Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Saturday, September 12, 2026 16:11
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 32 of 48
Appeals court finds Trump's tariffs illegally used emergency power.
Trump shrugged and continues to collect tariffs. If you don't like it, appeal to the Supreme Court, where the Republican justices don't care what the law says.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/appeals-court-finds-trump-sweeping
-214716061.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Now there's a kick in the teeth. Yup, I feel the winds shifting. I posted this and just saw your post above SECOND. Still, very good news.
T
BREAKING: Trump tariffs found ILLEGAL by U.S. appeals court
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Quote:The Appeals Court told Trump in the nicest possible way to eat shit and die. From page 30 of the decision:
Originally posted by THG:
Now there's a kick in the teeth. Yup, I feel the winds shifting. I posted this and just saw your post above SECOND. Still, very good news.
Taken together, these other statutes indicate that whenever Congress intends to delegate to the President the authority to impose tariffs, it does so explicitly, either by using unequivocal terms like tariff and duty, or via an overall structure which makes clear that Congress is referring to tariffs. This is no surprise, as the core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution; when Congress delegates this power in the first instance, it does so clearly and unambiguously.
To be clear, we cite legislative history as additional support for the conclusion we reach based on the statutory text alone. Even without this legislative history, we would reach the same conclusion. [which is that Trump is a goddamn asshole]
(“Taxation is a legislative function, and Congress . . . is the sole organ for levying taxes . . . . It would be . . . a sharp break with our traditions to conclude that Congress had bestowed on [the executive branch] the taxing power.”).
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.us
courts.cafc.23105.159.0_1.pdf
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:Quote:The Appeals Court told Trump in the nicest possible way to eat shit and die.
Originally posted by THG:
Now there's a kick in the teeth. Yup, I feel the winds shifting. I posted this and just saw your post above SECOND. Still, very good news.
Cool. We'll bring it to SCOTUS where it will be the law of the land going forward.
Keep playing flag football and celebrating your meaningless wins and doing our work for us, you simple minded fools.
Eventually you'll learn....
Maybe.

--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Appointing Tulsi Gabbard as head of ODNI is probably one of Trump's better moves.
GO GET 'EM, TULSI!
Quote:The problem, not really undercover.
TULSI GABBARD vs CIA CAGE MATCH
If there is one key takeaway from what you are about to read, it would be this. DNI Tulsi Gabbard needs our support. DNI Gabbard is working deep within a massive silo system that manufacturers the illusion of isolation as a strategy to protect itself.
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Tulsi Gabbard and her team need to hear, see and feel our support.
Yesterday, the CIA Directorate of Analysis purposefully framed a hit against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) by leaking a manufactured story that DNI Tulsi Gabbard had exposed an “undercover” agent when she removed the security clearances of 37 former and current intelligence embeds.
Quote:
In reality, the CIA attempted to block Tulsi Gabbard from exposing how the CIA manipulated the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment claiming Russian interference in the 2016 election. Ms. Julia Gurganus was the CIA analyst who organized the ICA.
As Tulsi Gabbard began to drill down onto the issue, and as the current CIA analysts within the former National Intelligence Council (NIC) and CIA Directorate of Analysis began to notice she was going to reveal the fraud, the CIA embeds changed the status of Julia Gurganus in June in an effort to protect her.
The CIA changed the status of Julia Gurganus in June, reclassifying her as ‘covert’ specifically because the ODNI’s public statements of intent to reveal the fraud within the 2016 Russia election investigation. This, they schemed, would stop DNI Gabbard from exposing Gurganus and taking action.
The CIA scheme didn’t work. DNI Gabbard declassified and released the CIA work product, and then later removed Gurganus security clearance. The CIA embeds at the directorate of analysis were furious and leaked the false story to the Wall Street Journal using the familiar ploy that has worked for them in the past.
By calling Julia Gurganus an active and covert CIA operative, the scheme team within the directorate knew Gabbard would be unable to defend herself publicly. Discussing the identity of an active/covert CIA operative is against the law. The CIA weaponized the law within their attack against the ODNI; leaking a false story they knew Tulsi couldn’t defend against.
However, we the people are not stupid. It did not take long to figure out the identity of the asset from the curriculum vitae used in the Wall Street Journal story, and from that point it was clear Julia Gurganus was NOT previously a covert CIA operative. Gurganus was public in her position within the CIA; public, until the CIA changed her status in June.
This is ultimately an example of the weaponized intelligence system DNI Gabbard is fighting against.
The current actions by the directorate of analysis inside the CIA is also an example of why DNI Gabbard removed the National Intelligence Council from the agency, fired Chairman Mike Collins (friend of Mike Morrell) and Deputy Chair Maria Langan-Riekhof, and also took control over the Presidential Daily Briefing material the fraudsters were in control of.
Remember, by design the CIA is a one-way information system. Information (intelligence) goes into the agency, the black hole where things can be linguistically modified and shaped to fit a particular viewpoint, yet there is no substantive mechanism for the CIA head to challenge the outflow of information if it is fraudulent.
The intel bureaucrats run the machinery, and if the boss does something they don’t like they leak to the media.
Silos exist, like the NIC or directorate of analysis, within the larger silo of the CIA. DNI Tulsi Gabbard is taking the lid off these sub-silos and exposing thNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:From page 36 of the Appeal Court's decision: If the Trumptards on the Supreme Court declare that taxes (including tariffs) are no longer set by Congress, but by the President, there will be the first assassinations of Supreme Court justices. 6ixStringJack, even you can understand that the invocation of IEEPA to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world is undoubtedly a significant departure from these previous invocations. This ‘lack of historical precedent,’ coupled with the breadth of authority that the Government now claims may be a ‘telling indication’ that the Government’s reading of a statute is incorrect.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:The Appeals Court told Trump in the nicest possible way to eat shit and die.
Originally posted by THG:
Now there's a kick in the teeth. Yup, I feel the winds shifting. I posted this and just saw your post above SECOND. Still, very good news.
Cool. We'll bring it to SCOTUS where it will be the law of the land going forward.
Keep playing flag football and celebrating your meaningless wins and doing our work for us, you simple minded fools.
Eventually you'll learn....
Maybe.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.us
courts.cafc.23105.159.0_1.pdf
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:Quote:From page 36 of the Appeal Court's decision: If the Trumptards on the Supreme Court declare that taxes (including tariffs) are no longer set by Congress, but by the President, there will be the first assassinations of Supreme Court justices. 6ixStringJack, even you can understand that the invocation of IEEPA to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world is undoubtedly a significant departure from these previous invocations. This ‘lack of historical precedent,’ coupled with the breadth of authority that the Government now claims may be a ‘telling indication’ that the Government’s reading of a statute is incorrect.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:The Appeals Court told Trump in the nicest possible way to eat shit and die.
Originally posted by THG:
Now there's a kick in the teeth. Yup, I feel the winds shifting. I posted this and just saw your post above SECOND. Still, very good news.
Cool. We'll bring it to SCOTUS where it will be the law of the land going forward.
Keep playing flag football and celebrating your meaningless wins and doing our work for us, you simple minded fools.
Eventually you'll learn....
Maybe.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.us
courts.cafc.23105.159.0_1.pdf
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Shut up, you dumb cunt. I already shut this down in the court thread. Neither of you two headline reading dipshits bothered to actually read any of the articles.
From the Court thread here: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=63349&mid=12266
52#1226652
Haha!
Been busy all day so I didn't have time to check the news or deal with you two fags...
You didn't win ANYTHING here, idiots.
CNN: Appeals Court Strikes Down Tariffs as Illegal But Leaves Them in Place
https://archive.ph/8XQhP
Quote:
A federal appeals court Friday struck down many of President Donald Trump’s historic tariffs, saying he unlawfully leaned on emergency powers to impose the import taxes.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs like the ones Trump used the law for earlier this year, the Federal Circuit said in an unsigned opinion upholding a lower-court ruling against Trump’s tariffs.
The judges noted that Trump’s unprecedented tariffs are an overstep of his power because the ability to impose taxes, including tariffs, is “a core Congressional power” that the Constitution grants to the legislative branch.
The tariffs remain in place for now, after the court delayed implementation of its order until October. That gives the Trump administration time to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
First of all, none of these pussy activist judges even had the balls enough to sign it and put their names on it.
Second, they know it's going right to the Supreme Court where you'll be shut down again, so they didn't even try to stop the tariffs from being implemented.
Just more whining from your dead party and more headline clickbait for you Legacy Media addicted retards.
We don't even have to wait for this one to go to SCOTUS, stupid. You already lost.
If you weren't a stupid fucking headline reader and you actually read your articles, you would have saved yourself the embarrassment of posting another self-own on not one, but three separate threads today.
You are so fucking dumb, it's honestly shocking at this point.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Oh... and in the business, that's what we call a "Half Measure".
"It's illegal!", but we're not going to stop it...
"It's illegal!", but not a single one of us has the balls to put our signature on it.
All your dying party has left under its sleeves is Half Measures...
Because the Democratic Party has been de-fanged and now it's in the process of being systematically destroyed.
And every single time one of you idiot activists try to do anything about it, all you're doing is helping destroy it just a little bit quicker. Because now ALL of the normies are paying attention. And they don't like anything they see coming from the Left. And those who were too scared to stand up and say anything about it for the last 20 years are all crawling out of the woodwork to finally speak their peace, because there are finally enough people like me who never stood by and shut up out of fear.
All you are now is defeated losers, kneeling in the dirt with shit in your pants.
How does it feel?
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Do you have any decency, 6ix? Your answer has always been "No!"
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh... and in the business, that's what we call a "Half Measure".
"It's illegal!", but we're not going to stop it...
"It's illegal!", but not a single one of us has the balls to put our signature on it.
All your dying party has left under its sleeves is Half Measures...
Because the Democratic Party has been de-fanged and now it's in the process of being systematically destroyed.
And every single time one of you idiot activists try to do anything about it, all you're doing is helping destroy it just a little bit quicker. Because now ALL of the normies are paying attention. And they don't like anything they see coming from the Left. And those who were too scared to stand up and say anything about it for the last 20 years are all crawling out of the woodwork to finally speak their peace, because there are finally enough people like me who never stood by and shut up out of fear.
All you are now is defeated losers, kneeling in the dirt with shit in your pants.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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There was a line that the President's declaration of emergency cannot be reviewed by courts:
Regarding the national emergency, the NEA provides no substantive standards for what may be declared a national emergency, and consistent with that absence of standards, such a declaration itself is likely unreviewable. [That was obviously written by a Trumptard lawyer.]
Page 119 of https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.us
courts.cafc.23105.159.0_1.pdf
The whole decision is fight between "Is it an emergency?" or "Maybe it isn't?"
The entire conflict between Libtards and Trumptards on every subject is about the same two questions, over and over.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump argued when he unveiled his global tariffs that a trade imbalance was harmful to US national security, and was therefore a national emergency.
What happens next after Trump tariffs ruled illegal?
By Johanna Chisholm | August 30, 2025
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy983g8jr5do
*************
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security
The White House | April 2, 2025
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-do
nald-j-trump-declares-national-emergency-to-increase-our-competitive-edge-protect-our-sovereignty-and-strengthen-our-national-and-economic-security/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Where did Trump get his ideas about tariffs? The Times of India has been reading White House advisor Peter Navarros' books to learn why tariffs are 50% on India. Navarros also blames India for the Russia-Ukraine War.
More at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/123596249.cms
Navarros has a new book coming called I Went to Prison So You Won't Have To: A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump Land. The book is scheduled for release on September 16, 2025.
When senior Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro refused to kneel before the Democrats’ rigged J6 witch hunt, they came for him with guns and handcuffs. Ambushed by five armed FBI agents at Reagan airport, shackled in leg irons, and strip-searched, Navarro became the first ever top presidential aide in US history to be put in federal prison for defending the Constitution.
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:Quote:Do you have any decency, 6ix? Your answer has always been "No!"
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh... and in the business, that's what we call a "Half Measure".
"It's illegal!", but we're not going to stop it...
"It's illegal!", but not a single one of us has the balls to put our signature on it.
All your dying party has left under its sleeves is Half Measures...
Because the Democratic Party has been de-fanged and now it's in the process of being systematically destroyed.
And every single time one of you idiot activists try to do anything about it, all you're doing is helping destroy it just a little bit quicker. Because now ALL of the normies are paying attention. And they don't like anything they see coming from the Left. And those who were too scared to stand up and say anything about it for the last 20 years are all crawling out of the woodwork to finally speak their peace, because there are finally enough people like me who never stood by and shut up out of fear.
All you are now is defeated losers, kneeling in the dirt with shit in your pants.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Ah.... Bargaining.
Looks like you've made it to the 3rd stage of grief.
Not going to work, I'm afraid.
Let me tell you, stage 4 is a bitch.
Good luck making it to Acceptance.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:You pasted a video from Breaking Bad. Both those characters die stupid and disgusting deaths because of the way they lived. That is Trump's future and yours.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Ah.... Bargaining.
Looks like you've made it to the 3rd stage of grief.
Not going to work, I'm afraid.
Let me tell you, stage 4 is a bitch.
Good luck making it to Acceptance.
These two factors — and no others — will lead to Trump's defeat
By Jason Miciak | August 30, 2025
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-age-2673924798/
Despite the inarguably awful actions this administration has taken during its first eight months in office, Donald Trump remains largely impervious in the polls — low to be sure but hardly politically threatening, right in his zone. This despite taking some of the most unpopular and undemocratic actions in generations.
Yes, for a brief period, during his first week or two in office, he peaked above a 50 percent approval rating. But since then he has gracefully found the glideslope to his comfort zone, anywhere from 42-46 percent aggregate approval, 50-53 percent disapproval.
Even given the number of unpopular decisions that he has made — DOGE cuts to essential services, masked mauraders kidnapping the innocent, hiding the Epstein files, tariffs, health care cuts — the dynamic remains the same. There is almost nothing the man can do to fall into dangerous, sub-38 percent approval.
But there is are two elements on the horizon, one that likely shouldn't play a huge role but does, another that always does.
First: there are exploding questions about his health.
Is there any there "there?" Seems so. Looks matter, especially within cults of personality. Trump's age — 79 now — matters in the polls.
Much of Trump's mystique among MAGA revolves around his seeming indestructibility, whether concerning his wealth, litigation against him (meagre attempts at criminal accountability, throwing out the award in a major New York civil case), or just his simple, unpleasant aggression.
The dynamic can even seep over to political independents, who see Trump as at least "doing something" and doing it well for himself. It must be working, some think. This is his real superpower.
So indications that Trump's health may be teetering pose a major threat to the perception of invincibility. It's important. If he ever loses the "cape," it is all but impossible to get it back.
Both hands now show severe bruising. Fattened ankles have led — finally — to the admission that he does have some cardiovascular disease, whether just venous insufficiency or something more. There is the swinging gait that comes and goes. And there does seem to be a greater propensity to simply meander from topic to topic, on an ever-looser tether to linear thought.
He also just looks old: see pictures from the Oval Office meeting last Friday. Trump may never have looked worse.
The thing about cults is that the leader is absolutely invulnerable, the hold on people impermeable, right up until they are not. Once a leak springs, it is impossible to hold water back.
Yes, it is utterly infuriating that there has been so little pushback against troops in cities, threats to former allies, cutting Medicaid, the racism, the "cruelty as the point," and even the Epstein files, which will now never amount to anything, a "Democratic hoax," unless several victims come forward with direct knowledge of Trump's actions, and they don't seem to be in a hurry.
But it doesn't appear that any of the above can puncture Trump. Anyone in doubt needs to revisit the polls that refuse to move or simply spend a half-hour on X. Nothing has changed, except Trump's acceleration in his push to fascism.
In a post-truth America, where Trump can claim 70 percent approval rating with a straight face, dismiss a mediocre jobs report with a termination and declaration the numbers are fixed, make baseless clai
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:You pasted a video from Breaking Bad. Both those characters die stupid and disgusting deaths because of the way they lived. That is Trump's future and yours.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Ah.... Bargaining.
Looks like you've made it to the 3rd stage of grief.
Not going to work, I'm afraid.
Let me tell you, stage 4 is a bitch.
Good luck making it to Acceptance.
Another childish response from our resident bully.

I'm not kidding about Stage 4 though. That one is a real bitch.
Hope you've got good healthcare, because I already know that you don't possess either the mental nor the spiritual fortitude to get through it on your own and make it to Stage 5.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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And don't bother even reading any articles talking about Trump's approval rating.
Not when Joe Biden*'s looked like this for 4 years.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/joe-biden/approval-rat
ing
On August 30th, 2021, Joe Biden fell to -1.9 and never saw a positive approval rating again. This was a precipitous fall from the alleged 19.5+ approval rating he started off with on inauguration day. Light years beyond the 6.2+ approval rating that Trump started off his Inauguration Day with.
For those not keeping score or who don't understand how graphs or basic math works
(i.e.: Democrats), here's the breakdown on that:
Trump started with 6.2+ and is now at -5.0 in the aggregate. That's an 11.2 point drop. 4 years ago, Joe Biden* fell from 19.5+ to -1.9, which is a -21.4 point drop... nearly twice the drop that Trump has seen in the same time-frame.
By October 11th, 2021, Joe Biden fell to -9.5.
December 14th-17th, 2021 was the last time that Joe Biden was doing better than -7 for the rest of his Presidency.
Joe Biden*'s average approval spread for 2022 was -12.9. For 2023 it was -11.7. And for 2024 it was -15.7.
And then, of course, you lost every single swing state, you lost the Popular Vote by over 2.5 Million votes and you got to see Donald Trump become President again, just like I told you for years was going to happen.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Trumpism and the Exhilaration of Incoherence
Posted on Monday, Sep 7, 2020 1:55AM by Varun Gauri
by Varun Gauri
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2020/09/trumpism-and-the-exhilar
ation-of-incoherence.html
“The line of ‘Make America great again,’ the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody’s using it, they are all loving it. I don’t know, I guess I should copyright it, maybe I have copyrighted it.”
The style and rhetoric of the Trump era appears to be historically unique, the result of the narrow and unexpected electoral victory of a man who honed his skills performing as a reality TV idiot savant. But I believe that the rhetorical style of Trumpism — nonsense, incoherence, giving truth the middle finger — will outlast Trump.
When people say that Trumpism will outlive Trump, they usually refer to the political economy. Typically, they mean that trade shocks and the integration of China into the World Trade Organization caused unemployment and anger in the American heartland that has not yet been adequately addressed, that rising levels of immigration and the coming emergence of America as a majority-minority nation evoke nostalgia and a politics of resentment, or that the political alliance between plutocrats and populists has proven durable. All that may be true. But I think that it is not only the structural forces that are likely to endure, but also the trappings of Trumpism, what we think of as its ephemera — the circus atmosphere, the sensation that up is down, the experience of having fallen through the looking glass.
To understand the appeal of rhetorical Trumpism, first consider a few stylized facts. First, as Ezra Klein has argued, Trump’s poll numbers are amazingly stable. Despite the loss of more than 180,000 Americans to Covid-19, an unemployment rate over 8%, and rising racial tensions, Trump’s approval rating hardly moved, from 41% in late to 2019 to 42% today. His support is only loosely tied to facts on the ground. In retrospect, Trump exhibited a preternatural understanding of his followers when he said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose one voter.
Second, nor is Trump’s appeal about his policy goals. It’s not as as if the administration has set out a series of appealing policy initiatives, only to be frustrated by checks and balances or federalism. There are barely any policy goals to speak of. Almost nothing to address the major challenges such as climate change, domestic income and wealth inequality, racial justice, and the rise of China as a global power. Apart from appointing conservative Supreme Court Justices skeptical of abortion rights, there are hardly any policies even on the agenda that carried Trump in 2016, including comprehensive immigration reform, the opioid crisis, and urban violence. Instead, what we see is theater for xenophobes — a feckless wall at the southern border, smatterings of federal law enforcement that sometimes show up at largely peaceful demonstrations in cities.
Third, Republican partisans appear to support an idealized version of the man. Despite Trump’s notorious cable TV watching habits and frequent golf trips, 66% of Republicans believe him to be a “harder worker” than any president in history. Despite the barrage of lies and millions in federal tax dollars directed to his own business interests, 72% believe him to be “honest and trustworthy.” Despite not appearing to know how World War 1 ended or who Frederick Douglass was, and advocating bleach and other quack cures for covid, 77% believe he understands “complex issues.”
It’s as if support for Trump is the coat of arms for his coalition. Republican partisans support each other supporting Trump, whatever they think of Trump himself. They recognize each other and constitute a group through their Trump support. They support the idea of Trump. He’s the flag around which they rally.
How does this work? Larry Bartel’s recent survey of Republican partisans is revealing. It finds that anti-democratic attitudes a
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Last year, the IRS launched Direct File, a popular government tool that would let Americans file their taxes for free. IRS data from the 2025 filing season found that “94% of taxpayers rated their experience with the tool as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average.’ ”
NOW, Trump’s IRS has announced that it’s ending this efficient and popular program.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-save-taxpayers-billion
s-codify-direct-file
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Shut up, faggot.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:From the TAGLOG on the front page http://fireflyfans.net/main.aspx?i=0
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, faggot.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ixStringJack: I suppose that is how it would look to a simple mind who only thinks in political cartoons and headlines.
6ixStringJack: Remind me how much your party loves Jews again, by the way. Don't bring Jews into this argument Ted. That's a huge loser for your party right now.
6ixStringJack: Yes. You do. Look at any college campus and how much they hate Jews. They're all yours.
6ixStringJack: And at the end of the day, we only have one minority still here in the RWED today, and she knows that you're a piece of shit, especially after you attacked her not once, but twice for not abiding your ultimatum. How dare she not take the side of the mindless, virtue signalling, pathetic white boy who has no personality of his own and nothing interesting to talk about?
6ixStringJack: What you don't understand is that she has at least 20 IQ points on you, if not 50 or more. You're a drone on autopilot, and your brain has atrophied for so long it's useless.
6ixStringJack: And stop pretending to be Independent. You are far too stupid to be Independent and everyone knows it. You are the person who goes into the voting booth and hits the button for Straight Democrat without even knowing who you're voting for on any level under President. I bet you've never voted in a Primary in your life too. It's also extremely unlikely you've ever voted even in a Midterm General election.
6ixStringJack is a distillation of everything wrong with Trumptards, but put into words. I can see why he is angry at the country. It is because of the way his mind works.
My next door neighbor, a Trumptard, needed to replace his Cadillac Escalade Fuel Pump Control Module but he didn't understand how to trouble shoot problems. Wasting weeks of his time, he replaced everything (battery, fuses, the pump in fuel tank) EXCEPT the module, and yet the engine still won't run. And he won't listen. I bought the module, plugged it into the wiring harness, the engine starts. He then expected me to remove the 3 bolts holding the old module and insert the new module. He got mad that I left part of the job for him. Trumptards struggle in America because their minds are defective. He was absolutely convinced that all the other parts he replaced were also defective. That if he hadn't replaced those parts, the engine won't have started. Trumptards' minds are unsound. The Trumptard had further reason to be angry because I bought the part on line, paying one seventh of the Cadillac dealer price. The Trumptard wanted all new parts on his Cadillac, which makes me the villain for not going to the dealership. Trumptards are such pains in the ass.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Shut up, faggot.
Worry about your dead party.
Meanwhile, I'll revel in the fact that I've had a prediction rate in the high 90's for the last year and everything you say is going to happen never happens.
I don't hate the country. Americans hate Democrats. You should all be deported to CeCot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:6ix, what else have you been doing this morning, other than congratulating yourself for your brilliant predictions?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, faggot.
Worry about your dead party.
Meanwhile, I'll revel in the fact that I've had a prediction rate in the high 90's for the last year and everything you say is going to happen never happens.
I don't hate the country. Americans hate Democrats. You should all be deported to CeCot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
You posted the usual hateful and stupid comment over here http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?rbid=18&tid=64887&mid=1226
711#1226711 : "Fuck Ukraine. Nobody cares."
That is not much accomplishment. I fixed the next door Trumptard's Cadillac, but not up to his lofty standards. See the above story. Trumptards, in my experience, are hateful and stupid, which makes it obvious why they struggle in America. But not obvious enough for them to understand, no more than they understand their Cadillac's malfunction.
I should mention that the Trumptard next door didn't want to pay as much as $3,000 to get his Cadillac towed and diagnosed at the dealership, so in his excess confidence, he would fix it himself. He has many cars, much money, but he makes that money by cheating people.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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This demonstrates Dem boneheadedness
Quote:Yes, "Why is that?" you should be asking yourselves. The answer is in the following paragraph ....
To understand the appeal of rhetorical Trumpism, first consider a few stylized facts. First, as Ezra Klein has argued, Trump’s poll numbers are amazingly stable. Despite the loss of more than 180,000 Americans to Covid-19, an unemployment rate over 8%, and rising racial tensions, Trump’s approval rating hardly moved, from 41% in late to 2019 to 42% today. His support is only loosely tied to facts on the ground. In retrospect, Trump exhibited a preternatural understanding of his followers when he said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose one voter.
Quote:
Second, nor is Trump’s appeal about his policy goals. It’s not as as if the administration has set out a series of appealing policy initiatives, only to be frustrated by checks and balances or federalism. There are barely any policy goals to speak of. Almost nothing to address the major challenges such as climate change, domestic income and wealth inequality, racial justice, and the rise of China as a global power. Apart from appointing conservative Supreme Court Justices skeptical of abortion rights, there are hardly any policies even on the agenda that carried Trump in 2016, including comprehensive immigration reform, the opioid crisis, and urban violence. Instead, what we see is theater for xenophobes — a feckless wall at the southern border, smatterings of federal law enforcement that sometimes show up at largely peaceful demonstrations in cities.
This reminds me of those utterly stupid Dem push polls, which I faithfully fill out every election cycle, where I'm asked to rank my priorities out of a dozen or so choices.
NOT A SINGLE DEM PRIORITY RANKS IN MY TOP THREE.
SECOND, what the DNC wants me to want, and what I REALLY want, are totally disconnected. I have to make liberal use of the space for "other", and squeeze my thoughts in teeny tiny letters year after year bc the DNC INSISTS that I never think outside of their tiny "liberal" box, year after year.
And that utter inflated sense of superiority that they -and you- demonstrate, will absolutely insure Dem political death.
Your inability... disability, really, a sign of stuck brain ... to find a SINGLE POST without either "Trump" or "Russia" in it, means that you are incapable of a single positive thought and incapable of fronting a winning, positive candidate.
Trump will not be a problem 3 years from now. So where does all that anti-Trump messaging go? What did all that anti-Trump energy get you? The only thing the DNC will be able to do is pivot to a new "enemy", spew more hysterical froth and bullshit, engineer another "crisis", turn off more people.
Are you really incapable of thinking even 3 years ahead?
It seems so.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Why did Trump set tariffs to 50% for India? Peter Navarro is why.
Who is Peter Navarro? Meet the Trump advisor who blames New Delhi for Russia-Ukraine war
By Nirmalya Dutta TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Updated:Aug 30, 2025, 16:53 IST
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/who-is-peter-navarro-meet
-the-trump-advisor-who-blames-new-delhi-for-russia-ukraine-war/articleshow/123596249.cms
Like most members of the current Trump administration, the key to understanding Navarro is through a book. Kash Patel has his legal-thriller-style memoir. Navarro’s is more melodrama. I Went to Prison So You Won’t Have To: A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump Land, set for release in September 2025, co-written with his fiancée Bonnie “Pixie” Brenner and featuring a foreword by Steve Bannon, is pitched as part prison diary, part love story, and part political tract.
Peter is a principal character in the Judeo-Christian ethos of the Western world and the accompanying mass media. Peter was chosen by Jesus to spread the gospel. Peter Pan is the symbol of everlasting youth. Peter Parker, at least in modern imagination, is the harbinger of great responsibility with great power. Peter Griffin, the protagonist of Family Guy is the perfect example of confused American socio-politics.
And now we have a new Peter in the mix: Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s advisor who has been going hammer-and-tongs after New Delhi, labelling India an “oil money laundromat for the Kremlin” with all the hallmarks of Trumpian diplomacy: Twitter threads, AI-generated images, casual racism, and specious arguments that would antagonise economists and geopolitical pundits.
In his recent gusto, Navarro has gone so far as to claim that the Russia-Ukraine war is “Modi’s war” and that the “road to peace, at least partially, runs through New Delhi,” which will surely make some commentators to channel their inner Peter Dinklage (the actor who played Tyrion Lannister) to think internally: “I wish I was the monster you think I am.”
While Navarro’s remarks have drawn criticism both from US policy circles and international analysts, and even contradict the findings of the US Congressional Research Service, the gusto fits a familiar pattern: a career built on combative rhetoric, populist nationalism, and relentless positioning as Trump’s most zealous defender against perceived enemies at home and abroad.
Much more at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/who-is-peter-navarro-meet
-the-trump-advisor-who-blames-new-delhi-for-russia-ukraine-war/articleshow/123596249.cms
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:I will probably never make it clear enough, but I am opposed to "Trumptards" as a group. Trump got elected because his life and words appeal to the Trumptards among us. Once Trump is dead, the Trumptards will quickly find somebody as diseased, but less obnoxious and stupid, to be their new leader.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trump will not be a problem 3 years from now. So where does all that anti-Trump messaging go? What did all that anti-Trump energy get you? The only thing the DNC will be able to do is pivot to a new "enemy", spew more hysterical froth and bullshit, engineer another "crisis", turn off more people.
Are you really incapable of thinking even 3 years ahead?
It seems so.
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:Quote:I will probably never make it clear enough, but I am opposed to "Trumptards" as a group. Trump got elected because his life and words appeal to the Trumptards among us. Once Trump is dead, the Trumptards will quickly find somebody as diseased, but less obnoxious and stupid, to be their new leader.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trump will not be a problem 3 years from now. So where does all that anti-Trump messaging go? What did all that anti-Trump energy get you? The only thing the DNC will be able to do is pivot to a new "enemy", spew more hysterical froth and bullshit, engineer another "crisis", turn off more people.
Are you really incapable of thinking even 3 years ahead?
It seems so.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
The cult will always find an enemy.
The cult no longer matters though.
The cult is dead.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:6ix, what else have you been doing this morning, other than congratulating yourself for your brilliant predictions?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, faggot.
Worry about your dead party.
Meanwhile, I'll revel in the fact that I've had a prediction rate in the high 90's for the last year and everything you say is going to happen never happens.
I don't hate the country. Americans hate Democrats. You should all be deported to CeCot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
That's more than enough before my first cup of coffee.
You're so pathetic. This is all you have left, scrub.
You've been neutered bitch. How does it feel?

--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Oh, right...
You forgot that I outed this Leftist cunt for more of his clickbait:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=67034
Where is David Pakman going to get that $8k per month from to keep lying? The reminants of USAid? In some billions that the Joe Biden* administration hid away for things like this that DOGE didn't find? George Soros' kid? Russia even, perhaps?
I hope he saves that money and he can get his hypotelorism surgically fixed.
I've heard of a unibrow before, but dude is one step away from being Cyclops.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trump will not be a problem 3 years from now. So where does all that anti-Trump messaging go? What did all that anti-Trump energy get you? The only thing the DNC will be able to do is pivot to a new "enemy", spew more hysterical froth and bullshit, engineer another "crisis", turn off more people.
Are you really incapable of thinking even 3 years ahead?
It seems so.
SECOND
I will probably never make it clear enough, but I am opposed to "Trumptards" as a group. Trump got elected because his life and words appeal to the Trumptards among us. Once Trump is dead, the Trumptards will quickly find somebody as diseased, but less obnoxious and stupid, to be their new leader.
There's no such thing as "Trumptards". People who often make stupid life decisions can be found in the barrios and ghettos as often as in wealthy suburbs. The corrupt and evil vote Dem too, in boardrooms and politics more than any place else.
If you were honest with yourself... an impossibility, I know ... you'd understand what we all do: That you're just looking for an excuse to exercise your sociopathy.
That's why you went to war: so you could graduate your killing from small pets to people, and not go to jail for it. You STILL want to kill people .
I'm sure your parents did their best, but you were born evil.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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His parents were drug addicts and Second was born a broken boy.
His brain doesn't work right, and that's why he is the way he is today.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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To add to what Sigs said, EVERYBODY makes bad decisions. Most of them are likely made in their youth.
Some never learn and do it all their lives and earn themselves an early death on top of a miserable life.
Most will make poor decisions more than a handful of times in adulthood even with the best of intentions because, SPOILER ALERT: Pretty much everyone is dumb, no matter what their age is.
Then there's just plain ole' Bad Luck too.
It's all in this song...
Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
Lyrics:
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99
Wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
A long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth
Until they've faded, but trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back
At photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now
How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future
Or worry, but know that worrying
Is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing Bubble gum
The real troubles in your life
Are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours
Floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements
Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life
The most interesting people I know
Didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees
You'll miss them when they're gone
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the 'Funky Chicken'
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don't follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they're your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get
The more you need the people you knew when you were young
Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once but leave before it makes you soft
Travel
Accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too, will get old
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Respect your elders
Don't expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a w
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trump will not be a problem 3 years from now. So where does all that anti-Trump messaging go? What did all that anti-Trump energy get you? The only thing the DNC will be able to do is pivot to a new "enemy", spew more hysterical froth and bullshit, engineer another "crisis", turn off more people.
Are you really incapable of thinking even 3 years ahead?
It seems so.
SECOND
I will probably never make it clear enough, but I am opposed to "Trumptards" as a group. Trump got elected because his life and words appeal to the Trumptards among us. Once Trump is dead, the Trumptards will quickly find somebody as diseased, but less obnoxious and stupid, to be their new leader.
There's no such thing as "Trumptards". People who often make stupid life decisions can be found in the barrios and ghettos as often as in wealthy suburbs. The corrupt and evil vote Dem too, in boardrooms and politics more than any place else.
If you were honest with yourself... an impossibility, I know ... you'd understand what we all do: That you're just looking for an excuse to exercise your sociopathy.
That's why you went to war: so you could graduate your killing from small pets to people, and not go to jail for it. You STILL want to kill people .
I'm sure your parents did their best, but you were born evil.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The essence of being a Trumptard is a conviction that your fears are rational and a certainty of your superior knowledge. The Trumptard whose Cadillac I fixed today was convinced he knows cars. One of the two songs he is always playing in his head is titled "I Am Superior, Reasonable, And Good." (Signym, for the record, I NEVER play that song in my head.) The flip side of that vinyl record is the other Trumptard theme song: "My Enemies Know Nothing and Are Evil". (Signym, for the record, Trumptards' life stories prove they are what they accuse their enemies to be. I have videoed them at their worst. When I played back to them what they said and did, they claimed the video was fake and words had been changed. Too bad I don't have video of all Trumptards. They would deny the reality of their sad lives. )
This particular Trumptard who works in the White House plays both songs constantly:
Blocking tariffs would be "end of the United States," top Trump adviser says
By Ben Berkowitz | August 31, 2025
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/31/trump-tariffs-supreme-court
It would be "the end of the United States" if President Trump's sweeping global tariffs are ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday.
Why it matters: The administration is putting maximum pressure on the high court — and the court of public opinion — in an attempt to frame the future of Trump's trade regime in existential terms.
Catch up quick: Late Friday night, a federal appellate court upheld a lower-court ruling that Trump's sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were illegal.
Trump quickly warned the ruling could "literally destroy the United States" and suggested a Supreme Court appeal was coming.
The decision allows the IEEPA tariffs to remain in place through at least Oct. 14. It does not affect so-called Section 232 tariffs (like steel and aluminum) or Section 301 national tariffs (like the levies imposed on China in Trump's first term).
What they're saying: "This was weaponized partisan injustice at its worst. Politicians in black robes," Navarro said on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" of the court's 7-4 decision.
"If we lose the case, President Trump is right — it will be the end of the United States," he said.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
The essence of being a Trumptard
Shut the fuck up, drone.
Nobody is interested in your bullshit anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
The essence of beinga TrumptardSECOND is a conviction that your fears are rational and a certainty of your superior knowledge.
A self-own with every post?? Where does YOUR certainty come from?

And, of course, you NEVER think you're superior, reasonable, or good!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:When I pay attention to the Trumptards around me, it is one damn stupid thing after another with them. The example from yesterday was the Trumptard next door who couldn't understand why his Cadillac won't start, even after weeks of effort and the purchasing of many replacement parts. That Trumptard tried one thing after another and failed. His failures do not give me feelings of superiority and I was not feeling pity for that fool. By the way, the fix was easy. That moron had convinced himself that the failed fuel pump relay was not at fault. I can only speculate how he tricked himself into believing a falsehood. Here is an example of a semi-human doing a lousy impersonation of a President:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
The essence of beinga TrumptardSECOND is a conviction that your fears are rational and a certainty of your superior knowledge.
A self-own with every post?? Where does YOUR certainty come from?
And, of course, you NEVER think you're superior, reasonable, or good!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Just before he logged off for the night, Trump found time to return to his beloved tariffs, claiming they would bring “more than 15 trillion dollars” into the U.S.
What Trump claims to be true isn't happening, but that won't stop him from saying it will. If you think failure would cause his followers to chastise him, you'd be mistaken because they aren't aware.
Trump, 79, Calls it an Early Night After Exhausting Truth Social Rant
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-79-calls-it-an-early-nig
ht-after-exhausting-truth-social-rant/ar-AA1LCIWh
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The US Disaster With India Has Reached The Grovelling Stage by US State Department
And It Has NOTHING To Do With Helping Ukraine
Phillips P. OBrien | Sep 01, 2025
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-us-disaster-with-india-has-
reached
The Trump Administration imposed punitive tariffs on India, expecting the Indians to come grovelling to Trump and ask what they needed to do to make things better.
And guess what? It is the US which is grovelling as the Indians treat the move by the Trump Administration with the disdain that it deserves.
The US decision to decimate the US-Indian relationship never made sense in any rational universe where states act with their self-interest at heart.
Singling out India for punitive tariffs was not just self-destructive, it was also profoundly illogical. The publicly stated idea that the move was because India was buying lots of Russian oil was, ipso facto, ridiculous. China buys even more Russian oil than India and Turkey buys almost as much—and Trump is desperately trying to keep both of these states onboard. Instead, India got closer to Russia.
So, if the move had nothing to do with helping Ukraine, it might be asked why it happened? Well, what has emerged in the last few days is that the reason for the blow-up was even more venal than most people could have predicted.
Trump was destroying one of the most important strategic relationships the US has because the Indians refused to lie on his behalf and feed his monstrous ego. Trump wanted the Indians to state that he was responsible for bringing peace between India and Pakistan (a laughable claim). And the Indian government, representing a proud state with a history of not bowing to western pressure, not surprisingly refused.
Mr. Trump had been saying — repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly — that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be.
During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr. Modi should do the same.
The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.
Its remarkable how the entire position of the United States is being perverted by the personal interest and delusions of the president. Where is the bureaucracy that is supposed to check these things? Where are the “sensible” Republicans?
This move has been so catastrophic that its hard to underestimate the damage that has been done. India was in many ways the great linchpin to any attempt to balance China with powers from the global south itself. India and the US had no areas of insurmountable difference and many areas of shared interest—and things had been steadily improving between the two states for decades.
Maybe, through grovelling, the US can try and repair some of the foolishness and destructiveness it has brought to its international position. However, even then, it has set back the US-Indian relationship for years, if not decades.
Cleaning up the damage that Trump is doing to US relations with allies and friends is going to be one of the greatest challenge the US has ever faced internationally. If, of course, it even wants to try.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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What chaos at the US Centers for Disease Control could mean for the rest of the world
Published: September 1, 2025
https://theconversation.com/what-chaos-at-the-us-cdc-could-mean-for-th
e-rest-of-the-world-264188
Ever since Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr was appointed United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been under pressure to abandon its traditional evidence-based approach to public health in America and across the world.
That pressure came to a head last week with the sacking of recently appointed CDC director Susan Monarez. According to her lawyers, the longtime government scientist, who had been in the role less than a month, was targeted after she refused to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives”.
Monarez will be replaced by Jim O'Neill, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services. Critics note he has no medical or scientific training.
RFK Jr’s department has dismissed and replaced the 17 expert members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with eight new people – a number of whom have reportedly expressed anti-vaccination views.
During RFK Jr’s tenure so far, his department has:
reduced access to COVID vaccines for children and pregnant women
cancelled contracts to develop new mRNA vaccines worth US$500 million
revived the search for a long disproved link between childhood vaccines and autism.
RFK Jr is arguably the most important figure overseeing health in the US. It’s difficult to underestimate the harm his actions will do to vaccine confidence and uptake in America and around the world.
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:
Appointing Tulsi Gabbard as head of ODNI is probably one of Trump's better moves.
GO GET 'EM, TULSI!Quote:
TULSI GABBARD vs CIA CAGE MATCH
What you chose to post is simmered in your support for dictators. My point is you keep your posts in a state of incipient development towards that goal never exposing honestly what you do here.
Of course you will deny it, but it’s represented front and center in the pattern of your posts. Who you like, support and defend globally you keep in that state of incipient, i.e, beginning development.
You mask your personal truth by presenting your posts in a way where you think you can hide your deeper beliefs. You'd never say you support dictators but despite your precautions it's obvious.
Your intention is to come off as pragmatic, but you are anything but comrade signym.
T
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What happened to Jack, i.e. Gilligan? Did he stop posting?
T
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Quote:He is being his usual self: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12267
Originally posted by THG:
What happened to Jack, i.e. Gilligan? Did he stop posting?
T![]()
49#1226749
Quote:I've always seen Trumptards opposing good and gravitating toward evil, in this case, Russia. 6ix and Signym do the expected. 6ix vents and Signym propagandizes.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine. Nobody cares.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Signym spreading Russian disinformation: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12261
41#1226141
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 THG:
What happened to Jack, i.e. Gilligan? Did he stop posting?
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You're the one who wasn't here at all yesterday.
Glad to see you're still alive.
I'm ignoring your tags because they're bullshit as always. We'll let Brenda read them when she comes back, or if you're afraid of that, you can always just spam your mindless cartoons. I'm not going to further age anything off.
I don't care either way. I'm not ashamed of anything I post.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:He is being his usual self: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12267
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
What happened to Jack, i.e. Gilligan? Did he stop posting?
T![]()
49#1226749
Quote:I've always seen Trumptards opposing good and gravitating toward evil, in this case, Russia. 6ix and Signym do the expected. 6ix vents and Signym propagandizes.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine. Nobody cares.
Signym spreading Russian disinformation: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=12261
41#1226141
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Ok I see. He’s posting the same one or two lines of trolling bullshit, so it becomes confusing as to when, or what you are looking at, has been posted. He’s not too bright.
T
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I'm the smartest guy in the room. 
That's not always the easiest thing to gauge in real life situations, but I've been around you two knuckleheads long enough to know the truth.
Sigs would be the only person left here to give me a run for my money. Jaynez could be a full-blown genius for all I know, but he just doesn't know how to properly express himself all the time. Brenda might be a dark horse and could possibly be smarter than all of us. She certainly is the most Emotionally Intelligent person left on these boards.
Other than those possibilities, I've been the smartest person posting here ever since JO made his last post.
You're the bottom of the barrel here, buddy. I'm sure you're not the stupidest person that ever posted in the RWED, but with the few who remain today you're in far, far last place on the IQ scale.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Trump will be remembered in the same way James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson are remembered. As the worst Presidents in history.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
That's not always the easiest thing to gauge in real life situations, but I've been around you two knuckleheads long enough to know the truth.
Sigs would be the only person left here to give me a run for my money. Jaynez could be a full-blown genius for all I know, but he just doesn't know how to properly express himself all the time. Brenda might be a dark horse and could possibly be smarter than all of us. She certainly is the most Emotionally Intelligent person left on these boards.
Other than those possibilities, I've been the smartest person posting here ever since JO made his last post.
You're the bottom of the barrel here, buddy. I'm sure you're not the stupidest person that ever posted in the RWED, but with the few who remain today you're in far, far last place on the IQ scale.
--------------------------------------------------
"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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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:Trump will be remembered in the same way James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson are remembered. As the worst Presidents in history.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
That's not always the easiest thing to gauge in real life situations, but I've been around you two knuckleheads long enough to know the truth.
Sigs would be the only person left here to give me a run for my money. Jaynez could be a full-blown genius for all I know, but he just doesn't know how to properly express himself all the time. Brenda might be a dark horse and could possibly be smarter than all of us. She certainly is the most Emotionally Intelligent person left on these boards.
Other than those possibilities, I've been the smartest person posting here ever since JO made his last post.
You're the bottom of the barrel here, buddy. I'm sure you're not the stupidest person that ever posted in the RWED, but with the few who remain today you're in far, far last place on the IQ scale.
--------------------------------------------------
"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
Only by pink haired weirdos with hearts full of hate and septum rings.

But let's be honest. None of them even know who either James Buchanan or Andrew Johnson were.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Anti-Vax Agenda Is Infecting America
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Only by pink haired weirdos with hearts full of hate and septum rings.
But let's be honest. None of them even know who either James Buchanan or Andrew Johnson were.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
A vaccine expert warns that the Secretary of Health and Human Services is deliberately sowing confusion in order to drive down immunization uptake.
By Isaac Chotiner | August 31, 2025
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/robert-f-kennedy-jrs-anti-vax-a
genda-is-infecting-our-public-health-system
For months, President Donald Trump’s Administration has launched a full-scale attack, led by his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on America’s public-health system. In the past week, however, the efforts escalated: Kennedy, who rose to fame in part owing to his conspiracy theories about vaccinations, pushed to fire Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is part of H.H.S. This came after Monarez refused to follow the lead of Kennedy’s advisers, who have tried to restrict vaccine access. (Trump has now named a Kennedy deputy, Jim O’Neill, as her replacement; Monarez’s lawyer claims that her firing was “legally deficient.”) The Trump Administration has already tried to limit access to COVID vaccines; earlier this month, the F.D.A. approved updated COVID vaccines but limited access to them to people sixty-five and older, and those with certain preëxisting conditions that put them at risk of severe illness. In mid-September, a C.D.C. advisory committee will meet and is expected to make a recommendation on who should be able to get the shots.
I spoke about the crisis at the C.D.C. with Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the extent to which the federal government can deter or restrict vaccine access, what Kennedy is really trying to accomplish, and why making it more difficult for pharmacies to inoculate patients may change public health in America.
How important are C.D.C. recommendations to vaccine uptake? How centralized a process is this?
Everyone who is involved in administering vaccines looks to the C.D.C. for their recommendations. So the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) is a licensing body. It says a company can sell their vaccine, but it’s the C.D.C., specifically the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (A.C.I.P.), that gives specific recommendations. They say, O.K., now that it’s licensed, you can administer this vaccine to these people at these time intervals. And they have always been the central source, so they’re critical. They are the group that people look to for advice.
And so, when you say “people,” you’re talking about doctors, pharmacies, insurance companies, everyone, essentially.
Yes. I think parents look to their doctors for advice, but I think the doctors and the pharmacists and others are looking to the A.C.I.P. for advice.
I imagine there will be a lot of doctors, a majority of doctors in the United States, who are going to end up disagreeing with the Trump Administration’s guidance about vaccines. What, then, do doctors have the ability or inability to do, based on what the C.D.C. does?
So, for example, the C.D.C.—prior to Kennedy becoming the Secretary of H.H.S.—had recommended that young children receive a vaccine based on data that were presented in April of this year showing that thousands of children were being hospitalized, that one in five of those children hospitalized were being sent to the intensive-care unit, that a hundred and fifty-two children had died, that virtually none who died were vaccin
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Anti-Vax Agenda Is Infecting America
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Only by pink haired weirdos with hearts full of hate and septum rings.
But let's be honest. None of them even know who either James Buchanan or Andrew Johnson were.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Maybe you shouldn't have pulled Tyranny for 3 years over a cold.
You want to be mad at somebody now, here's your real target...
At least he won't be around to poison your pea brain for much longer.
Too bad the damage is already done... To Americans in general, to your dead brain and to your dead Political Party.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Got shit to do.
Later, losers.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
too funny
T
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Quote:6ix, you're the guy who claimed "nobody died from covid". You called vaccinated people "mud-bloods." If you are irrational for simple things like disease and vaccines, you won't be rational about complex things, which explains why Trumptards struggle and often fail to prosper in America. Why assume responsibility for personal decisions that end with failure when you can blame Democrats for your misfortunes? 6ix, feels good, doesn't it? But not rational.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Anti-Vax Agenda Is Infecting America
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Only by pink haired weirdos with hearts full of hate and septum rings.
But let's be honest. None of them even know who either James Buchanan or Andrew Johnson were.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Maybe you shouldn't have pulled Tyranny for 3 years over a cold.
You want to be mad at somebody now, here's your real target...
At least he won't be around to poison your pea brain for much longer.
Too bad the damage is already done... To Americans in general, to your dead brain and to your dead Political Party.
--------------------------------------------------
"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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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
too funny
T
Speaking of flunkies, how about that Trump guy?
T
"We've got the National Guard GARDENING right now in DC!"
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It is almost time for the 10th national emergency since January!
List of national emergencies in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies_in_the_Unit
ed_States#Trump_(2)
Early emergencies were WWI, WWII, and Korean War. There were only 6 emergencies between 1917 and 1970. Trump has 9 "emergencies" so far this year. Trump declares "emergencies" whenever he feels like people aren't paying enough attention to him.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that President Donald Trump may declare a national housing emergency in the coming months.
Since entering office, Trump has declared nine national emergencies, allowing him to expand his executive powers to address issues such as immigration and trade. He also declared a “crime” emergency in August to tackle violent crime in Washington.
The treasury secretary declined to list specific actions the president may take, beyond possibly declaring a national emergency, but he suggested that administration officials are directly studying ways to standardize local building and zoning codes and decrease closing costs. Bessent even suggested that Trump may consider some tariff exemptions for certain construction materials.
“We’re trying to figure out what we can do, and we don’t want to step into the business of states, counties, and municipal governments,” he continued, through bites of his omelette. “I think everything is on the table.”
Bessent’s full interview with the Washington Examiner will run on Tuesday.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3789052/scott-bess
ent-big-economic-pickup-2026-national-housing-emergency/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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TROLL COUNTRY
test
POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Monday, September 1, 2025 16:46
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 9299
PAGE 1 of 1
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264
Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.
And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.
T
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Quote:“Once he got money, Cormac bought all his books in hardback if possible, and for the last 40 years of his life he read almost no fiction at all.”
Originally posted by THG:
I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on.
Why? The answer stems from McCarthy’s deeply disparaging view of modern society, which he considered lost, divorced from nature, history and tradition and heading toward social collapse and apocalypse. “Cormac considered contemporary fiction a waste of time,” said Dennis, “because contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls.”
That is quote from Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth
September/October 2025
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/two-years-cormac-mccarthys
-death-rare-access-to-personal-library-reveals-man-behind-myth-180987150/
Repeat: McCarthy’s deeply disparaging view of modern society, which he considered lost, divorced from nature, history and tradition and heading toward social collapse and apocalypse. Contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls. They have Trump shouting at maximum volume, discombobulating the country.
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 THG:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
I've never once failed a single class. I dropped out 4 times, and got 4 "incomplete" grades, meaning I bailed early enough where it wasn't held against me.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. Because it's something that almost anybody who takes it never uses again in their life the second they pass that mandatory class. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.
I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago, and ever since I paid off my last car loan back in 2000 I haven't paid a single dime of interest to anybody. I've only spent about half of my adult life working for somebody else and I've managed to do all that, and half of those years were working retail only 20 or so hours per week.
Meanwhile, you're sad and alone in your tiny apartment without a penny to your name, living paycheck to paycheck on that Social Security without any friends and a lifetime of regret.
It's time for you to finally grow up.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade. I was doing my taxes as a 12 year old. I still have the copy. $1200 income in 1964. I could go on and on about marrying, buying a house, my 4 daughters, my this and my that. It is all more than 6ix can do. But I've only got an IQ of 99 so 6ix must be an idiot. NO WONDER HE IS BITTER! He is loser. The losers joined together to elect Trump, who would be their retribution against ordinary people such as myself who achieved far more than the self-identified geniuses like 6ix or that goddamn Trumptard next door who could not understand why his Cadillac would not start, but an ordinary person, myself, fixed it:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
I dropped out 4 times.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.
I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.
I Should Have Seen This Coming (The Uprising of The Stupid Assholes Who Think They Are Geniuses)
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
By David Brooks | April 7, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trumpism-maga-pop
ulism-power-pursuit/682116/
Charles de Gaulle began his war memoirs with this sentence: “All my life I have had a certain idea about France.” Well, all my life I have had a certain idea about America. I have thought of America as a deeply flawed nation that is nonetheless a force for tremendous good in the world. From Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and beyond, Americans fought for freedom and human dignity and against tyranny; we promoted democracy, funded the Marshall Plan, and saved millions of people across Africa from HIV and AIDS. When we caused harm—Vietnam, Iraq—it was because of our overconfidence and naivete, not evil intentions.
Until January 20, 2025, I didn’t realize how much of my very identity was built on this faith in my country’s goodness—on the idea that we Americans are partners in a grand and heroic enterprise, that our daily lives are ennobled by service to that cause. Since January 20, as I have watched America behave vilely—toward our friends in Canada and Mexico, toward our friends in Europe, toward the heroes in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office—I’ve had trouble describing the anguish I’ve experienced. Grief? Shock? Like I’m living through some sort of hallucination? Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful.
George Orwell is a useful guide to what we’re witnessing. He understood that it is possible for people to seek power without having any vision of the good. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake,” an apparatchik says in 1984. “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.” How is power demonstrated? By making others suffer.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
I dropped out 4 times.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.
I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.
Nobody cares. You're still a mindless drone loser without any ability for Critical Thinking, and one of the least interesting people anybody who has ever known you has had to deal with. And calculus is worthless for 99% of the people who go out into the work force, so there's that too.
You've wasted your entire life and now you're nothing but a miserable old man waiting to die. You have no friends. You have no family who gives a single shit about you. And you've got nothing better to do every day of your life than post about Trump 20 times per day. That's your life. What a sad story.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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And what is up with the personal insults from you two losers today, huh?
You must really be on tilt.
And you know that Second must be SUPER desperate because he's addressed Ted more in the last 8 hours than he has in the prior 8 years.
You two halfwits looking to team up against me now? That's cute. Even with the two of your brains combined you still can't hit a 3 digit IQ. Be my guest. This should be fun. I welcome your new pathetic alliance and the joy it will bring me going forward.
Just wait. We're only getting warmed up now. Everything I've told you was going to happen has happened, and things just keep getting worse for you every single day.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by Six StringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
SECOND:
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice. The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
SIX:
I dropped out 4 times.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.
I know how to budget, I've done my own taxes since I was 19 years old, I paid for my house with cash. I've owned my last 3 cars free and clear and learned how to fix junkers just by watching YouTube videos. I haven't had a single penny of debt to anyone since August of 2005, now over 20 years ago.
SECOND:
You flunked Algebra and Trig. You did your own taxes at 19. I was excelling in Calculus in the ninth grade. [
SIX:
Nobody cares. You're still a mindless drone loser without any ability for Critical Thinking, and one of the least interesting people anybody who has ever known you has had to deal with. And calculus is worthless for 99% of the people who go out into the work force, so there's that too.
You've wasted your entire life and now you're nothing but a miserable old man waiting to die. You have no friends. You have no family who gives a single shit about you. And you've got nothing better to do every day of your life than post about Trump 20 times per day. That's your life. What a sad story.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Trig isn't required for college level work, unless you're majoring in math. AFA algebra, it's useful for solving real world problems, and you've probably used the concepts without knowing it IRL. Maybe you had crappy teachers.
Some forms of math are a blast! I hated differential equations(I) bc I had a teacher who treated math like it was arcana given to us by gods. My next teacher for diff eqs (II) showed it to be the fun tool that it really was.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Jefferson feared that it would only be a matter of time before the American system of government degenerated into a form of “elective despotism” (1785)
"Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume. The public money and public liberty, intended to have been deposited with three branches of magistracy, but found inadvertently to be in the hands of one only, will soon be discovered to be sources of wealth and dominion to those who hold them… They [the assembly] should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price. Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered."
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/jefferson-feared-that-it-would-only
-be-a-matter-of-time-before-the-american-system-of-government-degenerated-into-a-form-of-elective-despotism-1785
Hey SECOND, Jack doesn't realize all the negative possibilities worried about by our forefathers and set in motion by Trump, is fueled by him and his sick desperate angry group of morons.
He's too stupid to realize the life he's describing to us in real world shows he's had many of the opportunities this country has to offer. He brags about his successes every chance he gets. All he's accomplished and possesses, all he claims he can still accomplish if he wants. Yet still, he's become an uncaring vengeful piece of waste. That's a mental health issue. 100%, no doubt.
T
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trig isn't required for college level work, unless you're majoring in math.
My major was called something like "Information Systems" or something. Tech/computer related. I took a lot of programming courses, along with finishing all other necessary General Education requirements. Straight A's across the board except for "Sociology" which was just boring bullshit, and one other class I was getting an A in but I had to miss my final test because of work and my teacher was a bitch. Both of those were just mistakes on my part because they were among the Gen Ed requirements that we had quite a few different choices. I could have taken Home Ec. and been washing dishes or whatever they do in that class and got an A while being around a bunch of girls instead. Shame on me.

I actually have 20 more credits than I need to graduate, but I never got that associates because of that one stupid class. Things have probably changed over the years because of just how stupid the kids are today when we graduate them from high school, but those were the requirements back then.
Quote:
AFA algebra, it's useful for solving real world problems, and you've probably used the concepts without knowing it IRL. Maybe you had crappy teachers.
I understand basic algebra. I took an algebra class Freshman year of high school and got an A in it. Anything that's possible to do without the need for having a Texas Instruments $100 graphing calculator was easy enough for me to do. They put me in Advanced Geometry the following year and that was fine too. But then they put me in Advanced Trig/Algebra in Jr. year, and honestly the only reason I even passed that class is because the teacher liked me and she gave me a "D" so I wouldn't fail. I did not deserve that D grade. And because that was an Advanced class, it was still worth what a "C" would have been in a regular class, so not too big a hit on my GPA. Then in Senior year I didn't even take math at all since we were only required to do 3 years of Math.
Quote:
Some forms of math are a blast! I hated differential equations(I) bc I had a teacher who treated math like it was arcana given to us by gods. My next teacher for diff eqs (II) showed it to be the fun tool that it really was.
Unless you consider Logic Puzzles/Tests as Math, it has never really been fun for me. I guess Geometry had its moments and was kind of fun, doing those proofs.
I was always more "English" brained when it came to the meaningful classes, and my favorite classes were Art and what they called "Science and Tech" which was really just a way for two male teachers to try to save Wood/Metal/Auto shop by combining all of them into a 2 hour class and giving it a fancy name. I spent most of my time doing woodwork when I was in there because they just kind of let us do whatever we wanted to do and gave us guidance. At one point though we got this cool miniature CNC Router, and they put me in charge of learning AutoCAD and getting it to put out some cool shit on auto pilot once you put your stock in there and fired her up. We had a Job Fair at the school in the 2nd half of Senior Year and I was able to take an entire day off of school with my own table and show that thing off to all the other students.
I feel the only class I ever took on any level, including college that helped me at any job I ever worked was a 1 semester Keyboarding class, and the other semester taught by the same awesome teacher was Economics, which was probably not so helpful with work, but just life in general. I really loved those two classes and it's a shame they weren't both 1 full year and they combined them like that.
Back in the day I enjoyed doing taxes and even did them for my brother for years and some other people from time to time, but I hate even doing mine now and I'm stuck doing my aunts. But she retires next year so I won't have to do t
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Then why did you flunk out of a two year college twice? The two in two year college, doesn't mean you are supposed to flunk out two times.
I dropped out 4 times.
The single answer is College Level Algebra and Trigonometry. Something you likely didn't even have to do back in the dinosaur days when you went to college, and even if you did, it's something you never once used in your life. No worries, since I've never needed a degree to do better than most Americans end up doing.
Actually, I used Trig while roofing. That said, I went back to school when I was 60 and got a four-year degree; try that. Everything you say about yourself suggests you can. If you chose not to then shut up about it.
T
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I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.
Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.
We'll see how it goes. The way I figure it, I only need to make roughly $100k for the rest of my life before SS kicks in and never worry about a bill. As long as inflation doesn't go crazy and make our currency worthless, of course. Right now I like all my free time too much to think about working 40 hours a week doing anything important.
Although, they are paying quite a bit more these days than they were the last time I worked. And a lot of people are saying that more and more businesses are looking for GenXers who don't have degrees because of the current crop of recent college grads and how disappointing most of them end up being. Maybe something drops into my lap that I wouldn't absolutely hate doing that allows me to sock away as much as I was back in my mid-to-late 20's and actually offers health insurance one day.
Hell... if I made another $300 or $400k in the next 18 or so years, I'd be living like a king in retirement. So maybe it's not such a bad thing that they're going to be taking away my Medicaid in December of 2026 and forcing me to re-evaluate my situation before I probably would have gotten around to doing it on my own. I usually have to be forced into doing things I don't want to do, and I've set myself up so well that there's nothing financial otherwise that is pushing me back into the workforce anytime soon.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.
Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.
Trigonometry is used when doing a hip roof for one thing. It is essential for calculating the angles and lengths of the rafters, ensuring a proper pitch and stability of the roof. Trigonometric formulas help determine the hip rafter backing angle.
You would also use it to strike your lines from the gutter to the ridge when shingling. With a hip roof there is no straight edge to measure off of.
T
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264
Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.
THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.
And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.
KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.
I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.
I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.
YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.
Capisce?
-----------
"It may be
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264
Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.
THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.
And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.
KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.
I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.
I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.
YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.
Capisce?
No, you think everything, and
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.
Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.
Trigonometry is used when doing a hip roof for one thing. It is essential for calculating the angles and lengths of the rafters, ensuring a proper pitch and stability of the roof. Trigonometric formulas help determine the hip rafter backing angle.
You would also use it to strike your lines from the gutter to the ridge when shingling. With a hip roof there is no straight edge to measure off of.
T
I've never built a house or done the rafters on a roof. The closest I got to that was building garages for about a half a year, but the foreman made all the cuts. Trust me... that dude didn't know shit about Trig. All done with standard tools, just like they've done it since the dawn of time.
Edited to Add: Okay... That was for sure hyperbolic. That hasn't been true since the dawn of time. The architects of the great historical monuments and buildings from hundreds of years ago sure used it. But let's just say that when we kind of made building most houses a "Paint By Number" affair since the boys came back from WWII and we needed to build the suburbs quickly, we haven't been using much trig in architecture unless you're building something important for somebody important. The types of structure that somebody is actually paying an architect to create for them.
Unless that was you and you were just building Paint By Numbers homes, you were over-educated for the job you were in, but good for you... it came in handy for a while and I bet your employer was thrilled to have you around until you found something better suited to your education.
When I said I did roofing, I just meant pulling off old shingles and putting new ones on. We've never used Trig for that and never had one single complaint. I doubt very much you're going to find any people today that do new shingle roofs that know anything about Trig and/or apply it to the job when it's wholly unnecessary with basic tools that anybody should be carrying around in their tool belt.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Originally posted by 1kiki: Sunday, June 17, 2012 2:08 PM
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=52264
Originally posted by 1kiki:
You may not noticed Signy but Jack hasn't posted anything important, or relevant, or intelligent for almost a year.
Look back through his posts. You'll find an endless stream of insane unevidenced bullshit (nobody dies of COVID, Trump won the election), and trolling. For example, have you noticed that every time someone posts an opinion Jack disagrees with, no matter how much evidence is provided, how much logic is used, how neutrally it's stated, he trolls the person rather than debate the subject? It happens every time.
Haven't you noticed it yourself? You certainly don't insist on your right to express your own opinions. You fade away when Jack trolls you for having an opinion he disapproves of. You've modified how you state yourself here, because, Jack.
This isn't Jack having a bad season. This is Jack, as Jack has decided to be, through many small decisions over time.
Though I'm sure he has handy scapegoats for his own choices. Democrats 'made' Jack swerve right. He said so himself. Women 'made' Jack mogtow. He said so himself. Trolls 'made' Jack a troll. I must have 'made' Jack ... something or other.
It's all there in all his posts. It's Jack, being Jack, as Jack has made himself: a second SECOND. A self-justified pumped-up hater, laser focused on attacking people who merely disagree.
BTW, he's not nearly as smart as he thinks himself to be either. I've known far smarter people, who were far saner. So have you.
JACK isn't 'mostly' rational. His reactions are driven by his life-long tantrum at not being the center of the world's attention and not getting everything his universally important 'specialness' deserves.
The only thing that stood between him and an unmitigated ego was his anxieties - the realization that there are things bigger and more important than him. So he 'fixed' his ego by denying reality. That's why he 'thinks' HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, along with SARS-CoV-2, global warming, and discrimination against anyone who isn't a white male.
And his new and 'improved' life is about coming out of the closet to unapologetically claim his ego is the most important thing in the entire universe ever.
But most importantly, he's boring.
THGR:
Holy fuck. Follow the link there's more. I've been reading some of 1kiki's posts about different things and at times, like now, she's dead on. I'm glad you posted this 1kiki. It helps me prove my point. I've said all the same things and more and it's nice to have you validate them.
And comrade signym. She called your number as well. You coward to the bully. I got several heads up to be careful by a certain lady who posts here. She coward and befriended the bully as well.
Time to find your courage! Join with SECOND, he is standing strong as well. Way to go TWO.
SIGNY:
KIKI has a temper. I don't, as much. I've told SIX I think that some of his opinions are rooted in an oppositional personality, that he bristles when confronted by "authority", and that he needs to take that out of his opinion/ decision- making bc it's going to get him in trouble.
I think that people are more apt to hear what you have to say if you're not metaphorically yelling at them with your fists balled up and a vein bulging in your forehead. Or slinging insults and venom and defamation.
I also tell SECOND that he's a pathological personality.
YOUR problem is that you believe "authorities" and "establishment" even tho they're demonstrated liars. Like SECOND and SIX, you react emotionally when reality doesn't match what you want to believe.
Capisce?
THUGR:
No, you think everything, and everyone is corrupt. Except Russia of course. I believeNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Trump is facing a completely self-inflicted disaster here. He probably could have gotten Republicans in Congress to vote for insane trade policy. But he was impatient, and wanted to start ruling as a dictator right away.
I see that Scott Bessent is saying that ruling that Trump’s illegal tariffs are, in fact, illegal will embarrass the United States. I’m not a lawyer, but last I heard you weren’t allowed to act illegally if obeying the law would be embarrassing. Anyway, let’s be clear: It won’t embarrass America. It will embarrass Trump and Bessent. If anything, it might reassure the rest of the world that some vestige of rule of law yet remains in this nation.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/an-emergency-non-emergency-post
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The Bonfire of Trump’s Vanities
A richness of embarrassments
By Paul Krugman | Sep 02, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-bonfire-of-trumps-vanities
Busy day yesterday, so all I have this morning is a brief follow-up on last week’s post about the decision by an appeals court to uphold the Court of Trade’s ruling that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal — which they clearly are.
Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, has argued that this ruling should not stand because it would embarrass the United States. (Actually, it would mainly embarrass Bessent and his boss.) As I noted, this is a novel legal principle: It’s OK to do illegal things when obeying the law would be embarrassing. What I failed to note is the sheer chutzpah of the argument.
Many of my readers probably know the concept — hey, “chutzpah” is in the Oxford English dictionary. In any case, the classic explanation of chutzpah is that it’s when you murder your parents, then plead for leniency because you’re an orphan. Here we have officials engaging in blatantly illegal actions, then saying that they should be let off the book because admitting that their actions were illegal would be humiliating.
Actually, the embarrassment would run deeper than many people realize. Who actually pays tariffs? Mostly American businesses, who have to pay a tax on goods they import. If those taxes were illegal, surely the government will have to refund the money. Sound implausible? Not to investors who have been buying up refund rights.
And who’s facilitating these bets that Trump’s whole tariff strategy will collapse? Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment bank run by the sons of Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Soldiers are doing landscaping in DC parks. I’m thrilled for them
They were deployed to fight crime. Instead, some are spreading mulch. It’s almost sweet – if you remove the context
By Dave Schilling | Sept 1, 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/01/soldiers-landsca
ping-washington-dc-crime
If soldiers are going to be deployed to your city, what would you prefer they do: point a rifle in your face or mow your grass? This is not a question I ever expected to have to consider in my days on this planet, but life is full of surprises. As part of Donald Trump’s military deployment to address Washington DC’s so-called “crime emergency”, national guard troops are being tasked with various groundskeeping duties around the United States capital. These duties include spreading mulch around cherry trees, picking up trash and general maintenance of public spaces. The president must have been too embarrassed to get Four Seasons Total Landscaping involved again, so he got the military to do it instead.
It’s a real “swords into ploughshares” moment, or in this case, “M4 rifles into those grabber sticks you use to pick up plastic bottles full of piss.” It’s almost sweet, if you separate the move from literally all outside context and just think about a part-time soldier pruning your bush. The national guard is actually trained for sanitation and groundskeeping, but they are usually deployed for such purposes in a crisis like a natural disaster or even during the height of the Covid pandemic. Except: there’s no natural disaster, no stay-at-home orders due to a deadly virus, no wildfires, no floods. The only crisis here is man-made.
It’s usually the responsibility of the National Parks Service to beautify spaces in DC, but amid recent cuts by the Trump administration, the number of parks employees in the city fell from 200 to a mere 20, according to the Washington Post. Still, the guard wasn’t deployed to toss cigarette butts. This is happening because of alleged rampant crime in a city where the violent crime rate before Trump’s deployment was down by about 20% over the same period in earlier years. Some estimates place the cost of the DC military deployment at around a $1m a day. I will happily rake your leaves for half that.
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, you never surprise me by correctly diagnosing a problem. You always are wrong. How do you do it?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'll give you one specific example: Obama [WHO I VOTED FOR, ONCE] and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. The problem was a bunch of variable-rate mortgages that banks (and other lenders) issued that the homebuyers couldn't afford, and that were beyond any reasonable valuation of the property. Those mortgages were bundled with other mortgages, sold in "tranches" to investors like retirement funds, traded in Credit Default Swaps with other banks, insured by AIG, until they contaminated the entire financial system. When things started to go south, Obama could have halted the slide by paying off at-risk mortgages. Not the entire amount, just enough to make the loans affordable. EVERYTHING would have been shored up ... the homeowners, the original lenders, the subsequent investors, the banks that had swapped credit lines, insurers. Instead, Obama paid off all of the banks, in essence paying off on the same mortage several times over, while banks repossessed the homes and families were kicked to the street, in the biggest land grab and transfer of wealth from the poor to the banks ever. He could have appointed Sheila Bair, who would gave whipped errant banks into shape. Instead, he appointed Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-presid
ent-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders
Needless to say, I didn't vote for Obama the second time.
A primary factor in the 2008 financial crisis was the issuance of inflated bond ratings by credit rating agencies (CRAs) for complex, risky mortgage-backed securities. CRAs gave high ratings to mortgage-backed securities (MBS) despite the underlying mortgages being of poor quality, which helped channel capital into the subprime market and fueled the housing bubble. When the housing market collapsed and homeowners defaulted, these assets were downgraded, leading to massive losses for investors and contributing to the widespread financial panic and the crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_
crisis
The closest mechanical engineering analog is that the banks claimed aluminum was titanium and so the whole system of mortgage-based securities sold by banks to investors would melt when heated. (Aluminum is shiny. So is titanium. Who will know the difference? Who will notice the difference between 1% and 10% likelihood of a home owner defaulting on their mortgage? ) Titanium melting point is around 1668°C (3034°F), compared to aluminum, which melts at approximately 660°C (1220°F).
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Shut up, faggot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:Signym, you never surprise me by correctly diagnosing a problem. You always are wrong. How do you do it?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'll give you one specific example: Obama [WHO I VOTED FOR, ONCE] and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. The problem was a bunch of variable-rate mortgages that banks (and other lenders) issued that the homebuyers couldn't afford, and that were beyond any reasonable valuation of the property. Those mortgages were bundled with other mortgages, sold in "tranches" to investors like retirement funds, traded in Credit Default Swaps with other banks, insured by AIG, until they contaminated the entire financial system. When things started to go south, Obama could have halted the slide by paying off at-risk mortgages. Not the entire amount, just enough to make the loans affordable. EVERYTHING would have been shored up ... the homeowners, the original lenders, the subsequent investors, the banks that had swapped credit lines, insurers. Instead, Obama paid off all of the banks, in essence paying off on the same mortage several times over, while banks repossessed the homes and families were kicked to the street, in the biggest land grab and transfer of wealth from the poor to the banks ever. He could have appointed Sheila Bair, who would gave whipped errant banks into shape. Instead, he appointed Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-presid
ent-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders
Needless to say, I didn't vote for Obama the second time.
A primary factor in the 2008 financial crisis was the issuance of inflated bond ratings by credit rating agencies (CRAs) for complex, risky mortgage-backed securities. CRAs gave high ratings to mortgage-backed securities (MBS) despite the underlying mortgages being of poor quality, which helped channel capital into the subprime market and fueled the housing bubble. When the housing market collapsed and homeowners defaulted, these assets were downgraded, leading to massive losses for investors and contributing to the widespread financial panic and the crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_
crisis
"Those mortgages were bundled with other mortgages, sold in "tranches" to investors like retirement funds" vs "complex, risky mortgage-backed securities. CRAs gave high ratings to mortgage-backed securities (MBS)".
You say tomayto, I say tomahto. We're talking about the same thing, dipshit
That doesn't take away from the fact that OBAMA [A DEMOCRAT] showered our tax money on banks, while robbing poorer, often black, folks of their homes. Don't you remember? The original Occupy movement was a protest against OBAMA. "We robbed some folks" he should have admitted.
Not only that, the whole crisis was set up by BILL CLINTON [ANOTHER DEMOCRAT, WHO I ALSO VOTED FOR, ONCE] who signed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act as a parting gift, among other generous gifts he gave to financiers and globalists.
*The detail: PhD math whizzes were paid lots of money to calculate the risk of any tranche failing. They rationalized a low risk, since subprime mortgages made up only a portion of each tranche. What they didn't calculate was the ENTIRE real estate market falling, and the bond rating agencies accepted that calculation.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:Signym, this was NOT Obama's plan, despite your insistently misunderstanding TARP for many years. Signym, you will never understand it, you blockhead.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You say tomayto, I say tomahto. We're talking about the same thing, dipshit
That doesn't take away from the fact that OBAMA [A DEMOCRAT] showered our tax money on banks, while robbing poorer, often black, folks of their homes. Don't you remember? The original Occupy movement was a protest against OBAMA. "We robbed some folks" he should have admitted.
Not only that, the whole crisis was set up by BILL CLINTON [ANOTHER DEMOCRAT, WHO I ALSO VOTED FOR, ONCE] who signed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act as a parting gift, among other generous gifts he gave to financiers and globalists.
*The detail: PhD math whizzes were paid lots of money to calculate the risk of any tranche failing. They rationalized a low risk, since subprime mortgages made up only a portion of each tranche. What they didn't calculate was the ENTIRE real estate market falling, and the bond rating agencies accepted that calculation.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The bank bailout program, TARP, was a product of the Bush administration and was signed into law in October 2008, preceding Barack Obama's presidency.
Obama's role:
As President, Obama was responsible for overseeing and implementing the ongoing policies related to the bailout and financial crisis during his term.
Political Opposition:
Some political opponents may place blame on Obama for continuing the program, as it was a controversial and unpopular initiative, even though he did not create it.
Signym, this program, as run by Obama, was profitable for the US government:
On December 19, 2014, the U.S. Treasury sold its remaining holdings of Ally Financial, essentially ending the program. Through the Treasury, the U.S. government actually booked $15.3 billion in profit, as it earned $441.7 billion on the $426.4 billion invested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump team’s contentious climate report ‘makes a mockery of science’, experts say
Over 85 top climate specialists lambasted administration’s review, calling it a ‘shoddy mess’ that downplays risks
By Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor | Tue 2 Sep 2025 09.00 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/trump-administration-c
limate-report
Predetermined outcome
The Department of Energy report was released as part of a Trump administration push to repeal the “endangerment finding” – a landmark 2009 determination that greenhouse gases harm human health.
The elimination of this finding by the Environmental Protection Agency would effectively kneecap all US policies designed to cut planet-heating pollution from cars, trucks and power plants. The DOE report is intended to provide cover for this political goal rather than act as a credible work of science, the review found.
Dietderich said the president “values the role of science” and that the administration “have not pre-judged how this report will impact EPA’s proposed Endangerment Finding rulemaking or any policy or program at the Department of Energy”.
Yet by sidelining credible climate scientists and actively promoting the report’s conclusions in draft form, the Trump administration has shown that this work is merely a tool in service of a political goal, the reviewing scientists added.
“Work contrary to the conclusions of the DOE report is dismissed or simply ignored, making it clear that the report is intended to support a specific policy decision and is not an unbiased synthesis of climate science,” said Christopher Callahan, a climate scientist at Indiana University.
Lots more at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/trump-administration-c
limate-report
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:Oh goody!
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:Signym, this was NOT Obama's plan, despite your insistently misunderstanding TARP for many years. Signym, you will never understand it, you blockhead.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You say tomayto, I say tomahto. We're talking about the same thing, dipshit
That doesn't take away from the fact that OBAMA [A DEMOCRAT] showered our tax money on banks, while robbing poorer, often black, folks of their homes. Don't you remember? The original Occupy movement was a protest against OBAMA. "We robbed some folks" he should have admitted.
Not only that, the whole crisis was set up by BILL CLINTON [ANOTHER DEMOCRAT, WHO I ALSO VOTED FOR, ONCE] who signed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act as a parting gift, among other generous gifts he gave to financiers and globalists.
*The detail: PhD math whizzes were paid lots of money to calculate the risk of any tranche failing. They rationalized a low risk, since subprime mortgages made up only a portion of each tranche. What they didn't calculate was the ENTIRE real estate market falling, and the bond rating agencies accepted that calculation.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The bank bailout program, TARP, was a product of the Bush administration and was signed into law in October 2008, preceding Barack Obama's presidency.
Obama's role:
As President, Obama was responsible for overseeing and implementing the ongoing policies related to the bailout and financial crisis during his term.
Political Opposition:
Some political opponents may place blame on Obama for continuing the program, as it was a controversial and unpopular initiative, even though he did not create it.
Signym, this program, as run by Obama, was profitable for the US government:
On December 19, 2014, the U.S. Treasury sold its remaining holdings of Ally Financial, essentially ending the program. Through the Treasury, the U.S. government actually booked $15.3 billion in profit, as it earned $441.7 billion on the $426.4 billion invested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
TARP was profitable for the government!
Profitable for banks!
It only sucked poor people dry.
And it was passed by a DEMOCRAT Congress, signed by a REPUBLICAN President! A mixed bag of government and financiers feeding off people!
Hooray!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:In what world do you think Congress would pass a open ended funding law where the Federal government pays your mortgage when you can't or you just don't feel like paying because mortgage payments interfere with more fun things you could buy? Maybe if there were 60 Senator Bernies, but probably not even then because Bernie could see the consequences of what Signym wants even if Signym can't even imagine them. This law which never passes would be called the "Every American Can Own Their Dream Home From Which They Can Never Be Evicted" Act.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh goody!
TARP was profitable for the government!
Profitable for banks!
It only sucked poor people dry.
And it was passed by a DEMOCRAT Congress, signed by a REPUBLICAN President! A mixed bag of government and financiers feeding off people!
Hooray!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The last straw for the Supreme Court could spell trouble for Trump | Opinion
By Sabrina Haake | September 2, 2025
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trump-dollar-supreme-cour
t/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-last-straw-for-the-supreme-
court-could-spell-trouble-for-trump-opinion/ar-AA1LHTwx
Donald Trump thinks he can control all aspects of American life, including free market interest rates. The Fed chair, and the global economy, disagree.
If the Fed were to fall under the influence of an elected official seeking to tie interest rates to his political agenda, economic consequences would be dire: Investors would face heightened market volatility due to uncertainty and artificially manipulated interest rates, causing confidence in US assets to drop.
In his second term, Trump has made repeated threats to remove officials from the Federal Reserve, including Fed chair Jerome Powell and governor Lisa Cook. Trump is unhappy that the Fed has not yet lowered interest rates to mask economic fallout from his ill-conceived tariffs, which have caused unprecedented levels of volatility and uncertainty.
Trump’s threats have already jeopardized the Fed’s goals, destabilized global markets and eroded trust in US fiscal autonomy. AInvest reports early market responses to his threats and stresses in sum that “the Fed’s independence remains critical to global stability, as political interference risks undermining dollar dominance and triggering cascading effects on bond yields and equity valuations.”
Usurping the Fed’s role
In his latest attempt to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates, Trump seeks to fire Cook, whose appointment can only be terminated for cause under Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act, in effect since 1913.
“For cause” in this legal context does not mean whatever Trump wants it to mean. It is statutorily defined as “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Trump, no surprise, is trying to remove Cook for allegations falling outside that statutory definition. In response to unsubstantiated allegations from a Trump ally that Cook made false statements on a mortgage application in 2021, before she joined the Federal Reserve, Trump purported to fire her on Aug. 25.
In a letter addressed to Cook, Trump wrote, “In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter … I do not have confidence in your integrity.”
Trump, convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records, whose organization was found guilty on 17 counts of criminal tax fraud, whose “Trump University” defrauded students to the tune of 25 million dollars, and who is illegally enriching himself from the presidency in unprecedented ways, appears blind to irony.
If he succeeds in removing and replacing Cook, Trump will have appointed the majority of the seven-member Board of Governors, giving him direct, improvident, and economically catastrophic influence over their decisions.
Cook says not so fast
Cook is fighting back. In a civil suit filed on Aug. 28, Cook avers that the attempted firing violates her due process rights as well as the Federal Reserve Act. Seeking an emergency injunction to block her firing and confirm her status as a member of the Fed’s governing board, Cook’s attorneys pled that, “The President’s effort to terminate a Senate-confirmed Federal Reserve Board member is a broadside attack on the century-old independence of the Federal Reserve System.”
The Supreme Court, despite having granted nearly all of the Trump administration’s 19 emergency appeals on its shadow docket, may finally be poised to tell Trump ‘No’ on this one.
In May, SCOTUS reiterated the Fed’s independence in Wilcox v. Trump, ruling that, “the Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” distinguishing the operational independence of the Fed from that of the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and other q
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:In what world do you think Congress would pass a open ended funding law where the Federal government pays your mortgage when you can't or you just don't feel like paying because mortgage payments interfere with more fun things you could buy? Maybe if there were 60 Senator Bernies, but probably not even then because Bernie could see the consequences of what Signym wants even if Signym can't even imagine them. This law which never passes will be called the "Every American Can Own Their Dream Home From Which They Can Never Be Evicted" Act.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh goody!
TARP was profitable for the government!
Profitable for banks!
It only sucked poor people dry.
And it was passed by a DEMOCRAT Congress, signed by a REPUBLICAN President! A mixed bag of government and financiers feeding off people!
Hooray!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
False dilemma.
There were a lot of things the Federal government culd require as part of its restructuring package
Restore Glass Steagall
Make mortgage backed securities illegal. Part of the problem with mortgage backed assets is that it complicated, beyond hope of disentangling, who exactly held which mortgage. It also allowed banks to sell their bad mortgages and pass on the risk.
Make the Federal governmen holder of a mortgage, at low interest rates, and require the bailed out banks to renegotiate their mortgages to fixed rate. The initial trigger of the crisis was when balloon payments and variable interest rates ... often hidden in fine print and never disclosed to the borrower, were invoked.
Make this a one-time event, and since banks would no longer be able to sell their risky mortgages they would be 100% responsible for any more bad loans that they made.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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AFA The Fed is concerned... despite irs name, The Fed is not a national bank. As the article makes pellucidly clear, The Fed is merely a consortium of the largest private banks. Just like the Bank of England was a private bank until 1946.
It's a travesty that our Federal Government goes, hat in hand, to borrow money from a private bank (the so-called "Federal Reserve") to issue "notes" when the Federal government, and ONLY the Federal government, has the Constitutional authority to issue official coinage (currency).
The Fed should either be nationalized, or a true national banks created. Private banks shouldn't be issuing currency and the Federal government shouldn't e required to borrow money from a private middleman.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:Signym, let me explain why none of your suggestions will pass Congress. It is easier for government to not enforce rules on rich people, which is why rules created by Democrats are overturned by Republicans. That is even why some Democrats will overturn rules by cooperating with Republicans. It is just so much easier!
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
False dilemma.
There were a lot of things the Federal government culd require as part of its restructuring package
Restore Glass Steagall
Make mortgage backed securities illegal. Part of the problem with mortgage backed assets is that it complicated, beyond hope of disentangling, who exactly held which mortgage. It also allowed banks to sell their bad mortgages and pass on the risk.
Make the Federal governmen holder of a mortgage, at low interest rates, and require the bailed out banks to renegotiate their mortgages to fixed rate. The initial trigger of the crisis was when balloon payments and variable interest rates ... often hidden in fine print and never disclosed to the borrower, were invoked.
Make this a one-time event, and since banks would no longer be able to sell their risky mortgages they would be 100% responsible for any more bad loans that they made.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Does anyone want to know why the rich get what they want from government and poor don't? Because the rich make the job of governing easy and the poor don't. It is easy to NOT collect taxes by just firing the IRS auditors assigned to looking for cheating by the rich. Simple! "The IRS budget would decline 37% from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026"
https://www.thetaxadviser.com/news/2025/jun/irs-budget-request-cuts-20
-of-employees-in-2026-increases-phone-help/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:There you go again, Signym. Coming up with a complex solution when the easiest thing for Congress to do is leave it as is, but loosen controls as the rich suggest so that the rich can do as they please.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
AFA The Fed is concerned... despite irs name, The Fed is not a national bank. As the article makes pellucidly clear, The Fed is merely a consortium of the largest private banks. Just like the Bank of England was a private bank until 1946.
It's a travesty that our Federal Government goes, hat in hand, to borrow money from a private bank (the so-called "Federal Reserve") to issue "notes" when the Federal government, and ONLY the Federal government, has the Constitutional authority to issue official coinage (currency).
The Fed should either be nationalized, or a true national banks created. Private banks shouldn't be issuing currency and the Federal government shouldn't e required to borrow money from a private middleman.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America."
Trump has previously rejected suggestions that the warming of relations between China, Russia and other nations poses a challenge to the US on the global stage.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dxd9eyy71o
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Top FDA official demands removal of YouTube videos
Vinay Prasad, who is the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, had demanded the removal of six videos of himself from Howard’s YouTube channel.
“These videos were nothing more than collections of what other doctors said during the pandemic, including doctors who are extremely influential and who are now the medical establishment,” Howard said.
“It’s really important to remember [Prasad’s] past words in order to gauge his current and future credibility, and that was the mission of my YouTube channel, to record what these doctors [Prasad and others] said,” Howard said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/fda-official-youtube-v
ideos
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Blocking clean energy is costly
https://eedition.houstonchronicle.com/infinity/article_popover_share.a
spx?guid=3d7479ba-979c-4e4e-b86c-a0a0f0b235c3&share=true
Imagine if President Barack Obama had pulled the permits for a multibillion-dollar deepwater oil rig after construction was 80% complete, at a time when gasoline prices were rising. The American people would be justifiably outraged.
President Donald Trump did essentially the same thing last week when his administration issued a stop-work order on the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island. Blocking the $6.2 billion project has put 1,000 people out of work and will reduce the reliability of electricity to 15 million people.
U.S. demand for power is indisputably growing for the first time in a decade. Tech firms are building massive data centers to serve our needs for artificial intelligence, cat videos and social media posts. Texas just registered the state’s 400,000th electric vehicle.
Yet it seems like the White House doesn’t want utilities to meet that new demand — at least not with clean, affordable energy. Instead, the administration is pushing expensive fossil fuels that will damage the climate.
Next on Trump’s chopping block is the $6 billion Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which was scheduled to begin construction next year and employ thousands of workers. Earlier, Trump tried to cancel New York’s $5 billion Empire Wind offshore project but relented when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to allow construction of new natural gas pipelines.
Trump parrots lies to justify his assault on wind, but his deal with Kathy Hochul reveals his true agenda. California has cut natural gas use for electricity by 28% over the past two years by switching to renewables. The oil and gas industry is terrified that the rest of the country will follow suit and has begged him for help protecting their market share.
Trump’s campaign against clean energy has killed $18.6 billion in clean energy projects within the last year, according to the Atlas Public Policy Center’s Clean Energy Tracker. U.S. renewable energy spending is down 36% this year while global investment rose 10%, energy consulting firm BloombergNEF reported.
Trump’s attacks on wind and solar power plants, the cheapest sources of new electricity generation, come as demand for power for artificial intelligence, data centers and electric vehicles is growing 10% a year nationally. The average U.S. electricity bill is up 5.5% from a year ago and has risen 30% since 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
By killing new sources of electricity, Trump is guaranteeing bills will keep rising. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has blamed previous administrations, but Trump is blocking the cheapest and easiest to install forms of generation from coming online.
My colleague James Osborne reports from Washington that the administration is coming for the Texas grid, too. Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Adam Suess announced new reviews on clean energy projects last month that killed a $250 million solar project in East Texas.
The Commerce Department launched a trade investigation into wind turbines imported from overseas, a possible prelude to tariffs that would drive up costs.
And Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced plans to block farmers from selling their land for solar projects, saying she was “protecting our family farms and our way of life.”
None of this matches the traditional Republican commitment to free markets, where private actors compete to provide the best goods or services without government interference. Nor does it seem to respect property owners’ right to buy, sell or use their land as they see fit.
I’ve never missed President Ronald Reagan so much. What happened to the all-of-the-above strategy to provide Americans with the energy they need?
Trump is not a conservative or even a free-market capitalist. He demanded that NVIDIA share profits, that Intel and U.S. Steel give up shar
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Shut up, faggot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:"This is unacceptable": Former CDC directors condemn RFK's upheaval
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, faggot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
By April Rubin
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/01/cdc-directors-nyt-essay-rfk-trump
Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday warned about increasing threats to public health from the Trump administration's political interference at the agency.
Why it matters: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s takeover of health policy, funding and research "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced," the directors wrote in a New York Times guest essay.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration ousted CDC director Susan Monarez last month after she refused to quit. The White House said she was "not aligned" with the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.
Several top CDC officials also resigned following her departure.
Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Jim O'Neill, who advocated for unproven COVID treatments, was named acting CDC director.
State of play: The nine directors' tenure spans from 1977 to this year, and they have collectively spent more than 100 years working at the CDC.
They worked in either permanent or acting capacities under Republican and Democratic administrations from former President Carter to President Trump.
What they're saying: "The loss of Dr. Monarez and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for C.D.C. to do what it has done for about 80 years, to work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their lives and health," the directors wrote.
"During our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers," they also wrote.
A White House spokesperson referred Axios on Monday to O'Neill's Friday statement: "Public health is a noble calling," he wrote. "When it is driven by transparent data and rigorous science, it earns public trust and keeps the world safe... We are helping the agency earn back the trust it had squandered."
The CDC did not respond to Axios' request for comment.
Threat level: The directors warned about ramifications of the Trump administration weakening public health programs, canceling medical research and boosting officials with unscientific views.
"This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings," they wrote.
Zoom out: Public health authorities have already warned that the turmoil at the CDC could deplete the pipeline for future scientific talent in the U.S.
One of the top officials who resigned said Kennedy was reversing course on decades of scientific progress.
What we're watching: In their essay, the directors urged Congress to exercise its oversight authority over the Health Department and for state and local governments to fill funding gaps.
"Philanthropy and the private sector must step up their community investments," they wrote. "Medical groups must continue to stand up for science and truth."
"Physicians must continue to support their patients with sound guidance and empathy. And each of us must do what public health does best, to look out for one another."
Go deeper: MAHA's lasting threat to science
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/31/cdc-walkout-protest-rfk-maha
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:Quote:"This is unacceptable": Former CDC directors condemn RFK's upheaval
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, faggot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Do something about it then.
Oh... right...
CDC leaders resign after RFK Jr. moves to fire director Susan Monarez
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/28/nx-s1-5520718/cdc-leaders-resign-after-
rfk-jr-moves-to-fire-director-susan-monarez
All Democrats know how to do when they don't have full control of the narrative and the media is quit and/or burn everybody else's shit down.
Fuck off, Second.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:The only alternative to resignation is to kill Trump. If we are lucky enough for Trump to die naturally, President JD Vance will not be an improvement:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Do something about it then.![]()
Oh... right...
CDC leaders resign after RFK Jr. moves to fire director Susan Monarez
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/28/nx-s1-5520718/cdc-leaders-resign-after-
rfk-jr-moves-to-fire-director-susan-monarez
All Democrats know how to do when they don't have full control of the narrative and the media is quit and/or burn everybody else's shit down.
Fuck off, Second.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Vance has made himself the face of Trump’s military deployments in Democratic-governed cities—Los Angeles and Washington, for now; Chicago, apparently, next; maybe others in the future. Vance mimics and even outdoes Trump’s derisive and sarcastic rhetorical style that denies dignity and respect to opponents and critics.
Trump has taken every side of the immigration debate over his career. He can flip-flop even on admitting hundreds of thousands of Chinese foreign students in the United States. One day, No. The next day, Yes. The day after that: Who knows? For Vance, it’s a matter of supreme principle to purge the country of unwanted foreigners by any means necessary, including the suppression of previously existing due process, which he’s defended in writing, for example, in this quote, from a tweet of April 15th this year. Here’s Vance: “Here’s a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?”
So since the goal is to deport a few million people per year, we have to do away with due process because there’s no way to achieve that goal while respecting due process, and even though due process is in the Constitution, out it goes. And that’s not a whim, and that’s not a twitch. That’s a matter of settled and sincere belief for which Vance is willing to pay a political price.
Much more at What a J. D. Vance presidency would look like
By David Frum | Sept 3, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/09/the-david-frum-sh
ow-jonathan-rauch/684087/
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 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.
Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.
Trigonometry is used when doing a hip roof for one thing. It is essential for calculating the angles and lengths of the rafters, ensuring a proper pitch and stability of the roof. Trigonometric formulas help determine the hip rafter backing angle.
You would also use it to strike your lines from the gutter to the ridge when shingling. With a hip roof there is no straight edge to measure off of.
T![]()
I've never built a house or done the rafters on a roof. The closest I got to that was building garages for about a half a year, but the foreman made all the cuts. Trust me... that dude didn't know shit about Trig. All done with standard tools, just like they've done it since the dawn of time.
Edited to Add: Okay... That was for sure hyperbolic. That hasn't been true since the dawn of time. The architects of the great historical monuments and buildings from hundreds of years ago sure used it. But let's just say that when we kind of made building most houses a "Paint By Number" affair since the boys came back from WWII and we needed to build the suburbs quickly, we haven't been using much trig in architecture unless you're building something important for somebody important. The types of structure that somebody is actually paying an architect to create for them.
Unless that was you and you were just building Paint By Numbers homes, you were over-educated for the job you were in, but good for you... it came in handy for a while and I bet your employer was thrilled to have you around until you found something better suited to your education.
When I said I did roofing, I just meant pulling off old shingles and putting new ones on. We've never used Trig for that and never had one single complaint. I doubt very much you're going to find any people today that do new shingle roofs that know anything about Trig and/or apply it to the job when it's wholly unnecessary with basic tools that anybody should be carrying around in their tool belt.
Even if you only shingled roofs, if you shingled a hip roof you had to use trig to get it started. You had to strike lines from the gutter to the ridge so you could shingle up. Think 6,8,10...
T
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The Fight for Truth
Jonathan Rauch on the “constitution of knowledge”, disinformation’s dangers, and why reality always wins.
By David Frum | Sept 3, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/09/the-david-frum-sh
ow-jonathan-rauch/684087/
Rauch: In Donald Trump’s first term, he engaged in something that’s known in disinformation circles as a fire hose of falsehood, Russian-style, mass-disinformation campaign, and that’s where you put out so many lies, exaggerations, half truths, and conspiracy theories that people just throw up their hands. The media can’t keep up. No one knows what’s right or wrong. The fact-checkers can’t keep up. Twenty a day is how The Washington Post clocked his lies. You don’t do that by accident. You do that on purpose.
In the first term we were seeing mountains of lies emanating from the mouth of Donald Trump, but we were not seeing mountains of lies emanating from the entire administration below him. We were seeing a lot of bureaucracies, places like, you know, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, doing their best to hang on to truth-telling.
In the second term, we’re seeing cabinet officials—people like the attorney general and people like the secretary of Health and Human Services—we’re seeing official agencies all engaging in this same practice. And so now we’re seeing a machinery of lies. It’s coming from the government itself, not just Trump. That’s a change, and it’s a bad change.
Frum: Well, let me give you a concrete example, another concrete example. And this one is clearly not funny, not even a little bit. You’re the parent of a newborn child and you want to do the best for your child. And the doctor recommends to you that you go through a suite of vaccinations for the child. But you’ve heard one of your neighbors say that this is not a good idea, that the vaccinations will actually harm your child, whom you love more than anything. And so you go online to find out what the truth is, and maybe you go to government agencies, which are the most reputable, and you discover the government agencies, who used to be sure that you should do the suite of vaccinations, are suddenly endorsing the view that it’s complicated. You can’t be sure. There are a lot of risks here. You need to balance them for yourself using information from somebody other than the government itself. Where are we on that?
Rauch: We’re in a dangerous place. Or what if you’re concerned about foreign policy and you’re trying to understand what America’s stakes are in, for example, the fight over Ukraine, and the president tells you that this was a fight that the Ukrainians started. The complete inversion of reality. You’re apt to be confused, right?
Frum: Yeah.
Rauch: And that’s the point.
Frum: So what is this constitution that we are supposed to follow as our guide to solving this problem?
Rauch: Well, this might take a second because it’s an entire book in a nutshell, but I’ll try not to filibuster.
Every society from a small tribe to a large country has a problem with reality, which is people perceive reality differently and they get in fights over it. What’s true; what’s not true? In a small tribe, on something that’s got pretty much instantaneous feedback, like, Where is the next water hole? or, Where’s the enemy tribe located? Are they over the next hill? or, Is that a tiger in the bush?—you’re going to get quick feedback and you’re going to be fairly reality-based. But on the bigger, more abstract questions—which a lot can depend on—like Which God do we worship to make it rain?, you’re going to disagree.
Down through the ages, societies have mostly settled that question through violence, war, oppression. They rely on an authoritarian leader, a priest, an oracle—terrible, terrible ways to stay grounded to reality.
Starting in the time of John Locke and Galileo—and then in the 300 some years since then—we in the liberal West developed an alternative. I call it the “constitution of knowledge,” but it is a set of rules and norms and institutions that
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I like David Frum SECOND.
T
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I've done a good bit of roofing in my life. Never used trig for it, or had a boss or coworker who did. Just our tools in our belts. I imagine that it would have made some things easier or quicker to have that knowledge, but roofing was never a job that required Trig.
Don't think college is for me though. Even though I just need that one class to get an Associates Degree, I'm just not really interested. Maybe when I'm 60.
Trigonometry is used when doing a hip roof for one thing. It is essential for calculating the angles and lengths of the rafters, ensuring a proper pitch and stability of the roof. Trigonometric formulas help determine the hip rafter backing angle.
You would also use it to strike your lines from the gutter to the ridge when shingling. With a hip roof there is no straight edge to measure off of.
T![]()
I've never built a house or done the rafters on a roof. The closest I got to that was building garages for about a half a year, but the foreman made all the cuts. Trust me... that dude didn't know shit about Trig. All done with standard tools, just like they've done it since the dawn of time.
Edited to Add: Okay... That was for sure hyperbolic. That hasn't been true since the dawn of time. The architects of the great historical monuments and buildings from hundreds of years ago sure used it. But let's just say that when we kind of made building most houses a "Paint By Number" affair since the boys came back from WWII and we needed to build the suburbs quickly, we haven't been using much trig in architecture unless you're building something important for somebody important. The types of structure that somebody is actually paying an architect to create for them.
Unless that was you and you were just building Paint By Numbers homes, you were over-educated for the job you were in, but good for you... it came in handy for a while and I bet your employer was thrilled to have you around until you found something better suited to your education.
When I said I did roofing, I just meant pulling off old shingles and putting new ones on. We've never used Trig for that and never had one single complaint. I doubt very much you're going to find any people today that do new shingle roofs that know anything about Trig and/or apply it to the job when it's wholly unnecessary with basic tools that anybody should be carrying around in their tool belt.
Even if you only shingled roofs, if you shingled a hip roof you had to use trig to get it started. You had to strike lines from the gutter to the ridge so you could shingle up. Think 6,8,10...
T
Hey. Maybe we did. But nobody called it Trig, and I doubt I ever did work with anybody who had a college degree. If they had one, they never mentioned it.
Lots of cool shit you can do with a speed square that most people don't know though. Watched some YouTube videos and learned some things.
An adjustable angle finder without any markings at all on it was great for finding out what angles I needed to cut on my trim when I redid my cabinets and wanted to hide the fact that the people who originally built them in the 50's didn't do a good job of making them all the same height. That was covered up just fine on top, below the soffits with the crown trim they had on top, but I wanted to fully disguise that mistake on the bottom and just that simple little tool that
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Quote:Frum: And that leaves you thinking that the future looks like what?
Originally posted by THG:
I like David Frum SECOND.
T![]()
Rauch: Based on the past, the future looks good. It’s not automatic. We have to understand that the people who are fighting the constitution of knowledge—especially Donald Trump, but also the cancel-culture people, who have been very successful in the realm of academia, to some extent, journalism and corporate life—they’re very sophisticated people and they’re using very sophisticated, time-honored propaganda and cognitive-warfare tactics.
But we have a couple things going for us. One is that people hate to live in an epistemically polluted system where they don’t know what’s true and they don’t know what they can trust and they don’t know whether they can take the vaccine and they don’t know if anyone’s ever telling them the truth. This is an experiment that was tried in the Soviet Union and many other places. It fails because people hate it. Over time, they will gravitate toward sources that prove reliable. It’s not easy and it’s not always obvious.
There’s this also second thing that the constitution of knowledge has going for it, which is reality. Here’s the thing. If you stop vaccinating people for measles, guess what happens? You get measles. Then kids start to die. Then people look around and say, WTF? You can only suspend reality for so long before it hits you in the face. And that’s been the undoing of all the regimes throughout history, which have tried to manipulate reality: They get high on their own supply, they believe their own propaganda, they lose track of truth, they become arrogant about their manipulations, and they succumb to reality.
The best thing that we have going for us, for the constitution of knowledge, is there is no other system that can come close in terms of finding and discovering truth and keeping society moored to reality. That doesn’t mean we win automatically. And it sure doesn’t mean we win in the short run. [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin and, for that matter, Donald Trump can do what they’re doing for a significant amount of time and get away with a lot. But we are not where we are just because of hard work.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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When's the last time Frum was right about anything?
Be specific.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:He was right when he praised this book.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
When's the last time Frum was right about anything?
Be specific.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
What If You Could Do Anything?
In Book II of The Republic, Plato launches social philosophy’s foundational inquiry by posing social philosophy’s foundational question. Imagine discovering a ring which made you invisible so that you could behave with complete impunity. The person in possession of such a device “might with impunity take what he wished even from the marketplace, and enter houses and be with whom he pleased, and slay and loose from bonds whomsoever he would, and in all other things conduct himself among mankind as the equal of a god.”3 Why, Plato wonders, should a person facing no accountability or sanction ever behave justly or morally? Behind that moral question stood a political one: how, if at all, can a society be constructed to withstand the force of sociopathy?
“Sociopathy” is a modern word, and anachronistic in the context of ancient Greek philosophy, but useful all the same. A sociopath is someone who does not feel that social norms apply to her and who feels free to pursue naked self-interest whenever she can get away with it. She may conform to laws and constraints imposed from without, but only because doing so is to her benefit.
The American founders, like Plato, predate modern psychological jargon, but they possessed deep psychological insight, and they recognized that the problem of sociopathic behavior challenges every social order. Up to a point, rule-breaking and shamelessness can inspire breakthroughs in industry, politics, science, the arts, the military. But a little goes a long way. Too much leads to the downfall of a peaceful social order—especially a liberal social order, which depends on everyone’s internalizing and following basically the same set of rules. America’s founding generation feared sociopathic demagoguery as much as they did anarchy, and they understood that the two abet each other. In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton warned of the dangers posed by men with “talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity”—men who commence as demagogues and end as tyrants. Later, in a letter to President Washington, Hamilton warned that the “only path to a subversion of the republican system of the country” is by way of the ruthless demagogue who uses fear and flattery to “throw things into confusion [so] that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’ ”
Hamilton and his confrères were not worrying abstractly. One of the young republic’s earliest challenges arose in the person of Aaron Burr, a man of exceptional talent, overweening ambition, and what today we might call narcissistic or sociopathic qualities. “He is a man of extreme and irregular ambition,” Hamilton said of him, “selfish to a degree which excludes all social affections.” Burr rose to the vice presidency in 1801 (only narrowly missing the presidency itself), killed Hamilton in a duel, and plotted to seize a swath of territory in the West over which he hoped to rule. Three decades later, with those memories still living, the young Abraham Lincoln used one of his first published speeches to warn of the havoc which might be wreaked by a “towering genius” whose ambition “thirsts and burns for distinction” and “scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious.” Lincoln’s warning proved prescient. Ambitious sociopathy has brought down liberal (or relatively liberal) orders again and again, whether in the era of Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitler or in our own era of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
And what of epistemic sociopathy? What if a person or regime has no scruples about truth and disregards it with impunity? That was a hallmark of illiberal countries and movements like Communism, to be sure.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:He was right when he praised this book.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
When's the last time Frum was right about anything?
Be specific.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Great. Tell him to stick to doing book reviews then, because he's shit at his day job.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Frum: And that leaves you thinking that the future looks like what?
Originally posted by SECOND:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
I like David Frum SECOND.
T![]()
Rauch: Based on the past, the future looks good. It’s not automatic. We have to understand that the people who are fighting the constitution of knowledge—especially Donald Trump, but also the cancel-culture people, who have been very successful in the realm of academia, to some extent, journalism and corporate life—they’re very sophisticated people and they’re using very sophisticated, time-honored propaganda and cognitive-warfare tactics.
But we have a couple things going for us. One is that people hate to live in an epistemically polluted system where they don’t know what’s true and they don’t know what they can trust and they don’t know whether they can take the vaccine and they don’t know if anyone’s ever telling them the truth. This is an experiment that was tried in the Soviet Union and many other places. It fails because people hate it. Over time, they will gravitate toward sources that prove reliable. It’s not easy and it’s not always obvious.
There’s this also second thing that the constitution of knowledge has going for it, which is reality. Here’s the thing. If you stop vaccinating people for measles, guess what happens? You get measles. Then kids start to die. Then people look around and say, WTF? You can only suspend reality for so long before it hits you in the face. And that’s been the undoing of all the regimes throughout history, which have tried to manipulate reality: They get high on their own supply, they believe their own propaganda, they lose track of truth, they become arrogant about their manipulations, and they succumb to reality.
The best thing that we have going for us, for the constitution of knowledge, is there is no other system that can come close in terms of finding and discovering truth and keeping society moored to reality. That doesn’t mean we win automatically. And it sure doesn’t mean we win in the short run. [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin and, for that matter, Donald Trump can do what they’re doing for a significant amount of time and get away with a lot. But we are not where we are just because of hard work.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
I'm hearing Trump is telling his people to prepare for a world war.
T
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Cool. That's great news for your War Boner, loser Ted.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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