Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too? by 6ixStringJack

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Saturday, May 24, 2025 06:27
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Friday, May 23, 2025 6:58 PM

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

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
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Originally posted by second:
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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quit spamming your legacy media lies. People have real problems to deal with and don't have time for your dumb shit anymore.

Trump’s Crypto Dinner

And you want me to care about any of this when Nancy Pelosi and her Husband get a free pass for blatantly doing the exact same thing in front of you why?

Trump received more money in bribes last night than an entire lifetime of accumulation for Pelosi family. And Trump is paying back the bribers by giving them no regulation of bitcoins. The Winds of Change are Blowing, 6ixStringJack.

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

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Friday, May 23, 2025 8:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
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Originally posted by second:
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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quit spamming your legacy media lies. People have real problems to deal with and don't have time for your dumb shit anymore.

Trump’s Crypto Dinner

And you want me to care about any of this when Nancy Pelosi and her Husband get a free pass for blatantly doing the exact same thing in front of you why?
Trump received more money in bribes last night than an entire lifetime of accumulation for Pelosi family. And Trump is paying back the bribers by giving them no regulation of bitcoins. The Winds of Change are Blowing, 6ixStringJack.

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

Besides the fucking point, cunt.

But I'm glad that in 2025 we can get you to admit that the Pelosi's have been scamming American Citizens her entire career now.

Fuck you. Nobody wants to hear anything out of you anymore.

You haven't shut the fuck up once in 12 years. I suggest you start now unless you want to lose every election going forward.

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

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

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Saturday, May 24, 2025 4:51 AM

SECOND

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

Longtime reporters 'almost speechless' over Trump's 'transparent bribery' plot

By Tom Boggioni | May 23, 2025 8:48AM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-crypto-dinner-almost-speechless/

On Friday morning, longtime Washington D.C. reporters Jonathan Lemire and Peter Baker of the New York Times, as well as conservative columnist Matt Lewis, admitted they were stunned that Republicans turned a blind eye to Donald Trump's crypto dinner.

During a segment on the president's much-criticized dinner at his golf club in northern Virginia that took place Thursday night, Lemire prompted guest Baker with, "I mean, you've covered the White House for a long time. I mean, I'm almost speechless at this. Could you imagine if Barack Obama or Joe Biden did anything like it?"

"No, we couldn't, they could –– they never did anything like this," Baker responded. "It's not the first presidential family that kind of profited off the White House; you can certainly find other examples of that in history. But the scale of this, the scope of this is so far beyond anything history has ever seen."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-qatar-plane-2672031382/

"It's not just even this cryptocurrency thing, although hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to the president's family and businesses in fees because of this coin, which is basically, just a reminder, there's nothing to it."

"There's a coin, it's not of value of anything, it's not even a stock," he elaborated, "It's not even a share of a company that's producing something. It's just simply there for people to buy because they want to curry favor with the president and they can do it anonymously, they can do it secretly."

"Why do Republicans not care?" the flummoxed Lemire asked columnist Lewis.

"Because whatever Donald Trump wants to do, Donald Trump does," the conservative replied. "And they saw, whether it's the Access Hollywood video or the indictments, that this guy is magic and he always ends up landing on his feet and their base loves him, so they're afraid of him."

"So some of them may care a little bit, but not enough to do anything about it," he added. "But look, the implications here are serious, right? Democracy isn't dying, it's being rug-pulled. That's basically what the message here is."

He then added, "You see those Democrats standing up there condemning this, and I don't think it's landing yet. And so, you know, yes, Republicans ought to be standing up and holding their president, their standard bearer, accountable. I don't think the Democrats yet have the juice to take what is just transparently bribery and make it matter to the American people."

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

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Saturday, May 24, 2025 4:56 AM

SECOND

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

Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-i-told-the-ed-school-graduates

In a commencement address given to graduates from U. Cal. Berkeley’s School of Education earlier this week, Robert Reich said:

Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.

Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

America’s founders knew this. They saw how easily emperors and kings could mislead uneducated publics. The survival of the new nation required a public wise enough to keep power within bounds. People imbued, in the language of the time, with civic virtue.

Jefferson assured Americans that if they could “enlighten the people generally … tyranny and the oppressions of mind and body will vanish, like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”

So America became the cradle of free, universal, public education.

I don’t have any easy answers to the many challenges we’re experiencing today in classrooms across the land, but we must never give up on these three basic educational ideals: free, universal, and public.

If we stop thinking about education solely as a private investment on the way to a good-paying job and see it as a public good, we’d give every child an understanding of the Constitution, the meaning and importance of the rule of law, and why no one should be above it.

This is, after all, what we demand of people who want to become naturalized citizens: They have to pass a civics test covering the organization of the U.S. government and the Constitution.

Civic education should instill in young people a passion for truth — enabling them to think critically, be skeptical (but not cynical) about what they hear and read, find reliable sources of information, apply basic logic and analysis, and know enough about history and the physical world to differentiate fact from fiction.

Such an education would also urge young people to communicate with others. With people of different races, classes, creeds, nationalities.

Teach them how to listen, to open their minds to the possibility their own views and preconceptions may be wrong, to discover why people with opposing views believe what they do.

Yet the current president of the United States does not appear to have learned any of this.

On the campaign trail, he vowed to “liberate our children from the Marxist lunatics and perverts who have infested our educational system.”

He has canceled federal exams that measure student progress and ordered his wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary to shut most of her department.

He is attacking the freedom of speech of university students and professors, trying to deport international students and faculty solely because of what they say or write, and threatening to halt federal funds to universities that practice DEI.

He has gutted the funding of the National Institutes of Health, which provides a large portion of biomedical research, and the National Science Foundation, responsible for much of America’s engineering and computer research.

Along with certain governors, he is attacking the teaching in our schools of America’s shameful histories of slavery and Native American genocide.

He has cut funding for libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, and reliable internet access for those without it at home.

I keep hearing that all this amounts to an “attack on the liberal state” or “the culmination of our culture wars.”

No. What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.

You who are soon to graduate from this wonderful school of education have chosen instead to enhance the American mind, to broaden it, to enlighten our young people, to expose them to a world of possibility.

May you educate like democracy depends on it.

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

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Saturday, May 24, 2025 5:27 AM

SECOND

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The entire atmosphere surrounding all of this is completely different than it was in 2016 and 2020.

Things just kind of feel normal again.

It's like all the loudest voices either screamed themselves out or they aren't being platformed anymore and/or we just finally, collectively tuned them out for a change.

It's kind of nice, innit?

Happy Inauguration Day!

Can Donald Trump build the 'Golden Dome' over the US?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, but the author doesn’t wish to make that clear because he will be kicked out of the White House.

By Bernd Debusmann Jr, BBC News, White House | May 23, 2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvmj6mem70o

Rather than writing that Trump will fail, the article says that what Trump claims he will do is "extremely challenging," a euphemism for failure.

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

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Saturday, May 24, 2025 6:27 AM

SECOND

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

Who Knew?

I’m A Psychologist Who Specializes In Narcissists. Here’s What We Need To Do To Stop Trump.

"The same patterns that destabilize families destabilize democracies."

By Jocelyn Sze | May 23, 2025, 07:52 AM EDT

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/psychologist-how-to-stop-trump-narcissi
st_n_682df1cae4b09b7e5013a586

The Trump administration is planning a June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — and the president’s 79th birthday. When your sense of self-exaltation requires tanks, flyovers and up to $45 million for a birthday party, we’re no longer in the realm of cake and candles — we’re squarely in Criterion 1 of narcissistic personality disorder: “a grandiose sense of self-importance.”

To be clear, I can’t diagnose the president or any public figure without personal examination. But research shows that those in positions of power, especially in politics, are more likely to exhibit traits of grandiose narcissism. When narcissistic control seeps into leadership, it distorts truth, erodes trust and destabilizes institutions. The more we understand these dynamics, the better we can protect both the public and the health of our democracy.

As a clinical psychologist who works with trauma and narcissistic abuse, I see echoes of this dynamic every day in my therapy office. The same patterns that destabilize families destabilize democracies: along with the magnetic vision of the grandiose narcissist come denial, attack, reversal of blame and emotional chaos.

I think of one of my patients when she discovered her brother was terrorizing their elderly mother with violent threats and financial abuse. When she named the harm, he flipped the script — denying everything and accusing her of being unstable, all while fiercely protecting his “golden boy” image. Under family pressure to stay quiet, she spiraled into rumination. But armed with awareness and support, she stood firm. Like a broken record, she calmly named the harm until her boundary held. It came at a cost, but her brother was eventually removed from their mother’s home.

This same pattern shows up, magnified, on the political stage. Narcissistic control in government thrives on flipping the script and silencing watchdogs.

Authoritarian leaders, like narcissistic family members, rely on well-worn tactics to manufacture a psychological state of volatile uncertainty — where outcomes aren’t just unknown, but constantly shifting and unpredictable. This overwhelms the brain’s ability to anticipate and prepare, keeping people mentally off-balance and easier to control. The good news: Awareness works like a vaccine, gradually building psychological immunity against further harm.

For another patient, “moving the goalposts” was the favored tactic of her ex-boyfriend to generate such volatility. He would make a demand (under the guise of “improving her”) and then change the expectation once it was met. In government, this looks like constantly reversing policies or public positions so that citizens, the media and allies remain unmoored.

“The White House has no idea what it’s doing on tariffs and keeps flip-flopping... Why even do an exemption if you’re going to reverse it soon?” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) posted on X on April 13, referring to more than 50 flip-flops on tariff policies since Trump’s inauguration.

Many dismiss these reversals as mere incompetence or poor strategy — and it’s true that narcissism is associated with more impulsive, error-prone decision-making. But anyone familiar with narcissistic abuse understands the deeper maneuver: Whether consciously or not, narcissists hold power by keeping others in a state of psychological whiplash. And it works.

At its core, emotional control is the narcissist’s primary goal: to protect a fragile sense of self-importance and entitlement by maintaining the grand illusion that supports it — without empathy for others. While it’s important to note that narcissistic pathology by no means equates to abuse, there are more aggressive versions that use confusion, despair and emotional bonds like loyalty to control how others think and feel, secure a constant flow of admiration or reactivity, shield themselves from shame and keep others attached — even against their best interests.

Of the dizzying array of tactics, perhaps the most effective is crisis manufacturing. The constant emergencies aren’t flukes — they’re by design. They keep everyone in survival mode, distracting from deeper issues and ensuring the narcissist stays at the center of attention and control. For my patients who have survived narcissistic abuse, it might be an explosive tantrum, a threat to seek full custody or a frantic late-night call about a (fabricated) mugging. On the national stage, it takes the form of rhetorical escalations, legal threats or emergency declarations designed to dominate the news cycle and overwhelm opposition.

The nervous system can only take so much. Fight (rage), flight (escape planning), freeze (paralysis), fawn (capitulation) and flop (hopelessness) are natural survival responses — but they also keep us stuck. Healing — in therapy and in democracy — begins by recognizing when we’re trapped in these states and learning how to return to grounded, organized action.

In my work, I help people identify and unwind these patterns. They begin to understand they’re not just anxious or distracted for no reason — they’re reacting to prolonged psychological coercion. The same is true for societies under narcissistic leadership. This isn’t just politics. It’s millions of nervous systems in fight-or-flight mode.

One of my patients responds to her mother’s barrage of abusive texts — a stream of accusations, victim posturing, theatrical crises and financial demands — by reaching for her flashcards. Each card is labeled with a tactic she’s learned to spot: Deny, Attack, Play the Victim, Perform the Hero, Create Crisis. Instead of being wrung out like a towel — her body drained of clarity by her mother’s volatility — she names each tactic as it arises. Naming gives her distance. It helps her stay calm, grounded and in control of her response. The unpredictable becomes predictable. That’s what psychological immunity looks like in real life.

I’ve watched many patients wrestle their way out of the fog of narcissistic control. It doesn’t happen all at once. It begins with grieving what cannot be changed and focusing, with fierce clarity, on what remains within reach. It means reclaiming attention, setting boundaries and refusing to give your power to someone who thrives on your reactivity.

I’m also watching how this dynamic plays out in institutions. When law firms, universities or political bodies bend to powerful figures instead of upholding shared values, it mirrors what happens in abusive households: Everyone walks on eggshells. In such environments, self-protection becomes the priority, and choices are made not from alignment with values but from fear.

But recovery begins when people stop playing along or exhausting energy in cycles of infighting. Instead of spending precious bandwidth on disbelief or outrage, the goal is to name the tactic, call out the harm, cultivate trusted support and let go of what is beyond your control. Persistent engagement in shock, bargaining or rumination often reflects the mind’s attempt to delay the grief associated with profound loss — private and emotional for my patients, social and institutional for our country.

When Dorothy pulled back the curtain and revealed the Wizard as an insecure man with a microphone and a smoke machine, she shattered the illusion that had kept an entire city captive. In therapy, that moment of recognition is just as powerful. Once someone sees the manipulation for what it is, the spell begins to break.

From a trauma psychologist’s perspective, what can a nation do once the curtain is pulled back?

First: Stop enabling. Reactive efforts to clean up the damage often backfire, shielding narcissists from accountability and allowing them to retain influence. On a political level, this means pausing to strategize before rushing in to fix the narcissist’s mess. Strategic restraint — like that practiced by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has been criticized for not “swinging at every pitch” — is not weakness. It’s discipline.

One technique I teach is called “gray rocking”: refusing to feed the narcissist’s need for drama, attention or emotional reactivity. Gray rocking means becoming sturdy and repetitive — not reactive or maximalist — a boring target for someone addicted to power. Reacting with hyperbole or hysteria only emboldens narcissists. Deny them the fuel they seek. This is hard work. But it’s how an abuser loses power.

Then: Set boundaries. In therapy, that might mean saying no repeatedly, like a broken record, and building the support system to stay safe. On a national scale, it means working together to reestablish constitutional guardrails such as due process, checks and balances, and freedom of speech. By using loopholes — like invoking 18th century wartime laws — to expand his power, Trump has exposed the weak spots in American democracy. As our founding documents remind us: “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.” The Constitution is not just a legal structure — it’s psychological scaffolding against narcissistic control.

Build resilience. Narcissistic abuse isn’t just dangerous and dysregulating — it feeds on the very distress and isolation it creates to sustain itself. To interrupt the cycle, we need practices that restore regulation and reinforce community power. Collective care and self-care are not luxuries — they are revolutionary acts in times of oppression. Rest is not retreat; it’s how we recover the clarity and cohesion needed to mobilize and rebuild. Join hands. There is strength in numbers and safety in solidarity.

And above all, keep faith in the long game. While narcissistic dynamics rely on urgency and alarm, deep change comes from staying calm, clear and connected. In defending against narcissistic control, the answer is never to mimic harmful tactics — it is to recognize them, grieve their damage, stop enabling them and break out of reactivity. Boundaries, civic mobilization and long-haul strategy are how we begin to heal the democratic spirit. In both therapy and democracy, healing begins the moment we stop reacting and start remembering who we are.

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

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