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 450 of 479
Quote:It feels normal when Trump, who was sitting in the front row of the Supreme Court audience, was politely called a goddamn jackass by the justices. The man is still bitter and upset a week later:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The entire atmosphere surrounding all of this is completely different than it was in 2016 and 2020.
Things just kind of feel normal again.
Panicked Trump, 79, Rages at Supreme Court in 1 AM Meltdown
The president’s latest outburst came days after he stormed out of oral arguments about birthright citizenship.
Ewan Palmer | April 6, 2026 9:06 AM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/panicked-donald-trump-79-rages-at-suprem
e-court-in-1am-meltdown-after-humiliating-hearing/
President Donald Trump went on an unhinged 1 a.m. rant about the Supreme Court as it considers whether to allow him to scrap birthright citizenship.
The 79-year-old president suggested on Truth Social that it’s “too bad” the Supreme Court didn’t “study” Mark Levin’s Fox News show, in which the host argued that the 14th Amendment was not intended to grant birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants.
“If they saw it they would never allow that money making HOAX to continue. THEY SHOULD USE THEIR POWERS OF COMMON SENSE FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY,” Trump wrote.
“They failed miserably on Tariffs, needlessly costing the USA Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in potential rebates for the benefit haters and scammers. Why??? Don’t do it again! The Country can only withstand so many bad decisions from a Court that just doesn’t seem to care.”
Donald Trump posted the rant just before 1 am. ET on Monday morning. Screengrab/Truth Social
The nation’s highest court heard oral arguments last week on whether the U.S. should stop granting citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants, as proposed in an executive order signed by Trump.
The move has been struck down by every lower federal court that has considered the challenge. The conservative Supreme Court, including justices nominated by Trump, also appears highly skeptical about whether the president can remove the citizenship clause.
Trump took the unusual step of sitting in on the April 1 hearing to watch the justices debate his push to end automatic birthright citizenship. The president stormed out of the hearing after the SCOTUS justices shot down several arguments from the administration’s attorney, Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
One of the sharpest exchanges came from Chief Justice John Roberts, who pushed back after Sauer suggested the framers of the 14th Amendment could not have foreseen how “we’re in a new world now,” with billions of people “one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. citizen.”
“It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution,” Roberts replied.
Elsewhere, Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed Sauer on whether children born to Native Americans in the U.S. should be considered birthright citizens.
“Ah, I think… so,” Sauer said. “I mean, obviously they’ve been granted citizenship by statute,” he added, referring to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Gorsuch noted that before the law was passed, children born to tribal Native Americans were not automatically considered birthright citizens.
During the Sunday episode of Life, Liberty and Levin, the pro-Trump Fox News host Mark Levin argued that the 14th Amendment was never intended to grant U.S. citizenship beyond freed Black slaves and their children.
“You on the court, you get to decide now on a big issue, you should leave it to the people in our elected representatives or the amendment process with a legislative process,” Levin said.
“But if you rule on this and constitutionalize this, you will be known as the most activist court in the history of the Supreme Court, and the damage is incalculable.”
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
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MAGA Is Winning Its War Against U.S. Science
When a political movement believes that ignorance is strength
Paul Krugman
Apr 07, 2026
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-is-winning-its-war-against-us
Source: NBER https://www.nber.org/digest/202604/chinas-rise-global-research?page=1&
amp;perPage=50
With all the other terrible news right now, you may not have noticed that Donald Trump is in the process of killing American science.
OK, that’s an exaggeration — but not that much of an exaggeration. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal calls for a gigantic increase in military spending combined with severe cuts to social programs. But as the chart above shows, it also calls for debilitating reductions in research funding.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pd
f
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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'Will keep or destroy numerous records': Trump immediately slapped with lawsuit after DOJ 'nullified' Congress' answer to Richard Nixon's abuses
Matt Naham | Apr 7th, 2026, 12:14 pm
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-immediately-sued-as-doj-giv
es-him-permission-to-ignore-records-law/
Trump has destroyed and will destroy more records despite being told that what he is doing is illegal since Nixon's Presidency.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Be Nice. Don't be a dick. 
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Quote:From Drill, Baby, Drill to Toll, Baby, Toll
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
The Iran debacle and global power
By Paul Krugman / Apr 10, 2026 at 5:33 AM
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/from-drill-baby-drill-to-toll-baby
The U.S. attack on Iran will end badly. It’s still not clear, however, exactly what that bad end will look like. The loudly announced cease-fire is on the edge, with Trump and the Iranian regime making very different claims about what was agreed to and the Strait of Hormuz still closed. As you can see in the chart above, prediction markets, after an initial bout of optimism, have turned highly skeptical about the prospects for a quick resolution.
And yesterday the spot price of oil — the cost of a barrel for immediate delivery, as opposed to the prices for delivery a month or two from now, which are what are usually quoted — hit a record high of almost $147 a barrel:
Source: Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/f04ad855-81e3-49c5-827e-d3c4acb901c9?syn-25
a6b1a6=1
There remain three plausible ways this could turn out:
1. U.S. strategic defeat: The Strait is reopened, but with Iran in control of the chokepoint and charging tolls on ships passing through
2. Quagmire: Having failed to impose its will with bombs, the U.S. sends in ground troops
3. Nightmare: Trump follows through on threats to annihilate Iran’s civilian infrastructure
One might have thought that (2) and (3) were off the table. After all, the past six weeks have delivered an object lesson in the limits of “lethality.” But MAGA doesn’t learn lessons. Pete Hegseth — who appears to be lying about why Iranian attacks on U.S. personnel succeeded — still has a job. Trump is still threatening everyone with ALL CAPS. And nothing should be taken for granted. That said, at this point (1) — with Iran the clear winner while America slinks away — is both the least bad and most likely outcome.
It’s a bitterly ironic result, and not only because a war that was meant to demonstrate U.S. power has instead demonstrated our impotence. Also, Trump has always been obsessed with the idea that fossil fuels are the key to U.S. power and prosperity. Now oil has made us weak while empowering and enriching our adversaries.
But how much will Hormuz-as-Iranian-tollbooth shift the global balance of power?
In Trump’s mind, control over fossil fuels is the essence of national greatness. In his inaugural address, Trump declared that
We will drill, baby, drill … We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.
But this was obvious nonsense. For one thing, the narrative that woke environmentalists had hobbled U.S. fossil fuel production was at odds with the reality that fracking had in fact caused a boom in oil and gas production that began under Obama and continued under Republican and Democratic administrations alike:
It was also nonsense to claim that oil production can be the engine of prosperity for a nation like America, with its huge, diverse economy. The fracking boom, although huge in absolute terms, was relatively marginal in its economic impact. In 2025 the U.S. produced about 3 billion more barrels of oil than it did before the fracking surge. At 2025 prices, that was about $200 billion worth of oil. That’s a lot of money! But it’s less than 1 percent of U.S. GDP.
Meanwhile, Trump has been doing all he can to block development of wind and solar power, in the apparent belief that this will empower Am
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Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon — Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too! Look at their past, look at their record. They don’t have what it takes, and they never did! They’ve all been thrown off Television, lost their Shows, and aren’t even invited on TV because nobody cares about them, they’re NUT JOBS, TROUBLEMAKERS, and will say anything necessary for some “free” and cheap publicity. Now they think they get some “clicks” because they have Third Rate Podcasts, but nobody’s talking about them, and their views are the opposite of MAGA — Or I wouldn’t have won the Presidential Election in a LANDSLIDE. MAGA agrees with me, and just gave CNN a 100% Approval Rating of “TRUMP,” not Hand Flailing Fools like Tucker Carlson, who couldn’t even finish College, he was a broken man when he got fired from Fox, and he’s never been the same — Perhaps he should see a good psychiatrist! Or Megyn Kelly, who nastily asked me the now famous, “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” question, or “Crazy” Candace Owens, who accuses the Highly Respected First Lady of France of being a man, when she is not, and will hopefully win lots of money in the ongoing lawsuit. Actually, to me, the First Lady of France is a far more beautiful woman than Candace, in fact, it’s not even close! Or Bankrupt Alex Jones, who says some of the dumbest things, and lost his entire fortune, as he should have, for his horrendous attack on the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, ridiculously claiming it was a hoax. These so-called “pundits” are LOSERS, and they always will be! Now Fake News CNN, The Failing New York Times, and all of the other Radical Left “News” Organizations, are “hailing” them, and giving them “positive” press for the first time in their lives. They’re not “MAGA,” they’re losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA. As President, I could get them on my side anytime I want to, but when they call, I don’t return their calls because I’m too busy on World and Country Affairs and, after a few times, they go “nasty,” just like Marjorie “Traitor” Brown, but I no longer care about that stuff, I only care about doing right for our Country. MAGA is about WINNING and STRENGTH in not allowing Iran to have Nuclear Weapons. MAGA is about MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and these people have no idea how to do that, BUT I DO, because THE UNITED STATES IS NOW THE “HOTTEST” COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Apr 09, 2026, 3:28 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116376634773749603
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
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Why is Trump hostile to these four? Newsweek explains why, today! And the reason is NOT the one Trump gave.
Quote:The Next MAGA Matrix Dilemma Has Arrived
Originally posted by second:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon — Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!
. . .
President DONALD J. TRUMP
Apr 09, 2026, 3:28 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116376634773749603
April 10, 2026, 10:00 AM
https://www.newsweek.com/maga-matrix-red-blue-pill-trump-iran-war-1180
9689
When The Matrix was absorbed into MAGA’s political symbolism during Donald Trump’s rise, the movie’s famous pill metaphor was blunt and effective.
Voters were told they faced a profound choice: take the blue pill and remain trapped in a comforting but false reality constructed by elites, or swallow the red pill and confront the hard truths about America, power and decline, with Trump as their guide.
It helped define a movement that prided itself on skepticism of institutions and hostility to official narratives. Being “redpilled” added a certain cachet to conservatives who declared themselves as enlightened swallowers.
But MAGA’s most potent metaphor is returning in an unexpected form. This time, the dilemma is internal. And this time, Trump is the blue pill.
A Breaking Point Years in the Making
The Jeffrey Epstein files episode had already begun to erode Trump’s standing as the movement’s ultimate truth-teller, exposing limits to his ability—or willingness—to confront uncomfortable realities favored by his base.
Pressure has been building inside MAGA for weeks over the U.S. war in Iran and Trump’s close alignment with Israel.
Iran, and serious questions about its consequences for the U.S., has forced the issue for Trump.
Unlike previous flashpoints, this one implicated a core ideological promise of MAGA: that a Trump-led America would avoid foreign entanglements and reject the interventionism of the pre-2016 Republican Party.
Instead, the movement now faces a reality in which Trump is justifying a war that many of his most vocal allies believe no “America First” president should have initiated or sustained.
It’s a choice between ideological purity and personal loyalty. At one point, they were the same thing within MAGA. But the divergence has arrived.
The Rebellion of MAGA Media Heavyweights
Some of the loudest challenges to Trump on Iran have come from prominent figures who once echoed or amplified his worldview.
Tucker Carlson, long one of the most influential voices in the MAGA sphere, and a guru of America First, delivered a blistering monologue criticizing Trump, U.S. involvement in Iran, and trashing its strategic and moral logic.
His comments, shared widely online, positioned the war as a betrayal of the populist mandate Trump once embodied, and that Carlson himself had campaigned for. He also blasted Trump for the tone and content of an explicit threat issued against Iran on Easter.
Megyn Kelly followed with a sharply critical segment on her own show, similarly arguing that escalation in Iran cut against the promises that initially animated Trump’s political revolution, calling his threats of civilizational destruction “disgusting” and a sign of weakness.
"I am sick of this s**t," Kelly said. "I am sick of it. Can't he just behave like a normal human?"
They were not alone. Candace Owens, who has maintained a massive online audience by blending cultural grievance, anti-establishment politics, and outright conspiracy peddling, raised the idea of forcing Trump from office.
"The 25th amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunati
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(recorded 4/9/26)
Paul Krugman: I’m speaking today with Lisa Graves, author of an incredibly revelatory and deeply disturbing book called Without Precedent, about the Roberts Court and what it has done to America. And...hi, Lisa. Welcome on.
Lisa Graves: Paul, thank you so much for having me on. It’s an honor to be here with you. And thank you for your kind words about my book.
Krugman: I guess I was first sort of seriously alerted to what was happening at the Supreme Court in 2000, with the stolen election and all that. But I have to say, I don’t think I fully appreciated what Citizens United would do. And so why don’t you give us a little background on what has happened, the court and its role and what’s been happening to America?
Graves: Well, I really appreciate your starting with Bush v. Gore, because that in some ways is the beginning of this period. It’s a precursor in a way to what we’ve been experiencing. And that was when the US Supreme Court, in a sharply partisan decision — although not all the Republicans voted to stop the recount — five Republicans voted to stop the recount in 2000, in Florida. And the effect of that was to give George W. Bush the presidency and with it, not just the power to, in essence, make war with the consent of Congress, but also the power to remake the courts, the Supreme Court in particular.
And by the way, as part of my research for the book, I looked into what was happening at that time, and it turned out that Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was working for the Heritage Foundation on the predecessor to Project 2025 — basically Project 2000. And she was screening people for positions in the potential George W. Bush administration. And Clarence Thomas didn’t recuse himself from that case. By the way, that five-four decision — it would have been four-four. The count would have been allowed to proceed. And the count that actually occurred with news organizations after the fact, after Bush was sworn in, showed that Gore would have won Florida and would have become the president of the United States.
By the way, after Thomas voted to effectively make George W. Bush the president, Ginni Thomas was given a promotion as the liaison from the Heritage Foundation to the White House, and she became the highest-paid non-board member of the Heritage Foundation. And so she was rewarded very well for her work and, basically, for the consequence of her husband’s decision to vote to stop that recount.
Much more at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-lisa-graves
Download Without Precedent by Lisa Graves for free from https://annas-archive.gl/search?index=&page=1&sort=&displa
y=&q=Without+Precedent+Lisa+Graves
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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How Did Samuel Alito Become This Angry?
A quiet, bookish justice’s personal leanings have become ever more overt.
By Peter S. Canellos | April 10, 2026, 11:30 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/samuel-alito-supreme-court-c
onservative/686756/
Samuel Alito’s inclinations have not been hard to discern lately. At the Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship earlier this month, legal experts identified him without hesitation as the justice likeliest to side with President Trump. “What we’re dealing with here is something that was basically unknown at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, which is illegal immigration,” Alito said. The comment hinted at a desire to sidestep the original understanding of the amendment, which, his fellow justices suggested, was that people born on American soil are U.S. citizens.
Five months earlier, at a hearing on tariffs, even Alito’s erstwhile admirers at the National Review objected when Alito started referencing other statutes, not cited by Trump, as justifications for the president’s orders. The conservative outlet slapped back that “it is not the Court’s job to opine on powers the president has not invoked”—a notable rebuke from a publication that Alito read avidly as a young man.
In nominating Alito on Halloween 2005, a sanguine President George W. Bush declared, “He understands that judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people.” Alito’s more recent willingness to telegraph his preferences has coincided with more gruffness and edgier assertions in his interviews and speeches. Perhaps the justice is getting something off his chest; bluntness might be his protest against the straitjacketed propriety long expected of Supreme Court justices. Perhaps it is his response to the harassment, up to and including death threats, that justices face.
But Alito’s trajectory also underscores something else: For all the justices’ honorable intentions and their promises to judge cases impartially, the fundamental dynamics of today’s ever more polarized Court are pushing them in a much different direction.
Sarah Isgur: What the Roberts Court is actually trying to accomplish
The notion of judicial neutrality wasn’t a pose for many conservatives. They believed in judicial restraint, in which judges refrain from allowing personal predilections to influence their decision making. Now, however, few see Alito as the same man who said, at the time of his nomination, “Good judges are always open to the possibility of changing their minds based on the next brief that they read or the next argument that is made by an attorney.”
The libertarian legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, a retired judge who was Alito’s classmate at Princeton, told me that his friend’s Court decisions reflect his conservatism more than any other theory of jurisprudence. “Sam is not an originalist,” Napolitano said. “Sam is a conservative person who wants a conservative outcome.” Napolitano went on, “There’s nothing wrong with that in the Court in which he sits, because it’s a Court of last resort. If he was on the Third Circuit behaving that way, he’d get reversed a lot. But where he sits, he has the privilege of doing that.”
Alito’s approach reflects a fissure in the conservative legal movement as it deals with Trump’s unusual assertions of power. The conservative justices may prefer Trump’s outcomes, but his methods challenge the system of checks and balances that they’ve sworn to uphold. A legal movement built on strict rejection of politics must pass judgment on a president who shares their same inclinations. Having decried and then overruled what they perceived as activist liberal precedents, judicial conservatives must confront the prospect of excesses of their own.
How Alito and his ideological allies handle themselves, and the ground rules they lay down, will have implications well beyond Federal Reserve officials, U.S.-born children of immigrants, or any other current-day litigants. They will shape the contours of the Ameri
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