Real World Event Discussions

Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 375 of 479

Thursday, October 30, 2025 5:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't want to hear it. The only people out there killing other people right now voted for Harris.

Just before heading to his meetings with the leader of China, the president of the United States issued some comments. He wants to resume nuclear bomb tests, something no nuclear state except North Korea has done since the last century.

Resuming nuclear testing is a terrible idea, not only because it would undermine America’s longstanding commitment to restraining a global arms race, but because detonating warheads to see if they actually work hasn’t been necessary in a very long time. Nuclear tests don’t make much sense for U.S. national security, but they’re a great way to raise international tensions. During the Cold War, the superpowers sometimes engaged in nuclear tests as a way of signaling nerve and resolve. Unfortunately, these tests served mostly to put both East and West on edge, polluted parts of the United States and the former Soviet Union, and made a lot of people sick. (Radioactive fallout responsible for 340,000 to 690,000 American deaths from 1951 to 1973. https://qz.com/1163140/us-nuclear-tests-killed-american-civilians-on-a
-scale-comparable-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
)

Trump may be stuck in this sort of Cold War mentality, trying to show his toughness by resuming testing, especially because he seems to take it personally when Russia engages in occasional nuclear swaggering. But Trump is not alone on this issue. Some nuclear hawks will claim that the U.S. deterrent lacks credibility because none of its bombs have been detonated in decades, as if other nations are emboldened by the possibility that America is fielding weapons that won’t work. In fact, America and other nuclear states have ways of testing every component of their arsenal—and every nuclear-armed nation knows it. Nuclear stability rests on many policies, but no one is contemplating an attack on the United States based on some mad assumption that the response will be a rain of duds.

More at “Trump Is Very Confused About Nuclear Weapons”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-is-very-confused-about-nu
clear-weapons/ar-AA1PsYRS


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, October 30, 2025 6:05 PM

How We Lost the Trade War

Tariff uncertainty may be waning, but the damage will persist

By Paul Krugman | Oct 30, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-we-lost-the-trade-war

China is now clearly winning its geopolitical conflict with the United States. America used to be able to count on support from its democratic allies. Now it has alienated them, and established a reputation for arbitrarily reneging on agreements. America used to have unmatched economic leverage. Now the world knows that China has more.

If we look at the confrontation with China in particular, the end result looks like a demonstration of U.S. weakness and Chinese strength. China may offer some cosmetic concessions, promising to buy some soybeans or whatever. But the reality — which is obvious to everyone in the world except, possibly, some U.S. voters — is that Trump threatened extremely high tariffs on China but climbed down when China began curtailing exports of rare earths and other industrial inputs. China had the upper hand, and it played it.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, October 30, 2025 6:19 PM

"Donald Trump is coddling assassins because he can," Taylor said. "... They are coddling these assassins because they don't worry about any implications of giving a pass to these people."

Miles Taylor — who was chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during Trump's first term – commented on the Trump administration's recent suspension of two Department of Justice prosecutors who sought to sentence Taylor Taranto, a pardoned January 6 rioter found guilty of weapons charges and other crimes earlier this year. He argued that the harsh treatment of federal prosecutors for simply doing their jobs was part of Trump's agenda of looking after people who share his political values — no matter their crimes.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-coddling-assassins/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 31, 2025 1:51 AM

Keep whining about everything, faggot.

--------------------------------------------------

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 4:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Keep whining about everything, faggot.

Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association think tank, said it would take the US at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada.

“Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The US has no technical, military or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992," he said on X.
https://x.com/DarylGKimball/status/1983715078252659169

Trump's announcement, he added, could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-war-live-kremlin-responds
-to-trump-s-nuclear-testing/ar-AA1PsRrB


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 31, 2025 4:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Keep whining about everything, faggot.

Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association think tank, said it would take the US at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada.

“Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The US has no technical, military or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992," he said on X.
https://x.com/DarylGKimball/status/1983715078252659169



Nobody knows who this fucking guy is, and nobody cares.

Who funds his "think tank"?

Fuck think tanks.

Quote:

Trump's announcement, he added, could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”



You've thrown out a thousand what if scenarios since Trump has been elected and none of them have come true.

Why would this one?

--------------------------------------------------

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 4:41 PM

Too Cruel Too Soon

How Republicans messed up on Project 2025

By Paul Krugman / Oct 31, 2025 at 5:33 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/too-cruel-too-soon

Federal funding for SNAP, the nutritional aid program still often referred to as food stamps, ends tonight. This will have catastrophic impacts on 42 million Americans, the great majority of them children, elderly or disabled.

Millions more Americans are about to discover that health insurance has become vastly more expensive, in many cases unaffordable.

Why are these terrible things happening? At a basic level they’re happening because Republicans want them to happen. Drastic cuts in food stamps and health care programs were central planks in Project 2025, which is indeed the Trump administration’s policy platform, and were written into legislation in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last summer.

But the consequences of these cruel intentions weren’t supposed to be this obvious, this early. The harshest provisions of the OBBBA were backloaded, set to kick in after the midterm elections. For example, draconian work requirements for Medicaid — which would effectively throw millions off the program, largely by imposing paperwork burdens low-wage workers can’t overcome — weren’t scheduled to take effect until the end of 2026.

Why the backloading? Presumably Republicans believed that by the time Americans woke up to what was happening, the G.O.P. would have effectively consolidated one-party rule, making future elections irrelevant.

Instead, however, the mask is being ripped off right now, well ahead of schedule.

I guess it’s possible that Republicans will manage to limit the political damage by claiming — completely falsely — that the suffering about to hit millions is being caused by Democrats who want to lavish benefits on illegal immigrants and pay for sex change operations. That’s not hyperbole. Here’s the banner currently at the top of the Agriculture Department’s SNAP data page — its data page!

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”

In the past it would have been unthinkable to display political propaganda, let alone grotesquely dishonest propaganda, on government data sites. But we’re in a new world.

We’ll just have to see how all this plays politically. But it’s clear that Republicans messed up badly on the implementation of Project 2025. Immense cruelty was always part of the plan, but policy wasn’t supposed to get this cruel, this soon.

Much more about How Republicans messed up on Project 2025 at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/too-cruel-too-soon

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 31, 2025 5:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Keep whining about everything, faggot.

Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association think tank, said it would take the US at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada.

“Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The US has no technical, military or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992," he said on X.
https://x.com/DarylGKimball/status/1983715078252659169



Nobody knows who this fucking guy is, and nobody cares.

Who funds his "think tank"?

Fuck think tanks.

Quote:

Trump's announcement, he added, could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”



You've thrown out a thousand what if scenarios since Trump has been elected and none of them have come true.

Why would this one?

--------------------------------------------------

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

What to Make of Trump’s Wild Nuclear Threat

Let’s break this down, sentence by sentence.

By Fred Kaplan | Oct 30, 2025 12:29 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/10/trump-nuclear-weapons-test
ing-china-us.html


Was President Donald Trump threatening to escalate the nuclear arms race in a social media post—or was he just spouting nonsense? A bit of both, it seems.

In a message posted minutes before his meeting in South Korea with China’s President Xi Jingping, Trump wrote, “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”

He later elaborated to reporters that although the U.S. stopped testing nuclear weapons a long time ago, Russia and China were still testing, so we have to start testing again too.

Both statements—the social media post and the remarks to reporters—are pure mishmash.

First, if he was referring to nuclear bombs and warheads, the United States, Russia, and China have all abstained from testing for the past 30 years. This restraint stems from three factors: 1) the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1996, which all three nations have observed even though their parliaments didn’t ratify it; 2) a desire to avoid the resumption of an arms race, which further testing could spark; and 3) a recognition that lab-testing the components of warheads can gauge their reliability well enough—exploding them in underground test sites is not necessary.

Second, if Trump was referring to the missiles that carry nuclear warheads, the United States, Russia, and China all regularly conduct those sorts of tests.

In other words, whatever Trump meant by “nuclear weapons,” the U.S. is testing—or not testing—them on “an equal basis” with Russia and China.

It could be that Trump had recently been briefed on Russia’s test of a cruise missile powered by nuclear propulsion. If so, some aide should have informed him that this weapon, if it exists, is nothing to worry about. Let the Russians waste money on the program; no need for us to match their folly.

Then again, judging from his conflation of missiles and warheads, or perhaps his unawareness of the distinction between the two, Trump isn’t informed about such matters—or, if he is, he doesn’t pay close attention.

The timing of Trump’s announcement is also a mystery. Did he think the threat of resumed nuclear testing would strengthen his leverage over China’s President Xi? Trump may argue that it did. After their summit, he told reporters that it was a huge success—rating it 12 on a scale from 1 to 10. It was a good meeting, but its main accomplishment was ending, or at least postponing, a trade war that Trump had blithely started and was about to lose. This had been worked

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Friday, October 31, 2025 7:16 PM

Shut the fuck up, Paul.

--------------------------------------------------

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 31, 2025 8:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up, Paul.

--------------------------------------------------

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

Trump’s Plan Is Now Out in the Open (but 6ixStringJack says "Shut the fuck up" because he doesn't want to know what is out in the open. )

It’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots.

By Peter Wehner | October 31, 2025, 6 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/10/trump-authoritari
anism/684773
/

Give Donald Trump this much: He has never tried to hide his malice, his lawlessness, or his desire to inflict pain on others. These were on vivid display when he engaged in a multipart conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and stood by as a mob of supporters sought to hang his vice president. These were displayed, as well, every day during his 2024 vengeance campaign. Yet more than 77 million Americans decided that he was the man with whom they wanted to entrust the care of this nation.

For more Americans than not, and for many more evangelical Christians than not, Trump is the representative man of our time. His ethic is theirs. So are his corruptions. And for those of us who, in our younger years, revered America as a shining city upon a hill, a nation of nations, the “last, best hope of earth,” this is quite a painful period. America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.

A curtain of darkness is settling over our nation. And it’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots.

Trump is in the process of building his own paramilitary force. He is invoking wartime powers to deport people without due process, even suggesting that American citizens may be sent to foreign prisons. He has deployed National Guard troops to cities over the objections of local officials. In a speech to American troops in Japan, he warned: “If we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard.”

Trump has signaled that he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military in the United States. And he has claimed, without legal justification, that he has the right to order the military to summarily kill people suspected of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America. (The administration has yet to provide evidence to support its claims that the individuals who have been killed were cartel members or that the vessels were transporting drugs.)

My colleague Tom Nichols, a retired professor at the U.S. Naval War College, warns that eventually what Trump is doing will become a new principle for the use of force: “He is acclimating people to the notion that the military is his private army, unconstrained by law, unconstrained by norms, unconstrained by American traditions.”

Earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired the senior judge advocates general, removing the officials who could obstruct the execution of unlawful orders from the commander in chief. Their dismissals will also have a chilling effect on those who remain. The firing of the JAGs is just one element of a broader purge of the military, which started at the beginning of Trump’s second term. In February, five former defense secretaries, including James Mattis, who served under Trump in his first term, wrote a letter to lawmakers, saying the dismissals “raise troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military and to remove legal constraints on the president’s power.”

Speaking of which: Trump views himself as the final arbiter of the legality of anything he does. An executive order he signed in February says, “The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance a

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