REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Friday, August 15, 2025 18:30
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Wednesday, August 13, 2025 2:15 PM

SECOND

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


Trump’s DOJ peddles grim fantasies in court filing to save tariffs

The Trump administration claimed the U.S. economy would fall to pieces if the president’s widely unpopular tariff policy isn’t upheld.

By Ja'han Jones | Aug. 12, 2025, 2:22 PM CDT

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-tariffs-appeals-court-e
conomy-great-depression-rcna224525

An absurd new court filing from the Trump administration tries to scare a U.S. appeals court with grim predictions of economic catastrophe should it uphold and immediately enforce a ruling that blocked many of the president’s haphazard and widely unpopular tariffs.

On Monday, the Justice Department basically copied and pasted a hysterical plea from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account, in which the president claimed the country would experience another Great Depression if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirms and enforces a May decision from a Court of International Trade panel that found many of Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries were illegal. Judges at the appeals court have already expressed skepticism about the Trump administration’s arguments.

In a letter to the court, Solicitor General John Sauer and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate argued that even if the judges agree that some of Trump’s tariffs are illegal, they should hold off on enforcing its decision while the administration appeals to the Supreme Court. And the letter was replete with Trumpian self-praise and propaganda:
Quote:
There is no substitute for the tariffs and deals that President Trump has made. One year ago, the United States was a dead country, and now, because of the trillions of dollars being paid by countries that have so badly abused us, America is a strong, financially viable, and respected country again. If the United States were forced to pay back the trillions of dollars committed to us, America could go from strength to failure the moment such an incorrect decision took effect.

These deals for trillions of dollars have been reached, and other countries have committed to pay massive sums of money. If the United States were forced to unwind these historic agreements, the President believes that a forced dissolution of the agreements could lead to a 1929-style result. In such a scenario, people would be forced from their homes, millions of jobs would be eliminated, hard-working Americans would lose their savings, and even Social Security and Medicare could be threatened.
The country, of course, wasn’t “dead” a year ago — though it has teetered on the brink of recession under Trump and continues to suffer the impact of his protectionist agenda. For instance, U.S. companies paying these tariffs have started passing the costs on to consumers.

In reality, there’s no evidence that outlawing Trump’s tariffs would destroy the economy.

There’s also no guarantee that Trump’s trade agreements will ever bring in trillions of dollars, in part because, as my colleague Steve Benen recently noted, it’s still an open question whether some of the agreements are even legally binding or enforceable. And it’s certainly rich for Trump’s DOJ to warn about purported threats to jobs, Medicare and Social Security when his administration has gutted the federal workforce and he recently signed a budget that includes massive cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.

In reality, there’s no evidence that outlawing Trump’s tariffs would destroy the economy. To the contrary, many American consumers and companies would probably breathe a sigh of relief if they were freed from the dictatorial whim of their wannabe king and the tariff-induced taxes effectively placed on various goods. It’s a sign of desperation that the administration is relying on scare tactics to claim otherwise.

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

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Wednesday, August 13, 2025 3:01 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Hackification

Arendt’s Law comes for economic data

By Paul Krugman | Aug 13, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/hackification

On Monday I wrote about D.T’s


Uh Oh...

Paul's calling him "D.T" now (no period after Trump, just "D.T").

Was this a directive from above to stop putting Trump in his articles a dozen times, or has he finally realized that nobody is reading his articles anymore when he puts the word Trump in them?



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

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

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Wednesday, August 13, 2025 3:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
By Ja'han Jones


Here's a quarter. Go call someone who cares. Or better yet, buy yourself a real first name.

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

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 7:27 AM

SECOND

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


Just how much has DOGE exaggerated its numbers? Now we have receipts.

A POLITICO analysis of DOGE data reveals the organization saved less than 5 percent of its claimed savings from nearly 10,100 contract terminations.

By Jessie Blaeser | 08/12/2025 04:40 PM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-doge-contract-claims-sa
vings-inflation-00498178

The Trump administration’s claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records.

Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.

Despite the administration’s claims, not a single one of those 1.4 billion dollars will lower the federal deficit unless Congress steps in. Instead, the money has been returned to agencies mandated by law to spend it.

DOGE’s latest figures on contract cuts ticked up to $54.2 billion in an update posted on Tuesday.

POLITICO’s findings come on top of months of scrutiny of DOGE’s accounting, but the magnitude of DOGE’s inflated savings claims has not been clear until now.

Even so, President Donald Trump claimed hundreds of billions of dollars had already been used to reduce the federal deficit. The former head of DOGE, Elon Musk, initially promised the organization would reduce the deficit by $2 trillion. Many in Trump’s Cabinet have also celebrated DOGE’s efforts, including his secretaries of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture.

DOGE’s savings calculations are based on faulty math. The group uses the maximum spending possible under each contract as its baseline — meaning all money an agency could spend in future fiscal years. That amount can far exceed what the government has actually committed to pay out.

Counting this “ceiling value” gives a false picture of savings for taxpayers.

“That’s the equivalent of basically taking out a credit card with a $20,000 credit limit, canceling it and then saying, ‘I’ve just saved $20,000,’” said Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University Law School. “Anything that’s been said publicly about [DOGE’s] savings is meaningless.”

The White House disagrees. DOGE has produced “historic savings for the American people,” White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in an email in response to questions about DOGE’s activities. DOGE’s site, he said, provides up-to-date and accurate information. “All numbers are rigorously scrubbed with agency procurement officials and updated in real time based on current information,” he said.

DOGE’s public list of records, or what it calls its “wall of receipts,” says the site only represents a subset of the organization’s overall savings. However, even among the sample of contracts it posted through July, roughly 40 percent of claimed savings could not be verified due to a lack of identifying information.

DOGE’s fuzzy math

Much more at https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-doge-contract-claims-sa
vings-inflation-00498178

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 7:34 AM

SECOND

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


MAGA’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts

By Paul Krugman / Aug 14, 2025 at 5:36 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/magas-feelings-dont-care-about-your

Just under two weeks ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp slowdown in job growth — consistent with independent surveys that also show a slowing economy. Donald Trump responded by firing the Bureau’s head and wants to replace her with an unqualified right-wing hack — let’s be honest, OK? — whose big idea for dealing with troubling job numbers is to stop releasing them.

This week Trump seized control of the Washington DC police force and sent in the National Guard to deal with what he claims is a runaway crime wave, even though crime in the District has been falling rapidly.

What these two stories have in common is this: MAGA’s feelings don’t care about your facts. And the rejection of data Trump doesn’t like will surely extend to many areas beyond jobs and crime.

About jobs: E.J. Antoni, Trump’s pick for BLS Commissioner, has actually said that we should define a recession not on the basis of things like employment data or GDP but by how people “feel.” Now, that criterion wouldn’t serve him or his master very well if we look at surveys of public opinion. The American people appear to feel really bad about the economy:


But we already know that Trump dismisses polls he doesn’t like as fake news. So in practice, I think that Antoni is saying that we should define a recession by how Trump feels. And since he insists we’re in a boom, it’s all good.

About crime: If Trumpists wanted to make a semi-serious argument for occupying Washington, it would be that while DC crime is falling, it’s still high compared with relatively low-crime cities like New York or Los Angeles.

But that would mean admitting that big cities run by Democrats aren’t dystopian hellscapes, and they aren’t about to do that. Instead, we get assertions that crime data are rigged:


May I say that to anyone who pays the slightest amount of attention to New York politics, the idea that the NYPD is rigging the crime data to make liberal mayors look good is simply hilarious.

Anyway, MAGA types feel that big blue cities are incredibly dangerous, and they aren’t going to let actual facts about crime get in the way.

So which facts will be rejected in favor of feelings next? Trump’s tariffs are already starting to show in the inflation numbers, and the vast majority of independent economists believe that we’ll be seeing a lot more of that in the months ahead. Or maybe we won’t be seeing it. If a Trumpified BLS can stop releasing employment data, surely it can stop releasing price data too. Canceling those monthly reports would clearly be illegal, but who thinks that matters?

Then what? My guess is that the next frontier in feelings-over-facts will involve public health.

I’m not sure how many Americans realize how low our life expectancy is compared with other rich countries. The divergence began under Ronald Reagan, and was already a chasm even before partisanship led many Americans on the right to reject Covid vaccines:


In case you’re wondering, I included the most recent estimate for New York City, which aside from being a dystopian hellscape is one of the few places in America that has life expectancy comparable to other advanced countries. As Justin Fox has pointed out, a lot of this has to do with New Yorkers being less likely than other Americans to die in traffic accidents.

Anyway, we now have an anti-vaxxer, who reportedly doesn’t even accept the germ theory of infectious diseases, serving as America’s top health official. So it seems highly likely that U.S. life expectancy will fall even further behind the rest of the advanced world.

And there’s another factor that I didn’t take into account the last time I wrote about the MAGA Death Trip. Between cuts to Medicaid, reduced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and other policy changes, it seems likely that around 17 million Americans will lose health insurance over the next few years. And there’s clear evidence that loss of insurance will lead to higher mortality.

But RFK Jr. feels that he understands public health better than so-called medical experts, and neither Trump nor his allies seem to feel any concern about the impact of their budget decisions on health coverage.

So what will the response be when the data showing a sharp rise in uninsurance and a decline in life expectancy start coming in? It’s hard not to suspect that the people in charge will dismiss these numbers as fake and do their best to stop publishing them.

All in all, we’re clearly entering an era of policy driven by feelings rather than facts. But facts always win in the end.

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 8:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
MAGA’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts

By Paul Krugman


Your "facts" are bullshit, Paul.

Go fuck yourself and your dead party. Nobody is listening to you anymore.

How does it feel?



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

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 11:06 AM

SECOND

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


"The trial run"

Trump’s occupation of Washington, D.C.

https://angrybearblog.com/2025/08/crime-rates-in-d-c-more-presidential
-b-s

It’s important to see Trump’s occupation of Washington, D.C. as a trial run for a possible military occupation of the United States, including martial law, later in his term. I don’t want to be paranoid, but Trump may figure he needs such a plan if his strategies to hold Congress after the midterm elections raise too much public opposition, especially in big Democratic cities.

I suspect he’s most interested in learning six things:

1. How quickly and obediently the Defense Department and the National Guard are able to act in a major city, when their major purpose is a show of force rather than to quell any specific disturbance. Los Angeles was another trial run, when the Department of Defense ordered some 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 Marines there as thousands of immigration activists and supporters marched in the streets and outside federal buildings to demonstrate their opposition to Trump’s mass deportation effort.

2. How legal challenges are handled in the federal courts — on what basis they’re made, how federal judges respond, and what sorts of appeals are filed. California has sued the Trump administration for what it called an unwarranted deployment in LA and won an early victory from Judge Charles Breyer, who ruled that the federal government had violated the 10th Amendment clarifying the balance of power between federal and state governments. The Trump administration appealed that ruling, arguing that courts cannot second-guess the president’s orders. The U.S. Department of Justice has just secured a temporary halt to Judge Breyer’s ruling, which allows control of the California National Guard to remain with Trump.

Central to the legal debate is the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which bars a president from using the military as a domestic police force. The LA case could set a precedent for how the Trump administration handles future deployments of federal troops in Baltimore and other cities.

3. How the media reacts. Trump couldn’t care less about outlets like MSNBC or The New York Times. He’s interested in how the deployment is covered by local affiliates of major networks and by Fox News and Newsmax. In particular, he’s testing Rupert Murdoch’s reaction. Murdoch has broken with Trump on Trump’s decision to continue to cover up the Epstein scandal, but will Murdoch back him on this?

4. Whether it wipes away almost all Epstein stories. Trump must suspect that Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is sitting on other Epstein bombshells similar to the ones it has recently released. The Journal could be awaiting the slow news holes of mid-August. So part of Trump’s trial run here is to gauge how much of a distraction he can create that continues to keep additional Epstein stories out of sight.

5. How it plays with his base. On the one hand, his MAGA base is mainly rural and white; they think of big cities as dens of iniquity, filled with people of color. Yet they’re also conservative when it comes to the deployment of federal troops inside the nation; some remember the use of federal troops to enforce integration of public schools in the South. So Trump is using this trial run to gauge which way the base goes.

6. How it plays with Republicans in Congress. Trump knows he has them cowed most of the time but may worry that when they’re back in their states and districts, they’ll feel some heat from their constituents, both MAGA and non-MAGA. This trial run during the August recess allows him to get a measure of how strongly Republicans will back him if and when he goes national with an occupation.

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 1:06 PM

SECOND

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


President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the Bureau of Labor Statistics was hanging around the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but the White House swears he’s not an insurrectionist.

Earlier this week, the president announced that he was nominating Heritage Foundation economist and Project 2025 architect E.J. Antoni to replace the previous stats chief, whom Trump abruptly fired on Aug. 1 after receiving several months of weak jobs data.

The choice to appoint a MAGA hardliner to a position that requires nonpartisan professional analysis sparked immediate fears that BLS data will no longer be reliable if the Senate confirms Antoni.

It turns out that Antoni also happens to have a giant picture of Adolf Hitler’s favorite battleship hanging in his office.

Antoni may have indeed been a mere bystander at the Capitol, but his commitment to Trump was on display this week when he suggested a novel way for dealing with bad jobs numbers: getting rid of monthly jobs reports altogether.

Economists — including former Republican officials — called the proposal a “disastrously bad idea.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-scrambles-to-explain-why-tru
mps-labor-statistics-boss-ej-antoni-was-at-the-capitol-on-jan-6/

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 1:10 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


There was no insurrection, faggot.

And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day.

Shut the fuck up. You're finished.

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

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 3:22 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:
There was no insurrection, faggot.

And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day.

Shut the fuck up. You're finished.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, feeling panicky? Maybe smoking a few cigarettes will calm you down. Or drinking a six pack of beer is what you need. It always worked before. Alcohol certainly has medicinal properties.

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 3:22 PM

SECOND

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


Trump Privately Dismissed Epstein Victims as ‘Democrats’

The president and his administration are struggling to bury the scandal around their handling of the convicted sex offender's case

By Nikki McCann Ramirez, Asawin Suebsaeng | August 14, 2025

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-privatel
y-dismissed-epstein-victims-democrats-1235407549/

Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress, and the president’s allies across right-wing media have been trying everything to make public backlash to their botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation go away, amid reports that Trump himself appears in the government’s files pertaining to the convicted sex offender.

The administration’s attempts to bury the story have been complicated by some of Epstein’s victims, and their families, speaking out as the scandal has intensified. Trump hasn’t engaged with them, but just because the president is publicly keeping his mouth shut about Epstein’s victims and their family members doesn’t mean he isn’t annoyed by them.

At times, Trump has said that some of these people speaking out are, in his words, clearly of a “Democrat” political affiliation, while wondering aloud if some of them are coordinating with prominent liberal attorneys or groups.

“None of this is true,” a White House official said in response to a request for comment. “Just another desperate attempt by the failing Rolling Stone.”

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have for weeks now been criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of the case after the Justice Department announced in early July that it would not be releasing the so-called Epstein files. The outcry intensified following reports that Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had been transferred to a significantly cushier prison facility in Texas after the Justice Department spoke with her in Florida. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of child sex trafficking and other offenses related to her relationship with Epstein.

Annie and Maria Farmer, two sisters who accused Epstein of assaulting them and testified against Maxwell during her trial, have gone public with their criticism of the administration’s sidelining of victims. Earlier this month, Annie Farmer told CNN that “this chaotic process that’s been unfolding has a real cost for survivors.”

Farmer indicated that survivors had not been informed of the Justice Department’s efforts to meet with Maxwell, or the decision to transfer her to a minimum-security prison.

Farmer added that efforts by right-wing pundits and others to paint Maxwell as another Epstein victim was a ploy to make a potential commutation of Maxwell’s 20-year sentence “more palatable” to the public. Trump hasn’t ruled out pardoning Maxwell, telling reporters that he is “allowed” to do it.

“It feels like that campaign is not working. People recognize that she’s a predator, not a victim,” Farmer added.

The president’s frustrations with these accusers and relatives comes as the Trump administration shambolically tries and fails to move the public’s attention away from his relationship with the convicted sex offender, and his government’s decision to shield its files on the case from the public. The president is desperate to talk about literally anything else, to the point that he is reviving unfounded theories about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, while telling his Justice Department to “go after” Barack Obama and his other political enemies.

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2025 11:21 PM

SECOND

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


For those keeping track. Trump put himself in charge of the Kennedy Center, then invited himself to host the awards, then told himself he was President and "do I have time?" but humbly accepted the offer from himself before praising himself for honoring himself like no one else would.

And no, I'm not actually exaggerating. This really happened.

7:16 PM · Aug 13, 2025

https://x.com/KellyScaletta/status/1955785629716852777

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 12:12 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
There was no insurrection, faggot.

And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day.

Shut the fuck up. You're finished.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, feeling panicky?


What on earth would even make you think that?

I'm legitimately curious.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 7:51 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
There was no insurrection, faggot.

And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day.

Shut the fuck up. You're finished.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, feeling panicky?


What on earth would even make you think that?

I'm legitimately curious.
6ix, you are scared of going into a city. Quoting you: "And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day."

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 7:52 AM

SECOND

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


Stagflation: Shooting the Messengers

Mainstream economists’ critiques of Trump were right

By Paul Krugman | Aug 15, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/stagflation-shooting-the-messengers

A few days ago Donald Trump issued another of his hysterical broadsides, this time attacking a prominent economist who had warned that his policies would cause higher inflation and an economic slowdown. And guess what: We aren’t talking about me. Instead, Trump demanded that Goldman Sachs fire its chief economist, presumably meaning Jan Hatzius.

True, he didn’t call out Hatzius by name, let alone call him a “Deranged BUM,” so I think I’m still ahead on points. But Trump’s latest tirade is one more indication of the extent to which he is triggered by any suggestion that he isn’t delivering on his economic promises.

Bear in mind that Trump inherited an economy in very good shape. Inflation, which surged around the world in 2021-22, had come way down without the recession many predicted. Growth in both GDP and employment was solid. As The Economist put it, the U.S. economy was “The envy of the world” in the fall of 2024.

Trump could have just left this success story alone and claimed credit. If he had, he’d probably be riding high in the polls right now. Instead, however, he took economic policy in a radical direction, notably by raising tariffs to levels not seen in 90 years. Tariffs, he insisted, would create an economic miracle.

What set him off about Goldman Sachs was that Hatzius and his team had just reiterated their prediction that Trump’s tariffs, rather than producing prosperity, will increase inflation and slow economic growth. This is a very mainstream position. While Hatzius has sometimes made predictions at odds with many of his colleagues, on this occasion Goldman was very much part of the professional consensus. And what is driving Trump crazy is the growing evidence that mainstream economists were right.

Before I get there, a word about Hatzius.

For all his self-aggrandizing bluster, Trump is clearly very insecure about his economic bona fides. On one side, he lashes out at any hint of criticism; on the other, he invariably claims that the people he chooses to listen to aren’t just his personal favorites but have great reputations in the wider world. Most recently, he proclaimed E.J. Antoni, who he wants to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a Highly Respected Economist, when the truth is that economists who have looked at Antoni’s work, such as it is, consider him "utterly unqualified" , someone ignorant of basic facts relevant to his potential new job, like the effect of an aging population on labor force participation.

And what was Antoni doing as part of the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6?

Source: NBC

But Hatzius really is a Highly Respected Economist. As a profile last year in the Wall Street Journal noted, he has “nailed some big calls.” He correctly predicted a soft landing from the inflationary shock of 2021-22 when many economists insisted that disinflation would require years of high unemployment. Earlier, back in 2008, he warned that the bursting housing bubble could cause a severe recession, when many were still dismissing that risk.

And yes, Hatzius has made some bad calls too. If you’re an economist who has never made an incorrect prediction, you aren’t taking enough risks.

Overall, however, Hatzius has an impressive record of getting things right when many of his colleagues got them wrong. Yet he isn’t one of those attention-seeking economists who is constantly making out-of-consensus predictions and has gotten lucky on a few occasions. Most of the time he and his team are, as they are on tariffs, close to the mainstream view.

And what’s driving Trump crazy (well, crazier) is that as the data roll in, they are increasingly suggesting that the mainstream view was right.

Trump has been insisting that his tariffs will create an economic boom while having no effect on consumer prices. But most independent economists have argued that the tariffs will hurt economic growth while raising prices.

Sure enough, the jobs data released two weeks ago point to a significant economic slowdown, while the two inflation reports released this week — on consumer and producer prices — show clear fingerprints of the effects of tariffs on prices.

To be clear, what we’re looking at so far is probably a 1 or 2 point rise in inflation and a moderate rise in unemployment that might not be enough to be considered a recession. But Trump’s tariffs combined with his savage cuts to social programs will be a huge burden on lower-income households.

And tariffs aren’t the only source of rising prices. Look at what just happened to the wholesale price of fresh vegetables. Here’s the one-month percentage change in vegetable prices, which was a shocking 50 percent in July:

Source: BLS

That’s probably partly ICE at work. After all, who do you think picks vegetables?

Still, as far as I know, the only prominent figure warning about imminent economic catastrophe is Trump himself, who insists that we will face a GREAT DEPRESSION if the courts rule that his illegal tariffs are in fact illegal.

Trump, however, is now staring down the barrels of a different kind of catastrophe, one that is more political and psychological than strictly economic. His whole act — and for Trump, everything is an act — is based around claiming to be an economic genius, who knows far more than all those so-called experts. For a normal president, discovering that he got the economy wrong would hurt, but not that much. For Trump, it would be a humiliating defeat.

So Trump is doing what he always does when he receives bad news: try to shoot the messenger. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported weak job growth, he fired the agency’s head. When Goldman Sachs reported that tariffs are indeed raising consumer prices, he demanded that the firm fire its chief economist.

This won’t work, of course. And Trump’s refusal to accept bad news makes sustained stagflation much more likely.

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 8:48 AM

SECOND

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


Trump's sex escapades will rewrite Federal Law. The Winds of Change are blowing

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Petition to the Supreme Court

The convicted sex offender is raising an important legal question—about whether an agreement by one federal prosecutor binds his colleagues across the country.

By Jeannie Suk Gersen | August 14, 2025

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/ghislaine-maxwells-petition-to
-the-supreme-court

The Supreme Court has been busy during its summer break, issuing decisions on emergency petitions that have enabled President Donald Trump to gut the Department of Education, deport people to South Sudan, and fire swaths of federal employees and agency heads. The Justices have so far kept clear of the revival of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, which has managed to wobble the MAGA movement’s support for Trump—but, when they return to considering ordinary petitions this fall, one awaits that invites them into the matter. The petition is from Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted, in 2021, of federal crimes related to enabling Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls, and who was then sentenced to twenty years in prison. She maintains that the federal government’s non-prosecution agreement with Epstein gave her immunity, and so her convictions must be thrown out. And, amazingly enough, she has a point.

Recall that, back in 2007, when Epstein was being federally investigated for sex trafficking of minors, he agreed to plead guilty to state-law crimes and serve an eighteen-month prison sentence in Florida. In exchange, Alex Acosta, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, promised that his office would not prosecute Epstein for the federal crimes under investigation. The wider Epstein scandal that blew up in 2018 was triggered by new reporting about that sweetheart deal, including the government’s failure to inform his victims about the non-prosecution agreement at the time, and the extent of Epstein’s predations. Julie K. Brown, of the Miami Herald, identified about eighty possible victims. Epstein had ended up serving only thirteen months, including time in the Palm Beach County jail, work release, and house arrest. In the wake of significant public outcry about the case, which became an element of the #MeToo movement, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein for sex trafficking in 2019. Epstein died while in federal custody—the Justice Department concluded that he killed himself—before he could pursue a challenge to the indictment or proceed to trial.

After his death, federal prosecutors indicted Maxwell, and it fell to her to brandish the 2007 agreement between Epstein and the government—which included the promise that “the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.” Maxwell is undeniably a co-conspirator of Epstein with respect to the matters addressed in the agreement. Yet federal prosecutors in New York did indict her—apparently not feeling bound by the promise of federal prosecutors in Florida.

Given the slow pace of indictment, trial, and appeal, it is only now that the Supreme Court might consider the question that the case has raised from the start: Does one U.S. Attorney’s agreement on behalf of the United States bind federal prosecutors in other districts? After all, they are all part of the Department of Justice, and all of them represent the U.S. government in enforcing federal law. If so, Maxwell, as a beneficiary of the agreement’s provision of immunity, is entitled to have her conviction for sex trafficking of a minor, for which she received the longest sentence, vacated. (She was also convicted of several other crimes that occurred before the 2001-07 time frame covered by the non-prosecution agreement.) The issue extends well beyond Maxwell. At least two appellate courts—including the Second Circuit, which rejected Maxwell’s appeal of her convictions—hold that an agreement binds only the specific U.S. Attorney’s Office that is a party to it. At least four appellate courts have taken a contrary position: that a U.S. Attorney’s promise on behalf of the United States binds all federal prosecutors, meaning that none of them could bring charges covered by a non-prosecution agreement. The upshot of the split is that, in addition to federal prosecutors in Florida who are bound by the Epstein agreement, those in, say, New Jersey, Virginia, California, and Iowa—and even the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein’s notorious island was located—could not have brought charges resolved in that agreement, while federal prosecutors in New York could and did.

Maxwell is asking the Supreme Court to resolve this conflict in favor of the majority of courts that have addressed the issue. As a convicted sex offender serving time for trafficking underage girls, she is an unappealing messenger for that request, to say the least. One can imagine the outcry of victims’ advocates if the Court agrees to hear Maxwell’s case. But the sole amicus brief that the Court has received is in support of Maxwell. It was filed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which argues that allowing the United States to escape a non-prosecution agreement “would work a detriment on the entire plea system” because “defendants must be able to rely on the written promises made by the government and trust that courts will honor and enforce those promises down the road.” Plea bargains resolve the vast majority of criminal cases. If a non-prosecution agreement on behalf of the United States does not actually resolve a defendant’s criminal liability, then such agreements may become much less attractive—a result that neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors should want.

But there’s a more deeply vexing question raised by this case: What exactly is “the United States”? In our federal system, each of the states is a distinct government with its own laws. At the same time, all exist within the United States—a sovereign government whose laws are, in fact, supreme. When Congress, in the Judiciary Act of 1789, created federal judicial districts, it also provided for the appointment of a U.S. Attorney in each of them, with the responsibility to “prosecute in such district” crimes “under the authority of the United States.” (In those days, few crimes would have spanned several districts.) Some judges have read “in such district” to mean that, even though federal prosecutors enforce the laws of the United States, a U.S. Attorney’s actions do not bind colleagues in other districts. That seems sensible when you imagine the possible chaos of federal prosecutors in each of the country’s ninety-four districts purporting to bind prosecutors in the other ones. But, given that the United States is supposed to be one sovereign with one body of federal law, it is possibly even more bizarre to imagine that a U.S. Attorney who claims to speak on behalf of the United States is in reality making a promise only on behalf of a single district. As the Third Circuit put it in 2002, while holding that agreements with federal prosecutors in Ohio bar prosecution by a U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania for the same crimes, “United States Attorneys should not be viewed as sovereigns of autonomous fiefdoms.”

In past months, conflicts among offices in the Department of Justice have spilled into public view—for instance, when the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than obey the order of Emil Bove, then the Deputy Attorney General (and now a Third Circuit judge) to dismiss corruption charges against Eric Adams. Sassoon saw no “good-faith basis” for the dismissal, because it was in exchange for the Mayor’s agreement to carry out the Administration’s immigration priorities. Several other federal prosecutors in New York and Washington, D.C., also resigned over the matter. Other prosecutors stepped in to do what they would not and asked a district court to dismiss the case. The court did so, “with prejudice,” meaning the prosecution cannot be revived. But the government had actually asked for a dismissal “without prejudice,” so that the charges could be resurrected whenever the government wanted, giving Adams more reason to be helpful to the Administration. Had the government got what it wanted, one unintended result would have been that—consistent with the Second Circuit’s position in Maxwell’s case—the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, which covers Brooklyn, could have indicted Adams, despite the understanding of federal prosecutors in the Southern District, which covers Manhattan, that he wouldn’t be indicted so long as he coöperated with the Administration.

Maxwell’s claim to immunity from prosecution bears some resemblance to Bill Cosby’s case, in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in 2021, reversed Cosby’s sexual-assault conviction, finding that a prior prosecutor’s promise not to charge him (in exchange for Cosby’s testimony in a civil case) was binding. Both situations involved sex crimes that the public later came to believe had been treated too leniently; prosecutors then acted contrary to previous agreements in response to changing expectations. Prosecutors responding to public outrage is not new, but, if there’s a lesson here, it is that galvanizing outrage against specific offenders may lead to convictions that do not last, because they may dispense with the fairness that even people who’ve committed the most reprehensible crimes are owed.

The U.S. Supreme Court undertakes to resolve conflicts among lower courts so that federal law can be uniform. The clear circuit split on whether U.S. Attorneys’ non-prosecution agreements bind other districts needs resolving, so it won’t be surprising if the Court agrees to hear Maxwell’s case. But, even though the case squarely presents the issue, there are reasons the Court might want to punt. Maxwell was not a party to Epstein’s agreement, though she was a beneficiary of it, and the Court may prefer to wait for a case in which the petitioner was directly involved. Another possible wrinkle is that the agreement specifically promised Epstein that he would not be prosecuted “in this District,” but said in a later clause that “the United States” would not prosecute his co-conspirators. Maxwell argues that the textual difference works in her favor, while the government argues that “the United States” in the co-conspirator clause was essentially a synonym for the earlier-mentioned district. This debate over a matter of contract interpretation and semantics arguably makes this case a less clean vehicle than one that might arrive with no dispute about whether a U.S. Attorney promised that no other U.S. Attorneys would prosecute. Additionally, even if Maxwell’s conviction for sex trafficking of a minor were vacated, her sentence would be reduced rather than eliminated. But, more likely than any other reason to decline the case, the Justices may be loath to get involved in any aspect of the Epstein mess.

Trump has made clear that he would like to end the public conversation about Epstein, which has included speculation that Trump may be implicated in his crimes. (Trump denies this.) This summer, the Justice Department refused to release the Epstein-investigation files, but it attempted, unsuccessfully, to get a district court to unseal grand-jury transcripts and exhibits in Maxwell’s case—presumably to offer Trump’s followers new information while keeping the investigative files hidden. It is altogether possible that Trump is considering granting her a pardon. (He told reporters last month, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”) If so, a recent Justice Department interview of Maxwell, in which she reportedly discussed around a hundred individuals, may have been part of an effort to get her on the record exculpating Trump and incriminating his enemies. After her questioning, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison, without any explanation.

It is notable that the co-conspirator clause in Epstein’s agreement purports to immunize “any potential co-conspirators,” some of whom may be mentioned in the investigation files or identifiable by Maxwell. Those co-conspirators could be vulnerable to federal prosecution in the future—that is, unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise in Maxwell’s case. That presents another reason for Trump to consider pardoning Maxwell—doing so would have the effect of insuring that the Court doesn’t decide her case at all. That would, in turn, guarantee that the Administration remains free to prosecute Epstein’s other co-conspirators, at least in New York, if it suits Trump. And, if Trump is able to offer up some indictments for Epstein-related criminal conspiracies, the MAGA base may become less obsessed with the failure to release the Epstein files. Is that a conspiracy theory? Perhaps, but unfortunately it also has the ring of plausibility at a time when government, politics, and law largely consist of self-serving deals all around.

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 10:09 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:

What on earth would even make you think that?

I'm legitimately curious.

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

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
There’s Only One Conclusion to Draw From Trump’s Newfound Leniency for Ghislaine Maxwell

By Fred Wertheimer | Aug 14, 2025 5:29 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/08/trump-pardon-ghislaine-max
well-jeffrey-epstein-friend.html

Ultimately, Trump and the Justice Department have entirely ignored the victims of Maxwell and Epstein, showing no interest in or concern about the women who as minors were subject to horrific and traumatic sexual abuse crimes. It is hard to escape the conclusion that President Trump just wants the Epstein controversy to go away. Even if it takes a pardon of Maxwell or other actions, he appears ready and willing.

On July 24 and 25, Blanche personally interviewed Maxwell. It is strange for a deputy attorney general, particularly one who previously served as a criminal defense attorney to the president, to travel to a correctional facility for direct interviews with convicted criminals. Blanche had no involvement in the Maxwell criminal case, but nevertheless interviewed Maxwell alone. No one involved in the case was present.

Days after the Blanche meeting, and without any explanation, Maxwell was surprisingly moved from her Florida prison to a minimum-security federal prison “camp” in Texas that is also known as “Club Fed.” This is a prison camp that does not house sex offenders, nor those with the 20-year sentence Maxwell has.

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 10:53 AM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

All of the sudden Ted cares about kids after 4 years of beating off watching trannies read books to them with the kids on their laps in Democrat run schools for years.






And since this video was made, her rights were extended to work release. The same deal made with Epstein that pissed MAGA off.

You're running interference for Trump in these threads. What you say here is not interpreted as you think. It's interpreted as you excusing Trumps behavior.

It leaves one with the question, why are you supporting a pedophile, Jack?

T

Trump moves Ghislaine Maxwell to 'cushy' prison with Elizabeth Holmes, Real Housewives star



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Friday, August 15, 2025 12:24 PM

THG


Jack, one of your boys at work. It's so sad.

T

'How Is That Happening?': RFK Jr. Surprised By AOC's Claims About Insurance 'Defrauding' Government






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Friday, August 15, 2025 12:29 PM

THG


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

There was no insurrection, faggot.

And now everybody gets to see that your average Tuesday Afternoon in every liberal shithole is 10 times as bad as you made January 6th out to be if it's a good day.

Shut the fuck up. You're finished.



What on earth would even make you think that?

I'm legitimately curious.




Poor Gilligan, he's always wrong. And history shows Trump was impeached for this.

T

Video Of Capitol Riot Shown During First Jan. 6 Committee Hearing



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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:10 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You two fags are so lame together.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Your reply is necessitated here, Faggot Ted: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=66964

Otherwise, we'll just add this to the list of the hundreds of posts/threads you run away from like a little bitch.



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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
And since this video was made, her rights were extended to work release. The same deal made with Epstein that pissed MAGA off.

You're running interference for Trump in these threads. What you say here is not interpreted as you think. It's interpreted as you excusing Trumps behavior.

It leaves one with the question, why are you supporting a pedophile, Jack?



I've already laid out in very fine detail more than half a dozen times my thoughts on the current status of the Epstein situation, you little faggot.

Go fetch. I'm done answering this question for you only to have you run away from the thread after I do.

Go ask your dead whore of a mother. Maybe she knows. She's living in your head and reading things that you don't even think you're reading, psycho.



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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:35 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You two fags are so lame together.




T



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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:36 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Your reply is necessitated here, Faggot Ted: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=66964

Otherwise, we'll just add this to the list of the hundreds of posts/threads you run away from like a little bitch.




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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:38 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
And since this video was made, her rights were extended to work release. The same deal made with Epstein that pissed MAGA off.

You're running interference for Trump in these threads. What you say here is not interpreted as you think. It's interpreted as you excusing Trumps behavior.

It leaves one with the question, why are you supporting a pedophile, Jack?



I've already laid out in very fine detail more than half a dozen times my thoughts on the current status of the Epstein situation, you little faggot.

Go fetch. I'm done answering this question for you only to have you run away from the thread after I do.

Go ask your dead whore of a mother. Maybe she knows. She's living in your head and reading things that you don't even think you're reading, psycho.






Hey, do you think your daddy is tired of paying your bills? Shit, he must be. As for your theory of Trump waiting to release the file at the most opportune time, well that's too funny.

T

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:39 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You two fags are so lame together.




T




Throw them in CeCot.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:41 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
And since this video was made, her rights were extended to work release. The same deal made with Epstein that pissed MAGA off.

You're running interference for Trump in these threads. What you say here is not interpreted as you think. It's interpreted as you excusing Trumps behavior.

It leaves one with the question, why are you supporting a pedophile, Jack?



I've already laid out in very fine detail more than half a dozen times my thoughts on the current status of the Epstein situation, you little faggot.

Go fetch. I'm done answering this question for you only to have you run away from the thread after I do.

Go ask your dead whore of a mother. Maybe she knows. She's living in your head and reading things that you don't even think you're reading, psycho.






Hey, do you think your daddy is tired of paying your bills? Shit, he must be. As for your theory of Trump waiting to release the file at the most opportune time, well that's too funny.

T



I pay all my bills, son. How's life in that sad little studio with no woman. You haven't had to burn your worthless college degree to keep warm yet, have you? You seem awfully salty in the tag section today. The closest thing your creepy ass ever had to a girlfriend in your life doesn't seem all that interested, huh?

You're going to die alone. A virgin. And it's not too far off now.

Bummer dude.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 1:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Your reply is necessitated here, Faggot Ted: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=66964

Otherwise, we'll just add this to the list of the hundreds of posts/threads you run away from like a little bitch.



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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:00 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I think I broke the Ted-Bot.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:06 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Seriously Ted. Don't kill yourself. Call a hotline. Get yourself some help.

That is where you're headed right now, and I'm not going to feel guilty about it when you do it.

(For anyone else reading this later and wondering what this was all about, Ted is having a major blowup in the tag section right now that has been going on for the better part of today but has just gone nuts in the last 10 or so minutes).

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:10 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Seriously Ted. Don't kill yourself. Call a hotline. Get yourself some help.

That is where you're headed right now, and I'm not going to feel guilty about it when you do it.

(For anyone else reading this later and wondering what this was all about, Ted is having a major blowup in the tag section right now that has been going on for the better part of today but has just gone nuts in the last 10 or so minutes).




Nope, I just decided to do to you what you do to others. As for tag, same thing.

T

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:27 PM

SECOND

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


Fact check: Trump’s latest fake history about the war in Ukraine

By Daniel Dale | August 15, 2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/15/politics/fact-check-trump-ukraine-war

President Donald Trump claimed Monday that he knew why Russian troops weren’t able to enter Kyiv in the days after they invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russia’s tanks, Trump said, got destroyed by missiles “because the tanks got stuck in the mud.”

“You know, they would’ve been in Kyiv in four hours going down the highway. But a Russian general made a brilliant decision to go through the farmland instead,” he said, sarcastically criticizing the supposed general.

This is fake history, as military analysts and various Ukrainians have pointed out since the president began making similar claims months ago. In reality, Russia tried and failed to make it to Kyiv using roads and highways. Its tanks were thwarted by fierce Ukrainian resistance and logistical problems in addition to muddy conditions.

“Russian forces used roads and highways as much as possible during the initial invasion, and took heavy losses on many of them. Russian tanks did get stuck in the mud during the initial invasion, but this was often after they struggled to advance along roads,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program who has closely followed military tactics during the war. “One of the factors that hindered Russia’s invasion is that there were not many good highways and roads leading from Belarus to Kyiv, which canalized their forces.”

When CNN asked the White House for comment, an official responding on condition of anonymity noted Thursday that Russian tanks did get stuck in mud during and even before the invasion. The official provided links to some articles that mentioned this happening.

But even one of those articles clearly contradicted Trump’s claim that Russia didn’t make it to Kyiv because it chose not to use highways. The article said, “The Russians invaded using Ukraine’s major highways expecting a blitzkrieg-like attack that would leverage speed and overwhelming firepower to capture the capital city of Kyiv.”

Lee, emphasizing that sentence, added Friday: “Russian tanks did get stuck in the mud and there may have been cases when Russian commanders chose to drive through fields, but the Russian invasion plan emphasized driving along highways to reach the key cities, including Kyiv, as fast as possible. They generally drove through fields after trying to use roads and highways.”

Trump’s phony narrative about the Russian invasion is only the latest in a long line of false claims from the president about the war. Among other things, Trump has this year:

• Repeatedly used imaginary figures to incorrectly make it seem as if the US has provided far more aid to Ukraine than Europe has; the opposite is hue.

• Falsely said he was speaking “in jest” and being “sarcastic” when he solemnly promised dozens of times during his 2024 campaign to immediately end the war if he was elected.

• Used inaccurate number's to understate Ukrainians’ support for President Volodymyr Zelensky early in the year and overstate their support for a negotiated end to the war today.

• Falsely claimed Ukraine started the war that was actually started by Russia.

• Falsely claimed Zelensky admitted half of US aid money went missing, though Zelensky made no such comment.

As Trump prepares to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, here’s a quick fact check of these Trump claims.

Trump has made the claim over and over again. The US, he keeps asserting, has given Ukraine triple or more the amount of wartime aid that Europe has – $350 billion from the US compared to just $100 billion from Europe.

“Biden gave them $350 billion. Europe gave $100 billion. It should be much more than that,” Trump said Monday, adding, “They should have had equalization, but they didn’t.” He repeated these figures Thursday: “We spent $350 billion …They spent $100 billion.”

Trump’s claim is not only wrong but a reversal of reality. In fact, as numerous fact checks have pointed out, Europe has done more than equalize – it has given more wartime aid to Ukraine than the US has. https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/politics/g7-trump-lies-canada-ukraine

According to figures from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank that tracks the aid data, Europe – the European Union plus individual European countries – collectively allocated about $195 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine from late January 2022 through June 2025; the US allocated about $134 billion for Ukraine over the same period (all figures are at Thursday exchange rates). The gap was even bigger in aid committed to Ukraine as opposed to aid actually allocated: about $300 billion committed by Europe compared to about $139 billion committed by the US. https://www.ifw-kiel.de/publications/ukraine-support-tracker-data-2075
8/

It’s possible to arrive at different numbers using different methods of counting aid, but no reasonable method has corroborated Trump’s “$350 billion” US figure. The US government inspector general overseeing the Ukraine response says on its website that the US had appropriated about $185 billion for the Ukraine response through March 2025, including about $90 billion actually disbursed. That included funding spent in the US for weapons and defense services or sent to countries other than Ukraine.

When CNN asked the White House for comment on the president’s $350 billion claim, the official, responding on condition of anonymity, cited the inspector general’s figure – in the vicinity of $185 billion. The official also noted that the inspector general’s website has pointed out the US provided about $20 billion in loans as part of a G7 initiative.

That’s all fair, but it doesn’t get close to Trump’s $350 billion figure. So how did the White House official try to get closer?

With some nonsensical math – that added in a whole bunch of things that are not assistance to Ukraine.

Specifically, the official counted more than $90 billion in inflation felt by US households after the Russian invasion of Ukraine; a $16 billion decline in US exports to Russia amid US sanctions; and more than $7 billion in increased fertilizer costs after the Russian invasion drove up prices.

It’s obvious that none of this actually supports Trump’s claim that the US has provided Ukraine with $350 billion in aid. It’s particularly absurd to count the inflation experienced by Americans as US assistance to Ukraine.

When Trump was reminded in a Time interview in April that he had pledged to end the war on “day one,” he responded, “I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration,” and that “obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest.” In June, he claimed his promise to end the war within 24 hours of returning to office “was sarcastic.”

It’s often hard to determine Trump’s intent behind a given statement. In this case, it isn’t. An extensive body of evidence makes clear Trump’s promise wasn’t sarcastic, jesting or figurative. It was a solemn, direct, specific pledge.

CNN found 53 instances of Trump declaring on the campaign trail, in an entirely serious tone, manner and context, that he would end the war either within 24 hours of his return to the White House or even sooner than that, as president-elect.

Here’s a typical quote, from his 2024 debate against then-President Joe Biden: “I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelensky as president-elect before I take office on January 20. I’ll have that war settled. People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly. And I will get it settled, and I’ll get it settled fast before I take office.”

You can read the 52 additional examples here. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/politics/fact-check-trump-ukraine-war

Trump claimed in February that Ukraine started the war, saying, “You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal.” In reality, Russia started the war by launching its full-scale invasion in 2022 (after annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014). Trump’s February assertion that Ukraine started the war was publicly corrected by his former vice president Mike Pence, plus several Republican lawmakers.

Trump used different rhetoric later in the year, saying in April, “Biden could’ve stopped it, Zelensky could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it.” The White House official correctly noted Thursday that “the President has expressed his frustration with Putin numerous times.”

In February, during a period in which Trump was aggressively criticizing Zelensky, he claimed Zelensky was “down at 4% approval rating.”

That wasn’t close to accurate.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/fact-check-trump-falsely-claim
s-zelensky-has-a-4-approval-rating-its-above-50/index.html

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they approved of Zelensky in a poll conducted in Ukraine from late November to early January, by a group of academics in partnership with a prominent Ukrainian pollster. And 57% of respondents said they trusted Zelensky in a February poll conducted by that pollster, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Recent polling suggests Zelensky remains at a similar level of public support. A Gallup poll conducted in early July found 67% of respondents said they approved of Zelensky, and a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll conducted in late July and early August found 58% of respondents said they trusted Zelensky – down from his 2025 peak of 74% in May but in the vicinity of his figures earlier in the year and most of last year.

Trump claimed Monday: “I’ve seen a poll coming out of Ukraine: 88% of the people would like to see a deal made. And if you go back three years, everybody was gung-ho for war.”

Trump was right that Ukrainian support for a negotiated quick end to the war has soared since 2022. However, it’s not “88%” in any public poll CNN could find. The Gallup poll in early July found 69% of respondents supported Ukraine seeking to negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible – a new high in Gallup polling, and way up from 22% in 2022, but still far from Trump’s figure.

When CNN asked the White House what “88%” poll Trump was referring to, the official said that the president’s claim is corroborated by the Gallup poll – whose figure, again, is 69%. The official said, “The President is right. The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians want to see a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible, as evidenced in this Gallup poll.”

If Trump had said “overwhelming majority,” his claim would have been accurate. But he said “88%,” which was inaccurate.

For context, it’s also worth noting that the Gallup poll did not ask Ukrainians what kind of deal to end the war they would support; Olga Onuch, a University of Manchester professor who conducts polling in Ukraine, noted that Gallup’s finding wasn’t that 69% of respondents are “willing to accept territorial concessions.” The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll in late July and early August found widely varying levels of support for different potential proposals, with strong opposition to ideas previously floated by Russia.

Zelensky and aid money

During his February barrage of criticism against Zelensky, Trump falsely claimed on social media that Zelensky “admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’”

Zelensky never said that. Rather, in comments mischaracterized by some viral social media posts, Zelensky took issue with inflated claims about how much US cash Ukraine had received.

Zelensky told the Associated Press in February that although people talked about Ukraine getting as much as $200 billion in US aid, Ukraine had actually received about $76 billion, largely in the form of weapons. Zelensky said he didn’t know where all the supposed additional money had gone and that perhaps these higher figures were correct “on paper,” according to a translation by the news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.

That was not a confession that half of US cash had vanished. In reality, Zelensky was saying what experts in the US and elsewhere had repeatedly pointed out – that a large chunk of US support for Ukraine is not in the form of money handed to the Ukrainian government.

The White House official claimed Thursday that “Zelensky did say” what Trump claimed he said. But Zelensky simply didn’t. As supposed evidence, the official linked to a Washington Post article that noted Trump’s claim did not describe “exactly what Zelensky said.”

The Post article explained how Zelensky’s comments were in line with the fact that tens of billions of the US funds counted as Ukraine assistance were “not earmarked for Ukraine” but instead were spent on “sending equipment through drawdowns from U.S. stockpiles, enhancing U.S. military capabilities, humanitarian aid funneled through organizations in Europe, including for refugees, global food security, sanctions enforcement, economic aid through the World Bank and more.”

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:45 PM

SECOND

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


According to Trump, who pays tariffs?

Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that tariffs are paid by foreign countries or companies. He has said:

• "I am going to put tariffs on other countries coming into our country, and that has nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country."

• "It's not a tax on the middle class. It's a tax on another country."

However, economists generally agree that tariffs are taxes paid by businesses in the importing country, which are ultimately passed on to consumers through increased prices. US businesses, acting as importers, must legally pay tariffs to the US Treasury Department when goods enter the country. Studies and economic analyses support this, finding that consumers in the importing country tend to bear most of the costs.

Therefore, Trump’s actual understanding of tariffs is more erroneous than this political cartoon:


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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
According to Trump, who pays tariffs?


Your mom.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 2:57 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Seriously Ted. Don't kill yourself. Call a hotline. Get yourself some help.

That is where you're headed right now, and I'm not going to feel guilty about it when you do it.

(For anyone else reading this later and wondering what this was all about, Ted is having a major blowup in the tag section right now that has been going on for the better part of today but has just gone nuts in the last 10 or so minutes).




Nope, I just decided to do to you what you do to others. As for tag, same thing.

T



No. It's not. That was a sad little temper tantrum. If you had an IQ above 20, you would feel shame for yourself.

Meanwhile...

Your reply is necessitated here, Faggot Ted: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=66964

Otherwise, we'll just add this to the list of the hundreds of posts/threads you run away from like a little bitch.




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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 3:41 PM

SECOND

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


The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit

This deal has everything: semiconductors, DeepSeek, constitutional violations.

By Dylan Matthews | Aug 15, 2025, 5:45 AM CDT

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/458088/nvidia-trump-h20-chip-ai-chi
na

Whatever else can be said about the second Trump administration, it is always teaching me about parts of the Constitution I had forgotten were even in there.

Case in point: Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 states that “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” This is known as the export clause, not to be confused with the import-export clause (Article I, Section 10, Clause 2). The Supreme Court has repeatedly held, most recently in 1996’s US v. IBM, that this clause bans Congress and the states from imposing taxes on goods exported from one state to another or from the US to foreign countries.

I found myself reading US v. IBM after President Donald Trump announced an innovative new deal with chipmakers Nvidia and AMD. They can now export certain previously restricted chips to China but have to pay a 15 percent tax to the federal government on the proceeds. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but several people who are lawyers, like former National Security Council official Peter Harrell, immediately interpreted this as a clearly unconstitutional export tax (and as illegal under the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, to boot).

At this point, there’s something kind of sad and impotent about complaining that something Trump is doing is illegal and unconstitutional. It feels like yelling at the refs that the Harlem Globetrotters aren’t playing fair; of course they aren’t, no one cares. The refs are unlikely to step in here, either. The parties with the standing to sue and block the export taxes are Nvidia and AMD, and they’ve already agreed to go along with it.

Maybe the best we can do is understand why this happened and what it means for the future of AI.

More at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/458088/nvidia-trump-h20-chip-ai-chi
na

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 3:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit


Quit then.

No sweat off my ball sack.


And the idea that anybody at Vox has read a single word of the Constitution, let alone "forgotten something that was in there" is laughable. You are a moron, Second.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 5:01 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:
The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit


Quit then.

No sweat off my ball sack.


And the idea that anybody at Vox has read a single word of the Constitution, let alone "forgotten something that was in there" is laughable. You are a moron, Second.
6ix, you could look at the law, or you could be an asshole. You went with ASSHOLE. Predictably. Here is the law:

Article I, Section 9, Clause 5:

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C5-1/ALDE_00013
596/

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from laying taxes and duties on articles exported from any state.1 Known as the Export Clause,2 it applies to taxes and duties, not user fees.3 The Supreme Court has interpreted the Export Clause to address shipments only to foreign countries, not shipments to unincorporated territories, such as Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.4 The Court has also construed the Export Clause as requiring "not simply an omission of a tax upon the articles exported, but also a freedom from any tax which directly burdens" the process of exporting.5

For example, in United States v. IBM, the Supreme Court held that an excise tax6 on insurance premiums paid to foreign insurers for policies insuring exported goods was unconstitutional under the Export Clause.7 In IBM, the parties agreed that the facts and issue before the Court were largely indistinguishable from an earlier case, Thames & Mersey Marine Insurance Co. v United States,8 in which the Court held that a tax on insuring exports was "functionally the same" as a tax on exports.9 Applying stare decisis principles, the Court declined to overrule Thames & Mersey Marine Insurance absent additional briefing from the parties on whether the insurance policies subject to the excise tax were "so closely connected to the goods that the tax is, in essence, a tax on exports."10

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Export Clause’s restriction on Congress’s taxing power does not extend to several taxes, such as a tax on all property alike, including property intended for export but not in the "course of exportation"11; a nondiscriminatory tax on an exporter’s income;12 and a stamp tax to identify goods intended for export.13 The Court, however, has held that stamp taxes imposed on foreign bills of lading;14 charter parties, which "were exclusively for the carriage of cargo from state ports to foreign ports";15 or marine insurance policies16 were in effect taxes or duties upon exports, and so void.

The Supreme Court has also held that refunds for taxes collected in violation of the Export Clause are subject to the the general tax refund scheme adopted by Congress.17 The Court stated: "We therefore hold that the plain language of 26 U.S.C. §§ 7422(a) and 6511 requires a taxpayer seeking a refund for a tax assessed in violation of the Export Clause, just as for any other unlawfully assessed tax, to file a timely administrative refund claim before bringing suit against the Government."18 The Court reasoned that this was necessary so that "allegations of taxes unlawfully assessed—whether the asserted illegality is based upon the Export Clause or any other provision of law—are processed in an orderly and timely manner, and that costly litigation is avoided when possible."19


UNITED STATES v. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/517/843/case.pdf

No. 95-591. Argued March 18, 1996—Decided June 10, 1996

Pursuant to § 4371 of the Internal Revenue Code, respondent International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) paid a tax on insurance premiums remitted to foreign insurers to cover shipments of goods to its foreign subsidiaries. When its refund claims were denied, IBM filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims, contending that §4371’s application to policies insuring export shipments violated the Export Clause, which states that “[n]o Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” The court agreed, rejecting the Government’s argument that Thames & Mersey Marine Ins. Co. v. United States, 237 U. S. 19—in which this Court held that a federal stamp tax on policies insuring marine risks could not, under the Export Clause, be constitutionally applied to policies covering export shipments—had been superseded by subsequent decisions interpreting the Import-Export Clause, which states in relevant part, “No State shall... lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports.” The Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held: The Export Clause prohibits assessment of nondiscriminatory federal taxes on goods in export transit. Pp. 846-863.

(a) While this Court has strictly enforced the Export Clause’s prohibition against federal taxation of goods in export transit and certain closely related services and activities, see, e.g., Thames & Mersey, supra, it has not exempted pre-export goods and services from ordinary tax burdens or exempted from federal taxation various services and activities only tangentially related to the export process, see, e. g., Cornell n. Coyne, 192 U. S. 418. Conceding that the tax assessed here violates the Export Clause under Thames & Mersey, the Government asks that the ease be overruled because its underlying theory has been rejected in the context of the Commerce and Import-Export Clauses and those Clauses have historically been interpreted in harmony with the Export Clause. Pp. 846-850.

(b) When this Court expressly disavowed its early view that the dormant Commerce Clause required a strict ban on state taxation of interstate commerce, Complete Auto Transit, Inc. n. Brady, 430 U. S. 274, 288-289, it resolved a long struggle over the meaning of the nontextual negative command of that Clause. The Export Clause, on the other . . .

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 5:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit


Quit then.

No sweat off my ball sack.


And the idea that anybody at Vox has read a single word of the Constitution, let alone "forgotten something that was in there" is laughable. You are a moron, Second.
6ix, you could look at the law, or you could be an asshole. You went with ASSHOLE. Predictably.


Nobody cares. Go fuck yourself, Second.

You're finished.

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

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 5:51 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit


Quit then.

No sweat off my ball sack.


And the idea that anybody at Vox has read a single word of the Constitution, let alone "forgotten something that was in there" is laughable. You are a moron, Second.
6ix, you could look at the law, or you could be an asshole. You went with ASSHOLE. Predictably.


Nobody cares. Go fuck yourself, Second.

You're finished.
I see the appeal of Trump to you. Both he and you always go with BELLIGERENT ASSHOLE when you could go with the law.

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 6:06 PM

SECOND

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


Trump taunted by Putin's top diplomat seconds after Russians arrive in Alaska

By Travis Gettys | August 15, 2025 10:11AM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/russia-alaska/

Alaska had been part of the Russian Empire before the United States purchased it in 1867 for $7.2 million under President Andrew Johnson. It attained statehood in 1959, but many Russians have been taught the myth that the land was stolen through treachery.

Sergej Sumlenny grew up near Moscow and said he was taught in school that the U.S. had "leased" Alaska for 100 years and later forged and broke that contract, which he said flowed from a Russian sense of victimhood.

"It's important to understand a lot of Russians grow up with the belief they have, for centuries, been betrayed and cheated by the treacherous West, and in this mythology, the Americans are the most greedy and unreliable people of all," Sumlenny said.

"The idea that Russia used to control many lands, and that the West has stolen these lands, fits very naturally into this narrative," he added. "I think among all the territories which Russians think they have a claim over — Finland, parts of Poland, East Germany, Central Asia, Ukraine — Alaska is second only to Crimea."

Pro-Kremlin broadcaster Olga Skabeyeva repeated the myth "Alaska is ours" during a July 2024 episode of the Russia-1 talk show "60 Minutes," six months after the U.S. State Department addressed a decree from Russia that some interpreted as a signal the state would be clawed back through negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Was the taunting of Trump done with a t-shirt showing Putin pissing on Trump's face? Read the story and find out. But the Russians are even less impressed with Trump than I am.

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

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Friday, August 15, 2025 6:30 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Nvidia chip deal that has Trump officials threatening to quit


Quit then.

No sweat off my ball sack.


And the idea that anybody at Vox has read a single word of the Constitution, let alone "forgotten something that was in there" is laughable. You are a moron, Second.
6ix, you could look at the law, or you could be an asshole. You went with ASSHOLE. Predictably.


Nobody cares. Go fuck yourself, Second.

You're finished.
I see the appeal of Trump to you. Both he and you always go with BELLIGERENT ASSHOLE when you could go with the law.


I don't even know what topic you're referring to, because I can't even be bothered to look at anything you post anymore. Nobody else cares either.

You've burnt all that up. You haven't figured that out yet, dinosaur?

You're a fuckin' relic now.

You've refused to move on and now you've been left in the dirt.

Go fuck yourself and your always-wrong-in-retrospect "facts" from your intellectual hacks. Even Joe Scarborough is coming out and telling you and Ted to grow up.

Nobody cares. Nobody ever really did.



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

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

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