REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 12:24
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Friday, September 26, 2025 8:08 AM

SECOND

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


(I predict the Military will be ordered to either swear allegiance to Trump or resign.)

Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.

September 25, 2025 at 10:07 a.m. EDT

By Tara Copp, Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, Ellen Nakashima and Noah Robertson

https://archive.ph/BGIoN#selection-239.0-268.0

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.

The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. The directive was issued earlier this week, as a government shutdown looms, and months after Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands.

In a statement Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” but he offered no additional details. Parnell, a senior adviser to the defense secretary, voiced no concerns about The Washington Post reporting on the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia.

There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones. Hegseth’s order, people familiar with the matter said, applies to all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above, or their Navy equivalent, serving in command positions and their top enlisted advisers. Typically, these officers each oversee hundreds or thousands of rank-and-file troops.

Top commanders in conflict zones and senior military leaders stationed throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region are among those expected to attend Hegseth’s meeting, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The order does not apply to top military officers who hold staff positions.

None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.

“People are very concerned. They have no idea what it means,” one person said.

Two others expressed frustration that even many commanders stationed overseas will be required to attend. One said, this is “not how this is done.”

“You don’t call GOFOs leading their people and the global force into an auditorium outside D.C. and not tell them why/what the topic or agenda is,” this person said, using an abbreviation for general officer or flag officer.

“Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now?” one U.S. official said. “All of it is weird.”

The orders come as Hegseth has unilaterally directed massive recent changes at the Pentagon — including directing that the number of general officers be reduced by 20 percent, firing senior leaders without cause and a high-profile new order to rebrand the Defense Department as the Department of War.

Top administration officials also have preparing a new national defense strategy that is expected to make homeland defense the nation’s top concern, after several years of China being identified as the top national security risk to the United States. Some officials familiar with the order to travel said they thought that may come up.

Hegseth’s directive in May to slash about 100 generals and admirals also has generated concern among top military leaders. He called then for a “minimum” 20 percent cut to the number of four-star officers — the military’s top rank — on active duty and a corresponding number of generals in the National Guard. There also will be another 10 percent reduction, at least, to the total number of generals and admirals across the force.

Last month Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, the chief of the Navy Reserve; and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command. No specific reason was given in either case.

The firings were the latest in a wider purge of national security agencies’ top ranks. Since entering office, the Trump administration also has fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.; the chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti; the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan; and the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife among others. The list includes a disproportionate number of women.

Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, announced last month he will step down in November, after he was asked to retire.

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

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Friday, September 26, 2025 8:10 AM

SECOND

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


Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Trump administration has been speed-running an attack on the “radical left.” And the tactics it has been using are darkly reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s. So what can that period teach us about the current moment and what the Trump administration might do next? How far could this go?

Corey Robin is a political theorist at Brooklyn College. He’s an expert on McCarthyism and the author of the book “The Reactionary Mind,” one of the most insightful books you can read on the Trumpist right. In this conversation, he walks through what happened in the first and second Red Scares and what made him start worrying about the Trump administration.

Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-corey-ro
bin.html

Download Corey Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind” for FREE from https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Corey+Robin



Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them?

In The Reactionary Mind, Robin traces conservatism back to its roots in the reaction against the French Revolution. He argues that the right was inspired, and is still united, by its hostility to emancipating the lower orders. Some conservatives endorse the free market; others oppose it. Some criticize the state; others celebrate it. Underlying these differences is the impulse to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality — while simultaneously making populist appeals to the masses. Despite their opposition to these movements, conservatives favor a dynamic conception of politics and society — one that involves self-transformation, violence, and war. They are also highly adaptive to new challenges and circumstances. This partiality to violence and capacity for reinvention have been critical to their success.

Written by a highly-regarded, keen observer of the contemporary political scene, The Reactionary Mind ranges widely, from Edmund Burke to Antonin Scalia and Donald Trump, and from John C. Calhoun to Ayn Rand. It advances the notion that all right-wing ideologies, from the eighteenth century through today, are improvisations on a theme: the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back. When its first edition appeared in 2011, The Reactionary Mind set off a fierce debate. It has since been acclaimed as "the book that predicted Trump" ( New Yorker ) and "one of the more influential political works of the last decade" ( Washington Monthly ). Now updated to include Trump's election and his first one hundred days in office, The Reactionary Mind is more relevant than ever.

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

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Friday, September 26, 2025 8:38 AM

SECOND

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


Hegseth orders hundreds of military leaders to attend unprecedented meeting in Quantico, Virginia

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/25/hegseth-military-generals-admirals
-washington-dc/

The Intercept reports:

Hundreds of generals and admirals have been ordered to Virginia in the coming days, according to four defense officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity. The conclave of general and flag officers is unprecedented and alarming, the sources said.

The officials said that the military’s top brass were, on Wednesday, instructed to report to a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, on or around September 30 to meet with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Two sources believed that the timing was pegged to the potential government shutdown.

The officials were unsure of the exact reasons behind the extraordinary order. They speculated about the purpose, wondering if it might foretell:
a culling of general officers;
a significant reorganization of the military command structure;
a threat to eschew contact with the press; or
a loyalty oath about putting Trump administration priorities above all else.

One source, somewhat in jest, evoked the phrase “coup d’état,” later clarifying they meant a gutting of leaders who might question Trump’s policies.

“It is beyond highly irregular to have all the operational and command GOFOs tasked to fly to DC and also not tell any of them why,” said one of the officials, using military shorthand for general and flag officers. “To say the military leadership is anxious would be an understatement.”

“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told The Intercept when asked about the fears expressed by the officials.

Most of the military’s top officers — those with the rank of brigadier general or above, or their naval equivalent — are required to attend, the officials said. They said that even top brass in conflict zones and forward areas are among those ordered to the meeting. One official told The Intercept that the order was “madness” and unlike any order in living memory “or probably ever.” Another said that calling home generals and admirals from front-line stations was “reckless” but in keeping with the Trump administration’s efforts to keep the top echelons of the officer corps on a tight leash.

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

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Friday, September 26, 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 has a plan to burn down the government)

White House mass firing memo signals Trump would accelerate priorities in a shutdown. Democrats aren’t backing down

By Phil Mattingly, Adam Cancryn, Sarah Ferris

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/politics/government-shutdown-trump-firi
ng-memo-democrats


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

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Friday, September 26, 2025 9:25 AM

THG

Keep it real please


Quote:
Originally posted by second:

(I predict the Military will be ordered to either swear allegiance to Trump or resign.)

Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.

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



I posted in my Trump is destroying everything thread; I was concerned he's bringing them home to fire them. Both you and I are talking about this but none of the morning shows are. It's like because it would be so outrageous the talk show hosts aren't even thinking about that as a possibility.



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Friday, September 26, 2025 1:41 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Why don't you two dipshits wait and see what happens so you don't look like assholes with your incorrect opinions again like you always do.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Saturday, September 27, 2025 6:51 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:
Why don't you two dipshits wait and see what happens so you don't look like assholes with your incorrect opinions again like you always do.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Why wait? There are only four possibilities. None of them should be allowed to happen, but one will because Trump wants it:

Hegseth puts us all at risk

Why put all the American commanders in one room?

By Timothy Snyder | Sep 26, 2025

https://snyder.substack.com/p/hegseth-puts-us-all-at-risk

My historian colleagues might correct me, but I do not think anyone at least in recent history has done what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is about to do: put all of the American generals and admirals from around the world into a single room (next week, in Virginia) just to say something to them.

There is no practical reason to do this: he has easier and more secure ways to communicate with the commanders. And there are obvious risks: the entire armed forces of the United States, spread around the world, will be without its leaders. Given that the government could well shut down the next day, the separation of commanders from their command might be indefinite.

And if Hegseth has his way, those generals and admirals will all be in one site, announced in advance, which means that the entirety of the American command structure will be more vulnerable, physically, than in any conceivable military scenario, including nuclear war. There is no scenario other than this one in which they would all be in the same place at the same time.

So why might Secretary Hegseth do such an extraordinary thing? Only four solutions to the puzzle come to mind.

1. He has some trivial thing to say and does not understand the risks.

2. He wishes to endanger the lives of the generals and admirals.

3. He will stage a purge, perhaps involving a loyalty oath or something similar that requires personal presence.

4. He will tell the commanders that henceforth their assignment will be to oppress American citizens (“homeland defense”). This could be combined with the third scenario: those who refuse will be fired.

Perhaps others can think of other possibilities, but I am afraid that I cannot.

One might wonder why no effort was made to keep this secret. Perhaps Hegseth wants the senior officers to worry. Perhaps the news was shared because reasonable people in the Pentagon fear that the meeting is part of a plan to remake the American military as a domestic political police force. This would be in conjunction with other efforts, such as yesterday’s terror memo https://snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-terror-memo-audio to pursue regime change in the United States. Making known that there will be such a meeting is the one way to begin a conversation that might prevent its taking place, or at least alter its purpose.

PS News outlets: please do not publish heroic portraits of Hegseth or of others in connections with articles about this and related subjects. Doing so undermines reporting and naturalizes the transition to authoritarianism.

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

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Saturday, September 27, 2025 10:20 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Why don't you two dipshits wait and see what happens so you don't look like assholes with your incorrect opinions again like you always do.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Why wait?


I just told you why. Because you always look like an asshole in retrospect.

Always.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 6:05 AM

SECOND

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


Behind the Curtain: The most unprecedented presidency in 250 years

By Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen | Sept 23, 2025

https://www.axios.com/2025/09/23/trump-unprecedented-presidency-behind
-the-curtain

Not since America's founding 250 years ago has a U.S. president expanded power — and punished critics — in more unprecedented ways than Donald J. Trump.

1. Executive power: Trump has declared nine national emergencies in his first eight months in office, stretching the definition of "emergency" in creative and aggressive ways.

• Historical analogy: Since 1980, presidents have declared an average of seven in a four-year term. Trump's 200+ executive orders fall far short of the thousands issued by FDR (a wartime president elected to four terms), but Trump's pace—142 in his first 100 days—is the highest on record.

• New precedent: Future presidents can use loosely defined "emergencies" as a routine tool to bypass Congress and unlock extraordinary powers governing trade, immigration, mineral extraction and foreign disputes.

2. Free-press crackdown: Trump has waged the most aggressive government campaign against mainstream media in modern U.S. history —stripping funding from public outlets, pushing the FCC to revoke broadcast licenses over negative coverage, and personally suing CBS/ Paramount, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times while in office.

• Historical analogy: No modern president has deployed such a mix of lawsuits and regulatory muscle. Even Richard Nixon, who targeted the Washington Post and CBS through the IRS and FCC, never sued multiple networks directly.

• New precedent: Future presidents can use lawsuits, regulatory threats, and funding pressure to bring independent media to heel.

3. Seizing congressional purse strings: Trump has tried to freeze or redirect billions in congressionally appropriated funds, from public health to foreign aid to university research.

• Historical analogy: The closest precedent is Nixon, who tried to "impound" funds in the early 1970s. Congress responded by passing the Impoundment Control Act of 1974—which the Trump White House claims is unconstitutional—to stop presidents from unilaterally withholding money. No president since has attempted impoundments at this scale, or with such open defiance of Congress and the courts.

• New precedent: Future presidents can treat Congress's "power of the purse" as optional, withholding or redirecting funds to pressure states, institutions or foreign governments.

4. Tariffs: Trump has effectively seized the authority over tariffs that the Constitution gives to Congress, wielding tariffs to reshape global trade and punish countries for political or economic disputes.

• Historical analogy: The last sweeping tariff shock was Smoot–Hawley, which President Hoover signed in 1930 and wound up worsening the Great Depression. Since then, presidents have used delegated powers narrowly — including President Reagan's selective tariffs on Japanese motorcycles and semiconductors in the 1980s to try to protect American manufacturing. Trump is the first to use emergency authorities to impose broad tariffs without new congressional legislation.

• New precedent: Future presidents can bypass Congress to unilaterally set tariff policy, erasing one of the legislature's core constitutional powers.

5. Overriding the Constitution: Trump issued an executive order seeking to eliminate birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed in the 14th Amendment — for the children of unauthorized immigrants.

• Historical analogy: Past constitutional showdowns have come during war or insurrection: Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in the Civil War. FDR interned Japanese Americans during World War II. In each case, presidents acted under extraordinary wartime claims of necessity. No president has ever tried to nullify a core constitutional guarantee by executive order in peacetime — not even Nixon at his most imperial.

• New precedent: Future presidents can attempt to nullify core constitutional rights through executive orders rather than constitutional amendments or legislation.

6. Purging watchdogs and civil servants: Trump has fired inspectors general en masse, dismantled independent agencies, and ordered loyalty-driven purges across the federal workforce.

• Historical analogy: The closest echoes are the spoils system under Andrew Jackson in the 1830s, when partisan loyalty determined federal jobs, and Nixon's "enemies list." But both were constrained — the Pendleton Act of 1883 ended mass patronage hiring, and inspectors general were introduced after Nixon. Trump has revived the spoils system at a scale unseen since the 19th century.

• New precedent: Future presidents can eliminate internal checks and turn civil servants into political operatives who serve the president rather than the public.

7. Eroding DOJ independence: Trump has declared himself the country's "chief law enforcement officer" — a title typically reserved for the attorney general — claiming the right to personally dictate prosecutions and order investigations of his political opponents.

• Historical analogy: Other presidents have leaned on the Justice Department — Nixon schemed to use the FBI and Justice Department against enemies until Watergate exposed it. George W. Bush's administration was accused of firing seven U.S. attorneys for political reasons, leading to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other top officials. The difference: Those efforts were usually concealed or denied. Trump has largely made his claims explicit, publicly asserting direct authority over prosecutors in a way no modern president has dared.

• New precedent: Future presidents can claim direct authority to launch or block investigations, erasing the long-standing norms separating the White House from the Justice Department.

8. Eroding Fed independence: Trump tried to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook as part of an extraordinary campaign to pressure the central bank to cut interest rates.

• Historical analogy: Presidents have leaned on the Fed before — LBJ hauled chair William McChesney Martin to his Texas ranch to berate him over rates, and Nixon privately pressed chair Arthur Burns to juice the economy before the 1972 election. But neither tried to remove Fed governors mid-term.

• New precedent: Future presidents can treat the Fed as an arm of the White House, undermining the principle of central bank independence that has anchored U.S. economic stability for decades.

9. Wartime powers in peacetime: Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members without hearings, ordered maritime strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional authorization, and deployed the National Guard to D.C. and Los Angeles without the consent of local authorities.

• Historical analogy: Presidents occasionally have stretched security powers in peacetime, but narrowly. Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, but to enforce court-ordered desegregation, not to override state authority for political aims. Presidents George W. Bush and Obama both justified expansive national-security actions after 9/11, but under explicit congressional authorizations. Trump is the first to wield war powers domestically and abroad in peacetime, without legislative cover.

• New precedent: Future presidents can stretch wartime authorities to bypass Congress and due process for military operations on both domestic and foreign territory.

10. Pay-me capitalism: The Trump administration has secured a "golden share" in U.S. Steel, taken a cut of chipmakers' foreign sales and a stake in Intel, and scored companies on their loyalty to Trump's agenda.

• Historical analogy: Past presidents intervened in industry only during crises — FDR's War Production Board in WWII, or the TARP bailouts in 2008. In those cases, government stakes were temporary and statutory. Trump's approach is different: during peacetime, permanent and without legal authorization. The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip describes it as "state capitalism with American characteristics" — closer to China's party-industry nexus or Russia's oligarchy than to traditional U.S. capitalism.

• New precedent: Future presidents can use the power of the state to extract equity, revenue and political concessions from private companies as the price of doing business.

11. Targeting Big Law: Trump punished firms that represented political adversaries by stripping contracts and security clearances, extracting multimillion-dollar pro bono deals.

• Historical analogy: No president before Trump used federal power to directly coerce private firms into financial penalties for representing political clients.

• New precedent: Future presidents can weaponize government power to intimidate lawyers, deterring them from representing clients who challenge the administration.

12. Punishing universities: Trump withheld billions in federal funding from schools such as Harvard and Columbia — citing their handling of pro-Palestinian protests, campus antisemitism, and DEI policies — and used the leverage to force changes in curricula and leadership.

• Historical analogy: In the McCarthy era, professors were ousted over alleged communist sympathies. In the Vietnam era, Nixon railed against universities as hotbeds of unrest. But those campaigns relied mainly on rhetoric and blacklists. Trump is the first president to tie federally appropriated money directly to how universities handle political speech and protest on campus.

• New precedent: Future presidents can use federal dollars to police academic speech and independence, reshaping universities to align with partisan agendas.

13. Rewriting health and vaccine policy: Trump fired career health officials, slashed funding for public health research, and gave political allies broad control over FDA and CDC decisions.

• Historical analogy: Presidents have had major impacts on health policy before — Reagan downplayed the AIDS crisis, George W. Bush launched PEPFAR, Obama built pandemic playbooks after H1N1. But their interventions largely worked within expert systems. Trump is the first to dismantle those systems in peacetime, sidelining scientific expertise to give political appointees direct control over vaccines and public health guidance.

• New precedent: Future presidents can subordinate public health to partisan agendas, treating life-or-death scientific guidance as another lever of political control.

14. Profiteering: The Trump family is believed to already have made billions of dollars during his second term, including through massive foreign crypto deals, real estate ventures and brazen access plays.

• Historical analogy: Presidential profiteering has a long shadow — Ulysses S. Grant's administration was mired in scandals involving cronies cashing in. Warren Harding's Teapot Dome involved Cabinet officials taking bribes from oil companies. But in most cases, the enrichment was indirect or hidden. Trump has intertwined policy with family business at a scale and transparency unseen in U.S. history.

• New precedent: Future presidents can treat the White House as a platform for personal enrichment, including in nascent industries for which the U.S. government is writing the rules.

15. Jan. 6 pardons: Trump issued blanket clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including violent offenders and far-right extremists.

• Historical analogy: Andrew Johnson pardoned ex-Confederates after the Civil War. Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam draft evaders in 1977. But those were framed as acts of reconciliation to heal national wounds. Trump pardoned his own supporters for crimes committed on his behalf, in an attempt to erase accountability for an attack on Congress itself.

• New precedent: Future presidents can use the pardon power to shield their political movements from the rule of law, granting impunity for crimes against the state.

The bottom line: This can seem improvisational, and sometimes is. But step back and you see a very clear, often methodical, march to greater executive power. It often starts with one Truth Social post here or an executive order there. But then the pattern repeats itself. And new precedent is slowly — then suddenly — set.

• Now it's commonplace to see Trump use U.S. military on U.S. soil, a move once reserved for clear emergencies. Or sue a media company for criticism, or target individual critics, or pressure universities to fire leaders or shift policies, or demand law firms or businesses to pay the government or face its wrath.

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 10:45 AM

SECOND

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


Fentanyl Doesn’t Come Through the Caribbean

The White House is using the opioid epidemic to justify lethal strikes and other policies.

By Nick Miroff | September 26, 2025

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/archive/2025/09/fentanyl
-trump-venezuela-caribbean-boats/684373/

“Please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” President Donald Trump said during his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, issuing a politely phrased mortal threat to would-be drug traffickers. Already, the administration has killed 17 people—“narco-terrorists,” Trump calls them—in air strikes on three boats allegedly from Venezuela and loaded with what the president has described as “big bags of cocaine and fentanyl.”

Trump and his aides have justified the extrajudicial killings as a decisive measure to protect Americans from dangerous drugs, especially fentanyl, the synthetic opioid behind the worst overdose epidemic in U.S. history, which accelerated during his first term in office.

“We have no choice,” Trump told the United Nations General Assembly. “Each boat that we sink carries drugs that would kill more than 25,000 Americans.”

But here’s the thing: Although the United States Coast Guard interdicts staggering quantities of illegal drugs in the Caribbean each year, it does not encounter fentanyl on the high seas. South American cocaine and marijuana account for the overwhelming majority of maritime seizures, according to Coast Guard data, and there isn’t a single instance of a fentanyl seizure—let alone “bags” of the drug—in the agency’s press releases.

Last month, the U.S. cutter Hamilton returned to Florida with what the agency called “the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history”: 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana (that’s the weight of about three city buses). The haul, gathered by multiple federal agencies during 19 seizure incidents in the Caribbean as well as the Pacific, had an estimated street value of $473 million. But there wasn’t any fentanyl on the boat.

Steve Roth, a Coast Guard lieutenant commander and spokesperson for the agency, wrote to me that Coast Guard crews confiscated a “historic amount of cocaine” during the 2025 fiscal year that ends this month, but no fentanyl. He offered a bank-shot rationale for Trump’s claims, arguing that other illegal drugs, such as cocaine, generate profits that “fuel and enable Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Transnational Criminal Organizations to produce and traffic illegal fentanyl threatening the U.S.”

Trump has spoken in personal terms about the devastating toll of the fentanyl crisis, and has long tied it to his efforts to fortify the southern border and crack down on immigration. Anne Fundner, the mother of a 15-year-old who overdosed from a fentanyl-laced pill, gave an emotional speech at the Republican National Convention last year, blaming her son’s death on the Biden administration’s border policies. Trump pledged to make ending the fentanyl crisis a top priority for his administration, and has cast the drug as an insidious foreign tool devised to undermine American greatness. He now invokes it as a fact-free way to justify policies with little or minimal nexus to the drug trade.

The president cited fentanyl production when he imposed tariffs on Canada, even though fewer than 0.2 percent of fentanyl seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection occurred along the northern border. Trump has cited fentanyl trafficking to push for hundreds of additional miles of barriers across deserts and mountains along the Mexico border, in spite of CBP data that show that more than 90 percent of U.S. seizures of the drug occur at the official crossings, or ports of entry, where couriers hide the drug in body cavities or inside vehicles.

In his second term, Trump has taken what was once a right-wing talking point—treating smuggling organizations as terrorist groups rather than criminal syndicates—to create an emergency justification for the use of lethal force. If the U.S. military can kill terror suspects plotting to blow up Americans, then it can also use lethal force on smugglers trying to poison them with drugs, this thinking goes. But the administration has not said what specific legal authority it is using to kill trafficking suspects with no due process, aside from loosely claiming that the United States is “at war.”

“I think the rules of engagement should be similar to what they are in war, because we are, in fact, in a war against these drug cartels,” Vice President J. D. Vance, who has written about his mother’s struggles with opioid addiction, told reporters in response to criticism of the strikes.

This month, as his administration positions a naval flotilla in the southern Caribbean and hints at an attack on Venezuela, Trump has slipped fentanyl references into his public statements without any evidence that the drug is coming from South America. U.S. authorities have not said what type of drugs, if any, have been recovered from the boats hit by U.S. munitions, although officials in the Dominican Republic said that they found cocaine amid the wreckage of the boat struck last week 80 miles south of its territory.

Although cocaine is a potentially lethal drug, it is far less deadly than fentanyl. Colombia, not Venezuela, is the world’s leading producer of cocaine, and traffickers with speedboats have been smuggling it through the Caribbean for decades. It has been the policy of the United States and its partner nations in the region to seize the drugs and prosecute suspected traffickers, not kill them.

Adam Isacson, a security analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, told me that he monitors press releases from the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Southern Command, the Coast Guard, CBP, and researchers who study the drug trade. He told me that he has never seen a mention of fentanyl.

“It’s the drug that is impacting Americans the most, so you can see why Trump would invoke it to try to justify building walls, imposing punishing tariffs, or unlawfully using lethal force in the Caribbean,” he told me. “But there’s just no evidence to back up using fentanyl as a pretext.”

Most of the deadly fentanyl that has flooded into the United States over the past decade is produced in clandestine labs by criminal groups in Northern Mexico, according to the DEA and DHS. They operate in Mexican cities and states near the U.S. border, and the chemists who manufacture the drug smuggle the ingredients they need primarily from Asia.

Fentanyl killed roughly 48,000 Americans last year, down from approximately 76,000 in 2023, according to CDC estimates. Overall U.S. overdose deaths have been declining since 2023; there were roughly 80,000 last year. (Trump, in his UN speech, falsely claimed that 300,000 Americans were killed by drugs last year.)

Some analysts say the Caribbean strikes could be a prelude to a broader campaign aimed at toppling the Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro. But the strikes may have another purpose: They may be a test run for unilateral U.S. strikes on suspected cartel targets in Mexico. The Washington Post reported last week that DEA officials have urged such strikes but that the White House has not agreed. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has long said that such a move would violate Mexican sovereignty if not carried out in coordination with Mexican authorities.

John Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama and U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot, wrote to me that the large U.S. flotilla sent to the Caribbean “is not remotely fit to a maritime counternarcotics task” and appears to be designed to “scare Maduro” while serving as a training ground for potential operations in Mexico, “where the drug menace in the form of fentanyl is real.”

But Trump and his top aides are “on thin legal ice” when they equate drug trafficking to terrorism, Feeley said, calling it “old turf with lots of jurisprudence” that has tripped up lawmakers and the executive branch for decades.

“There’s a reason no previous administration didn’t just start shwacking suspected druggies,” said Feeley, who was the second-ranking U.S. diplomat in Mexico during the most intense phase of U.S. involvement in the fight against the country’s drug cartels during the early 2010s. “These guys have been laying out the fucking banana peels for themselves here.”

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:09 PM

SECOND

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


Billions in Taxpayer Dollars Have Become Virtually Untraceable

The Trump administration’s aggressive approach to overhauling the executive branch has obscured how federal dollars are actually being spent — even for the members of Congress.

NOTUS attempted to trace the money appropriated for more than 100 government programs to understand where taxpayer dollars are going, only to hit dead ends repeatedly. Data is outdated or conflicting, agencies have been vague in their explanations, and in many cases, there’s no publicly available evidence that appropriated money is being spent at all.

The connection between Congress’ decisions and current spending should be obvious — but in many cases today, it’s obscured.

Lawmakers and their staff told NOTUS they’ve faced the same barriers.

“I don’t think that there has been anything close to the transparency that we would hope,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “We’re kind of finding out about it at the very last minute.”

When asked if she felt confident that she can get the information she needs, she responded:

“No! No. I get it by reading something in the newspaper.”

Murkowski isn’t the only Republican voicing her frustrations.

The Trump administration is “really pushing the limits of what the executive can do without the consent of the legislative branch,” Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told The Wall Street Journal in July.

She escalated her language at the end of August, when the White House made clear that OMB Director Russell Vought intended to pursue a controversial method of withholding funds called a “pocket rescission.”

“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” Collins said in a statement. “Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process.”

More at https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virt
ually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:17 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:24 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:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Possible Embezzlement on a National Scale of $100 Billion or More

https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virt
ually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Possible Embezzlement on a National Scale of $100 Billion or More

https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virt
ually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

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


Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:40 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Possible Embezzlement on a National Scale of $100 Billion or More

https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virt
ually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

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


Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
With your claimed ability to type at 55 words per minute, plus your keen mind and brave heart, I don't see why you failed to become an exemplary success story for all Americans.

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 1:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Possible Embezzlement on a National Scale of $100 Billion or More

https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/billions-taxpayer-dollars-virt
ually-untraceable-appropriations-trump-omb-russ-vought

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


Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
With your claimed ability to type at 55 words per minute, plus your keen mind and brave heart, I don't see why you failed to become an exemplary success story for all Americans.


A lack of ambition coupled with a lack of avarice.

It's really quite simple.

By the time we're both dead, you will have paid 10 times the amount of money I've made in my life in taxes, and twice that in interest.

And it's 65wpm, btw...

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 6:22 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:

A lack of ambition coupled with a lack of avarice.

It's really quite simple.
Two appointees are ambitious and avaricious:

The DHS chief has been widely criticized for slowing down FEMA’s response after natural disasters. Texts and emails obtained by ProPublica point to an effective way to get help faster: have one of Noem’s big donors make the ask.

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski | Sept. 26, 2025

https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-fema-florida-naples-sin
an-gursoy

“I can’t get phone calls back,” Ted Budd, the Republican senator from North Carolina, told a newspaper this month, describing his attempts to reach Noem’s office. “I can’t get them to initiate the money. It’s just a quagmire.” The delays were caused in part by a new policy announced by DHS that requires Noem’s personal sign-off on expenses over $100,000, several news outlets reported.

Noem has been criticized for creating a bottleneck at FEMA. When the floods hit Texas this summer — ultimately killing over 100 people — it took days to deploy critical search-and-rescue teams because Noem hadn’t signed off on them, according to CNN. Budd, the Republican senator, said this month: “Pretty much everything Helene-related is over $100,000. So they’re stacking up on her desk waiting for her signature.”

Think of all the taxpayer money being saved by doing nothing. The exception is for those who bribe Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and thus receive preferential treatment. There will be jail sentences, but not until after Attorney General Pam Bondi is also incarcerated for her role in this bribery scheme. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's salary is $250,600 annually. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's annual salary is $235,100. With bribes, they can vastly increase their incomes.

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 6:52 PM

SECOND

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


No agenda, no attenda

Joel Eissenberg | September 28, 2025 8:57 am

https://angrybearblog.com/2025/09/no-agenda-no-attenda

That was my motto about meetings when I was a professor and associate dean. A leader respects the time of their colleagues. Not so for Pete Hegseth.

“Nothing good is likely coming out of this. The highly unusual summit was announced on short notice and no reason was given to military commanders and other leaders stationed in conflict zones, across Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region who are being required to leave their posts for the meeting.”

All this does is fuel rumors.

“This is either a meeting that could have been an email,” said Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America, “or something ominous.”

Regardless, it’s disrespectful.

Hegseth is jerking around the military brass.

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

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Sunday, September 28, 2025 10:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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

A lack of ambition coupled with a lack of avarice.

It's really quite simple.

By the time we're both dead, you will have paid 10 times the amount of money I've made in my life in taxes, and twice that in interest.

And it's 65wpm, btw...
Two appointees are ambitious and avaricious


Shut the fuck up.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, September 29, 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:

Shut the fuck up.
Why health insurance is about to become unaffordable
Paul Krugman
Sep 29, 2025

. . . millions of Americans will soon be screaming about unaffordable health care.

In a way, I’m surprised that Republicans didn’t decide to keep the enhanced, Biden subsidies in place for another year, just to delay the pain until after the midterms. But they didn’t, probably because they have such a strong aversion to helping Americans in need that they couldn’t even bring themselves to play cynical politics on the issue.

This aversion to doing anything decent is why the government will probably shut down Wednesday. For Republicans need Democratic votes to keep the government open, and Democrats have made retaining enhanced subsidies their price for cooperating.

What will happen then? I have no idea. But I think the Democrats made the right choice when they made health insurance premiums — rather than, say, tariffs — their key demand.

Why? Because doing so puts the onus for rising premiums squarely where it belongs — on Republicans. If Democrats weren’t putting this issue front and center, the usual suspects might be able to convince many voters that someone else — immigrants, Antifa, George Soros, whatever — was responsible for their soaring health costs. That will be much harder now.

Again, I have no idea how this will play out. But it looks to me as if Democrats have chosen good ground on which to make their stand.

More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/understanding-the-coming-premium

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

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Monday, September 29, 2025 9:31 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Again, I have no idea how this will play out.


The only true thing that Paul has ever put to print in his life.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, September 29, 2025 10:28 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 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Again, I have no idea how this will play out.


The only true thing that Paul has ever put to print in his life.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Krugman didn't say it, but I will: the only way this works out best is the way used by General Sherman and Grant during the Civil War. Compressed into a bumper sticker: "Burn their mansions and cotton plantations." I really believe that Trump supporters are only persuaded by emotion, not by logic and reason, which is why Democrats keep losing, since they keep using persuasion methods incomprehensible to Trumptards.

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

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Monday, September 29, 2025 5:56 PM

SECOND

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


Trump announces 100% tariff on foreign-made movies

By Elisabeth Buchwald | Sept 29, 2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/29/economy/trump-movie-tariff

President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday he will be imposing a 100% tariff “on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”

Trump did not specify when or how the tariff could be enacted.

If Trump follows through with his threat, it would mark the first time he’s essentially imposed a tariff on a service rather than a good.

The president initially threatened a 100% tariff on foreign-produced movies in May, arguing that other countries offer tax incentives that have drawn filmmakers abroad. In his post on Monday, he singled out California, saying the state “has been particularly hard hit!”

The state, meanwhile, has proposed and put in effect many tax incentives, as have other American cities.

Hollywood was completely caught off guard when Trump first previewed the tariff in May. “On first blush, it’s shocking and would represent a virtually complete halt of production,” one industry insider told CNN at the time. “But in reality, he has no jurisdiction to do this and it’s too complex to enforce.”

American actors and directors generally prefer to work close to home. But “the fact is, it’s cheaper for Hollywood studios to pay for everyone to get on planes, pay for hotels, because the cost of labor, lack of rebates and the ability to make things overseas is infinitely cheaper,” Jay Sures, vice chairman of United Talent Agency, told CNN in May.

Share of Netflix (NFLX) opened down 1% Monday morning following Trump’s post, while other movie-related companies, including AMC (AMC) and The Walt Disney Company (DIS), opened higher.

Movie ticket sales are down in the United States as the number of major releases hitting theaters has tumbled since the pandemic — and consumers have shifted their viewing habits to streaming platforms to watch at home.

US box office gross topped out at just under $12 billion in 2018 before nosediving to just over $2 billion in 2020, when many theaters were shut down because of Covid. Although theaters have rebounded, the number of releases is about half of what it was in 2019. The total domestic box office gross hasn’t eclipsed $9 billion since.

Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, has raked in $4 billion in global box office sales so far this year, the first studio to hit that level.

More tariffs in the works

Beyond films, Trump is readying up a slew of other tariffs.

As of Wednesday, the administration is set to impose a 100% tariff on branded drugs, with some exceptions; a 25% tariff on heavy trucks; a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and vanities; as well as a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture.

In a separate social media post on Monday, Trump said he plans to impose a “substantial” tariff on all furniture imported into the United States.

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

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Monday, September 29, 2025 8:05 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Again, I have no idea how this will play out.


The only true thing that Paul has ever put to print in his life.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
Krugman didn't say it, but I will: the only way this works out best is the way used by General Sherman and Grant during the Civil War. Compressed into a bumper sticker: "Burn their mansions and cotton plantations." I really believe that Trump supporters are only persuaded by emotion, not by logic and reason, which is why Democrats keep losing, since they keep using persuasion methods incomprehensible to Trumptards.


Democrats burn everything down. Both figuratively and Literally.

Democrats keep losing because they're fucking losers.

Your party is dead. Forever. They are NEVER coming back.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, September 29, 2025 10:52 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:

Democrats burn everything down. Both figuratively and Literally.

Democrats keep losing because they're fucking losers.

Your party is dead. Forever. They are NEVER coming back.
If Trumptards share your attitude toward Democrats, a large number of Democrats will eventually share my attitude that Trumptards are Nazis. The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. 6ix, do you remember what happened to the Nazis and Japs during WWII? The Democrats burned them alive in Dresden and Tokyo with firebombs. Krauts and Japs died screaming. That is the future for Trumptards if they can't moderate their absolutely evil ways into acceptable obnoxiousness. Fire will burn the devil Trump out of Trumptards. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast Trump and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name, Trump. Archive it, 6ix. Remember this warning that you are flammable.
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Revelation%2014%3A11

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

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Monday, September 29, 2025 11:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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

Democrats burn everything down. Both figuratively and Literally.

Democrats keep losing because they're fucking losers.

Your party is dead. Forever. They are NEVER coming back.
If Trumptards share your attitude toward Democrats, a large number of Democrats will eventually share my attitude that Trumptards are Nazis.


You've been calling me a Nazi for 8 years dude. Nobody gives a shit.

*yawn*

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, September 29, 2025 11:54 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:

You've been calling me a Nazi for 8 years dude. Nobody gives a shit.

*yawn*

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
6ix, you will think differently about the danger of not caring once you are soaked with gasoline and set on fire because you are a Nazi. 6ix, save yourself from burning alive by denouncing Trump before it is too late.

GOP lawmaker said trans people “harm” children. He just pleaded guilty to child porn charges.

He was caught sharing hundreds of images of kids, including pictures of adults raping seven-year-olds.

By Daniel Villarreal | September 29, 2025, 8:00 am EDT

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/gop-lawmaker-said-trans-people-har
m-children-he-just-pled-guilty-to-child-charges/

The anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty honored the child pornographer as their 2023 Legislator of the Year.

https://www.newsweek.com/rj-may-pleads-guilty-biden-username-child-sex
-abuse-videos-case-10790705

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:06 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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

You've been calling me a Nazi for 8 years dude. Nobody gives a shit.

*yawn*

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.
6ix, you will think differently about the danger of not caring once you are soaked with gasoline and set on fire because you are a Nazi. 6ix, save yourself from burning alive by denouncing Trump before it is too late.


Oh! That's very scary!

It's a little early for Halloween, isn't it old man?

I'm quivering in my boots over here.

*yawn*

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 6:39 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! That's very scary!

It's a little early for Halloween, isn't it old man?

I'm quivering in my boots over here.

*yawn*
Cattle are spooked by little things, but I have never seen cattle scared of the slaughter before they died. Yet the cows died. Trumptards are the same beasts. Scared of all kinds of trivial things, but not taking rational precautions against what will eventually kill them. For example, they won't stop smoking until they have emphysema.

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 6:40 AM

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


I want to check in with trump voters. i have one very genuine question:
it’s been 250 days, now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech is on the brink of collapse for us all —

has your life gotten better? have your groceries gotten cheaper? has your health insurance premium gone down? has your work/life balance improved? can you take a vacation yet? are you happier?

has the widespread suffering of others paid off for you in the way he promised it would, or are you still waiting?

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ariana-grande-shares-pretty-blunt-151822747.
html

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 6:56 AM

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


Another Trumptard goes to jail because of his sex life. When does Trump?

GOP lawmaker said trans people “harm” children. He just pleaded guilty to child porn charges.

He was caught sharing hundreds of images of kids, including pictures of adults raping seven-year-olds.

By Daniel Villarreal | September 29, 2025, 8:00 am EDT

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/gop-lawmaker-said-trans-people-har
m-children-he-just-pled-guilty-to-child-charges/

The anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty honored the child pornographer as their 2023 Legislator of the Year.

https://www.newsweek.com/rj-may-pleads-guilty-biden-username-child-sex
-abuse-videos-case-10790705

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 6:57 AM

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


Fossil Fuels and Fossilized Minds

What’s driving Trump’s doomed attempt to revive coal?

By Paul Krugman | Sep 30, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/fossil-fuels-and-fossilized-minds

None of the ostensible justifications for promoting coal make sense. It’s not about saving jobs: Coal mining as a way of life vanished decades ago, not because chardonnay-sipping liberals sneered at it, but because corporations replaced miners with machines and explosives. It’s not about reducing energy prices: Trying to keep coal alive will make energy more expensive, not less.

What it’s really about is culture war. Trying to bring back coal is all about owning the libs. And if it damages the environment, well, from MAGA’s point of view that’s a plus.

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 9:10 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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

Oh! That's very scary!

It's a little early for Halloween, isn't it old man?

I'm quivering in my boots over here.

*yawn*
Cattle are spooked by little things, but I have never seen cattle scared of the slaughter before they died. Yet the cows died. Trumptards are the same beasts. Scared of all kinds of trivial things, but not taking rational precautions against what will eventually kill them. For example, they won't stop smoking until they have emphysema.


To be clear, we are not afraid of the likes of you in the slightest.

Somebody who was above 50 IQ would have gleaned that from the previous post and would not have replied the way that you did.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:57 AM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

To be clear, we are not afraid of the likes of you in the slightest.

Somebody who was above 50 IQ would have gleaned that from the previous post and would not have replied the way that you did.
Big talk from a guy who was afraid of identifying the software project he was working on for fear that he could be traced. You won't even hint at what problem it was solving.

How is the project going? Stagnating? Losing momentum? Aimless activity? Bug list growing longer and longer? Abandoned?

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:57 AM

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


The war on science being led by the Republican Party

By Diana Gitig | Sep 27, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/who-should-we-blame-for-the-cu
rrent-war-on-science/

“It is currently impossible for global leaders to take the urgent actions necessary to respond to the climate crisis and pandemic threats because they are thwarted by a common enemy—antiscience—that is politically and ideologically motivated opposition to any science that threatens powerful special interests and their political agendas. Unless we find a way to overcome antiscience, humankind will face its gravest threat yet—the collapse of civilization as we know it.”

And they point to an obvious culprit: “There is, unquestionably, a coordinated, concerted attack on science by today’s Republican Party.”

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:02 PM

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


Why ACA tax credits for 22 million Americans are at the center of the government shutdown drama

By Aimee Picchi | September 30, 2025 / 11:36 AM EDT

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-affordable-care-act-e
nhanced-premium-tax-credit/

A possible U.S. government shutdown on Wednesday could hinge on a deal to maintain a tax credit that helps 22 million Americans lower their health insurance costs when they buy policies through the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces.

Known as the enhanced premium tax credit, the subsidy has been used by millions of low- and middle-class households since it was authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. Since then, spurred by the tax credit, the number of people who have enrolled in ACA marketplace health insurance plans has almost doubled, according to health care publication KFF.

But it is set to expire at the end of 2025, and leading Democratic lawmakers are making a funding deal to keep the government open contingent on Republicans agreeing to extend the credit.

Even as the outcome of the funding negotiations in Washington, D.C., remains uncertain, the expiration of the premium health care credits could inflict financial pain on millions of Americans, experts told CBS News.

"Insurers are already preparing to send notices to households that they will see increases starting in January 2026," said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy at Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal economic advocacy group, and a former White House economic official under former President Joe Biden, on a conference call Friday to discuss the tax credit.

He added, "People are more and more concerned about the cost of living, and [this is] a hit to their pocketbooks that they will start seeing in weeks."

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.

Here's what to know about the enhanced ACA premium tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-affordable-care-act-e
nhanced-premium-tax-credit/

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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

To be clear, we are not afraid of the likes of you in the slightest.

Somebody who was above 50 IQ would have gleaned that from the previous post and would not have replied the way that you did.
Big talk from a guy who was afraid of identifying the software project he was working on for fear that he could be traced. You won't even hint at what problem it was solving.


There's zero ROI for me outing myself here and putting myself at such a disadvantage to you.

Quote:
How is the project going? Stagnating? Losing momentum? Aimless activity? Bug list growing longer and longer? Abandoned?


None of your fuckin' business. Maybe I'll give an update on it to the two nice people here one day and your stalker ass will know the answer then. Keep reading everything I write, and I'll read the first sentence of about 1/5th of your posts and keep on ignoring the rest.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:44 PM

THG

Keep it real please


T



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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:44 PM

THG

Keep it real please


T


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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 12:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You denied Joe Biden*'s inflation for 2 years, and then downplayed it as no big deal for the next 2 years.

Nobody wants to hear anything out of you regarding the economy in 2025, Ted.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 1:23 PM

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


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

To be clear, we are not afraid of the likes of you in the slightest.

Somebody who was above 50 IQ would have gleaned that from the previous post and would not have replied the way that you did.
Big talk from a guy who was afraid of identifying the software project he was working on for fear that he could be traced. You won't even hint at what problem it was solving.


There's zero ROI for me outing myself here and putting myself at such a disadvantage to you.

Quote:
How is the project going? Stagnating? Losing momentum? Aimless activity? Bug list growing longer and longer? Abandoned?


None of your fuckin' business. Maybe I'll give an update on it to the two nice people here one day and your stalker ass will know the answer then. Keep reading everything I write, and I'll read the first sentence of about 1/5th of your posts and keep on ignoring the rest.
At 1 hour 45 minutes, Trump said today that we were a dead country, but now we are the hottest country. He is delusional. But so are all Trumptards. He certainly does love to talk for hours about his hallucinations.



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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 2:00 PM

SECOND

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


During the first eight months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has tried to hollow out the federal workforce by any means possible, including paying more than 200,000 people not to work, disassembling entire agencies via the Department of Government Efficiency, and fighting in court any effort by employees to hang on to their jobs. This week, Trump could try his most audacious move yet: using a government shutdown to conduct mass firings.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/09/trumps-grand-plan
-for-a-government-shutdown/684401/

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 2:33 PM

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


Trump Declares War on Libtards

President Donald Trump, who followed Mr. Hegseth and spoke for more than an hour, repeated his contention that the U.S. is “under invasion” from an “enemy within.” In the past, he has used such language to refer to liberal Democrats as well as to unauthorized immigrants.

“We’re going to straighten them out one by one,” he said, adding some of those in the room would play “a major part” in that effort.

“If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2025/0930/hegseth-trump-general
s-warrior-culture

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 2:36 PM

THG

Keep it real please



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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 2:36 PM

THG

Keep it real please


Quote:
Originally posted by second:

During the first eight months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has tried to hollow out the federal workforce by any means possible, including paying more than 200,000 people not to work, disassembling entire agencies via the Department of Government Efficiency, and fighting in court any effort by employees to hang on to their jobs. This week, Trump could try his most audacious move yet: using a government shutdown to conduct mass firings.

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



We are in the middle of a coup...

T

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 2:47 PM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

We are in the middle of a coup...

T
The Christians have declared they own all of America and will kill anyone who says they don't. Some Christians and lawmakers deny Christian Nationalism's existence and assert that it’s a tool constructed to weaponize against the faith, while others embrace it. Scholars’ definitions vary, but generally agree that its believers say the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, that there must be a return to those origins and that God has given them this country.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/religion/article/t
exas-faith-fest-kirk-21065194.php

About as clear as Trump ever is that he will kill anyone in his way: “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon," Trump said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-presses-sen
ior-officers-lethality-standards-politically-charge-rcna234645

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 3:52 PM

THG

Keep it real please


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

We are in the middle of a coup...

T
The Christians have declared they own all of America and will kill anyone who says they don't. Some Christians and lawmakers deny Christian Nationalism's existence and assert that it’s a tool constructed to weaponize against the faith, while others embrace it. Scholars’ definitions vary, but generally agree that its believers say the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, that there must be a return to those origins and that God has given them this country.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/religion/article/t
exas-faith-fest-kirk-21065194.php

About as clear as Trump ever is that he will kill anyone in his way: “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon," Trump said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-presses-sen
ior-officers-lethality-standards-politically-charge-rcna234645

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


The argument against promoting religion is primarily based on the principle of separation of church and state, which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This principle ensures that the government does not favor any particular religion or religious practices, allowing individuals to practice their beliefs freely without government interference.

Additionally, promoting religion can lead to indoctrination and discrimination against minority faiths, as it may create an environment where certain beliefs are privileged over others. The ACLU emphasizes that the government should not support religious values or beliefs, as this can violate the rights of individuals and families who do not adhere to those beliefs.

Overall, the consensus among many Americans is that religion should be kept separate from government policies, promoting a secular and inclusive society.

Pew Research Center


T

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 4:08 PM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The argument against promoting religion is primarily based on the principle of separation of church and state, which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Going beyond the separation of church and state, the U.S. tradition of keeping the military out of civilian life dates back to the Founding Fathers, who feared a standing army and concentrated power after their experiences with the British army in the American colonies. They viewed military interference in domestic matters as a threat to liberty.

Does Trump or 6ix understand any of that? Not one word:

Trump Just Gave the Military an Extremely Sinister Mission

The U.S. president just told military leaders that one of their main missions soon will be to defeat “the enemy from within.”

By Fred Kaplan | Sept 30, 2025 1:55 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/09/trump-hegseth-speech-gener
als-military.html

Before a gathering of the nation’s highest-ranking military officers, President Donald Trump unloaded what may be the most repellent, unhinged, and—in the few moments when he got to his point—frightening speeches by any American president ever.

In a 75-minute ramble, much of it improvised on the familiar themes of his campaign rallies, the commander in chief skewered Joe Biden (“this guy who had no clue”), even Biden’s autopen signature (“I love my signature, everybody loves my signature,” he boasted), the “sleazebags” in the “fake media,” George Soros, the Democratic Party (“they don’t treat you with respect, they’re Democrats, they never do”), several “stupid” Democratic mayors—and touted himself as the savior of the military and the nation (“I rebuilt the military. … I have settled so many wars. … I know more about deals than anybody”).

One can imagine what was going through the minds of the hundreds of generals and admirals, who had once saluted Biden and Obama as their commanders, who had come up through the ranks with an apolitical ethos, and who must have been at that moment wondering what kinds of orders they might have to follow—or consider not following—from this crude man who now has the attack plans and nuclear codes at his side.

Beneath the incoherent swagger and insults, Trump sent a clear message about the sorts of orders he’d soon be handing down, and that couldn’t have been reassuring. The military’s main task in the near future, he said, would be to defeat “the enemy from within”—the criminals, terrorists, and immigrants whom he claimed are ravaging American cities (even though, in most of those cities, crime rates are falling).

This is an “invasion from within,” he said several times, “no different from a foreign army.” And dealing with this enemy will become one of the military’s top priorities.

The National Guard, he claimed, had transformed the District of Columbia, which he said had been more dangerous than any place in Afghanistan (this to officers who had fought in Afghanistan), into a crimeless haven. Chicago and Portland come next. And, oh, he said, “we haven’t even started yet.” With his executive order to create a “quick reaction force” to stop civil disorder, our cities can now be used as a military “training ground.”

And on that training ground, he proclaimed, the gloves should come off. During the Biden administration, he said, street protesters would spit at police, and National Guard members just stood there and took it. No longer. His slogan: “They spit, we hit—is that OK?” The generals and admirals sat silent.

Trump’s monologue followed a speech by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who had ordered the generals and admirals to gather at the Marine base in Virginia from their stations all over the world—at a cost of millions of dollars for transportation—to hear what some had billed as a pep talk about the Pentagon’s new embrace of “warrior ethos.”

But Hegseth’s remarks too held a darker theme. Along with his usual tirades against various liberal shibboleths (“no more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate-change worship—we are done with that shit!”), he also called for an end to “frivolous complaints … no more smearing reputations … no more legal limbo” and an “overhaul” of the inspectors general who investigate misconduct. Basic training should be “scary, tough, and disciplined,” with sergeants allowed to “instill healthy fear” and “put their hands on recruits.”

Hegseth first came to Trump’s attention as a Fox News anchor who stood up for three officers prosecuted for particularly heinous war crimes in Afghanistan. (Trump later pardoned the individuals and, for a while, had them join his campaign tour.) https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/15/trump-pardon-war-crimes-07124
4 As defense secretary, Hegseth has fired a lot of military lawyers; he seems to view the phrase war crimes as an oxymoron. In his speech Tuesday morning to the top generals and admirals, he was saying the gloves were off—for training, for military operations, for everything.

“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies, the Milleys, and in with the Stockdales, the Schwarzkopfs, and the Pattons,” Hegseth practically screamed—insulting former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli, ex–Central Command Chief Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, and ex–Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. All of them had pursued ethical standards in their commands—and, not coincidentally, they have all since criticized Trump.

How many generals and admirals in the audience were appalled that this talk show host and former major in the National Guard had the temerity to sneer at experienced combat commanders?

A few defense secretaries have aroused the ire of senior military officers—Robert McNamara for subjecting their favorite weapons systems to statistical analysis, Robert Gates (in the eyes of some) for killing a lot of weapons and firing a few generals (for good, or at least explicitly stated, cause). But none of them ever derided a chief or a commander in public; none of them ever presumed for a second that they had the right, much less the experience, to lecture them on what it means to be a “warrior.”

In Trump’s speech, besides his politicization of every issue, his open contempt for previous commanders in chief, his clear hatred for the free press, even his subtly repeated claim that he really won the 2020 election (he referred to himself as “the 45th, 46th, and 47th president”), he revealed a shallow understanding of the military itself. He claimed that the U.S. Navy was 20 years ahead of any enemy in submarine technology (in fact, the Russians are nearly our match, and the Chinese are behind, but by not nearly that much). He far exaggerated the capabilities of his “Golden Dome” defense. He said that bullets are better than missiles and that he was thinking about bringing back the battleship, musing that he loved watching Victory at Sea, an early-’50s TV documentary about naval battles in World War II. (I would have liked to see some reaction shots of Navy officers contemplating how easily a single drone would take out a century-old warhorse of the ocean.)

He claimed that military personnel voted for him in the elections, went on for a while about how great firefighters are (“I got 95 percent of their vote”), insisted that street protesters (“animals”) often shot guns at firefighters while they were putting out flames, asserted that Biden never gave the armed forces a pay hike (in fact, he did almost every year of his presidency), and declared that military recruitment had soared to record levels since his election (in fact, recruitment started going up in the last year of Biden’s presidency).

“A year ago, we were a dead country,” Trump said near the conclusion of his harangue. “We were dead. The country was going to hell. … We had no borders, we had no weapons, we gave everything to Ukraine—we had nothing.”

Now, he said, “America is respected again as a country”—though he couldn’t help but add, “We were not respected with Biden. … Every day, the guy was falling down stairs.” He then digressed about how important it is that presidents not fall downstairs, that the footage of falling can set their legacy, that he’s always careful going downstairs, that the only thing he admired about Barack Obama—in all other ways “a lousy president”—was the way he could “bop down those stairs like I’ve never seen.”

Those poor generals and admirals. It must have been the most unsettling morning the majority of them had experienced since coming under fire in real battle. They have been taught since their time as cadets to stay out of politics. The law, which they’ve sworn to uphold, prohibits them from operating in cities except under the most dire conditions. And now here were the president and the secretary of defense, ordering them to become politicized and to patrol and aim fire at their fellow citizens.

Some of them must be dreading—as we all need to start dreading and doing everything to stop—the days and nights that lie ahead.

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 5:45 PM

SECOND

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


Don’t Normalize His Bigotry

By Bill Kristol | Sept 30, 2025

https://www.thebulwark.com/i/174920779/dont-normalize-his-bigotry

Yesterday evening, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social and then reposted on X an AI-generated video showing House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer speaking in a fake voice.

In the video, the AI-generated Schumer argues for undocumented immigrants to get “free healthcare” so Democrats can get their votes in the next election. Jeffries is depicted ostensibly as a Mexican immigrant who would benefit from that healthcare.

You can, if you have the stomach, watch the plainly racist, obviously fake video here.
https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1972822596397003159

Jeffries and Schumer showed impressive discipline in their responses a few minutes later. The Democrats’ approach to the government shutdown slated to start at midnight tonight is: 1) focus on the issue of healthcare, and 2) demonstrate a willingness to talk, even as Republicans aren’t. And so Jeffries wrote on X, “Bigotry will get you nowhere. Cancel the Cuts. Lower the Cost. Save Healthcare. We are NOT backing down.” Schumer followed, “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”

The Democrats’ message isn’t quite the one I’d prefer, and their leaders’ tone is too mild for my taste. But ultimately I have no important quarrel with how Jeffries and Schumer handled the moment. There was probably no reason for them to be justifiably indignant and angry—though I would be. And I suppose there was no need to tell the truth about what this latest glimpse into Donald J. Trump’s character reveals—after all, we’ve seen countless exhibits of this before. Doing so would presumably have generated media stories about both sides hurling charges at each other. It might have been a distraction. It’s perhaps what Trump wanted.

But I do feel, both for the sake of political hygiene and the historical record, that someone should tell the simple truth: Donald Trump is a vulgar bigot and a reprehensible human being. He is unworthy to serve in any high office in this country, let alone its highest. Just because he’s acted this way before doesn’t mean we should let it go unremarked upon. If anything, it makes the obligation to call him out in these moments that much greater.

At some point, Republicans will have to face up to the fact that they have nominated this lowlife three times for president, and that their party continues to slavishly support him. Democrats will have to face up to the fact that they have twice failed to defeat him. Americans will have to face up to the fact that we have twice elected this man as president, and that far too many of us are still not repulsed by him.

It would be good if that point came sooner rather than later.

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

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025 8:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You two fags sound pretty scared now.

You're not scared, are you?



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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