anybody noticed that my country is going down the tubes lately?
it seems like it was reasonably normal as recently as december, if thats a thing.
not any more.
i dont recognize it.
It's getting pretty bad, 'tis true. Rule of law removing about 12 people from positions of power and substituting rational human beings would go a long way towards correcting that. #FATCHANCE
It's very visible from the outside. America is in the biggest trouble it has ever been in. Neither world war nor the cold war had the impact Trump and his cronies are having. And Trump said 'I'm just getting started.' :(
Zelenskyy is loved by the militant nice on Imgur, fervently.
I thought maybe it wasn't necessarily a good thing that the Trump hating rainbow folk were making him a poster child.
The tariff thing is interesting.
Quote from: Tank on March 05, 2025, 09:19:06 AMIt's very visible from the outside. America is in the biggest trouble it has ever been in. Neither world war nor the cold war had the impact Trump and his cronies are having. And Trump said 'I'm just getting started.' :(
The Civil War was pretty nasty.
What it needs is a fun president, like Mike Myers.
Why should being Canadian be a problem?
Quote from: Dark Lightning on March 05, 2025, 12:24:00 AMIt's getting pretty bad, 'tis true. Rule of law removing about 12 people from positions of power and substituting rational human beings would go a long way towards correcting that. #FATCHANCE
we re past that, im afraid.
trump has demonstrated that the rule of law only works if you do what it says.
but what opposition is there? nancy pelosi with her stock portfolio fattened on insider trading?
hakeem jeffries explaining that theres nothing that the opposition can do?
both the left and right wings of my government are in the game to enrich themselves and consolidate the power of their chosen billionaires.
the real problem is oligarchy. the rich dont care who is in power so long as the politicians do what theyre told.
elon musk is a bigger danger to america than trump will ever be.
I have here two Flanian Pobble Beads.
Will any one offer me 100:1 odds that the US$ will experience 100% inflation over the next 12 months?
Inflation will not hit 100% It may go toward the tens.
Trump is not good at understanding cause and effect. One of his damn fool promises was that he would reduce grocery prices on the first day. AHA ! now the dumb ass has placed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. Nobody told him that Mexico furnishes more than half of the vegetables that we Americans consume. Canada also sends us some food items. That is just food.................A whole lot of steel and aluminum comes from Canada.....
There is more stupidity in the offing...........woe is me.
Quote from: Icarus on March 06, 2025, 06:00:42 AMInflation will not hit 100% It may go toward the tens.
Trump is not good at understanding cause and effect. One of his damn fool promises was that he would reduce grocery prices on the first day. AHA ! now the dumb ass has placed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. Nobody told him that Mexico furnishes more than half of the vegetables that we Americans consume. Canada also sends us some food items. That is just food.................A whole lot of steel and aluminum comes from Canada.....
There is more stupidity in the offing...........woe is me.
Don't forget the electricity.
Things be a-happenin'.
I expected Trump presidency to be bad news for muh Ukraine, and it is. However, there is a silver lining which may, in fact, be made of a far more noble metal.
Europe is starting to wake up from decades of cowardice, hippiness and, in case of Germany, probably a touch of prior bad experience, and as it does so, it's realising that European security is for us to sort out. Yes, we have counted on the American war machine for decades. I think that was a mistake. I think we have the capability to correct it - financially, scientifically, industrially and now, as one might hope, politically. I oppose any notion of a EU "common army," but support one of a European military alliance within or without NATO, based on the individual member states' military forces. And yes, we'll have to pay for that. Should have done so for the last half-a-century.
Whatever Trump administration does or does not manage to accomplish with regard to NATO, I'll give them that right here and now. Europe has needed a swift kick in the nuts in that regard for quite some time.
It is bad news for Ukraine though as it will take some time for Europe to grow the teeth it requires to decisively aid friendly nations when they come under attack.
That one issue aside... Yeah, things be a-changin'. I cannot yet say whether they are doing so in a direction I would consider positive, but countries are a bit like fully loaded supertankers. It takes some time from you turn the rudder until the ship "realises" that it must turn.
my state senator is now vice president. so far his sole claim to fame is that he appears to be an even more craven ass-kisser to donald trump than pence was.
lately trump has decided that its a good idea to stay in the headlines by demanding that denmark give us the territory of greenland. vance went there to make speeches and take photos.
except the local businesses wouldnt let him do photo ops in front of them and some apparently wouldnt serve him, either. so he went to our only miltary base there gave a speech about how denmark was neglecting military use of the island. there are 200 americans on that base.
he didnt mention that amerika used to maintain, 17 bases? i think, and 100,000 personnel in denmark to guard against the soviets.
but we walked away, and now its denmarks that is ignoring greenland.
stuff like this is a normal democracy is where i would call or write my representaives. but they are the ones doing this stuff.
We've been watching his antics. I can't believe what we have been seeing.
i listen to right-wing talk radio while i drive to try to understand them.
its chilling.
they literally percieve a different world one based on rhetoric and false narratives.
just for example, they crow about all the criminal fraud that elon musk has uncovered in my government. how he has saved us billions of dollars already.
yet with all this fraud uncovered there has not been a single arrest, indictment, or criminal charges of anybody.
im not an economist, but even i know that to transfer money you have to have a name of someone to transfer it to.
the radio people never seem to notice that no namez have been uncovered.
I am thoroughly confused and filled with wonder. I do not believe that all the right wingers are dumb bastards who are incapable of ordinary reasoning. But why???? Why do they adhere to irrational claims, refuse to anticipate an unfavorable result as a result of some of the dipshit ideas and pronouncements from their leaders. :headscratch:
Quote from: Icarus on April 01, 2025, 05:49:50 AMI am thoroughly confused and filled with wonder. I do not believe that all the right wingers are dumb bastards who are incapable of ordinary reasoning. But why???? Why do they adhere to irrational claims, refuse to anticipate an unfavorable result as a result of some of the dipshit ideas and pronouncements from their leaders. :headscratch:
You and me both.
Amazing/appalling, ain't it? Most any rational being wouldn't follow the chump. They're exhibiting cult-like behavior, like one sees in the old religious tent revivals. imo
why do they actively attempt to subvert the plain meaning of the constitutional while proclaiming their adherence to it?
its only 8 pages long, and its written in elementary-school level language. it outlines government piwers, responsibilities, and limitations. yet my own government representatives contradict it in their public announcements.
Same reason they cherry-pick the bible, I expect.
I think that Trump and JD Vance are delusional. Denmark will not give up Greenland and Canada will not become the 51st state. Starting trade wars is also a very bad idea.
part of the reason is the usefulness of chaos.
steve bannon recommended that th emedia be flooded with so much stuff that nothing could be effectively countered. trump has signed hundreds of executive orders, and while many of them may be instantly forgotten by him, all of them need attention from his opponents.
in the meantime he concentrates on his agenda and moves ahead.
i think trump is delusional, because i think he believes anything he has said twice. but vance is calculating. hes a yale-educated lawyer and is no dummy. he knows exactly what he is doing.
the problem with vance is that he has no opinions or values of his own. he will do and say anything at all to move his own chess pieces to a position of greater advantage.
trump will be a lame duck, for better or worse, in two years. but vance has a longer view. trump has no rivals, but his clock is ticking. and vance has nobody to fear, except elon musk.
elon musk and j d vance are the dangerous ones.
Quote from: Tom62 on April 01, 2025, 05:03:32 PMI think that Trump and JD Vance are delusional. Denmark will not give up Greenland and Canada will not become the 51st state. Starting trade wars is also a very bad idea.
It doesn't seem much of a deal, all of Canada becomes one state.
It has ten provinces, a population of six times the average US state population.
Quote from: The Magic Pudding.. on April 02, 2025, 03:27:21 AMQuote from: Tom62 on April 01, 2025, 05:03:32 PMI think that Trump and JD Vance are delusional. Denmark will not give up Greenland and Canada will not become the 51st state. Starting trade wars is also a very bad idea.
It doesn't seem much of a deal, all of Canada becomes one state.
It has ten provinces, a population of six times the average US state population.
Quebec will not join America. Not even at the point of a gun.
Quote from: billy rubin on April 01, 2025, 07:56:37 PMpart of the reason is the usefulness of chaos.
steve bannon recommended that th emedia be flooded with so much stuff that nothing could be effectively countered. trump has signed hundreds of executive orders, and while many of them may be instantly forgotten by him, all of them need attention from his opponents.
in the meantime he concentrates on his agenda and moves ahead.
i think trump is delusional, because i think he believes anything he has said twice. but vance is calculating. hes a yale-educated lawyer and is no dummy. he knows exactly what he is doing.
the problem with vance is that he has no opinions or values of his own. he will do and say anything at all to move his own chess pieces to a position of greater advantage.
trump will be a lame duck, for better or worse, in two years. but vance has a longer view. trump has no rivals, but his clock is ticking. and vance has nobody to fear, except elon musk.
elon musk and j d vance are the dangerous ones.
I feel you are correct.
Quote from: Tank on April 02, 2025, 08:33:45 AMQuote from: The Magic Pudding.. on April 02, 2025, 03:27:21 AMQuote from: Tom62 on April 01, 2025, 05:03:32 PMI think that Trump and JD Vance are delusional. Denmark will not give up Greenland and Canada will not become the 51st state. Starting trade wars is also a very bad idea.
It doesn't seem much of a deal, all of Canada becomes one state.
It has ten provinces, a population of six times the average US state population.
Quebec will not join America. Not even at the point of a gun.
With the possible possibility of a third Trump term, which I'm assured is possible, how many US states will be wanting to join Canada?
Anyway, I blame Margaret Atwood for all of this.
The patriots make America what is should be and their females flee to Canada.
Obviously there shouldn't be a Canada, not even as an idea of a better place.
I definitely think Canada should politely ask Alaska to become it's 11th province,
if canada becomes a state it will likely become about five states, so there will be 5 new representatives and 10 senators.
i suspect those people would not align themselves with trump or conservative magas in general. that would give the democrats in america an insurmountable majority.
even one representative and two senators would screw the republicans.
i dont see how the maga morons are continuing to miss this. the only eay to counter it would be for texas to split into multiple conservative states, whic i believe it can do based on its original 1837 charter.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
they certainly cant shoot themselves in the brain.
Quote from: billy rubin on April 03, 2025, 10:22:05 PMthey certainly cant shoot themselves in the brain.
:rofl: Man, ain't that the truth!
Penguins are up in flippers at Trump tariffs.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25063367.glasgow-penguins-protest-donald-trumps-tariffs-remote-island-home/
fox news nirmally hss a moving stock market ticker along tbe bottom of the screen in its television news broadcasts.
the american and world stock markets are showing steep declines, and fox has turned the ticker off.
Quote from: billy rubin on April 03, 2025, 10:22:05 PMthey certainly cant shoot themselves in the brain.
:rofl:
Quote from: billy rubin on April 04, 2025, 03:10:56 PMfox news nirmally hss a moving stock market ticker along tbe bottom of the screen in its television news broadcasts.
the american and world stock markets are showing steep declines, and fox has turned the ticker off.
Wonderful!!!!
Not particularly original, but . . . This is all Obama's fault. He had to go and prove that a black man could get elected to the highest office in the country. That got some of the prominent troglodytes concerned, and they determined to put a stop to such abominations (take or leave the pun as you wish). They knew that they had a ready audience for their white angst. Add in things like same sex marriage and acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of trans people, and the regressive closed-minded sorts felt validated in seeking a way to reverse the stomach-turning progressive direction the country was going.
There is a regressive element in any nation, but the American version has been cultivated and coddled in a right wing media ecosystem that has only egged them on. They found their champion in an obvious grifter, born with a silver spoon in his sneering yap. They got their way and now we'll all pay the piper. Thanks, Obama.
Quote from: Recusant on April 05, 2025, 04:14:26 AMNot particularly original, but . . . This is all Obama's fault. He had to go and prove that a black man could get elected to the highest office in the country. That got some of the prominent troglodytes concerned, and they determined to put a stop to such abominations (take or leave the pun as you wish). They knew that they had a ready audience for their white angst. Add in things like same sex marriage and acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of trans people, and the regressive closed-minded sorts felt validated in seeking a way to reverse the stomach-turning progressive direction the country was going.
There is a regressive element in any nation, but the American version has been cultivated and coddled in a right wing media ecosystem that has only egged them on. They found their champion in an obvious grifter, born with a silver spoon in his sneering yap. They got their way and now we'll all pay the piper. Thanks, Obama.
:o WOT?! Surely you jest.
Quote from: Dark Lightning on April 05, 2025, 05:32:11 AMQuote from: Recusant on April 05, 2025, 04:14:26 AMNot particularly original, but . . . This is all Obama's fault. He had to go and prove that a black man could get elected to the highest office in the country. That got some of the prominent troglodytes concerned, and they determined to put a stop to such abominations (take or leave the pun as you wish). They knew that they had a ready audience for their white angst. Add in things like same sex marriage and acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of trans people, and the regressive closed-minded sorts felt validated in seeking a way to reverse the stomach-turning progressive direction the country was going.
There is a regressive element in any nation, but the American version has been cultivated and coddled in a right wing media ecosystem that has only egged them on. They found their champion in an obvious grifter, born with a silver spoon in his sneering yap. They got their way and now we'll all pay the piper. Thanks, Obama.
:o WOT?! Surely you jest.
No, Recusant sees it at it is.
But then it got worse, their candidate was a woman!
Not a proper demure woman, an assertive educated woe to man woeman!!
I thought they'd seen the error of their ways with wise mature man Joe.
Then then they did again, and she's was brown!!! from who knows fucking where.
I thank God you have a proper Reality Show Host in Chief now.
Quote from: Recusant on April 05, 2025, 04:14:26 AMNot particularly original, but . . . This is all Obama's fault. He had to go and prove that a black man could get elected to the highest office in the country. That got some of the prominent troglodytes concerned, and they determined to put a stop to such abominations (take or leave the pun as you wish). They knew that they had a ready audience for their white angst. Add in things like same sex marriage and acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of trans people, and the regressive closed-minded sorts felt validated in seeking a way to reverse the stomach-turning progressive direction the country was going.
There is a regressive element in any nation, but the American version has been cultivated and coddled in a right wing media ecosystem that has only egged them on. They found their champion in an obvious grifter, born with a silver spoon in his sneering yap. They got their way and now we'll all pay the piper. Thanks, Obama.
An interesting take on the issue. Harris didn't have a hope in hell.
Quote from: Dark Lightning on April 05, 2025, 05:32:11 AMQuote from: Recusant on April 05, 2025, 04:14:26 AMNot particularly original, but . . . This is all Obama's fault. He had to go and prove that a black man could get elected to the highest office in the country. That got some of the prominent troglodytes concerned, and they determined to put a stop to such abominations (take or leave the pun as you wish). They knew that they had a ready audience for their white angst. Add in things like same sex marriage and acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of trans people, and the regressive closed-minded sorts felt validated in seeking a way to reverse the stomach-turning progressive direction the country was going.
There is a regressive element in any nation, but the American version has been cultivated and coddled in a right wing media ecosystem that has only egged them on. They found their champion in an obvious grifter, born with a silver spoon in his sneering yap. They got their way and now we'll all pay the piper. Thanks, Obama.
:o WOT?! Surely you jest.
It's not Obama's 'fault' as such but he caused white privilege panic which the Republican party exploited extremely effectively.
It's one dimension of the thing of course. A brief post to sarcastically note a simplistic analysis though I stand behind it. There's so much more to the story of course. People have written a pile of books about how the US managed to get such a malignant, narcissist megalomaniac in the White House. I would also say repellant, repugnant, and repulsive, but that would be a matter of taste I suppose.
It's more to acknowledge that xenophobia and militant parochialism play a significant part in the motivation behind voting MAGA. Having spent some time at a Tea Party discussion board during the Obama presidency (posted maybe 3 times over a more than a decade as a member) I know for a fact that Obama was a big target for racist hate. The place closed down only recently: I watched as the Tea Party melded into MAGA.
That xenophobia I mentioned is not directed only at people outside the US, but includes fellow citizens. Minorities often but more vitriol is directed at the degenerates of the left. The true believers know that they are literally in thrall to demons, and ultimately are of Lucifer himself.
Again, only one facet of the phenomenon. Regret to say, not much comfort in it. Just a glimpse of the view from the proverbial handbasket. :evilgrin:
Interesting and horrifying in equal measure.
Anyway, I think one of the members of this site had a similar "it's racism, certainly at least in part" post. Pretty sure I'm echoing something I came across previously. Call it a coping mechanism. 8)
On his way to a 7th bankruptcy, the biggest and best, but not his fault?
That's Obama.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/
Quote from: Tom62 on April 01, 2025, 05:03:32 PMI think that Trump and JD Vance are delusional. Denmark will not give up Greenland and Canada will not become the 51st state. Starting trade wars is also a very bad idea.
I agree, even though I've managed to get a whole bunch of completely free stock that way.
(I sold my shares early the week before tariffs were set to increase. Then they did, market "collapsed" and I re-bought the same stock with the same funds, just getting somewhere around 10% more stock out of it than I originally held. Small victories and such-like)
Well done.
An American in Paris won 6 Oscars, but not now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kvqnx0dnno
I can confirm that Parisians never liked Americans because they won't attempt French.
Americans also think that they invented the English language.
They are always welcome in the UK.
I read that earlier.
There are suspicions that the Trump tariff pronouncements were schemes to help enrich his buddies. Tariffs cause world wide stock value shrinkage.......buy low.....wait a few days and values rise sharply. Maybe so But I am not sure that Trump is smart enough or clever enough to figure that out, Some of his influential cohorts may well be smart enough........
He's had a fascination with tariffs for a long time so would be easily manipulated, and well worth it to the right players. Like serious money--multimillions easily.
The chump actually commented that some billionaire friends had made money in the Stock Market when it fluctuated.
how hard is french? it has rules.
je comprend la francais, une petite, peut etre
spanish also
es muy facile, por que es un langue la misma como nada
i dont speak grammatical french or spanish, but i can buy drugs at any town centre
english is impossible, every sentence is a special case. if i werent a native speaker, i wouldnt even try to figure it out
Remember Bush jr complaining that the French didn't have a word for entrepreneur. :rofl:
Indeed. That's a special kind of ignorant.
Have you noticed that Trump acts and speaks like GWB?
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." "We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations, to do everything they can, to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you...now watch this drive." – to reporters while playing golf.
So when Trump talks about tariffs he's really talking about free trade.
Unbelievable :(
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Has Trump learned from a former British politician?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/03/denis-healeys-10-most-celebrated-quotes-former-labour-chancellor
Quote from: Icarus on April 14, 2025, 05:02:43 AMThere are suspicions that the Trump tariff pronouncements were schemes to help enrich his buddies. Tariffs cause world wide stock value shrinkage.......buy low.....wait a few days and values rise sharply. Maybe so But I am not sure that Trump is smart enough or clever enough to figure that out, Some of his influential cohorts may well be smart enough........
You know... Whether or not it was meant to do that, it certainly did. Mass psychology is quite predictable that way. Heck, even my hobby-investor butt managed to squeeze the tariffs for some profit.
The grotesque dark comedy of a rabid font of vitriol heaping praise on a malignant purveyor of weaponized ignorance. I imagine the questionable fellow quoted in my signature would be having a grand time skewering these villainous clowns.
"RFK Jr. Is a Top Global Public Health 'Expert' Claims Miller, Sparking Mockery" |
New Civil Rights Movement (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2025/08/crazy-rfk-jr-is-a-top-global-public-health-expert-claims-miller-sparking-mockery/)
QuoteSecretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an environmental lawyer, former leader of a children's anti-vaccine organization, and a promoter of conspiracy theories — is being praised by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as a "foremost" global health expert and a "crown jewel" of the Trump administration.
Kennedy has no medical degree or formal training, nor does he hold any degrees in public health.
Secretary Kennedy's challenges this week include his attempt to fire the newly confirmed Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and announcing that most Americans will not be eligible to receive COVID vaccines without a doctor's prescription and at least one underlying health condition. (Future CDC advisory panel regulations may alter that landscape.)
Kennedy was assailed by medical experts this week when he declared that, while walking through an airport, he could see the "mitochondrial" illness and inflammation of children, which he claimed he could detect "from their faces, from their body movements and from their lack of social connection."
Miller, who also holds no medical degree, told reporters on Friday (video below) that "the CDC's credibility was shattered during the COVID era."
"CDC used to be, of course, seen widely around the world as a premier health agency, and much of the world discovered in the last few years, that CDC was actually staffed by a lot of very partisan, and very political bureaucrats who weren't at all concerned about public health and weren't actually very knowledgeable about public health," he baselessly alleged.
"And we are working hard, and more importantly, Secretary Kennedy — one of the world's foremost voices, advocates, and experts on public health — is working hard to restore the credibility and the integrity of CDC as a scientific organization committed to the scientific method, and getting to the root causes of the public health epidemic in this country," Miller continued.
[Continues . . . (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2025/08/crazy-rfk-jr-is-a-top-global-public-health-expert-claims-miller-sparking-mockery/)]
"Guns aren't the problem, it's a mental health thing." Then they proceed to gut mental health research and assistance. "Thoughts and prayers" aside, they don't actually give a damn.
"Trump's Mental Health Plan: Defund, Incarcerate, Disappear" |
Mother Jones (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/trump-mental-health-housing-homelessness-institutionalization/)
QuoteFederal staffers working on mental health-related issues, meanwhile, have been purged by Trump's government. NIH has lost 7,000 workers, roughly 16 percent of its workforce, through firings and resignations, according to a ProPublica analysis. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) lost an even higher proportion, at 22 percent.
HHS also plans to cut more than $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which will be collapsed into a proposed "Administration for a Healthy America," following cuts of $72 million from March's continuing appropriations bill; dwarfing an additional $19 million the agency supposedly plans to earmark to support housing for people with severe mental illness.
. . . [M]ental health research has been a particular focus on the chopping block of DOGE, which terminated hundreds of NIH grants—with NIMH grants accounting for the largest subset, according to a paper published in JAMA in May. Since then, dozens more NIMH grants have been cancelled, although some terminations have been reversed or are likely to be reversed following a slate of legal challenges, according to the database Grant Witness.
[Continues . . . (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/trump-mental-health-housing-homelessness-institutionalization/)]
I find this item genuinely disgusting, but also amusing. The same dark and repellent sort of humor that runs through a lot of the current political scene in Washington DC. The lawyer McCloskey who figures in the story gained prominence for posing brandishing a gun with his wife when some Black Lives Matter protestors walked past their house. He with a military style rifle and she with a chrome plated semiautomatic pistol. Trump has already floated the idea of paying the "patriots" who decided that democracy wasn't to their liking. I'll skip the scatological comments that come to mind.
"Already Pardoned by Trump, Jan. 6 Rioters Push for Compensation" |
The New York Times (https://archive.is/K7xYG)
QuoteThe rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, secured a shocking double victory this year.
President Trump granted them clemency for their crimes on his first day back in the White House, and in the months that followed, he allowed his Justice Department to purge many of the federal agents and prosecutors who sought to hold them accountable.
But even though the president has given the rioters their freedom and has taken steps toward satisfying their desire for retribution, they are asking for more. In the past several weeks, the rioters and their lawyers have pushed the Trump administration to pay them restitution for what they believe were unfair prosecutions.
On Thursday, one of the lawyers, Mark McCloskey, said during a public meeting on social media that he had recently met with top officials at the Justice Department and pitched them on a plan to create a special panel that would dole out financial damages to the rioters — much like the arrangement of a special master to award money to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
[Continues . . . (https://archive.is/K7xYG)]
Gunning down civilians in international waters. Just the Roosevelt Corollary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Corollary) to the Monroe Doctrine in action. The US has a long and sordid history with its neighbors to the south. It's a war crime you say? "I don't give a shit what you call it" (https://archive.is/iG8bV)
The Just Security site has a couple of articles that examine the ramifications of this incident.
"Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean" (https://www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal-issues-military-attack-carribean/)
"Using Labels, Not Law, to Justify Lethal Force: Inside the Venezuelan Boat Strike" (https://www.justsecurity.org/119985/labels-ustify-lethal-force-venezuelan-boat-strike/)
That attack was disgusting on top of unlawful.
Might as well rag on the rotten Trumpist justices currently holding a secure supermajority in the US Supreme Court. Starting with Chief Justice Roberts.
Though Roberts would like to be viewed as the defender of the Supreme Court's good name, he's really just another flavor of MAGA stooge. For him the "good name" of the court is dispensable when it conflicts with the Trumpist agenda.
That pose of upholding the honor of the court has never been particularly convincing in the first place given that Roberts has made it a career-long pet project to disable and dismantle the Voting Rights Act. To further that goal he's willing to consistently legislate from the bench. Of course in those cases we heard nary a peep from the righteous Republicans that for decades have been wailing a jeremiad against "activist judges" who meddle outside their proper bailiwick.
Here he personally steps up as the brave embodiment of obedience to his master's voice. For reference, according to the US Constitution the "power of the purse" (determining how, when, and where the government will disburse funds) is held by the legislative branch, not the executive branch.
"Chief Justice Roberts keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions in foreign aid" |
AP (https://archive.is/6bnWe)
QuoteChief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily kept in place the Trump administration's decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid.
Roberts acted on the administration's emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. President Donald Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.
The high court order is temporary, though it suggests the justices will reverse a lower court ruling that withholding the funding was likely illegal. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.
Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.
[Continues . . . (https://archive.is/6bnWe)]
Also, regarding shadow docket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_docket) shenanigans. Justice Gorsuch rebukes a lower court judge for not correctly interpreting the somewhat terse and often unexplained shadow docket rulings that the six "conservatives" have been spewing out ever since their golden boy, the grotesque mountebank felon president, got back into office.
"I Am Begging the Judge Who Apologized to Neil Gorsuch to Have Some Self-Respect" |
Balls & Strikes (https://ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/i-am-begging-the-judge-who-apologized)
QuoteEarlier this week, a federal judge in Massachusetts opened a hearing by doing something that federal judges almost never do: offer a sheepish, public apology.
"Before we do anything, I really feel it's incumbent upon me to, on the record here, to apologize to Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, if they think that anything this court has done has been done in defiance of a precedential action of the Supreme Court," said Judge William Young. "I can do nothing more than to say as honestly as I can: I certainly did not so intend, and that is foreign in every respect to the nature of how I have conducted myself as a judicial officer."
Young was responding to a recent concurring opinion from, as you might expect, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, in a decision that allowed President Donald Trump to cancel roughly $800 million in National Institutes of Health research grants because he thinks science is woke. The case had started in Young's courtroom, and Gorsuch took a beat to scold Young for a decision that, in Gorsuch's view, so egregiously flouted other Supreme Court shadow docket orders that he had no choice to conclude that Young was being willfully insubordinate.
"Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Court's decisions, but they are never free to defy them," Gorsuch wrote. "When this Court issues a decision, it constitutes a precedent that commands respect in lower courts." He went on to characterize Young's decision as the "third time in a matter of weeks this Court has had to intercede in a case 'squarely controlled' by one of its precedents," and complained that all three interventions should have been "unnecessary," which is basically an admission that Gorsuch got annoyed that someone made him work during what he hoped would be a relaxing end to his summer vacation.
I understand the various reasons Young felt the urge to apologize: Supreme Court justices sit above him on the org chart, and they called him out in public, which is a stressful and embarrassing experience in any workplace. Young, a Reagan appointee, has also spent the last four decades ensconced in an institution that venerates the Court and assumes that its justices in their magisterial wisdom are entitled at all times to a presumption of correctness.
All that said, I am begging William Young to have an ounce of self-respect here. Since Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation in 2020, this Court's six-justice conservative supermajority has specialized in churning out shadow docket decisions that are sloppy, vague, contradictory, incoherent, or—in most cases—some combination thereof. On some occasions, the conservatives assert that these cases are binding on lower courts; on others, they emphasize that these orders are only temporary, and should not necessarily be construed as rulings on the merits. Their only real goal is giving the Trump administration what it wants; dealing with the practical implications of their decisions is almost always left for another day, or not at all.
[Continues . . . (https://ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/i-am-begging-the-judge-who-apologized)]
I am entirely bewildered with the behavior of so many people who occupy high places. Why are they, or anyone else, at all beholden to a lying, solipsistic, greedy, con man?
:news: WTF ?
Quote from: Icarus on September 12, 2025, 04:07:20 AMI am entirely bewildered with the behavior of so many people who occupy high places. Why are they, or anyone else, at all beholden to a lying, solipsistic, greedy, con man?
:news: WTF ?
They share beliefs, oh, are we still doing beliefs?
Hates, they share hates and they know what sided their breads buttered on.
Anyway you've got to think of your mental health, go with the flow or you might suffer a bought of defenestration.
Mentioned the Trump administration defunding mental health programs above. One of the couch-sitters at Fox News has what he thinks is a better approach.
QuoteFox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade endorsed euthanizing unhoused people suffering from mental health issues who decline getting help. He made the remark during a recent episode where his co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones were discussing the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
The co-hosts posited that the suspect, who has an extensive criminal record and was diagnosed with a mental illness, should have been removed from the streets long before this tragedy occurred.
Jones noted that the incident was just one instance, and added, "but this is happening all across the country, and it's not a money issue." He then claimed that "billions" has been spent on the mental health crisis and for "the homeless population" and that "a lot of them don't want to take the programs" and "don't want" to seek out the necessary help.
"You can't give 'em a choice," he continued. "Either you take the resources that we're going to give you, or you decide that you gotta be locked up in jail. That's the way it has to be now."
Kilmeade then interjected with a disturbingly bonkers suggestion, interrupting Jones to say, "Or uh, involuntary lethal injection. Or something," Kilmeade said. "Just kill 'em." His co-hosts then just glossed right over that shocking comment and continued their conversation.
[source (https://archive.is/CArdo)]
Following the habitually mendacious Leader, the US Department of Justice got caught in a blatant lie. Not just any lie but a lie in court. In other words, the crime of perjury (and not for the first time). Just another day in the USA.
QuoteOn Wednesday, Donald Trump's Department of Justice made a startling admission in court: It had put forth false information in its effort to secretly deport hundreds of young immigrants to Guatemala in the dead of night. DOJ lawyers had previously told a judge that the children's parents were all clamoring for them to be sent back to Guatemala. In truth, however, not a single parent requested their child's return, and many were not prepared to take them in if they suddenly arrived on their doorstep. This is not the first time lawyers at the Justice Department have been caught lying to the judiciary, and it won't be the last.
[source (https://archive.is/U4MCm)]
I've admired Thom Hartmann for years. He's never lost the will to call out bullshit and is not going to surrender to the abject nonsense that dominates American politics.
QuoteAfter Democratic Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered by a rightwinger with a list of almost 50 other Democrats he planned to kill, and a state senator and his wife were wounded, Trump refused to even call Governor Tim Walz, much less lower flags to half-staff. Democrats, who'd lost a genuine hero, universally called for toning down political rhetoric instead of vengeance or retributive violence.
While the GOP's brand is "We're victims!!!," Democrats are more interested in getting things done for the people. And when they do call out the authoritarianism of this administration, they're pointing to actual policies like masked secret police, military in the streets, Trump grifting billions in crypto, using the FBI to go after his political opponents, and Republicans on the Supreme Court giving Trump immunity from prosecution for actual crimes.
On top of passing legislation, Democratic leaders have consistently condemned political violence without caveat, from Biden's 2020 speech spelling out that "rioting is not protesting" to repeated condemnations after attacks on public officials and public servants.
So when commentators ask both parties to "lower the temperature," we should be honest about what that means in practice.
Too often, it's a request for Democrats to stop calling out the very real way the modern right has mainstreamed eliminationist rhetoric, moral-panic politics, and procedural hardball.
It is a call to pretend that saying "you're child-abusing communists who hate America" versus "you're undermining democracy and endangering people with lies" are mirror images.
They are not.
One is a smear that licenses political violence. The other is a description of a documented pattern of behavior with decades of receipts.
None of that means Democrats are perfect. It means Democrats are operating inside the reality-based world where deals must be made, bills must be passed, and violence is condemned when it appears on your own side.
[Link to full article. (https://archive.is/Ya4IP)]
The right wingers are noisily blaming the murder of Charles Kirk on all democrats. Oddly, the shooter is a member of a strongly republican family,region, and church.
If you tell a lie a sufficient number of times, the lie becomes conventional wisdom.
he was pretty worthless.