadians against MAGA. Just two months ago Canada’s governing Liberals seemed set for a historic collapse, with Conservative leader Pierre Polievre the all-but-inevitable next prime minister. Now, if the polls are to be believed, Polievre — who has been trying to escape his image as a Canadian Trump, but apparently not successfully — is effectively out of the running.
I won’t count my poutine until it’s served, but it does seem as if Trump’s bullying has not only failed but backfired spectacularly. (And, arguably, saved Canada; all indications are that Polievre is a real piece of work.) But why?
Much of this is on Trump, who always expects others to grovel on command. But it also reflects a general limitation of the American imagination: we tend to have a hard time accepting that other countries are real, that they have their own histories and feel strong national pride. Canada, in particular, arguably defined itself as a nation in the 19th century by its determination not to be absorbed by the United States.
In fact, there are almost eerie parallels between some of those old confrontations and current events. The 1890 McKinley tariff, of which Trump speaks with such admiration, was in part intended to pressure Canada into joining the U.S.. Instead, it inspired a backlash: Canada imposed high reciprocal tariffs, sought to strengthen economic linkages between its own provinces, and built a closer economic relationship with Britain.
Sure enough, Mark Carney, the current and probably continuing Canadian prime minister, has emphasized removing remaining obstacles to interprovincial trade and seems to be seeking closer ties to Europe.
Trump may expect submission; he’s actually getting “elbows up.”
2. Time and chance happeneth to us all
Why, but for the grace of Donald Trump, was the Liberal Party headed for electoral catastrophe? There were specific policy issues like the nation’s carbon tax and Justin Trudeau’s personal unpopularity, but surely the main reason was a continuation of the factors that made 2024 a graveyard for incumbents everywhere, especially continuing voter anger about the inflation surge of 2021-22.
Some of us tried to point out that the very universality of the inflation surge meant that it couldn’t be attributed to the policies of any one country’s government. If Bidenomics was responsible for U.S. inflation, why did Europe experience almost the same cumulative rise in prices that we did? But there was never much chance of that argument getting traction in the United States, where we have a hard time realizing that other countries exist.
The Canadians, however, definitely know that we exist, and you might think that public anger over inflation would have been assuaged by the recognition that Canada’s inflation very closely tracked inflation south of the border:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:
steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b6d572c
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Danish PM condemns Trump team over imminent Greenland visit
Mette Frederiksen vows to “stand against” aggressive overtures from the White House toward Arctic island.
By Csongor Körömi | March 25, 2025 11:45 am CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-greenland-visit-mette-fre
deriksen-denmark-condemns/
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen lashed out at President Donald Trump’s U.S. administration for putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland, as she slammed the upcoming visit to the Danish territory by U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance.
“This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,” Frederiksen said, about the scheduled trip involving Vice President JD Vance’s wife, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
“Therefore, I have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it’s a pressure we will stand against,” the prime minister added.
Frederiksen’s condemnation marks her most trenchant criticism of the White House since Trump turned his attention to seizing the self-ruling Danish territory, with its vast reserves of critical minerals and vital geostrategic location in the Arctic.
Frederiksen also noted that Greenlandic representatives were “clear” that “they do not want a visit right now, because they do not have a government,” following an election earlier this month.
“You cannot make a private visit with official representatives from another country,” the Danish prime minister said.
Trump first floated the prospect of the U.S. acquiring Greenland during his first term but has raised the stakes since reentering the White House, refusing to rule out taking the world’s largest island using military force or economic coercion — and calling it an “absolute necessity” for U.S. national security.
Frederiksen stressed that when Trump talks about Greenland, the U.S. president “is serious,” and poses a real threat. “He wants Greenland. Therefore, it cannot be seen independently of anything else.”
She also emphasized that both Copenhagen and Nuuk have a strong desire to cooperate with the U.S. “We are allies, we have a defense agreement on Greenland dating back to 1951. There is no indication in either Denmark or Greenland that we do not want to cooperate with the Americans.
“But when you make a visit like this and the Greenlandic politicians say they don’t want this visit, you can’t interpret that as respectful,” she added.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Transcript: Trump’s Angry Rant over Hegseth Fiasco Makes Scandal Worse
An interview with national security lawyer Bradley Moss, who explains why the stunning exposure of highly sensitive war-planning texts might have been unlawful—and reveals Trump as a disastrously failed leader.
By Greg Sargent | March 25, 2025
https://newrepublic.com/article/193120/transcript-trump-angry-rant-heg
seth-fiasco-makes-scandal-worse
The following is a lightly edited transcript of the March 25 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.
Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
By now you may have heard that President Trump’s most senior officials discussed war plans on Signal, and that the group chat actually included Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. Goldberg published his findings, and it caused an explosion in Washington with many Democrats calling for an investigation, and even the occasional Republican slamming this as an unacceptable security breach. President Trump was asked about this, and shockingly he claimed not to know anything about it. What struck us though is what Trump didn’t say. He failed to say that he’s going to get to the bottom of this mess, and that it should have never happened. Today, we’re trying to dig through all this with the perfect guest, veteran national security lawyer Bradley Moss. Brad, thanks for coming on, man.
Bradley Moss: Absolutely, any time.
Sargent: National security adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Vice President JD Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and some others were talking on Signal about their upcoming plans to bomb Yemen’s Houthis to open up shipping in the Red Sea. Somehow, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg got included. The top officials argued a bit about the plans, and then soon after Hegseth openly shares operational details about the move itself, about the operation itself. Can you lay out what happened here, Brad?
Moss: This is the movie Idiocracy come to life. This is just completely reckless. So, to be clear, what we know so far is that on the commercially available Signal encrypted chat platform, which everybody and anybody in D.C. uses, these various senior officials were discussing a number of things regarding the upcoming attacks they were gonna launch against the Houthis. And what originally looked like a set of policy discussions quickly devolved into extensive details about how these attacks would take place, by what units, what locations, what the government knew about foreign entities. It demonstrated nothing less than complete disregard for the very nature of secure communications.
These are officials who are trusted with some of the most sensitive secrets the U.S. government has, who serve in some of the most sensitive positions within the U.S. government with all kinds of authority and leverage and discretion, and they are acting like 14-year-old children on this chat, thumping their chest and sending emojis back and forth the way my teenage daughter does.
Sargent: Well, Brad, I want to ask you: It’s common enough, as you said, for top officials to communicate via Signal about certain things, but is it typical for the country’s top national security officials to talk this way on Signal about extremely sensitive military operations as well as the complicated considerations that go into them? The Signal app isn’t an approved channel for such communications, is it? How serious a breach is this?
Moss: This could be a very significant breach if for no other reason than that it’s a commercial platform. It’s not controlled by the U.S. government. Other foreign governments almost certainly have tried to breach it and steal information from it. It is absolutely not authorized for any type of classified discussion.
There’s two legal concerns that a lot of us have right now. There is the more benign and more
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