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 458 of 479
Quote:You Trumptards are silly. At least half of the total brain power and intelligence in America is in women. Male Trumptards contribute little, except abundant stupidity, arrogance, and problems. I have seen that for decades about the kind of people who vote for Republicans. Trump voters are just greedy, grasping, dishonest, and plagued with mental problems.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Women voting ruined America, so there is that.
If women didn't vote, there wouldn't even be a Democratic Party.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
By the way, the best talent is moving back to China, thanks to Trumptards. If the Trumptards had been in ascendance before WWII, all the talented scientists would still have been living in Europe and the US would not have been able to build the A-bomb, for one high-tech example. The burst of scientific enquiry after the War ended would have never occurred. The Apollo Moon landing? It would have failed. Couldn't have designed the rockets with Trumptards as the engineers.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
China’s Top Tech Talent Is Heading Back Home
The Wall Street Journal | May 16, 2026
Those who return after working here, called 'sea turtles’ are fueling efforts to take on Silicon Valley
- Hannah Miao and Jon Emont
https://www.magzter.com/stories/newspaper/The-Wall-Street-Journal/CHIN
AS-TOP-TECH-TALENT-IS-HEADING-BACK-HOME
By Hannah Miao and Jon Emont
When Meta Platforms said in April that it would lay off 10% of its staff, Allen Sun quickly booked a trip to Menlo Park, Calif.
It was a prime opportunity. Sun, a Beijing-based headhunter for some of the biggest Chinese tech companies, works to lure China-born talent back home, targeting people at U.S.-based companies such as Meta, Google, Anthropic and Amazon. Some clients are authorizing him to promise salaries that match or exceed the workers’ Silicon Valley pay—a windfall given China’s lower cost of living.
“The compensation is very competitive,” said Sun.
For decades, making it in the U.S. was the ultimate sign of success for China’s best and brightest. Now, many of them are coming home—and the reverse brain drain is fueling Beijing’s efforts to edge out the U.S. in artificial intelligence, robotics and medical research.
There is an unprecedented jostling for AI talent among the richest companies and global superpowers that has skyrocketed tech researchers to NBA and Hollywood levels of wealth and spurred a cutthroat recruitment blitz across the industry. It’s not just American CEOs attempting to entice researchers with lavish job offers. (Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was dangling $100 million pay packages last year.)
Recent examples of high-profile Al talent poached by top Chinese tech companies include Wu Yon-ghui, a former vice president of research at Google who helped develop Gemini and now heads research for TikTok-parent Byte-Dance’s AI arm, and Yao Shunyu, a former OpenAI researcher who was named Tencent Holdings’ chief AI scientist.
From ‘Seattle Freeze’ to Beijing
There’s a longstanding name within China for those going back home—“sea turtles,” a pun on the Mandarin term for overseas returnees, haigui, that also evokes female sea turtles’ instinct to return to their natal beach after years of migrating around the world’s oceans.
But the trend as it relates to top tech talent today has implications for American economic competitiveness, both now and in the future. The number of recent Chinese graduates returning home to seek jobs grew 12% in 2025 from the previous year, and the figure has more than doubled since 2018, according to a report by Chinese recruiting platform Zhaopin.
Once known more as a technology copycat than as an innovator, China now offers returnees a chance to work in cutting-edge industries. National and local governments dangle perks such as housing subsidies and startup funding. The shift also comes as some Chinese feel less welcome in the U.S. owing to worsening U.S.-China relations and tightening immigration policy. Returnees said they felt it was harder to advance to leadership roles in the workplace being Chinese in the U.S. In some cases, returnees were motivated by the promise of more professional freedom.
Zhang Kai is a star researcher who works to visualize the inside of cells down to the near-atomic level, an area of high interest for pharmaceutical companies. Earlier this year, he left a professorship at Yale for the state-run University of Science and Technology of China.
Zhang said it was becoming harder for Chinese researchers to lead ambitious projects in the U.S., and that the political environment was getting tougher, citing the example of a Chinese Ph.D. student working with him who was restricted from entering the country during the first Trump administration.
“Invisible restrictions exist,” he said in an email. “While I don’t intend to frame this as a lofty nationalist gesture, Trump’s actions over the years actually made me ‘more patriotic.’ ”
Jeff Li felt pigeonholed in his job in the U.S. After graduating from New York University with a master’s degree in comp
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Trump’s brazen plan for a $1.7 billion slush fund
Trump will reportedly drop his IRS lawsuit — for a price.
By Cameron Peters
May 15, 2026, 5:05 PM CDT
https://www.vox.com/the-logoff-newsletter-trump/488910/trump-irs-lawsu
it-tax-returns-weaponization-compensation-fund
Earlier this year, Trump, along with two of his children and his family business, sued the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns to media outlets. Now, he reportedly plans to drop the case — in exchange for a $1.7 billion fund he can dole out to his allies through a commission under his control, according to ABC News. https://abcnews.com/US/trump-poised-drop-irs-suit-launch-17b-weaponiza
tion/story?id=132962661
How is that supposed to work? The $1.7 billion would take the form of a so-called “weaponization” fund, ABC reports, that could be paid out to address the grievances of Trump allies who believe they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration — including those prosecuted in connection with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Trump himself reportedly would not be eligible to make a claim against the fund, but “entities associated with Trump are not explicitly barred from filing additional claims,” per ABC.
What’s the context? The settlement, which could be finalized “in the coming days,” looks like an end-run around judicial skepticism over Trump’s suit, which pits a sitting president against the government he leads.
As the New York Times reported earlier this month, the judge overseeing the case has suggested that the case may be moot because the parties — Trump and the other plaintiffs vs. the IRS and the Justice Department — are not really in opposition (Trump is, again, the DOJ’s boss). Both sides are supposed to defend their position in briefs due this coming Wednesday, which a settlement could allow them to avoid. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/business/trump-suit-irs.html
What’s the big picture? Two major focuses of Trump II have been getting even for perceived wrongs against him and his movement, and finding ways to enrich himself and his allies. The reported settlement, if it goes through, would accomplish both in one fell swoop.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Maybe your party shouldn't have done a bunch of evil shit.
And nobody is going to notice whatever it is you're bitching about today because by this time next week there will have been 50 other major things to bitch about.
Just shut the fuck up already dude.
You lost the war.
Everyone is exhausted and bored and nobody cares anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick. 
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:6ix, maybe you should read your own words? "By this time next week there will have been 50 other major things to bitch about" means 50 more Trump goofs.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
And nobody is going to notice whatever it is you're bitching about today because by this time next week there will have been 50 other major things to bitch about.
Just shut the fuck up already dude.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
When the leaders of the world’s two most powerful nations met in Beijing, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping spoke about the lessons of history:
Quote:The Thucydides trap refers to the theory, originally propounded by the Greek historian for the war between Athens and Sparta, that conflicts erupt when a declining power is confronted by a rising rival.
Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?
So Xi was implicitly insulting the United States, portraying it as a nation in decline. Someone presumably explained this to Trump, who went on Truth Social to declare that Xi was talking about U.S. decline under “Sleepy Joe Biden,” not now that he has made us “the hottest Nation anywhere in the world.”
In reality, the widespread Chinese view that America is in decline has only grown stronger under Trump II. In January, a nationalistic Beijing think tank affiliated with Renmin University published a triumphant report about Mr. Trump’s first year back in office. The report argued that his tariffs, attacks on allies, anti-immigration policies and assaults on the American political establishment had inadvertently strengthened China while weakening the United States. Its title: “Thank Trump.”
And that was before the debacle in Iran.
The fact sheet released by the White House after his trip to Beijing proclaimed that President Trump negotiated a sweeping package of commitments that will drive high-paying American jobs and open new markets for U.S. goods.
The main component of this package was a Chinese commitment to buy $17 billion a year of U.S. agricultural products, on top of an earlier commitment to buy more soybeans. Actually, I should put “commitment” in scare quotes: China made similar promises during Trump I, and completely failed to deliver. But suppose that the Chinese actually come through this time. How big is this “sweeping package”?
It is an extra $17 billion for beans compared to the US exporting goods worth $2,197.5 billion in 2025. It is a small hill of beans.
More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-thucydides
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
China calls Beijing summit deals with Trump "preliminary," undercutting White House claims of concrete wins on tariffs, agriculture, and 200 Boeing aircraft. (The Arizona Star)
https://tucson.com/news/nation-world/business/article_489ec934-2cfb-58
49-a511-0e63be1af7ad.html
Trump said China agreed to buy 200 Boeing aircraft, but analysts questioned the lack of a timeline.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing
Recasting the January 6 insurrection as the work of heroic patriots remains the president’s highest priority.
By Jonathan Chait | May 19, 2026, 9:13 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/trump-anti-weaponization-fun
d-january-6/687215/
Among the very first things Donald Trump did upon assuming the powers of the presidency for the second time was commute the sentences of, and grant pardons to, everybody involved in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Republican allies expressed moderate disappointment but vowed to move past this ugly blemish. Senator Susan Collins called it a “terrible day for our Justice Department.” Senator Tommy Tuberville admitted, “It’s a hard one, because we work with them up here,” referring to Capitol Police who were viciously beaten by Trump’s allies. Tuberville concluded, “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get Jan. 6 behind us.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Republicans were “not looking backwards; we’re looking forward.”
It was not, however, just one terrible day. Trump’s loyalty to his most violent and criminal supporters was a signal of his highest priority and has been a reliable guide to his decisions ever since. The impulse to rewrite the history of January 6, 2021, appears to be the inspiration even for the establishment of a $1.8 billion Treasury Department slush fund for victims of so-called weaponization of government.
Last week, when the administration floated the notion of disbursing payments to alleged victims of government weaponization, cynics assumed that Trump meant to divert the money to himself. But this assessment may have turned out to be too naive. Trump already has ample ways to profit from office, including from stock trading with the benefit of inside knowledge and by accepting gifts from client states. The Justice Department told reporters yesterday that Trump, his sons, and his family business would not receive payments from the fund. The recipients will almost surely be insurrectionists and other allies.
How, exactly, can Trump hand out taxpayer dollars at his whim? The putative mechanism is a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service. In 2020, an IRS contractor leaked a few years of Trump’s tax records. (Before Trump, major presidential candidates had for decades voluntarily released their returns, an essential step in demonstrating that they had no conflicts of interest.)
The contractor was caught and sent to prison. Trump nevertheless sued for the offense of being subjected to a portion of the scrutiny his fellow candidates have voluntarily undergone. Because Trump runs the IRS, it is no longer in a position to place any limits on his demands. He has already exploited the loophole of suing his own government to pay a series of allies investigated for or convicted of committing crimes out of loyalty to him. The recipients include the family of Ashli Babbitt, an insurrectionist who was shot and killed on January 6 while smashing her way into a corridor behind which members of Congress had taken shelter from the mob.
Trump’s Justice Department describes the forthcoming payouts as a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.” The process is, in fact, the opposite of systemic. It is designed to be controlled personally by Trump and sheltered from any judicial scrutiny.
If the government were actually compensating victims of lawfare, it would direct payments to James Comey, Mark Kelly, Adam Schiff, and other targets of Trump’s vindictive prosecutions. Trump has described his actions as turnabout—“I was hunted by some very bad people. Now I’m the hunter.”—which, given that he has called his own prosecutions political targeting, is tantamount to confessing that he is targeting his enemies.
But, of course, nobody entertains for a moment the thought that the fund could conceivably reward an actual victim of weaponization. To ensure that it will never be used for a deserving victim, the fund is schedu
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:6ix, maybe you should read your own words? "By this time next week there will have been 50 other major things to bitch about" means 50 more Trump goofs.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
And nobody is going to notice whatever it is you're bitching about today because by this time next week there will have been 50 other major things to bitch about.
Just shut the fuck up already dude.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
I forgot to put "major" in quotes.
You're just a whiny little bitch.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:My favorite word for today is Nihilist. 6ix, Trump, and his Trumptards are Nihilists, those for whom important things are meaningless. (Oh Well: On Nihilism, Posted on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 5:00AM by Marie Snyder, https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2026/05/oh-well-on-nihilism.html )
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I forgot to put "major" in quotes.
You're just a whiny little bitch.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
The Looting of America
MAGA corruption reaches the point of no return
Paul Krugman
May 19, 2026
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-looting-of-america
So the Trump administration is creating a $1.776 billion slush fund — 1776, get it? — to pay off victims of “lawfare and weaponization.” Just to be clear, if you’re a U.S. taxpayer, this action means that almost $1.8 billion of your money will be handed out to whomever a panel appointed by Donald Trump decides to reward. The beneficiaries are likely to include January 6 insurrectionists, as well as Trump, his family, and his allies.
Few things shock me these days, but this development — in which a Justice Department that works for Trump is paying a vast sum to “settle” a lawsuit brought by Trump himself — is a new nadir in self-dealing, further revealing Trump’s utter contempt for the American people.
Now, massive corruption on the part of Trump and his minions isn’t new. But the shamelessness of this latest episode of looting takes it to a new level. Until now, we’ve seen a combination of crony capitalism and insider trading. Plutocrats and corporations have been enriching Trump through back channels, especially crypto, in return for government contracts and policy favors, while Trump himself and people close to Trump have been making hugely profitable market bets thanks to advance knowledge of government policies.
But now Trump has eliminated the middlemen, effectively telling his officials to pay money directly to him or anyone else he favors.
Granted, we already knew that Trump was, by orders of magnitude, the most corrupt president in U.S. history. But now Trump is the most explicitly corrupt leader in today’s world. After all, Vladimir Putin has obviously stolen billions, but never this brazenly. Even Third World dictators normally try to mask their corruption.
Don’t say that this taxpayer-financed slush fund won’t have political consequences.
On the contrary, the polling and focus-group analyses I’ve seen say that voters are very angry about corruption. Trump’s theft of taxpayer money, while people are losing healthcare coverage and food aid while suffering from Trump-induced higher prices, is perfect fodder for the Democrats in the upcoming elections.
So we should ask ourselves why the Trumpists have abandoned all restraint. There have been many corrupt politicians in U.S. history – although they were pikers in comparison to Trump. Yet they at least attempted to hide their corruption, or at least keep it discreet and deniable, in order to avoid a voter backlash.
I would argue that the blatant nature of the new looting is a signpost of where America under Trumpism is heading in the months and years ahead.
It’s true that Trump has a base that will support him no matter what, in many cases literally believing that he has been chosen by God. This puts a floor under this support. But his disastrous recent polling, as Nate Cohn writes in the Times, suggest that this floor may be lower than many thought.
Now, we already know that Trump and his allies have no intention of facing free and fair elections. With the unstinting help of the Roberts Supreme Court, they have already rigged the midterms through redistricting. Trump minions are actively trying to depress Democratic-leaning voter turnout, by demanding from states the right to challenge their voting rolls. And it would be naïve to think that redistricting will be the end of the MAGA effort to undermine democracy.
Still, Trump is aware that, e
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME