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

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:18
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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 6:34 AM

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

Donald Trump Will Never Be a Restrainer

By Stephen M. Walt | September 30, 2025, 7:00 AM

Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/30/donald-trump-will-never-be-a-rest
rainer/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921

. . . The idea of U.S. foreign-policy restraint emerged in opposition to the grand strategy of liberal hegemony, which sought to use American power to spread democracy, markets, the rule of law, and other liberal values around the world, and to bring as many states as possible into institutions dominated by the United States. Restrainers believe that trying to spread democracy with military force is a fool’s errand, and that threatening or bullying other states usually backfires, making adversaries more suspicious and turning allies or neutrals into enemies. For this reason, they believe diplomacy should be America’s first impulse and the use of force its last resort. They are neither isolationists nor pacifists, because they believe that the United States has an interest in helping maintain favorable balances of power in key regions, that allies are useful but should pull their weight, that force is sometimes necessary to defend vital interests, and that well-designed international institutions can facilitate cooperation even as states compete. And while restrainers recognize that the world can be a dangerous place and that the United States has serious conflicts of interest with some countries, they oppose the relentless threat inflation used to justify excessive U.S. military spending and the overuse of force abroad.

Restrainers do not agree on every issue—for example, some favor confronting China more vigorously while others favor greater efforts to accommodate its rise—but they are united in their opposition to the self-indulgent hubris that has characterized U.S. grand strategy under recent Democratic and Republican administrations. Above all, restrainers oppose the capricious use of military force and believe the United States could be more secure and more prosperous if it spent less on national security and used its still considerable power more judiciously.

So why is Trump not a true restrainer? Let me count the ways.

First, Trump continues to favor unnecessary increases in the U.S. defense budget, which recently topped $1 trillion and still dwarfs that of every other country. Even worse, he is diverting some of these vast sums from their true purpose—defending the United States against foreign dangers—and using them to go after fictitious domestic enemies. Instead of deflating threats, Trump is using imaginary enemies at home and abroad to justify expanding presidential authority to dangerous levels. Restrainers have long warned that excessive militarization would eventually threaten civil liberties here in the United States, and Trump has proved them right.

Second, restrainers believe the United States should reduce its military footprint in Europe and the Middle East and adopt a more even-handed posture in the latter region. Trump has had ample opportunity to do both things and has yet to do either one. The U.S. presence in both regions remains largely unchanged, and Trump has doubled down on America’s “special relationships” in the Middle East and refused to engage seriously with opponents there.

Third, although Trump has been wary of committing U.S. ground forces to battle in potentially open-ended conflicts, he is perfectly comfortable using airpower in visible but strategically dubious acts of military theater. Since retaking office in January, he has struck targets in Yemen and Iran, and ordered the military to sink several boats in the Caribbean that were supposedly smuggling illegal drugs. In addition to the dubious legality of these actions, none of them are likely to accomplish any significant or lasting strategic purpose. The Houthis remain defiant, Iran has not ended its nuclear program, and anyone who thinks that sinking a few boats will reduce the flow of illegal narcotics to the United States is living in a dream world. Along with Trump’s tariffs, such pointless military displays are the opposite of foreign-policy restraint, and I can’t help but wonder what the handful of genuine restrainers still serving the Trump administration—and they know who they are—think of these antics.

Fourth, Trump has neither reached a grand bargain with China on economic and security issues—as some restrainers recommend—or made a serious effort to strengthen a coalition to balance China in Asia and prevent it from achieving regional dominance there (as other restrainers favor). Instead, the administration has picked fights over trade with critical U.S. partners like Japan, South Korea, and India; undermined relations with South Korea further by mistreating South Korean workers at a battery plant in Georgia; and is systematically undermining America’s ability to compete with China in key areas of science and technology.

Fifth, a key recommendation of the restraint camp—and especially organizations such as the proudly trans-partisan Quincy Institute—has been to reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy and deemphasize the reflexive use of military power. But as I’ve written before, Trump and his minions are the poster children for poorly prepared, incompetently staffed, inconsistently pursued, and ultimately unsuccessful diplomatic engagements. Trump and Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Marco Rubio have gutted the State Department, discarded the normal interagency process, and turned critical negotiations on Gaza and Ukraine over to a real estate lawyer with no obvious qualifications and some potential conflicts of interest. Is it any wonder that they have achieved so little?

As for Trump’s own approach to diplomacy, I suggest you watch his utterly bizarre performance in front of the United Nations General Assembly last week. You don’t have to love the United Nations or dislike Trump to be disturbed by the spectacle he put on there, and what it told the world about our country and its leader. Exceeding his allotted 15 minutes by almost three-quarters of an hour, Trump subjected dozens of world leaders to a rambling, self-pitying, falsehood-filled, and frequently insulting rant that undoubtedly left U.S. adversaries grateful that the world’s most powerful country was in such incompetent hands and left America’s remaining friends worried for the same reason.

So, no, Trump is neither a restrainer nor a realist. There are several other labels that would be more apt, but I’m too polite to list them here.

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 6:56 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:
You two fags sound pretty scared now.

You're not scared, are you?

You know the generals always had contempt for Trump and Butt-head, his secretary of war. They have more reason after yesterday:

Bulging Biceps Don’t Win Modern Wars

Hegseth’s speech was vile. It was also stupid.

By Paul Krugman | Oct 1, 2025 at 5:34 AM

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/bulging-biceps-dont-win-modern-wars

Why did Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary — he may call himself secretary of war, but Congress has not, in fact, voted to change his department’s name — summon 800 top generals and admirals to Washington? I admit that I feared the worst — that he would demand that they pledge personal fealty to Donald Trump. But no: They were summoned to listen to a speech about “lethality,” followed by a highly political speech by Trump himself.

How do you achieve lethality, according to Hegseth? By telling the military that it’s OK to engage in hazing, sexual abuse and bigotry — he didn’t say that explicitly, but that was his clear message. Also, war crimes are no big deal. And members of the military, including the top brass, must shave their beards, lose weight and do pull-ups.

Hegseth’s speech was morally vile. It was also, however, profoundly stupid. Hegseth seems to have gotten his ideas about what an effective military looks like by watching the movie 300.

I am, of course, by no means a military expert myself. But I read and talk to people who are military experts, and think I have some idea about how modern wars are fought. Furthermore, there’s a clear family resemblance between Hegsethian stupidity about modern war and Trumpian stupidity about economic policy. Modern nations don’t achieve prosperity by emphasizing “manly” jobs; they don’t win wars by having big biceps.

War still requires extraordinary courage from the men and women engaged in combat — courage that, according to officers I’ve spoken with, is rooted in a sense of honor, not swaggering machismo. Combatants also have to be physically fit enough to endure incredible hardship.

But they don’t have to look like bodybuilders — and anyway, only a small fraction of a modern army engages directly in combat. These days, war is conducted largely with machines and ranged weapons, and most of an army’s personnel are employed, one way or another, keeping those machines and weapons in action and providing the intelligence that makes them effective. These noncombatants are every bit as essential to victory as front-line troops.

Actually, this has been true for a long time, at least since World War II. I very much doubt that Hegseth would consider the team led by Alan Turing, which broke Germany’s Enigma code, or the group led by Joseph Rochefort, which broke Japan’s naval code, warriors — even leaving aside the fact that Turing was gay. Yet they contributed as much to victory as any front-line soldier.

And the “warrior ethos” Hegseth touts is even less sufficient, on its own, to win wars today.

We don’t have to speculate about what a 21st century war would look like, because there’s ferocious, dare I say lethal, combat happening in Ukraine as you read this.

Some readers may recall how impressive many politicians on the right found Russia’s army before it tried to conquer Ukraine.

But it turned out that the Russian army was much better at looking tough than it was at actually waging war. All that non-woke masculinity didn’t prevent Russia’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv from becoming an epic disaster.

And while the war goes on, and on, and on, it’s now waged largely with drones and cruise missiles, not well-groomed guys with six-pack abs. As the military historian and analyst Phillips O’Brien wrote in a recent Substack post, technology has turned large parts of the Ukraine battlefield into “kill zones” — sort of like No Man’s Land in World War I, but 40 or more kilometers wide. Sending men into these zones, no matter how tough they look, is just a way to throw their lives away.

The Ukrainians, although outnumbered, have held their own in this new kind of war, not by being tougher than the Russians — although they are awesomely, almost inconceivably tough — but by being smarter, more flexible and more innovative, virtues I doubt loom large in Hegseth’s concept of lethality.

But Hegseth and Trump, not surprisingly, have learned nothing from this story. Here’s how O’Brien summarized it in a note yesterday:

“If you listened closely to Hegseth and Trump, they were basically saying the US military should be more like the Russian military—unaccountable for its actions, using lethality in favor of intelligence, and where training can be used to abuse recruits. And if they do that, I can guarantee you it will be as effective as the Russian military.”

I’d add that a military rife with sexual abuse and bigotry isn’t going to attract the best minds — many of which, although people like Hegseth will never believe it, reside in female and nonwhite bodies.

As I said, all of this is of a piece with Trumpian policy in other domains. Of course a regime that believes it can make America great by defunding science and destroying higher education believes that it can make our military more effective by making it prejudiced and stupid.

The good news is that America’s officer corps isn’t stupid, at least not yet. The stony silence with which the assembled generals and admirals greeted Hegseth’s and Trump’s rants was eloquent.

But you can now add the military to the list of great American institutions that MAGA is, in effect, trying to destroy.

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 7:15 AM

SECOND

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

The Commander in Chief is not okay.

In Trump’s first term, the president was surrounded by people who ensured that some of his nuttiest—and most dangerous—ideas were derailed before they could reach the military. Today, senior U.S. officers have to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person they just saw onstage. What are officers to make of Trump’s accusation that other nations, only a year ago, supposedly called America “a dead country”? (After all, these men and women were leading troops last year.) How are they supposed to react when Trump slips the surly bonds of truth, insults their former commanders in chief, and talks about his close relationship with the Kremlin?

In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/09/trump-hegseth-
speech-incoherent/684421/

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 10:13 AM

SECOND

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

Veterans react to Hegseth’s ‘insulting’ address to generals and admirals

Defense secretary’s speech touching on physical fitness and doctrine of lethality was seen as ‘egotistical’ and ‘dangerous’

Dana Pittard, an author and retired U.S. Army general interviewed by The Guardian, said of Hegseth's speech, "I thought it was insulting." And Pittard, who is Black, said he deeply resented Hegseth's claim that non-white military leaders were promoted based on a racial quota system.

Pittard also criticized Hegseth's "partisan" attacks during the speech as a "dangerous, slippery slope."

U.S. Navy veteran Tamara Steven found Hegseth's "lethality" rhetoric deeply troubling.

Stevens told The Guardian, "Basically, he's saying that we're no better than Hamas because people are joining because they want to break things and they want to kill people. I mean, for anyone that's been in the military, he's not qualified to be secretary of defense. He's barely qualified to be a host on Fox News. But so say these things in front of the preeminent generals and admirals leading our military? Has he no honor, to say that we don’t belong in polite society? Maybe he doesn’t."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/01/pete-hegseth-generals-
speech-veterans-react

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 12:24 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, 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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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 6:26 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:
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--------------------------------------------------

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

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Veterans react to Hegseth’s ‘insulting’ address to generals and admirals

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 7:22 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, 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...

You go get 'em, Che.

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

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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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 8:21 PM

SECOND

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

Republican Hoaxes

https://andrewtobias.com/grindr-explodes-at-charlie-kirk-memorial-trum
p-rally/

Trickledown helping everyone
Dems trying to outlaw guns
Dems secretly communist
Dems controlling the media
Climate change not being real
Climate change not man made
Bin Laden/Saddam partnership
Iraq threatening with WMDs
Gays destroying marriage
Gays choosing to be gay
Gays turning other people gay
Obama secretly a Muslim
Obamacare death panels
Obama bom in Kenya
Obama dividing the nation
Obama seeking third term
Dems waging war on Christmas
Dems waging war on God
Benghazi show trials (30)
Hillary being a criminal
2016 election being rigged
Dems wanting open borders
Mexico sending its people
Walls solving all problems
Mexico paying for the wall
QAnon conspiracy cult
Obama spying on Trump
Denial of Russian collusion
Denial of Ukrainian extortion
Democrats secretly racists
Dems both “woke” and racist
Whites being oppressed
Christians being oppressed
Republicans being oppressed
Antifa gangs attacking
Covid being just like the flu
Masks being ineffective
Masks making people slaves
Masks traumatizing children
Scientists lying for money
Hospitals faking Covid #’s for $
Dr Fauci being a villain
Vaccines having microchips
Vaccines making people sick
Vaccines making people slaves
Vaccines not being effective
Unvaccinated mostly Democrats
Hydroxychloroquine curing Covid
Ivermectin curing Covid
“Real science” being suppressed
Legit questions being suppressed
Illegal immigrants voting
Dead people voting
People voting multiple times
Dems stealing 2020 election
Dems suppressing free speech
Dems controlling social media
Dems controlling private companies
Dems orchestrating race riots
Dems getting rid of police
Antifa behind Jan 6 insurrection
Jan 6 rioters just like tourists
Jan 6 not Trump’s fault
Jan 6 riot not a crime
Trump reinstatement dates
Teachers being pedophiles
Teachers turning kids gay
Disney run by pedophiles
Disney turning kids gay
Critical Race Theory in kid’s math books

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 8:22 PM

SECOND

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

Goebbels' principles of propaganda

1. Repeat lies till accepted as truth.
2. Blame opponents for all problems.
3. Every act must be justified in the name of nation.
4. Aggressive media manipulation.
5. Floating theory of conspiracies.
6. Brand opponents as anti-national.
7. Constant visibility of the leader.
8. Use rallies. Slogans. Symbols. Icons.
9. Emphasis on glorious past.

https://andrewtobias.com/grindr-explodes-at-charlie-kirk-memorial-trum
p-rally/

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

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025 9:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

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Thursday, October 2, 2025 7:05 AM

SECOND

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

An Autocracy of Dunces

How stone-faced generals, Wall Street pushback, and a government shutdown may save America’s quickly declining democracy

By Paul Krugman | Oct 02, 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/an-autocracy-of-dunces

If America still had a fully functioning democracy, Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday to the assembled generals would have ended his presidency. Trump treated the event like a political rally and was clearly taken aback by the refusal of the audience to applaud or laugh at his jokes. Delivering a nakedly partisan speech to a mandated assembly of military officers was a gross violation of the Hatch Act. The content —telling the officers to be ready to use force against U.S. citizens — was clearly an impeachable offense. In an earlier era, Trump’s incoherent ranting would have paved the way for his immediate removal from office under the 25th Amendment.

But how did this happen?

It’s clear that the decision to summon top officers from around the world to receive a lecture about “warrior ethos” from a man who installed a makeup studio at the Pentagon was made by Pete Hegseth. It confirmed publicly what is being whispered within the military, and presumably among our allies and enemies: that Hegseth is an abject incompetent who isn’t remotely up to the job. And this toe-curling performance is a reflection of his underlying panic.

It’s yet another example of Trump being undone by his even more chaotic minions – RFK Jr. and vaccines, Peter Navarro and his “Liberation Day” tariffs, Bill Pulte’s scurrilous use of private mortgage information (which implicated his own family) and Brendan Carr’s own-goal from going after Jimmy Kimmel. I could go on, but I think the point is made.

Back in August I wrote about “hackification,” invoking what I dubbed Arendt’s Law. As I noted, Hannah Arendt argued that authoritarian regimes don’t want competent people, who might sometimes take a stand on principle. They prefer crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.

My case in point in that post was E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, who Trump was trying to install as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after firing the previous Commissioner because he didn’t like the numbers the agency was reporting.

While there are many competent conservative economists, Antoni isn’t one of them. He is, instead, stunningly, Stephen-Moore-level incompetent, with a toxic history on social media. Trump’s choice of Antoni proved Arendt’s dictum: crackpots and fools are likely to be more loyal than people who actually know something.

The same logic surely explains the appointment of the hapless Hegseth.

Hackification is also an important factor in the government shutdown. Democrats have made their willingness to supply the extra votes needed to keep the government open contingent on an extension of the Biden-era expansion of health insurance subsidies, which will expire at the end of this year.

It’s good ground for them, politically: More than 24 million Americans get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, almost all of them subsidized. And if the subsidies are allowed to expire, many families will face a disastrous financial hit:

Source: KFF

The political puzzle is why Republicans didn’t see this coming. The One Big Beautiful Bill carefully and cynically delays big cuts to Medicaid until after the midterms. Why didn’t it include a similarly cynical delay to the looming premium apocalypse?

Well, Chuck Schumer, who met with Trump Monday, said that the president appeared to be “not aware” of the impact of expiring subsidies. I just had a conversation with Jonathan Cohn, which will be posted on Saturday, and we agreed that many Republicans, like Trump, simply weren’t aware of the issue. Who would tell them? As far as I can tell there are no competent health analysts working either for Trump or for Republicans in Congress.

So let me return to my opening point: America is no longer a fully functioning democracy. In the good old days of Richard Nixon, the Republican Party had the conscience and backbone to standup to Nixon’s attempt at autocracy. William Rehnquist, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, recused himself from US vs Nixon because of his close prior association with Watergate conspirators? Can you imagine Scalia or Thomas having any such sense of fairness and duty?

But like all authoritarian regimes, America’s autocracy is being run by malevolent incompetents. And while our hallowed institutions are utterly failing to rise to the occasion, the sheer incompetence of these hacks is generating pushback that may yet save us.

While it is likely that the top ranks of the US military skew right politically, all of us – liberals included – should applaud their stony reception of Hegseth and Trump. Likewise, while business leaders are also likely to skew right politically, we all should applaud their pushback over tariffs, the appointment of E.J. Antoni, and the attempt to fire Lisa Cook. And let’s give special thanks to the many Disney subscribers who canceled after the abortive attempt to fire Jimmy Kimmel.

Many innocent people — above all, federal employees — will be hurt by the government shutdown. But Democrats needed to take a stand, to show that they will try to hold Republicans accountable for their assault on the welfare of Americans, and Republican incompetence gave them good ground for doing so.

In a perverse way, we can be grateful that Trump and his minions are so incompetent, because that is forcing the dormant parts of our country to push back. Let’s just hope that the pushback is strong enough and fast enough to save us all.

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

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Thursday, October 2, 2025 8:33 AM

SECOND

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

Pope Leo rebukes climate skeptics after Trump calls warming a ‘con job’

The Illinois native’s comments come a week after the U.S. president derided the fight against climate change.

By Louise Guillot | October 1, 2025 7:10 pm CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/pope-leo-rebukes-climate-skeptics-afte
r-us-donal-trump-calls-warming-con-job/

Pope Leo XIV denounced people who deny climate change on Wednesday, arguing that they are contributing to the destruction of God's creation.

"Some have chosen to deride the increasingly evident science of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them the most," Leo said.

The pope's comments come just a week after U.S. President Donald Trump, in a speech at the United Nations, called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” On Tuesday, Leo made a direct foray into U.S. politics, defending the Chicago Archdiocese’s decision to honor Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who supports abortion rights.

“I think it’s important to look at the overall work that a senator has done,” said the pope, a Chicago-area native.

"Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life," he added. "Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

The pope was speaking on Wednesday at a conference commemorating the 10-year anniversary of Laudato Si, a 2015 formal doctrinal letter issued by his predecessor, Pope Francis, that called for the protection of the planet, including the fight against climate change.

"We cannot love God whom we cannot see while despising his creatures, nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded," Leo said.

Following in the footsteps of Francis, Leo called on "everyone in society ... to put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls" to fight climate change and protect the environment.

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

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Thursday, October 2, 2025 9:28 AM

SECOND

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

Trump Is Steadily Pushing the Republic Toward the Edge of Oblivion

The administration has entered its most anti-Constitutional phase yet. We must call a regime that’s a danger to our way of life what it is.

By Katherine Stewart | October 2, 2025

https://newrepublic.com/article/201058/trump-dangerous-autocracy-crack
down-rights

It is well past time to connect the dots. The Trump administration’s assault on democracy has entered a new and dangerous phase. Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do, and what many of us warned was coming. He is at the head of a political movement that has long aimed to demolish American democracy, and he and his inner circle of supporters are now backed into a corner where they have few options but to double down. In the next phase of this corrupt takeover of America’s governing institutions, the Trump administration is certain to expand on its already substantial control of both the system of justice and the corporate media, and it will use this control to suppress dissent and spread still more disinformation. Whether the GOP’s plan to destroy American democracy for good will succeed can’t be known. What those who still believe in the promise of America should do is clear.

Dot number one is the conversion of federal law enforcement and the system of justice into an instrument for punishing enemies of the regime and its leader. The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, just days after President Trump said that Attorney Pam Bondi should prosecute him along with other political adversaries, takes us a giant step toward this objective. This radical action is not surprising for a man who appointed many of his own personal defense attorneys to top positions within the Department of Justice. It really doesn’t matter that the case against Comey is unlikely to result in a conviction. Trump’s adversaries will have already gotten the message that federal law enforcement is now a thoroughly political instrument of the leader and the ruling party. That is how corrupt autocracies work.

Dot number two: the executive order declaring “Antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.” As an article published on the website of the libertarian Cato Institute pointed out, “antifa” is not a formal organization but rather “an idea”—the way Taoism or Crossfit or “going keto” are ideas—and it declared the move “idiotic on multiple levels.” The point of the order is to follow through on the hateful rhetoric with which Trump and many of his followers responded to the horrendous murder of Charlie Kirk. The administration intends to use the coercive power of federal law enforcement to attack all those who disagree with its political views on the pretext that to disagree with the ruler is to invite “terrorism.” With the administration’s attack on the Soros-funded Open Society Foundation, this weaponization of the DOJ and FBI is already well underway.

Dot number three is the deployment of the U.S. military against (so-called) domestic enemies. This began with the deployment of the National Guard and now includes various orders and declarations that make clear that Trump expects to use the military to apply coercive pressure against large sectors of the American population. The transformation of ICE into a federal police force largely outside of traditional law enforcement is a connected part of this project.

Dot number four is the conversion of mainstream media into regime-compliant propaganda and disinformation providers. The big story last week wasn’t the cancellation and (partial) return of Jimmy Kimmel. It was the clear declaration, long foretold, that antitrust regulators now work not for the American public but rather for the advance of Trump administration interests, which include the consolidation of America’s mainstream media industry into the hands of a small number of Trump-boosting billionaires. The sale of TikTok (with a Trump-loving billionaire in charge), the ongoing elevation of Fox News into the semiofficial party-state broadcast network, and other data points—including the involvement of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner in a $50 billion buyout of Electronic Arts, completes the picture. The creation of these media oligopolies will impoverish and misinform the public, which is exactly what authoritarians want.

Dot number five is the capture of the corporate sector. As predicted early on, this has proved the easiest part of the authoritarian project. CEOs with MBAs trained in the shareholder-value theory of management are, all too often, pushovers for autocrats. You just point to the “bottom line” as you enlist their support in depriving the public of its rights. They have no clue that you’ll be coming back later to shake them down too.

Dot number six is the reduction of the legislature to a plate of Jello. As long as Republicans control both chambers of Congress, this mission is done and dusted. The Constitution places the power of the purse in Congress; this Republican Congress has handed it over, along with every other matter of substance, to the president. Congress has also always had the power of oversight. This Congress isn’t just wearing blindfolds; it has poked its own eyes out so that it won’t have to witness the epic levels of corruption and self-dealing at the highest office.

And dot number seven, which is to remove any opposition in the form of expertise by decimating the federal government, has been underway ever since Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, and his 22-year-old minions went on their chain saw rampage through the federal government.

While we have arrived at a dire moment, make no mistake: Now is not the time to curl up in despair. We have work to do—institutions to defend, pro-democracy organizations to support, lawsuits to pursue, corruption to expose, and midterm elections next year.

The same forces that have brought us an antidemocratic movement have succeeded in undermining key institutions: the judiciary, the integrity of religious institutions, and the guardrails of one of our two political parties. If we want better outcomes, we can start by learning how those institutions have been undermined and commit ourselves to the process of restoring them.

Last December, Politico published a terrific piece by the Turkish journalist Asli Aydintasbas, who lived through and documented Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s methodical process of state capture—and the pushback, which is ongoing. It is well worth a read. It takes time for the autocrat to consolidate control, she reminds us, so it is vital to remain active and engaged. She advises that we focus on strategic and broad-based actions that have appeal beyond the professional classes.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/01/anti-trumpists-guide
-next-four-years-00191724

She tells us to take a step back from identity politics and purity politics and work with other like-minded people and organizations, even if we don’t agree on everything. She reminds us that nothing is more meaningful than being part of a struggle for democratic principles. “America will survive the next four years,” she writes, if those who support democracy “pick themselves up and start learning from the successes of opponents of autocracy across the globe.”

Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism [2019] and Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy [2025].

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

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Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:08 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

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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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Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

It wasn't enough that you idiots turned half the swing states Red and lost all of them, but you're going to lose New Jersey too.

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/10/is-nj-having-a-political-identity-
crisis-trump-now-has-higher-approval-rating-than-murphy.html

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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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