Prelude to the Apocalypse

[BryanM]

So who are the democrats angry at? Emperor Elon Musk looting the treasury like it's his own personal piggy bank? The judges and everyone else who are like 'yeah that's cool bro having an emperor is the best'?

Nah dog. It's these damn whinny voters asking them to perform even the most perfunctory 'resistance'.

"C'mon you piece of shit, at least try to say 'orange man bad' or something!"

But nah, donors says orange man good. Very good.

Having to read articles like this for decades... I don't know. I used to get furious at this kind of stuff, but at this point it's like... what's the point. They need to be removed from office. They're not going to be removed from office. In a just world they'd all be put into a gulag or something. We don't live in a just world. Gulag's only for those who oppose power.

lol at the emperor's kid telling King Friday "You're not the president, get outta here" and wiping a booger on his desk. Orange Man's feels in that moment should kind of be how everyone should be feeling right now.

When they look back at history, if there is anyone left to look back when this stabilizes - it's just gonna be a series of tech billionaires taking turns being emperor at a time. A couple of them might actually turn out to be human. It's a freaking Futurama cartoon.


In the meantime I'm working my way through the Jump King minigame of HoloCure. The symmetry of the masochism isn't lost on me.

[Specineff]

My company is cutting hours because all our clients aren't getting enough business since Trump took office: USCIS, State Farm, Bank Of America, Charles Schwab, Texas Children Hospital, US Bank, M&T Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Molina Healthcare, Merril Lynch and others. Too much of a coincidence.

And I'm Tier III. I dread to think how it must be for my coworkers from tiers 1 and 2...

God fucking dammit.

[Lemnear]

I understand all the criticisms of people towards all those who voted for Trump...but I did not imagine he could be so wicked in what he says, in what he does, and in his intentions.
He subtly said that Putin is right about the war and that Ukraine will be his sooner or later...no regulation for AI, crazy statements and the will to stay not for 4 but for 8 years.
I do not understand how it is possible to leave all this indiscriminate free will to a single individual, in America is there not something that can say NO to the president?

[BulletMagnet]

I understand all the criticisms of people towards all those who voted for Trump...but I did not imagine he could be so wicked in what he says, in what he does, and in his intentions.

Then you weren't paying attention. Both he and his party have been exceedingly clear about both what their goals are and the means they're willing to use to achieve them. Project 2025 was not a secret.

I do not understand how it is possible to leave all this indiscriminate free will to a single individual, in America is there not something that can say NO to the president?

There are plenty of limitations to the office built into the constitution, but far too many people have been far too willing to either ignore or outright undermine them for the sake of their own convenience, and here we are.

[Sima Tuna]

There are limits to Presidential power but the question is how you enforce those limits. The President is also the commander-in-chief of America's army. He has the monopoly on use of force. For career politicians with no spines, well it's much easier to bend than to stand up and risk being broken.

[Lord British]

Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn’t Mean I Approve of the Mayor Blowing Up the City
by Mike Drucker


It’s so easy to label people these days. From the way folks have been talking, you’d think everyone falls into two buckets: those who voted against the mayor who promised to blow up the city and those who voted for the mayor who promised to blow up the city. And now that the mayor, whom I voted for, is blowing up the city, as he promised, I’m one of many people who are being unfairly blamed for something I didn’t want. Okay? I didn’t want the mayor to blow up the city like he mentioned many times; I just wanted him to fix the old bowling alley like he promised in passing once. Anyone saying I’m partially responsible for the explosions is just a sign that they have no argument.

Before you rush to cancel me, try to remember the mayor made lots of promises, and I didn’t expect him to keep them all. Yes, he promised to turn our playgrounds to glass and take a blowtorch to the schools; yes, he said that he was going to use napalm on every grocery store, but, as I said, he also promised he was going to fix the old bowling alley.

The rest at link:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/vot ... p-the-city

[Lemnear]

I understand all the criticisms of people towards all those who voted for Trump...but I did not imagine he could be so wicked in what he says, in what he does, and in his intentions.

Then you weren't paying attention. Both he and his party have been exceedingly clear about both what their goals are and the means they're willing to use to achieve them. Project 2025 was not a secret.

I do not understand how it is possible to leave all this indiscriminate free will to a single individual, in America is there not something that can say NO to the president?

There are plenty of limitations to the office built into the constitution, but far too many people have been far too willing to either ignore or outright undermine them for the sake of their own convenience, and here we are.

well I thought a lot of his outbursts were typical election campaign bullshit...I didn't think he'd actually keep his promises but above all that no one is objecting to anything he and Elon Musk are doing.
The worst thing is to make these sudden changes dismantling everything that previous administrations have done, I mean, it is openly self-destructive like this. Strange that everyone nods satisfied..
How to intervene on peace in Ukraine. Trump represents America, which is not directly involved, while the parties involved (such as Ukraine, and partly Europe) are not present.
I find it rather ridiculous . Trump basically handed over Ukraine to Putin in exchange for rare earth lumps. Disgraceful.
How to put tariffs and then negotiate afterwards. Negotiations are made BEFORE putting them, not after putting the tariffs and using them as bargaining chips to gain leverage.

[BulletMagnet]

I didn't think he'd actually keep his promises

As with any politician there are promises he didn't keep; hell, before he even took office he openly said "that whole 'lower the cost of living' thing? Too hard, not gonna bother". And since then, of course, has added "All those supposedly wasteful social services we're axing? Yeah, we're going to use all those funds, and much more besides, to forcefully take control of Gaza and turn it into a playground for me and my fellow billionaires", and his "America First" base has obediently shoved the boot further down their whore throats.

It's really not terribly hard to guess which promises he does intend to keep.

but above all that no one is objecting to anything he and Elon Musk are doing.

There are plenty of objections among the populace, but almost none of them are coming from those in positions of power in either party, since most of the same interests that enable Trump are major backers of theirs as well, and any "resistance" they put up will not reach the point that might make their donors upset. At this juncture unless the Democrats, by some miracle, completely remake their party and build it on a base platform of getting money out of politics they're essentially useless, and in some cases outright counterproductive.

[orange808]

So, we can all agree with Brian that the Dems exist to lose elections, right? No sense in digging back in the thread, but it's crystal clear now. We can stop arguing about that.

As you can see a few posts above, you don't need to be particularly clever to understand the enthusiasm gap between Republican politicians and Democrats. All you need is a better memory than a fruit fly. The bar is low.

In power, Republicans are aggressive. It's obvious that Biden and Obama were shitty and weak. The GOP is absolutely relentless in pursuit of power and loyalty, while the Democrats willingly allow right wing DINO assholes to run for office. Republicans try everything they can. Trump's orders prove that. They also employ gerrymandering whenever possible to grab power, while Democrats give it away and pat themselves on the back for being "adults". (That's another word for stupid weak idiot.) Dems did nothing because they didn't want to do anything.

As opposition, the Democrats are equally weak and pathetic. Republicans did everything they could to stonewall the (already limited) Democratic agenda under Biden and Obama. As we can see, the Dems are doing next to nothing. They can't even hold the party line on Trump's staff. I see they're also whiny crybabies about people saying so.

I'm sorry, but anyone that argues is thick.

[BryanM]

well I thought a lot of his outbursts were typical election campaign bullshit...I didn't think he'd actually keep his promises

Like I keep trying to get people to internalize, you have to ignore the TV and anything they say. You can say anything, it's nothing but nonsensical, worthless gibberish for idiots.

All you have to do to know who someone is, is look at their incentives. 2007 Obama's OpenSecrets page said he was funded by the banks. When the banks melted down the economy, what did he do? "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."

And how did they repay his loyalty? By funding Mitt Romney's campaign a bit more than his. Haha, funny how that works, right? Give them everything they wanted and more, and they still don't like you?

All you have to do to see who Trump's masters are, is look at where his money came from. Space-X, and the psycho organizations that are 100% for Project 2025, and have always been for going back to the 1800's, chaining women up in the kitchen, shoving the out-groups back into murder dungeons, repealing everything the New Deal did, etc.

Of course Emperor Musk is the Emperor. He was the highest bidder, and he won the auction.


----

(They like Putin because they're the same kind of people as Putin, and aspire to make America into a gangster state just like Russia. This isn't complicated stuff: There's a finite amount of treasure to go around, and the way to get more of it is to put fewer hands into the pot. Fascist dictators wanna help each other out, who knew.

And they say Orange Man isn't ideological, haha.)

----

Note that Bernie Sanders has this thing called a record, and his donors were teachers, nurses, and unions. Zero banks.

A lot of people like to gaslight others that he's a sheep dog herding people into the party of vampire inviters, because he actually tries to acquire and wield power instead of offending (for no electoral gain) the dumb idiot bastards who actually like democrats for some reason.

They hate him because he's not Mike Gravel....

Rest in peace, Mike...maybe a lot of us will be joining you soon. : (

but above all that no one is objecting to anything he and Elon Musk are doing.

Even I am a little disgusted and surprised. Not a lot, but, well.... I thought the sham elections and the illusion of liberty (where you're free to do anything you want... as long as it doesn't cost a merchant king any money) were at least a tradition in our country.

Always remember the democrats just gave the republicans a Supreme Court justice. They did not have to, they chose to. They will never do anything to protect anyone.

Chuck and Hakeem get paid the same no matter what happens to the rest of us.

My company is cutting hours

If you think that's bad, wait until the AI stuff actually starts getting competent.

Seems like the plan's to kill off as many people as possible, so those who are left will have more atoms and energy to hoard for themselves. And the limited beachfront property, can't forget that.

There are limits to Presidential power but the question is how you enforce those limits.

I remember a conversation with a classmate way back in highschool when we were all just dumb kids. He said the president doesn't really have a lot of power, it's congress with the ability to make laws and all that.

I agreed that's what it says... on paper. But I was skeptical if that was really how things worked.

Over the years as I learned more, I can hardly think of someone ever being more wrong about anything. Andrew Jackson banishing native americans into the death camp known as 'Oklahoma' against the supreme court's order. Bill Clinton purging the democrats of the last vestiges of the new deal era. Etc.

Sometimes I wonder if it's like the copers huffing bullshit to cope with the upcoming essentially post-human civilization we're going to have one way or another: The idea of an emperor doing whatever they want with no shackles is a thing of horror. So instead of accepting reality, people choose to construct a fantasy world and live in there instead.



... and a lot of them are full of anime girls.

[orange808]

Real opposition at this point and in this climate means voting against all Republican suggestions of any kind. There's no excuse for a Democrat that votes for a Republican proposal. The time for compromise has ended. Make them do something about the fillibuster.

Trump is pulling the funding for everything, so why leave the government open? The upside of losing is that you have nothing left to lose. Allowing the government to raise the debt limit will help Trump advance his agenda and protect comfortable baby boomers from Social Security cuts. That's unacceptable. It's time to shut it down indefinitely. Tank the credit rating and make the GOP abolish the debt ceiling.

Force their hand on the filibuster and debt ceiling. The idea is simple. We're setting the table for an incredible revenge with a slim majority. All we need is a few months with a majority of the government. Need gerrymandering in every blue state immediately. We need as many seats as possible. We only need a few months with a majority to reciprocate. Stop pulling punches. There's also a convenient precedent in American tax law that allows taxes to be retroactively adjusted (both up and down). *rubs hands together and smiles*

[Sima Tuna]

My most overly-optimistic take is maybe this could galvanize the left because, as Orange says, they've already lost it all. There's nothing left to lose. Musk jacked the SSI records. Halted payouts to little old grandmothers around the country. So what's left to compromise on? Israel and Trump are both committed to the total destruction and absorption of Palestine. What's left to compromise there?

Measures like universal health care are and remain extremely popular with the majority of Americans. There is room for the left to win if they are willing to run a winning ticket.

Trump has proven the ultimate failure of the New Democrat ideology. It's done. And why? Because you can never be a better Republican than an actual Republican. You can never be more conservative than a real conservative. Diet Conservatism tastes like shit to the average christian dominionist. So you might as well go hard into supporting Labor, Freedom From Religion, Universal Health Care, Rights For All, Tax The Rich To Death, etc etc every liberal policy in the world. 90% taxation for anybody in the top 2% of earners.

Clinton killed the Democrat party and now it's truly dead. They can't take the centerist, both-sides-ism position any more because that position is a loser now. Clinton went that way and won the election but we've had multiple generations come of voting age since then and the situation has changed. This isn't the prosperous '90s anymore. It's time to fight for worker rights before we lose them all for good and revert to 1800s-style wage serfdom.

[BulletMagnet]

Diet Conservatism tastes like shit to the average christian dominionist.

More importantly, their base is a lot less willing to look the other way on this; heck, not long ago I was the jerk telling people "yeah, the Dems are bad in a lot of ways, but they at least give us something to work with, once they're in power we can improve things a bit at a time", but this last election, and perhaps even moreso its truly disgusting aftermath, have all but completely knocked me clean off the proverbial wagon, and I've got plenty of crow to eat going forward.

At this point, it essentially boils down to, if a busful of passengers is being driven towards a cliff, how willing should they be to give the wheel to someone who promises to slow the bus down, but flat-out refuses to stop it, let alone turn it around?

[BryanM]

More importantly, their base is a lot less willing to look the other way on this; heck, not long ago I was the jerk telling people "yeah, the Dems are bad in a lot of ways, but they at least give us something to work with, once they're in power we can improve things a bit at a time", but this last election, and perhaps even moreso its truly disgusting aftermath, have all but completely knocked me clean off the proverbial wagon, and I've got plenty of crow to eat going forward.

Thank you for coming around; most people wouldn't admit being so wrong about something so obvious for so long.

The Obama-era really should have broken any of these illusions. The putting republicans into positions of power. The giving them a supreme court justice. The whole "if you want me to do good things, make me do it" quote. (That cheeky motherfucker... like voting him into office in a huge landslide wasn't enough.) Yeah... that's just what you want. To hire a guy for a job who doesn't want to do what you want them to do.

I have the early days of Daily Kos reactions to that administration burned into my head - so many people making up Q-anon stories of him playing 11th dimensional chess.

There is no 11-dimensional chess. Politics has to be simple enough for any idiot voter to understand. I've gone on and on with how the Sanders approach was the 'knife'. (This is a reference to the AVGN video on Ghosts n' Gobbos where he rants 'Get the knife' over and over. "Do you cut steak with a spoon? No of course not. Use the knife.") He would have lost from the party sabotaging him and the media corbyn'ing him, but, it's the principle of the thing. The contradictions in the Democratic party have to be resolved in favor of the many eventually, if anything is to be improved through politics.

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. Liberal organizations like MoveOn and the like are absolutely furious. Heck, I'm even able to watch Sam Seder videos these days. Everyone's converging to such an obvious truth, "You can't fight evil with evil."

It's not a happy place to accept we're totally fucked, and that our only hope is hypothetical future rogue altruistic (for no reason) machine-gods.

[Specineff]

Biden giveth. Trump taketh away:



My thoughts and prayers for a concept of a plan go to the people of Alabama who now have to pay 100 more bucks for their power. But hey, at least now those libs are totally owned and crying, right?

[orange808]

So, I can't call up "Wanda" and tell her I'm white?

[Lemnear]

There are plenty of objections among the populace, but almost none of them are coming from those in positions of power in either party, since most of the same interests that enable Trump are major backers of theirs as well, and any "resistance" they put up will not reach the point that might make their donors upset. At this juncture unless the Democrats, by some miracle, completely remake their party and build it on a base platform of getting money out of politics they're essentially useless, and in some cases outright counterproductive.

put like this it seems like an irreversible situation
Just make a law that bans parties opposed to the government by labeling them as "subversives, terrorists and enemies of America."
And given the trend it seems almost plausible, along with the third term.
Civil war the only solution?
I only know that the EU is not ready to face Russia, and Trump seems to like that a lot for some reason...and it seems like he's legitimizing the invasion of Ukraine, so he gets Greenland, and China gets Taiwan and everyone's happy...

It is scandalous to ask for the money back anyway (the 100$)...something similar was done here too, but then no government thought to ask for it back. EVER!
These are choices purely dictated by cruelty. It almost seems like they enjoy saying and doing certain things.
The only thing I can believe him about is the dangerous rise of China, but they could have fought it without destroying half of America and putting half the world in crisis...This way they are only pushing more people into the arms of the Chinese "communists".

[Lemnear]

not to mention that Trump wants to cede the conquered territories to Putin...and even lift the sanctions on Russia.
In practice it remains unpunished for the war crimes committed. An inhuman massacre. and would have no reason to stop invading other nations.

[orange808]

Well, looks like the billionaires and party insiders are determined to blame normal people like us for the loss. I have to be honest, everything is already burning down. After four years, what's my motivation? I'm fed up with the TK shit. Even if there is another real election, will I show up? I don't usually do favors for people that stab me in the back.

[Specineff]

Musk wants access to your tax data, including personal identification numbers and bank account information, totally not to punish those who are disloyal to Trump, no, but to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and improve government performance to better serve the people.” Totally. Yeah. Uh-huh. Right.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... ayer-data/



WARNING
A HUGE WALL OF TEXT
IS APPROACHING FAST.



"Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily guarded Internal Revenue Service system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country, according to three people familiar with the activities, sparking alarm within the tax agency.

Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give officials from DOGE — which stands for Department of Government Efficiency — broad access to tax-agency systems, property and datasets. Among them is the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS, which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts — including personal identification numbers — and bank information. It also lets them enter and adjust transaction data and automatically generate notices, collection documents and other records.

According to a draft of the memorandum obtained by The Washington Post, DOGE software engineer Gavin Kliger is set to work at the IRS for 120 days, though the tax agency and the White House can renew his deployment for the same duration. His primary goal at the IRS is to provide engineering assistance and IT modernization consulting.

The agreement requires that Kliger maintain confidentiality of tax return information, shield it from unauthorized access and destroy any such information shared with him upon the completion of his IRS deployment.

IDRS access is extremely limited — taxpayers who have had their information wrongfully disclosed or even inspected are entitled by law to monetary damages — and the request for DOGE access has raised deep concern within the IRS, according to three people familiar with internal agency deliberations who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Kliger had not been granted IDRS access as of Sunday evening, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of his movement and access at the tax agency, as acting IRS commissioner Doug O’Donnell had yet to finalize the memorandum that would permit him to do more detailed work.

O’Donnell’s predecessor, Danny Werfel, resigned on Jan. 20, after Trump announced plans to replace him with former congressman Billy Long (R-Missouri). Long has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.

The news comes as roughly 150 million taxpayers prepare to file returns by the April 15 deadline. In his first term, Trump openly mused about sending IRS agents after political opponents, leaving agency officials on edge about the IRS’s independence.

The tax agency’s systems are widely considered antiquated — many were built using computer coding language from the 1960s — and overhauling the agency’s IT is in line with DOGE’s mandate to modernize government technology. IRS contractors are generally provided system access to repair or maintain IDRS and similar data systems.

But it’s highly unusual to grant political appointees access to personal taxpayer data, or even programs adjacent to that data, experts say. IRS commissioners traditionally do not have IDRS access. The same goes for the national taxpayer advocate, the agency’s internal consumer watchdog, according to Nina Olson, who served in the role from 2001 to 2019.

“The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal. Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated,” Olson said.

A Trump administration official said DOGE personnel needed IDRS access because DOGE staff are working to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and improve government performance to better serve the people.”

The official said the “DOGE mission … to bring much-needed efficiency to our bureaucracy” is being carried out “legally and with the appropriate security clearances.”

A security clearance is not a sufficient credential for access to taxpayer systems, according to IRS procedures. IDRS access is governed by compelling needs for tax administration, not national security.

“IDRS users are authorized to access only those accounts required to accomplish their official duties,” according to IRS policy.

In a statement, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told The Post: “Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on.”

Representatives from the Treasury Department and IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kliger arrived unannounced at IRS headquarters on Thursday and was named senior adviser to the acting commissioner. IRS officials were told to treat Kliger and other DOGE officials as contractors, two people familiar said.

A White House official said Sunday, however, that DOGE personnel at the IRS were full agency employees and not contractors.

Kliger met with Ken Corbin, the IRS’s chief of taxpayer services, and Heather Maloy, the agency’s top enforcement official, during his first day at the agency’s headquarters, according to several of the people familiar with the meetings. The agency is preparing for Trump-ordered layoffs, as soon as this week, that could hit roughly 10,000 probationary employees. Kliger has not returned to IRS headquarters since those initial meetings."

[Sima Tuna]

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. Liberal organizations like MoveOn and the like are absolutely furious. Heck, I'm even able to watch Sam Seder videos these days. Everyone's converging to such an obvious truth, "You can't fight evil with evil."

Oh, all of the sources have been seeing red lately. CNN is cucking hard and I don't know about MSNBC (fossil media,) but the online sources like Sam Seder are totally spitting fire at the Dems right now. What we've seen from the Trump power handover is that career politician Democrats are taking Trump's narrow victory (which was mostly a protest vote against the Biden Administration, in my opinion,) as proof of some unstoppable Trumpian "mandate" which requires we now undo 100+ years of policy and law so the robber barons can loot the treasury, destroy every working institution of government and remove all social safety nets that benefit the poor. I consider it a betrayal of the public by these mainline democrat politicians that they choose to bend over rather than stand up for anything.

Musk wanting our tax data is almost irrelevant at this point, since he hacked the treasury without permission and already stole the personal information of anyone who was on file there.

[orange808]

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. Liberal organizations like MoveOn and the like are absolutely furious. Heck, I'm even able to watch Sam Seder videos these days. Everyone's converging to such an obvious truth, "You can't fight evil with evil."

Oh, all of the sources have been seeing red lately. CNN is cucking hard and I don't know about MSNBC (fossil media,) but the online sources like Sam Seder are totally spitting fire at the Dems right now. What we've seen from the Trump power handover is that career politician Democrats are taking Trump's narrow victory (which was mostly a protest vote against the Biden Administration, in my opinion,) as proof of some unstoppable Trumpian "mandate" which requires we now undo 100+ years of policy and law so the robber barons can loot the treasury, destroy every working institution of government and remove all social safety nets that benefit the poor. I consider it a betrayal of the public by these mainline democrat politicians that they choose to bend over rather than stand up for anything.

Musk wanting our tax data is almost irrelevant at this point, since he hacked the treasury without permission and already stole the personal information of anyone who was on file there.

Okay. They totally hear us now.

Just for clarity.

We're trying to say that choosing a bathroom for trans people to take a shit and trans little league regulations are the only policy concerns going forward and everything else is perfect. Did I get it right?

Or, are we trying to say that we need to compromise with Republicans more?

Okay! It's both! They totally hear us!

Fuck.

[BryanM]

Capitalists with tens of millions of dollars personally for you, your family, your friends, and your lackeys in one hand. Whiny people on the phone in the other. 'We can push them left' has always obviously been a cope n' hope when you consider their incentives for even a moment. We've always all been accelerationists regardless of our feelings, we just couldn't admit it to ourselves.

Speaking of cope, confession time. How many of you thought I was hyperbolic/silly when I changed the thread title mentioning an 'apocalypse' eight years ago? But now you're starting to feel it's at least a little feasible or even plausible?

I had forgotten this old thread poll when I skimmed the OP today, coping is a strong part of the human condition isn't it : (

-----

Do you believe Donald Trump will finish his first term?

Yes 69% [53]
No 31% [24]

-----

There's plenty of recommended youtube videos every now and then that are obvious blatant lies shouting out 'Orange man's toast!' of one kind or another. Nothing easier to sell than bullshit that people want to believe, eh?

I think even accelerationism is a pipe dream. Sure, the guy who voted for Musk's underling three times and then being fired by them vowing to 'never fall for it again!' gives a bit of a damn when it's him personally feeling pain, but he'll still vote for the next ghoul when he's propped up. And no matter how strongly the Sanders equivalent in the dem primaries performs, it'll never be enough to overcome the ratfucking. Can't vote to continue to live if there's no elections :taps head:

"Oh no! I voted to destroy America, not realizing *I'm* American! Ah, well now that I'm dead I'll be sure to vote blue next time."

[orange808]

Ha. Trump really is defunding law enforcement and a lot of the military. Let me know how that works out for you.

There will always be tension with those institutions. Always. We'll always be fighting for accountability and transparency.

Reckless angry language and facile childish reductive reasoning didn't help our situation at all. Bernie Sanders is the only politician in America with a brain. He didn't parrot your stupid shit.

[emphatic]

So you're saying the "Defund the police" crowd were MAGA all along?

[orange808]

So you're saying the "Defund the police" crowd were MAGA all along?

It's hard to say how some people that parroted that term voted. Could be. Human beings don't make much sense.

Real people in the streets are... complicated.

Anyhow, Sanders had the platform. Unfortunately, nothing can defeat the power of the super managers, church, and bankers. We sure did try. Against all odds, one wave of hope washed ashore and even reached high ground, before it broke and rolled back again. Predictable, but no less tragic. A sad retreat and surrender to the inevitable.

[orange808]

Thoughts and prayers to you and your little family, Rod.

[To Far Away Times]

Well, no one can say that the face eating leopards went hungry ever since Musk took over the presidency.

[orange808]

Well, no one can say that the face eating leopards went hungry ever since Musk took over the presidency.

Indeed.

[neorichieb1971]

Tariffs only work if you have mitigated consequences at least 80% before applying them. I personally think Trump was wreckless applying them willy nilly with absolutely no understanding of how consequential it would be.

Nato is now a disbanded group which has ideals that oppose each other and I see merit on both sides of the fence so i'm torn on that.

Elon Musk's DOGE looks good on paper, but it seems if you want to cut out the poision, make sure you don't cut too deep because you might hit an artery.


I think the measure of things, people want things done too quickly. There is no overnight fix for importation of raw materials, there is no overnight fix for DOGE to fix without hurting a lot of folk. Russia/Ukraine is a big mess which I feel was started by Biden ignoring a pledge from Clinton years ago that Nato wouldn't spread eastwards.

I read about the Plaza accord in 1985. Where Japan was about to take down the USA in the worlds economy. Japan just worked hard, had the best chipsets.. everything was above board. Then the USA got scared of losing the no1 spot as the worlds economic superpower so they asked Japan if the US could devalue its currency to balance things out. Well, it worked. Americans stopped buying Japanese cars, computers and just about everything else Japanese. The USA cut the value of the $ by too much, which then crippled the Japanese economy from which it never recovered until present day. Although Japan agreed to this deal, I think the USA just ran with the success it brought and didn't give one F*ck about how the Japanese was on its knee's. I will use the Plaza accord as a metric for things going forward because here we are with China doing the hard work, mostly following economic rules and regulations and the USA doesn't like that China is creeping up or bypassing the US economy. Putting Tariffs on a hard working country doesn't seem fair to me. When the USA were firmly no1 nobody else complained, we just admired the USA. But when it swings the other way, it seems mechanisms, tricks, deals are put in place to keep USA no1.

Other countries are not there to put USA no1. Other countries have struggled more than the USA with higher taxation for years and although its more complex than that, I don't understand how the USA gets 35 trillion in the hole with all the privileges they have.

As for Trump and MAGA. Its for the flag, the countries standing. Its not about the people, they will be throw under the bus.

If Elon grants $5000 DOGE money to USA citizens, thats great, but I feel that money will be spent on retro videogames again. Americans need to act responsibly when they have money.

The internet is a mechanism to vacuum all the money into a handful of pots. The amount of money pouring into tech giants is insane.. and its more insane those tech giants are being protected the most with tax cuts. You cannot help the people with such mechanism's. Use some of that money and pour it back into society.