REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Friday, May 23, 2025 13:31
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 26145
PAGE 41 of 41

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 7:42 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:

Your posts are evil. You are retarded.

Keep crying bitch. You're finished.
6ix, I don't have to have lived around the Confederate slave-owners to know they deserved death for what they were. I lived around plenty of Trumptards all my life, and they aren't any better than slave-owners as people.

Today, that fat fucking bastard of a President is bringing back The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), "Star Wars," except he is calling it "Golden Dome". Star Wars could not be built when Reagan was President, and it still cannot be built, but stupid Trumptards want it because they are rotten people who fearfully believe in a fantasy defense system. Essentially, Trumptards are cowards who want a Golden Dome to protect them from even thinking about their well-deserved deaths. Civil War-era slave-owners spent their time in well-deserved fear of being murdered by their slaves. Gee-whiz, it seems to be a theme with evil people to fear they will be killed. Evil people sense that they deserve to die brutally, either from the missiles of their many enemies, or mistreated slaves bashing in the heads of slave-owners, or illegal aliens killing abusive Trumptards. As for me, I never had a psychological reason to fear death, not even a twinge of anxiety. But then I am not a Trumptard.

Star Wars Missile Defense System
https://www.google.com/search?q=star+wars+missile+defense+system

Trump unveils plans for 'Golden Dome' defence system
2 hours ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy33n484x0o
Quote:
"All of them will be knocked out of the air," Trump said. "The success rate is very close to 100%."
Only a lying sack of shit would say what Trump said. Only a Trumptard would believe him.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 8:23 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:
Originally posted:

But right-wingers simply refuse to accept the reality that almost everyone on Medicaid is either a child, a senior, disabled or between jobs. A recent article in the Times by Matt Bruenig had a very illuminating chart:
Quote:
Only 3 percent of Medicaid recipients were non-disabled working-age adults persistently not working — the kind of people right-wingers imagine infest the program. And it’s a good bet that a fair number of these people had extenuating circumstances of some kind.
Sometimes, Libtards inadvertently reveal facts about how incompetent they are at administering government.


This is an interesting chart. It shows those on Medicaid in 2022. No legend on how many are Illegal Alien Invaders that Lord Darth Obiden hoisted onto the Medicaid rolls.

I'm listing the presented figures in case the chart disappears.

The chart does convolute the categories, to try and confuse you.

37% were children
9% were 65 or older
54% were working age.

Out of those 54% working age:
48% worked that year
7% worked the next year
27% were disabled
12% would soon leave Medicaid
6% were not working long term

The 48% that worked that year, times the 54%, equals 26% of the total on Medicaid.


Before Obama, Medicaid was for poor children, seniors, and disabled. Obama added on working people onto an already overburdened system.

The 27% disabled, times 54%, equals about 14.6% of the total. They placed this group separately from children and seniors to confuse you.
So, about 51.6% (37+9+14.6) of the total had been the extent of Medicaid prior to Obama. This had already been a program headed towards insolvency, if not actually there.
You can see that Obama practically doubled the patient load of those on Medicaid.

Just the portion who were working that year accounted for more than 50% piled on top of the 51.6%.
This was what the Democrats did to Medicaid.

So now they need to blame the GoP for trying to fix their mess.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your posts are evil. You are retarded.

Keep crying bitch. You're finished.
6ix, I don't have to have lived around the Confederate slave-owners to know they deserved death for what they were.


They were all Democrats. They all voted Democrat.

And all these years later they are the people telling you that black people are too stupid and/or lazy to get a driver's license that they already need to drive. And those no-good, lazy, stupid black people are the only reason we can't have secure elections in this country.


We're done dude. Nobody wants to hear a fucking word out of any of you anymore.

Go to bluesky and you can all cry together about the death of your party and the fact that nobody listens to any of you anymore.



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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted:

But right-wingers simply refuse to accept the reality that almost everyone on Medicaid is either a child, a senior, disabled or between jobs. A recent article in the Times by Matt Bruenig had a very illuminating chart:
Quote:
Only 3 percent of Medicaid recipients were non-disabled working-age adults persistently not working — the kind of people right-wingers imagine infest the program. And it’s a good bet that a fair number of these people had extenuating circumstances of some kind.
Sometimes, Libtards inadvertently reveal facts about how incompetent they are at administering government.


This is an interesting chart. It shows those on Medicaid in 2022. No legend on how many are Illegal Alien Invaders that Lord Darth Obiden hoisted onto the Medicaid rolls.

I'm listing the presented figures in case the chart disappears.

The chart does convolute the categories, to try and confuse you.

37% were children
9% were 65 or older
54% were working age.

Out of those 54% working age:
48% worked that year
7% worked the next year
27% were disabled
12% would soon leave Medicaid
6% were not working long term

The 48% that worked that year, times the 54%, equals 26% of the total on Medicaid.


Before Obama, Medicaid was for poor children, seniors, and disabled. Obama added on working people onto an already overburdened system.

The 27% disabled, times 54%, equals about 14.6% of the total. They placed this group separately from children and seniors to confuse you.
So, about 51.6% (37+9+14.6) of the total had been the extent of Medicaid prior to Obama. This had already been a program headed towards insolvency, if not actually there.
You can see that Obama practically doubled the patient load of those on Medicaid.

Just the portion who were working that year accounted for more than 50% piled on top of the 51.6%.
This was what the Democrats did to Medicaid.

So now they need to blame the GoP for trying to fix their mess.


Without access to their research and taking the time to go over it, I don't put any stock
at all into that graph. It's just a picture. I can slap the name of any institute I want
on any picture in Paint.NET and it would take me 10 seconds to do it.

In other words, anybody who shows me a graph without any data to me is presenting me with
a document that on face value is less convincing than Obama's birth certificate. (Which
I could also easily recreate just because any birth certificate from that era would be
extremely easy to forge).


Besides... Can't get any real numbers unless they distinguish between those who were on
Medicaid before Covid and the tens of millions more who were put on after Covid.

That's the biggest muck up of the data right now. How could you tell how many illegals
are on there when we don't even know in 2025 how many additional people are still on Medicaid
since Covid rules changed everything?


Every state handles it differently and has different timelines for this stuff. Even in
Indiana this far into 2025 I don't believe they've kicked any of the post-Covid additions
off of the plan yet.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:34 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your posts are evil. You are retarded.

Keep crying bitch. You're finished.
6ix, I don't have to have lived around the Confederate slave-owners to know they deserved death for what they were.


They were all Democrats. They all voted Democrat.
The "Democrats" of 1860 are not connected to the Democrats of 2025. The word Democrat gets used all over the world by countries that are messed up by the locals' misunderstanding of the words Democrat and Democracy:

People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
East Timor – Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Korea, North – Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Laos – Lao People's Democratic Republic
Nepal – Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
São Tomé and Príncipe – Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
Sri Lanka – Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

My usual about Trumptards: I have never seen a Trumptard who knew that 1860 and 2025 Democrats are the exact opposite of each other, but that is not surprising because Trumptards can't adapt to the environment they live in, which is why they struggle so hard to prosper and hold their jobs and their families together in America.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:40 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:

Without access to their research and taking the time to go over it, I don't put any stock
at all into that graph. It's just a picture. I can slap the name of any institute I want
on any picture in Paint.NET and it would take me 10 seconds to do it.
I have heard those same words, approximately, from every Trumptard I have known. None of them can do anything in 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, or 10 days because they are dumb as hell and don't know it.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:41 PM

SECOND

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


Is Donald Trump doing the world a favour by isolating the United States?

May 20, 2025 11:48am EDT

By Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)

https://theconversation.com/is-donald-trump-doing-the-world-a-favour-b
y-isolating-the-united-states-252671

Without the co-operation of the allies alienated by Trump, it may be harder for the U.S. to initiate conflict around the world as it often has since the end of the Cold War.

In response to Trump’s tariffs, China, South Korea and Japan have discussed a renewed free-trade arrangement. President Xi Jinping has toured Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia to encourage a common front against American actions. Asian states are wary of China, but they remain committed to global trade. The U.S. may be retreating from globalization, but the rest of the world is not.

America’s loosening grip

Readjusting the world economy away from the U.S. to a more diverse, evenly distributed economic model will be difficult and disruptive.

Nonetheless, loosening the American grip on global power is an essential first step towards achieving a more just and balanced international order.

For putting this process in motion, the world may owe Trump a measure of thanks.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your posts are evil. You are retarded.

Keep crying bitch. You're finished.
6ix, I don't have to have lived around the Confederate slave-owners to know they deserved death for what they were.


They were all Democrats. They all voted Democrat.
The "Democrats" of 1860 are not connected to the Democrats of 2025.


Neither are the Democrats of 1960.

Wake the fuck up already.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 9:51 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Without access to their research and taking the time to go over it, I don't put any stock
at all into that graph. It's just a picture. I can slap the name of any institute I want
on any picture in Paint.NET and it would take me 10 seconds to do it.
I have heard those same words, approximately, from every Trumptard I have known. None of them can do anything in 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, or 10 days because they are dumb as hell and don't know it.


Awwwwwwwww...

Did somebwody get theiw feewings hwrt today?


Stop being a little bitch and I'll stop treating you like one.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 11:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Is Donald Trump doing the world a favour by isolating the United States?

May 20, 2025 11:48am EDT

By Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)

https://theconversation.com/is-donald-trump-doing-the-world-a-favour-b
y-isolating-the-united-states-252671

Without the co-operation of the allies alienated by Trump, it may be harder for the U.S. to initiate conflict around the world as it often has since the end of the Cold War.

In response to Trump’s tariffs, China, South Korea and Japan have discussed a renewed free-trade arrangement. President Xi Jinping has toured Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia to encourage a common front against American actions. Asian states are wary of China, but they remain committed to global trade. The U.S. may be retreating from globalization, but the rest of the world is not.


This is a bullshit attempt at equivalency.

"Globalism" the way we were doing it was just that. One pure global system. Some sort of United Nations lording over all of us like the how the unelected Bureaucrats of the EU dictate to elected foreign leaders what they are to do.

China talking to Korea and Japan is not globalism. That is international communications that could lead to whatever it leads to. This goes on every single day worldwide despite the attempts of the old US guard and the WEF supervillains, let alone despite who's sitting in the oval office.

Globalism is Americans paying 3000 times for the same medication as the people in other countries do.

Fuck your communist utopia. That dream is dead.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 1:51 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


More racism and black fragility out of some black idiot working at Salon who will be unemployed soon...

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/20/the-next-stage-of-our-democracy-crisi
s-competitive-authoritarianism/

Ya see... Black people were sounding the alarm about saving our country but the evil white devil people didn't listen to them and now we're all fucked.



Fuck you, racist cunt.

Why don't you worry about the record amount of black people who voted for Trump over any other Republican in history before you go blaming the white devil for whatever crying and whining you're going to do today.

Awwwwwww poor baby. You know you're never going to get those reparations you don't deserve a penny of and you hate me for it. I can feel that hate.

I feed off of it.

It is delicious.


If you ever want to start something, the White Devil will be sitting right here waiting to finish it.





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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 2:15 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
SECOND

Today, that fat fucking bastard of a President is bringing back The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), "Star Wars," except he is calling it "Golden Dome". Star Wars could not be built when Reagan was President, and it still cannot be built, but stupid Trumptards want it because they are rotten people who fearfully believe in a fantasy defense system. Essentially, Trumptards are cowards who want a Golden Dome to protect them from even thinking about their well-deserved deaths ... from the missiles of their many enemies.



Huh?
So, since ALL Americans are potential targets of foreign missiles, are you saying that all Americans are Trumptards? That all Americans deserve to die?


-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 7:07 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:
Quote:
SECOND

Today, that fat fucking bastard of a President is bringing back The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), "Star Wars," except he is calling it "Golden Dome". Star Wars could not be built when Reagan was President, and it still cannot be built, but stupid Trumptards want it because they are rotten people who fearfully believe in a fantasy defense system. Essentially, Trumptards are cowards who want a Golden Dome to protect them from even thinking about their well-deserved deaths ... from the missiles of their many enemies.



Huh?
So, since ALL Americans are potential targets of foreign missiles, are you saying that all Americans are Trumptards? That all Americans deserve to die?
Trump said it which means the opposite is true: “This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term, so we’ll have it done in about three years,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office.

https://defensescoop.com/2025/05/20/trump-golden-dome-cost-175-billion
-fully-operational-three-years/

Just so you know, Signym, fully operational means the whole system, for the whole country, not just Washington DC, is up and running. I am not a traveler from the future, but that promise is impossible. Trump only made it to get complete support from the fearful Trumptards, scared of everything.

By the way, the cost will be in the $trillions, not $billions. But then the real point of the project is to make venture capitalists wealthier than ever before. The best part is that nobody will know that the system doesn't work until it is too late and the USA is being hit by thousands of nukes simultaneously dropping from the sky. It is the perfect boondoggle: the price is stupendous, the insane customer (that is Trumptards) will pay any price because the customer is terrorized by the thought of death, and the inadequacy of the product can not be detected.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 7:33 AM

SECOND

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


A Liz Truss Moment for America?
Financial indicators are flashing yellow

By Paul Krugman | May 21, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-liz-truss-moment-for-america

Despite hitting a few speed bumps, Congress seems likely to pass Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — legislation that combines big tax cuts for the rich with vicious cuts in social programs — within a few days. This momentous move will take place with almost no public discussion; the final hearing of the House Rules Committee began at 1 AM this morning. That’s right, 1 AM. We’re clearly watching a bum’s rush, an attempt to ram this atrocity through before the public understands what’s happening.

I have already focused on the bill’s cruelty. It’s also deeply irresponsible, undermining America’s hard-won reputation as a country that honors its obligations. The cuts to Medicaid and food stamps won’t come close to offsetting the revenue loss from the tax cuts for the rich. Neither will revenue from tariffs. And can we all now acknowledge that DOGE’s promise to eliminate hundreds of billions in “waste, fraud and abuse” hasn’t just failed? It has ended up being a complete waste of time, which it has tried to conceal with fraudulent claims of achievement, all while abusing dedicated civil servants and driving them out of government in ways that will impoverish America in the long run — and maybe not that long. We’re a world leader in education, science and technology that is systematically destroying the very basis of our success.

So we’re looking at a large increase in an already high budget deficit when we’re already at full employment, interest rates are already at multiyear highs, and future growth prospects are declining.

Financial markets normally cut wealthy nations with stable governments a lot of slack, with reason. Rich, well governed countries have immense ability to raise revenues if needed, especially if, like the United States, you collect a smaller percentage of GDP in taxes than almost any other advanced economy:

Source: OECD

In other words, until now markets have believed that the U.S. has the resources to deal with its deficit whenever it musters the political will. And bond buyers have been willing to assume that we are a serious country that will eventually get its fiscal house in order.

But markets’ patience with American dysfunction isn’t unlimited. Consider how quickly things went wrong for the UK. In 2022 Liz Truss, Britain’s Prime Minister, announced a “mini-budget” that involved cutting taxes and blowing up the budget deficit. Markets freaked out: long-term interest rates soared and the pound plunged. The tabloid The Daily Star famously set up a webcam showing a photo of Truss next to a head of iceberg lettuce wearing a wig, and asked which would last longer.

The lettuce won, because Britain’s parliamentary system allowed it to get rid of a disastrous leader. We, unfortunately, can’t.

So are we facing a Liz Truss moment in America? Long-term interest rates are close to their highest level in many years:


The dollar, which rose after Trump’s election, has now fallen sharply:

Source: xe.com

These market movements, especially in combination, are disturbing and at least hints that something like a Truss moment may be looming. We saw a whiff of that after Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs; what happens when markets realize that the budget is, in its own way, just as bad?

First, interest rates: deficit spending often does drive long-term interest rates up. But normally that’s because investors expect the spending to cause an inflationary boom, which the Federal Reserve will try to contain by raising short-term rates. That’s what happened when Ronald Reagan cut taxes while increasing military spending. Here’s an estimate of the real interest rate on 10-year bonds, where the real rate is the nominal rate minus expected inflation, which I proxy with actual core inflation over the previous year:

This time around most people expect the Fed to cut rather than raise short-term rates, because uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policies seems certain to cause an economic slowdown and possibly a recession. So why are long-term rates up?

Furthermore, a rise in U.S. interest rates normally causes the dollar to rise, as it did in the Reagan years. After all, higher rates should make investing in America more attractive, pulling in foreign capital and pushing the dollar up. But this time the dollar has been heading down.

So what’s going on? The Truss moment in Britain was partly caused by technical issues involving pension funds. But we may be facing technical issues of our own, especially involving hedge funds. In a larger sense Britain’s crisis was driven by a loss of credibility. Truss clearly believed in American-style voodoo economics, the belief that tax cuts have magical powers. Investors didn’t share that belief, so they effectively voted for the lettuce.

Unlike retail investors who are often driven by vibes, investment pros have clear doubts about Donald Trump’s credibility. The price of US credit default swaps — which are supposed to protect investors if America fails to honor its debt, and are an indicator of market pros’ sentiment — has surged:

Source: Worldgovernmentbonds.com

These market moves in bonds and swaps show that the Trump administration is losing credibility, just as the Truss government did. Professional investors are ceasing to treat us as a serious country.

Instead, they’re starting to treat us like an emerging market, where budget deficits are a sign that things are spinning out of control. This irresponsible bill is already being seen as a signal to sell America, leading to higher interest rates, increasing odds of a recession, and a weaker dollar. And the example of Britain shows that things could spiral out of control faster than almost anyone imagines.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 7:49 AM

SECOND

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


Trump Says Birthright Citizenship Is Only 'About the Babies of Slaves.' Historical Evidence Says Otherwise.

The 1866 debate over birthright citizenship included a debate over immigration.

By Damon Root | 5.20.2025 11:38 AM

https://reason.com/2025/05/20/trump-says-birthright-citizenship-is-onl
y-about-the-babies-of-slaves-historical-evidence-says-otherwise/

Trump may think that birthright citizenship is only "about the babies of slaves." But as these statements from the 1866 debates make clear, the historical evidence proves him wrong.

Congressional debate shows that it was understood that birthright citizenship would apply to the U.S.-born children of unpopular immigrants.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 2:01 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump Says Birthright Citizenship Is Only 'About the Babies of Slaves.' Historical Evidence Says Otherwise.

The 1866 debate over birthright citizenship included a debate over immigration.

By Damon Root | 5.20.2025 11:38 AM

https://reason.com/2025/05/20/trump-says-birthright-citizenship-is-onl
y-about-the-babies-of-slaves-historical-evidence-says-otherwise/

Trump may think that birthright citizenship is only "about the babies of slaves." But as these statements from the 1866 debates make clear, the historical evidence proves him wrong.

Congressional debate shows that it was understood that birthright citizenship would apply to the U.S.-born children of unpopular immigrants.

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



We're kicking every last one of them out, America-hater.

At least your Liberal shit magazines are admitting that the "immigrants" are "unpopular" in 2025.

They are invaders. None of them belong here. They will all be removed.

Every last one of them and their kids.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 2:04 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly dies at 75

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gerry-connolly-dead-age-75-virginia-democ
rat/

Another dead Democrat. 3 of them, actually.

Quote:
Connolly is the third House Democrat to die this year. Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas died on March 4, and Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona died on March 13.


I think we can stick a fork in Second's prediction that Democrats never get sick and die because they vote Democrat.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 2:05 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


dbl

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 4:08 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:

I think we can stick a fork in Second's prediction that Democrats never get sick and die because they vote Democrat.
My prediction was that stupid assholes die early. My observation was that all Trumptards I know are stupid assholes of a special class, the semi-humans who can't adapt to America as it is. I have not known all Trumptards, but of the thousands I have known, all were stupid assholes who were convinced they are smart, competent, and sane, but they aren't.

The thing that stupid asshole 6ix gets wrong over and over is the erroneous notion that I am claiming only Trumptards are assholes. Some people are sickly and assholes and die early, but they are not Trumptards. For example, the entertainment industry is full of assholes, many of them overdosing or alcoholic or criminally careless about their health, but very few are Trumptards.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 4:08 PM

SECOND

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


These Law Firms Should Sue Trump for Racketeering From the Oval Office

By Jonathan Zasloff | May 21, 2025 3:21 PM

Jonathan Zasloff is professor of law at the UCLA School of Law

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/05/sue-trump-oval-office-rack
eteering.html

Donald Trump has never been exactly shy about his criminal behavior, but now he has taken to proudly proclaiming it. In his recent Time magazine interview, the president basically confessed to extortion:

You’ve used threats and lawsuits, other forms of coercion—

Well, I’ve gotta be doing something right, because I’ve had a lot of law firms give me a lot of money.

Now, extortion is a crime. But who cares, right? Trump isn’t going to prosecute himself. The good news is, he doesn’t have to. Holding him legally accountable doesn’t require prosecution. Trump’s actions open up him and his aides to a powerful form of civil liability that will make clear that they are, in fact, criminals: civil RICO.

Enacted by Congress in 1970 to attack organized crime, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act makes it ‘‘unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise … to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity.”

That sounds intricate, and it is: RICO is a complex statute. But it’s a powerful one. Courts have described civil RICO as “an unusually potent weapon—the litigation equivalent of a thermonuclear device,” because it stigmatizes the defendant as a racketeer, opens them up to treble damages, and allows for vast discovery of their criminal network. And here, it suits precisely what Trump is doing. Let’s look at two critical provisions:

What is an “enterprise,” for the purposes of the statute? RICO defines it as “any individual, partnership, corporation, association or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.” What would that be here? Well, it would be Trump and his aides (and potentially Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials), who have planned and executed his program of extortion and solicitation of bribery. That could be an “association in fact.”

What is “a pattern of racketeering activity,” per the statute? Simply put, it is two or more commissions of “predicate acts,” which are crimes listed in the statute. Trump’s actions fit snugly within these acts. Consider:

Extortion. As I have argued in these pages, Trump has committed state-law extortion felonies through his threats against and coercion of law firms, as well as universities. RICO includes these crimes as predicate acts.

Bribery and its solicitation. Bribery might be the central operating principle of Trump’s second term, from domestic and foreign sources alike. The marketing of a personal meme coin, and the granting of an audience to a select group of the highest contributors, is essentially a way of funneling money directly to the Trump family and to the president himself—as if the buying up of suites at the Trump Hotel, or the paying of millions of dollars to sit near him at Mar-a-Lago, had not already done so. Not to mention a $400 million plane from Qatar.

Obstruction of justice. 18 USC Section 1503 makes it a felony to endeavor to “influence, intimidate, or impede” any officer of the court (this includes judges) and contains an omnibus clause criminalizing the obstruction of the “due administration of justice.” Here, the endeavors are public. Despite the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, the administration has declared that he is never coming home. Stephen Miller has recently threatened to (illegally) suspend habeas corpus unless judges “do the right thing,” and Trump himself has threatened judges with impeachment.

For most of these charges, we obviously lack all the precise details. In the bribery charge, for example, we do not know the exact understandings between Trump and those who just so happen to be lavishing him and his family with expensive gifts and sweetheart development deals. But that is what a lawsuit is for. It will permit discovery of key documents and the ability to depose the key players (who could be subject to perjury charges if they lie).

Federal courts have shown hostility to civil RICO claims, and it is not hard to see why. One predicate crime is “fraud,” and that has deluged courts with civil lawsuits alleging fraud in securities sales and marketing, which for the most part is far from what the statute contemplates. As one court remarked, “Plaintiffs wielding RICO almost always miss the mark.” Another court complained, ‘‘Plaintiffs have often been overzealous in pursuing RICO claims, flooding federal courts by dressing up run-of-the-mill fraud claims as RICO violations.’’

A case against Trump and his associates, however, carries none of these problems. Their actions represent classic examples of organized crime activity: bribery, extortion, and obstruction of justice (although discovery might also look into the possibility of purposeful stock manipulation through constant changes in tariffs, as well as money laundering from Russian sources). And it would fit snugly within the traditional contours of the law. Under RICO, federal prosecution has frequently targeted public officials who use their office for personal gain, including governors, members of Congress, mayors, and state legislators throughout the country.

However, like any recent legal attempt to create some accountability for Donald Trump, this would be no slam dunk.

Critically, in 1981 the Supreme Court immunized presidents from civil damages for actions taken in office within the “outer bounds” of presidential authority. What is that outer bound? We don’t know. But we do know that E. Jean Carroll successfully sued Trump for defamation when, as president, he denied her allegations that he had sexually assaulted her, and that was conceivably good enough to beat civil immunity.

More importantly, while SCOTUS immunized presidents against civil damages, it allowed suits for declaratory and injunctive relief. So even if precedent applies, the case should go forward.

And very significantly, even if the president is fully immunized against damages, his associates are not. Attorney General Pam Bondi just opined that Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million 747 from Qatar was perfectly legal: She has thus made herself part of Trump’s bribery scheme. If staffers are found liable, they could be on the hook for treble damages and attorneys fees. And that could make them vulnerable to settling and testifying.

There are two other significant questions about any such lawsuit:

Who is the plaintiff? Trump’s racketeering is so broad that various aspects might appear to have little to do with one another; threatening law firms with extinction does not necessarily connect with threatening judges. But they are linked: His intimidation of and threats against judges make it more likely that they will rule against targeted law firms and thus assist his extortion. Trump’s bribery scheme assists some firms by funneling work to them while blocking others. So Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale all could be plaintiffs in all three areas. Similarly, Harvard University is hurt by Trump’s extortion and his threats against judges.

Doesn’t Trump always seem to beat these raps? Trump has indeed shown himself to be the Teflon Don. Things that would have obliterated other figures slide off him: A New York court ruled that he raped Carroll, and the story lasted less than a day in the news.

But accepting that is a recipe for passivity. According to that line of thinking, no one should protest, no one should bother to vote, no one should contribute money to campaigns or pro-democracy organizations. If there were a silver bullet, someone would have found it already.

Conservatives have learned this lesson well: continue relentless pressure even if it does not always succeed. America’s new authoritarianism did not spring from nowhere; it comes from a decadeslong movement conservatism campaign to subvert democracy, one that used implacable attacks on a variety of fronts even in the face of crushing electoral defeats. Pro-democracy forces would do well to learn such a lesson and not negotiate against themselves. A civil RICO case against the racketeer in chief should be part of any effort to save this country from Trump’s dictatorial aspirations, which are coming closer to reality every day.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 4:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I think we can stick a fork in Second's prediction that Democrats never get sick and die because they vote Democrat.
My prediction was that stupid assholes die early.


No. That wasn't your prediction.

Everybody remembers what you've said about Democrats because you've said it hundreds of times over the years. Fast-Forward to 2025 and here we are watching all of them die off along with your dead party.

Awwwwwww



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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 4:15 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
These Law Firms Should Sue Trump for Racketeering From the Oval Office


Do it bitch.

Just more cases for Trump to win at this point.

You're fucked. Your party is dead, the media is abandoning you and you have nothing but the scorn of American Citizens all pointing at you and your kind.

You should pack your bags and leave my country.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 8:11 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Your posts are evil. You are retarded.

Keep crying bitch. You're finished.
6ix, I don't have to have lived around the Confederate slave-owners to know they deserved death for what they were.
They were all Democrats. They all voted Democrat.
The "Democrats" of 1860 are not connected to the Democrats of 2025.
Neither are the Democrats of 1960.

Wake the fuck up already.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
The Republican Party was founded on the principles of Abolishing Slavery. The fervent opponents of such concepts were The Democrat party.
Since then, the Republican Party has fought for, and won, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Voting Rights of former Slaves, the Full Voting Rights of Slaves, the Voting Rights of Women, the Freedoms of All American Citizens, the Civil Rights of All American Citizens, The Freedoms of Speech in media communications and Internet, etc.
The Democrats have always fervently and feverishly fought against these Rights, Liberties, Freedoms, and they always will.

The Democrats are the same as when the GoP was founded. Just because you might not recognize the truth and fact does not make it absent.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 8:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK



NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 8:16 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Democrats can't build anything, and most of them are too stupid to operate and maintain what was already built for them.

The Democratic Party has done to America what the blacks in South Africa have done to themselves.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 7:43 AM

SECOND

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


Gaming Out a Sudden Stop

By Paul Krugman / May 22, 2025 at 5:42 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/gaming-out-a-sudden-stop

I used to be an economics ambulance-chaser — someone who raced around the world to wherever there was an interesting economic calamity. And this international experience probably made me more sensitive than most economists to the way economies that seem to be doing OK can suddenly fall off a cliff into economic crisis.

In 2008, of course, America had a financial crisis of its own — and it was a nightmare. But it was very different from the emerging-market crises I used to spend so much time on. And right now I’m worried that the U.S. might be facing an emerging-market-type crisis: A “sudden stop,” an abrupt cutoff of inflows of foreign capital. If we have a crisis like that it could, in particular, cause a severe housing crash.

I wrote a month ago about the possibility of a sudden stop for the United States. Despite growing pressure on both U.S. interest rates and the dollar, we aren’t there yet. I was, however, a disciple of the late, great Rudiger Dornbusch, whose students often quote Dornbusch’s Law:

The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.

So a U.S. sudden stop still looks quite possible, indeed considerably more likely given the grotesquely cruel and irresponsible budget bill Republicans are trying to ram through. It doesn’t help that key players are being utterly dishonest about what they’re doing: House Republicans have been denying that the bill will increase the budget deficit, while Trump claims that “We’re not touching anything” on Medicaid, just eliminating waste, fraud and abuse (and somehow taking away health care for millions in the process.) Low-information voters may be fooled for a little while, but bond markets won’t.

But while I’ve already written about the possibility of a sudden stop, I haven’t said much about what such a stop, if it happens, would look like. So let’s game it out.

More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/gaming-out-a-sudden-stop

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 8:52 AM

SECOND

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


Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.

What wouldn’t Jesus do?

May 22, 2025, 7:00 AM CDT

It’s a provocative idea: that empathy — that is, putting yourself in another person’s proverbial shoes, and feeling what they feel — is a sin.

The Bible contains repeated invocations from Jesus to show deep empathy and compassion for others, including complete strangers. He’s very clear on this point. Moreover, Christianity is built around a fundamental act of empathy so radical — Jesus dying for our sins — that it’s difficult to spin as harmful.

Yet as stunning as it may sound, “empathy is a sin” is a claim that’s been growing in recent years across the Christian right. It was first articulated six years ago by controversial pastor and theologian Joe Rigney, now author of the recently published book, The Sin of Empathy, which has drawn plenty of debate among religious commentators.

In this construction, empathy is a cudgel that progressives and liberals use to berate and/or guilt-trip Christians into showing empathy to the “wrong” people.

Had it stayed within the realm of far-right evangelicals, we likely wouldn’t be discussing this strange view of empathy at all. Yet we are living in an age when the Christian right has gained unprecedented power, both sociocultural and political. The increasing overlap between conservative culture and right-leaning tech spaces means that many disparate public figures are all drinking from the same well of ideas — and so a broader, secular version of the belief that empathy is a tool of manipulation has bubbled into the mainstream through influential figures like Elon Musk.

What “empathy is a sin” actually means

The proposition that too much empathy is a bad thing is far from an idea that belongs to the right. On Reddit, which tends to be relatively left-wing, one popular mantra is that you can’t set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm. That is, too much empathy for someone else can erode your own sense of self, leaving you codependent or open to emotional abuse and manipulation.

That’s a pretty standard part of most relationship and self-help advice — even from some Christian advice authors. But in recent months, the idea that empathy is inherently destructive has not only become a major source of debate among Christians, it’s escaped containment and barreled into the mainstream by way of major media outlets, political figures, and influencers.

The conversation began with an incendiary 2019 essay by Rigney, then a longtime teacher and pastor at a Baptist seminary, in which he introduced “the enticing sin of empathy” and argued that Satan manipulates people through the intense cultural pressure to feel others’ pain and suffering.

Rigney’s ideas were met with ideological pushback, with one Christian blogger saying it “may be the most unwise piece of pastoral theology I’ve seen in my lifetime.” As his essay incited national debate, Rigney himself grew more controversial, facing allegations of dismissing women and telling one now-former Black congregant at his Minneapolis church that “it wouldn’t be sinful for him to own me & my family today.” (In an email to Vox, Rigney denied the congregant’s version of events.) Rigney also has a longtime affiliation with Doug Wilson, the leader of the Reformed Christian Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

In practice, what Rigney is typically decrying is any empathy for a liberal perspective or for someone who’s part of a marginalized community.

Now well-known for spreading Christian nationalism, and for allegedly fostering a culture of abuse (allegations he has denied), Wilson’s infamy also comes from his co-authored 1996 essay “Southern Slavery: As It Was,” in which he claimed that “Slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.” (“My defense of the South does not make me a racist,” Wilson said in 2003.) Rigney appeared on Wilson’s 2019 podcast series Man Rampant to discuss empathy; their conversation quickly devolved into decrying fake rape allegations and musing that victims of police violence might have “deserved to be shot.”

In an email, Rigney told me that both he and Wilson developed their similar views on empathy from the therapist and Rabbi Edwin Friedman, whose posthumously published 1999 book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, has influenced not only family therapy but conservative church leadership and thought. In the book, Friedman argues that American society has devalued the self, leading to an emotional regression and a “low pain threshold.” Alongside this he compares “political correctness” to the Inquisition, and frames a “chronically anxious America” as one that is “organize[d] around its most dysfunctional elements,” in which leaders have difficulty making tough decisions. This correlation of emotional weakness with societal excess paved the way for Rigney to frame empathy itself as a dangerous weapon.

Despite using the incendiary generalization, “empathy is sin,” Rigney told me that it is not all empathy that is sinful, but specifically “untethered empathy.” He describes this as “empathy that is detached or unmoored from reality, from what is good and right.” (An explanation that begs definitions for “reality,” “good,” and “right.”)

“Just as ‘the sin of anger’ refers to unrighteous or ungoverned anger, so the sin of empathy refers to ungoverned, excessive, and untethered empathy,” Rigney told me. This kind of unrestrained empathy, he writes, is a recipe for cultural mayhem.

In theory, Rigney argues that one should be “tethered” to God’s will and not to Satan. In practice, what Rigney is typically decrying is any empathy for a liberal perspective or for someone who’s part of a marginalized community. When I asked him for a general reconciliation of his views with the Golden Rule, he sent me a response in which he brought up trans identity in order to label it a “fantasy” that contradicts “God-given biological reality,” while misgendering a hypothetical trans person.

The demonization of empathy moves into the mainstream

Despite receiving firm pushback from most religious leaders (and indeed most people) who hear about it, Rigney’s argument has been spreading through the Christian right at large. Last year, conservative personality and author Allie Stuckey published Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, in which she argues that “toxic empathy is a dangerous guide for our decisions, behavior, and public policy” while condemning queer people and feminists. “Empathy almost needs to be struck from the Christian vocabulary,” Josh McPherson, host of the Christian-centered Stronger Man Nation podcast and an adherent of Wilson and Rigney’s ideas, said in January, in a clip that garnered an outsize amount of attention relative to the podcast episode itself.

That same month, Vice President JD Vance struck a nerve with a controversial appearance on Fox News in which he seemed to reference both the empathy conversation and the archaic Catholic concept of “ordo amoris,” meaning “the order of love.” As Vance put it, it’s the idea that one’s family should come before anyone else: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” he said. “And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” In a follow-up on X, he posted, “the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”

Vance’s statements received backlash from many people, including both the late Pope Francis and then-future Pope Leo XIV — but the controversy just drove the idea further into the mainstream. As part of the odd crossover between far-right religion and online reactionaries, it picked up surprising alliances along the way, including evolutionary biologist turned far-right gadfly Gad Saad. In January, Saad, applying a survival-of-the-fittest approach to our emotions, argued against “suicidal empathy,” which he described as “the inability to implement optimal decisions when our emotional system is tricked into an orgiastic hyperactive form of empathy, deployed on the wrong targets.” (Who are the wrong targets according to Saad? Trans women and immigrants.)

In a February appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk explicitly referenced Saad but went even further, stating, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy — the empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization” — the “they” here being the left wing. “I think empathy is good,” Musk added, “but you need to think it through, and not just be programmed like a robot.”

By March, mainstream media had noticed the conversation. David French had observed the “strange spectacle” of the Christian turn against empathy in a column for the New York Times. In April, a deep-dive in the Guardian followed. That same month, a broad-ranging conversation in the New Yorker with Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, led to interviewer Isaac Chotiner pressing him about why empathy is bad. The discussion, of deported Venezuelan immigrants wrongfully suspected of having gang tattoos, led to Mohler saying that “there’s no reason anyone other than a gang member should have that tattoo.” (Among the tattoos wrongly flagged as gang symbols were the words “Mom” and “Dad” on the wrists of one detainee.)

The pro-empathy backlash is fierce

The connective tissue across all these disparate anti-empathy voices is two-fold, according to Christian scholar Karen Swallow Prior. Prior, an anti-abortion ethicist and former longtime Liberty University professor, singled out the argument’s outsize emphasis on attacking very small, very vulnerable groups — as well as the moment in which it’s all happening.

“The entire discourse around empathy is backlash against those who are questioning the authority of those in power,” she told me, “not coincidentally emerging in a period where we have a rise in recognition of overly controlling and narcissistic leaders, both in and outside the church.” Those people “understand and appreciate empathy the least.”

“Trump made it okay to not be okay with culture,” Peter Bell told me. “He made it kind of cool for Christians to be jerks,” Bell said. “He made the unspoken things spoken, the whispered things shouted out loud.”

Prior believes that the argument won’t have a long shelf life because Rigney’s idea is so convoluted. Yet she added that it’s born out of toxic masculinity, in an age where stoicism, traditionally male-coded, is increasingly part of the regular cultural diet of men via figures like Jordan Peterson. That hypermasculinity goes hand in hand with evangelical culture, and with the ideas Rigney borrowed from Friedman about too many emotions being a weakness. In this framing, emotion becomes non-masculine by default — i.e., feminine.

“Everybody’s supposed to have sympathy for the white male, but when you show empathy to anyone else, suddenly empathy is a sin.”
— Karen Swallow Prior, Christian scholar

That leads us to the grimmest part of Rigney’s “untethered empathy” claims: the way he explicitly genders it — and demonizes it — as feminine. Throughout his book, he argues that women are more empathetic than men, and that as a result, they are more prone to giving into it as a sin. It’s an inherently misogynistic view that undermines women’s decision-making and leadership abilities.

Though Rigney pushed back against this characterization in an email to me, arguing that critics have distorted what he views as merely “gendered tendencies and susceptibility to particular temptations,” he also couldn’t help reinforcing it. “[F]emale tendencies, like male tendencies, have particular dangers, temptations, and weaknesses,” he wrote. Women thus should recognize this and “take deliberate, Spirit-wrought action to resist the impulse to become a devouring HR department that wants to run the world.”

As Prior explains, though, Rigney’s just fine with a mythic national human resources department, as long as it supports the status quo. “Everybody’s supposed to have sympathy for the white male,” she said, “but when you show empathy to anyone else, suddenly empathy is a sin.”

What’s heartening is that, whether they realize what kind of dangerous extremism undergirds it, most people aren’t buying Rigney’s “empathy is sin” claim. Across the nation, in response to Rigney’s assertion, the catchphrase, “If empathy is a sin, then sin boldly” has arisen, as heard in pulpits, seen on church marquees, and worn on T-shirts — a reminder that it takes much more than the semantic whims of a few extremists to shake something most people hold in their hearts.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 1:43 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.

What wouldn’t Jesus do?


Where's your empty for white South African farmers who were getting murdered by Mandela's black government for the last 10 years.

Go fuck yourself.

We have zero fucks to give for people who don't deserve any.

Your party is dead. The Media is dead. Empathy is dead.

You milked that empathy bone for every last drop years ago.

Suffer the consequences.


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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 5:08 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.

What wouldn’t Jesus do?


Where's your empty for white South African farmers who were getting murdered by Mandela's black government for the last 10 years.

Go fuck yourself.

We have zero fucks to give for people who don't deserve any.

Your party is dead. The Media is dead. Empathy is dead.

You milked that empathy bone for every last drop years ago.

Suffer the consequences.


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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Don't ever change, 6ixStringJack.

Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa

(Conclusion: Trump and Musk are lying sacks of shit)

Politics Updated on May 21, 2025 5:19 PM EDT — Published on May 21, 2025 2:51 PM EDT

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-claims-of-w
hite-farmer-genocide-in-south-africa



President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing him of not protecting white farmers from violence, while playing misleading videos that back up controversial and unfounded claims of white genocide in the country.

After a reporter asked Trump what it would take for him to be convinced that there is no white genocide in South Africa, Ramaphosa said it would take Trump “listening to the voices of South Africans” and reiterated that the claim isn’t true. He said white members of his administration would not have accompanied him to the Oval Office on Wednesday if there were a genocide.

Trump then asked his staff to “turn the lights down,” and play a video showing South African activists and protestors chanting about killing farmers as well as an aerial clip of what he said were large burial sites.

Ramaphosa responded that the clips were of small minority parties, not official government policy, and said South Africa is a “multi-party democracy… that allows people to express themselves.”

“There is criminality in our country,” he said. “People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are Black people.”

In recent days, the Trump administration has made a display of accepting Afrikaners, primarily white South African farmers, who feel they are being persecuted because of their race. White South Africans own three-quarters of privately held land in the country, and control about 60 percent of top corporate management jobs, despite comprising only 7 percent of the population.

Afrikaners are the descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers who colonized South Africa centuries ago. They were the architects of apartheid, the racist system of government that prioritized the country’s white minority which officially ended 30 years ago.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 5:08 PM

SECOND

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


The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History

House Republicans voted to advance a bill that would offer lavish tax cuts for the rich while slashing benefits for the poor.

By Jonathan Chait | May 22, 2025, 9:21 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/big-beautiful-transf
er-of-wealth/682885/

House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.

That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The “big, beautiful bill” would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, warned that the bill’s passage, by a 215–214 margin, would mark the moment the Republicans ensured the loss of their majority in the midterm elections. That may be so. But the Republicans have not pursued this bill for political reasons. They are employing a majority that they suspect is temporary to enact deep changes to the social compact.

The minority party always complains that the majority is “jamming through” major legislation, however deliberate the process may be. (During the year-long debate over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans farcically bemoaned the “rushed” process that consumed months of public hearings.) In this case, however, the indictment is undeniable. The House cemented the bill’s majority support with a series of last-minute changes whose effects have not been digested. The Congressional Budget Office has not even had time to calculate how many millions of Americans would lose health insurance, nor by how many trillions of dollars the deficit would increase.

The heedlessness of the process is an indication of its underlying fanaticism. The members of the Republican majority are behaving not like traditional conservatives but like revolutionaries who, having seized power, believe they must smash up the old order as quickly as possible before the country recognizes what is happening.

House Republicans are fully aware of the political and economic risks of this endeavor. Cutting taxes for the affluent is unpopular, and cutting Medicaid is even more so. That is why, instead of proudly proclaiming what the bill will accomplish, they are pretending it will do neither. House Republicans spent months warning of the political dangers of cutting Medicaid, a program that many of their own constituents rely on. The party’s response is to fall back on wordplay, pretending that their scheme of imposing complex work requirements, which are designed to cull eligible recipients who cannot navigate the paperwork burden, will not throw people off the program—when that is precisely the effect they are counting on to produce the necessary savings.

The less predictable dangers of their plan are macroeconomic. The bill spikes the deficit, largely because it devotes more money to lining the pockets of lawyers and CEOs than it saves by immiserating fast-food employees and ride-share drivers. Massive deficit spending is not always bad, and in some circumstances (emergencies, or recessions) it can be smart and responsible. In the middle of an economic expansion, with a large structural deficit already built into the budget, it is deeply irresponsible.

In recent years, deficit spending has been a political free ride. With interest rates high and rising, the situation has changed. Higher deficits oblige Washington to borrow more money, which can force it to pay investors higher interest rates to take on its debt, which in turn increases the deficit even more, as interest payments (now approaching $1 trillion a year) swell. The market could absorb a new equilibrium with a higher deficit, but that resolution is hardly assured. The compounding effect of higher debt leading to higher interest rates leading to higher debt can spin out of control.

House Republicans have made clear they are aware of both the political and the economic dangers of their plan, because in the recent past, they have repeatedly warned about both. Their willingness to take them on is a measure of their profound commitment.

And while the content of their beliefs can be questioned, the seriousness of their purpose cannot. Congressional Republicans are willing to endanger their hold on power to enact policy changes they believe in. And what they believe—what has been the party’s core moral foundation for decades—is that the government takes too much from the rich, and gives too much to the poor.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 5:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.

What wouldn’t Jesus do?


Where's your empty for white South African farmers who were getting murdered by Mandela's black government for the last 10 years.

Go fuck yourself.

We have zero fucks to give for people who don't deserve any.

Your party is dead. The Media is dead. Empathy is dead.

You milked that empathy bone for every last drop years ago.

Suffer the consequences.


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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Don't ever change, 6ixStringJack.

Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa

(Conclusion: Trump and Musk are lying sacks of shit)


Says lying, American-hating, USAid funded PBS with a grotch against Trump because he took away their federal funding.

Your liars haven't fact checked shit. Ever.


Your media is dead. Your party is dead. You are worthless. You are nothing.

Leave my country.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 9:12 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:

Says lying, American-hating, USAid funded PBS with a grotch against Trump because he took away their federal funding.

Your liars haven't fact checked shit. Ever.


Your media is dead. Your party is dead. You are worthless. You are nothing.

Leave my country.
Trumptards don't have a country because Semi-humans cannot be citizens. But neither can dogs or cats be citizens, just so you know. Trumptards are lumped into the classification "Pets" and are lucky to be tolerated, but if they get to be a problem for real people, animal control officers will take them away, maybe euthanize them if nobody can tolerate the howling, barking, scratching, and marking of territory with urine.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 9:12 PM

SECOND

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


Air traffic chaos rooted in 'terrible idea' from Trump's first term: report

By Travis Gettys | May 22, 2025 9:39AM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/newark-air-traffic-chaos-terrible/

Aviation insiders blame the recent chaos in the skies on a policy rooted in the first Trump administration.

Air traffic controllers have repeatedly lost contact over the past month with commercial flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, as recently as Monday, and experts told CNN the roots of the issue was transferring control over the airport to a facility more than 100 miles away in Philadelphia connected by outdated equipment.

“The problem isn’t just aging equipment, the problem is the set up at this facility,” said one former air traffic controller familiar with the region. “Commercial telecommunications lines were never built for mission critical data like this, including radar data.”

Documents obtained by CNN, in addition to interviews with air traffic controllers, show that rank-and-file union members opposed moving operations to Philadelphia from Newark, which had been plagued by staffing shortages for decades.

“They’ve (FAA) tried many things over the last 30 years to try to improve the staffing and none of them had actually worked," said David Grizzle, who had been head of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization during the Obama administration.

The move originated within the ATO with the thought that moving air traffic controllers to a city with a lower cost of living than the New York City area would make it easier to hire air traffic controllers, and the FAA signed off on the plan during the first Trump administration with an expected completion date in early 2022.

"In September 2020, the Trump FAA justified its plan, arguing that 'despite efforts' the agency was still struggling to hire air traffic controllers and that controller levels are 'projected to decline,' according to a separate FAA internal document obtained by CNN," the network reported. "Less than a month before the 2020 election, on October 5, 2020, the FAA in collaboration with NATCA drew up initial engineering plans for the move to Philadelphia, according to the documents."

The air traffic controllers union and the FAA reached a memorandum of understanding about two weeks after president Joe Biden was inaugurated to move control of Newark's airspace to Philadelphia, but a former FAA official said most of the planning for that would have been completed long before that agreement was signed.

“They go through the process and almost brainstorm the bad things that would happen and what can be done to mitigate that,” the former FAA official said. “You don’t sign a memorandum of understanding and then begin studying something.”

However, rank-and-file union members opposed the move, according to multiple air traffic controllers.

“It was a terrible idea, people on the ground knew it was bad,” said one recently retired controller.

The FAA solicited volunteers to move to Philadelphia in February 2021, and kept asking through mid-2022, but there weren't many takers, and the agency started mandating moves in January 2023.

"One month before the FAA moved control of Newark’s airspace from New York to Philadelphia, the air traffic controllers’ union raised serious safety concerns about the feasibility of the plan," CNN reported. "According to internal union PowerPoint documents dated June 2024, that were reviewed by CNN, the union argued that moving controllers to Philadelphia would only make things worse by increasing 'coordination times resulting in delays and jeopardizing safety.'

The plan went live in July 2024, and the FAA's remote feed connected by telecommunications lines was plagued with issues from the start, and communications failed entirely on April 28 when a copper wire burned inside one of those telecom lines.

“Politicizing this only muddies the extent of the problem and the decades-long challenges the FAA has had with air traffic controller staffing issues and antiquated air traffic control equipment,” said Peter Goelz, a CNN aviation analyst and former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 9:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Says lying, American-hating, USAid funded PBS with a grotch against Trump because he took away their federal funding.

Your liars haven't fact checked shit. Ever.


Your media is dead. Your party is dead. You are worthless. You are nothing.

Leave my country.
Trumptards don't have a country because Semi-humans cannot be citizens. But neither can dogs or cats be citizens, just so you know. Trumptards are lumped into the classification "Pets" and are lucky to be tolerated, but if they get to be a problem for real people, animal control officers will take them away, maybe euthanize them if nobody can tolerate the howling, barking, scratching, and marking of territory with urine.


You're a real hoot.

If things ever go south, you'll be among the first to get eaten.

It's no wonder why you're so scared about the world today.



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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 10:07 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Trump amplified false claims that White Afrikaners have been victims of a genocide, even showing video of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers. The mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves.

I have no problem with Trump raising the issue of the attacks on white South African farmers and his condemnation of Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a party that advocates giving White-owned land to Black people. However, to accuse Ramaphosa of allowing genocide is obscene and ridiculous.

Here is what I wish President Ramaphosa had said back to Trump:

Mr. President, your accusation that my government is engaged in genocide is false and libelous. Unlike you, we allow free speech in South Africa, even comments as reprehensible as those made by Mr. Malema. I would remind you that there was a time in the United States that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that neo-Nazis had a constitutional right to march, citing freedom of speech and assembly under the First Amendment—even if the speech was hateful and deeply offensive. As you may recall, this ruling concerned a march in Skokie, Illinois that was led by Frank Collin, the head of the National Socialist Party of America (NSPA)—a neo-Nazi group—in the late 1970s.

I am sad to see that you no longer are a defender of the First Amendment of your Constitution. What I find more troubling is that you apparently value the lives of white South Africans over the lives of the Palestinian people. You have welcomed and embraced Bibi Netanyahu in this very office… a man, who by his own words, advocates the slaughter of the Amaleks, a biblical word he now associates with the Palestinian people. More than 60,000 children, women, men and elderly civilians have been murdered by Israeli forces, at the direction of their government, since October 7, 2023. This is the policy of the Zionist government.

Yet, when you welcomed Bibi Netanyahu into your office, you said nothing. By your silence, you endorsed an actual genocide that is taking place now. Shame on you.

The policy of my government is that no violence against civilians, regardless of the color of their skin, is acceptable. However, I will not sit silently in the face of your unfounded accusations that I tolerate or endorse genocide in South Africa. You, as head of the United States, have no moral authority to lecture us. Your government has killed millions of civilians in Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Your own government is still supplying weapons to Ukraine that are being used to kill civilians in Russia. I will remind you of the words spoken by Jesus: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.“

Sadly, Ramaphosa let Trump get away with this stunt.


https://sonar21.com/what-president-ramaphosa-should-have-said-to-donal
d-trump/

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, May 22, 2025 10:10 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Says lying, American-hating, USAid funded PBS with a grotch against Trump because he took away their federal funding.

Your liars haven't fact checked shit. Ever.


Your media is dead. Your party is dead. You are worthless. You are nothing.

Leave my country.
Trumptards don't have a country because Semi-humans cannot be citizens. But neither can dogs or cats be citizens, just so you know. Trumptards are lumped into the classification "Pets" and are lucky to be tolerated, but if they get to be a problem for real people, animal control officers will take them away, maybe euthanize them if nobody can tolerate the howling, barking, scratching, and marking of territory with urine.


You're a real hoot.

If things ever go south, you'll be among the first to get eaten.

It's no wonder why you're so scared about the world today.



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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
I think you're right SIX. I think SECOND is basically a coward.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 2:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Says lying, American-hating, USAid funded PBS with a grotch against Trump because he took away their federal funding.

Your liars haven't fact checked shit. Ever.


Your media is dead. Your party is dead. You are worthless. You are nothing.

Leave my country.
Trumptards don't have a country because Semi-humans cannot be citizens. But neither can dogs or cats be citizens, just so you know. Trumptards are lumped into the classification "Pets" and are lucky to be tolerated, but if they get to be a problem for real people, animal control officers will take them away, maybe euthanize them if nobody can tolerate the howling, barking, scratching, and marking of territory with urine.


You're a real hoot.

If things ever go south, you'll be among the first to get eaten.

It's no wonder why you're so scared about the world today.



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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
I think you're right SIX. I think SECOND is basically a coward.


I'll tell you one thing, Sigs.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm the only person that still posts here that has something to worry about after Trump was elected. There's a very good chance I'm going to be losing my healthcare in the near future. Not only am I at the whims of the Republicans in congress who've been itching to do it, but here in Indiana we did something different to comply with the rules than most states did, and the rules are different here. Even though there are tons more people on it now than there were before Covid, and I've had it since way before covid, because of the fact I'm a single dude with no kids and a long way away from 55, there's going to be some way-of-life changes coming my way that I'm not going to have any control over, while people who got on it years later after the rules changed with Covid are going to keep theirs.

I weighed that possibility out before I made my vote, and I haven't been living under any illusion these last 6 months that it was going to last forever. Looks like the only thing possibly standing between losing my health insurance and keeping it at this point is John Thune.

And yet, you don't hear me freaking out and losing my mind about it once, let alone every day.


It's just another in a very long line of reasons I'm tired of listening to bullshit out of these two losers here everyday. A dozen sky is falling stories out of both of them nearly every day for 12 years straight and none of it fucking matters or has ever negatively impacted their lives in the slightest at the end of the day.


I made a sacrifice when I voted for Trump. I didn't know 100% that is what it would be when I did it, and it's still technically not the case yet... But I think you know me well enough by now to be a person that loves numbers and weighs averages before I make choices on anything important.

I think the best chances I'd given myself for keeping my health insurance as is, and not experiencing a major change of lifestyle going forward as a coin flip that was slightly not in my favor when I cast that vote.

Saving our country was and still is far more important than my health insurance.

And I'd really like to believe that is what I helped be a part of when I made that decision.


But it's also why I get really angry when Kash Patel comes out and tells us that Epstien killed himself, we've barely removed any illegals in 6 months, and then I see a bill coming out that rewards everyone that falls in categories I don't fall in (mostly those involving being married with children and/or being gainfully employed), while taking away my health insurance and then adding $200 Billion to the military budget and making it cost over $1 Trillion per year to maintain for the first time. All that stings even more when this all comes right after the local city Democrats on the other end raised my property taxes 40% via putting the referendum on an off-year primary voting day where the only people who go out to vote are teachers and the parents they conned, to pay even more for the kids of those families who are going to be making out like bandits if the big beautiful bill passes. Bonuses that categories I don't fit in will benefit from in perpetuity this time, to boot.

So... if it happens, thanks for taking my health insurance and using it to fund 0.1% of 1 bomb you're going to build and give to Zelensky or Netanyahu guys. That's exactly what I voted for.

I just hope while ya'll got me over a barrel again and you're rawdawging me, you're also actually doing some ACTUAL, GENUINE things to help make people happy again. It's been a while. I'd like to see that happen again some day before I'm gone.

... And for the long-term too. None of this buying temporary happiness with a tax break. Real changes and improvement to quality of life. Real hope for the future and not more empty sloganeering that constantly comes out of both sides and never gets delivered. Hope for the kids that they can actually own their own house and have a family one day. A world for them where they don't have to hear a thousand negative stories a day the way they've all grown up with. That ain't the childhood I had.

If anybody wants to feel bad for the kids, feel bad about our collective behavior and this shit world we brought 'em all up in after the tech boom.


The worst thing I ever worried about was getting into a fight at school. Not because I might get beat up, but because even if I did get beat up it wouldn't be half the whipping I got when I came home. And I was on edge all the time until Junior year when I really started working out and nobody ever fucked with me again. I never once had any concerns about somebody shooting or stabbing me in any of the fights I got into, nor did it ever occur to me to bring a weapon like that to school either. We didn't even worry about shit like that. Now these kids have armed rent a cops in sterile brick buildings with metal detectors that get locked up once school starts, and in the back of their minds a tiny little part of them knows that today might be the day they don't come back home again.

It's like... How'd that happen. How did we let all this evil in the world become normalized and nobody seemed to realize the slow creep of it all until we made it here.

I'm just done listening to all the noise.

It just keeps everybody from ever focusing on anything, let alone anything important.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 4:42 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Trump needs to rethink MAGA. He's got a dozen burning bags of dog shit to attend, and it seems like he's busy setting a couple more on fire. A trillion dollars for the DOD? Seriously?



-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 7:37 AM

SECOND

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


Bond market shudders as tax bill deepens deficit worries

The New York Times reports:

The market for U.S. government bonds, the bedrock of the global financial system, continued to shudder on Thursday, as President Trump’s bill to extend expensive tax cuts and create new ones without significantly slashing spending passed through the House of Representatives. The bill has unnerved investors, deepening worries that the country’s debt is becoming unmanageable.

Yields on U.S. bonds, which underpin consumer and business interest rates around the world, from mortgages to corporate loans, have been rising in recent weeks. Yields rise as prices fall. Higher yields reflect investors’ concerns that lending to the government by buying its debt has become more risky.

The 30-year Treasury yield on Thursday rose as high as 5.15 percent in early trading, its highest since October 2023, before easing back later in the morning. The 30-year yield is trading about 0.7 percentage points higher than its low in April — a huge move in such a short time in that market.

Christopher J. Waller, an influential governor at the Federal Reserve, said on Thursday that financial markets were looking for more “fiscal discipline” from Washington, warning that investors are likely to continue to demand higher yields in order to hold U.S. assets.

“We ran $2 trillion deficits the last few years — this is just not sustainable, and so the markets are looking for a little more fiscal discipline,” he said in an interview with Fox Business. “They’re concerned.”

More at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/bond-market-debt-defici
t.html

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 7:50 AM

SECOND

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


Today let me address the GOP bust-out budget bill, and how that plays into Moody’s downgrade of US debt last week.

And the bottom line is that, it is bad. The rubber is starting to hit the road.

https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-bond-market-is-not-amused-on.
html

Let me start out with the below graph from the CBO of the past and future projection of the US debt to GDP ratio:

As you can see, until 1980 during periods of peace and prosperity, the US had generally paid down debt as a share of GDP. Debt was incurred during WW1, and paid down during the 1920s. It increased as a result of the Great Depression and WW2, but in the prosperous post-war period was paid down again.

This dynamic changed beginning with Reagan’s “supply side” budget cuts of the early 1980s. Only during Clinton’s Presidency during the prosperous 1990s was debt generally paid down again as a share of GDP. But since the election of George W. Bush a quarter century ago, even during periods of peace and prosperity, the debt shot up.

Now with the latest GOP budget bill, even without any crises, just with continued peace and prosperity, the debt is primed to rise to nearly 250% of GDP in the next several decades!

The Bond Market has noticed. And it is not amused.

Just for example, here is a graph I pulled this morning, showing that yesterday’s 30 year bond auction resulted in yields of 4.96%, close to the highest in almost 20 years:

Many Graphs at https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-bond-market-is-not-amused-on.
html

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 8:02 AM

SECOND

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


What a Decent Budget Would Look Like

By Paul Krugman | May 23, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/what-a-decent-budget-would-look-lik
e

. . . we could vastly improve our fiscal position with a series of easy choices — actions that would mainly spare the middle class and only hurt people most Americans probably believe deserve to feel a bit of pain. So here are four things we could and should be doing.

First, get Americans — mainly wealthy Americans — to pay the taxes they owe. The net tax gap — taxes Americans are legally obliged to pay but don’t — is simply huge, on the order of $600 billion a year. We can never get all of that money back, but giving the IRS enough resources to crack down on wealthy tax cheats would be both fiscally and morally responsible, since letting people get away with cheating on their taxes rewards bad behavior and makes law-abiding taxpayers look and feel like chumps.

Republicans are doing the opposite: They’re starving the IRS of resources.

Second, crack down on Medicare Advantage overpayments. Currently, much of Medicare is run through insurance companies whose payments from the government are based on the health status of their clients — the sicker the people they cover, and hence the higher their likely medical bills, the more the insurance companies receive. Unfortunately, insurers game the system, finding ways to make their clients look less healthy than they really are, and thereby get overpaid.

We’re talking a lot of money here. A Center for American Progress estimate found that

Medicare is at risk of overpaying [Medicare Advantage] plans between $1.3 trillion and $2 trillion over the next decade

It’s astonishing that these overpayments never became a target of Elon Musk’s DOGE — or it would be astonishing if you believed anything Musk has said about DOGE’s real aims.

Third, go after corporate tax avoidance. Much of this involves multinational firms using strategies that are shady and dishonest but legal to make profits actually earned in the United States disappear and reappear in low-tax nations like Ireland.

In 2017 Gabriel Zucman estimated that such maneuvers were costing the U.S. Treasury around $70 billion annually. The number is probably bigger now. There are several strategies that could limit these losses; ideally, major economies would cooperate to crack down both on corporate misbehavior and the nations that enable it.

Finally, we should just get rid of Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut. That tax cut wasn’t a response to any economic needs, and there’s not a shred of evidence that it did the economy any good. All it did was transfer a lot of money to corporations and the wealthy. Let’s end those giveaways.

Would doing all these things be enough to put America on a sustainable fiscal path? Honestly, I don’t know. But they would make a good start toward putting our fiscal house in order. And none of them would involve the “hard choices” fiscal scolds tell us we need to make.

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, May 23, 2025 1:31 PM

SECOND

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


The Supreme Court just revealed one thing it actually fears about Trump

The Republican justices draw a line in the sand – in an order that makes absolutely no sense.

By Ian Millhiser | May 23, 2025, 11:45 AM CDT

https://www.vox.com/scotus/414274/supreme-court-federal-reserve-trump-
wilcox

Trump v. Wilcox (2025) is the culmination of a longstanding grudge many Republican legal elites hold against Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935), the Supreme Court case establishing that Congress may create independent agencies whose members may only be fired for cause.

Though the leaders of these agencies are typically nominated by the president for a term of several years, and confirmed by the Senate, Humphrey’s Executor explained that laws protecting them from being fired while in office are supposed to ensure that they “act with entire impartiality,” and “exercise the trained judgment of a body of experts.”

All six of the Court’s Republicans, however, have made it clear they believe in a theory known as the “unitary executive,” which is incompatible with Humphrey’s Executor.

The Constitution provides that “the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” In a 1988 dissenting opinion, which many legal conservatives now treat as if it were a holy text, Justice Antonin Scalia argued that “this does not mean some of the executive power, but all of the executive power.” And thus, if a federal official is charged with executing federal laws in some way, they must be fully subject to presidential control.

If you take this unitary executive theory seriously, then there should be no doubt that Federal Reserve governors may be fired at will by the president. The Fed’s authority over interest rates, after all, derives from federal statutes instructing it to pursue the dual goals of “maximum employment” and “stable prices.” So the Fed is charged with executing federal laws.

But the consequences of stripping the Fed of its independence could be catastrophic.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon pressured Fed chair Arthur Burns to lower interest rates in advance of Nixon’s reelection race — the idea was to juice the economy right while voters were weighing Nixon’s record — and Burns complied. In the short term, this worked out great for Nixon. The economy boomed in 1972, and Nixon won reelection by a historic landslide. But Burns’s action is often blamed for years of “stagflation,” slow economic growth combined with high inflation, in the 1970s.

The Fed, in other words, has the power to effectively inject cocaine into the US economy – giving it a temporary boost that can be timed to benefit incumbent presidents, at the cost of much greater economic turmoil down the road. It’s not hard to see how presidents could abuse their power if they can fire members of the Federal Reserve who refuse to give the economy such a temporary and costly high.

One might think that these risks would be enough to caution the justices against overruling Humphrey’s Executor. But the Republican justices appear quite committed to the unitary executive theory, and they have been that way for quite some time. (If you want to know more about why they feel this way, I can refer you to three separate explainers I’ve written on this subject.)

For at least 15 years, when the Court handed down Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Board (2010), the Republican justices have signaled that they are eager to strip Congress of its authority to create such independent agencies, and give the president full authority to fire these agencies’ leaders at will. Many economists and investors, meanwhile, have warned that it would be particularly dangerous to strip the Federal Reserve — which is supposed to set interest rates based on delicate economic calculations and not based on what will benefit the sitting president — of its independence, as doing so could throw the US economy into chaos.

Thursday’s order is a clear signal that the Court has heard these concerns and does not intend to eliminate the Fed’s independence. It is unlikely to satisfy many constitutional scholars, as its explanation for why Federal Reserve leaders should be treated differently than the leaders of any other independent agency is so baffling that it appears contrived. As Justice Elena Kagan writes in a dissenting opinion, the exemption for the Federal Reserve is not supported by the legal authority it cites. “The majority’s explanation of its action unfolds in two parts, neither rising to the occasion.”
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a966_1b8e.pdf

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE
6ixStringJack 05.23 02:15
SIGNYM 05.23 04:42
second 05.23 07:37
second 05.23 07:50
second 05.23 08:02
second 05.23 13:31

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
Russian losses in Ukraine
Fri, May 23, 2025 15:57 - 1208 posts
In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
Fri, May 23, 2025 15:00 - 5448 posts
Pow Wow Dances
Fri, May 23, 2025 14:36 - 26 posts
Countdown Clock, Trump Going to Jail
Fri, May 23, 2025 14:12 - 1524 posts
Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
Fri, May 23, 2025 13:31 - 2042 posts
Trunp loses again in Court
Fri, May 23, 2025 09:03 - 658 posts
Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
Fri, May 23, 2025 07:33 - 8365 posts
Supreme Court blocks creation of religious public charter school
Thu, May 22, 2025 22:12 - 2 posts
Figger Natigue
Thu, May 22, 2025 18:57 - 1 posts
Colorado Democrats are making it easier for illegal aliens to kill American Citizens
Thu, May 22, 2025 17:33 - 1 posts
Trump administration blocks Harvard's international enrollments, threatens broader crackdown
Thu, May 22, 2025 17:03 - 1 posts
Please Don’t Refer to Women as “Females”
Thu, May 22, 2025 15:55 - 1 posts
 VIEW MORE TOPICS 

FFF.NET SOCIAL