REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

A thread for Democrats Only

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UPDATED: Wednesday, November 20, 2024 08:17
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Sunday, December 5, 2021 8:07 AM

SECOND

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


General Stanley McChrystal Accidentally Reveals the Dishonesty of U.S. Generals

It is time to make a strange addition to the shortlist of essential documents on the dishonesty of America’s generals: a new book from retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal titled “Risk: A User’s Guide.”

McChrystal was removed from his command by President Barack Obama but afterward created a thriving consulting firm and often appears on TV to talk about war and politics. His new book is intended to be a primer for corporate leaders trying to navigate the perils of doing business in America. The conceit is straightforward: Hello, I am a retired four-star general who bravely led troops into battle, and I can tell you everything you need to know about managing risk.

There is a lot that McChrystal might teach us, because he was responsible for a series of consequential errors from which valuable lessons could be learned. Those errors include the concoction of a plan in 2009 to defeat the Taliban insurgency by flooding Afghanistan with as many as 80,000 additional U.S. soldiers. This was the kind of troops-and-money strategy that succeeded mainly in killing lots of civilians and helping the Taliban return to power.

On a less catastrophic scale, McChrystal actively participated in the cover-up of the friendly fire killing of NFL player-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, whose 2004 death the Pentagon initially blamed on the Taliban, knowing that this was untrue. McChrystal also took the ill-advised risk of allowing a Rolling Stone reporter to embed with his entourage on a trip around Europe, and the resulting article, which conveyed the general’s disdain for America’s elected leaders, led to his early retirement in 2010.
I am not arguing that McChrystal should abstain from writing about risk or suggesting that he didn’t have wartime successes. A book that intelligently drew from both sides of his military career could be useful. But that is not the book McChrystal chose to write, and for that we should be grateful, because he has instead provided us with a far more important document. “Risk” is stuffed with so many displays of dishonesty, ignorance, and banality that it’s the ultimate self-own for a generation of generals who led America into disaster after 9/11 — and profited from it.

With his new book, McChrystal turns himself into an accidental whistleblower.

More at https://theintercept.com/2021/12/04/stanley-mcchrystal-risk-military-g
enerals/

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

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Sunday, December 5, 2021 4:05 PM

SECOND

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


Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

We're seeing now exactly why every big company is fighting against universal health care.

Decouple health insurance from work and people are free to quit their bad jobs.

If people quit their bad jobs, companies will have to pay living wages to attract workers.

Can't have that.

11:08 PM · Dec 4, 2021·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1467360176546234373

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

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Sunday, December 5, 2021 4:08 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

We're seeing now exactly why every big company is fighting against universal health care.

Decouple health insurance from work and people are free to quit their bad jobs.

If people quit their bad jobs, companies will have to pay living wages to attract workers.

Can't have that.

11:08 PM · Dec 4, 2021·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1467360176546234373

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




And yet you're always giving me shit about not working a shitty job.

I think you just hate the fact that I'm not a Democrat and I figured it all out before anybody else did.





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Sunday, December 5, 2021 7:55 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

And yet you're always giving me shit about not working a shitty job.

I think you just hate the fact that I'm not a Democrat and I figured it all out before anybody else did.
6ix, try not to pick the wrong way to handle simple problems. From this next tweet from the same guy, you are supposed to conclude that workers should be paid more. You're NOT supposed to conclude that workers should forever quit working, although temporarily stopping working (it's called striking) can be one step along the way to being paid more. (One political party, guess which, does what it can to make strikes difficult to impossible.) Raising the minimum wage in Congress is a different step along the way. (One political party, guess which, does what it can to make raising the minimum wage difficult to impossible.)

Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

It's so weird to me that workers getting more money is presented as a bad thing.

We seem to have a belief that businesses have the right to exist at whatever pay rates they deem necessary but not that people have the right to make a living wage.

12:31 PM · Dec 3, 2021·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1466837458226659328

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

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Sunday, December 5, 2021 7:59 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Low wages are a reflection of "too many people seeking too few jobs"

One party (guess which one) welcomes illegal immigrants with open arms.

One party (guess which one) actively encouraged companies to offshore production.

You're a moron, SECOND.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake


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Monday, December 6, 2021 6:36 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Low wages are a reflection of "too many people seeking too few jobs"

One party (guess which one) welcomes illegal immigrants with open arms.

One party (guess which one) actively encouraged companies to offshore production.

You're a moron, SECOND.
There wouldn't be any advantage to employers in hiring illegal immigrants if employers were forced by law to pay a high minimum wage. (I know well which party stands in the way.) The Invisible Hand does not make wage reductions automatic when the population grows. It is not a law, but minimum wages are law, and employers don't want that law changed.

Nor would employers hire illegal immigrants if the employers were punished for such hiring. But, you know the story, employers can hire anybody they want, pay whatever pleases the employer, and have few worries about employee unions forming or the employer being arrested for hiring illegals. Same is true with offshore production, or moving production to a different state in the Union, as is true with employee pay, the employer can make whatever decision without any input from anybody but what the employer feels is to the advantage of the employer.

Same is true with paying taxes because the employer is allowed to decide how much income the employer will be reporting without any input from anybody, knowing with certainty the IRS won't be able to prove anything if the employer and accountants won't cooperate because the IRS has few auditors and all IRS auditors are outclassed by the sneaky schemes of highly paid accountants to evade taxes. (And I know well which party stands in the way of paying IRS auditors more or even hiring more auditors.) And the Federal courts are already jammed with cases. Sadly for Federal prosecutors, tax evasion is hard to prove and the employer will hire the best and highest paid tax lawyers to thwart poorly paid prosecutors and make sure the Federal courts stay jammed. (I know which party stands in the way of expanding the number of judges and prosecutors.)

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

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Monday, December 6, 2021 6:39 AM

SECOND

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


The Journalist

Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse. Like the credulous widow who wakes up one day to find the charming young man and all her savings gone, so the consenting subject of a piece of nonfiction writing learns—when the article or book appears—his hard lesson. Journalists justify their treachery in various ways according to their temperaments. The more pompous talk about freedom of speech and “the public’s right to know”; the least talented talk about Art; the seemliest murmur about earning a living.

The catastrophe suffered by the subject is no simple matter of an unflattering likeness or a misrepresentation of his views; what pains him, what rankles and sometimes drives him to extremes of vengefulness, is the deception that has been practiced on him. On reading the article or book in question, he has to face the fact that the journalist—who seemed so friendly and sympathetic, so keen to understand him fully, so remarkably attuned to his vision of things—never had the slightest intention of collaborating with him on his story but always intended to write a story of his own. The disparity between what seems to be the intention of an interview as it is taking place and what it actually turns out to have been in aid of always comes as a shock to the subject. His situation resembles that of the subject of Stanley Milgram’s famous psychological experiment (conducted at Yale in the early sixties), who was tricked into believing that he was participating in a study of the effect of punishment on learning and memory when in fact what was being studied was his own capacity for cruelty under the pressure of authority. In an ingenious fake laboratory setup, the “naïve subject”—a volunteer who had answered an advertisement in a New Haven newspaper—was told to give an increasingly painful electric shock to a person, presumably another volunteer, in response to every wrong answer to a test question. In Obedience to Authority, his book about the experiment, Milgram writes of his surprise at the large number of subjects who obeyed the experimenter, and kept on pulling the lever even though the receiver of the shocks was screaming with pain—or, rather, with simulated pain, since the whole thing was rigged: the electrical apparatus to which the victim was strapped was a stage prop, and the victim himself was an actor. Milgram’s idea had been to see how ordinary Americans would behave when put in a situation roughly comparable to that of the ordinary Germans who were ordered to participate actively in the destruction of the Jews of Europe. The results were not encouraging. Although a few subjects refused to go on with the experiment at the first sign of distress from the victim, most subjects docilely continued giving shock after shock. However, Milgram’s chilling findings are not the point. The point lies in the structure of the situation: the deliberately induced delusion, followed by a moment of shattering revelation. The dizzying shift of perspective experienced by the subject of the Milgram experiment when he was “debriefed,” or “dehoaxed,” as Milgram calls it, is comparable to the dislocation felt by the subject of a book or article when he first reads it. The subject of the piece of writing has not suffered the tension and anxiety endured by the subject of the “Eichmann experiment” (as it has been called)—on the contrary, he has been on a sort of narcissist’s holiday during the period of interviews—but when the moment of peripeteia comes, he is confronted with the same mortifying spectacle of himself flunking a test of character he did not know he was taking.

However, unlike the reader of Obedience to Authority, with whom Milgram shares the technical details of the deception, the reader of a work of journalism can only imagine how the writer got the subject to make such a spectacle of himself. The subject, for his part, is not likely to supply the answer. After his dehoaxing, he tends to pick himself up and walk away from the debacle, relegating his relationship with the journalist to the rubbish heap of love affairs that ended badly and are best pushed out of consciousness. Occasionally, a subject will have become so enmeshed with the journalist that he cannot let go of him, and long after the galling book has been remaindered the relationship is maintained through the interminable lawsuit that the subject launches to keep the writer bound to him. Yet even here the journalist’s perfidy is not exposed, for the lawyer who takes the subject’s case translates his story of seduction and betrayal into one or several of the conventional narratives of libel law, such as defamation of character or false statement of facts or reckless disregard of the truth.

From the introduction to The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Download the book for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.bz/search.php?req=Janet+Malcolm+Journalist

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

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Monday, December 6, 2021 7:44 AM

SECOND

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


In remarks to diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday night, Donald Trump called the American media “crooked ba**ards” and Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a “fu**ing idiot”.

The meandering, foul-mouthed speech to Turning Point USA, a group for young conservatives, was streamed by Jack Posobiec, a rightwing blogger and provocateur.

The insult to the press recalled barbs while Trump was in power, including calling reporters and editors “fake news” and the “enemy of the people”, attacks many in the media regarded as dangerous, inviting political violence.

“The country is at a very important, dangerous place,” Trump said, amid familiar lies about his defeat in the 2020 election, which he says was the result of electoral fraud.

“We have no press. The press is so corrupt. We don’t have a press. If there is a good story about us, a good story about any of the people that are Republicans, conservatives, they make it a bad story. And if it’s a bad story they make it the worst story in history. It is the most dishonest group of people.”

More at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/06/trump-attacks-us-media
-mark-milley-foul-mouthed-speech



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

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Monday, December 6, 2021 10:04 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
In remarks to diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday night, Donald Trump called the American media “crooked ba**ards” and Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a “fu**ing idiot”.

The meandering, foul-mouthed speech to Turning Point USA, a group for young conservatives, was streamed by Jack Posobiec, a rightwing blogger and provocateur.

The insult to the press recalled barbs while Trump was in power, including calling reporters and editors “fake news” and the “enemy of the people”, attacks many in the media regarded as dangerous, inviting political violence.

“The country is at a very important, dangerous place,” Trump said, amid familiar lies about his defeat in the 2020 election, which he says was the result of electoral fraud.

“We have no press. The press is so corrupt. We don’t have a press. If there is a good story about us, a good story about any of the people that are Republicans, conservatives, they make it a bad story. And if it’s a bad story they make it the worst story in history. It is the most dishonest group of people.”


Good for him.

We don't need Trump to tell us any of that though. It was true before he was President, it will be true after his second term.



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Monday, December 6, 2021 10:47 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
SIGNYM:
Low wages are a reflection of "too many people seeking too few jobs"

One party (guess which one) welcomes illegal immigrants with open arms.

One party (guess which one) actively encouraged companies to offshore production.

You're a moron, SECOND.

SECOND: There wouldn't be any advantage to employers in hiring illegal immigrants if employers were forced by law to pay a high minimum wage. (I know well which party stands in the way.) The Invisible Hand does not make wage reductions automatic when the population grows. It is not a law, but minimum wages are law, and employers don't want that law changed.

Nor would employers hire illegal immigrants if the employers were punished for such hiring. ... and blah blah blah


a) I noticed you didn't address the OFFSHORING issue, so most of your word salad is distraction from that. There are still too few production jobs here, and

b) If you're talking about enforcing laws that prohibit hiring illegals, well ... one party does a terrible job on that, too.

So what makes anyone think they would do any better about any other labor law?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake


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Monday, December 6, 2021 10:57 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


This doesn't address the problem with offshoring work, but one thing Second IS right about is that illegal immigration wouldn't be a problem if employers were punished for hiring illegal labor.

That's something I've argued since the beginning.

If they enforced that (for ALL companies, not just ma and pa shops without a huge legal team) AND they didn't give any taxpayer dollars to illegals (food, medical care, school), then there would be no reason for a physical wall to be built or for anybody to even bother patrolling the border.

Take away the incentive to come here and nobody will come here.



Give the employer ONE warning. And then give them 26 weeks to fix the problem. After that, shut the business down, seize all assets, and put them all on auction to pay for damages.

Once word gets out this is happening and it's finally being enforced, businesses will stop hiring illegals of their own accord.

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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Monday, December 6, 2021 12:01 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Most illegals have phony papers and/or somebody else's Social Security number.

They CAN use e-verify (I've used it myself) but that only tells you if the SSN and name match, so it's not foolproof.

But yeah... construction companies and agricultural firms probably don't even do that much. And people who hire out if the Home Depot parking lot ... well, they know who they're hiring! So it's a matter of enforcement.

Both parties suck at it.

AFA freebies to illegals .. one party (guess which one) hands out taxpayer money hand over fist to illegals.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake


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Monday, December 6, 2021 12:46 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Once word gets out this is happening and it's finally being enforced, businesses will stop hiring illegals of their own accord.
An illegal alien's chances of being arrested is lower than the chance of the employer of an illegal alien being audited by the IRS, which is why tax cheating and illegal aliens are both abundant.

What are the odds of being audited? By the way, Congress sets the odds, not the IRS, by limiting how many auditors the IRS can pay.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-are-the-odds-being-audite
d.html

What are the chances of an illegal alien, who is a long term resident, being arrested for not being a citizen? Close to zero. Only 103,603 got arrested in 2020. The alien has to commit a different crime before the Feds take any interest, mostly because the Feds are swarming around the border, and almost nowhere else, giving the appearance of stopping illegals.

There are too many Feds in the wrong place, mostly because there are not enough Feds to do more than police the border. The Federal government would have to hire a much smarter breed of law enforcers because the Feds that are policing the border aren't particularly capable people and wouldn't recognize an illegal alien unless the alien was in wet cloths.
https://www.ice.gov/remove/statistics

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

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Monday, December 6, 2021 4:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Most illegals have phony papers and/or somebody else's Social Security number.


That loophole needs to be closed and it shouldn't even be a thing.

As a white legitimate US citizen, try to get yourself a second ID with a new social security number so you can do things off the books and see how quickly that lands you in prison.

Quote:
They CAN use e-verify (I've used it myself) but that only tells you if the SSN and name match, so it's not foolproof.


It should be enough. There shouldn't be any way to fake this. I've heard about them being able to use dead people, but that would be just as easy to fix as clearing out dead people from the registered voter databases. But there's no will to do that right now from one side, and the other side would claim it's racist.

Quote:
But yeah... construction companies and agricultural firms probably don't even do that much. And people who hire out if the Home Depot parking lot ... well, they know who they're hiring! So it's a matter of enforcement.


Yeah. It's mostly a matter of enforcing laws that are currently on the books, although there should be some additions. Obviously, Joe DIY guy looking to hire out some cheap help when doing some remodeling doesn't have a company to seize and shouldn't lose his house when he's caught, but I'm not against giving him a hefty fine if caught doing it. Especially if there is a Two Strikes rule instituted in this circumstance too.

Quote:
Both parties suck at it.


Agreed.

Quote:
AFA freebies to illegals .. one party (guess which one) hands out taxpayer money hand over fist to illegals.


Oh... We know which one.



In fact, in your state and New York, they've also been giving these criminals the "right" to vote in your elections too.

You ought to do something about that.

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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021 5:46 AM

SECOND

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


Trump says a bit too much about James Comey's FBI firing (again)

Donald Trump seemed to volunteer to Fox News that the FBI was on his trail, so he fired the FBI director in order to save his own skin.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-says-bit-too-much-about
-james-comey-s-fbi-n1

It was on May 9, 2017, when Donald Trump fired James Comey as the director of the FBI. The Republican president hadn't yet been in office for four months, but he nevertheless ousted Comey six years before the end of his 10-year term.

A few days later, Trump sat down with NBC News' Lester Holt and effectively confessed that he fired the FBI director in order to undermine the investigation into the Russia scandal. It was a rare instance in which a sitting president willingly raised the prospect of obstructing justice during a national television interview.

Four years later, the Republican is apparently still confessing. In an interview that aired last night, Trump sat down with Fox News' Mark Levin, apparently to help promote a new book with photographs from his time in the White House. Their discussion turned to the Russia scandal, which the former president said may have been made up in Hillary Clinton's kitchen. He added:

"A lot of people say to me, 'How you survived is one of the most incredible things.' Don't forget, I fired Comey. Had I not fired Comey, you might not be talking to me right now about a beautiful book of four years at the White House. And we'll see about the future. The future's going to be very interesting. But I fired Comey, that whole group, and now that group is coming back again. I mean, it's not believable. It shouldn't be allowed to happen. It shouldn't be allowed to happen."

The host tried to change the subject, but later in the interview, Trump seemed eager to talk about this some more.

"I was going to say before, if I didn't fire Comey, they were looking to take down the President of the United States. If I didn't fire him, and some people said, 'He made a mistake when he fired Comey.' And now those same people said it was the most incredible instinctual moves that they've ever seen, because I wouldn't — I might be here with you, perhaps we'll be talking about something else. But I don't think I could have survived if I didn't fire him, because it was like a hornet's nest."

It was three years ago when The Atlantic's Adam Serwer wrote, "Donald Trump can't stop telling on himself." A year later, Nick Akerman, a former Watergate prosecutor, said, "What he's been saying in public is the kind of thing I used to prosecute people for doing in private."

To be sure, the former president has earned a reputation for breathtaking dishonesty, but it's also true that he has a weird habit of publicly disclosing his own misdeeds.

And now we have a striking new example. Unprompted, Trump seemed to volunteer to Levin that the FBI was on his trail, so he fired the FBI director in order to save his own skin.

Legal experts can speak to this with more authority than I can, but his on-air rhetoric sounded an awful lot like someone acknowledging — if not overtly bragging about — obstruction of justice.

In case anyone's curious, the statute of limitations for federal obstruction of justice is five years. Trump fired Comey four and a half years ago.

Starts at 1:20



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

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021 10:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol...

Oh, you still listen to what Maddow has to say?

That says far more about you than anything that article said about Trump.

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021 11:10 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol...

Oh, you still listen to what Maddow has to say?

That says far more about you than anything that article said about Trump.
It was Trump who said he would not be President if he had let FBI Director Comey investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump said he instinctively knew he had to fire Comey or else Trump wouldn't finish his 4 years: "If I didn't fire him, and some people said, 'He made a mistake when he fired Comey.' And now those same people said it was the most incredible instinctual moves that they've ever seen, because I wouldn't — I might be here with you, perhaps we'll be talking about something else."

If Comey had finished, Trump would be finished. Since Trump said it, it's got to be true.

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

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021 11:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol...

Oh, you still listen to what Maddow has to say?

That says far more about you than anything that article said about Trump.
It was Trump who said he would not be President if he had let FBI Director Comey investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump said he instinctively knew he had to fire Comey or else Trump wouldn't finish his 4 years:


Did he now? Let's see your evidence...

Quote:
"If I didn't fire him, and some people said, 'He made a mistake when he fired Comey.' And now those same people said it was the most incredible instinctual moves that they've ever seen, because I wouldn't — I might be here with you, perhaps we'll be talking about something else."


Nope. That's not what HE said.

He's saying that's what OTHER people said 4 years ago vs. what they're saying now. He's not even hinting whether he agrees with them or not.


You're going to give me shit about swiss-cheese-brained Joe Biden* reading stuff he shouldn't have off a teleprompter on the one video I posted where that was taken out of context, but you read this shit and believe that about Trump?

You're a fucking cultist.

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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Wednesday, December 8, 2021 7:24 AM

SECOND

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


Hillary Clinton was right about the "deplorables" — and about the end of Roe v. Wade

Still hate Hillary's guts? Fine. But let's admit that she saw all this coming — and way before the rise of Trump

By Chauncey DeVega, Published December 7, 2021 6:30AM (EST)

During her 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton warned us that Donald Trump and his "basket of deplorables" were a threat to American democracy. She wasn't a prophet. She was simply offering a reasonable analysis based on the available evidence — and she paid an enormous political price for daring to tell that truth in public.

Two things can be true at the same time. Russian interference may well have played a role in Donald Trump's unlikely electoral victory in 2016. But it is also true that Clinton's truthful but politically unwise comment about the "deplorables" helped to swing the momentum — with the help of an eager and compliant mainstream news media — in Trump's direction.

Clinton's description was in fact about much more than the disreputable people who flocked to Trump's banner. It was also a warning about the regressive politics and antisocial values that Trump's followers represented (and still do), including cruelty, racism and white supremacy, sexism and misogyny, collective narcissism, anti-intellectualism, an infatuation with violence, proud ignorance and support for fascism and authoritarianism.

Whatever you think of her as a person and a public figure, Clinton clearly perceived that Trumpism would be a disaster for American democracy and the world, pushing the United States towards the brink of full-on fascism including an attempted coup. Clinton's campaign strategy against Trump had numerous evident flaws, but her diagnosis of Trump and his movement' was overwhelmingly correct.

One thing Hillary Clinton clearly perceived, even if she didn't put it this way, was that Trump's authoritarian politics would involve a campaign to limit human freedom, in accordance with the needs and goals of the Trump movement. Specifically, limiting and controlling the bodily autonomy of those groups and individuals deemed to be Other, the enemy or otherwise subordinate to the dominant group.

Such an exercise of power is central and foundational to American fascism in its various forms, as the history of slavery and Jim Crow ought to make clear. In America now, the fascist movement longs for the subordination, control, and domination of women's and girls' bodies to the sexual, emotional, financial, physical and psychological needs of men — especially, of course, white conservative "Christian" men. Restricting women's reproductive rights and freedoms, especially by attempting to force women to conceive and bear children, are recurring features of fascist-authoritarian political projects and societies.

Hillary Clinton warned us about this as well, as Colbert King noted several months ago in the Washington Post:
Quote:
I'm also sick at heart because five years ago, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton put the country on notice that this day could come.

While celebrating the Supreme Court's June 27, 2016, decision rejecting two restrictive provisions in a Texas House bill regulating abortion, Clinton warned in a campaign release that the fight for the right to access health care, and for women to make their own decisions about their bodies and their futures, was "far from over."

She stated, presciently, "The fact that our next president could appoint as many as three or four justices in the next four years" is a striking reminder "that we can't take rulings like today's for granted."

Clinton left no room for speculation. "Just consider Donald Trump, the Republicans' presumptive nominee. The man who could be president has said there should be some form of 'punishment' for women seeking abortions. He pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. And last year, he said he'd shut down the government rather than fund Planned Parenthood."

And Clinton made clear the consequences. "If we send Trump to the White House and a Republican majority to Congress, he could achieve any — or all — of these things. And that's why this election is so important."

"The outcome of November's contests," she declared, "is going to be a deciding factor in whether our elected officials and our courts defend or attack a woman's right to health care for generations to come."
Transforming a democracy into a fascist-authoritarian state is usually a process, not a singular spontaneous event. In the United States in this decade, this has taken the form of one of our two institutional political parties becoming increasingly and openly hostile toward the very idea of multiracial and pluralistic democracy.

More specifically, the Trump-controlled Republican Party and the larger neofascist movement it represents is the symptom of deeper societal problems, rather than their cause. This moment must also be understood as the result of long-term planning by right-wing elites.

Once again, Hillary Clinton was eerily prescient. During an interview in 1998 with NBC's "Today," she famously warned of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that sought to destroy her husband's presidency. Less noticed at the time, she also spoke larger truths about American society and the forces working to undermine its most fundamental rights and freedoms.

In 2016, Clinton revisited that warning during a televised town hall meeting in New Hampshire. Here's how CBS News reported that event:
Quote:
"At this point it's probably not correct to say it's a conspiracy because it's out in the open," Clinton said. "There is no doubt about who the players are, what they're trying to achieve. ... It's real, and we're going to beat it." ... Referencing GOP financiers like Charles and David Koch, Clinton said the right wing is now "even better funded."

"They've brought in some new multibillionaires," she said. "They want to control our country. They want to rig the economy so they can get richer and richer.

"They salve their consciences by giving money to philanthropy," Clinton continued, "but make no mistake, they want to destroy unions, they want to go after any economic interest they don't believe they can control."
The Supreme Court is now signaling, in bright lights, that it intends to follow through on the decades-long plan by the Republican Party, its Christian fascist elements and other "movement conservatives" to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and otherwise sharply restrict women's reproductive rights and freedoms. Taking away women's bodily autonomy to this extent is another step in the Republican-fascist assault on the human and civil rights of all Americans.

In a new essay, author and talk-show host Thom Hartmann warns that this is "just the first of a series of ideas Republicans have to regulate women's behavior and roll back the clock to the early 1960s when women couldn't get a credit card without their father's or husband's permission, had no legal right to birth control in some states, and faced fully legal discrimination in housing, education and employment." He continues:
Quote:
In the 1960s, employers could fire women for getting pregnant, women had no legal right to a harassment-free workplace, were charged extra for health insurance, and could be legally raped by their husbands, among other indignities.

And this is just the start. Today the Court is hearing a case out of Maine that could require states to pay for the tuition of all students attending religious schools, using taxpayer money that normally funds public schools. This would include forcing states to pay for religious schools that openly discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and staff, and teach children that being gay is a sin.

Once Republicans are done with birth control they'll be coming for gay marriage and, ultimately, broader civil rights laws themselves including, like in Hungary (their new role model), ending the rights to assembly, free-speech, and due process.

And if you think that's an over-the-top concern, consider: Just a few months ago, Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that provides immunity to drivers who plow their cars into protesters, if those protesters are on a public street. They're already going after our right of public assembly.

Winter is coming: next stop, Gilead.
Last week, Hillary Clinton spoke to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about America's democracy crisis and the Republican threats to human and civil rights. She was describing the plot of the fictional thriller she co-wrote with Louise Penny, "State of Terror," but also America at present: "There is a plot against the country by people who truly want to turn the clock back. They believe that the progress we've made on all kinds of civil rights and human rights, the cultural changes that have taken place, are so deeply threatening that they want to stage a coup."

America's crisis of democracy is in a wild and dangerous moment, where unpredictable and horrible new realities are being born and where hope is diminishing. The choice between democracy and fascism may have narrowed so far that the real choice at this moment is more about how bad the emerging American fascist regime will be and what possibilities for effective resistance will remain. That may sound hyperbolic, but matters are rapidly becoming that dire.

Defending American democracy in the time that remains requires setting aside factional differences within the Democratic Party — and within the political "left" and "center" more generally — and uniting around the common goal of defeating the Republican-fascist movement. "Hillary derangement syndrome," in the form of the extreme hostility and rage some leftists and progressives still feel toward Clinton, is only a distraction.

Hillary Clinton tried to warn the American people what would happen if Trump and his regime took power — she was proven to be correct. She continues to warn the America and the world about the all-too-real "vast right-wing conspiracy" that continues to push forward, winning victory after victory in its war against human rights, human dignity, social democracy and freedom.

In various ways, Hillary Clinton's unexpected "defeat" by Donald Trump in 2016 offered an important preview of what was to come, with American democracy increasingly under siege. Many people perceived it as a fluke or an anomaly at the time, but it was nothing of the kind. It was a sign. Love her or hate her, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton understood the danger clearly.

More on reproductive rights and Hillary vs. the "deplorables":

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/07/hillary-clinton-was-right-about-the-d
eplorables--and-about-reproductive-rights/

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

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Wednesday, December 8, 2021 10:51 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol...

Oh, you still listen to what Maddow has to say?

That says far more about you than anything that article said about Trump.
It was Trump who said he would not be President if he had let FBI Director Comey investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump said he instinctively knew he had to fire Comey or else Trump wouldn't finish his 4 years:


Did he now? Let's see your evidence...

Quote:
"If I didn't fire him, and some people said, 'He made a mistake when he fired Comey.' And now those same people said it was the most incredible instinctual moves that they've ever seen, because I wouldn't — I might be here with you, perhaps we'll be talking about something else."


Nope. That's not what HE said.

He's saying that's what OTHER people said 4 years ago vs. what they're saying now. He's not even hinting whether he agrees with them or not.


You're going to give me shit about swiss-cheese-brained Joe Biden* reading stuff he shouldn't have off a teleprompter on the one video I posted where that was taken out of context, but you read this shit and believe that about Trump?

You're a fucking cultist.





Nothin', huh?

Rare wise move.



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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Thursday, December 9, 2021 6:44 AM

SECOND

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


Where Have All the Grown-ups Gone?

Bob Dole, the former Senate Republican leader and presidential candidate, died on Sunday at age 98. The media were filled with encomiums, which was understandable even for those who opposed much of what he stood for.

It’s not just that he was a war hero, or that he reminds us of an era in which the two parties were willing to work together in the national interest. His life story also reminds us of a time when public figures were supposed to show some sense of responsibility — to possess basic decency, to admit to mistakes when they made them, even to put their lives on the line in time of war. Human nature being what it is, many people who pretended to have these virtues were hypocrites. But at least that was the ideal, and being an obvious crook, liar or coward was politically disqualifying.

Not anymore.

As it happens, Dole’s death came just a few days after we learned what Donald Trump did after he tested positive for the coronavirus last year. He not only concealed the result but also proceeded to put hundreds of people at risk by continuing his normal activities while refusing to wear a mask or practice social distancing. And when he came down with a life-threatening case of Covid, he suggested that he might have caught it from Gold Star families he had met with after his positive test — that is, he blamed people he himself had callously endangered.

At some level, nobody is surprised; we knew that Trump was malignant to a degree never before seen in high office. But what does it say about the state of modern America that nobody expects him to pay any price for this revelation? The loyalty of his base won’t be shaken; he’s still the favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Nor has he paid any price for other character defects that would once have been considered damning. A generation or two ago, could a national political figure have gotten away with being constantly self-pitying, complaining about how badly he’s being treated? Could he have paid no penalty for always refusing to admit error, even if the cover-up required altering weather maps with what appears to have been a Sharpie?

And Trump seems to have set the standard for many of his devotees. Many of the rioters who tried to overturn the election on Jan. 6 seem to be very sorry — for themselves. Kyle Rittenhouse wept on the witness stand, not because he felt remorse over killing people but over the pain of being put on trial. The Crumbleys, who gave their son the gun with which he shot up his Michigan school and killed four students, also seemed very upset — over having been arrested.

All this from a movement obsessed with the idea of masculinity. Weren’t real men traditionally supposed to be strong, silent types who took responsibility for their actions and accepted burdens without complaining? Of course, these are human virtues, not specifically masculine; still, they used to be qualities we expected and admired.

It didn’t start with Trump. We’ve been heading this way for a long time. Back in 2006, in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq on false pretenses and the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, I wrote about the “mensch gap” — the unwillingness of the people then running the country to accept responsibility for their own failures, their eagerness to blame others when things went wrong. Later, during the Obama era, it was striking how many critics on the right refused to acknowledge error when their predictions of runaway inflation or the abject failure of Obamacare failed to come true.

But now the transformation of American conservatism — the same movement that complains about liberal “snowflakes” — into a collection of malignant whiners seems to have reached apotheosis. Yes, there are self-pitying hypocrites on the left too; but they don’t dominate the way Trump and Trump-like figures dominate the right.

I’m not entirely sure why this has happened; the degradation probably began decades ago, maybe as early as the Vietnam years. But there’s no question that it has happened. At this point there are no grown-ups left on one side of the political aisle.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211207174314/https://www.nytimes.com/202
1/12/07/opinion/bob-dole-donald-trump.html

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

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Thursday, December 9, 2021 7:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Where Have All the Grown-ups Gone?




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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Thursday, December 9, 2021 1:54 PM

SECOND

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


Democrats have slit their own throats

Neutral commission maps in the blue states of CA, CO, NJ, VA and WA (93 seats total) will end up costing Dems 10-15 House seats they could have seized by gerrymandering, making Republicans even stronger favorites for House control.
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1468986740618797070

Nonpartisan commissions draw House of Representative district boundaries that treat Democrats and Republicans equally. But no state controlled by Republicans has ever created a truly nonpartisan redistricting commission. In nearly every red state, the legislature controls district maps and gerrymanders them as ruthlessly as they can. There are a couple of blue states that also do this, but not many. The end result is that blue states tend to draw maps fairly while red states draw maps that heavily favor Republicans.

On the bright side, Democrats can all feel good about themselves for being so dedicated to fair voting. On the down side, Democrats will lose the House of Representatives because of this.

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

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Friday, December 10, 2021 6:08 AM

SECOND

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


When a shared national crisis can’t bring people together (Pearl Harbor, say, or a pandemic), a society may have passed the point of no return.

The U.S. is at dangerous "level of polarization,” political scientists warn

By Nicole Karlis, Published December 8, 2021

Politics in the United States have become an increasingly polarized affair for decades, driven largely by the right moving further to the right. Observation of political polarization is not merely anecdotal; studies repeatedly bear this out.

Now, some researchers say the partisan rift in the United States has become so extreme that the country may be at a point of no return.

According to a theoretical model's findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the pandemic failing to unite the country, despite political differences, is a signal that the U.S. is at a disconcerting tipping point. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102144118
Quote:
Our study was motivated by a highly disturbing puzzle. Confronted with a deadly global pandemic that threatened not only massive loss of life but also the collapse of our medical system and economy, why were we unable to put partisan divisions aside and unite in a common cause, similar to the national mobilization in the Great Depression and the Second World War? We used a computational model to search for an answer in the phase transitions of political polarization. The model reveals asymmetric hysteresis trajectories with tipping points that are hard to predict and that make polarization extremely difficult to reverse once the level exceeds a critical value.
"We see this very disturbing pattern in which a shock brings people a little bit closer initially . . . but if polarization is too extreme, eventually the effects of a shared fate are swamped by the existing divisions and people become divided even on the shock issue," said network scientist Boleslaw Szymanski, a professor of computer science and director of the Army Research Laboratory Network Science and Technology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "If we reach that point, we cannot unite even in the face of war, climate change, pandemics, or other challenges to the survival of our society."

As I've reported before, sociologists and experts in disaster resilience studies often observe that a "therapeutic community" surfaces in the wake of a disaster — whether that's a hurricane, wildfire, or a terrorist attack. While that was the case to some extent after 9/11, the pandemic hasn't united the nation the same way. Experts have argued that any possibility of unity was doomed from the start of the pandemic, in part because of how politically divided and polarized the nation was before the novel coronavirus began spreading. This latest paper adds to this theory, and suggests that the U.S. is so divided that it is at an irreparable point at which unity is not possible.

Szymanski and fellow researchers reached their conclusion by simulating the views of 100 theoretical legislators around 10 polarizing issues. The researchers had their theoretical legislators interact and network with theoretical neighbors and like-minded groups to see the influence these interactions had on polarization, too — akin to a "Sims"-like video game. When manipulating the group's "control parameters" — such as increased party identification, intolerance for disagreement, and extremism — the model found that polarizing behavior among politicians is one reason why the country is as politically divided as it is today.

At various points, the research team introduced an outside threat, like a pandemic, and then recorded how the group behaved. Interestingly, it appeared that when the group introduced an internal threat that failed to unite the country, that meant that the level of polarization was beyond repair.

"If the polarization is very, very deep in these 10 issues, then we are at the very dangerous stage in which it is very difficult to reverse polarization by democratic means," Szymanski told Salon. "When that tipping point is passed, there are no constitutional means that can reverse polarization."

Indeed, graphs displaying the relationship between polarization and the control parameters showed that in many situations a high amount of polarization that couldn't be rectified by an external threat meant that a society was in a "phase transition," where measures of polarization began to increase exponentially. In some scenarios, if the polarization was dialed down the trend could be reversed. In other cases, a recovery wasn't possible.

"Although political polarization is nothing new, expanding political division is creating an unpredictable environment that threatens the capacity of government to respond rationally in a crisis," said Curt Breneman, dean of the Rensselaer School of Science. "This research is designed to enhance societal resilience by predicting when the level of political polarization within an influential group is nearing the point where a sudden threat will no longer produce collective action."

Szymanski said he hopes people take away from this study that this "theoretical model confirms intuition."

"If the external strong signal does not unite people, we are in danger of getting into this irreversible polarization," which Szymanski alarmed is bad for democracy. "In a divided society, it's of course very difficult to maintain that democracy which requires agreements of all people and the people who win elections and lose elections."

Szymanski added that the research shows the U.S. is at a "dangerous level of polarization," but perhaps electing less polarizing politicians could reverse the trend the U.S. is facing.

"It's almost the last call," Szymanski said.

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/08/us-political-polarization-tipping-poi
nt/

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

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Friday, December 10, 2021 10:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Democrats have slit their own throats

Neutral commission maps in the blue states of CA, CO, NJ, VA and WA (93 seats total) will end up costing Dems 10-15 House seats they could have seized by gerrymandering, making Republicans even stronger favorites for House control.
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1468986740618797070

Nonpartisan commissions draw House of Representative district boundaries that treat Democrats and Republicans equally. But no state controlled by Republicans has ever created a truly nonpartisan redistricting commission. In nearly every red state, the legislature controls district maps and gerrymanders them as ruthlessly as they can. There are a couple of blue states that also do this, but not many. The end result is that blue states tend to draw maps fairly while red states draw maps that heavily favor Republicans.

On the bright side, Democrats can all feel good about themselves for being so dedicated to fair voting. On the down side, Democrats will lose the House of Representatives because of this.

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



Already coming up with bullshit excuses for why Democrats will lose big a full year in advance instead of learning any lessons, huh?

Classic Leftists.



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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Friday, December 10, 2021 10:08 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
When a shared national crisis can’t bring people together (Pearl Harbor, say, or a pandemic), a society may have passed the point of no return.
Quote:
Our study was motivated by a highly disturbing puzzle. Confronted with a deadly global pandemic that threatened not only massive loss of life but also the collapse of our medical system and economy, why were we unable to put partisan divisions aside and unite in a common cause, similar to the national mobilization in the Great Depression and the Second World War?


Bullshit.

Nobody is dying.

Even if we use the bullshit numbers up on Johns Hospkins, the amount of people dying of Covid is so tiny that even when added up with all other causes of deaths it's not even putting a dent in the birth rate.

Get back to me when Covid-20 gets unleashed by Fauci and the Chinese and we're looking at a net negative of -10% or more to the population count year over year.

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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Friday, December 10, 2021 10:47 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
When a shared national crisis can’t bring people together (Pearl Harbor, say, or a pandemic), a society may have passed the point of no return.
Quote:
Our study was motivated by a highly disturbing puzzle. Confronted with a deadly global pandemic that threatened not only massive loss of life but also the collapse of our medical system and economy, why were we unable to put partisan divisions aside and unite in a common cause, similar to the national mobilization in the Great Depression and the Second World War?


Bullshit.

Nobody is dying.

Even if we use the bullshit numbers up on Johns Hospkins, the amount of people dying of Covid is so tiny that even when added up with all other causes of deaths it's not even putting a dent in the birth rate.

Get back to me when Covid-20 gets unleashed by Fauci and the Chinese and we're looking at a net negative of -10% or more to the population count year over year.
815,413 Covid-19 deaths. The example of the USA pulling together was Pearl Harbor. Only 68 civilians died there: "The attack killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians." The Navy guys volunteered to die for their country, so the only deaths that count are the civilians. Trump has even said that about military deaths. Before those 68 civilians died at Pearl Harbor, the Republicans in the Senate refused to join World War II and the Democrat President couldn't change the Republicans' mind. And yet Nazis were bombing London and had conquered Europe. Japs were invading Asia. And Republicans were saying America First. But after only 68 civilians died, the Republicans in Congress finally, after years of delays and stalling, declared war. Nowadays the Republicans wouldn't care what happened at Pearl Harbor because the 68 civilian deaths (versus 815,413 covid deaths) would most likely be Democrats in Hawaii, a Democrat controlled state.

Trump won't have worried about Pearl Harbor Navy deaths. Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’
The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-w
ho-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/
Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

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

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Friday, December 10, 2021 11:36 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Blah, blah, blah...

What a waste of carbon.

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

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 8:42 AM

SECOND

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


Storytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may destroy it.

Jonathan Gottschall wrote “The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears them Down”

You can download that book and also “The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human” from the mirrors at
https://libgen.unblockit.tv/search.php?req=Jonathan+Gottschall+Storyte
lling

Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.

In The Story Paradox, Gottschall explores how a broad consortium of psychologists, communications specialists, neuroscientists, and literary quants are using the scientific method to study how stories affect our brains. The results challenge the idea that storytelling is an obvious force for good in human life. Yes, storytelling can bind groups together, but it is also the main force dragging people apart. And it’s the best method we’ve ever devised for manipulating each other by circumventing rational thought. Behind all civilization’s greatest ills—environmental destruction, runaway demagogues, warfare—you will always find the same master factor: a mind-disordering story.

Gottschall argues that societies succeed or fail depending on how they manage these tensions. And it has only become harder, as new technologies that amplify the effects of disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and fake news make separating fact from fiction nearly impossible.

With clarity and conviction, Gottschall reveals why our biggest asset has become our greatest threat, and what, if anything, can be done. It is a call to stop asking, “How we can change the world through stories?” and start asking, “How can we save the world from stories?”

Why Stories Are Like Taking Drugs
https://lithub.com/why-stories-are-like-taking-drugs/
This is an excerpt from Storytellers Rule the World, chapter 1 from the book “The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears them Down”.

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

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 10:12 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


BAN STORYTELLING!!!!

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 11:14 AM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
BAN STORYTELLING!!!!

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Not that I think you can understand, but the shortest version of the very long and complicated story Nazis told to all Germans was that Germans are the Master Race and Jews cause all of Germany's problems. Where did that popular story take Germany, 6ix? The Nazis never were a majority of Germans, but every German got caught in that story.

The shortest version of the very long and complicated story slave-owners told to all Americans was that Whites are the Master Race and abolitionists cause all of America's problems. Where did that popular story take America, 6ix? The slave-owners never were a majority of Americans, but every American got caught in that story.

The shortest version of the very long and complicated story Trump and his voters tell all Americans is that White Americans are the Master Race and Democrats cause all of America's problems. I know where that popular story is taking America, 6ix. The Trump voters have never been a majority of Americans, but every American is caught in that story.

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

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 11:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Not that I think you can understand


That's cute. A man-child with the brain of a two year old trying to explain something to me like I'm a two year old

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Nazis, Germans, Nazis, Nazis, Nazis...




Why don't you tell me a story about Russia?

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 12:14 PM

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


It is excellent that you mentioned Hitler, 6ix. Trump has books full of Hitler's speeches to Germans. Both leaders knew the power storytelling has over fools. Even today, Germans think they are the smartest Europeans, but Germans are fooling themselves. Trump voters think they are the smartest Americans, also fooling themselves.

Why did Germans follow the Nazis?
https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/198435

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

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Saturday, December 11, 2021 8:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
It is excellent that you mentioned Hitler, 6ix.


No. YOU mentioned Hitler, you fuckin' goon.

You're only one IQ point smarter than Ted who would have actually said his name.

Nobody cares about your incorrect opinions on anything, little boy.

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 8:45 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
It is excellent that you mentioned Hitler, 6ix.


No. YOU mentioned Hitler, you fuckin' goon.

You're only one IQ point smarter than Ted who would have actually said his name.

Nobody cares about your incorrect opinions on anything, little boy.
Actually, this all started with the fake stories told in history. Nazis' story was that Jews cause all of Germany's problems. Confederates' story was that Abolitionists cause all of America's problems. Republicans' story is that Democrats cause all of America's problems. Republicans have been saying it for years. 6ix has even said it: "Democrats are Cancer."

Here is the Republicans' Story. (Just in case you misunderstand, the Republican story is false, just like the Confederate story and the Nazi story):

Republicans believe they are fighting for democracy

Author Kevin Drum

Let's talk about the demise of democracy and how Republicans are trying to save it.

Wait. Republicans? I meant Democrats, right?

That's certainly how I see it. It's also how nearly all of you see it. But it's not the way everyone sees it. Republicans, in particular, have been convinced for a very long time that Democrats routinely steal elections. I wrote about this ten years ago in "The Dog That Voted and Other Election Fraud Yarns," https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/voter-suppression-kevin-d
rum/ and the following ten years have done nothing except cement this belief even further into the Republican psyche.

Do Republicans really believe this? Among party leaders, I don't know. Some always have. Some have convinced themselves just from saying it so often. And some probably don't but play along cynically.

Likewise, among the rank and file, some are believers and some aren't. But as time has passed, and both Fox News and party leaders have unceasingly hammered on this, more and more conservative voters have turned into believers. Trust in elections went down to a dismal 60% in 2008 and stayed there throughout the Obama years even as Republicans won landslide victories in congressional elections. It rebounded a bit during the Trump presidency, but by 2020 trust had already fallen back to about 60%. After the election it fell off a cliff:



What do you do if Democrats show disdain for fair voting? What if you've tried and tried to get them to clean up their corrupt ward bosses, fake voters, and laughable urban vote counts, but none of it has worked? Answer: You fight back harder. Because American democracy is on its last legs and someone has to do it.

So the stage was all set for Republicans to go ballistic after the 2020 election. They'd known Democrats were cheating for a long time, but never had it been this brazen. Never had Democrats managed to steal the presidency. It was time for war.

If the only way to ensure a fair vote was to restrict early voting and mail voting and other easy targets for cheating, so be it. If Democrats refused to get rid of crooked precinct counters, then Republicans would have to dive into local politics and do it themselves. And if even that wasn't enough, they'd have to reserve the right to let Republican legislatures intervene to make sure that votes were counted accurately.

Naturally, Democrats would fuss and fume and insist that it was Republicans who were playing dirty. But nobody outside their lackeys in the press actually believed that. It was all just pretense. The truth was simpler: Democrats had been all but open about their corruption for years, and in 2020 they finally went too far. Democracy—and America itself—was at stake now. If they wanted war, it was war they'd get.



https://jabberwocking.com/republicans-believe-they-are-fighting-for-de
mocracy/



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

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 8:54 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Coming from you? TL;DR

I couldn't possibly care less about your opinion on anything, Second.


Did you see your boy Biden* fucked up a teleprompter read at Dole's funeral?

There's a thread devoted to you now.

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 8:54 AM

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


If you are a Republican who believes Republicans are protecting Democracy, I have news for you. There are Republican documents that say Republicans are in the business of stealing Democracy.

Full PowerPoint presentation on overthrowing the free and fair US 2020 election, from Mark Meadows emails. Much of this was implemented by Trump cronies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210716135230if_/https://www.ingersollloc
kwood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/voter-fraud.pdf

Additional sources of information:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-20
20-election-powerpoint-coup-b1973826.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/mark-meadows-donald-trump-coup
-powerpoint

https://www.newsweek.com/mark-meadows-powerpoint-january-election-resu
lts-trump-1658076

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mark-meadows-overt
urn-election-results-jan-6-committee-1269532/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10294139/Jan-6-PowerPoint-han
ded-Capitol-riot-committee-Meadows-details-plan-overturn-Biden-2020-win.html

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

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 8:58 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
If you are a Republican who believes Republicans are protecting Democracy, I have news for you. There are Republican documents that say Republicans are in the business of stealing Democracy.


I'm not a Republican, you dumb shit.

Republicans won't have anything to steal because Democrats are destroying democracy.

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

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 9:26 AM

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


Who could have predicted that allowing a misogynist sex criminal to pick three Supreme Court Justices would turn out badly for women?

Chief Justice John Roberts warns Trump’s Supreme Court Justices over Texas abortion law

The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, warned Friday that the Supreme Court risks losing its own authority if it allows states to circumvent the courts as Texas did with its near-total abortion ban.

In a strongly worded opinion joined by the high court’s three liberal justices, Roberts wrote that the "clear purpose and actual effect" of the Texas law was "to nullify this Court’s rulings." That, he said, undermines the Constitution and the fundamental role of the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole. Roberts wrote, “Texas has employed an array of stratagems designed to shield its unconstitutional law from judicial review.” Indeed, “if the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery.” https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf

The opinion was a remarkable plea by the chief justice to his colleagues on the court to resist the efforts by right-wing lawmakers to get around court decisions they dislike. But in this case, his urgent request was largely ignored by the justices on the court who were appointed by Trump.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/chief-justice-john-robe
rts-warns-supreme-court-over-texas-abortion-n1285747

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

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Sunday, December 12, 2021 10:11 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:

But in this case, his urgent request was largely ignored by the justices on the court who were appointed by Trump.


Conjecture.

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Monday, December 13, 2021 5:30 AM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Conjecture.
Not so, 6ix. The chief justice said that five Republican justices made a mockery of the constitution when they took away long held rights of citizens. See page 35 of https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf

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

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Monday, December 13, 2021 10:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Conjecture.
Not so, 6ix. The chief justice said that five Republican justices made a mockery of the constitution when they took away long held rights of citizens. See page 35 of https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf


He doesn't mention anything that you just said he did on page 35.

In fact, I read his entire Opinion, and he doesn't once mention any of the justices.

And WTF are you talking about when you say "they took away long held rights of citizens"?

Explain yourself.

Otherwise, pure conjecture.


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Monday, December 13, 2021 11:26 AM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Conjecture.
Not so, 6ix. The chief justice said that five Republican justices made a mockery of the constitution when they took away long held rights of citizens. See page 35 of https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf]

He doesn't mention anything that you just said he did on page 35.

In fact, I read his entire Opinion, and he doesn't once mention any of the justices.

And WTF are you talking about when you say "they took away long held rights of citizens"?

Explain yourself.

Otherwise, pure conjecture.
Each one of Trump's Supreme Court nominees was asked about Roe v Wade because the case would be litigated again since Trump said he wanted the decision changed. The Democrats wanted to know the nominees' answers. Short version of their answers, each of Trump's nominees lied in order to get on the Supreme Court and do what Trump wanted. The chief justice of the Supreme Court knew what they answered. The chief justice also read those nominees', now judges, opinion before he wrote his reply saying they made a mockery of the Constitution. The chief justice might have seemed polite, because he was quoting Marbury v. Madison (1803), but he was damning Trump's nominees for what they did.

In Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, the Supreme Court, for the first time, struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. This decision created the doctrine of judicial review and set up the Supreme Court of the United States as chief interpreter of the Constitution. Until Marbury v. Madison, there were people saying the Supreme Court cannot possibly overturn legislation because it was not explicitly granted that power by the Constitution. I speculate, a synonym for conjecture, a word frequently used by 6ix, that 6ix would have been one of those people saying it is not possible and saying the decision in Marbury v. Madison was itself unconstitutional. 6ix is one of those people who cannot possibly understand what they don't want to understand. There are far too many Americans who are the same way.

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

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Monday, December 13, 2021 11:39 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Conjecture.
Not so, 6ix. The chief justice said that five Republican justices made a mockery of the constitution when they took away long held rights of citizens. See page 35 of https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf]

He doesn't mention anything that you just said he did on page 35.

In fact, I read his entire Opinion, and he doesn't once mention any of the justices.

And WTF are you talking about when you say "they took away long held rights of citizens"?

Explain yourself.

Otherwise, pure conjecture.
Each one of Trump's Supreme Court nominees was asked about Roe v Wade because the case would be litigated again since Trump said he wanted the decision changed. The Democrats wanted to know the nominees' answers. Short version of their answers, each of Trump's nominees lied in order to get on the Supreme Court and do what Trump wanted. The chief justice of the Supreme Court knew what they answered. The chief justice also read those nominees', now judges, opinion before he wrote his reply saying they made a mockery of the Constitution. The chief justice might have seemed polite, because he was quoting Marbury v. Madison (1803), but he was damning Trump's nominees for what they did.

In Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, the Supreme Court, for the first time, struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. This decision created the doctrine of judicial review and set up the Supreme Court of the United States as chief interpreter of the Constitution. Until Marbury v. Madison, there were people saying the Supreme Court cannot possibly overturn legislation because it was not explicitly granted that power by the Constitution. I speculate, a synonym for conjecture, a word frequently used by 6ix, that 6ix would have been one of those people saying it is not possible and saying the decision in Marbury v. Madison was itself unconstitutional. 6ix is one of those people who cannot possibly understand what they don't want to understand. There are far too many Americans who are the same way.

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



Conjecture is not a word I frequently use. After writing this reply, I will have used the word conjecture more today than I ever have in the rest of my life combined. Lie.

Justice Roberts did not say anything that you say he said. Lie.

Your take is pure conjecture.

You'll also note that the link to this document itself is filed under "supremecourt.gov/opinions/"

These were opinions. Not a ruling.

You're basing your opinions of their opinions with incomplete information and your skewed lens.

That's the the textbook definition of conjecture.




Quote:
6ix is one of those people who cannot possibly understand what they don't want to understand.


Pot, meet kettle, you completely un-self-aware cretin.

Quote:
There are far too many Americans who are the same way.


On that, we can agree.

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Monday, December 13, 2021 1:42 PM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

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

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A truly revealing opinion about yourself, 6ix.

Chief Justice John Roberts used Marbury v. Madison to insult Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court. It is there in the Supreme Court ruling, 6ix, even if you don’t want to understand it any more than you understand vaccination.

The Madison in Marbury v. Madison was Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of State. Jefferson knew how the case would be decided because the Chief Justice back then was John Marshall, a second cousin, who had made his low opinion of Jefferson known. Jefferson and the new Democratic-Republican Congressmen passed a bill that canceled the Supreme Court's 1802 term. This prevented all its pending cases, including Marbury v. Madison, from being decided until 1803.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison

The wikipedia didn't explain why Jefferson's shutdown of the Supreme Court was not permanent, or at least until after Jefferson left office. Maybe Jefferson realized that was going too far and too obviously personal animosity.

Feuding Cousins and Founding Fathers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/04/08/feuding-co
usins-and-founding-fathers/25ed4d24-1c68-42c2-9c6d-a9b7705ddf0a/

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

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Monday, December 13, 2021 6:25 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol

I'm done debating with you on this. You're an idiot.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021 6:28 AM

SECOND

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


How big is the rich-poor divide across the globe?

In terms of dollars, someone in the global top 10% earns $122,000 a year on average, while a person in the poorest half makes around $3,900.

Is inequality about income or wealth?

Both. In terms of dollars, people in the lower half own about $4,100 in net assets on average, compared with $771,000 on average for those in the top 10%.

https://news.yahoo.com/big-rich-poor-divide-across-140022303.html

Authors of the newly released World Inequality Database study claim it represents the "most up-to-date synthesis of international research efforts to track global inequalities."

https://wid.world/country/usa/
https://wid.world/income-comparator
https://wid.world/news-article/world-inequality-report-2022/


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

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021 8:36 AM

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


This doesn’t mean that Trump won’t be the 2024 nominee, but a Pew survey conducted in September (published in October) shows that just 44 percent of Republicans want him to run for president again (and 32 percent want him out of politics altogether).

Anecdotally speaking, many of the same people who were the most passionate evangelists for George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” 20 years ago were ready to call Dubya a war criminal by 2016. Times change, and new characters are introduced into this political drama. We’re already seeing hints that, to some extent, the party is already moving on to younger leaders like Tucker Carlson and Ron DeSantis.

I’m old enough to remember when Sarah Palin was the straw that stirred Republicans’ drinks. Posting stories about her got clicks. She flirted with running for president (to sell books and stay relevant) and even got the media to chase her bus around the country. But she chose not to run for president (after choosing to step down as governor of Alaska), and eventually she became old news (for those who want Trump to go away, this is an admission against interest: If Trump’s goal is to continue garnering attention, he needs to run for office again).

Now, it’s true that Palin did not possess Trump’s resources or media savvy (nor was she president), but her prime shelf life lasted for about four years (2008-2012). At age 75, Trump is on year seven of largely dominating the news. How long can he keep it up? At the end of the day, Trump faces the same existential threat we all do: mortality. In his case, this means both his literal and political life.

Trends come and go, and people get swept up in them before moving on to the new, hot thing. Americans have a bias towards newness. Thrice-married Trump should appreciate this concept as the country looks like it finally might be ready to turn the page.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/old-man-donald-trump-is-looking-weaker-a
nd-weakersad

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

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021 2:09 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



It would be interesting to see how this stacks up against the US in relative terms. We tend to think of countries with extreme wealth gaps as being places like ... Nigeria, for example. But the US could be just as bad, in relative terms.

In any case, I couldn't find equivalent figures for the US with a quick search, just for example, the minimum income one needs to squeak under the 10% threshold. It would be nice if someone did those calculations, or found them.



Quote:
Originally posted by second:
How big is the rich-poor divide across the globe?

In terms of dollars, someone in the global top 10% earns $122,000 a year on average, while a person in the poorest half makes around $3,900.

Is inequality about income or wealth?

Both. In terms of dollars, people in the lower half own about $4,100 in net assets on average, compared with $771,000 on average for those in the top 10%.

https://news.yahoo.com/big-rich-poor-divide-across-140022303.html

Authors of the newly released World Inequality Database study claim it represents the "most up-to-date synthesis of international research efforts to track global inequalities."

https://wid.world/country/usa/
https://wid.world/income-comparator
https://wid.world/news-article/world-inequality-report-2022/


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

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Wednesday, December 15, 2021 10:54 AM

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


The Bogus Bashing of Build Back Better by Paul Krugman

Dec. 13, 2021

Build Back Better — the Biden administration’s effort to create a better future for America — is resting on a political knife edge. It’s anyone’s guess whether it will become law. What we do know is that to make it through Congress it will have to weather a perfect storm of bad faith, bad logic and bad arithmetic.

First things first: Build Back Better is primarily a plan to invest in America’s future. Roughly a third of the proposed spending is on children: pre-K, child care and tax credits that would greatly reduce child poverty. Another third is spending to help restructure the economy to limit climate change. If you include the already enacted infrastructure bill, the Biden agenda is overwhelmingly future-oriented.

And there’s every reason to believe that these investments would be highly productive. This is clearly true of aid to children. There’s overwhelming evidence that helping disadvantaged children makes them much healthier and more productive when they reach adulthood; the benefits are so large that even in a narrowly fiscal sense, aid to children may well pay for itself over the long run.

The same is true for environmental investment. Most discussion of such investment focuses on the long-run mitigation of climate change, and rightly so: The prospect of civilizational collapse does tend to focus the mind.

It’s important to note, however, that reducing our dependence on fossil fuels wouldn’t just reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. It would also reduce other forms of pollution, notably nitrogen oxides and sulfur, that have negative effects on death rates, illness and crop yields. And the benefits of reduced pollution would arrive quickly. One recent NASA study suggested that the health gains from climate mitigation policy would not only be worth trillions of dollars but would also materialize fast enough to outweigh any costs of energy transition in a decade or less.

So how can anyone be opposed to making these investments?

I guess reporting conventions require that journalists pretend to believe that Republicans have good-faith objections to the Biden plan — that they’re worried about deficits, or the effect on incentives, or something. But we all know that their main objection is simply the fact that it’s a Democratic initiative, which means that it must fail.

Also, it would tax the rich and help the poor.

Actually, can anyone even remember the last time leading figures in the G.O.P. seriously engaged with real policy concerns? The most recent important example I can think of is the enactment of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. It has been bad faith ever since.

While the most important source of opposition to Build Back Better is simply the desire to see Biden fail while keeping the rich as rich as possible, there may be some sincere concern that the bill would increase budget deficits. Actually, it wouldn’t have a significant deficit impact — the Congressional Budget Office says that the spending is almost completely paid for, and attempts to claim otherwise aren’t credible. But even if the deficit did rise, why would that be such a bad thing?

I was struck the other day by Elon Musk’s declaration that Build Back Better shouldn’t pass because it would increase the budget deficit. Interesting fact: Tesla was founded in 2003 and had its first profitable year in 2020. That is, it spent 17 years spending more money than it was taking in, because it was investing in the future. If, as many executives like to say, the government should be run like a business, why shouldn’t it be willing to do the same thing?

Again, most of the proposed spending would consist of highly productive investments.

Finally, there’s a lot of talk about how Build Back Better might worsen inflation — talk that mainly seems to involve failure to do the math, for example, by confusing decades with single years and failing to divide by gross domestic product.

It’s true that the bill’s $1.75 trillion price tag is, on the surface, a lot of money. But that’s spending over 10 years, which means that annual outlays would be far smaller than the $1.9 trillion rescue plan passed this year or, for that matter, the $768 billion annual defense bill the House passed last week.

Also, much of the spending would be paid for with new taxes. Furthermore, you should never cite a big-sounding budget number without putting it in context. Remember, the U.S. economy is enormous. The budget office estimates that in its first year Build Back Better would expand the deficit by 0.6 percent of gross domestic product, a number that would shrink over time.

I’m not aware of any economic model suggesting that spending on that scale would make much of a difference to inflation. And because much of the spending would expand the economy’s productive capacity, it would probably reduce inflation over time.

Is Build Back Better perfect? Of course not. But it’s the best legislation we’re likely to get for years to come. And claims that we should let this opportunity pass out of concern over fiscal responsibility or inflation are uninformed at best, dishonest at worst.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/opinion/build-back-better.html


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

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