Elections; 2024
POSTED BY: THG
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 9, 2026 06:05
VIEWED: 209598
PAGE 50 of 52
Trump’s Fans Are Suffering From Tony Soprano Syndrome
Some conservatives are embracing the villains in what are supposed to be cautionary tales.
By Adam Serwer | December 5, 2024, 2:35 PM ET https://www.theatlantic.com/author/adam-serwer/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-judge-dred
d-autocrat/680881/
In every Judge Joe Dredd story I’ve ever read, there is at least one almost comically obvious moment when the author makes clear that the protagonist is a jackbooted fascist and not someone to admire. This may come across to the average reader as heavy-handed, but when the richest man in the world misreads the character as heroic, you can see why such heavy-handedness is sometimes necessary.
Shortly before former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida withdrew his nomination for attorney general, Elon Musk posted on X that Gaetz was the “Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison.” Generally speaking, one’s model for justice should not be a fascist invented in part to illustrate the distinction between elite impunity and the brutality that ordinary people face. (Were Dredd’s zero tolerance for lawbreaking evenly applied to obscenely wealthy scofflaws like Musk himself, it would surely be less appealing to him.)
Musk’s media illiteracy is not particularly shocking—it seems to be part of a broader trend tied to the rise of Donald Trump. Genre stories that are meant to highlight the dangers of fascism, cruelty, or selfishness instead end up being misinterpreted or even condemned by those who find fascism appealing or see cruelty and selfishness as aspirational virtues.
The messaging in Dredd stories verges on didactic, but it also assumes at least a tacit objection to fascism in the reader. One of the series’ co-creators, Pat Mills, has said that his model for Dredd and the other judges was the monks at his parochial school, who subjected children to physical or sexual abuse. The stories are set in a dystopian future where several “megacities,” surrounded by a radioactive wasteland, are ruled by draconian judges. Initially established by the character of Eustace Fargo in response to rampant street crime, this judge system empowers its agents to convict and sentence those they deem criminals, and simply kill many of the people they encounter.
As mentioned, the implications of these stories are not exactly subtle. In one 2019 story arc, The Small House, Dredd confronts Judge Smiley, the Justice Department’s chief of black ops, over Smiley’s use of invisible assassins to murder democracy activists in Mega-City One. Dredd’s main objection to Smiley’s operations, it seems, is that Smiley’s assassinations are not following proper protocol. Dredd has no moral objection to killing democracy activists, but it has to be done by the book. Smiley calmly explains to Dredd, “We’re fascists. We rule. It’s the only way we can survive in this irradiated, dead world.”
Dredd is a true believer in the judge system, and as such lacks the corruption of his contemporaries. This renders him ethically superior only to the other fascists, however; he is an unthinking armed goon who would never allow the system to be changed just because the majority would prefer it. He acts fanatically in service to the unjust system he upholds, not to any larger ideals of honor or integrity. In the 2006 storyline Origins, a cryogenically frozen Fargo is briefly thawed and begs Dredd to undo the judge system. “It was never meant to be forever,” Fargo pleads, just before dying. “We’re the monster, we got greedy—wanted everything—so we killed the dream Joe, we killed America!” Dredd, being Dredd, ignores Fargo’s pleas and, when asked later about Fargo’s last words, says Fargo wanted him to “keep the faith,” forever burying Fargo’s wish to end the judge system in favor of democratic rule.
As Trump reshapes the nation in his image, some of his supporters seem inclined to turn cautionary tales on their head, empathizing with villains or antiheroes to such a degree that the
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Kamala Harris bombed with Hispanic voters. That’s the whole story.
By Kevin Drum | December 6, 2024 – 11:43 am
https://jabberwocking.com/kamala-harris-bombed-with-hispanic-voters-th
ats-the-whole-story/
As I've mentioned, I'm a little skeptical of any theory about why there was a big turn against Democrats in 2024 because, in fact, there wasn't a big turn. There was a normal, moderate turn.
But in one place there was a huge turn: Hispanic voters. Here's the Democratic winning margin among Hispanics going back to 1980:
Even if you assume that Democrats lose the overall vote in 2024 by two points, you'd still expect them to win the Hispanic vote by 33%. Instead they won it by only 5%. That's an enormous shift both generally and compared to Joe Biden in 2020.
Now, the 2024 vote isn't completely without precedent: George Bush did extraordinarily well among Hispanics in the 2004 election. But that was explainable: Bush actively courted Hispanics and received a surge in Hispanic support after the capture of Saddam Hussein. The 2024 election remains a little more mysterious.
In any case, the Hispanic drop represents a shift of nearly 5% of the total popular vote away from Kamala Harris. That's way more than enough to account for her loss.
This doesn't automatically mean that all the other theories are wrong. It could still be inflation or wokeness or immigration. But any theory worth considering needs to account for why it affected Hispanic voters differently than others. So far none of them really do that.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Kamala Harris bombed with Hispanic voters. That’s the whole story.
...
In any case, the Hispanic drop represents a shift of nearly 5% of the total popular vote away from Kamala Harris. That's way more than enough to account for her loss.
Incorrect.
Joe Biden* had 81,282,632 votes in 2020 (51.3%. Donald Trump had 74,223,234 (46.9%).
That's 4.4% right there.
https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election,_2020
Trump just won this election by 1.5%.
That's more than 5% right there.
And since we don't have any real idea how many Hispanic votes there were in 2024 vs. 2020 yet since any 2024 data out there is from exit polling, we should assume that the number of Hispanics that voted in 2024 dropped along with all other races this year vs. last election cycle.
Kevin Drum, as always, is an idiot.
Meanwhile, maybe you should be asking yourselves why Latinos hate you. Maybe don't call them LatinX anymore for starters.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Examples abound. Last year, another heavy-handed comic-book adaptation, the television series The Boys—about a covert-ops group that targets the irresponsible corporate-produced “supers” who kill more people than they actually save—made its criticism of fascism so overt that many of its fascist-sympathetic fans began to get upset. These fans complained that the show had gotten “woke” once the plot began to more plainly illustrate the political points it had been making all along, to the dismay of those fans who were living vicariously through the antagonists’ acts of cruelty.
None of this ever happened outside of a white college "educated" "journalist" brain.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
You can stop filing tax returns after Trump is President
I would not suggest that course of action.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I would not suggest that course of action.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
President-elect Donald Trump said members of the now-defunct House select committee tasked with investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol should be in jail.
....In the interview with Kristen Welker, Trump also claimed he would not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Joe Biden.... “I’m not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable,” Trump said. “But that’s not going to be my decision, that’s going to be Pam Bondi’s decision and, to a different extent, Kash Patel’s.”
....Trump also said he would let Bondi “do what she wants to do” regarding an investigation into Jack Smith.... “I think he’s very corrupt but I want [Bondi] to do whatever she … wants to do.”
He added, “I’m not going to instruct her to do it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/08/trump-january-6-bid
en-jack-smith/
I wonder if Pam Bondi and Kash Patel already know what Trump wants them to do even if he doesn't give them explicit instructions?
Biden should pardon everyone Trump or his team has ever mentioned. Does it set a bad precedent? Of course it does. It's a toxic precedent. But the real precedent buster is an incoming president who threatens to prosecute political opponents over and over and over. In the face of that, practically anything would be a bad precedent.
Is Trump just blowing hot air? I think he probably is. But why take chances?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I would not suggest that course of action.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
President-elect Donald Trump said members of the now-defunct House select committee tasked with investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol should be in jail.
....In the interview with Kristen Welker, Trump also claimed he would not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Joe Biden.... “I’m not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable,” Trump said. “But that’s not going to be my decision, that’s going to be Pam Bondi’s decision and, to a different extent, Kash Patel’s.”
....Trump also said he would let Bondi “do what she wants to do” regarding an investigation into Jack Smith.... “I think he’s very corrupt but I want [Bondi] to do whatever she … wants to do.”
He added, “I’m not going to instruct her to do it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/08/trump-january-6-bid
en-jack-smith/
I wonder if Pam Bondi and Kash Patel already know what Trump wants them to do even if he doesn't give them explicit instructions?
Biden should pardon everyone Trump or his team has ever mentioned. Does it set a bad precedent? Of course it does. It's a toxic precedent. But the real precedent buster is an incoming president who threatens to prosecute political opponents over and over and over. In the face of that, practically anything would be a bad precedent.
Is Trump just blowing hot air? I think he probably is. But why take chances?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
THAT IS WHAT YOU ALREADY DID, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER.
TRUMP DIDN'T OPEN PANDORA'S BOX. DEMOCRATS DID.
If Democrats give out blanket pardons to all the criminals in their ranks now, don't be surprised when these pardonees start mysteriously being deleted.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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T 
Trump makes CRUSHING admission on national TV
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Quote:Pandora's Box did not contain Trump's tariffs. Trump can't guarantee his tariffs won't lead to higher prices. Cool!
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
THAT IS WHAT YOU ALREADY DID, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER.
TRUMP DIDN'T OPEN PANDORA'S BOX. DEMOCRATS DID.
Consider this: Trump has repeatedly talked about how much he likes tariffs and how, as soon as he takes office, he’s going to tariff the daylights out of other countries like China and Mexico.
Economists - probably elites - say the cost of tariffs will get passed along to American consumers. They say that because it’s exactly what will happen. But Trump, the everyman, has long denied that reality, convincing the forgotten men and women of the middle class he’s an economic wizard and this will all work out great for them.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Trump was asked if he can “guarantee American families won't pay more” under his tariff plan. Trump, the billionaire, said: “I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow.”
You see? Trump cares about American families to not guarantee anything.
So don’t worry, forgotten men and women. Be confident that Trump and Musk and Ramaswamy and McMahon and Lutnick and all the other totally trustworthy and altruistic non-elite billionaires know what’s good for you.
Because you’re about to get it, regardless.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/12/09/trump-musk
-ramaswamy-gut-healthcare-education/76823151007/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Pandora's Box did not contain Trump's tariffs. Trump can't guarantee his tariffs won't lead to higher prices. Cool!
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
THAT IS WHAT YOU ALREADY DID, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER.
TRUMP DIDN'T OPEN PANDORA'S BOX. DEMOCRATS DID.
Consider this: Trump has repeatedly talked about how much he likes tariffs and how, as soon as he takes office, he’s going to tariff the daylights out of other countries like China and Mexico.
Economists - probably elites - say the cost of tariffs will get passed along to American consumers. They say that because it’s exactly what will happen. But Trump, the everyman, has long denied that reality, convincing the forgotten men and women of the middle class he’s an economic wizard and this will all work out great for them.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Trump was asked if he can “guarantee American families won't pay more” under his tariff plan. Trump, the billionaire, said: “I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow.”
You see? Trump cares about American families to not guarantee anything.
So don’t worry, forgotten men and women. Be confident that Trump and Musk and Ramaswamy and McMahon and Lutnick and all the other totally trustworthy and altruistic non-elite billionaires know what’s good for you.
Because you’re about to get it, regardless.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/12/09/trump-musk
-ramaswamy-gut-healthcare-education/76823151007/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Your Opinion article has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
And besides, Trump's picks got rich before they went into government. Democrats get rich once they get in office.
I'll forgive Elon for being a Billionaire if it results in the Pelosi family having everything taken from them before they're thrown into prison.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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'Only high-income nation without it': Why Americans are Miserable
December 09, 2024
https://www.alternet.org/misery-index/
The happiest countries have capitalist economies and democratic governments, but they provide their people with essential tools for success — tools that American conservatives brand as 'socialist.' Universal health care is one. The United States is the only high-income nation without it.
Americans pay nearly four times as much for prescription drugs and higher costs for hospitalization and doctors than people in other developed countries. More than 27 million Americans still have no health insurance.
The United States' health insurance crisis will become even worse if the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare, is overturned during President-elect Donald Trump's second term.
As of March, over 45 million Americans were enrolled in Obamacare. Trump tried to kill that option during his first term and says he has 'concepts' to replace it now. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 3.4 million Americans would lose health insurance without Obamacare.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
'Only high-income nation without it': Why Americans are Miserable
December 09, 2024
https://www.alternet.org/misery-index/
The happiest countries have capitalist economies and democratic governments, but they provide their people with essential tools for success — tools that American conservatives brand as 'socialist.' Universal health care is one. The United States is the only high-income nation without it.
Americans pay nearly four times as much for prescription drugs and higher costs for hospitalization and doctors than people in other developed countries. More than 27 million Americans still have no health insurance.
The United States' health insurance crisis will become even worse if the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare, is overturned during President-elect Donald Trump's second term.
As of March, over 45 million Americans were enrolled in Obamacare. Trump tried to kill that option during his first term and says he has 'concepts' to replace it now. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 3.4 million Americans would lose health insurance without Obamacare.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Oh get fucked dude. Like you give a shit.
The one person you know who figured it all out is the one you're attacking all the time for it.
You would have free insurance right now if you didn't have to make an unfathomable amount of money to pay for all the shit you buy that you don't need. Yanno... like your shiny brand new Ford F150 Lightning you haven't talked about in over a year.
As for that 3.4 Million figure, let's see where those losses actually come from. There are still a lot of people who were not on Medicaid before 2020 and are still on expanded Medicaid for the Covid "emergency", particularly in blue states.
Most of those people who weren't in before Covid are going to lose it, and I'm sure Democrats and the Legacy Media will be trying to claim that those are "cuts" that the Trump administration made.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:The richest of the Rich only have to tell Trump what they want and he freely will do it for them.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
And besides, Trump's picks got rich before they went into government. Democrats get rich once they get in office.
I'll forgive Elon for being a Billionaire if it results in the Pelosi family having everything taken from them before they're thrown into prison.
Even the Koch Brothers Weren’t This Brazen
December 9, 2024, 11:03 AM ET
Until recently, elites and politicians who worked together feared the scandal of the process being revealed, and the public backlash that could come with it.
The energy is different now. “There’s a real shift in ruling-class vibes,” Rob Larson, an economics professor who has written about the new ultrarich and Silicon Valley’s influence on politics, told me. Many of America’s plutocrats seem not to care if people know that they’re manipulating the political system and the Fourth Estate in service of their own interests. Billionaires such as Andreessen and Ackman are openly broadcasting their political desires and “definitely feeling their animal spirits,” Larson said. This feels like a moment of “in-your-face oligarchy.”
That the ultrarich are richer than they have ever been may also be part of the explanation, Larson said. Having more money means exposure to fewer consequences. The last time elites were this vocal in their influence, Larson said, was during the Gilded Age, when multimillionaires such as William Randolph Hearst and Jay Gould worked to shape American politics.
A particularly vocal subset of the ultrarich is steering the ship, and doesn’t care who knows.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/tech-billionair
es-trump-administration/680930/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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One Thing Musk and Ramaswamy Could Actually Do to Cut Government Spending
If they’re serious.
While this spending is disguised, it is not fully hidden. The government actually publishes not one, but two tax expenditure budgets, one by the Treasury Department and the other by the Joint Committee on Taxation, listing all of the spending found in the tax code.
We spend about $286 billion per year on exemptions for retirement savings, which are disproportionately tilted toward the wealthy; $242 billion on preferential rates for capital gains, which are also for the wealthy; and about $213 billion for employer-provided health care, which goes only to those lucky enough to have jobs that provide health insurance. The home mortgage deduction costs $25 billion per year.
Musk and Ramaswamy have indicated that they want to go after government spending. If they are serious, they could do a lot worse than starting with the tax code.
But something tells me Musk and Ramaswamy are only interested in cutting certain types of government spending — and this won’t be it.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/trump-musk-ramaswamy-doge-
taxes.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:(I don't mention the Ford Lightning, or not having been sick even once in the 21st Century, or my prosperous children/grandchildren/relatives who aren't Trumptards, or anything else, because Trumptards are infuriated by people who aren't like themselves, but which I mean Trumptards are comfortable with being losers who cause their very own personalized catastrophes. See Trump's many legal cases, divorces, and even his obesity for what I mean.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh get fucked dude. Like you give a shit.
The one person you know who figured it all out is the one you're attacking all the time for it.
You would have free insurance right now if you didn't have to make an unfathomable amount of money to pay for all the shit you buy that you don't need. Yanno... like your shiny brand new Ford F150 Lightning you haven't talked about in over a year.
Most Trumptards I know are deeply hooked on various vices. As expected, they have money shortages. But they are too stupid to make a connection between, say, their alcoholism (which they deny is a problem for themselves) and their pitiful life filled with health problems and shortages of money.
We Legalized Our Sins; Now They Are Coming Back to Bite Us | Opinion
By Matt Robison | Dec 10, 2024 at 4:27 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/we-legalized-our-sins-now-they-are-coming-bac
k-bite-us-opinion-1998154
It is hard to have any confidence that President-elect Donald Trump's chosen leadership at federal agencies, or the Republican-controlled congress, will act.
And the harder challenge is that cannabis is itself the tip of an even bigger cultural iceberg tearing through the country. As Michael Lewis brilliantly documented in his podcast Against the Rules, at the same time that cannabis advocates were sinking their teeth into legislatures, online sports betting lobbyists managed to legalize their product in about as many states, unleashing a wave of problem gambling in the country. Today's betting apps attack potential addicts with the ferocity of algorithmic sharks, and there's plenty of blood in the water.
At the same time, how else to describe the last 15 years of having social media in our pockets but a vast, real-time experiment on our brains and social constructs when we're all exposed to highly addictive activities that are known to affect our moods and understanding of basic facts? For that matter, we seem to have let go of the rope on online pornography too—an industry that, according to advocacy group Fight the New Drug, now rakes in $97 billion a year, harvests sensitive viewer data, and produces often violent content that has been seen by three-quarters of American teens and badly distorts their perceptions of normal sex.
We have entered the "yeehaw" era of American governance. And as we keep legalizing all our vices, they seem to be coming back at us awfully hard and awfully fast. So, we shrug and take another dose.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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It’s The Economy, Stupid
December 11, 2024
https://andrewtobias.com/its-the-economy-stupid-4/
Courtesy of the Biden White House:
After decades of trickle-down economics that slashed taxes for the wealthy, diminished public investments, offshored jobs and factories, destroyed unions, and ripped at the social safety net, President Biden has written a new playbook that’s growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up . . .
... delivering the strongest recovery in the world, and laying a strong foundation
for years to come by:
• Investing in our infrastructure, manufacturing, scientific development, and communities that have been left behind after decades of neglect;
• Giving working families and the middle class the chance to get ahead by creating good jobs with family-sustaining wages and by supporting unions;
• Lowering costs and giving smaller businesses a fair chance to compete.
Over the last four years, we have made remarkable progress:
• Over 16 million jobs created-the most in a single presidential term in American hi story-with jobs created every single month;
• The lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years;
• A record 20 million new business applications;
• A doubling of union petitions;
• The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years;
• More Americans with health insurance than ever before;
• The stock market at record highs and 401 (k)s up;
• More than $1 trillion in announced private sector investments in dean energy and advanced manufacturing in America;
• Lowering inflation while supporting a strong labor market-with inflation down faster and lower than almost any other advanced economy, and incomes up almost $4,000 more than prices.
To see all this in pictures — with links to The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, et al — click here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/ Once Trump becomes President, he will rip down that page, but the National Archives will still have it, unless Trump attacks that, too.
https://www.archives.gov/presidential-records/research/archived-white-
house-websites
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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When you look around even a little bit, it's astonishing how good things are right now. I mean, take a look at this: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60706#_idTextAnchor017
The poorest group of Americans has an average household income of $56,000. The middle class is at $99,000.
Not obvious to Trumptards, but they are not sharing in the good times because they waste their time with their various addictions and, especially, their maladjusted behavior to America. Trump can’t fix that, despite Trumptards firmly believing the government caused their heartbreaking losses and sad lives.
https://jabberwocking.com/life-is-good-says-the-second-coming-of-cassa
ndra/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:(I don't mention the Ford Lightning, or not having been sick even once in the 21st Century, or my prosperous children/grandchildren/relatives who aren't Trumptards,
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh get fucked dude. Like you give a shit.
The one person you know who figured it all out is the one you're attacking all the time for it.
You would have free insurance right now if you didn't have to make an unfathomable amount of money to pay for all the shit you buy that you don't need. Yanno... like your shiny brand new Ford F150 Lightning you haven't talked about in over a year.
Stay on topic, stupid, or don't quote reply to me.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
When you look around even a little bit, it's astonishing how good things are right now. I mean, take a look at this: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60706#_idTextAnchor017
The poorest group of Americans has an average household income of $56,000. The middle class is at $99,000.
Not obvious to Trumptards, but they are not sharing in the good times because they waste their time with their various addictions and, especially, their maladjusted behavior to America. Trump can’t fix that, despite Trumptards firmly believing the government caused their heartbreaking losses and sad lives.
https://jabberwocking.com/life-is-good-says-the-second-coming-of-cassa
ndra/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Ahhh...
Kevin and his fake graphs.
Also, from 2021, when Joe Biden* had only gotten started destroying the economy.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
It’s The Economy, Stupid
December 11, 2024
https://andrewtobias.com/its-the-economy-stupid-4/
Courtesy of the Biden White House:
After decades of trickle-down economics that slashed taxes for the wealthy, diminished public investments, offshored jobs and factories, destroyed unions, and ripped at the social safety net, President Biden has written a new playbook that’s growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up . . .
... delivering the strongest recovery in the world, and laying a strong foundation
for years to come by:
• Investing in our infrastructure, manufacturing, scientific development, and communities that have been left behind after decades of neglect;
• Giving working families and the middle class the chance to get ahead by creating good jobs with family-sustaining wages and by supporting unions;
• Lowering costs and giving smaller businesses a fair chance to compete.
Over the last four years, we have made remarkable progress:
• Over 16 million jobs created-the most in a single presidential term in American hi story-with jobs created every single month;
• The lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years;
• A record 20 million new business applications;
• A doubling of union petitions;
• The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years;
• More Americans with health insurance than ever before;
• The stock market at record highs and 401 (k)s up;
• More than $1 trillion in announced private sector investments in dean energy and advanced manufacturing in America;
• Lowering inflation while supporting a strong labor market-with inflation down faster and lower than almost any other advanced economy, and incomes up almost $4,000 more than prices.
To see all this in pictures — with links to The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, et al — click here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
None of the above is true.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:Trumptards are unsuccessful because they don't know how to act any better and they don't learn from the examples of successful Americans. Trumptards go so far as identifying their personal failures as "success", insulating themselves from knowing how sad their lives truly are.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
None of the above is true.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Now This Is Just Terrible Advice
Why on earth is a prominent Democrat telling Biden to pardon Trump?
By Alexander Sammon | Dec 11, 2024 5:45 AM
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/trump-biden-pardon-hunter-
clyburn.html
How better to understand the pratfalls of the Biden era than this: Not only was its aged leadership not up for the fight, but once defeated, their last, best idea is to do Trump’s dirty work for him, to show that there is agreement among Democrats and Republicans. Not agreement that corruption is bad or that accountability is important, but that the rules do not matter as long as you win.
Clyburn’s spectacular embrace of preemptive surrender would also lend an astonishing amount of credibility to the notion that Trump’s legal trouble was the result of political persecution rather than the dispassionate work of the justice system.
“If we keep digging at things in the past, I’m not too sure the country will not lose its way,” insisted Clyburn, which is perhaps a defense the legal team for alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione could try. That shooting was days ago, let’s not get hung up on the past, shall we?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Why do people think Republicans are better for the economy?
Since World War II, the economy has, on average, fared better when Democrats are in the White House.
By Abdallah Fayyad | Dec 11, 2024, 5:00 AM CST
https://www.vox.com/explain-it-to-me/390454/democrats-republicans-econ
omic-performance-gdp-growth
There’s a disconnect between how voters feel about Republicans’ management of the economy and the historical record. Since World War II, there’s been a consistent pattern of the economy faring better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones. More jobs have been created under Democrats, for example, who also saw higher rates of GDP growth. And economic downturns tend to happen under Republicans: Ten of the last 11 recessions started under a Republican administration.
What do the numbers say?
First things first: The economy has expanded more under Democrats than Republicans. Since 1945, Democratic presidents oversaw, on average, 4.1 percent annual GDP growth, whereas Republican administrations had an average GDP growth rate of 2.5 percent, according to CFRA Research, an investment research firm.
During Trump’s first term, the United States lost more jobs than it had gained — the worst jobs record of any president in modern history.
Going back to President Harry Truman, Democrats have added more than twice the amount of jobs as Republicans (70.5 million jobs under Democrats compared to 29.1 million under Republicans)
Even the stock market — which, it should be noted, does not always reflect the actual health of the economy — has performed better under Democratic leadership. According to CFRA Research, the S&P 500 saw an average annual gain of 11.2 percent under Democrats and 6.9 percent under Republicans since 1945.
When it comes to the numbers, the verdict is clear. And back in 2004, even Trump agreed: “It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans,” he said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump says he supports DREAMers. His past actions say differently.
Legislation protecting DREAMers — who have long been in legal limbo — has been elusive for years.
By Li Zhou | Dec 11, 2024, 12:00 PM CST
https://www.vox.com/politics/390702/trump-dreamers-daca-supreme-court
In a recent Meet the Press interview, President-elect Donald Trump claimed he’s open to working with Democrats on legislation that could keep DREAMers — undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children — in the country. His own track record, however, casts doubt on just how serious this commitment is.
“I want to be able to work something out,” Trump said during an exchange with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, when pressed on if he wanted DREAMers to stay in the US.
His most recent remarks stand in stark contrast to his actions as president, though, when he tried to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields some DREAMers from deportation.
“With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate starting in January, [the GOP is] likely to continue to oppose helping DACA recipients unless President Trump puts his weight behind any legislation and tells [them] to vote for the bill,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, told Vox. In the past, some Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham, have backed the DREAM Act, though the majority of the party has voted against it in both the Senate and the House.
Yale-Loehr also notes the importance of considering a bill that doesn’t contain “poison pills,” such as money for detention camps, that could undermine Democratic support.
Barring these developments, the prospects for legislation addressing DREAMERs still appears likely out of reach in the new term. And Trump’s purported backing of the group remains questionable, too. “He’s never done anything for DREAMers,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz told NBC News. “He will never do anything for DREAMers. This is bait, and we just have to not take it.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trumptards are unsuccessful because they don't know how to act any better and they don't learn from the examples of successful Americans. Trumptards go so far as identifying their personal failures as "success", insulating themselves from knowing how sad their lives truly are.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
None of the above is true.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
I voted for Trump 3 times and I'm the only person you know who bought a house free and clear at 32 years old.
Shut up, retard.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump says he supports DREAMers. His past actions say differently.
Legislation protecting DREAMers — who have long been in legal limbo — has been elusive for years.
By Li Zhou | Dec 11, 2024, 12:00 PM CST
https://www.vox.com/politics/390702/trump-dreamers-daca-supreme-court
In a recent Meet the Press interview, President-elect Donald Trump claimed he’s open to working with Democrats on legislation that could keep DREAMers — undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children — in the country. His own track record, however, casts doubt on just how serious this commitment is.
“I want to be able to work something out,” Trump said during an exchange with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, when pressed on if he wanted DREAMers to stay in the US.
His most recent remarks stand in stark contrast to his actions as president, though, when he tried to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields some DREAMers from deportation.
“With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate starting in January, [the GOP is] likely to continue to oppose helping DACA recipients unless President Trump puts his weight behind any legislation and tells [them] to vote for the bill,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, told Vox. In the past, some Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham, have backed the DREAM Act, though the majority of the party has voted against it in both the Senate and the House.
Yale-Loehr also notes the importance of considering a bill that doesn’t contain “poison pills,” such as money for detention camps, that could undermine Democratic support.
Barring these developments, the prospects for legislation addressing DREAMERs still appears likely out of reach in the new term. And Trump’s purported backing of the group remains questionable, too. “He’s never done anything for DREAMers,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz told NBC News. “He will never do anything for DREAMers. This is bait, and we just have to not take it.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Yeah. I want to be able to work something out too.
100% of you leave this country today.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Now This Is Just Terrible Advice
Why on earth is a prominent Democrat telling Biden to pardon Trump?
By Alexander Sammon | Dec 11, 2024 5:45 AM
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/trump-biden-pardon-hunter-
clyburn.html
How better to understand the pratfalls of the Biden era than this: Not only was its aged leadership not up for the fight, but once defeated, their last, best idea is to do Trump’s dirty work for him, to show that there is agreement among Democrats and Republicans. Not agreement that corruption is bad or that accountability is important, but that the rules do not matter as long as you win.
Clyburn’s spectacular embrace of preemptive surrender would also lend an astonishing amount of credibility to the notion that Trump’s legal trouble was the result of political persecution rather than the dispassionate work of the justice system.
“If we keep digging at things in the past, I’m not too sure the country will not lose its way,” insisted Clyburn, which is perhaps a defense the legal team for alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione could try. That shooting was days ago, let’s not get hung up on the past, shall we?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
I agree.
Don't throw Trump on your huge pile of preemptive pardons as a way to get away with this criminal activity.
Trump had to go through 8 years of your bullshit. It's only fair that people like Fauci have to do the same now.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:You are NOT in a selective group: According to available data around 20% of individuals under 35 are mortgage-free homeowners. But you are in a group: people with overfed egos. Fatheads, bigheads, and drug dealers in other words.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I voted for Trump 3 times and I'm the only person you know who bought a house free and clear at 32 years old.
Shut up, retard.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+people+owned+their+house+free
+and+clear+before+they+are+33%3F
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Donald Trump probably isn’t a Russian agent, but he wouldn’t be behaving much differently right now if he were.
Among the main goals of the Kremlin’s foreign policy are to sow chaos and distrust within Western democracies and to disrupt the alliances that join those countries together, especially the links between the United States and Europe. His actions since he won the election—especially his nominees for high-level positions—reveal his affinity for chaos, his keen desire to sow distrust within the American political system.
He must know that many of his nominees to be Cabinet secretaries, agency directors, and ambassadors have no apparent qualifications to run vast bureaucracies, parse complex problems, or engage in delicate diplomacy. That’s not the point. He wants them to empty out the bureaucracies or run them into the ground. He wants them to twist the agencies into empty shells or blunt instruments of his vendettas. He wants to insult the diplomatic corps and to show foreign leaders how slight he regards their status.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/trump-cabinet-putin-russia
-pete-hegseth-kash-patel-tulsi-gabbard-mehmet-oz.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You are NOT in a selective group: According to available data around 20% of individuals under 35 are mortgage-free homeowners. But you are in a group: people with overfed egos. Fatheads, bigheads, and drug dealers in other words.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I voted for Trump 3 times and I'm the only person you know who bought a house free and clear at 32 years old.
Shut up, retard.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+people+owned+their+house+free
+and+clear+before+they+are+33%3F
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Owning a home free and clear, while impressive, is not what I'm talking about. It's not even all that uncommon in 2024 since allegedly close to 40% of homeowners do.
How many people do you know who paid for their home with a single piece of paper they got from their bank though?
Now how many of them did that just outside of their 20's?
Now how many of those only worked half of their adult life and have no debts to anybody despite the fact they've only grossed less than a quarter of a million in their entire life?
On the opposite side of that, only 38.6% of Americans under 35 are homeowners, period. That's barely 1 in 3 that aren't living at college, living in an apartment or still living with their parents.
Even if I bought a house with no-money down when I was 32 I'd be ahead of more than 60% of them today.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Seriously. Just stop dude.
If you want to talk politics, fine. But we've already heard your opinions on Trump voters 10,000 times.
We get it. Grow up. Move on.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:MY thing about Trumptards is really simple: they disregard facts and live in fantasy. Does that sound esoteric/arcane? It's not. There are alcoholic Trumptards who live in the fantasy that they are not overindulging and their performance is not suffering. There are financially struggling Trumptards who live in the vulgar fantasy that well-known Pirates of Capitalism will ease their struggles. The Pirates say they aren't pirates, so it must be true because pirates never beguile victims:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Seriously. Just stop dude.
If you want to talk politics, fine. But we've already heard your opinions on Trump voters 10,000 times.
We get it. Grow up. Move on.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
It’s not clear to me that, despite their winning the votes of many who are hurting badly, Trump and his fellow billionaires are attuned to — or much care about — their pain and frustrations.
https://andrewtobias.com/pitchforks-2/
From the Patriotic Millionaires newsletter (worth reading in full):
Perhaps the biggest signal that Trump’s presidency is going to be a good time for billionaires is the fact that he has tapped a number of them to work directly in his administration.
[If confirmed], the total net worth of Trump’s Cabinet would be $11.8 billion, [100 times] the worth – $118 million – of President Biden’s current Cabinet.
And when you include non-Cabinet members like Musk, Ramaswamy, and Stephens, the figure balloons to $382.2 billion – which is more than the GDP of 172 countries.
Trump has made it no secret that he intends to deliver, and deliver big, for the wealthy.
The stock market has already rallied in anticipation. Between November 4th (the day before the election) and November 12th, America’s 815 billionaires saw their fortunes jump by $276 billion.
Musk gave $250 million to Trump’s election effort and is already reaping his reward. Reports are out that, today, Musk became the first person to top $400 billion in wealth – a 66% increase since Trump’s election.
Two weeks after the election, MSNBC ran the headline, “Could Trump and his billionaire buddies turn America into an oligarchy?” Unfortunately, if billionaires have this much wealth, influence, and power even before Trump returns to the White House, we’re already living in an oligarchy. The question should be how much worse will it get.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:MY thing about Trumptards is really simple: they disregard facts and live in fantasy.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Seriously. Just stop dude.
If you want to talk politics, fine. But we've already heard your opinions on Trump voters 10,000 times.
We get it. Grow up. Move on.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
This is what you do. And it's called projection.
Just because you waste a lot of money everyday doesn't make you better than somebody else who doesn't.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:You Trumptards lost touch with reality and don't know it, which is why they have so many family, health, and financial problems. This is NOT PROJECTION. I can see the foolishness of my local (and very silly) Trumptards. Metaphorically, the Trumptards walk around in public with their pants unzipped and down at their ankles, without underwear, while imagining they are dignified members of society. Especially Trump:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
MY thing about Trumptards is really simple: they disregard facts and live in fantasy.
This is what you do. And it's called projection.
Just because you waste a lot of money everyday doesn't make you better than somebody else who doesn't.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
How to get away with bribery: do it in broad daylight
By Kevin Drum | Dec 12, 2024 at 1:06 AM
Um, what?
A sudden infusion of $30 million into Donald Trump's nascent cryptocurrency venture from a Chinese billionaire sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding investors could potentially deliver an eight-figure payday to a company associated with the president-elect.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/chinese-entrepreneur-sued-fraud-invests-30-m
illion-trump/story?id=116499146
Let's break this down:
1. Weird Chinese billionaire and possible crook Justin Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial a few days ago.
2. WLF sells a crypto token promoted by Donald Trump. The token can't be sold and is explicitly worthless.
3. Trump himself has no stake in WLF.
4. However, Trump does have a stake in DT Marks DEFILLC.
5. Under certain conditions, DTMDEFILLC is entitled to 75% of WLF's revenue.
6. Sun's investment triggered those conditions.
7. Sun's investment, therefore, triggers a possible $15 million payday for Trump down the road.
Did you get all that? In simpler terms, this is basically a straight-up bribe to a (soon) sitting president. But for what? This is where "possible crook" comes into play. Sun is being sued by the SEC for various acts of crypto mopery and dopery, and he'd undoubtedly like Trump to put in a good word for him. Common sense screams that this is about as illegal as could be, but the Supreme Court has defined bribery so narrowly that a conviction is all but impossible if the evidence falls anywhere short of a video with both guys cackling over the deal they made. But no such thing exists. It's all understood.
Now, it's entirely possible that Sun is just taking a flyer here and has never so much as discussed this with Trump's bodyguard's wife's cousin. It's chump change to him. But it's still an obvious appeal, and it's only possible because Trump keeps opening the door to things like this. Like he did with Truth Social and his cheap million-dollar watches.
Six weeks and then four more years of this stuff, folks. Suck in your guts.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You Trumptards lost touch with reality and don't know it, which is why they have so many family, health, and financial problems. This is NOT PROJECTION.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
MY thing about Trumptards is really simple: they disregard facts and live in fantasy.
This is what you do. And it's called projection.
Just because you waste a lot of money everyday doesn't make you better than somebody else who doesn't.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
It is projection.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Looks like the Liberal Patriot has a lot more figured out so far than Kevin Dumb.
How Democrats Misread the Environment
A look at the misleading narratives that emerged after 2020 and 2022.
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/how-democrats-misread-the-environment
But keep listening to idiots like Kevin and Second and we'll never have to worry about another Democrat being President in my lifetime.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Democrats Are Overdue for New Leadership
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-are-overdue-for-new-
leadership/ar-AA1vKNhJ
Yeah. I'd say so.
You don't have one single named Democrat that will stand a chance against JD Vance in 2028.
And after it became clear on November 6th that nobody gives one single shit what Barack Obama has to say about anything anymore, I doubt even his male wife could win that one for you.
Who's it going to be? Gavin Newsom? Gretchen Whitmer? AOC? Or maybe just run Harris again?
You're FUCKED.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Trump starts the long, arduous process of reneging on his promises
National leaders who make big promises usually can't keep them. Their favorite dodge is to pretend that after weeks of intense study they now realize the opposition left them a far worse mess than they had imagined. So, you know, we probably need to lower expectations.
Donald Trump doesn't really have that option. The US government's books are pretty voluminous and transparent, and anyway, Trump has been lying for so long about how terrible things are that he can hardly claim they're even worse than that.
But that's not stopping him. On Sunday he told NBC's Kristen Welker he "couldn't guarantee" that his tariffs wouldn't raise prices. That's certainly not anything he's said before.
Then today he told Time that maybe he wouldn't be able to bring down the price of groceries after all. "It's hard to bring things down once they're up." he said, accurately. "You know, it's very hard." This, of course, was widely known all along. In fact, it would probably be disastrous if prices fell.
I expect these are just the first of many walkbacks. He can't do most of the ridiculous shit he promised over and over, and the stuff he can accomplish will mostly be because Biden already accomplished it for him. But he'll figure out a way to take credit for it anyway.
https://jabberwocking.com/trump-starts-the-long-arduous-process-of-ren
eging-on-his-promises/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The US government's books are pretty voluminous and transparent, and anyway,
You spot one lie in the article, the entire article is a lie.
There it is.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The US government's books are pretty voluminous and transparent, and anyway,
You spot one lie in the article, the entire article is a lie.
There it is.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
30 years could pass and we'll still never know where the Harris campaign spent $1.5 Billion to lose bigly to Trump.
We could easily strip out half of the money the US government spends every day without touching SS/Medicare/Medicaid just by halving the military budget and removing all the waste in the public sector.
Now we just sit back and wait and see if any of the campaign promises come true. If DOGE isn't just a gimmick and work is actually done, the American People will finally get to peek behind the curtain and see where our Government, particularly the Democrat party, wastes the wealth of our nation.
And hopefully 4 years from now a lot of people from both sides of the aisle are rotting in prison where they belong.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:Trump's favorite defense is claiming the Truth is a Lie. Trumptards have taken the same strategy for their personal use. Try it on these two almost identical observations:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The US government's books are pretty voluminous and transparent, and anyway,
You spot one lie in the article, the entire article is a lie.
There it is.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
A) You elected a billionaire that is appointing other billionaires to fix the system that made them billionaires?
You're a special kind of stupid aren't you?
https://x.com/CarlosP95095856/status/1865734063379579313
B) But you think electing a multi-billionaire who has been part of building that system for thirty years was going to change it?
Guess that makes you a super-sized version of stupid.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Republicans ask Trump to kill the IRS’s great new Direct File app
I've been waiting for this shoe to drop:
NEW: Reps. Adrian Smith and Chuck Edwards wrote Trump a letter today urging him to terminate the IRS’s new free tax filing service, otherwise known as Direct File, on “day one” through an executive order.
It’s co-signed by 27 House Republicans. https://t.co/jEsifotrbd
— Benjamin Guggenheim (@ben_guggenheim) December 11, 2024
After years of resistance from tax software companies, the IRS finally introduced Direct File in 2024. It replaced Free File, a partnership with tax prep software companies that had been operating for 20 years. But Intuit had been caught trying to trick eligible taxpayers into paying for extra services, and by 2021 both Intuit and H&R Block had withdrawn from the program. For obvious reasons, none of the tax prep partners had ever been enthusiastic about the program anyway, and it was limited to taxpayers with incomes under $80,000. Because of this, almost no one used Free File.
Direct File stepped into this mess with a very nice, direct-from-the-government tax app that was free with no tricks and served anyone with an income up to $200,000. It was a hit even though it was pretty limited, but the 2025 version is considerably more capable and is being rolled out to more states. It's likely to be even more of a hit.
In other words, it's a rare thing: a really good IT project rolled out at moderate cost and benefiting millions of taxpayers. But the tax prep companies hate it and would love to see it die. Their MAGA minions in Congress are eager to help.
There's no reason to kill Direct File. If you click the tweet and read Adrian Smith's letter to Trump, you'll see that it's just a tired stew of complaints about how we should leave everything to the private sector and not entrust tax prep to Deep State bureaucrats acting as "tax assessor, collector, preparer, and enforcer." All made worse, of course by Joe Biden's history of "wielding the IRS as a tool to silence political opponents and control private citizens" and the IRS's own "long record of abusing its authority to target political opponents."
This is all stale conservative BS, part of their decades-long jihad against the IRS in service of rich donors who obviously want the agency hobbled. None of it is true, but it's sure phrased in a perfect way to appeal to Donald Trump. Will he bite?
https://jabberwocking.com/republicans-ask-trump-to-kill-the-irss-great
-new-direct-file-app/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump’s Middle East adviser pick is a small-time truck salesman in Nigeria. He once sold ‘erotic drinks’
December 12, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East adviser, Massad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul at the helm of a business that bears his family name.
Mr. Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world’s media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions. Mr. Trump called him a “highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene.”
The president-elect even lavished what may be his highest praise: a “dealmaker.”
In fact, records show that Mr. Boulos has spent the past two decades selling trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company his father-in-law controls. The company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, made a profit of less than $66,000 last year, corporate filings show.
There is no indication in corporate documents that Mr. Boulos, a Lebanese-American whose son is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his businesses. The truck dealership is valued at about $865,000 at its current share price. Mr. Boulos’s stake, according to securities filings, is worth $1.53.
As for Boulos Enterprises, the company that has been called his family business in The Financial Times and elsewhere, a company officer there said it is owned by an unrelated Boulos family.
Mr. Boulos will advise on one of the world’s most complicated and conflict-wracked regions — a region that Mr. Boulos said this week that he has not visited in years. The advisory position does not require Senate approval.
More at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/world/africa/trump-massad-boulos-mi
ddle-east.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump's favorite defense is claiming the Truth is a Lie. Trumptards have taken the same strategy for their personal use.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The US government's books are pretty voluminous and transparent, and anyway,
You spot one lie in the article, the entire article is a lie.
There it is.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
I pointed out a lie, written by one of the most hyper-partisan shills out there.
Once again, you are projecting your own behavior onto other people.
Quote:
Try it on these two almost identical observations:
A) You elected a billionaire that is appointing other billionaires to fix the system that made them billionaires?
You're a special kind of stupid aren't you?
https://x.com/CarlosP95095856/status/1865734063379579313
B) But you think electing a multi-billionaire who has been part of building that system for thirty years was going to change it?
Guess that makes you a super-sized version of stupid.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
How is this any different than Democrats obeying the commands of the billionaires that donated to their campaigns?
If your party didn't destroy the economy and people were doing good now, maybe you'd have a leg to stand on in this argument. Instead, because reality trumps your fantasy, you just witnessed the largest portion of the black and Latino pools vote against the democrat.
Just like I told you that you would.
You'd better hope that the people actually in charge of the Democrat party are a lot smarter than you are, or you won't live long enough to ever see a Democrat President again.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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T
Public revolt against corporate greed: Author Jay McInerney x Ari Melber
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Quote:The Trumptard next door says his brilliant and hardworking son has financial problems because of Biden. His son is a stupid, lazy, obnoxious little prick hated by his ex-wife. Biden didn't make the son that way so why is the father blaming Biden? The son did it to himself. Trumptards do it to themselves then fail to blame themselves for their failures. Trump tells them they are not failures. It is the Democrats' fault. (Certain twisted personalities love being told it is not their fault when they fail. Nazis who failed at life blamed Jews and followed Hitler, the man reinforcing the little Nazis' prejudices. Trumptards who failed at life blame Democrats and followed Trump, the man reinforcing Trumptards' prejudices.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How is this any different than Democrats obeying the commands of the billionaires that donated to their campaigns?
If your party didn't destroy the economy and people were doing good now, maybe you'd have a leg to stand on in this argument. Instead, because reality trumps your fantasy, you just witnessed the largest portion of the black and Latino pools vote against the democrat.
Just like I told you that you would.
You'd better hope that the people actually in charge of the Democrat party are a lot smarter than you are, or you won't live long enough to ever see a Democrat President again.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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G Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social
When I lecture about New Deal banking reforms, I note that some of the key measures — like Glass Steagall — were repealed by the right with disastrous results like the 2008 financial meltdown, but ha ha, no one will ever be stupid enough to kill FDIC and bring back the old bank runs.
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social
Oh hell yes, let's absolutely get rid of the FDIC. Would love to have re learn all the lessons of the New Deal again.
Exclusive | Trump Advisers Seek to Shrink or Eliminate Bank Regulators
Advisers asked potential nominees whether Trump could abolish the FDIC.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cnpe7qvcyjrhm6w7w7e4atur/post/3ld5nhz
l5vs23
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump Is About to Betray His Rural Supporters
Donald Trump’s support in rural America appears to have virtually no ceiling. In last month’s election, Trump won country communities by even larger margins than he did in his 2020 and 2016 presidential runs. But several core second-term policies that Trump and the Republican Congress have championed could disproportionately harm those places.
Agricultural producers could face worse losses than any other economic sector from Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on imports and to undertake what he frequently has called “the largest domestic deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants “in American history.” Hospitals and other health providers in rural areas could face the greatest strain from proposals Trump has embraced to slash spending on Medicaid, which provides coverage to a greater share of adults in smaller communities than in large metropolitan areas. And small-town public schools would likely be destabilized even more than urban school districts if Trump succeeds in his pledge to expand “school choice” by providing parents with vouchers to send their kids to private schools.
Resistance to such measures in deep-red rural areas could represent one of the few obstacles Trump would face from a GOP-controlled Congress over implementing his agenda. Still, the most likely scenario is that elected Republicans who represent rural areas will ultimately fall in line with Trump’s blueprint. If so, the effects will test whether anything can loosen the GOP’s grip on small-town America during the Trump era, or whether the fervor of his rural supporters provides Trump nearly unlimited leeway to work against their economic interests without paying any political price.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-is-about-to-betray-his-r
ural-supporters/ar-AA1vO1Mg
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Grow up.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:The Trumptard next door says his brilliant and hardworking son has financial problems because of Biden. His son is a stupid, lazy, obnoxious little prick hated by his ex-wife. Biden didn't make the son that way so why is the father blaming Biden? The son did it to himself. Trumptards do it to themselves then fail to blame themselves for their failures. Trump tells them they are not failures. It is the Democrats' fault. (Certain twisted personalities love being told it is not their fault when they fail. Nazis who failed at life blamed Jews and followed Hitler, the man reinforcing the little Nazis' prejudices. Trumptards who failed at life blame Democrats and followed Trump, the man reinforcing Trumptards' prejudices.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How is this any different than Democrats obeying the commands of the billionaires that donated to their campaigns?
If your party didn't destroy the economy and people were doing good now, maybe you'd have a leg to stand on in this argument. Instead, because reality trumps your fantasy, you just witnessed the largest portion of the black and Latino pools vote against the democrat.
Just like I told you that you would.
You'd better hope that the people actually in charge of the Democrat party are a lot smarter than you are, or you won't live long enough to ever see a Democrat President again.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Then, using the same logic right back at you, I look forward to you not complaining one single time about anything for the next 4 years. Yanno... because you are a saint, you've got everything figured out, and everything you've ever said or done in life is God's work.
Looking forward to the next time you post in 2028.
See Ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:6ix, by now, you should be well aware that I am judgmental. Even God does not rise to my standards:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Then, using the same logic right back at you, I look forward to you not complaining one single time about anything for the next 4 years. Yanno... because you are a saint, you've got everything figured out, and everything you've ever said or done in life is God's work.
Looking forward to the next time you post in 2028.
See Ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
Trump is substandard as a person, but perhaps I expect too much:
Donald Trump’s vision for America
Donald Trump's agenda is taking shape. Apparently he plans to ditch the post office, deregulate the banks, ban polio vaccines, bomb Iran, eliminate daylight saving time, and gut the FBI. I don't really remember any of that stuff from the campaign, but I guess it must have been what we all voted for.¹
Good times are coming, my friends. Good times.
¹Well, 29.7% of us, anyway.
https://jabberwocking.com/donald-trumps-vision-for-america/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Why did ABC News roll over for Donald Trump?
Dean Baker @DeanBaker13
This isn't hard, ABC News made a campaign contribution to Donald Trump. It is that simple.
8:55 PM • Dec 14, 2024
The topic here is a defamation suit Donald Trump filed against ABC News last March. It's one of the zillions that Trump files regularly and loses just as regularly. But for some reason, only a few days before Trump would have been forced to sit through a damaging deposition, ABC caved and agreed to pay Trump $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees.
This might make sense if ABC had a disastrously weak case and just needed to pull the plug. But they didn't. Trump had sued over an interview George Stephanopoulos did with Rep. Nancy Mace where he repeatedly asked how she could support a man who had been found "liable for rape" in the E. Jean Carroll case. Trump protested that the jury found him liable only for sexual abuse, but the judge later clarified this:
Quote:Sorry for the long excerpt, but I wanted to provide judge's full context. In short: Trump was not liable for rape under New York's stringent legal requirements, but he did rape Carroll as the term is commonly understood in modern usage.
The label “rape” as used in criminal prosecutions in New York applies only to vaginal penetration by a penis. Forcible, unconsented-to penetration of the vagina or of other bodily orifices by fingers, other body parts, or other articles or materials is not called “rape” under the New York Penal Law. It instead is labeled “sexual abuse.”
....[This] definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of “rape” in common modern parlance.... The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.... The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.
It doesn't matter if the judge was right about this. It's what he wrote in an "official public proceeding," which means it's privileged and can be freely quoted as long as the source is noted. Stephanopoulos would have argued he did exactly that when he explicitly said, "the judge affirmed that it was rape."
Would he have prevailed? That's impossible to say, but he sure seems to have a strong case. The jury found that Trump had jammed his fingers into Carroll's vagina; a judge said that met the common definition of rape; and Stephanopoulos then cited the judge.
So why did ABC roll over with barely an effort to defend itself? It's a good question. It might have to do with the fact that ABC is owned by Disney, which recently fought with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for over a year and eventually paid a stiff price. Maybe they weren't up for another mud wrestling bout with the MAGA crowd.
But one way or the other, their decision seems to have been based on fear, not legal weakness. They were afraid of the retribution Trump might be able to mete out as president. And in this they aren't alone. Trump's revenge-based MO has proven remarkably effective. It's not clear what it will get him in the long run, but in the short run it's already earned him groveling fealty from politicians, foreign leaders, corporate CEOs, and now a major media outlet. This is unique—and uniquely chilling—in American presidential history.
And anyway, how big a deal is a $15 million contribution settlement? For Disney—net profit in 2024: $7.6 billion—it's barely noticeable. Best to just stay safe and write the check.
https://jabberwocking.com/why-did-abc-news-roll-over-for-do
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Steve Bannon Is Already Claiming Trump Can Run Again in 2028
WHO’S GONNA STOP ME?
The political strategist says the Constitution doesn’t count in this case.
By David Gardner | Dec. 16 2024 5:51AM EST
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-is-already-claiming-trump-c
an-run-again-in-2028/
According to the Trumptards, three non-consecutive terms are okay. That's not what the Twenty-Second Amendment says, but since when have Trumptards cared? Or even understood?
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-22/
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All
Dec 16, 2024
In some areas, the election looked like a red wave; compared with four years ago, the presidential vote swung to the right by about 10 points in some of the most populous blue states, such as New York, California, and New Jersey. But down-ballot races offer a solid case for Democratic optimism. The party label appeared to be far less of an albatross for Democratic congressional candidates than it was in strong Republican years such as 2010 and 2014. In the Senate this year, although Republicans flipped four seats, Democratic candidates prevailed in four battleground states that Kamala Harris lost to Trump. And according to the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman, Democrats could have retaken the House majority with only 7,309 more votes across three congressional districts.
Democrats also held their own in state-legislative races. They made gains in Wisconsin and broke a Republican supermajority in North Carolina, although they lost ground elsewhere. Overall, the party retains significantly more power in state capitols than it did when Trump first took office in 2017. “There could have been a red wave in the states, and there wasn’t,” Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told me. “I genuinely see this election as defying odds.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maybe-democrats-didn-t-do-so-b
adly-after-all/ar-AA1vWGVr
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All
Make no mistake. Democrats did terribly.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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Quote:Sorry for the long excerpt, but I wanted to provide judge's full context. In short: Trump was not liable for rape under New York's stringent legal requirements, but he did rape Carroll as the term is commonly understood in modern usage.
Originally posted by second:
Why did ABC News roll over for Donald Trump?
Dean Baker @DeanBaker13
This isn't hard, ABC News made a campaign contribution to Donald Trump. It is that simple.
8:55 PM • Dec 14, 2024
The topic here is a defamation suit Donald Trump filed against ABC News last March. It's one of the zillions that Trump files regularly and loses just as regularly. But for some reason, only a few days before Trump would have been forced to sit through a damaging deposition, ABC caved and agreed to pay Trump $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees.
This might make sense if ABC had a disastrously weak case and just needed to pull the plug. But they didn't. Trump had sued over an interview George Stephanopoulos did with Rep. Nancy Mace where he repeatedly asked how she could support a man who had been found "liable for rape" in the E. Jean Carroll case. Trump protested that the jury found him liable only for sexual abuse, but the judge later clarified this:Quote:
The label “rape” as used in criminal prosecutions in New York applies only to vaginal penetration by a penis. Forcible, unconsented-to penetration of the vagina or of other bodily orifices by fingers, other body parts, or other articles or materials is not called “rape” under the New York Penal Law. It instead is labeled “sexual abuse.”
....[This] definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of “rape” in common modern parlance.... The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.... The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.
It doesn't matter if the judge was right about this. It's what he wrote in an "official public proceeding," which means it's privileged and can be freely quoted as long as the source is noted. Stephanopoulos would have argued he did exactly that when he explicitly said, "the judge affirmed that it was rape."
Would he have prevailed? That's impossible to say, but he sure seems to have a strong case. The jury found that Trump had jammed his fingers into Carroll's vagina; a judge said that met the common definition of rape; and Stephanopoulos then cited the judge.
So why did ABC roll over with barely an effort to defend itself? It's a good question. It might have to do with the fact that ABC is owned by Disney, which recently fought with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for over a year and eventually paid a stiff price. Maybe they weren't up for another mud wrestling bout with the MAGA crowd.
But one way or the other, their decision seems to have been based on fear, not legal weakness. They were afraid of the retribution Trump might be able to mete out as president. And in this they aren't alone. Trump's revenge-based MO has proven remarkably effective. It's not clear what it will get him in the long run, but in the short run it's already earned him groveling fealty from politicians, foreign leaders, corporate CEOs, and now a major media outlet. This is unique—and uniquely chilling—in American presidential history.
And anyway, how big a deal is a $15 million contribution settlement? For Disney—net profit in 2024: $7.6 billion—it's barely noticeable. Best to just stay safe and write the check.
https://jabberwocki
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:6ix, by now, you should be well aware that I am judgmental. Even God does not rise to my standards:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Then, using the same logic right back at you, I look forward to you not complaining one single time about anything for the next 4 years. Yanno... because you are a saint, you've got everything figured out, and everything you've ever said or done in life is God's work.
Looking forward to the next time you post in 2028.
See Ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!
Oh. We know. We know.
And nobody cares.
--------------------------------------------------
Trump is fine.
He is also your current President.
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What really happened in 2024?
By Kevin Drum | December 16, 2024 – 10:49 am
https://jabberwocking.com/what-really-happened-in-2024/
Here's the vote for president in California for 2020 and 2024:
It's easy to see what happened here. Donald Trump gained no traction at all, but two million Democratic voters from 2020 didn't bother to show up and vote for Kamala Harris. Why? There are two obvious theories:
• They didn't like Kamala much.
• They knew she’d win the state easily so they just didn't bother.
For what it's worth, in final polling before the election Trump gained a couple of points compared to 2020, which turned into a 1% increase in his vote. Harris lost a couple of points, which turned into a 17% drop in her vote. This points in the direction of laziness/strategic voting.
Was this a problem with Harris in particular or with Democrats in general? Here's the House vote over the past couple of decades:
The Democratic share of the vote was down this year, so maybe it really is a D problem. But there's evidence this is mostly strategic. Here's the number of seats Democrats have won:
It was up! Democrats voted where they needed to but skipped out where a seat was uncompetitive. In the end, the Democratic share of the California delegation reached an all-time record aside from the blowout year of 2018.
I don't have a big axe to grind here. I just want to know: Was there a specific problem with Kamala Harris this year or is there a widespread problem with the Democratic brand in general? Honestly, I see evidence both ways. You really can't ignore the fact that every single state (in fact, every single county) shifted red. On the other hand, Harris lost by only 1.5% of the vote nationwide, while House Democrats gained 0.6% of the national vote compared to 2022 and picked up two seats. It's the same dynamic that played out in the deep-blue state of California.
It's just a genuine mystery. Trump really did pick up support compared to 2016, but then again, so did Harris by a little bit. Trump mainly picked up support from the third-party vote, not from Democrats.
I'm still not sure what to think, and it's going to be months before we have more reliable data to dive unto. Until then, we're fumbling around in the dark. But if I had to pick a story right now, it would be this:
1. Overall, Democrats ran about even compared to 2022. There's little sign that the party's brand is in serious trouble.
2. However, the Trump/Harris race clearly exposed dissatisfaction with the Biden/Harris administration. That needs to be investigated.
3. One way or another, the answer is mostly going to lie with Hispanics, who deserted Harris in droves.
4. We are still, basically, a 50-50 nation.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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You keep telling yourselves fables.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:This is no fable. It is happening only because of Trump's "win":
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You keep telling yourselves fables.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
It’s notable that Catholic Charities has complied with Wisconsin’s tax law since 1972. The fact that it now seeks an exemption after paying the taxes for 52 years suggests that preexisting law does not favor the church’s position — and that the church’s lawyers now think they can win, after Trump is President and orders his handpicked Supreme Court justices to vote the way he wants. Trump doesn't give a damn what the law says, and his Trumptard justices hold the law in only slightly less contempt than Trump does.
The Court announced last Friday it will hear Catholic Charities.
https://www.vox.com/scotus/391420/supreme-court-catholic-charities-wis
consin-workers-religion
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:This is no fable.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You keep telling yourselves fables.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
Yes. It is.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Favoribility of US Leaders (December 17th, 2024):
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Politician / Favorable / Unfavorable / Spread
Joe Biden / 40.8 / 54.3 / -13.5
Donald Trump / 49.0 / 47.6 / +1.4
Kamala Harris / 45.5 / 49.5 / -4.0
Mike Johnson / 28.0 / 37.0 / -9.0
Hakeem Jeffries / 30.0 / 31.0 / -1.0
Chuck Schumer / 29.7 / 43.0 / -13.3
Mitch McConnell / 21.7 / 59.3 / -37.6
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:Trump deserves his popularity. Here is an example:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Favoribility of US Leaders (December 17th, 2024):
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Politician / Favorable / Unfavorable / Spread
Joe Biden / 40.8 / 54.3 / -13.5
Donald Trump / 49.0 / 47.6 / +1.4
Kamala Harris / 45.5 / 49.5 / -4.0
Mike Johnson / 28.0 / 37.0 / -9.0
Hakeem Jeffries / 30.0 / 31.0 / -1.0
Chuck Schumer / 29.7 / 43.0 / -13.3
Mitch McConnell / 21.7 / 59.3 / -37.6
I had previously read the Trump tweet below and thought that this is why Trump is so popular. That says a lot about me and my reading comprehension at high speed. I misunderstood Trump. I should have read that tweet a lot slower and considered the implications of what Trump wrote. But at first glance Trump is brilliant:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy. They can go find another "sucker!" There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.
There’s a lot that’s foolish about that rant, starting with the idea that foreign governments can simply replace the dollar by decree (although others, like Vladimir Putin, share the same misconception.) I’ll write a future post about why that’s not at all how it works.
There are also delusions of grandeur: Trump clearly imagines that America holds all the cards when it comes to a possible trade war, and I fear that he and the rest of us will soon get an object lesson in the limits of U.S. trade leverage.
But what’s really bizarre about Trump’s rant is that given his views about trade, he should want to see the dollar lose its special role.
Much More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/from-exorbitant-privilege-to-invinc
ible
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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'Disaster': Trump allies said to be mulling 'one of the dumbest ideas anyone could have'
December 18, 2024 7:11AM ET
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fdic-2670487557/
“This has as much logic as asking if Trump can abolish Wednesday, and split it between Tuesday and Thursday,” said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Treasury Department official who helped craft the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump deserves his popularity. Here is an example:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Favoribility of US Leaders (December 17th, 2024):
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Politician / Favorable / Unfavorable / Spread
Joe Biden / 40.8 / 54.3 / -13.5
Donald Trump / 49.0 / 47.6 / +1.4
Kamala Harris / 45.5 / 49.5 / -4.0
Mike Johnson / 28.0 / 37.0 / -9.0
Hakeem Jeffries / 30.0 / 31.0 / -1.0
Chuck Schumer / 29.7 / 43.0 / -13.3
Mitch McConnell / 21.7 / 59.3 / -37.6
...
But what’s really bizarre about Trump’s rant is that given his views about trade, he should want to see the dollar lose its special role.
Fuck that little gremlin Krugman.
You're still listening to him after how often he's mislead you?
Don't worry. He's going to die of old age soon too and he won't be able to poison your mind with his bullshit anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
'Disaster': Trump allies said to be mulling 'one of the dumbest ideas anyone could have'
December 18, 2024 7:11AM ET
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fdic-2670487557/
“This has as much logic as asking if Trump can abolish Wednesday, and split it between Tuesday and Thursday,” said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Treasury Department official who helped craft the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
You guys are the ones in the cult, so the rest of that article can be thrown directly into the trash bin.
Would you like to try another article on this topic written by people who aren't cultists?
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:The tech bros who helped put Trump back in power expect many favors in return; one of the more interesting is their demand that the government intervene to guarantee cryptocurrency players the right to a checking account, stopping the “debanking” they claim has hit many of their friends.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You guys are the ones in the cult, so the rest of that article can be thrown directly into the trash bin.
Would you like to try another article on this topic written by people who aren't cultists?
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
The real reason banks don’t want to be financially connected to crypto is that they believe, with good reason, that to the extent that cryptocurrencies are used for anything besides speculation, much of that activity is criminal — and they don’t want to be accused of acting as accessories.
British authorities recently broke up a big money-laundering scheme involving cocaine kingpins and cryptocurrency. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s choice for Commerce secretary, has close ties to Tether, the company that is at the heart of the scheme the UK just uncovered and is rumored to play a large role in money laundering in general.
We’ll see what happens. But what Musk and Andreesen are demanding could be seen as a call for the U.S. government to intervene to make life easier for criminals. And if you think such a thing would be inconceivable under the second Trump administration, you haven’t been paying attention.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/crypto-is-for-criming
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:The tech bros who helped put Trump back in power expect many favors in return; one of the more interesting is their demand that the government intervene to guarantee cryptocurrency players the right to a checking account, stopping the “debanking” they claim has hit many of their friends.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You guys are the ones in the cult, so the rest of that article can be thrown directly into the trash bin.
Would you like to try another article on this topic written by people who aren't cultists?
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
Personally, I'm hoping he pulls the rug on them and Bitcoin crashes.
That would be a huge fuck you to the bad guys after taking their money and would only make Trump even more popular than he already is right now. These people got rich screwing over everyone else, so it would be poetic even.
Oh! They demand, huh? It sounds like they don't have any power or leverage in this situation. It's honestly pathetic watching them pretend that their begging has fangs attached.
What exactly could they do if he reneged on every promise he made them for their crypto money? They have very little support in the public, and probably even less support in the government.
Maybe if Trump was apprehensive of some sort of physical retaliation from these criminals directed upon himself or his family he should just have them all thrown in prison for all the times they got richer pulling the rug out from other people.
This would make him even more popular. Especially among the Independent and sway voters that the Democrat party already isn't likely to get back any time soon.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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You see what I did there, Second?
Trump is not even President yet and I'm already calling out bad guys that he has associated himself with.
4 years of Joe Biden* being President and you couldn't bring yourself to do that once, no matter how bad they got. And they got bad...
The only time I've ever heard you shit-talk anybody with a (D) attached to their name is when you threw a temper tantrum and accused Joe Biden* of being drunk at the debate. Yanno... because you still can't bring yourself to admit you were lied to every single day by the media about Joe Biden*'s mental faculties. Not even after they knew it was so bad they replaced her with somebody arguably stupider when they forced Joe* out and gave you Harris.
Even Ted somehow managed to momentarily break free of the programming and speak up against CRT being taught in schools.
Even fucking BLM spoke out when Joe Biden* was thrown in the trash and Harris was forced on Democrat voters without any primary.
I find it quite funny when you label other people in a cult everyday, yet it is you that consistently exhibits cult-like behavior, such as this, everyday.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:I should insult you by pointing out that this is another "I'm rubber. You're glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you" scenario, but what good would that do? I will get to the real point about Trumptards:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I find it quite funny when you label other people in a cult everyday, yet it is you that consistently exhibits cult-like behavior, such as this, everyday.
The Chaos Monkeys Have Already Taken Over the Zoo
The peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-chaos-monkeys-have-already-take
n
The news of the moment is the looming prospect that the federal government will shut down over the weekend. (All credit for the shutdown will go to Trumptards such as Elon Musk, if the shutdown happens.)
We’ll have to see how much damage this does, but it’s already clear that assuming the worst happens — and it’s hard to see how it won’t — this will be the dumbest shutdown ever. I’d say that the incoming Musk administration (so far Musk, not Trump, appears to be calling the shots) is trying to hold itself up for ransom, but it doesn’t even rise to that level. This isn’t like 1995, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in an attempt to extract cuts in Medicare and Medicaid — a move that seemed (and was) a foolish act of petulance, but at least had a ghost of motivation.
No, Musk is demanding — apparently successfully — that Republicans in Congress renege on a deal they had already agreed to, a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government going for the next few months. Why? Because, Musk says, of the outrageous provisions in that CR.
Except none of the items Musk is complaining about are actually in the bill. No, Congress isn’t giving itself a 40 percent raise. No, the bill doesn’t fund a $3 billion stadium in Washington. No, it doesn’t block future investigations into the Jan. 6 committee. No, it doesn’t fund bioweapons labs.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/18/elon-musk-false-claims-cr-001
95252
In a barrage of posts on X Musk pushed misinformation about a more or less routine, place-holding bill that was basically a way to keep the ship of state afloat until Trump takes charge. Maybe this was in part a power play, an attempt to make Republicans in Congress show fealty to a man who clearly imagines that he’s the real president — and Trump, by meekly endorsing Musk’s position, did in fact convey the impression that Musk is leading the guy who is supposed to be in charge by the nose. But this political theater will have real consequences, for America, for Trump, and for Musk himself.
Musk has asserted that shutting the government down for a month would do no harm. And it’s true that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding — which is where the bulk of the money goes — will continue. But many services people rely on will be disrupted, especially if the shutdown goes on for more than a month, which seems all too likely given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority and the dominance of misinformation in many members’ thinking.
Maybe Musk himself doesn’t expect to experience any hardship, but put it this way: I’m glad that I won’t need to renew my passport any time soon, that I don’t expect to be trying to get through airport security for a while, and especially glad that I don’t rely either on food stamps or on small business loans. For all of these things have been disrupted in past government shutdowns.
Do Musk and Trump know any of this? Almost surely not.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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I haven't heard, is president Musk pushing for Kennedy?
T 
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Have you heard that the Georgia case just fell apart and that Fani Willis might be going to prison herself?
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I should insult you by pointing out that this is another "I'm rubber. You're glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you"
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I find it quite funny when you label other people in a cult everyday, yet it is you that consistently exhibits cult-like behavior, such as this, everyday.
No. It's not.
The reasons were well laid out.
You are a cultist.
And your cult is losing members every single day.
Including in the Legacy Media. It's why Ted hasn't posted a Legacy Media article for weeks and has reduced himself to watching nothing but YouTube clickbait bullshit videos. The kind I warned him against watching leading up to the election because they were lying to him.
This is the main problem with the education system in the US. Unless you learned critical thinking skills outside of school, they were beaten out of you by the time you got your diploma.
So without that, Ted's only option is to find anybody who's still telling him what he wants to hear and getting behind them.
Also cult-like behavior.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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The Ghost of Banking Panics Future
Making financial crises great again
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-ghost-of-banking-panics-future
One benefit of the rise of streaming is that you can get through holiday season watching movies at home other than endless reruns of “It’s a wonderful life.” If you do find yourself viewing the old chestnut, however, you should be aware that it’s an unrealistic fantasy.
I’m not talking about an angel getting its wings every time a bell rings and all that. True, I haven’t seen any evidence for that claim, but then I haven’t seen any evidence against it either.
No, I’m talking about the bank run at the heart of the plot, which could not have happened at the time the movie was set. For the events in “It’s a wonderful life” take place just after World War II, and by then deposits at thrift institutions like Jimmy Stewart’s bank were covered by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, so his customers would not have been worried about losing their life savings. FSLIC itself went bankrupt in the 1980s — more about that later — but depositors’ money was protected from the savings and loan crisis, and it was folded into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which covers commercial banks.
Now, however, the incoming Trump administration reportedly wants to abolish the FDIC and weaken bank regulation in general. And that could eventually lead to very bad things.
Bank runs were quite common before the creation of FSLIC and the FDIC — audiences when the movie came out in 1946 still had vivid memories of the huge bank runs of the 1930s. And this was far from the first time bank runs had a devastating effect on the real economy.
In particular, we know that Donald Trump has a thing about the 1890s, when men were men, tariffs were high, businesses were free to pollute the air and water, and nobody knew what went on in meatpacking plants. But you can bet your Bitcoin that he’s never heard of the Panic of 1893, a huge wave of contagious bank runs that was catastrophic for industrial production and employment:
Economists actually understand bank runs pretty well. When the 2008 financial crisis struck after generations without such crises (in the United States), monetary economists could be found wandering the halls muttering “Diamond-Dybvig, Diamond-Dybvig,” after a classic 1983 analysis by Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig, who pointed out that banks offer their depositors immediate access to their cash while investing most of the money in “illiquid” assets like loans that can’t be quickly sold, or at least only at fire-sale prices. (Diamond and Dybvig eventually won a Nobel Prize for their work.)
Normally the illiquidity of most bank assets isn’t a problem, because on any given day only some of a bank’s customers want cash, while others are making deposits, so it’s OK to hold limited amounts of ready cash.
But if for whatever reason depositors fear that a bank may be about to fail, they will rush to pull out their money — and their fears can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, because a bank trying to raise money in a hurry can go bankrupt even if it would have been solvent if it had had time to sell at a more deliberate pace. And since the collapse of one bank can cause fears about other banks, bank runs can be contagious.
Deposit insurance made old-fashioned bank runs a thing of the past; I’ll talk about recent crises in a minute. But from the beginning it was obvious that protection for depositors had to come with strings. Otherwise banks could play heads I win, tails taxpayers lose: attract funds by offering attractive interest rates, then invest in potentially high-yielding ventures that could also easily go bad. Depositors wouldn’t worry, because they were protected; bank owners would get rich if they were lucky, just walk away if they weren’t.
So deposit insurance had to be accompanied by things like capital requirements that forced bank owners to put their own money at risk and restrictions on the kinds of investments they were allowed to
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I should insult you by pointing out that this is another "I'm rubber. You're glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you"
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I find it quite funny when you label other people in a cult everyday, yet it is you that consistently exhibits cult-like behavior, such as this, everyday.
No. It's not.
The reasons were well laid out.
You are a cultist.
And your cult is losing members every single day.
Including in the Legacy Media. It's why Ted hasn't posted a Legacy Media article for weeks and has reduced himself to watching nothing but YouTube clickbait bullshit videos. The kind I warned him against watching leading up to the election because they were lying to him.
This is the main problem with the education system in the US. Unless you learned critical thinking skills outside of school, they were beaten out of you by the time you got your diploma.
So without that, Ted's only option is to find anybody who's still telling him what he wants to hear and getting behind them.
Also cult-like behavior.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
Color me shocked.
Resident dipshit didn't quote reply me with unrelated nonsense.
It's because he knows he's in a cult.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Why don't you start a Tick Tock to Polio thread, idiot?
Hey Jaynez. Why don't you put Second's prediction that Polio is making a comeback in the predictions thread?
You people are so fucking dumb and easy to lead around.
I'm so glad we don't have to put up with any of you anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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I find it quite amusing that the media and idiots from The Squad are all parroting each other, trying to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk right now.
Pathetic.
I wonder if any of them even realize how transparent they are. None of them are half as clever as they imagine themselves to be.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:Trump wants to suspend, or even eliminate, the debt ceiling. In contrast, Musk wants to limit spending, meaning NOT raise the debt ceiling. Until either Trump or Musk decides to accept what the other wants, the government will shutdown. Until the ALL Republicans in Congress (I mean every last one of them because otherwise Republicans don't have the votes to pass anything) decide whose opinion about the national debt they are following, Trump or Musk, the government stays shutdown.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I find it quite amusing that the media and idiots from The Squad are all parroting each other, trying to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk right now.
Pathetic.
I wonder if any of them even realize how transparent they are. None of them are half as clever as they imagine themselves to be.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social early Friday morning. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”
The debt ceiling is the limit — set in law — of how much new debt the US government can issue. If it is not raised or suspended in time, the country would default on its debt; it is widely believed economic turmoil would then ensue. Republicans have used the threat of a debt default to try to force Democratic presidents into policy concessions, and Trump fears Democrats will try something similar against him in 2025. So he wants the debt ceiling suspended right now — or even abolished entirely.
This was an unexpected turn of events because the initial bipartisan deal just didn’t address the debt ceiling at all: It merely funded the government for three more months, as well as included several other provisions that had won bipartisan backing.
https://www.vox.com/politics/392184/trump-musk-congress-spending-debt-
ceiling
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump wants to suspend, or even eliminate, the debt ceiling. In contrast, Musk wants to limit spending, meaning NOT raise the debt ceiling. Until either Trump or Musk decides to accept what the other wants, the government will shutdown. Until the Republicans in Congress decide whose opinion about the national debt they are following, Trump or Musk, the government stays shutdown.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I find it quite amusing that the media and idiots from The Squad are all parroting each other, trying to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk right now.
Pathetic.
I wonder if any of them even realize how transparent they are. None of them are half as clever as they imagine themselves to be.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
The government has shut down 10 times since 1980 and neither Trump nor Musk had anything to do with it. Democrats were to blame for the 2018 shutdown.
https://www.history.com/news/us-government-shutdowns-facts
SPOILER ALERT: Nobody cares about 800,000 DEI hires getting furloughed.
Fuck 'em.
Quote:
The debt ceiling is the limit — set in law — of how much new debt the US government can issue. If it is not raised or suspended in time, the country would default on its debt; it is widely believed economic turmoil would then ensue. Republicans have used the threat of a debt default to try to force Democratic presidents into policy concessions, and Trump fears Democrats will try something similar against him in 2025. So he wants the debt ceiling suspended right now — or even abolished entirely.
So as a Democrat you're going to pretend to care about the deficit in 2024?
That's rich.
What the fuck do we even have a debt ceiling for when Democrats always blow the budget and raise it every year anyhow?
$36 Trillion+ debt given to us by Democrats so far? It doesn't appear that the Debt Ceiling is made out of anything other than air.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Are you losing your mind yet, Second?
I'm really looking forward to watching your steep mental decline over the next 4 years.
Need any drugs?
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:There was a spending bill in Dec 2018 that Trump vetoed because it did not include $5.7 billion for a Texas-Mexico Wall. After Trump stalled for a month, he signed the bill, ending the shutdown but never getting his $5.7 billion. A month-long Trump tantrum that was all sound and fury signifying nothing.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The government has shut down 10 times since 1980 and neither Trump nor Musk had anything to do with it. Democrats were to blame for the 2018 shutdown.
https://www.history.com/news/us-government-shutdowns-facts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%932019_United_States_federal_
government_shutdown
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Right. Exactly.
Democrats created the 2018 shutdown.
They also did it by going against the will of the American People and doing whatever they can to stop anybody from keeping the fucking aliens out. One of the top 3 reasons why you lost in November.
Since National Security is ONE of the ONLY jobs that our Federal Government has, it says a lot that they're $36 Trillion in debt and there is no such thing as national security in America because of Democrats.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:Trump waited 36 days before signing a bill. During the wait, the government was shutdown. All Trump had to do to end the shutdown was pick up a pen and sign the paper that was on his desk. The shutdown was all Trump's fault.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Right. Exactly.
Democrats created the 2018 shutdown.
They also did it by going against the will of the American People and doing whatever they can to stop anybody from keeping the fucking aliens out. One of the top 3 reasons why you lost in November.
Since National Security is ONE of the ONLY jobs that our Federal Government has, it says a lot that they're $36 Trillion in debt and there is no such thing as national security in America because of Democrats.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
There is a $36 trillion debt because more than a $1 trillion in taxes are not collected each year. The IRS only collected $750 per year from Trump, so I'm pretty sure its his fault that his taxes haven't been paid, not the fault of the IRS.
Trillion dollars in unpaid taxes per year
https://www.google.com/search?q=trillion+dollars+in+unpaid+taxes+per+y
ear
Trump paid 750 dollars in taxes per year
https://www.google.com/search?q=Trump+paid+750+dollars+in+taxes+per+ye
ar
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The target of dozens of death threats linked to the MAGA movement made a public plea to Republicans to halt Donald Trump’s vow of retribution Friday.
Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and his family have been hit by many “credible” threats that have been investigated by law enforcement.
“People are in jail for wanting to kill me and my kids," he wrote for MSNBC Friday. "I spent $315,000 this past Congress on personal security to protect myself and my family. I know the consequences of dissent."
Swalwell began receiving threats after speaking out on issues including gun control and investigations into Trump.
And he fears that now that Trump is returning to power, and has nominated Kash Patel — a man who has openly called for retribution — to head the FBI, the threats will worsen.
More at https://www.rawstory.com/eric-swalwell-trump-2670649419/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump insisted that any deal to keep the government open must include a two-year suspension of the U.S. debt limit. Friday’s passage — without Trump’s debt limit hike — served as a reminder to the incoming president of just how difficult it is to control the notoriously fractious House Republican caucus. If the bill passes the Senate in its current form, Biden is expected to sign it into law quickly. (If Trump were President, he wouldn't sign and the government would shut down for Xmas.)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/20/government-shutdown-house-speaker-trum
p-vote.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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If Less Than 115,000 Votes Had Switched in Three Battleground States, Harris Would Have Beaten Trump
The Electoral College’s count Tuesday confirms that Trump fell dramatically short of a “massive mandate.”
By John Nichols | December 20, 2024
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/three-battleground-states-d
efeated-trump/
Dave Wasserman, the well-regarded number cruncher for the Cook Political Report, noted, “the 2024 election was decided by 229,766 votes across Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin out of about 155.2 million cast nationally.”
If the Harris campaign had mobilized more base voters in those states—rather than squandering precious time on Republican-outreach events with Liz Cheney—they might well have made up the difference. Or, if they could have developed strategies to get just 114,884 working-class Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania voters to shift from Trump to Harris, the Democrat would have prevailed.
That’s roughly the number of people that a pair of Taylor Swift shows drew in Philadelphia this year. In Wisconsin, historically the most closely contested of the battleground states, a shift of less than 15,000 votes would have given the state to Harris.
It’s not uncommon for presidents to boast that they have more support than is actually the case, and it’s certainly not Trump’s first time doing so. Countless presidents have peddled a fantasy of broad popularity in order to gain an advantage in the wrangling over Cabinet picks and policy initiatives.
But the voters did not hand Trump a massive mandate.
Rather, they produced a result so close that, with just a slight shift of votes, the Electoral College would have made a Democrat the 47th president of 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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False.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:The Republicans in the House of Representatives are already running for reelection. Their first step to stay in power was to give Trump a big defeat, today:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
False.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
Congress averts shutdown after House GOP drops Trump’s debt limit demand
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/politics/house-senate-vote-shutdown-bil
l/index.html
Trump won the election by a few thousand votes in the right places. The Republicans in the House of Representatives know that, which is why they didn't give a shit what Trump wants if it doesn't align with what they want. Obeying random commands arising from Trump's mental illness is NOT their top priority.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:The Republicans in the House of Representatives are already running for reelection. Their first step to stay in power was to give Trump a big defeat, today:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
False.
--------------------------------------------------
"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
Also untrue.
The original bill was 1,547 pages of bullshit and pork.
All Democrats got to go home with on Christmas was a 118 page bill.
Quote:
Trump won the election by a few thousand votes in the right places.
Get fucked, stupid.
We're talking multiples more votes than Joe Biden winning the electoral college with 44,000 votes over 3 states 4 years ago.
You treated that as a total mandate. Wide open borders for 4 years. EV mandates. Blanket censorship. College debt repayment. 2 new wars by proxy. Hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars flushed down the drain in Ukraine and both sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict. You even passed laws removing gas stoves from future American's lives.
Not enough for you?
How about the Harris Coronation, instead of letting you decide via primary who was going to lose to Trump?
Democrats have walked around the last 4 fucking years like they had a mandate.
ON EVERYTHING.
It will be fun watching you cry for the next 4 years now. Especially when you present articles like this making a weak case that pales in comparison to the exact opposite argument for Trump 4 years ago that you completely ignored all this time while Democrats swung their dicks all around and did whatever they wanted to like they own the place.
Quote:
The Republicans in the House of Representatives know that, which is why they didn't give a shit what Trump wants if it doesn't align with what they want. Obeying random commands arising from Trump's mental illness is NOT their top priority.
You've got your story here all wrong because you've made the conscious choice to continue watching brainrot Lefty media that you've seen lie to you time and time and time again.
So I'm not even going to bother arguing you on this non-issue again. Get yourself an education.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:I can see why Trump got your vote. Trumptards and Trump are crazy and don't know it:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You've got your story here all wrong because you've made the conscious choice to continue watching brainrot Lefty media that you've seen lie to you time and time and time again.
So I'm not even going to bother arguing you on this non-issue again. Get yourself an education.
Using only his mouth, Trump will remove illegal aliens and take control of the Panama Canal
22 Dec 2024
United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal after accusing Panama of charging excessive rates on US ships passing through one of the busiest waterways in the world.
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
“This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”
The US largely built the canal in 1914 and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But Washington fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.
“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”
The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory.
“It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the moral and legal principles of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” Trump said.
Last month, Trump said he would impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports on day one of his administration and that the measures would remain until the “invasion” of undocumented migrants and drugs came to an end.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long-simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/22/trump-threatens-to-take-back
-control-of-panama-canal-over-ridiculous-fees
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump’s going to:
. . . give them great healthcare at a fraction of the cost (after 9 years’ hard work, he has a concept of a plan) . . .
. . . drive down the cost of groceries by: (1) adding tariffs to the price of the food we import; (2) deporting low-wage workers who bring to market the food we produce here . . .
. . . reduce the deficit by lowering taxes on the uber-wealthy and further strangling the IRS.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump’s going to:
. . . give them great healthcare at a fraction of the cost (after 9 years’ hard work, he has a concept of a plan) . . .
. . . drive down the cost of groceries by: (1) adding tariffs to the price of the food we import; (2) deporting low-wage workers who bring to market the food we produce here . . .
. . . reduce the deficit by lowering taxes on the uber-wealthy and further strangling the IRS.
Lifted word for word from Andrew Tobias here:
https://andrewtobias.com/lets-form-a-shadow-cabinet/
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Quote:But 6ix missed the point that Trump has no plans, after 9 years. He won't have a plan in his lifetime. Check the internet for Trump's plans and 6ix won't find them, unlike the above quote. But what he will find is Trump bloviating. Trump's past is his future:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump’s going to:
. . . give them great healthcare at a fraction of the cost (after 9 years’ hard work, he has a concept of a plan) . . .
. . . drive down the cost of groceries by: (1) adding tariffs to the price of the food we import; (2) deporting low-wage workers who bring to market the food we produce here . . .
. . . reduce the deficit by lowering taxes on the uber-wealthy and further strangling the IRS.
Lifted word for word from Andrew Tobias here:
https://andrewtobias.com/lets-form-a-shadow-cabinet/
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
https://www.google.com/search?q=bloviating+Trump
05/29/2012 - Donald Trump 'bloviating ignoramus'
George Will on Sunday blasted Donald Trump during an appearance on "This Week" as he questioned why Mitt Romney would host a fundraising event with someone who continues to give credibility to birtherism.
https://www.politico.com/video/2012/05/george-will-donald-trump-blovia
ting-ignoramus-012196
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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White Gen Xers and Political Nihilism
Posted on Friday, Dec 20, 2024, 6:00AM by Mindy Clegg
Generation X was raised amid the dismantling of the New Deal and as adults, we have lived through the consequences. The cost of raising a child has risen, and there are far fewer resources for the elderly, so many Gen Xers are feeling this “sandwich” squeeze of caring for both their children and their parents. However, Gen X was told we could not depend on larger institutions to help us. Much of the popular culture we grew up with reinforced the message that institutions fail us and can’t be depended upon. These institutions that benefited their parents have completely eroded for our generation. In that light, it seems understandable that some might vote for the bomb thrower over a problem solver — at least I’ll get a tax cut, the thinking goes. But I doubt finishing the destructive job started during the Reagan era will solve the many problems our generation or younger cohorts face. Political nihilism rarely works for those who vote for it, only deepening the crisis . . .
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/12/we-care-a-lot-white-gen-
xers-and-political-nihilism.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Donald Trump, U.S. President-Elect:
"I went on groceries.
It's a very simple word, groceries.
Like almost, you know, who uses the word?
I started using the word, the groceries.
When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs,
they would double and triple the price over a short period of time.
And I won an election based on that.
We're going to bring those prices way down."
There's nothing he can do to lower (grocery) prices from where they are. He can slow the rate of incline, but if prices actually go down, we're in a deflationary situation and that is much more scary for the economy . . .
https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/video/2024/12/whats-behind-tru
mps-backpedaling-on-his-promises-to-lower-prices
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quit spamming your TDS all over the boards and grow up.
You've now complained more about Trump winning before he was inaugurated than I did about Joe Biden* in 4 years.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Kamala Harris received a 1.4% lower share of the presidential vote than the recent Democratic average while House members did 0.97% worse. And this is entirely due to losses among Hispanic voters. 2024 was a fairly routine loss.
https://jabberwocking.com/breaking-voters-who-dont-like-democrats-didn
t-vote-for-democrats/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
2024 was a fairly routine loss.
Uh huh.
Nothing routine about the destruction of the Democrat Party.
And you've got not one single known person in the Democrat Party that can run against JD Vance in 4 years.
You'd better find somebody.
From November 29th:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Enough time has passed since I last tracked this, even if there's still not enough new votes counted to really justify it.
I shouldn't be surprised that the last few hundred thousand cheat votes they're pulling off of pallets in the blue states are breaking significantly harder for Harris than for Trump compared to the votes counted nationwide up through November 22nd.
POPULAR VOTE:
76,917,038 for Trump (50.0%) / 74,441,439 votes for Harris (48.4%).
Total votes counted: 151,358,477
Trump's lead: 2,475,599
COMPARED TO THE 2020 ELECTION:
The 2020 results were 74,223,369 for Trump and 81,282,916 votes for Biden*
The total EXACT vote count in 2020 was 155,506,285.
The total amount of votes less in 2024 compared to 2020 is down to only 4,147,808 now.
Trump now has 2,693,669 more votes than he did in 2020.
Harris now has 6,841,477 less votes than Biden* did in 2020.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Donald Trump Says Buying Greenland is 'Absolute Necessity'
Back in 2019, Trump famously sought to purchase Greenland, citing its vast natural resources.
President-elect Donald Trump, in a bold statement on Monday, reignited his interest in Greenland, asserting that the United States must "own and control" the island for national security and global freedom. The comments came as Trump announced his pick for the next US ambassador to Denmark, PayPal cofounder Ken Howery, who Trump described as the perfect choice to represent American interests.
"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," Trump wrote on Truth Social, reaffirming his desire to bring the island under US control.
Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/116591963.cms
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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I'm down with it.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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