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

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You too, Second.

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Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.

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

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JD Vance Accuses the Supreme Court of ‘Lawlessness’ After Trump Tariff Ruling

Trump insisted that he still didn’t need Congress, directly contradicting the SCOTUS ruling.

Feb 20, 2026, 4:38 pm

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/jd-vance-accuses-the-supreme-court-o
f-lawlessness-after-trump-tariff-ruling/

With these justifications, tariffs must continue. If the Supreme Court doesn't approve, tough titty, according to Trump/Vance, the two finest legal minds in the administration.

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You too, Second.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.

---

Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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From Venezuelan oil to the Board of Peace, Trump is constantly looking for new sources of cash he can control.

Trump’s dream is a giant slush fund Congress can’t touch

By Tad DeHaven | Feb 20, 2026

https://www.vox.com/politics/479821/trumps-slush-fund-venezuela-oil-ga
za-board-of-peace-tariffs

After President Donald Trump launched a military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, he announced that America planned to take control of its oil revenue. More specifically, one American.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” he proclaimed in a statement.

This wasn’t the first time he’d used that kind of language. Earlier, he announced “deals” with allies Japan and South Korea, in which the countries received tariff relief in exchange for pledging massive investments in the United States that Trump himself would allegedly oversee.

And in Davos, Switzerland, Trump unveiled a new international initiative called the “Board of Peace.” It’s being pitched by the White House as a global problem solver, starting with Gaza.

According to an alleged draft charter, countries would serve limited terms unless they pay $1 billion to fund the board. And, not coincidentally, the chairman (Trump) would have substantial control over its operations. Many American allies quickly balked at the arrangement, with France’s foreign minister citing the “very extensive powers” granted to the board’s chairman.

These recent episodes are all part of a broader story of Trump’s second term: his endless quest to secure a slush fund that he can use to personally control large sums of money.

The slush fund, explained

To say that Trump is in an endless quest for a slush fund is not to suggest that there’s to be a literal White House bank account with his name on it (he’d love that, though).

Rather, it’s a description of a disturbing approach to governing: a relentless push to create discretionary pools of money and leverage points of control that can be used to reward, punish, and command, all while trying to dodge legal and constitutional constraints.

When convenient, he’s gone through Congress, whose decision to grant him a massive $170 billion immigration enforcement fund in a party-line vote outside the normal appropriations process is now central to policy arguments about Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Minneapolis. Of that, ICE is slated to receive $75 billion — tripling its annual budget.

But he’s also looked for ways to find control over investments through the levers of foreign policy — tariffs, trade deals, foreign mergers, military seizures, diplomatic programs — that were never intended to be used this way.

If you’re thinking, “Okay, but governments negotiate deals all the time,” that’s true to a point. What’s striking is that the tariffs Trump unilaterally imposed are being used as leverage to shake down allied countries to feed his insatiable appetite for grandiose headlines about alleged incoming investments.

Instead of enforceable trade agreements, these deals are more like political commitments. Locking in binding obligations and durable tariff changes typically requires congressional action. The enforcement mechanism for these deals is basically his never-ending threat of higher tariffs. For example, the administration reached a trade deal with Europe in July, but the truce didn’t last. After Trump escalated pressure over his demand for Greenland, he revived tariff threats against several European countries.

The concessions Trump announces in these deals are also sometimes less than they seem when the countries fill in the details. Trump claimed: “I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion. That’s our money. It’s our money to invest, as we like.” But Japanese investments are being structured as equity, loans, and guarantees routed through Japanese public finance institutions and an investment c

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Feb. 20, 2026, 9:51 PM CST

The Department of Justice fired longtime litigator James Hundley from his appointment to interim U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, just hours after federal judges unanimously appointed him to the position.

Chief U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck signed off on Hundley's appointment Friday evening and administered the oath of office in Richmond, Virginia, according to court documents.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X shortly after, announcing Hundley had been fired.

Hundley's appointment to the Eastern District of Virginia followed the departure of Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who left the job in late January after a federal judge ruled that she held the role unlawfully.

Halligan, who was a former insurance attorney with no prosecutorial experience, led unsuccessful cases against New York Attorney General Leticia James and former FBI Director James Comey, both perceived Trump foes.

Federal law allows judges to appoint a U.S. attorney if a presidential nominee has not been confirmed within 120 days of their appointment.

This is not the first time the Justice Department has fired a U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges.

In July, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Desiree Leigh Grace after she was appointed as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Grace was set to succeed the state's interim U.S. attorney, Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump.

Just last week, a New York prosecutor was fired by the Justice Department the same day he had been appointed by federal judges to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Veteran attorney Donald Kinsella — who had been appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York — told NBC News that he was fired after receiving an email from the White House stating that the “president directed that I be removed."

In both cases, federal judges appointed U.S. attorneys after a judge had ruled that the interim U.S. attorney appointed by Trump was serving in the role unlawfully.

Hundley has more than 30 years of experience litigating complex criminal and civil cases, having represented clients in state and federal courts across Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland. He has successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has been appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to serve as a Council Member at Large to the Virginia State Bar.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/deputy-ag-fires-
interim-us-attorney-rcna260012


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 6ixStringJack:

Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

GM Gilbert was the chief psychologist who interviewed Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. His words are as valid today.

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

https://mike-scialom.medium.com/a-short-history-of-evil-f379da5723f7

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 lost the election in 2020, but he said he won and he would stay in the White House, except Congress threw him out of office. Trump lost on tariffs in 2026, but he will keep collecting the money until Congress throws him out of office.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Oh yeah?

How, pray tell, are they going to do that?



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

GM Gilbert was the chief psychologist who interviewed Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. His words are as valid today.

---

---

No they aren't. You've completely destroyed the meaning of the word Nazi.

Its 2026. If you feel the need to bring the word Nazi into any argument, it means that you've already lost said argument.




Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.

---

After Hitler was dead, the place names honoring him were changed back.

Feb 21, 2026

Trump’s naming mania has attached itself to Palm Beach International airport, just a few miles from his Mar-a-Lago Club. The Miami Herald reported this week that a bill to rename the facility as Donald J. Trump International Airport is quickly moving through the state Legislature and destined for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature to be signed into law. But Trump could be getting more than just ego gratification from the renaming. The newspaper said that even before the bill won approval in the Florida House, a Trump Organization affiliate called DTTM Operations LLC filed applications to trademark the new airport name.

The newspaper said the trademarks “would cover dozens of goods and services, according to the applications, including airport buses, parking garages, suitcases and more.” Trademark attorney Josh Gerben said in his blog that trademark applications for airport names are typically filed by the government entities that own the airports, not private citizens or companies. He called the trademark filing “completely unprecedented” and noted that it might put the Trump Organization in a position to charge licensing fees for the use of the Trump name. https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/trumps-private-company-files-trademark-
for-president-donald-j-trump-international-airport/

For now, we can only sit back and ponder the significance of a sitting President filing a trademark application with his own intellectual property office to protect the name of an airport he is pressuring politicians to rename.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/travelers-southwest-revenues-213
67582.php

Hitler had too much dignity to trademark his name and profit from it, unlike Trump, making him better than Donald.

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Meanwhile, answer the fucking question, retard. You don't get to say Nazi to avoid having an actual debate over your dumbass, braindead commentary anymore.

Not when everybody knows your game and hates you for it.

---

After Hitler

---

Shut the fuck up.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up.

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Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

DOJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as federal officers’ lies are exposed in court

Department of Justice prosecutors across the US have suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in their aggressive pursuit of criminal cases against people accused of “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers.

In recent months, the federal government has relentlessly prosecuted protesters, government critics, immigrants and others arrested during immigration operations, often accusing them of physically attacking officers or interfering with their duties.

But many of those cases have recently been dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts.

In several high-profile cases, the prosecutions fell apart because they relied on statements by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers that had no supporting evidence or in some instances were proven by video footage to be blatantly false.

Criminal defense lawyers said it was unusual for federal prosecutors to pursue a high volume of charges over minor clashes with law enforcement, and that it was extraordinary to see the DoJ lose case after case across jurisdictions.

Still, the costs for defendants, even if ultimately exonerated, have been enormous, with many having their mugshots blasted by the government and some forced to languish in jail or have criminal charges hang over them for weeks and months.

The most recent significant fumble came from Minneapolis prosecutors, who last week dismissed felony assault charges they had filed against two Venezuelan men accused of “violently beating” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer “with weapons” on 14 January.

In a press release issued after their arrest, the DHS had described the men as “violent criminal illegal aliens”. The department said officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop to detain an undocumented man from Venezuela, and as he “began to resist and violently assault the officer”, two other men came out of a nearby apartment and “attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle”. The officer shot one of them in the leg.

Two of the men were arrested and charged, with a 16 January affidavit providing a vivid account of them attacking an officer identified as ERO 1, referring to ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. But on 12 February, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss both men’s cases, saying: “Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit.”

The motion, which a judge granted, sought to have the cases dismissed “with prejudice”, meaning the government could not re-file charges.

ICE director Todd Lyons said ICE and the DoJ had opened an investigation into the case after videos revealed “sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements”, marking a rare acknowledgement of possible wrongdoing by DHS officials.

“It is very unusual for the government to move to dismiss its own case with prejudice,” Frederick Goetz, a lawyer for one of the men, said in an interview. He praised the government for launching investigations: “If you make false statements to a federal agent, that is a crime.”

Continue reading at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/doj-protesters-federal
-agents-cases

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

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Shut up, loser.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump's support for Russia isn't working the way he and Putin expected.

Day 1461 of Putin’s Three-Day War
Courage, betrayal — and reasons for hope

Paul Krugman
Feb 23, 2026
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/day-1461-of-putins-three-day-war

Source: Institute for the Study of War

Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2002. Putin expected a quick Russian triumph — reports are that he expected the Ukrainians to fold in days. He never said “three days,” but this meme has become shorthand for his belief that it would be a walkover. Western military analysts who had bought into propaganda about Russia’s military strength shared his assessment.

U.S. right-wingers were especially enthralled with what they perceived as the toughness, masculinity, and anti-wokeness of Russian soldiers.

But Putin’s dream of a short, victorious war has turned — as such dreams usually do — into a long nightmare of blood, destruction and humiliation. Ukrainian courage and Russian incompetence — combined with the effectiveness of British and American man-portable weapons — ensured that the attempt to seize Kyiv became an epic debacle. The three-day war is about to enter its fifth year.

I am not a military expert. But I pay attention to those who are — especially Phillips O’Brien, who has been far more right about this war than anyone else I know. Furthermore, the future of the war will depend greatly on an issue I do know something about, Europe’s ability to provide Ukraine with the support it needs. So I thought I would use the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the war to talk about where we are right now.

First, about the military situation. The maps at the top of this post show how the area of Ukraine under Russian control — shaded pink — has changed over the past year. You may ask, what change? Exactly. The Ukraine war isn’t like World War II, in which breakthroughs could be exploited by armored columns sweeping into the enemy’s rear. It’s a war in which the battlefield is swarming with drones, where there isn’t even a well-defined front line, and the “kill zone” within which even armored vehicles are basically death traps is many kilometers wide.

Some observers still don’t understand how the reality of war has changed. Thus there have been breathless reports about the danger Ukraine would face after Russia seized the “strategic city” of Pokrovsk since July 2024. Russian forces finally entered Pokrovsk late last year and may now occupy most of the rubble. But it made no difference.

This reality shows how idiotic it is for the U.S. Department of Defense — sorry, Department of War — to decide that its mission is to embrace a “warrior ethos.” Bulging biceps and macho posturing won’t help you prevail in modern war, while bombastic stupidity is a good way to get many soldiers killed.

So if modern technology has turned war on the ground into a bloody stalemate — much bloodier for Russia than for Ukraine, but still indecisive — what will determine victory and defeat? The answer, which has been true in most wars, is that it will come down to resources and logistics.

If this were purely a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainians, for all their heroism, would be doomed. Russia, after all, has four times Ukraine’s population and ten times its GDP.

But Ukraine has powerful friends.

For the first three years of the war, the United States was the most important of these friends. Indeed, Ukraine wouldn’t have been able to resist Russia without U.S. aid.

Unfortunately, top Biden officials were too cautious. They didn’t want Putin to win, but they clearly lost their nerve at the prospect of outright Russian defe

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Shut up, loser.


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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, loser.


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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Has Donald Trump lost his most powerful tariff weapon?

The US Supreme Court decision on tariffs has upended the central plank of President Donald Trump's economic and foreign policy. Will this lead to a change of course, or will Trump double down?

By Arthur Sullivan | Feb 22, 2026

Even by Donald Trump's standards, 2026 has been unusually frenetic.

From the ousting of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, to his threats to annex Greenland, to his repeated vows to use military action against Iran, a lot has been happening. Yet amid all these geopolitical upheavals, one key tool has pretty much defined both of Trump's presidencies: tariffs.

Trump's obsession with tariffs goes back a long way. Those who have observed the US president over the decades say it is tied to his view of the booming Japanese economy of the 1980s.

Trump formed the view that Japan's economic success was based on what he felt were the unfair terms of its economic relationship with the US. He came to see tariffs as a magic bullet for balancing the terms of trade with countries — a view he has firmly held for more than 40 years, regardless of the country or the economic dynamics at play.

He often turns to tariffs when cornered. At the height of the Greenland crisis, when European leaders strongly rebuked his rhetoric, he threatened tariffs against those who opposed his plans. His resolute confidence in their effectiveness, regardless of the issue, seems unshakeable.

"I always say tariffs is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary," he said at his Inauguration Day parade in January 2025. "Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell, it's going to bring our country's businesses back."

Much more at https://www.dw.com/en/trump-tariffs-trade-geo-economics-supreme-court-
china/a-76077670

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

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Bombs into the Sandbox?? so more spending for another war in the Middle East then?

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, loser.


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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Attack of the Zombie Tariffs

A brain is a terrible thing to have eaten

Paul Krugman | Feb 24, 2026

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/attack-of-the-zombie-tariffs

50 years of zombies: Designing the undead to explain the living | CNN

Trump administration officials are trying to put a brave face on the stinging rebuke just delivered by the Supreme Court in its ruling that most of the tariffs imposed since April 2025 (the IEEPA tariffs) are illegal. Never one to accept limitations on his power, Trump rushed to impose new tariffs using an obscure clause, Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. Section 122 tariffs have a 150-day limit, at which point they expire. So Trump officials are now claiming that they’ll find ways to reconstruct the tariffs using other legal loopholes before the expiration date is reached.

I don’t know how well this strategy will actually work. To the extent that it does work, we will be in the grip of zombie tariffs — tariffs that should be dead, because they were clearly imposed illegally, but that somehow keep shambling along.

Why this desperate attempt to keep tariffs high? A MAGA loyalist would say it’s to preserve what those illegal tariffs have accomplished. But even before they were struck down, the tariffs had achieved none of their stated goals. In fact, they had put those goals further out of reach.

On Liberation Day, Trump justified the tariffs now ruled illegal by telling the American public that our trade deficits were proof that the United States was giving money away to other countries. In his ranting press conference after the Supreme Court decision, he justified his actions by saying,

“You take a look at the deficits that we had with some of these countries. It was disgraceful what they got away with for many, many decades.”

He has the economics of trade deficits fundamentally wrong. But even aside from that, tariffs aren’t reducing those deficits. In fact, the U.S. trade deficit for all of 2025 was about the same as it was in 2024.

Trump apparently believes otherwise. In a recent Truth Social post he declared,

“THE UNITED STATES TRADE DEFICIT HAS BEEN REDUCED BY 78% BECAUSE OF THE TARIFFS BEING CHARGED TO OTHER COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES”

What was he talking about? Probably this:


The U.S. trade deficit surged in early 2025, as companies raced to bring in imports before the Trump tariffs went into effect. It then plunged briefly as companies drew down their swollen inventories before importing more. In the end, the 2025 trade deficit was about the same as the 2024 trade deficit. So what Trump cited was a cherry-picked, misleading number that bears no relation to reality.

Trump also claimed that his tariffs would revive American manufacturing. In fact, manufacturing employment has declined since Liberation Day. But in that press conference Trump asserted that great things are coming:

“You’re going to start to see the results in a year from now when all those factories start that are under construction right now. You see all the construction numbers are so good.”

Which numbers does he have in mind? The most recent available data on manufacturing construction show it falling thanks to Trump’s cancellation of Biden’s green energy subsidies:


Finally, Trump likes to boast about the immense revenue generated by the tariffs. And they did indeed bring in some money — tariffs are taxes, and taxes yield revenue. But they aren’t the gusher of revenue tha

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, loser.


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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Attack of the Zombie Tariffs

A brain is a terrible thing to have eaten

Paul Krugman | Feb 24, 2026

---

Paul's brain was cooked many years ago.

Nobody gives a single fuck what Paul Krugman has to say on any topic. You can't even show me one article from the last 10 years where he made a prediction that came true.

Fuck you cultist. You're done.

Nobody is listening to any of you losers anymore.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Paul's brain was cooked many years ago.

Nobody gives a single fuck what Paul Krugman has to say on any topic. You can't even show me one article from the last 10 years where he made a prediction that came true.

Fuck you cultist. You're done.

Nobody is listening to any of you losers anymore.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trumptards are loony-tunes. This one story jumped to my attention today because it has suicide, sex, and national politics, but all Trumptards I personally know are mind-benumbed crazy, only NOT this extreme:

Lawmaker Faces Calls to Resign

Feb 23, 2026

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/tony-gonzales-text-messages-pressu
re-9dea8775

Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas faced calls from Republican colleagues to drop his re-election bid over an alleged affair with a staff member, after new text messages of a sexual nature surfaced between Gonzales and the aide, who died after setting herself on fire last year. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado became the first House Republican to call on Gonzales to quit ahead of his primary next week. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) acknowledged to reporters Monday that Gonzales is facing serious accusations. “You have to allow the investigations to play out and all the facts to come out,” Johnson said. “I’ve told him he’s got to address that with his constituents,” he said. Gonzales didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawmaker, a Navy veteran who is serving his third term in the House, has previously dismissed allegations of an improper relationship and called discussions of the allegations “personal smears.” Voting in the Texas GOP primary wraps up Tuesday of next week. Last week, Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber known as the AK Guy who is challenging Gonzales in the primary, said the incumbent should resign over the affair allegations. —Olivia Beavers

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut up, loser.


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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Attack of the Zombie Tariffs

A brain is a terrible thing to have eaten

Paul Krugman | Feb 24, 2026

---

Paul's brain was cooked many years ago.

Nobody gives a single fuck what Paul Krugman has to say on any topic. You can't even show me one article from the last 10 years where he made a prediction that came true.

Fuck you cultist. You're done.

Nobody is listening to any of you losers anymore.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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President Trump’s State of the Union Variety Show

Were you not entertained?

By Tom Nichols | February 25, 2026, 12:54 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/trump-state-of-the-union/686
125/

The longest State of the Union in modern history is now over. Donald Trump held court in the House of Representatives and said little of substance, but substance wasn’t the point. This year, he intended to put on a show, with an array of guest stars and special appearances. He was happy because he was playing the roles he clearly loves: game-show host, ringmaster, emcee, beneficent granter of wishes—and, where the Democrats were concerned, a self-righteous inquisitor.

Trump did his usual rote lying about the economy—pity the fact-checkers who tried to keep up even in the first 10 minutes or so of the speech—along with some of his other greatest hits, including the many wars he stopped and the magic of tariffs. (He referred to the “unfortunate involvement” of the Supreme Court on the tariff issue, as if the justices had barged into his office like interlopers.)

President Ronald Reagan, the “Great Communicator,” once managed to do the entire State of the Union address in 31 minutes; that’s because he could say important things efficiently and well. Tonight, however, was not about communication—it was about showmanship. Almost every line was a cue for applause from obedient Republicans; they even gave Jared Kushner a standing ovation. Every few minutes, Trump told a story and reached out into the audience like the host of The Price Is Right, telling people to come on down.

He started, of course, with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team. Just basking along with Team USA wasn’t enough. Trump soon announced that the goalie Connor Hellebuyck would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Normally, this honor is bestowed for a lifetime of achievement, but this time it was given as if the young athlete had chosen the right door and found a new car.

And so it went, all night. Sometimes, the guests were meant to tug at the heartstrings, such as when Trump recognized Erika Kirk, the wife of the murdered activist Charlie Kirk. Others were presented as ornaments meant to illustrate Trump’s successes: Enrique Márquez, a Venezuelan political prisoner freed after U.S. forces deposed the strongman Nicolás Maduro, was given a round of well-deserved applause. Trump also gave a shout-out to a woman whose IVF medications were now, he claimed, cheaper.

But no group received more attention than the U.S. military. Trump handed out two Purple Hearts (one posthumously), a Legion of Merit, and not one but two Congressional Medals of Honor. Military awards that should have been treated with dignity and respect were placed on men like prizes, including a moment when Trump’s co-host, the first lady, put one of the Medals of Honor around the neck of a 100-year-old fighter pilot.

Trump even had designated heels in the audience: the Democrats. He called them crazy and accused them of impoverishing the nation. He dared them to stand up if they agreed with him that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” This stunt was obviously meant to force Democrats either to stand or boo or otherwise do something that Trump could exploit; instead, it merely resulted in several awkward seconds of a staring contest between the president and the Democrats in the chamber. Trump managed to bait Representative Ilhan Omar into shouting at him, but for the most part, he seemed genuinely irritated that the Democrats sat through his show in stony silence.

As the whole business dragged on, the atmosphere started to seem less like a game show and more like the late-night Jerry Lewis telethons of the 1970s, in which a tired but pumped Lewis alternately griped at the audience, broke into maudlin emotion, or jumped up to welcome a new guest. The only thing Trump did not do was explain his policies—especially about war and peace—to Congress or the American people.

The largest American

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We know you weren't entertained.



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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
We know you weren't entertained.



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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Donald Trump has a long-standing, well-documented relationship with professional wrestling. Wrestling is fake, as was Trump's SOTU.
https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump

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 State of the Union Address--He Is Reading the Polls And Seems Scared

What he avoided was more important than what he said

Phillips P. OBrien | Feb 25, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/trumps-state-of-the-union-addre
ss

To understand how he now accepts that many of his policies are unpopular and how scared he is, it's best to look at what he avoided talking about or more accurately what he talked about as little and as carefully/generically as possible. The first was the Supreme Court after the Tariff ruling last week.

If you remember, when the ruling first came out, Trump was incandescent and lashed out in a historically negative fashion about the Court. He called the ruling an “embarassment” a “terrible” decision and even claimed that members of the Supreme Court were traitors, saying they were "swayed by foreign interests".

It should be noted that in the history of the USA, this was an unprecedented attack. Never before has a President accused the Supreme Court of being traitors.

Last night in the State of the Union address, however, he hardly mentioned the court or the ruling. When he did, he even tried very hard to be presidential, describing the ruling which he had earlier blasted as traitorous only as “unfortunate”. Here was the key text:

“And then just four days ago an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court, it just came down, came down. Very unfortunate ruling. But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made, right, Scott? Knowing that the legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them. And therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before the Supreme Court’s unfortunate involvement.”

Trump even avoided the whole tariff question as much as possible. In the entire 2-hour speech, he used the word "tariff" only 5 times, and he rushed through those moments, trying more to convince himself of his arguments than anything else.

So we went from Tariffs being absolutely central to his political positioning and the Supreme Court being an embarrassing disaster, to very little in just a few days.

One thing that he avoided entirely was ICE (US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement). He not only never mentioned ICE or immigrants and only used the word “immigration” three times. And it is worth noting that these three mentions were general and not specific.

So the Court was treated with kid gloves, ICE was completely avoided, and tariffs and immigration were small issues.

Much more at https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/trumps-state-of-the-union-addre
ss

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

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The most important line from Trump’s State of the Union

To understand Donald Trump’s State of the Union address core purpose — arguably, the core purpose of his presidency — you need only to hear one line.

https://www.vox.com/politics/480388/trump-state-of-the-union-2026-tran
script-democracy

The line came during a discussion of the SAVE Act, a Republican bill designed to combat the fictitious scourge of noncitizen voting. Democrats, Trump claimed, only opposed the bill because “they want to cheat.” And then he took it much further.

“Their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. We’re going to stop it. We have to stop it.”

Think about that for a second. This is the president of the United States, speaking to the country in a ritualized national address, claiming that the opposition party is not only wrong on policy but fundamentally illegitimate, so much so that if they win an election it must be because they cheated.

Taken literally, that is the president announcing that the stated policy of his administration is preventing the opposition from winning any future election.

We’re all so used to wading through Trump’s sea of hyperbole that it’s easy to push past a bald-faced declaration of authoritarian intent. And to be clear, I don’t think the SAVE Act — or anything else Trump has proposed so far — could actually lock Democrats out of power. There is a real gap between what he is saying and what he is capable of doing.

Still, we have very good reason to think that Trump really does believe that Democrats cannot win without “cheating.”

When he last lost an election, in 2020, he claimed — and has continued to falsely insist — that the contest was stolen. His supporters took this so seriously that, after a fiery Trump speech at the White House on January 6, they marched on the Capitol building and ransacked the very chamber in which he spoke tonight.

He even referenced these grievances in the State of the Union, saying “this should be my third term, but strange things happen.”

Not rivals, but enemies

Trump’s vitriol is different from the “normal” partisanship of pre-Trump State of the Unions. Prior presidents might attack, or even mock, the other party’s policy ideas. But they would treat their opponents as political rivals: as people they disagreed with who were nevertheless partners in the shared project of democracy.

In many ways, that’s the conceit of the entire State of the Union tradition: that the president, in speaking before Congress, is giving an accounting of his actions to the nation as a whole, divided in opinion but united in purpose.

But Trump doesn’t see Democrats as opponents. He sees them as enemies.

I mean “enemies” here in the specific sense used by interwar German legal theorist Carl Schmitt. In his view, the liberal idea of politics — a community of political equals engaged in a shared project of collective governance — was a fantasy. For Schmitt, politics always comes down to a division between friends (those in your group) and enemies (those outside it, who may be legitimately excluded from political life or even killed).

Schmitt’s thinking has enjoyed a revival among MAGA intellectuals, a reflection in part of the movement’s increasingly Manichean view of American politics. Democrats, in this telling, are not just wrong; they are evil, an internal scourge bent on the destruction of America as we know it.

And indeed, this was how Trump talked about Democrats in the State of the Union.

“These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy. Boy, we’re lucky we have a country with people like this,” he said. “Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it, just in the nick of time.”

At many times during the rambling speech, Trump sounded optimistic, even sunny. But make no mistake: It is this dark Schmittian vision that dwells at the heart of his politics.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, wher

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You're so full of shit dude.

Your party died last night. Forever.



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

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If Tuesday’s speech proved anything, it’s that it’s hard to explain how Trump will get America out of a mess that he does not believe exists.

A year ago, a mere six weeks into his second term, Trump opened his address to Congress by claiming that he had done more in that time than any President ever did, George Washington included; this time, he boasted that “our nation is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before.” He said that prices were down and that “affordability” was “a word—they just used it.” All those complaints about the high cost of living in Trump’s America were just “a dirty, rotten lie.” Prices are not really too high, he said. But, even if they were, everything was fine, because “soon you will see numbers that few people would think it possible to achieve just a short time ago.” 00:35:24 – 00:35:57 https://rollcall.com/factbase/sotu/transcript/trump-sotu-20260224/

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

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Trump DOJ’s own goals could stymie its efforts to undermine midterms

By Jim Saksa

February 25, 2026

https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/trump-dojs-own-goals-could-st
ymie-its-efforts-to-undermine-midterms/

Among other steps that President Donald Trump will take to undermine a fair election this fall, he’ll likely use the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring a flood of litigation aiming to challenge Democratic wins and shape the rules in the GOP’s favor.

But election law experts say those efforts may stumble over the administration’s many legal missteps: the likely weakness of the claims themselves, the lack of experienced and competent voting lawyers in DOJ’s ranks, and the department’s record of consistently misleading the courts, which judges may hold against it.

“Is DOJ going to allege crazy shit, just like in Fulton County?” asked Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Marymount University and a former DOJ voting official, referring to the department’s debunked claims about potential fraud in Georgia, which underlay its recent seizure of election records there. “Absolutely, yes…. That’s the new normal for the Department of Justice.”

But, he added: “The quantity of litigation isn’t all that frightening when the quality is crap. And the quality is crap.”

With Trump’s poll numbers at record lows, democracy advocates and Democrats are preparing for the White House to use a range of tactics to prevent a fair election — from sending federal law enforcement to the polls to seize mail ballots, to declaring a state of emergency to allow for a full takeover of the voting process.

These nightmare scenarios can’t be ruled out and pose a clear threat to U.S. democracy. But experts say it’s more likely — all but certain, in fact — that Trump will use the DOJ to try to rehash the same kind of legal challenges he made in 2020, which led to more than 60 courtroom losses.

“Most of us expect that they’re going to try more of that,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. “Of course, the courtroom stuff is a logical place to look.”

Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ has abandoned its longstanding neutrality, instead working to “zealously advance” Trump’s agenda. Rather than trying to impress judges, this DOJ prefers to bully the president’s political opponents and mug for the cameras.

And since Trump retook office, Olson noted, the DOJ has sued 25 states for unfettered access to their voter registration records, appointed a U.S. attorney to head “election integrity” investigations nationwide (leading to the Fulton County raid), and pursued prosecutions against sitting Democratic members of Congress, journalists, a former FBI director, and New York’s current attorney general.

So, Olson fully expects this Justice Department to litigate the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections — nominally on behalf of the American people, functionally for Trump. But just what those investigations, criminal charges or civil lawsuits will be, Olson isn’t sure.

“They want to walk away from a big midterm loss having delegitimized the results in the minds of their followers and as many other people as possible,” Olson said. “But that’s kind of minimal — that’s almost like a best case scenario, if all they try is to cast doubt on legitimacy.“

“I have no doubt that you will see aggressive nonsense theories, warmed-over conspiracy, wild shambolic allegations, and you’ll probably see lots of it,” added Levitt, the former DOJ official. “You’ll see it before election day. You’ll see it after election day. You’ll see it during certification.”

Writing on the Execution Functions Substack, New York University Law Professor Bob Bauer, a veteran Democratic election lawyer, noted that the DOJ quietly took the 8th edition of its Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses manual off its website. Given Trump’s rhetoric, Bauer wondered if this presages a move away from the department’s existing policies, whi

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When Extraterrestrials Attacked the Stock Market
Actually it was a Substack post, but the reaction was telling
Paul Krugman
Feb 26, 2026

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/when-extraterrestrials-attacked-the

On October 30, 1938 a very young Orson Welles pulled a clever stunt. He masterminded a live radio dramatization of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, presented as if CBS was actually reporting on a Martian invasion. Although the program occasionally notified listeners that it was a dramatic presentation, not news, thousands of Americans panicked, packing churches, fleeing their homes, and jamming switchboards. . . .

Welles was a genius and his adaptation of H.G. Wells was brilliant, but it the fact that it aired in 1938 surely contributed to its impact. For Americans were primed for panic. The Great Depression wasn’t over — in fact, the economy had just suffered a nasty relapse.

Overseas, fascism was on the rise, and the storm clouds of war were obviously gathering. Americans were, understandably, ill at ease. No wonder, then, that some were ready to panic over what sounded like dire news on the radio.

Fast forward to this week. We’re living midst political turmoil that is spilling over into economic uncertainty. Donald Trump has just seen most of his signature economic policy, his tariffs, declared illegal by the Supreme Court, and has responded by imposing steep new tariffs, also clearly illegal. The European Union has suspended consideration of its trade deal with the United States.

Everyone is also worried that Trump will seek political and psychological compensation by attacking Iran. According to news reports, military officers have been warning Trump that such an attack would be high-risk. The real news here is that someone is leaking this information, an indication that insiders are worried that Trump might do it anyway.

So these are uneasy times — the kind of times in which investors can be rattled by an alarmist financial analysis that goes viral.

And the truth is that I’m uneasy too. But I’m less worried about either Martians or artificial intelligence than I am about some of the human beings currently in positions of power.

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

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Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

By Isaac Arnsdorf | Feb 26, 2026

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-exe
cutive-order-activists/

Archived Link: https://archive.ph/ixcnj

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.

“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”

The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.

The idea of claiming emergency executive powers based on allegations of foreign interference attaches new significance to the administration’s actions to reinvestigate the 2020 election. Trump has never accepted defeat, while never finding evidence of widespread fraud. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is leading a review of election security that officials said focuses on foreign influence.

A 2021 intelligence review concluded that China considered efforts to influence the election but did not go through with them.

Ticktin said he’s had “certain coordination” with White House officials but declined to specify, citing safety concerns. But his input has successfully led to a presidential action before. Ticktin represents Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk imprisoned on state charges arising from breaking into voting equipment, whom Trump said he pardoned in December. (The presidential pardon did not free Peters from her nine-year prison term because the president has no power over state crimes.)

A White House official said the staff is regularly in communication with a variety of outside advocates who want to share their policy ideas with the president, but any speculation about his actions or announcements is just speculation.

“I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future,” Trump said on social media Feb. 13. “I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order,” he added the same day.

Trump is pressuring Republicans to pass legislation to require proof of citizenship for voter registration and ID to cast ballots. The measure, called the Save America Act, passed the House but faces obstacles in the Senate, where Republican leaders have rejected Trump’s demand to change the chamber’s rules to move the legislation forward.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters,

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Loser.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Catholic Bishops Warn the Supreme Court That Trump Is Threatening the “Moral Foundations of American Society”

By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern | Feb 27, 2026 2:39 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/02/donald-trump-birthright-ci
tizenship-immigration-catholic-bishops.html

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed an extraordinary amicus brief on Thursday urging the Supreme Court to strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order abolishing birthright citizenship for the children of many immigrants.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-365/399395/20260226144523
582_25-365%20bsac%20United%20States%20Conference%20of%20Catholic%20Bishops.pdf

The conference, which represents active Catholic bishops in the United States, frequently supports conservative positions at the court: In the past, it has argued against same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination laws, reproductive freedom, restrictions on school prayer, and medical aid in dying. But the conference is staunchly opposed to Trump’s draconian immigration policies. And its brief in support of birthright citizenship is a searing, full-throated rebuke of the president’s executive order as an affront to the God-given equality of all people.

This is a scorcher of a brief that holds nothing back. It says that the conference’s opposition to stripping folks of birthright citizenship “is motivated by their firmly held belief that each person is endowed by God with an inherent dignity that confers certain universal, inviolable, and inalienable rights.” And then it goes on to say: “The intended and unintended effects of the executive order are immoral and contrary to the Catholic Church’s fundamental beliefs and teachings regarding the life and dignity of human persons, the treatment of vulnerable people — particularly migrants and children — and family unity.” This is a declaration that faith is not on the side of persecuting the most vulnerable communities.

Quote:

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CONCLUSION
Ending birthright citizenship lacks historical, legal, and moral support. The principle of citizenship by birth is firmly rooted in Western legal tradition, enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment, and reaffirmed by this Court’s precedent. It is equally grounded in Church teachings, which affirms the inherent dignity of every human person, especially the innocent child. As Catholics, our faith compels us to protest laws that deny the dignity of the human person and harm innocent children, particularly when such laws resurrect the very injustices the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted to repudiate.

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump has announced that the strikes have one great strategic purpose, and that is regime change in Iran. It is not about forcing the Iranians to agree to a new nuclear deal, but to completely change the Iranian regime. As he has said, “We are not going to put up with this any longer”. You can watch his announcement at Truth Social or see a news report on it below. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116147082884192486

He does mention that he wants to guarantee that Iran has no nuclear weapons, but outlines that the goals now are far more than that — full regime change.

Trump vows to OBLITERATE Iran (Wow, there must be something really bad in the Epstein Files or his tax returns that Trump wants voters not to think about)

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

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The Government Doesn’t Want to Pay Back Tariff Money

https://www.cato.org/blog/sore-losers-supreme-court-government-doesnt-
want-pay-back-unlawful-tariff-money-after-all

The Supreme Court’s invalidation of President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs was a welcome rebuke of executive overreach. But the ruling leaves a huge question unanswered: What happens to the over $170 billion in tariff money that the federal government unlawfully collected from US importers?

Unfortunately, the administration appears to be in no hurry to provide an answer—and may even be planning to keep billions of dollars that it owes American businesses. Right after the ruling, Trump said litigation over refunds could take years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC News on February 25 that the administration would wait for the lower courts to sort things out—a process that would take several months at best. And just today, Politico reported that the administration is devising legal strategies to keep the illegally collected money, including by promising faster refunds if companies agree to let the government keep some of the money that these firms are owed.

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

The Government Doesn’t Want to Pay Back Unlawful Tariff Money

https://www.cato.org/blog/sore-losers-supreme-court-government-doesnt-
want-pay-back-unlawful-tariff-money-after-all

Conclusion

Automatically refunding unlawfully collected IEEPA tariffs is the right thing to do, likely to be politically popular, and feasible today for most imports. It would only be a logistical nightmare if the Trump administration chooses to make it one—a choice the administration appears to be considering. If the president decides to go it the hard way, it’ll fall to the judicial branch to hold the executive to his word or for Congress to mandate blanket relief. Legislation on the latter has already been offered. If it doesn’t soon become law, Democrats have promised to make tariff refunds a major issue in the fall midterm elections.

In the absence of class-action or universal relief, smaller US businesses will be disproportionately harmed. Even the easiest administrative process—PSCs, protests, etc.—would be administratively difficult for firms that lack resources and legal sophistication. (It’d also be a slog for CBP to process all this paperwork in a timely and accurate manner.)

If litigation is required, the burden becomes exponentially worse—especially if courts rule that importers must file protests with CBP at first instance. In this case, thousands of American companies would be shut out from reclaiming money that the government illegally extracted from them. A back-of-napkin estimate suggests that because of these practical limitations, as much as $30 billion will never be refunded—a massive and unjustified windfall for a US government that recklessly implemented tariffs pursuant to an “emergency” law that had never been used to impose such taxes and that few legal experts believed clearly authorized them.

Even for companies that can and do fight it out in court, there will be significant costs that are again disproportionately borne by smaller firms. Importers have finite capital tied up in customs bonds and high-interest loans to cover the costs of IEEPA tariffs—tariffs, again, that are now unquestionably illegal. The more that litigation drags on, the more money businesses must devote to these nonrefundable costs—money that they can’t devote to their workers, production, or shareholders. These costs, along with uncertainty surrounding tariff refunds, is driving some smaller US businesses to sell the rights to their refunds to Wall Street speculators at pennies on the dollar—losses, the Wall Street Journal notes, that big businesses will likely avoid because they “can foot the legal bills and will be more likely to wait for big payouts.”

Reasonable minds can differ about whether lawful taxation is “theft”; in this case, however, there’d be no question.

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

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‘The Worst-Case Outcome Is Complete Chaos’

Killing the supreme leader was one thing. Ousting the regime will be another.

By Shane Harris, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Nancy A. Youssef, Ashley Parker, Jonathan Lemire, and Michael Scherer

February 28, 2026, 5:59 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/02/iran-war-trump-u
s-strikes/686197/

In the final hours before U.S. warplanes bombarded Iran today, President Trump wanted to go over the plan one last time. He called the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East to confirm the details of the operation, asking about how the regime in Iran was likely to retaliate and how many American casualties he could expect, according to two U.S. officials who were briefed on Trump’s call with Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command. Trump had sent the largest number of forces to the region since George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, in 2003.

The president hoped that the air campaign, conducted with Israel, would weaken the regime in Tehran and that the Iranian people would rise up and “take over your government,” as he said in a video address on Truth Social in the early hours of this morning. “This will be probably your only chance for generations,” he added.

By the day’s end in the Middle East, U.S. officials had concluded that the attacks had accomplished something historic, nearly five decades into the reign of the Islamic Republic’s ayatollahs: They had killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Khamenei’s compound had been a principal target of the attacks, and satellite images showed that little of it was left standing.

The attacks followed months of deliberation but little attempt by the administration to sell the American public on the logic for striking Iran. Despite skepticism from some of his closest aides and advisers, Trump was convinced that now was a rare and fleeting moment for regime change. Getting rid of the government that came to power in the 1979 Iranian Revolution is something that Trump—and many others—would consider a crowning legacy achievement, one that eluded his predecessors. Announcing Khamenei’s death, Trump called him “one of the most evil people in History.”

But even with the supreme leader gone, true regime change has not been accomplished. Trump’s call with Cooper was a reminder of the high stakes and competing pressures that shaped the president’s decision to launch the war, which is premised on what Iran experts say is an optimistic assessment of the likelihood that the Islamic Republic itself can be brought to an end.

In the days leading up to the attacks, some of Trump’s most senior advisers, including Vice President Vance, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and the senior Pentagon official Elbridge Colby, expressed reservations about the operation. Caine in particular was unsure as to whether air strikes alone would be enough to undermine the regime, and he privately warned about how complicated any move against Iran would be, according to two U.S. officials who were among those who spoke with us, on the condition of anonymity, about Trump’s decision making and the debates within the administration.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the architect of his political comeback in 2024, did not offer a personal position on the wisdom of the strikes, according to a person familiar with the conversations. But in an effort to make sure the president was fully informed, she did present him with concerns about the unpredictable consequences of an attack. She also organized a conversation about the importance of following through on the promises he’d made during his presidential campaign about avoiding new foreign wars. Republican midterm strategists, many of whom gathered in Florida for meetings this weekend, have grown anxious about Trump’s foreign military adventures turning off voters who want their leaders to focus on the economy.

A visit by the Omani foreign minister with Vance yesterday was a last-ditch effort to avert strikes and give more time for negoti

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Loser.

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Without his tariffs, how will Trump pay for his wars?

Trump: “If it weren’t for the tremendous numbers being produced by Tariffs from other Countries, many of which, in the past, have ‘ripped off’ the United States at levels never seen before, I would stay at the $1 Trillion Dollar number (for Dept. of War) but, because of Tariffs, and the tremendous Income that they bring, amounts being generated, that would have been unthinkable in the past (especially just one year ago during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration, the Worst President in the History of our Country!), we are able to easily hit the $1.5 Trillion Dollar number while, at the same time, producing an unparalleled Military Force, and having the ability to, at the same time, pay down Debt, and likewise, pay a substantial Dividend to moderate income Patriots within our Country!” he added.

https://defensescoop.com/2026/01/07/trump-calls-for-1-5-trillion-defen
se-budget-2027/

Supreme Court strikes down tariffs

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/02/supreme-court-strikes-down-tariffs/


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

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Loser.

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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump said he would pay for his wars with tariffs, but he can't collect the tariffs, and yet he started another war immediately after his tariffs were declared unconstitutional. I wonder how Trump's government escapes from the consequences of insufficient income and, simultaneously, the expense of many wars?

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

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Loser.

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

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Loser.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

President Donald Trump and members of his administration repeatedly made the case for military strikes against Iran by arguing that the Middle Eastern country posed a serious threat to the United States.

Iran, they said, was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States.

But national security analysts and experts on Iran and its ruling regime say those claims are based on assumptions that are wrong or greatly exaggerated.

The assertion that Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon “is not true,” said Matthew Bunn, an arms control expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

How long before Iranian missiles can reach the U.S.?

Experts also have cast doubts on the administration’s claim that Iran was close to making ballistic missiles that could reach the United States. U.S. intelligence reports don’t back those assertions, according to Reuters.

Three sources familiar with the assessments told the news agency that Trump’s claims appear to be exaggerated.

Recent U.S. intelligence assessments suggest Iran was as far as 10 years from developing a missile capable of striking the United States.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/28/trump-iran-att
ack-justification/88920586007

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

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Loser.

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Trump’s regime change strategy for Iran is pure fantasy

Magical thinking won’t help Iranians overthrow their government.

Story by Jonah Shepp | Mar. 1, 2026

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-regime-change-strategy-
for-iran-is-pure-fantasy.html

When President Donald Trump introduced his new war in Iran on Saturday, he closed by offering the Iranian people a breathtakingly confident claim:

"To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations."

This invitation to revolution followed a list of more prosaic military objectives: The U.S. would “destroy [Iran’s] missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” “annihilate their navy,” neutralize its regional proxy forces, and “ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.” He also extolled “the strength and might of the United States armed forces,” boasting: “I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength or sophistication.” He has since repeated these claims, and though the opening airstrikes of the war killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and numerous other senior officials, the regime still appears intact. Trump has also repeated his calls for Iranians to rise up against that government. “The rest will be up to you, but we’ll be there to help,” he said in a video address on Sunday.

Taking Trump at his word (if that’s ever a good idea), the goal of “Operation Epic Fury” is to destroy the political and military infrastructure of the Islamic Republic, forcing a fundamental reform of the Iranian state. Ideally, this would create an opportunity for an Iranian popular uprising to overthrow the regime entirely, replacing it with a more liberal, western-oriented state that would align with U.S. interests in the Middle East. In Trump’s fantasy, Iran’s elite military forces, many of them fanatically loyal to the regime, will literally just “surrender to the people, if you think about it,” as he put it in a brief interview with the New York Times on Sunday evening.

But Trump on some level must know this is bullshit, and perhaps that is why he is also talking about a very different vision of post-Khamenei Iran. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” he told the Times. In other words: a regime that continues to repress and immiserate its own citizens, albeit maybe a little bit less, but is cowed into compliance with a more limited set of American demands. Given how fundamental animosity to the U.S. is to the core identity of the Islamic republic, this scenario seems fantastical as well.

As it did in Venezuela, the Trump administration would need to find a figure within the Iranian establishment with the legitimacy to take charge of the existing government who would also be willing and able to steer Iranian policy in a pro-American direction. Even if such a willing partner could be found, the structure of the Islamic republic would make it practically impossible for them to undermine the regime’s core principles. Trump told the Times he had “three very good choices” to lead Iran, but refused to say who they were or how he would ensure one of them ends up in power. Then he told ABC News that the initial attack on Iran’s leadership “was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates … It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead.”

Whoever is left alive, a more likely outcome is that Iran remains a repressive theocracy hostile to the U.S. and Israel but is so broken that it is no longer able to project power anywhere. Yet Iran’s power had already been severely degraded through economic sanctions, Israeli campaigns against Iranian regional proxy forces, and the joint American-Israeli bombing campa

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Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege

“This is an introduction of U.S. forces into hostilities. It absolutely triggers the 48-hour notice requirement.”

By Austin Campbell | March 1 2026, 1:58 p.m.

https://theintercept.com/2026/03/01/trump-iran-attack-war-powers-resol
ution-united-nations-charter-legal/

President Donald Trump’s order to launch a coordinated U.S.-Israeli strike against Iran ran afoul of international and domestic law, according to military and legal experts including the former legal chief at U.S. Central Command, which carried out the attacks.

“Not only does this violate international law in numerous respects, it clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Resolution,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, who previously served as chief of international law at U.S. Central Command.

The United Nations Charter generally restricts the use of force to cases of self-defense or with approval from the U.N. Security Council. The Constitution separately gives Congress the power to authorize offensive war.

The War Powers Resolution also requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing U.S. forces into hostilities and limits how long those forces can operate without congressional approval. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed members of Congress’s bipartisan “Gang of Eight” in calls Friday night ahead of the strikes, according to administration officials and news reports.

“It absolutely triggers the 48-hour notice requirement.”

Legal experts say advance briefings to the Gang of Eight do not necessarily satisfy the War Powers Resolution, which contemplates a formal written report to Congress as an institution, not just a small group of leaders.

“This is an introduction of U.S. forces into hostilities,” said VanLandingham, who now teaches national security law at Southwestern Law School. “It absolutely triggers the 48-hour notice requirement,” she said.

The fact American servicemembers died in the operation raises further legal concerns, she said, as Congress is intended to decide when American lives are placed at risk in offensive wars.

Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., called the operation “dangerous” and “illegal,” saying Trump launched the attack “without authorization from Congress.”

“Speaker Johnson must immediately reconvene the House so we can pass a War Powers Resolution to rein in this unauthorized use of our military and taxpayer dollars,” Balint said.

Democratic leaders had already been moving toward a vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution in the days before the strikes, though the measure was widely expected to fail amid scattered Democratic opposition and near-unified Republican resistance.

From a legal perspective, VanLandingham said the attacks, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, present fewer ambiguities than prior U.S. strikes on Iran, including Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025, which the U.S. said targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Over time, administrations of both parties have steadily expanded unilateral war powers, VanLandingham said, effectively redefining what counts as war in constitutional terms and expanding the circumstances in which presidents can use force without congressional approval. She pointed to air campaigns under Presidents Barack Obama in Libya and Donald Trump in Syria as examples of operations the executive branch treated as falling short of war requiring congressional authorization.

Questions of International Law

The death toll for Operation Epic Fury is mounting, both among civilians and combatants. A strike on a girls’ primary school resulted in nearly 100 reported civilian casualties, and U.S. Central Command said three U.S. service members were killed in action and five seriously wounded. Several others servicemembers sustained minor injuries, the command said, as combat operations continued across the region.

Video circulating on social media appeared to show large explos

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The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.



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The US/Israeli Bombing Of Iran: Means and Ways Without Ends
An Update
Phillips P. OBrien
Mar 02, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-usisraeli-bombing-of-iran-m
eans

. . .

If we use this rational Ends-Means-Ways model to breakdown what the USA is doing now, we could say that the USA has a clear End in mind (destroy the old regime and replace it with something new) and is relying on ranged weaponry mostly as its Means (airpower, long-range missiles, etc) which it is employing in particular Ways (a decapitation strategy of killing the old regime and weakening governmental institutions to such a degree that the Iranian government falls).

It is a wonderfully rational way of explaining national policy. The only problem is that it is a mirage. There are no rational Ends in action here beyond a desperate attempt for Donald Trump to get a political victory and at the same time keep his paymasters and political cronies (think MBS and Netanyahu) happy. This has far more to do with Trump desperately needing a win with the 2026 election approaching and trying to in his own mind cement himself as a forceful and strong leader (while undoubtedly making money) than it does with any rational gain for the United States. It was clear that the US was under no immediate security threat from Iran and the Iranians were going to significant lengths to make it sure that they had no desire to launch military operations.

In other words it was a war of choice, chosen by Donald Trump to meet some very personal needs.

And that understanding means that so much of the reporting which is based around there being a clear national goal here, is patently absurd. Because there is only a personal end for Trump, the ways and means cannot be analyzed in a traditional way. US service people and the Iranian people are merely tools being used by Trump to satisfy his own desires.

Remember, Trump made his disdain for US military personnel clear when he called those that died fighting for the USA in World War I “suckers” and “losers”. Here is gift link to that article.

It also explains why we have the president and White House constantly flailing around, changing their stated aims every few hours as they desperately hunt around for some end-state that they can sell to the American people as a great victory. Indeed, we seem to have a constant cycle of different Ends being wheeled out, some at almost the exactly same time, over the last few days.

Let us start from the beginning. When Trump made his original announcement, it was clear that he was calling on the Iranian people to rise up, promising them support, and calling on the old regime to surrender. Here are three quotes from his address which you can watch in full from a link in the primer I put together Saturday.

• “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand... When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”

• “Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny.11

• He also issued a direct threat to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “You must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity. Or in the alternative, face certain death.”

Then something happened. It might have been the lack of any uprising in Iran or the fact that he never thought at all about how he would achieve his victory once killing most of the Iranian leadership, but then Trump started backtracking and talking about many different ends, many of which would involve keeping elements of the current regime (the ones he threatened with “certain death” above).

In Axios he was quoted as saying the whole thing might end in a day or two. “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your n

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The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.




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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.




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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
64#1239564

In other stupid news: Three US fighter jets crashed in Kuwait on Monday due to an “apparent friendly fire incident,” the US military said in a statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/middleeast/us-kuwait-aircraft-crash-ira
n-intl-hnk

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.




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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
64#1239564

---

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump was paid to bomb Iran. But you don't care why. To quote you: "_____ Enter who gives a fuck emoji here."

The money behind the war against Iran

By Judd Legum | March 2, 2026

https://popular.info/p/the-money-behind-the-new-iran-war

In private calls over the last several weeks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly urged President Trump to attack Iran. Iran is a top regional rival of Saudi Arabia, and MBS had become concerned about Iran’s growing military capabilities.

The lobbying campaign achieved success on Saturday, when Trump announced he had begun “major combat operations in Iran.” Trump launched a war even though U.S. intelligence assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. In June 2025, Trump publicly declared that more limited strikes “completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability.”

MBS’s influence with Trump has grown as the Saudi government has invested billions in projects that personally enrich Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Despite the glaring conflicts-of-interest, Trump installed Kushner as a top negotiator with Iranian officials. Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff participated in a mediation session with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Thursday, billed as a last-ditch effort to avoid war.

The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest investor in Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. PIF invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners in 2021, even though the PIF committee that screens investments recommended rejecting Kushner’s proposal, citing “inexperience” and “excessive” fees. The committee’s recommendation was overruled by MBS, who heads PIF’s Board of Directors.

PIF pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment, or $25 million, annually. The Senate Finance Committee estimates that Kushner will be paid $137 million in management fees from PIF by August 2026. Further, in September 2025, PIF, Affinity Partners, and others jointly acquired Electronic Arts, the publisher of iconic video games like The Sims and Madden NFL, for $55 billion. The deal, which is the largest leveraged buyout in history, will likely be very lucrative for Kushner.

After raising billions for the Saudis and other foreign governments, Kushner dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest, pledging he would not be involved in Trump’s second term. In February 2024, Axios’ Dan Primack asked Kushner whether his business relationship with foreign governments would make it “very difficult… to do any sort of foreign policy work” moving forward. “I’m an investor now,” Kushner replied. “I served in government, and I think my track record is pretty impeccable. Now I’m a private investor.”

Yet, after Trump took office, Kushner resumed his central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. In an October 2025 interview on 60 Minutes, Kushner argued that financial conflicts made him and Witkoff more effective. “What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” Kushner said.

CNN reported that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE lobbied Trump to strike Iran. Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has significant financial ties to Kushner and Trump.

The UAE is another major backer of Affinity Partners, directly investing about $200 million with Kushner’s firm. Additional money came via Lunate, a supposedly private Abu Dhabi investment firm that is financed by government money and tied to the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds.

Witkoff is the co-founder of the crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) and retains

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Originally posted by second:

While Trump discussed a potential war with Iran in multiple calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he has spent little time justifying the war to the American people.

---

President Donald Trump pulled the United States into a war with Iran without making a compelling case for it to the public.

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but even regimes I disagreed with respected the American people enough, or felt some obligation, to at least lie to us in primetime,” Stewart said as he played footage of President George W. Bush delivering a televised address on Iraq.

Trump has ducked answering questions from the assembled press on camera. After he returned to the White House from Mar-a-Lago on Sunday evening, reporters shouted questions at him about Iran. Yet Trump ignored them and stopped to admire some new statues in the White House Rose Garden.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-trump-iran_n_69a65db7e4b076
ac5d6362fb

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

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War Is Expensive

The modern American way of war is extremely capital-intensive, deploying massive amounts of equipment while putting relatively few people in harm’s way. This has been true ever since World War II, when FDR rejected calls to recruit an immense army and chose instead to fight what Phillips O’Brien calls a “machine-intensive, infantry light war.” That’s a rational approach, given how rich our nation is and how averse it is to casualties.

But the U.S. military’s reliance on munitions rather than manpower can create two problems.

The first problem is that modern munitions, which are highly sophisticated and complex, can’t be produced on short notice, and Trump has already used up many missiles and other weapons in his various military ventures. Yesterday he told reporters that the Iran campaign might go on for four to five weeks or even longer. But many reports suggest that the United States doesn’t have enough left in its weapons stockpiles to continue the current pace of action for more than a few days without dangerously weakening the military’s ability to counter other threats, such as a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.

In a Truth Social post last night Trump insisted that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of “medium and upper medium grade” weapons, which is in effect confirmation that stocks of high-grade weapons are on the verge of exhaustion.

The other problem is that U.S.-style war is incredibly expensive — so much so that the cost becomes a serious concern even for a nation as wealthy as America.

I support the U.S. government spending whatever it must to keep the nation secure. But the Trump administration is hardly bothering to pretend that it has anything to do with national security.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/war-is-expensive-for-the-little-peo
ple

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

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White House says it's "deeply unserious" to suggest Trump comments on judges may lead to threats. Here's what judges say.

By Bill Whitaker, Aliza Chasan, Heather Abbott, Paulina Smolinski

March 1, 2026 / 7:00 PM EST

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/threats-federal-judges-trump-60-minutes/

Federal District Judge John Coughenour was unprepared for what happened after he temporarily blocked President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order last year and called it "blatantly unconstitutional." He said he faced "dozens if not hundreds" of death threats.

"I've been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year," Coughenour said. "And I don't think it's because we're making bad decisions. I think it's because there are people who think they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary."

President Trump has frequently called judges lunatics, crooked, or Trump-hating. Often a wave of threats against those judges follows. Last year, 400 federal judges were the targets of serious threats – a 78% jump compared to four years ago, according to the U.S. Marshals.

The White House said in a statement to CBS News it was "deeply unserious" to suggest the administration's comments about judges could lead to threats, noting that as a "survivor of two assassination attempts, no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump." The White House also accused the judiciary of "brazen defiance" with its "unlawful rulings" that had "repeatedly obstructed the election choices of the American people."

But judges are concerned about the harsh political rhetoric and what it could mean for their safety, and the independence of the judiciary. 60 Minutes spoke with 26 federal judges – nine of them Democratic appointees and 17 of them appointed by Republicans. Many said they're worried about democracy.

"The independence of the judiciary is extraordinarily important," Coughenour said. "And it's too important to allow it to be sacrificed and not speak up and say something."

Why Trump is attacking judges

Mr. Trump lashed out at Supreme Court justices – including two conservatives justices he nominated to the bench – after the court struck down his sweeping global tariffs. He called the justices "fools and lapdogs" and accused them of being disloyal to the Constitution.

They were the latest in a long line of judges the president has denounced when they've ruled against him.

Mr. Trump said at a Michigan rally last year he would not allow "a handful of communist radical left judges" to obstruct the enforcement of laws.

Retired Federal Judge John Jones, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said that he believes Mr. Trump is trying to delegitimize the federal courts when he insults judges. Jones said this is "a presidency sort of on steroids," with a "very dormant," U.S. Congress and a "president who means to really say what the law is."

"Civics taught me that Congress makes the law, and the president faithfully executes the laws of the country. We've turned that on its head right now," he said.

Jones said the Trump administration is testing the bounds of presidential power. The administration is facing more than 600 lawsuits contesting its agenda. Judges are caught in the crossfire.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche both declined a 60 Minutes request for an interview. In a recent speech, Blanche blamed judges for blocking the president's agenda.

"We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals because of local judges just not following the law, full stop," Blanche said during a Federalist Society event last year. "There's a group of judges that are repeat players.

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'God’s divine plan': US soldiers say commanders told them they're fighting for 'Armageddon'

By Sarah K. Burris
March 03, 2026 | 09:24AM ET

https://www.alternet.org/iran-holy-war/

People are growing increasingly uneasy as President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran are looking more and more like they could be part of a right-wing religious fanatic's fantasy for the apocalyptic.

The Cradle Media's Jonathan Larsen wrote that American soldiers were given a pep-talk about the war in Iran. A U.S. combat-unit commander told them that the attack is part of “God’s divine plan." He said that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” for the specific purpose to ignite Armageddon.

“U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for 'Armageddon,' Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military," Larsen wrote.

The comments come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; however, it is only one of "110 lawsuits brought in 48 hours from over 40 units across 30 installations," the report said. The complaints came from Christians, a Muslim and a Jewish soldier.

The Christian nationalist theory that Israel has a God-given right to much of the Middle East is one espoused by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. In a speech at a Christian Zionist church in Jerusalem in December, Huckabee conveyed his " purpose is to convert Israeli Jews to belief in Jesus in order to bring about the End Times," explained Religion Dispatches.

The concept is bad for anyone seeking peace in the Middle East, one 2024 report by Forward explained.

The sect of Christianity that Huckabee believes in holds that if they are able to remove Palestinians from the Holy Land, then Jesus Christ will return. He believes in “dispensational premillennialism,” which Forward describes as a belief that “the Rapture will come,” and deliver all evangelicals to Heaven as Israel is invaded by the armies of the world. It will cause Armageddon and prompt the return of Jesus Christ.

The language is making some fearful that the war waged wasn't really about Iran never obtaining nuclear weapons, which Trump claimed he destroyed last summer. It's a holy war, desperate to force Armageddon.

"Maybe it’s a bad idea to put people in charge of government who are eager for the rapture," lawyer and self-described nerd John Collins commented.

"Love when I'm in the military and my boss is, like, 'Time for Armageddon!'" commented author and journalist Emily St. James.

Writer and former Cato Institute policy analyst Will Wilkinson wrote, "Personally, I don’t think we should bring about Armageddon."

"One thing about the U.S., we definitely do not have insane religious zealots in charge," said Heidi N. Moore, previously of the Wall Street Journal business side.

Writer and elections lawyer at the Cato Institute, Walter Olson, quoted a line from the 1965 song "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" with lyrics by Tom Lehrer: "And this is what he said on/ His way to Armageddon.”

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump

---

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

A Very Stable War

J. D. Vance says this Middle East entanglement can’t be dumb—because Trump is smart.

By Jonathan Chait | March 3, 2026, 10:42 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/trump-iran-rubio-vance-war/6
86219/

After the president of peace, a man who felt deserving of the Nobel Prize, authorized a massive aerial bombardment of Iran last summer, the task of explaining away the contradiction fell to J. D. Vance.

“I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East,” the vice president told NBC—a stark understatement, given that Vance had, up to this point, unsparingly denounced Middle East wars and promised that the Trump administration would avoid them. “I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national-security objectives.”

The difference was simple: Other wars were bad because they were led by dumb presidents, but a Trump war would be good because Donald Trump is smart.

Yet after the administration’s second wave of air attacks on Iran, the president’s strategy seems more sundown than Sun Tzu.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 30 that Trump was planning a major military campaign, but was still “debating whether the main aim is to go after Iran’s nuclear program, hit its ballistic missile arsenal, bring about the collapse of the government—or some combination of the three.” Generally speaking, military strategists tend to first settle upon their objective, and then devise a tactic to achieve it. The Trump method of first deciding on the tactic, and only getting around to what he wants to accomplish afterward, is unorthodox.

A lack of clarity has continued to define the operation. In his videotaped message announcing the latest attacks, Trump repeated his boast that the previous round of air strikes, in June, had “obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.” But if the obliteration lasted only half a year, what value is there in re-obliterating it? Will biannual bombing campaigns be employed until Iran submits to American demands?

Because Trump appears not to know what he wants from his military strikes, he is also unable to make clear what he is demanding of Iran to stop them. At times, he faults Tehran for refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions. “They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it,” he complained in his taped address. This tracked with the rationale that Vance offered last summer: “Simple principle: Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Yet at other times, Trump has floated more extensive ambitions. “Our objectives are clear,” he announced at the White House yesterday, ticking off a four-point list: eliminating Iran’s conventional missiles, destroying its navy, and ending its ability to fund terrorism, along with the original nuclear-nonproliferation goal.

The simple principle is now four simple principles. And Trump’s complaint that the mullahs were getting too “cute” in the negotiations has been mixed with grievances going back decades. On Sunday he told my colleague Michael Scherer, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” The next day, he described Iran’s government as “sick and sinister,” language implying a desire for regime change.

Despite planning the war with the keen brainpower that Vance finds so impressive, Trump has conceded his apparent failure to anticipate some of its more predictable cons

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Keep my quotes out of your dumb bullshit.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump's world is dead because he has too few Patriot missiles. When he runs out, he will declare victory and leave. The dependably gullible Trumptards will believe he won because their Führer said so:

The One Variable that Could Decide the War

The U.S. and Israel are racing to destroy Iran’s missile supplies before their own air defenses are exhausted.

By Missy Ryan and Nancy A. Youssef | March 3, 2026, 3:26 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/03/war-stockpiles/6
86212/

When General Mark Milley outlined the U.S. Army’s future priorities in 2017, he said that new long-range missiles, improved tanks, and better-armed, better-trained infantrymen were vital to America’s domination of the next major conflict. But those plans, the then–Army chief and soon-to-be chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, came with an important caveat: The upgrades would be useless unless the military came up with a more effective air defense. “None of the above,” he noted, “will matter if you are dead.”

The Trump administration is finding out just how much air defense matters in its war with Iran. The open-ended campaign poses the biggest-ever test of America’s 21st-century sky shield, a network of weapons to protect against incoming missiles, drones, and ordnance.

So far, that system has mostly held up against the barrage of drones and missiles that Iran has fired at U.S., Arab, and Israeli targets since Saturday morning. But that won’t remain true indefinitely. U.S. military leaders may soon be forced to choose between protecting troops and civilians near Iran and maintaining U.S. combat readiness against larger, more consistent threats from Russia and China. Even though President Trump and other officials have suggested that the war could last at least four or five weeks, and maybe longer, the conflict in some ways has already become a race to weaken Iran’s missile-launch capacity before Tehran can deplete Washington’s finite air-defense supplies.

Trump appears aware of the threat. In a late-night post on Truth Social yesterday, he said that the U.S. munitions stockpiles “have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better” but added, “At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be.” He went on to blame Joe Biden for not replacing weapons provided to Ukraine.

Tom Karako, who heads the missile-defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told us that the strain on U.S. weapons stockpiles could become so severe that the Trump administration would be forced to dispatch troops to Iran—a move that Trump has not ruled out—to neutralize underground missile-launch sites and hunt down Soviet-designed Scud missiles. “We can’t afford to keep doing this,” Karako said. “That’s why there’s such an urgency to finish the job.”

Before Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and other officials had expressed concerns about the supply of interceptor missiles and about the threat to troops of not having enough, U.S. officials told us. Even with plentiful supplies, U.S. air-defense systems are not impregnable. Six American service members have been killed since the war began, all of them in an Iranian retaliatory strike on a U.S. facility in Kuwait. Iranian attacks also killed civilians in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, hit a British base in Cyprus, grounded much of the region’s airline travel, and brought maritime commerce to a near halt in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The State Department closed embassies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia after a drone att

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Reality Sets In on Trump’s New War

Surprise! War in the middle of the world’s most important oil fields has consequences

Bear in mind that this isn’t even a war of choice; it’s a war of whim, marked by a near-total lack of planning.

Oil prices are up around $15 per barrel since mid-February. “Why has oil not hit $100 a barrel?”, asks the Financial Times. The best answer seems to be that even now traders are betting that the Strait of Hormuz won’t stay closed for more than a few days. I hope I’m wrong, but I expect the Strait to remain closed for weeks despite Trump’s assurances.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/reality-sets-in-on-trumps-new-war

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump's world is dead because he has too few Patriot missiles. When he runs out, he will declare victory and leave. The dependably gullible Trumptards will believe he won because their Führer said so:

The One Variable that Could Decide the War

The U.S. and Israel are racing to destroy Iran’s missile supplies before their own air defenses are exhausted.

By Missy Ryan and Nancy A. Youssef | March 3, 2026, 3:26 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/03/war-stockpiles/6
86212/

---

None of this article is even true.

Written by a know nothing Muslim who writes hundreds of articles that cease to age well a week after she writes them, and some dumb white college "educated" Karen for the most Anti-American, TDS riddled rag out of the UK.

They were probably finger-blasting each other while they came up with this slop, and shared a cake and had a cry over their loveless cat-filled lives when they were finished.

Get fucked, stupid.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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The Real Reason Trump Went to War

Trump has called for sending American forces to Iran since 1980. He finally has, and must own the consequences.

By Yair Rosenberg | March 4, 2026, 9:37 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/03/trump-iran-war-justi
fication/686229/

Why did President Trump decide to attack Iran? It depends on what day of the week you ask. On Saturday, the president claimed in a recorded address that he acted because Iran’s rulers refused to “renounce their nuclear ambitions” and were developing long-range missiles that threatened America and its allies. On Sunday, a senior administration official told reporters that Iran and its proxies “posed an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and allies in the region.” On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Trump acted preemptively to protect U.S. forces in advance of an unavoidable Israeli attack on Iran that would inevitably lead Iran to retaliate against America. The next day, Trump rejected this framing, telling reporters that “if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand” because he believed Iran was “going to attack if we didn’t do it.”

All of these pretexts present problems. Why would America need to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities if, as Trump previously claimed, they’d been “completely and totally obliterated” eight months ago in Operation Midnight Hammer? In 2025, the Defense Intelligence Agency assessed that Iran’s missile program was a decade away from being able to target American shores. That hardly sounds like an imminent threat. As for the Israel excuse, Trump is the senior partner in the U.S.-Israel relationship, and he sets the terms. When he wanted Israel to end its June 2025 war with Iran, he publicly forced the country to recall its fighter jets, even without avenging a closing strike that had left four Israelis dead.

Trump could have dissuaded the Israelis once again. Instead, the president ordered the largest U.S. air-power buildup in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq. Then, according to The New York Times, his CIA gave Israel the intelligence to locate and kill Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. (Axios reported instead that the intelligence was Israel’s and the CIA confirmed it.) “He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems,” Trump crowed on Truth Social, announcing Khamenei’s death. The two countries reportedly had planned the ensuing assault for weeks.

The shifting explanations for Trump’s war and the alleged imminent threat that prompted it suggest poor planning and internal confusion about the president’s motives. They are also a smoke screen. Fundamentally, a war ordered by the most powerful man in the world, commanding the most advanced military in the world, is the responsibility of the man who ordered it. Trump is a two-term president with agency, and he has long telegraphed and demonstrated his eagerness to use military force around the world—and in particular, in Iran.

In 1980, NBC interviewed a young Trump about the ongoing Iran hostage crisis. He did not hold back. “That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages, to my way of thinking, is a horror, and I don’t think they’d do it with other countries,” he said. When the interviewer asked if that meant “you’re advocating that we should have gone in there with troops,” Trump replied, “I absolutely feel that, yes,” adding that had America done so, “I think right now we’d be an oil-rich nation.” (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that he had dreamed of being able to “smite the terror regime” in Iran for 40 years; it turns out Trump had him beat.)

In 1987, the Times reported that Trump declared in a New Hampshire speech that “the United States should attack Iran and seize some of its oil fields in retaliation for what he called Iran’s bullying of America.” In 1988, Trump told The Guardian that “I’d be harsh on Iran. They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools.”

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Oh... I'm sure some dumb cocksucker at the Atlantic knows the REAL reason...



You're so fucking stupid, Second.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Word on the street is that you might see Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court soon.



Boy... Democrats are just going to lose everything forever.

Every one of your nightmares are coming true.

Rest in Piss, idiots.






In the meantime, fuckwits...

Sen. Cruz Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Cement Supreme Court at Nine Justices

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-introduce
s-constitutional-amendment-to-cement-supreme-court-at-nine-justices


Yeah. Let's do that.

No court packing for the cheating Democratic Party on the extremely unlikely chance any living human being on the planet lives long enough to ever seen them in power again.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Trump’s Iran gamble carries a political cost

The decision to go to war was a dangerous wager that force could achieve what diplomacy couldn’t — and it’ll likely cause the president trouble come November.

By Ivo Daalder | March 5, 2026 4:00 am CET

Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center.

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-iran-gamble-carries-a-pol
itical-cost-weinberger-doctrine/

Last December, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out the current administration’s National Defense Strategy, arguing that President Donald Trump was the true heir to former President Ronald Reagan’s strategy of peace through strength.

A key part of that strategy, Hegseth maintained, was the Weinberger Doctrine, which determined the principles for when and how the U.S. was to use military force. He then claimed that last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran had been “a textbook example” of that doctrine, its strikes “obliterating the Iranian nuclear program.”

But what about the current war against Iran? Does Operation Epic Fury also hold up against Weinberger’s tenets? Hegseth would surely have a tough time making that case — and for Trump, this could finally mean trouble.

In a November 1984 speech, then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger outlined six principles for military engagement that were, in many ways, drawn from lessons learned during that year’s disastrous Lebanon expedition and the failures in Vietnam a decade before. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s Iran war fails to meet virtually every single one.

First, Weinberger said, force should only be used if a vital national interest is at stake. And while Iran may be governed by an odious regime that has accumulated a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles, pursued a nuclear program and exported terrorism overseas, the U.S. has lived with this very regime for almost half a century.

Moreover, Tehran is weaker today than it has been in decades. Its economy is in shambles, its proxies have been decimated by Israel, and its allies in Syria have been ousted. The list doesn’t end there: Its nuclear program was buried deep underground after last year’s Israeli-U.S. bombing campaign; its missile stockpiles are dwindling; its production facilities are damaged; its air force can’t fly; its army can’t move beyond its borders; and its navy is little more than a coastal fleet.

So while the end of the Iranian regime would be a good thing, it’s hard to make the case that, weakened as it was by war, sanctions and mismanagement, Tehran posed enough of a threat to vital U.S. national interests to justify a preventive war.

Next come Weinberger’s second, third and fourth principles — that before deciding to use force, the U.S. needs to have clearly defined objectives, be wholeheartedly committed to achieving them, and deploy sufficient force to make sure it does. In the case of Iran, there are problems with all three.

For one, Trump and his aides have cited many different objectives: deposing the regime, ensuring Iran never has nuclear weapons, destroying the country’s missile capabilities, vanquishing its navy, ending support for its proxies and terrorism, exacting revenge for past attacks killing Americans, as well as ensuring Iran can never project force beyond its borders.

All these constitute a tall order, to say the least. Regime change, for one, is hard to achieve from the air, and yet it seems Washington has no intention of deploying ground troops to depose Iran’s regime, maintain order and assist a new one in taking over. And though airpower can do a lot to degrade and destroy the country’s nuclear program, missile capability and military in the short run, those are a means to an end.

What political objective would be served by effectively disarming Iran? What would constitute success for the U.S.? And how much force would be needed to achieve it? On this, the administration and the president have been silent.

Finally, we have Weinberger’s last two principles, which are the most

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

In the meantime, fuckwits...

Sen. Cruz Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Cement Supreme Court at Nine Justices

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-introduce
s-constitutional-amendment-to-cement-supreme-court-at-nine-justices


Yeah. Let's do that.

No court packing for the cheating Democratic Party on the extremely unlikely chance any living human being on the planet lives long enough to ever seen them in power again.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

During the Civil War, the slaveowners on the Supreme Court blocked Lincoln. What did he do about them? Execute them? That would have been quicker. Instead, something Lincoln thought better. But remember, Lincoln's charity toward evil got him killed in the end:

• Opposition: Chief Justice Roger Taney (a Southerner) and other Southern justices challenged Lincoln's wartime powers, favoring states' rights and slavery.

• The Prize Cases (1863): In a 5-4 vote, the Court upheld the legality of Lincoln's blockade of Southern ports, with the majority including some justices who had previously opposed him, as well as new appointees.

• Court Packing: To secure a friendly court, Lincoln appointed three new justices and, with Congress, expanded the Court, shifting the balance of power away from the Southern bloc.

• Ignoring Rulings: When the Court challenged him, such as in Merryman, Lincoln often ignored the rulings to maintain federal authority, believing them to be Obstructing his duty to save the Union.

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

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Trump Erupts in Wild Panic as Texas Senate Race Rattles GOP

Texas Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton both fell short of 50 percent. They’re advancing to a runoff. Trump exploded on Truth Social over this. He said the GOP primary “MUST STOP NOW” — all caps, you know, when he’s angry he uses all caps. He added that Republicans have to totally focus on beating Democrat Talarico.

Then Trump said: “I will be making my endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!...We must win in November!”

Clearly, Trump sees this primary as a threat to GOP chances of holding the seat. Reports suggest Trump will endorse Cornyn even though Paxton is the MAGA die-hard and has the support of Steve Bannon.

Here you have Trump essentially saying, I’m going to pick the nominee and the other candidate’s going to drop out before we even get to a runoff.

It is completely Trump’s party. He’s dictating the terms, he’s dictating the candidates, and he’s dictating the message. And frankly, that’s all toxic for Republicans and to Democrats’ benefit.

More at https://newrepublic.com/article/207399/transcript-trump-erupts-wild-pa
nic-tex-senate-race-rattles-gop

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

In the meantime, fuckwits...

Sen. Cruz Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Cement Supreme Court at Nine Justices

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-introduce
s-constitutional-amendment-to-cement-supreme-court-at-nine-justices


Yeah. Let's do that.

No court packing for the cheating Democratic Party on the extremely unlikely chance any living human being on the planet lives long enough to ever seen them in power again.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

During the Civil War, the slaveowners on the Supreme Court blocked Lincoln. What did he do about them? Execute them? That would have been quicker. Instead, something Lincoln thought better. But remember, Lincoln's charity toward evil got him killed in the end:

• Opposition: Chief Justice Roger Taney (a Southerner) and other Southern justices challenged Lincoln's wartime powers, favoring states' rights and slavery.

• The Prize Cases (1863): In a 5-4 vote, the Court upheld the legality of Lincoln's blockade of Southern ports, with the majority including some justices who had previously opposed him, as well as new appointees.

• Court Packing: To secure a friendly court, Lincoln appointed three new justices and, with Congress, expanded the Court, shifting the balance of power away from the Southern bloc.

• Ignoring Rulings: When the Court challenged him, such as in Merryman, Lincoln often ignored the rulings to maintain federal authority, believing them to be Obstructing his duty to save the Union.

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

---

Democrats love to murder their opponents. You've tried and failed to kill Trump 6 times.

Keep being evil, loser.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Democrats love to murder their opponents. You've tried and failed to kill Trump 6 times.

Keep being evil, loser.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

If I wanted Trump dead, he'd be dead, but so long as he lives, he will kill the Republican Party's reputation just like Herbert Hoover killed their reputation. So you think it wrong to kill slave-owners? Wrong to kill Germans in WWI and WWII? Wrong to kill Japanese in WWII? Wrong to kill Mexicans in Texas' War of Independence? Wrong to kill the British in the US War of Independence? Wrong to kill Trumptards? It is never wrong to kill evil assholes, even if they are civilians, 6ixStringJoker.

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

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Thanks to Trump, there is a Dangerous Munitions Mismatch Between America and Iran

By Brynn Tannehill | March 4, 2026

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/us-iran-war-air-strikes/6862
28/

The American air campaign against Iran would seem to be a tactical and an operational success. The United States has struck 1,700 targets in Iran and apparently suffered only six fatalities. The Iranian leadership has been disrupted and dozens of senior figures killed, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But a price must be paid for these short-term successes, and it makes the bigger, strategic picture far less clear. The United States, Israel, and their Gulf allies are using up scarce and costly munitions at an astounding rate. These losses can’t be replenished nearly quickly enough to avoid possible global repercussions, as far more formidable adversaries than Iran—Russia and China—assess the war-fighting capacity that America holds in reserve. If they conclude that the West has burned through too many interceptors to defend itself, Russia might pursue aggressive action against NATO, or China could move against Taiwan.

Two kinds of missiles are in hot demand on the battlefield. Interceptors, such as Patriot missiles, are designed to shoot down other missiles and drones. Offensive weapons, such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, are meant to destroy targets on the ground. Both are in short supply, but the situation with interceptors is particularly dire.

The American interceptors in greatest demand are Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles, which are best for defense against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, and Patriots, which are somewhat less expensive and more numerous than THAADs. Last summer, during the 12-day war, the U.S. expended roughly a quarter of its THAAD missiles in defending Israel from the Iranian barrage. Each THAAD missile costs more than $12.8 million, and American defense contractors produce only 96 a year. The Trump administration has allocated funds to increase their production to 400 a year, but this could take up to seven years. That the U.S. will use up in just the next few weeks more than a third of the THAADs that it has stockpiled over the past year is entirely imaginable.

The situation with Patriots is somewhat similar. In 2023, the United States was making approximately 370 Patriot missiles a year. Production of these fell short of demand for many years, and then the demand spiked with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. ramped up manufacturing: Approximately 500 Patriots were produced in 2024, and roughly 650 a year are expected by 2027. Each missile costs approximately $5 million. But even with the increase in production, according to The Guardian, the United States estimated last year that it had only 25 percent of the Patriots that the Pentagon’s planning required.

Iranian missiles and drones, by contrast, are cheaper and quite numerous. Israeli sources estimate that Iran began the current conflict with approximately 2,500 ballistic missiles on hand and may be producing “hundreds” more each month, with a goal of increasing the production rate to something close to 1,000. The New York Times estimates output at “dozens” a month, but even this lower-end estimate outstrips current U.S. THAAD production by a significant margin. By one expert’s estimate, each Iranian ballistic missile costs about $1 million to $2 million to produce. Consider that in many cases, two or three Patriots are needed to down a single one of them.

Together with Russia, meanwhile, Iran has been producing Shahed-136 so-called suicide drones at a rate of about 5,000 to 6,000 a month, mostly for Russia’s use in Ukraine, at a cost as low as $50,000 a copy. These are the majority of the munitions that Iran has launched against the United States and its allies in recent days. They serve to saturate air defenses and drain supplies of interceptor munitions.

Thus, the U.S. is expending scarce resources to destroy targets that cost less and take l

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Trump’s White House ballroom is too big, architect says, as 2nd panel prepares to vote on it

By Darlene Superville | 7:06 PM CST, March 4, 2026

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ballroom-white-house-east-wing-66753c
d005193ac190e3702bd7353c0b

The project is 90,000 square feet (8,361-square-meter). At nearly twice the size of the main White House itself, which is 55,000 square feet (5,110 square meters), critics have argued the addition would overwhelm the mansion and throw off the symmetry of the complex.

Parker said that the ballroom is far larger than needed for the 1,000 guests Trump has said it would accommodate. The industry standard for a ballroom allots 15 square feet (1.4 square meters) per person, Parker said. By that measure, Trump’s ballroom could be smaller — or no bigger than 15,000 square feet (1,394 square meters).

The proposal includes a 4,000-square-foot (372 square meters), south-facing porch and staircase. Parker said these are unnecessary since they don’t provide guests with direct access to the interior of the building.

The proposed portico is significantly larger than the portico on the south side of the White House and the south side of the Treasury Department building nearby.

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by second:

Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Democrats love to murder their opponents. You've tried and failed to kill Trump 6 times.

Keep being evil, loser.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

If I wanted Trump dead, he'd be dead, but so long as he lives, he will kill the Republican Party's reputation just like Herbert Hoover killed their reputation. So you think it wrong to kill slave-owners? Wrong to kill Germans in WWI and WWII? Wrong to kill Japanese in WWII? Wrong to kill Mexicans in Texas' War of Independence? Wrong to kill the British in the US War of Independence? Wrong to kill Trumptards? It is never wrong to kill evil assholes, even if they are civilians, 6ixStringJoker.

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

---

You do want him dead, pussy. You've said so many, many, many times before.

Archived.

https://archive.ph/eUf53



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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You do want him dead, pussy. You've said so many, many, many times before.

Archived.

https://archive.ph/eUf53



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Did it cross your mind that Trumptards are mentally ill? All of them? It probably wouldn't because Trumptards are repulsed by anybody who isn't a Trumptard, so they don't really know anybody who isn't a Trumptard. Trumptards see real people at a distance, watching them but not comprehending them. On the flip side, I am around Trumptards all the time. Trump and I know how you think, how to manipulate a Trumptard. Keep on doing what Trumptards do, 6ixStringJoker, if it calms you, makes you feel in control. Doing it is slightly less mentally ill than you smoking cigarettes and watching porn all day.

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

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Renewable Energy and National Security

The wind and the sun don’t need to transit the Strait of Hormuz

Paul Krugman

Mar 06, 2026

Donald Trump’s attack on Iran will have many unintended and unforeseen consequences. One consequence even I wasn’t thinking about, but which is already clear after less than a week, is that Trump has made a strong new case for renewable energy.

The usual argument for promoting solar and wind power is that relying on renewable energy avoids the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. This environmental damage includes, but isn’t limited to, climate change. In addition, air pollution imposes shockingly large direct and immediate costs by harming our health and reducing our life expectancy.

But now we know that there is another reason for nations to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels: security. In a dangerous world, it’s infinitely safer to rely on the sun and the wind than to depend on fossil fuels that must be transported long distances, from nations that are untrustworthy, often exploitative and located in regions that frequently devolve into war zones.

The current situation in the Middle East is essentially the worst-case scenario for world energy supplies. Normally around 20 percent of the world’s oil supply transits through the Strait of Hormuz. It’s also a crucial route for shipment of liquefied natural gas and fertilizer. That passage is now effectively closed and there are no good alternatives.

Donald Trump may say that he will reopen the strait. But short of regime change in Iran, it’s very hard to see how he can.Oil tankers are extremely vulnerable targets while drones, anti-ship missiles and mines are cheap. Moreover, the Iranian regime surely still has thousands of them in stock, in readiness for an attack just like this.

Ironically, the U.S. military, which has been using extremely expensive Patriot missiles — which are in limited supply — to shoot down Iranian drones, is now reportedly in negotiations to buy much cheaper drone interceptors and receive training in their use from … Ukraine, which has four years of experience in meeting such threats. But Ukrainian hardware and expertise will take time to arrive. In the meantime oil industry experts predict that the squeeze on oil supplies will become much more severe if the Strait isn’t opened within a few days.

More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/renewable-energy-and-national-secur
ity

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

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At the basis of fascism’s appeal for its followers, Camus argues, is an aggrieved sense of entitlement. The far right’s recruits feel cheated by the world, with progressive causes favouring “others” (minorities, liberals, Jews, Muslims, etc.) at their expense.

https://theconversation.com/far-right-gangster-morality-and-the-search
-for-meaning-why-you-should-read-camus-275433

Continuing . . .

In his 1956 novel The Fall, Camus dramatises how people, through such cynicism and despair, can come to embrace the most inhumane perspectives. This novel, Camus’ darkest, is the monologue of a high-flying lawyer who comes, one day, to realise that all his professed moral ideals were a sham, after he failed to do anything to save a young woman who suicides on the Seine.

“Jean-Baptiste Clamence” instead embraces the view that there can be no genuine goodness or innocence in the world. In a war of all against all, the thing is to command the high ground to denounce others, before they can turn on you.

The only values in this “fallen” worldview are strength, cunning and the will to power. The step into political fascism only requires identification with a “strong leader” who emerges in times of social unrest and who promises to redress followers’ grievances, by singling out “others” to blame and mercilessly weeding them out.

The only way to prevent the far right’s resurgence, Camus counselled in the 1950s, was for democracies to ensure all their citizens felt existentially secure and that basic levels of justice prevailed. Only by sustaining balanced societies can we prevent fascism’s darkly cynical worldview from periodically taking popular hold.

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You do want him dead, pussy. You've said so many, many, many times before.

Archived.

https://archive.ph/eUf53



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Did it cross your mind that Trumptards are mentally ill? All of them?

---

Why would I be thinking about that right now?

The only mentally ill people we see on TV in the streets since 2020 are people who vote Democrat. The last 8 school & church shootings were done by trannies.

I've got a very, very, very long archived post history of you handing out death threats and your desire to see everyone you don't like die.

Shut the fuck up, retard.

Posts like these and behavior like this is exactly why the Democratic Party is dead. Forever.

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

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Where's My Golden Age? Trump promised we were already living in it.

The State of the Union seems like a long time ago

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by second:
Where's My Golden Age? Trump promised we were already living in it.

---

It takes a while to unravel all of YOUR parties' fuck ups, along with their NeoCon cohorts.

We'll get there.

You just keep cheerleading for the downfall of America in the meantime and making Americans hate you and your party even more though.

Quote:

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The State of the Union seems like a long time ago

---

Of course it does, to brainless, dopamine addicted drones lacking any semblance of patience or foresight.

SOTU was only 10 days ago, stupid. You're already 200 TDS articles past that now, and more than half of them have already been proven to be nothing but whining, Anti-American fake bullshit from your Leftist Elites that hate America and Americans.





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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Of course it does, to brainless, dopamine addicted drones lacking any semblance of patience or foresight.

SOTU was only 10 days ago, stupid. You're already 200 TDS articles past that now, and more than half of them have already been proven to be nothing but whining, Anti-American fake bullshit from your Leftist Elites that hate America and Americans.



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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Trump’s first year back in the White House closed with the U.S. national debt roughly $2.25 trillion higher than when he retook the oath of office, showing how fast Washington’s red ink is piling up even amid DOGE hype and promises to pay it down. Over the calendar year 2025, the growth in the national debt was even higher, some $2.29 trillion.
https://fortune.com/2026/01/20/how-much-national-debt-grew-trump-first
-year-back-in-office-president/

Why would the national debt increase?

1. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will cost $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years, and more than $4 trillion when accounting for additional interest owed on the national debt.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-does-the-one-big-beautiful
-bill-cost/

2. June 2025: U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed the first-ever $1 trillion defense budget
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2025-06/news/trump-proposes-trillion-d
ollar-defense-budget

3. Jan. 7, 2026, President Donald Trump announced: I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars
https://warontherocks.com/2026/03/why-a-1-5-trillion-defense-budget-re
quest-might-slow-the-pentagons-reform-efforts/

4. Recent reductions in IRS staff, particularly the loss of over 30% of auditors in early 2025, are projected to decrease federal revenue by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. These cuts specifically impact the enforcement, auditing, and collection of unpaid taxes from high-earners and corporations, widening the tax gap.
https://www.google.com/search?q=did+the+reduction+in+staff+at+the+IRS+
decrease+the+revenue

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:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Of course it does, to brainless, dopamine addicted drones lacking any semblance of patience or foresight.

SOTU was only 10 days ago, stupid. You're already 200 TDS articles past that now, and more than half of them have already been proven to be nothing but whining, Anti-American fake bullshit from your Leftist Elites that hate America and Americans.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

Trump’s

---

Shut the fuck up.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up.



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Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

The Rot Is Real

By Phillips P. OBrien | Mar 06, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-rot-is-real-and-there-is-mo
re

We can already see some early signs of rot in US military and diplomatic capabilities, which have been highlighted by the decision to bomb Iran.

Here is a gift link to the piece. https://tinyurl.com/3js3eh7w

The standard push back was that mistakes are normal in war and that the US committing some of them at the start of the bombing means little. It is, of course, a point worth engaging with, though it completely avoids half the article, which is about the diplomatic rot that the US has brought upon itself.

That being said, what we are seeing in just the first few days of the US bombing of Iran is no normal fog of war. It is unprecedented, I would argue. We have seen arguably the worst friendly fire incident in modern US history, the worst articulations of war aims, the worst economic/industrial preparations for a war, and, tragically, what might very well be among the worst war crimes in US history. To have just one of these things at the start of the war would be a failure, but to have all of them…

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

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Quote:

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Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

The Rot Is Real

---

Indeed it is.

YOU are the rot.

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

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There are many other signs of rot and reasons for the rot, and I thought they should be outlined here.

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/i/190083873/reasons-for-the-rot

These are primarily two-fold: corruption and the replacement/loss of competent people for incompetent loyalists and fanatics. Corruption is now endemic at the top of US government, to the point that even Trump-backing publications are becoming nervous about it. Corruption at the top always rolls downhill. Once it becomes open and acknowledged, it leads to corrupt and slovenly acts throughout a system. Kristi Noem’s admission that she gave a massive, no-bid contract worth hundreds of millions to an associate is just one example from the last few days.

You want an example of what happens over time with corruption and a military? Take a look at Vladimir Putin’s armed forces when he launched them at Ukraine in the 2022 full-scale invasion. Though the analytical community has laughably been telling us that corruption in the Russian armed forces had been eradicated, this was nonsense. Corruption was everywhere, from rotting food to logistics to explosive armor protection that lacked explosives.

The second point is even more immediate. What the Trump administration did as soon as it took office was put an incompetent Secretary of Defense in charge and the fired senior officers who were excellent, such as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs CQ Brown. This started what might be called a mixed voluntary/involuntary purge of independent thinkers. Some people were fired, like Brown, others could read the writing on the wall and left of their own accord. Even more just stayed but refused to take initiative because of fears of reprisals.

Btw, I have seen this intellectual death close at hand. I had invitations to give a number of talks or take part in Pentagon-sponsored conferences pulled back in the last year. People are scared.

And then, when you add the firing, loss or silencing of excellent people in favor of loyal incompetents (or religious fanatics in some cases) to an openly anti-intellectual campaign by the US Secretary of Defense, you create a culture where people fail. It is as simple as that.

So the reasons for the rot are clear.

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

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YOU are the rot.

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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
YOU are the rot.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

---

6ix, you are literally, not figuratively, rotting. Last week, you had an MRI because you were spitting out pieces of lung. An insulin pump keeps you alive. You had your teeth pulled out. You spend your days smoking cigarettes and watching porn. YOU are the rot. Not unexpected, Trump is rotten to his core, too. He is threatening to murder Iran:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries. They have said, “Thank you President Trump.” I have said, “You’re welcome!” Iran is no longer the “Bully of the Middle East,” they are, instead, “THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST,” and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse! Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Mar 07, 2026, 5:11 AM

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116187586876366061

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

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YOU are the rot.


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

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
YOU are the rot.


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

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The Lie of ‘Preventive’ War

Never has Donald Trump’s willful blindness to legal limits been more evident than in his decision to start a war with Iran.

By David Cole | March 6, 2026

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/06/the-lie-of-preventive-war/

In January, during a lengthy New York Times interview with President Donald Trump, one of the paper’s reporters asked him whether he saw “any checks” to his “power on the world stage.” Yes, he answered: “There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.” Another reporter asked about international law. “I don’t need international law,” he explained. “I’m not looking to hurt people. I’m not looking to kill people.”

That attitude—save the last two sentences—has been on dramatic display in recent months. Already it has served as the basis for the extrajudicial execution of more than 150 people claimed to have been transporting drugs on the high seas and the deaths of at least a hundred people during the illegal invasion of Venezuela to arrest President Nicolás Maduro, provoke regime change, and gain access to that country’s oil.

But never has Trump’s willful blindness to legal limits been more evident than in his decision to start a war with Iran. As of March 4 the death toll in Iran from the joint US–Israeli military assault, underway since Saturday, had risen to nearly eight hundred. That number includes the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and many of its top officials, but also reportedly at least 175 people at a girls school—many of them children between the ages of seven and twelve—that was in session when bombs struck.

Trump’s war with Iran may not trouble his “morality,” but it is manifestly illegal. It violates what is often described as the first principle of international law, enshrined in the United Nations Charter, which prohibits nations from using or threatening to use force against another nation except in self-defense or when authorized by the UN Security Council. Neither condition obtains here. Early Saturday morning, Trump issued an eight-minute video in which he claimed that he had acted to defend the American people from “imminent threats.” To justify that claim he cited historical Iranian wrongdoing dating back to the 1979 hostage crisis, as well as its support of terrorist groups, but he identified no actual imminent threat. He repeatedly said that Iran could never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, but he also stated that a June 2025 air attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities had already “obliterated” its nuclear capability. And he urged the Iranian people to “take over your government,” an explicit endorsement of regime change having little to do with self-defense. (As no one disputes, Khamenei was a truly despotic leader, responsible for inflicting terror and death on his own people and on those of many other countries. But there are many despots around the world, and no principle of international law makes Donald Trump the arbiter of which ones stay in power and which ones should be killed.)

In a letter submitted to Congress two days later, the president omitted his previous, unsupported claim of an imminent threat. Instead he vaguely asserted that he had acted in defense of Americans at home and abroad, as well as “in collective self-defense of our regional allies, including Israel.” But in the absence of any ongoing attack, or any evidence that Iran was planning an imminent attack, neither the United States nor Israel had any authority to start a war against another sovereign country.

Trump’s unilateral action also violated the Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war and authorize more limited military actions (referred to in the Constitution as “letters of marque and reprisal”). That allocation of responsibility was deliberate. As George Mason

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Trump says he believes bombing of Iranian girls' school was "done by Iran"

March 7, 2026 / 6:19 PM EST

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-he-believes-bombing-of-iranian
-girls-school-was-done-by-iran/

The US bombed civilians, and there is no denying that school children are dead-dead-dead. So, how does Trump handle that? By lying about it. When bomb fragments that killed the children are eventually identified by the markings that say "Made in USA", Trump will lie some more.

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 says he believes bombing of Iranian girls' school was "done by Iran"

March 7, 2026 / 6:19 PM EST

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-he-believes-bombing-of-iranian
-girls-school-was-done-by-iran/

The US bombed civilians, and there is no denying that school children are dead-dead-dead. So, how does Trump handle that? By lying about it. When bomb fragments that killed the children are eventually identified by the markings that say "Made in USA", Trump will lie some more.

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

---

How many bombs with Made in USA have we given to Ukraine? To the Middle-East? To basically anyone and everyone who ever asked for them since the end of WWII?

How many bombs with Made in USA printed on them did Joe Biden* leave in Afghanistan in the disastrous pullout August of 2021?

I hope they're all dated and have serial numbers on them.



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Who is next on Trump’s kill list?

The US has now removed two dictators. Putin will be trembling in his boots

Western leaders must now act swiftly to convert the shock and awe of US firepower into diplomatic leverage over Moscow

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

Published 08 March 2026 1:16pm GMT

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/08/us-has-now-removed-two-dic
tators-putin-will-be-trembling/

Whatever the outcome of the current US assault on Iran, we have already seen a telling strategic outcome: the clerical regime has been decapitated, despite every effort by a powerful nation to protect the late Ayatollah. The psychological ripples of this will be felt in capitals around the world – and not least in the Kremlin, lair of Vladimir Putin.

The world has changed: or at any rate the US has. In 2013, Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons by another dictator, Assad of Syria, was a “red line”. But after Ed Miliband succeeded in killing Parliamentary approval for British action, Washington also backed down.

The result was unfettered chemical warfare by Assad against his own people and around 500,000 deaths. I spent a lot of time in Syria over the following 11 years and I can vouch for the horrifying results of the sarin and chlorine attacks. Miliband should be ashamed of himself, but of course he isn’t: he’s still a reliable friend to murderous foreign dictators. I can’t believe that anyone would listen to him given his record, but there you are. Britain is still the same – but the US is not.

Washington has acted against Iran on the basis that it may, in time, acquire a nuclear weapon and develop delivery systems capable of reaching the American mainland. Russia already possesses thousands of nuclear warheads, the overwhelming majority of which can reach and are aimed at the United States. That is not conjecture.

As I watch from the Middle East, with instability simmering just beyond the horizon, one hears the argument that the United States is expending too much military resource to retain meaningful leverage over Moscow. Such claims betray a fundamental misunderstanding of American military depth. The United States does not run out of air power because it conducts a campaign. And when measured against Russian forces that have bled themselves white in Ukraine, the comparison becomes starker still.

Further, it is now evident to all that the qualitative superiority of American and allied air power over Russian systems is profound. The Russian-supplied S-300 batteries fielded by Iran are now twisted wreckage. Indeed, Israel alone was able to suppress the mullahs’ air defences.

Moscow’s protection is better, with not only S-400 but supposedly enhanced S-500 systems coming online. But the Russian forces have critical weaknesses – among them the scarcity of the Beriev A-50 radar aircraft, vital for the detection of low-flying threats such as drones and cruise missiles. Russia had only a handful of these in service at the start of the full-scale Ukraine invasion, and has since lost several at the hands of the Ukrainians. It may no longer be possible to maintain a constant airborne watch anywhere. As for the vaunted S-500, another thing which has been shown throughout the Ukraine war is the exaggerated nature of Russia’s claims for its advanced weaponry.

One is therefore compelled to consider whether the current strikes against Iran have more than one target. The Iranian theocracy is being struck directly: Vladimir Putin is being struck psychologically. There is, perhaps, a sequencing in Washington’s thinking: Venezuela, then Iran, and ultimately the Kremlin. Moscow cannot be entirely sanguine. The psychological effect of demonstrated force is often more potent than force itself.

President Putin has, by most accounts, played for time since the Alaska summit. His strategic objectives in Ukraine have not shifted since the invasion began more than four years ago. If he believed he could manipulate Washington indefinitely, recent events may give him pause. A US commander-in-chief who has shown a

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Originally posted by second:
Who is next on Trump’s kill list?

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At least we know it's not your dead whore of a mother.



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by second:
Who is next on Trump’s kill list?

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At least we know it's not your dead whore of a mother.



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Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Trump tweet claimed that Iran had “surrendered” while not yet having “surrendered”. Here is Schrodinger’s Surrender Tweet:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries. They have said, "Thank you President Trump." I have said, "You're welcome!" Iran is no longer the "Bully of the Middle East," they are, instead, "THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST," and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse! Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran's bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP Mar 07, 2026

https://x.com/GulistanNewsTV/status/2030267219436064999

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

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He's finally support the crazy Zionist Israelis and he's finally bombing Iran...that's a change

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Quote:

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Originally posted by second:

Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by second:
Who is next on Trump’s kill list?

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At least we know it's not your dead whore of a mother.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

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Trump tweet claimed that Iran had “surrendered” while not yet having “surrendered”. Here is Schrodinger’s Surrender Tweet:

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Guess it's time to turn Mecca into glass like GWB should have done nearly 25 years ago.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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How We’re All Now Paying the Price for the Myth of Trump’s Competence

The administration’s war with Iran is setting a mountain of taxpayer dollars on fire every day—mostly because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

By Michael Tomasky / March 9, 2026

https://newrepublic.com/article/207492/myth-trump-competence-iran-war

At some point, early Wednesday morning, the cost of the Iran war will top $10 billion. The Center for Strategic and International Studies released a paper last week pegging the cost of this latest misadventure at $891 million a day.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/37-billion-estimated-cost-epic-furys-fir
st-100-hours
I’ve seen higher estimates, but CSIS is a respected nonpartisan outfit, so let’s go with its number for now. The report states that the vast majority of this money had not been previously budgeted, especially the spending on munitions. One Patriot interceptor missile costs close to $4 million, and we’re apparently burning through them. And “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth promises that we’re just getting revved up.

None of us knows how long this war is going to last. But it’s certainly no Venezuela, which took—ready?—two and a half hours. Donald Trump may have told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend that the war was “already won.” But also over the weekend, a prewar intelligence report was leaked to two Washington Post reporters showing that the National Intelligence Council, a panel of independent intel experts, seems to think that dislodging the regime could take a very long time indeed—at $37 million an hour, a rate that is almost sure to rise, especially if ground troops get involved.

Meanwhile, gas prices went up about 60 cents a gallon in the war’s first week. The Dow fell 453 points Friday. (It’s currently well below 50,000, so I guess that means, per Pam Bondi, that we’re now allowed to take the Jeffrey Epstein scandal seriously.) Also on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. In the year and change since Trump returned to office, the economy has added around 140,000 jobs. In a year. The St. Louis Fed estimated last spring that simply to keep pace with the growth in the number of people who age into the labor force, the economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs a month.

In other words, everywhere you look, the news isn’t merely bad. It’s terrible.

We’ve seen numerous examples in these last 13 months of Trump’s mendacity and malevolence. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans will never see him that way. There are those who adore him unconditionally, but beyond these dead-enders, there are others who know he’s not a good person but aren’t all that bothered by it.

That’s hard for millions of us to accept. But I hope to God that these people are finally starting to move themselves toward the conclusion that, even if they aren’t that troubled by the mendacity and malevolence, the man is just wildly incompetent. A mountain range of mythmaking has gone into creating the Trump persona over the years; by him, by a pliant business press in his real estate days, and, since he entered politics, by a right-wing media that would make the old Soviet press agencies blush and a party of cowardly sycophants, most of whom know very well that he shouldn’t be in charge of a high-volume McDonald’s, let alone the executive branch of the federal government, but would rather let the country collapse than say so.

I remember a conversation I had with a Biden White House official in the spring of 2024, when Joe Biden was still running. I was asking about Trump’s weaknesses, and this official said something to me that may stand as the single most depressing couple of sentences I’ve ever had directed at me in 30-plus years of covering politics. We’re not going to dislodge people’s belief that he’s a great businessman, this official said; forget it. It’s hardwired in there, and undoing it, for a significant percentage of the people, just isn’t going to happen.

I believed this person, whom I’m known for a while; yet

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Shut up, faggot.

You cheered for this 4 years ago, you little bitch.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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