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 139 of 479
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If you really were a business owner and had any money, you would be the saddest billionaire on the planet with the way you choose to live the last few years of your life.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Don't you get it yet, buddy?
You and I... what we do here?
This is pathetic.
This is pathetic behavior.
As in, take that etymology a step further and it's a pathos. Anybody who comes back here and actually reads the stuff we post, and I'm sure there is at least one person out there... They feel sad for us. This is like Jerry Springer reality TV slop to a person who would rather read it all play out instead of watching it on TV.
I'd say that since at least 2006, FireFlyFans was never a happy place because of the RWED, but it lasted a hell of a lot longer than it ever had any right too because of the RWED. They tried their best to make it be a lasting place, but the RWED poison always seeped out into the forums that truly belonged here.
And in the end, as of no surprise to me, the RWED far outlasted everything else on this site but a few anon updates about our OG Browncoats staying strong... Never letting that signal truly die. Short of that, we've managed to keep the Cinema board alive since we co-opted that for ourselves and filled it all with RWED poison too....
And you can see with 20/20 hindsight if you think back to all the awesome old sites that were out there and are now only archived with a bunch of broken links at best or fond memories that we've warped into something else entirely as they merge with other memories and nobody 30 years later really remembers what it was like anymore. Haken apparently decided that he'd keep that signal going as long as somebody was still making noise on it. Even if it meant that it all it was picking up was the sounds of poison sloshing around at the bottom of the sink basin.
We're the holdouts man.
They started yelling last call hours ago and we just won't leave.
All the hot chicks left 5 hours ago...
But we were never there for that, were we?
We were here to fight.
Not physically. That would make the bouncers and the owner very happy if we did that.
We were here to argue. We were here to be awful to somebody. And what better place to do it than on an old-school anonymous forum. A place where nobody really knew who each other were and as long as we don't really step over that final boundary we can just have a guilt free conscious about being truly awful to somebody else because you never have to say it to somebody's face in real life, and there is a very high assumption that nobody will ever bother to truly spend the time and money to figure out who you are.
We found a daily adversary and a lightning rod to let out just a bit of that rage so we never show it in real life. We both consider ourselves Batman, while thinking of the other as the Joker. And from an objective viewpoint, neither one of us is right all the time about who is who.
Our discussions will never, ever amount to anything fruitful. Not only because neither one of us was ever interested in budging on any of their positions from the get-go, but because we're both just pissing into the wind. Screaming into the void.
"HELLO!!!! HELLO!!!!!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME!!!!!
There's nobody here man. Save maybe Haken and or whoever bought Haken out long ago for some reason or another. Maybe we've all been part of a low-priority, low-profile, low-cost scientific study that has been paid for by the government for the last 20 years? And though it might not always be interesting to them, it's still interesting enough to justify the small monthly expense and the occasional babysitting, while also not interesting enough to put in a new hard drive or whatever minor change they could make to keep the site from going offline as of
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Quote:You really are crazy, 6ix. No kidding. So is Trump, especially if you and he think there is not an brutal ending for you both. Flushed down the toilet bowl of history. I know it is pretty hard for Trumptards to understand since they all think of themselves as permanent, irreplaceable and indispensable but you are disposable as used toilet paper.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You guys are fucking cooked buddy. You still don't even realize how the government is never going to operate the way that it did before. That world is gone now.
If you really were a business owner and had any money, you would be the saddest billionaire on the planet with the way you choose to live the last few years of your life.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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 pressuring the Federal Reserve to save his tariffs. It should ignore him.
Tariffs of this magnitude pose an especially tough challenge for the economy.
April 7, 2025, 10:48 AM CDT
By Jared Bernstein, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-tariffs-stock-market
-federal-reserve-powell-rcna199796
Though the Trump administration inherited a strong economy, in under three months, it has generated a steep stock market sell-off and deep concerns about where things are headed. The market losses Thursday and Friday were worse than 99.9% of all trading days since 1929, and Monday morning brought even further declines. This historical sell-off was without doubt the result of Trump’s big “Liberation Day,” when he revealed a set of tariffs that raises the average U.S. tax on imports to levels not seen in almost a century.
Tariffs of this magnitude pose an especially tough challenge for the economy. Because they are largely passed forward to consumers, they raise prices. And because they similarly raise the price of inputs for domestic producers — 45% of our imports are “intermediate goods” — they raise the cost of production, which hurts growth. Add to these woes the tremendous uncertainty created by Trump’s on-again, off-again policy lurching, along with the aforementioned market meltdown, and you understand a) why both consumer and investor sentiment has fallen off a cliff, and b) why economic forecasters have lowered their growth expectations and raised their inflation forecasts.
This combination of lower growth and faster inflation is called stagflation, and it is a particular challenge for the Federal Reserve. To counteract slower growth, Fed officials can lower the benchmark interest rate they control. But to counteract inflationary pressures, they typically raise rates. Faced with stagflation, what’s a central banker to do?
Their best play is to leave rates where they are until it is clear which problem requires addressing with a rate change. In fact, that’s just what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday. Given that the appropriate path for Fed policy is “not clear at this time,” he said, “it feels like we don’t need to be in a hurry.”
So, what’s the problem? Well, here’s what the president posted on Truth Social that same day, as the stock market was tanking: “This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always “late,” but he could now change his image, and quickly.”
“CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” Trump concluded.
Now, to understand what’s going on here, we need to go back to one of Powell’s predecessors, Alan Greenspan. Under Greenspan, the Fed was so consistent in cutting rates as soon as the market softened that investors came to depend on the Fed chair to protect them from bear markets. This was known as the “Greenspan put,” a reference to a financial tool by which an investor is protected from downside losses.
To be clear, I’m not saying Trump is an avid student of monetary history. I am saying he wants and expects Powell to bail him out, and he know there’s a precedent for the Fed to provide a macroeconomic insurance policy against a policy shock, even if it’s Trump’s own doing.
His post also reveals that he’s clearly uninterested in a guiding principle of past administrations, including the Biden presidency, during which I chaired the Council of Economic Advisers. When I was asked about Fed policy, with zero exceptions, my answer was to say nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing more than this: “We don’t talk about Fed policy because we are fully committed to Fed independence. History is littered with examples of economies severely damaged by the inflation unleashed by pressuring the Fed to cut rates.” In fact, at CEA, we published a detailed defense of this stance, showing the historical importance of Fed independence, especially to control inflation.
It’s common sense. If you let the president oversee the central bank, th
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You really are crazy, 6ix.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You guys are fucking cooked buddy. You still don't even realize how the government is never going to operate the way that it did before. That world is gone now.
If you really were a business owner and had any money, you would be the saddest billionaire on the planet with the way you choose to live the last few years of your life.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
100% the expected response out of you, as predicted.
I know you'll never admit any truth about yourself to anyone else. But deep down you know I'm not wrong.
Very well, Arthur.
Let us continue this downward spiral together.
Oh... and that bit about JSF and his patterns...
Don't you think that behavior is a little odd?
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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The point of tariffs is to raise prices on imports to make wholly American-made goods price competitive.
Unless, of course, Trump is just using tariffs to wring investment from various nations, which is another potential benefit.
AFA the tariffs that Trump says other nations charge us... maybe he tossed darts at a dartboard? I really don't care how he came up with those numbers.
Stock market .... it's speculation based on a combination of Fed interest rates and QE, and has nothing to do with the health of the underlying companies or "the economy". Since it's SPECULATION, speculators should understand that what goes up can come down...
But it's a damn good thing we never went to privatized Social Security (investing in stocks) bc everybody's retirement would be in the shitter.
Trump is unhinged but he's doing necessary stuff. Nobody likes to take medicine but its been delayed far too long. So now we have a loose cannon, doing what "responsible" people should have done decades ago.
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"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:I have always known this about Trumptards before Trump made them feel invincible and powerful. They were ruining themselves but didn't see their troubles as caused by their mental malfunctions. See Trump for an extremely detailed record of one misfortune after another, with lawyers rescuing him from consequences. Most Trumptards can't afford the high-quality lawyers that keep Trump out of deeper trouble. Those poor Trumptards have to live with the consequences. And they want to bring their dysfunctional way of life to all Americans. Tourists are noticing and avoiding the Trumptards:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
100% the expected response out of you, as predicted.
I know you'll never admit any truth about yourself to anyone else. But deep down you know I'm not wrong.
Very well, Arthur.
Let us continue this downward spiral together.
Oh... and that bit about JSF and his patterns...
Don't you think that behavior is a little odd?
Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March (Thanks to lunatic Trump and his Trumptards)
By Alex Fitzpatrick | Apr 4, 2025
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/04/foreign-visits-american-airports-trav
el-warnings
Foreign arrivals into major U.S. airports tumbled in mid-to-late March compared to the same time last year, based on customs pass-through data.
Why it matters: The findings suggest a sudden reluctance to visit the U.S. isn't a purely Canadian phenomenon and should sound alarm bells for the country's $1 trillion-plus travel industry.
Driving the news: The number of foreigners passing through customs at the 10 busiest U.S. airports fell by over 20% year over year toward late March, based on a seven-day rolling average.
Between the lines: Trade wars, a volatile economic and political climate and fears of detainment or harassment may be dissuading foreigners from visiting the U.S. Several American allies, including Canada, France, Germany and others, recently issued new travel warnings or advisories about U.S. travel.
What's next: Goldman's note predates Trump's sweeping new tariffs issued Wednesday, which stand to uproot the global economic order in unpredictable and chaotic ways. If those tariffs hold, they could amplify any potential hit to U.S. travel businesses.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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What’s the latest? After more losses today, the Dow is down more than 4,000 points since Trump rolled out his tariffs on Wednesday afternoon. The markets last dropped like this in 2020, when the economy was being systematically shut down to fight Covid-19.
What’s next? The 10 percent, across-the-board tariffs took effect Saturday. The targeted, higher tariffs on specific nations go into effect April 9.
And more tariffs could be coming. After China threatened to retaliate against Trump’s new tariffs with a 34 percent tax on US goods, the president threatened an additional 50 percent tariffs on Chinese goods unless Beijing pulls back. It’s the latest sign Trump’s tariffs have started a global trade war.
Can anyone stop Trump’s tariffs? A handful of Senate Republicans are backing a bill that would curtail Trump’s authority to impose tariffs without Congress’s blessing. But even with all the Democrats on board, the legislation doesn’t have enough support to override Trump’s promised veto and seems unlikely to become law.
What’s the big picture? Even before Trump took office, observers debated whether his talk of massive tariffs was a bluff or a blueprint. It seems investors were betting on the former, and now that the tariffs are going into effect, the financial shocks are real.
How bad is this going to get? That depends largely on Trump. He has said that other nations are sending teams to negotiate, which means there’s still a chance that some of the tariffs could be canceled. But if any significant chunk of those taxes moves forward, economists predict higher prices and slow economic growth — if not an outright recession.
https://www.vox.com/the-logoff-newsletter-trump/407468/trump-tariff-ma
rket-crash-economy-recession
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:Signym, literally, you are as ignorant as this UAW President and Trumptard:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The point of tariffs is to raise prices on imports to make wholly American-made goods price competitive.
Unless, of course, Trump is just using tariffs to wring investment from various nations, which is another potential benefit.
AFA the tariffs that Trump says other nations charge us... maybe he tossed darts at a dartboard? I really don't care how he came up with those numbers.
Stock market .... it's speculation based on a combination of Fed interest rates and QE, and has nothing to do with the health of the underlying companies or "the economy". Since it's SPECULATION, speculators should understand that what goes up can come down...
But it's a damn good thing we never went to privatized Social Security (investing in stocks) bc everybody's retirement would be in the shitter.
Trump is unhinged but he's doing necessary stuff. Nobody likes to take medicine but its been delayed far too long. So now we have a loose cannon, doing what "responsible" people should have done decades ago.
UAW President Shawn Fain explains why he supports Trump's tariffs
By Steve Inskeep | April 7, 2025 5:00 AM ET
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/07/nx-s1-5352409/trump-auto-tariffs-uaw-sh
awn-fain
UAW president Shawn Fain on NPR today defended the auto tariffs by saying, in part, that “half of Americans don’t even have stock” and “sixty percent of Americans have no retirement savings.”
I wonder if he realizes that 100% of UAW members have both retirement savings and stocks in UAW pension plans?
Quote:
He doesn't care much about the stock market's decline.
"You know, half of Americans don't even have stock," he said. (Some estimates say well over half of Americans own some stock.)
"Sixty percent of Americans have no retirement savings," he said. "So when I hear all the crying about the stock market, this is just Wall Street. They're people that are already rich, and at the end of the day, most working class people are trying to survive right now. And it's infuriating that our livelihoods have been stripped from us for decades and no one's cared."
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 SIGNYM:
The point of tariffs is to raise prices on imports to make wholly American-made goods price competitive.
Unless, of course, Trump is just using tariffs to wring investment from various nations, which is another potential benefit.
AFA the tariffs that Trump says other nations charge us... maybe he tossed darts at a dartboard? I really don't care how he came up with those numbers.
Stock market .... it's speculation based on a combination of Fed interest rates and QE, and has nothing to do with the health of the underlying companies or "the economy". Since it's SPECULATION, speculators should understand that what goes up can come down...
But it's a damn good thing we never went to privatized Social Security (investing in stocks) bc everybody's retirement would be in the shitter.
Trump is unhinged but he's doing necessary stuff. Nobody likes to take medicine but its been delayed far too long. So now we have a loose cannon, doing what "responsible" people should have done decades ago.
I was just talking about that with the old man the other day.
The worst thing we ever did was end pensions and tie up everyone's retirement in the stock market.
GWB ran on doing just that with Social Security his 2nd term and thank god that never happened.
Are you kidding me, Sigs? It doesn't take a massive shock and speculators being fearful for that to have been a terrible idea. This that's happening in the stock market is just a great example of why it would be a terrible idea. The example where millions of people are hurt from it through no bad choices on their own.
Your average person is a stupid asshole that can't even budget their own lives or pay their own taxes. Somebody thinks it's a great idea to let them run their retirement choices from the day they start working? It's bad enough they're all doing that with a 401k. If that was ever done to Social Security, you'd have to have to build an entire 2nd retirement safety net to bail out all the failures of the first safety net. That's not even taking into consideration the ones that would just gamble away their social security day-trading them away like they gamble away their weekly earnings on sports ball gambling apps.
401ks were evil from the beginning.
They put a cheap noose around everyone's neck.
They made it nearly impossible for anybody to have a real talk about real wealth inequality or have any legitimate conversations about class.
They made it so anything that hurts the richest of us, even just a little bit, could ruin the retirement plans of millions who saved all of their life and listened to the wrong people.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
401ks were evil from the beginning.
They put a cheap noose around everyone's neck.
They made it nearly impossible for anybody to have a real talk about real wealth inequality or have any legitimate conversations about class.
They made it so anything that hurts the richest of us, even just a little bit, could ruin the retirement plans of millions who saved all of their life and listened to the wrong people.
Do you know how many times I read and actually had people tell me in real life that I was making a mistake paying for my house with cash when I didn't need to and that I should have kept that money in my retirement account? There was a point of time where that was inescapable dogma from anyone "in the know".
I've lived here going on 14 years now. It paid for itself 6 years ago based off of local rent rates that I would have been paying in that time, with all the adjustments made to bills I do pay that I wouldn't and vice versa.
Though it's not money in the bank, that's 8 years of rent receipts I didn't flush down any toilets and it's another 6 years worth of rent I wasn't required to pay to anyone. My property taxes even after the increase I fought and several more years where everyone's has gone up is still less than most people pay for 1 month's rent.
Not only didn't I lose any money, but doing it the way I did it is paying me back right here, right now. Not only is my house valued at 3 times the price I paid for it, but I "make" over $13,200 per year just for the 11 months of rent I'm not paying after I pay the property taxes. More than that, when you consider there were no taxes exchanged and if I were paying rent I'd also be paying income tax on the money for that rent. And then quite a bit more than that when you consider I'm basing my rental numbers on a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment and not a full house.
And that goes on until the day I die or I sell this place. And that number increases with the inflation of rent prices every year. And if for some reason it actually somehow manages to start falling every year with the average rent prices and things to start getting better, that doesn't hurt me because I wasn't actually making any money at all. If the average rent fell $300 per month to $900 around here again, all I've lost is bragging rights on about $3000 per year I was "making" in my situation, simply by doing nothing. And I get to be surrounded by happier people all around me who aren't walking around with that noose so tight around their neck all the time.
Meanwhile, I don't spend one single second stressing about the Stock Market. I was blissfully unaware that it had gone from 20,000 to over 40,000 when I wasn't paying any attention.
... and now I can just sit back on the sidelines and eat some popcorn while all of this plays out.
And on top of all of this the value of my house has gone up at a higher ratio than the stock market I wasn't paying attention to did. The house I don't have any intention of selling and the house I would actually prefer went down in value along with everyone elses'. I'm paying too much property taxes now because of all the investors. My house is seriously overvalued. I'm one of the only ones with sense enough to actively go out of my way to have it devalued and it's still overvalued. Hopefully we can slowly ease those prices back down and we don't end up with another market collapse.
Truly... Good luck to y'all.
I'm always rooting for us little guys.
I think we'll all make it through this.
Maybe we'll even learn a few lessons from it this time and we won't always be so quick to believe anything somebody calling themselves an expert tells us to believe.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Pa
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