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: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 07:37
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 31468
PAGE 46 of 46

Tuesday, June 10, 2025 3:34 AM

Hey...

Did you notice that Second called a group of people he doesn't agree with "Libtards" in that last post?

I find that interesting.

We should delve deeper into that.

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

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 6:28 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:

Well then, I guess you die with the rest of the Philistines, then, no matter HOW "righteous" you feel!
Unless you think you're So Special that God will make an exception for you??

I noticed that the polarity of words switches backwards when a Trumptard hears or sees them. It is a learning disorder that makes prospering in America difficult for Trumptards. Since Trumptards are certain there is little wrong with themselves, it must be the fault of Libtards why a Trumptard's life is disappointing and prone to fall into chaos. Trump's learning disorder is why his life has been in turmoil for decades, especially recently, when so many can see that he is getting things backwards and upside down, but he can't admit his mistakes. He is not even aware of his misunderstanding.

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 6:35 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:
Oh, wait, I get it SECOND ... you think YOU'RE God!
Here to sort good from evil!

I am burdened with the ability, calling it a sensitive inner ear, to tell up from down, or in engineering terms, I can hear and feel with finger tips when a machine is out of balance and not on the level. I've got the same ability with people; I can tell when they are malfunctioning, even when they insist they are doing their best. I have seen what the best really is, and Trump and Trumptards have no idea what that is. They think, however little they feel like doing is the best that can be done. I suspect that God hates lazy, stupid people who won't correct their mistakes. Mistakes, unacknowledged, are a trait of Trump and his Trumptards.

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 6:36 AM

SECOND

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

California Governor Newsom didn't request the National Guard be deployed to his state.

Trump sent them anyway.

Trump's goal isn't to keep Californians safe.

His goal is to cause chaos because he wants wartime powers.

Like his breakup with Elon Musk last week, his deploying the military against protesters could not have been more foreseeable. The only uncertainty was about timing and pretext.

Every time a protester hurls a rock or smashes a window, the protester ceases to be a lawful demonstrator and becomes a rioter. And contrary to a lot of left-wing romantic nonsense, rioting is not only wrong and illegal, it’s politically unpopular. In 1968, Richard Nixon used the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination to win the presidency on a promise of restoring law and order.

The fringe left has a long love affair with the “propaganda of the deed,” a stupid concept holding that direct or revolutionary action persuades the masses to align with their cause. In America, it never works. Donald Trump subscribes to his own theory of the propaganda of the deed. In a 1990, he expressed admiration for the Chinese Communist Party’s willingness to display “the power of strength” in crushing the Tiananmen protests. His administration has been pushing claims that he should be granted wartime powers. Those claims are largely sinister nonsense as a matter of law, facts and those pesky democratic norms. But when rioters are setting Waymo cabs on fire, the debate is exactly where he wants it.

No doubt that there will be enough people willing to give Trump wartime powers. And portentously, unlike during his first term, the enablers are in the White House. Various Cabinet secretaries, White House officials and the vice president are all trying to one-up each other with talk of invasion, insurrection and “liberate Los Angeles.”

Given the cowardice of Congress and the limitations of the courts, this is leading, perhaps inexorably, to a contest of competing theories of the propaganda of the deed. That may or may not end well for Trump but it will certainly end poorly for the United States.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/column-trump-deploys-protesters
-respond-this-will-not-end-well/ar-AA1GoyQ9

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 6:54 AM

SECOND

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

America is on the brink of becoming a failed democracy

Cultural Decline in the U.S. Is a Threat to Democracy

By Jonathan Sumption | June 2, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/opinion/united-states-democracy-cul
ture.html

Mr. Sumption, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Britain, is the author of “The Challenges of Democracy and the Rule of Law.” Download his books for free from https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Jonathan+Sumption

As an observer of democracies and a constitutional lawyer in Britain, I have watched with rising alarm as many Western nations threaten to become failed democracies.

They may not yet be like Venezuela, Peru, Hungary, Turkey or Russia. But these countries show what can happen when a democracy dies with a whimper, not with a bang. There may not be tanks on the lawns or mobs in the streets, but slowly, they are drained of everything that once made them democratic, often with substantial public support.

These countries have elections, legislatures, courts and so on. The institutional framework is still there. But they are no longer democracies because the political culture on which democracy depends has failed.

Now the United States is in danger of being added to this list. There are tensions among its institutions, though they are still largely functioning. But the deterioration of its political culture is striking — and alarming. The country resembles other Western democracies in buckling under the weight of increasingly unrealistic expectations of the state from its electorate.

Democracy is a constitutional mechanism for collective self-government and a way of entrusting decision-making to people acceptable to the majority, whose power is defined and limited, and whose mandate is revocable. That is the institutional framework.

A democratic culture depends on something more than institutions. It depends on the instincts of politicians and citizens. It calls for a willingness to choose solutions that the greatest number of people can live with. It requires conventions about how even lawful powers will be exercised so as to avoid capricious, vindictive or oppressive decisions. Above all, it requires people to treat political opponents as fellow citizens with whom they disagree — and not as enemies to be smashed.

Hence the significance of President Trump, who exhibits the three classic symptoms of totalitarianism: a charismatic leader surrounded by a personal cult, the identification of the state with himself and a refusal to accept the legitimacy of opposition or dissent. The result is a regime of discretionary government in place of the government of laws that the founders saw as the chief defense against tyranny.

Mr. Trump has used public powers to pursue private grudges: for example, against law firms that represented his political opponents; public figures for whom he has removed security protection; or cultural institutions, from Harvard to the Kennedy Center, that do not share his personal agenda.

Article 2 of the Constitution requires the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Yet this, too, has become dependent on the president’s personal discretion. Mr. Trump has directed the Justice Department not to enforce laws passed by Congress such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has reduced or wound up programs for which Congress has appropriated funds and has threatened governors and other authorities with cutting off federal funds unless they submit to his wishes.

Foreign observers like myself have the luxury of watching these developments from a distance, but we need to look at the vulnerability of our own democracies. What is happening in the United States is essentially a crisis of expectations that is common to other advanced democracies as well. A respected polling organization in Britain in 2019 found that a majority of people (54 percent) agreed with the statement that “Britain needs a strong leader willing to break the rules.”

Continental Europe has seen high levels of electoral support for openly authoritarian figures, such as Marine Le Pen in France, Jörg Haider in Austria, Viktor Orban in Hungary and the leading lights of Alternative for Germany.

The reasons are complex, but the main one is the increasingly unrealistic expectations of the state and the electorates’ growing aversion to risk. Some of what voters expect is beyond the capacity of the state to deliver. Some of it can be delivered only at the expense of other equally important values. This is especially true of voters’ most powerful expectation, that the state will protect them against adverse economic winds.

We crave state protection from many risks that are inherent in life: job insecurity, economic misfortune, drought, fire and flood, sickness and accidental injury. This is in some ways a natural response to the remarkable increase in the technical competence of humanity since the middle of the 19th century. For all perils, we demand a governmental solution. If there is none, we put that down to governmental incompetence.

When these expectations are disappointed, as they so often are, people blame the system or the “deep state.” They turn against the whole political class, which has proved unable to satisfy their demands for a progressive improvement of their lives. In the absence of a democratic culture, they spontaneously turn to strongmen and kid themselves that strongmen get things done.

The United States is a particularly interesting example. It has enjoyed a century and a half of almost unbroken good fortune. This may now be coming to an end in the face of competition from countries like India and China. Old skills have become redundant in high-wage economies as national prosperity has shifted to high-tech industries, hitting incomes traditionally derived from manufacturing, agriculture and the extraction industry. Even in the high-tech sectors where the United States is strongest, its lead has shortened and in some cases vanished.

These are not exclusively American problems. Europe suffers from them even more, and European expectations of the state are higher. The shattering of optimism is a dangerous moment in the life of any democracy. Disillusionment with the promise of progress was a major factor in the crisis of Europe that began in 1914 and ended in 1945.

The tragedy is that historical experience warns us that strongmen do not get things done. At best they may indulge the fantasies of some of the population. But at what cost? Strongmen tend to be fixated on a few simple ideas that they offer as solutions to complex problems. The concentration of power in a small number of hands and the absence of wider deliberation and scrutiny enable them to make major decisions on the hoof, without proper forethought, planning, research or consultation. Within the government’s ranks, a strongman promotes loyalty at the expense of wisdom, flattery at the expense of objective advice, and self-interest at the expense of the public interest. All of this usually makes for chaos, political breakdown, economic impoverishment and social divisions.

If enough Americans persistently vote authoritarian figures into government and their cheerleaders into Congress, then democracy will not survive. But that is not yet an inevitability.

The founding fathers of the United States were profoundly conscious of the cultural underpinnings of democracy and well aware of its fragility. The second U.S. president, John Adams, summed up their fears in a letter written in old age. Democracy, he wrote, was just as vulnerable to vanity, pride, avarice and ambition as any other form of government, and a good deal less stable. “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide,” he wrote.

The founders’ answer to the self-destructive tendencies of democracy was to design “a government of laws and not of men.” A government of laws was based on rational principles, consistently applied. A government of men was something different: an invitation to rule by discretion, subject to the whims of a handful of men at the heart of the state, guided by the very vices of vanity, pride, avarice and ambition which Adams knew would sooner or later destroy any democracy.

There have been demagogues before in American history. Until now, they have failed. Political parties had enough respect for the workings of the democratic state to freeze them out.

The many friends of the United States must hope that the experience of autocratic government will persuade voters to restore the country’s democratic tradition and truly make America great again.

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:03 AM

SECOND

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

We Finally Know What “American Carnage” Was About

By Paul Krugman / Jun 10, 2025 at 5:37 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/we-finally-know-what-american-carna
ge

Does anyone remember “American carnage”? In his 2017 inaugural address Donald Trump portrayed a collapsing society, emphasizing in particular the “crime and gangs and drugs” destroying America’s cities. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugura
l-address/

It was a peculiar and disturbing speech, in part because it bore no relationship to reality. Then as now, America had many problems. But runaway urban crime wasn’t one of them. In fact, Trump chose to proclaim urban carnage after a remarkable generation-long run of plunging crime in our major cities. New York, for example, had only 335 murders in 2016, down from 2,262 in 1990.

So what was that about?

At the time, I thought it was mostly about sadism. Trump clearly loves punishing people, so he was eager to portray a nation full of people who needed punishing. And it remains true, as Adam Serwer pointed out back in 2018, that for Trump and many of his supporters cruelty is a goal in itself, that they rejoice in the suffering of those they hate and fear.

But the events unfolding in Los Angeles as you read this and, I fear, the events likely to unfold across much of America soon, quite possibly this weekend, suggest that the motivations of Trump and his cronies go deeper than mere (mere!) sadism. They want to use false claims of chaos to justify a power grab that, if successful, would mark the end of the American experiment.

As I assume everyone knows by now, on Friday heavily armed — and masked — ICE agents began raiding workplaces in and around Los Angeles, seeking to arrest people they claimed were illegal immigrants. Crowds quickly gathered to protest. After all, ICE wasn’t rounding up members of violent gangs. It was scooping up ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, many of whom had friends and relatives in the neighborhood.

The protests were relatively peaceful, although there were some scuffles, objects thrown and vandalism. Los Angeles has experienced real riots in the past. This didn’t even come close. But ICE and some other law enforcement personnel responded with heavy application of force — not lethal weapons, at least not yet, but lots of tear gas, rubber bullets, and so on.

Until ICE moved in Los Angeles was, in fact, remarkably peaceful. Like other major American cities, LA experienced a significant but not huge crime wave in the aftermath of Covid but has since seen that wave more than completely recede:

Source: Real Time Crime Index.

Los Angeles right now is probably as safe as it has ever been.

But if you read Trump, which you should to get past the sanewashing, the City of Angels sounds like a scene from Fallout:

And Noem has called LA a “city of criminals.”

As a New Yorker, I’m accustomed to seeing my quite livable city portrayed as a hellscape. Still, there are 13 million people living in Greater Los Angeles who can testify that it has not, in fact, been invaded and occupied, let alone taken over by insurrectionist mobs.

Oh, and let’s not forget that an actual insurrectionist mob tried to overturn the 2020 election — and Trump has pardoned its members.

But no matter. Trump wanted an excuse to mobilize the National Guard, even though the governor of California not only didn’t request it, but has sued Trump to demand that he rescind the order.

When did a president last federalize the Guard against a governor’s wishes? Sixty years ago, when Lyndon Johnson mobilized the Alabama National Guard against the wishes of George Wallace, so that the Guard could protect civil rights marchers.

I’m still seeing some news analyses portraying what’s happening as a confrontation over immigration. And there are definitely people in the administration, led by Stephen Miller, who simply hate immigrants — legal or not, it doesn’t much matter. White South Africans seem to be the only exception.

But this looks bigger even than a play by an administration that has been finding, to its horror, that mass deportation is a lot harder than it sounds — especially if you make any effort at all to follow due process.

What it looks like is an attempt to create confrontations that can be used to impose something that, for practical purposes, amounts to martial law.

And if that’s what it’s really about, what’s happening in Los Angeles is just the beginning.

Most immediately, what is going to happen this Saturday? The government is going to hold a costly military parade in Washington, even though we aren’t celebrating any recent victories I’m aware of. This is the kind of thing one expects to see in Red Square, not the capital of a democracy. And guess what: the parade will also fall on Donald Trump’s birthday.

Many pro-democracy groups have teamed up to organize protests against the parade. There will be “No Kings Day” demonstrations all across the country. I don’t know whether there will be any violent incidents. But I’m quite sure that Trump and his allies will claim that violent incidents are happening and seek excuses to use force against the protestors.

So it’s important to understand what is happening here. Trump isn’t reacting to any real threat of disorder in California. And while anti-immigrant bigotry is certainly an important factor, it’s not the whole story.

No, this is all about finding excuses to use force against Trump’s critics and opponents and justify an anti-democratic power grab.

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:13 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Still listening to those fags, huh fag?

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

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:35 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:
Still listening to those fags, huh fag?

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

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

6ix, do you realize that you, Trump and Senator Tuberville are full of shit? I see it dribbling from your mouths. Trumptards have their digestive systems running backwards, waste exits from where it is embarrassing to point out. Why don't Trumptards notice and wash their mouths with soap?

Trump endorses arrest of Governor Gavin Newsom

When pressed by reporters about what crime Newsom has committed to warrant a potential arrest, Trump said, “I think his primary crime is running for governor, because he’s done such a bad job.”

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has also announced his candidacy for the state’s governorship, is among the highest profile Trump allies to publicly echo the calls for Newsom’s arrest.

In a post to X, Tuberville wrote: “LA looks like a third world country — anarchists are in charge, law enforcement is being attacked, and the rule of law is nonexistent. Lock him up.”

https://ktla.com/news/california/trump-endorses-arrest-of-gavin-newsom/

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Shut up, idiot.

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

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:44 AM

SECOND

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

‘Wildly underprepared’: National Guard troops seen sleeping on floors in exclusive photos

“This is what happens when the president and (Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth) demand the National Guard deploy immediately with no plan in place … (and) no federal funding available for food, water, fuel and lodging. This is really the failure of the federal government. If you’re going to federalize these troops, then take care of them.”

Senior military leaders advised Monday that the California troops could continue sleeping on floors or outdoors until Thursday, at which point federal officials would decide whether to make more permanent lodging plans, the source said. By Monday afternoon, additional National Guard troops were expected to reach Los Angeles, upping the total from around 300 late Saturday to more than 2,100.

It was unclear where the new arrivals would stay at night, the source said, with only a few hundred available tents.

“Currently, there is no plan for where everyone is sleeping tonight,” the source said, adding that there was an urgent need to find more portable bathrooms and dumpsters for garbage.

The Pentagon referred questions about troop provisions to the California Guard, which in turn referred questions to the U.S. Special Operations Command North, which did not immediately respond to the Chronicle.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/national-guard-californ
ia-photos-20368334.php

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I don't hear them whining, faggot.

How about you worry about yourself and stop pretending to be offended for everybody else.

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

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

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 11:57 AM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Evil people don't know the difference between good and evil

Yep!

We notice that about you pretty much every time you post!

Yanno the difference between me and you, stupid? The thing that makes me NOT EVIL?

I don't judge people as "evil" by my opinion of their opinion, I don't judge people categorically, and I don't wish to kill people by category.

I judge them by what they do, individually.

I just don't have that much hate and sociopathy in me to waste on whole groups ... political parties ... nations ... continents!

Yanno, I think you got a taste for killing people and you just can't let it go.

Really, you judge people by what they do. Then why do you constantly deny Putin is a butcher comrade? How he bombs civilian targets more than military targets.

Now remember, the civilized world agrees he does this.

Wait for it, folks.

T

Still waiting, not a problem. I'm sure you're busy.

T

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025 2:19 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

"Evil people don't know the difference between good and evil - SECOND"
Yep!
We notice that about you pretty much every time you post!

Yanno the difference between me and you, stupid? The thing that makes me NOT EVIL?
I don't judge people as "evil" by my opinion of their opinion, I don't judge people categorically, and I don't wish to kill people by category.
I judge them by what they do, individually.

I just don't have that much hate and sociopathy in me to waste on whole groups ... political parties ... nations ... continents!
Yanno, I think you got a taste for killing people and you just can't let it go.

THG:
Really, you judge people by what they do. Then why do you constantly deny Putin is a butcher comrade? How he bombs civilian targets more than military targets.

Now remember, the civilized world agrees he does this.

Wait for it, folks.

Since I need evidence I "believe" 0% what western establishment media says about Putin. Your problem? You believe 100%!

Your statement means as much to me as if you said "You deny that Trump colluded with Russia."
Yes, I deny that Trump colluded with Russia.
I also deny that Saddam had WMD, that Assad was using chemical weapons, and that Qaddafi was giving his troops Viagra for mass rapes.

I deny lies.

*****

Also, you cited the "civilized" world? Are you saying that Russia and China are uncivilized? That the entire world (except your favorite nations) is "uncivilized"?

Quote:
Still waiting, not a problem. I'm sure you're busy.

Yep, extremely busy.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 12:29 AM

SECOND

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

“The U.S. government is a representative democracy, and, in order for it to function well, the citizenry needs to be well educated, informed about the critical issues of the day, and knowledgeable about where candidates stand on these issues. I would add that voters need to possess the ability to identify disqualifying personal traits of candidates so that good choices are made for the good of the country. We are presently in a real world test of whether American voters possess this important skill.”

That is a quote from Authoritarian beliefs predict whether voters see Trump or Clinton as psychopathic by Eric W. Dolan | June 4, 2025

https://www.psypost.org/authoritarian-beliefs-predict-whether-voters-s
ee-trump-or-clinton-as-psychopathic/

Despite the passage of time and political events such as impeachment, the core relationships between authoritarianism, psychopathy perception, and vote choice remained stable. This suggests that these are not fleeting political impressions but deeply rooted psychological dynamics that shape how people interpret the actions and personalities of political figures.

The study also connects with a broader literature on mental health literacy—people’s ability to accurately recognize signs of psychological disorders. Prior research has shown that while many laypeople can identify common conditions like depression, few can accurately recognize personality disorders such as psychopathy. In one study, only about 39 percent of respondents correctly identified a description of psychopathy.

This lack of knowledge likely contributes to the strong role that ideological filters play in shaping perceptions. People tend to interpret candidates’ actions in ways that confirm their preexisting beliefs, rather than making judgments based on accurate diagnostic understanding.

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 1:04 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Also, you cited the "civilized" world? Are you saying that Russia and China are uncivilized? That the entire world (except your favorite nations) is "uncivilized"?

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

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 1:08 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
“The U.S. government is a representative democracy, and, in order for it to function well, the citizenry needs to be well educated, informed about the critical issues of the day, and knowledgeable about where candidates stand on these issues. I would add that voters need to possess the ability to identify disqualifying personal traits of candidates so that good choices are made for the good of the country. We are presently in a real world test of whether American voters possess this important skill.”

That is a quote from Authoritarian beliefs predict whether voters see Trump or Clinton as psychopathic by Eric W. Dolan | June 4, 2025

https://www.psypost.org/authoritarian-beliefs-predict-whether-voters-s
ee-trump-or-clinton-as-psychopathic/

Despite the passage of time and political events such as impeachment, the core relationships between authoritarianism, psychopathy perception, and vote choice remained stable. This suggests that these are not fleeting political impressions but deeply rooted psychological dynamics that shape how people interpret the actions and personalities of political figures.

The study also connects with a broader literature on mental health literacy—people’s ability to accurately recognize signs of psychological disorders. Prior research has shown that while many laypeople can identify common conditions like depression, few can accurately recognize personality disorders such as psychopathy. In one study, only about 39 percent of respondents correctly identified a description of psychopathy.

This lack of knowledge likely contributes to the strong role that ideological filters play in shaping perceptions. People tend to interpret candidates’ actions in ways that confirm their preexisting beliefs, rather than making judgments based on accurate diagnostic understanding.

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

Oh fuck you dude...

"I read books and I have a college degree! How dare you disagree with me, infidels!!!"

If any of you so-called experts knew what the fuck you were talking about, the world wouldn't be shit right now.

You had your turn. We're done with you.

Either ride off into the sunset and enjoy your retirement, or scream into the void until you have a stroke for all I care.

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

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 5:33 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:

Oh fuck you dude...

"I read books and I have a college degree! How dare you disagree with me, infidels!!!"

If any of you so-called experts knew what the fuck you were talking about, the world wouldn't be shit right now.

You had your turn. We're done with you.

Either ride off into the sunset and enjoy your retirement, or scream into the void until you have a stroke for all I care.

6ix, did you know that Confederate slave owners invaded the US and murdered hundreds of thousands in an almost successful coup? What's that got to do with you and Trump?

Trump is renaming military bases to honor Confederate traitors because nothing says patriotism like honoring enemies of the United States.

Donald Trump Lists Confederate Fort Names He Plans to Restore

By Gabe Whisnant | Jun 10, 2025 at 7:34 PM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-restoring-confederate-fort-names
-including-robert-e-lee-2083684

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that he's restoring the name of Fort Robert E. Lee and other current or former military instillations that were previously named after soldiers that led the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Trump told U.S. Army soldiers during a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, "For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee."

As with the recent renaming of Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, Defense officials said Tuesday they selected service members with matching last names to rename the bases—ensuring the installations no longer “officially” bore names linked to the Confederacy.

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 5:41 AM

SECOND

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

Did you wonder why Trump says America is falling apart? Scientifically proven answer: To attract people with a certain kind of personality to himself. By the way, America is not breaking down, but there are broken-down Americans, thanks to their smoking, drinking, and their other self-destructive ways and means of coping with anxiety:

Perceived social breakdown fuels desire for authoritarian leaders, new psychology study shows

By Eric W. Dolan | June 10, 2025

https://www.psypost.org/perceived-social-breakdown-fuels-desire-for-au
thoritarian-leaders-new-psychology-study-shows/

When people perceive society as falling apart, they may become more receptive to authoritarian leaders—those who promise order, control, and certainty. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which provides the first causal evidence linking the perception of societal breakdown, or “anomie,” to support for authoritarianism. According to the researchers, this link is explained by a sequential process: anomie leads people to feel politically powerless, which then creates political uncertainty—ultimately increasing the appeal of authoritarian rule. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000483

The study aimed to address several unresolved questions in the existing literature on political psychology. While many prior studies had shown that people who perceive society as chaotic are more likely to support authoritarianism, the evidence had been correlational. It was unclear whether anomie truly caused increased support for authoritarianism or whether other psychological factors were responsible. It was also unclear how anomie exerted its influence—whether through feelings of powerlessness, uncertainty, or both.

Anomie is the perception that a society’s norms, values, and leadership are breaking down. People experiencing anomie often feel that social order is disintegrating, moral standards are unclear, and institutions are ineffective or illegitimate. This sense of societal instability can create feelings of alienation and disconnection.

To investigate these questions, the researchers began by reviewing prior theories and debates. Sociologists and psychologists have long suggested that anomie, defined as the perception that society’s moral fabric and leadership structures are disintegrating, can lead individuals to seek strong, controlling authorities. Some have argued that this happens because people feel politically ineffective; others have emphasized the role of confusion and unpredictability in politics. The new study sought to test whether both of these processes work together—and whether one leads to the other.

The researchers proposed a sequential model. According to their hypothesis, anomie leads to a perceived lack of political control. This repeated feeling of powerlessness then causes political uncertainty—a sense that politics no longer makes sense or is too chaotic to understand. People then turn to authoritarianism, which promises clarity, order, and strong leadership. To test this model, the researchers conducted a multi-part investigation combining large-scale survey data and controlled experiments.

In their first study, the researchers analyzed data from the 2006 . . .

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 5:59 AM

SECOND

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

How does Trump find time to be President and also make $billions?
The answer is that he could not make $billions unless he were President because he is deregulating the new business he opened since being elected!

Trump’s Crypto Playbook Is Now Clear

His business dealings and policy agenda are now in perfect alignment.

By Will Gottsegen | June 10, 2025, 11:30 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/06/trump-crypto-pe
rfect-alignment/683094/

The world of crypto can feel impenetrable. The basic technology is complicated enough, but the subculture—with its own particular argot and decorum—is what’s truly forbidding. Even if you’re not quite ready to figure out what DePIN or zk-SNARKs are, you can get a solid glimpse into the industry right now just by looking at the lineup of the 2025 Bitcoin Conference, held late last month in Las Vegas. Speakers included goofball meme-coin boosters, good-hearted cypherpunks, crypto podcasters with names such as “Gwart,” and an army of Wall Street execs who seem to have waited until bitcoin hit $100,000 to give the whole crypto thing a shot.

There were also a whole lot of MAGA acolytes. Vice President J. D. Vance, the eldest Trump sons, and the White House crypto czar David Sacks all gave speeches that coalesced around a unifying theme: Trump and crypto are meant for each other. “What’s going on here in this very room, at this very conference, that’s the financial side of everything we’ve been fighting for on the free-speech side,” Don Jr. said during a conversation with the CEO of Rumble, a social-media platform favored by right-wing users. “They’re inextricably linked.”

In other words, the message was that Trump cares deeply about the kinds of civil-libertarian ideas that the bitcoin world has long touted. It’s a convenient narrative, a lofty way of explaining this once very bitcoin-skeptical president’s sudden embrace of crypto. At least, it’s one that transcends sheer self-enrichment: In the past year, members of the Trump family have launched two meme coins and announced a majority stake in a new crypto firm, World Liberty Financial. As I’ve previously written, crypto is quickly becoming the Trump family business: Last month, the president hosted the biggest investors in his $TRUMP coin for a private dinner at his golf course outside Washington, D.C.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/trump-crypto-bi
llionaire/682763/

But the linkages between Trump and crypto run deeper than just a couple of business investments. His White House has also ushered in a starkly pro-crypto agenda—rolling back regulations and dropping lawsuits to punish alleged crypto wrongdoing. The same week that Don Jr. spoke at the Bitcoin Conference, the Department of Labor eased a Biden-era guidance that made it difficult for Americans to invest their 401(k) plans in crypto because digital currencies can be volatile and prone to hacks. In cutting this language, regulators are taking away a guardrail, encouraging more investment in crypto. This, in turn, could boost the price of bitcoin and other coins, which is a boon to Trump’s own enterprises. It always comes back to the president himself: Trump’s crypto ambitions are as much about public policy as they are about his own meme coins.

Crypto has become the glue that binds together so much of what the president and his administration are doing. Consider Trump Media & Technology Group, best-known as the parent company of his social-media app, Truth Social. Trump Media didn’t start as a crypto business, but now it’s pivoting to crypto. Late last month, Trump Media announced that it would raise money to purchase $2.5 billion in bitcoin, effectively creating a corporate bitcoin reserve. Why? “We view bitcoin as an apex instrument of financial freedom,” Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump Media and a former Republican congressman, said in a statement. Putting the pseudo-utopian language aside, such a bitcoin reserve mostly just serves to tie the price of Trump Media’s stock, $DJT, to the price of bitcoin writ large. A multibillion-dollar investment is unreservedly good for crypto, but it’s also good for the Trump family, because much of the president’s own net worth is now tied up in crypto assets. (Neither the White House nor the Trump Media & Technology Group responded to my requests for comment.)

Perhaps the idea of a bitcoin reserve sounds familiar. It explicitly mirrors the White House’s announcement of a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” in March, as part of a broader effort to make the U.S. a global leader in crypto. Both serve the same function: Such large-scale institutional investment in crypto—whether from the government or a company—further legitimizes these digital currencies, ensuring their long-term viability as an asset class. Trump’s campaign to promote crypto and juice the price of these coins is in essence two-pronged: Once the White House sets its agenda, the Trump family’s private-sector business can back it.

Trump was all about pro-crypto policy even before he began launching his raft of crypto businesses. His campaign promise to fire Biden’s top crypto cop, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, helped pull in donations from industry heavyweights. Especially after the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried, Gensler was focused on prosecuting individual crypto companies—a policy now derisively referred to as “Operation Choke Point 2.0” (a nod to the Obama-era initiative that put pressure on banks to stop working with payday lenders, pawn shops, and certain other businesses). During his keynote speech at the Bitcoin Conference, Vance put it bluntly: “Operation Choke Point 2.0 is dead, and it’s not coming back under the Trump administration.”

Indeed, the administration has dropped more than a dozen lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms. And as Trump’s second term has gone on, the distinctions between what’s pro-Trump and what’s pro-crypto have blurred together, approaching something like a singularity. In MAGA cosmology, crypto, Trump, and America now exist in perfect alignment—what’s good for one is good for the others. While Trump talks about bringing back manufacturing jobs to the U.S., the Trump sons are running a crypto-mining company called American Bitcoin and Trump Media is throwing its weight behind “Made in America” crypto investment funds. After firing many of the top regulators responsible for keeping crypto in check, Trump has cleared the way for major cash injections throughout the crypto industry—including, of course, in his own businesses. The pretense for the regulatory rollbacks and Trump’s personal crypto investments is the same: It benefits America.

The irony is that cryptocurrencies were supposed to be a form of protection against exactly this sort of connection to the state. Bitcoin was invented as a way to privately transfer money online, with the ambitious goal of creating a new financial order outside the purview of the international monetary regime, uncontrolled by any government. (After all, the technical basis for crypto is known as “decentralization.”) In loosening crypto restrictions that benefit the industry (and Trump himself), Trump is manifesting the old crypto dream of a new financial order. But far from being faceless and decentralized, the very concept of crypto is starting to reflect the image of just one man.

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 7:06 AM

SECOND

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

If You Lie With DOGE You Get Fleeced

By Paul Krugman / Jun 11, 2025 at 5:34 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/if-you-lie-with-doge-you-get-fleece
d

I have to admit that even now I’m not sure how the Donald Trump/Elon Musk breakup will play out. We’ve seen so many Trump critics eventually cave, engaging in humiliating acts of self-abasement, that it’s hard to be sure that even Musk — who has a monstrous ego, but whose business interests can be badly damaged by a vengeful president — is immune.

But one indication that this breach won’t be easily resolved is the pace at which anti-Musk stories are being leaked to the news media.

I was especially struck by reports of a confrontation between Musk and Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary. We have solid reporting of the fact that the two men fought over the choice of acting IRS commissioner, and that Bessent won. Unfortunately, our only account of what happened next comes from Steve Bannon. But that story is almost too good not to be true.

According to Bannon, after the meeting the two men began exchanging insults, with Bessent pointing out that Musk had promised to find trillions of dollars in wasteful spending but come up empty. “You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,” Bessent supposedly said. At that point Musk body-checked the Treasury secretary, who hit back, and White House staff had to break up the fight.

Is this story plausible? Is the world’s richest man so lacking in self-control that he would behave like a hopped-up adolescent in the White House? Of course he is — that’s the completely plausible part of the story. I’m a little more skeptical of the portrayal of Bessent as someone willing to speak the truth that bluntly.

But in any case what Bessent supposedly said was completely true. Musk is a total fraud. He failed to deliver on his promises of huge deficit reduction. In fact, DOGE almost certainly lost money. There’s no evidence for many of the cost savings it claims, and the “receipts” it has provided are full of misstatements and errors. And the disruption it caused almost surely cost taxpayers more than any minor savings it may have found.

Furthermore, its depredations have left both the federal government and the nation as a whole degraded and weakened in ways that will take years to reverse.

Of course, you shouldn’t expect anyone in the Trump administration to admit that DOGE was a complete, costly bust. These people never admit being wrong. But if you look at what is actually happening right now, there’s clearly a frantic effort at de-DOGEification. The Washington Post reports,

Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process.

The people DOGE installed in federal agencies appear to be losing most or all of their influence now that they no longer have a patron with the president’s ear, and it appears that at least some of the young tech bros Musk tried to put in charge of government programs they didn’t understand are self-deporting.

Oh, and if you think I’m being disrespectful by making fun of the Muskenjugend, consider what we’ve learned about the U.S. Institute for Peace, which DOGE took over for a while before being forced by the courts to give up control. Returning workers reportedly found the office full of cockroaches and rodents, with leftover marijuana and empty beer bottles strewn about.

All of this was completely predictable. Well, maybe not a fistfight in the White House, but anyone who knew anything about how the federal government spends its money knew that DOGE would fail.

To repeat the old line, the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Musk made a brief stab at going after the insurance side, with his ludicrous claim that millions of dead people were collecting Social Security, but aside from that all of DOGE’s efforts were focused on where the money isn’t — nondefense discretionary spending (NDD).

Was this small segment of the budget bloated and full of waste? Hardly. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities documents, NDD on the eve of Musk’s arrival was historically low as a percentage of GDP:

And if you look at the major categories within NDD, nothing stands out as an obvious waste of money:

Or maybe I should say, nothing looks like an obvious place to make big cuts unless you think it’s a good idea to slash spending on international affairs — largely foreign aid — along with spending on science, environment and medical research. The Trump administration is indeed making big cuts in all these areas, but not because they involve waste and fraud. Instead, the goal seems to be to undermine U.S. influence in the world and destroy U.S. scientific leadership.

In any case, none of this has anything to do with the massive savings Musk claimed he would achieve by eliminating waste and fraud.

So how could he have made such foolish claims? After all, Musk is a brilliant businessman, creator of fantastic products like the Cybertruck. Oh, wait. https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-problems-cybertruck-trump-mus
k-feud-89501946

But the real point isn’t Musk’s personal failings. It’s the falsity of the whole claim that the U.S. government wastes vast amounts of taxpayers’ money. Of course there’s waste and fraud there, as there is in any large organization. But the federal government has in fact historically been a well-run organization, with many dedicated workers doing their jobs as best they can despite often being paid less than they could earn in the private sector.

Then Musk marched in, told these workers that they were worthless and pushed many of them out. He was wrong, and now he’s gone. But after the way they’ve been treated, the best federal workers are probably the least likely to return now that even the Trump administration is beginning to realize that it needs them.

America will spend years paying the price for Musk’s fraudulence.

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

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 7:37 AM

SECOND

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

Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 campaign.
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-trump-family-presidency-wealth
/?embedded-checkout=true

Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures.

The United States is becoming just another country with a strongman personalizing and profiting from power. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, a MAGA favorite, has pursued this playbook on a smaller scale, leveraging the power of the state to marginalize opponents while his associates became ostentatiously wealthy.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-17/orban-style-cronyis
m-turns-gas-fitter-friend-into-a-billionaire?embedded-checkout=true

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

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