#putin out-smarted trump

[trmpt]

Jordan Michael Smith/March 21, 2024

ILLUSTRATION BY VICTOR JUHASZ

Excerpt: “But Trump is unique among presidents in expressing outright adoration for despots and authoritarians—not because they can benefit American interests despite their cruelty, but because, whatever impact they may have on American interests, these leaders have the virtue of being cruel. As Henry Hill says of the gangster Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, Trump is ‘the kind of guy who root[s] for the bad guys in the movies.’

“As president, Trump realized his ambitions to befriend tyrants, praising North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (‘great strength economically’), Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (‘he’s doing a very good job’), China’s Xi Jinping (‘a very, very good man’), and, of course, Russia’s Vladimir Putin (‘very smart’). He saved his insults for NATO and countries like Denmark. During his post-presidency, and now in his campaign to become president again this November, Trump has continued gushing about leaders who expend copious resources repressing the basic freedoms of their peoples. He has brandished their endorsements as qualifications for his reelection. In December, Trump said of Kim Jong Un: ‘He’s not so fond of this [Biden] administration, but he’s fond of me.’ He was implying that voters should value the exceptional level of approval that he receives from someone overseeing maybe the world’s worst totalitarian state.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Nichols at The Nation:

Donald Trump has made no secret of his determination to govern as a “dictator” if he regains the presidency, and that’s got his critics warning that his reelection would spell the end of democracy. But Trump and his allies are too smart to go full Kim Jong Un. Rather, the former president’s enthusiasm for the authoritarian regimes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Tayyip Erdoğan, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán suggests the models he would build on: managing elections to benefit himself and his Republican allies; gutting public broadcasting and constraining press freedom; and undermining civil society. Trump, who famously demanded that the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential voting be “recalculated” to give him a win, wants the trappings of democracy without the reality of electoral consequences. That’s what propaganda experts Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead once described as “demonstration elections,” in which, instead of actual contests, wins are assured for the authoritarians who control the machinery of democracy. The outline for such a scenario emerges from a thorough reading of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, which specifically proposes a Trump-friendly recalculation of the systems that sustain American democracy. The strategy for establishing an American version of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” is not spelled out in any particular chapter of Mandate. Rather, it is woven throughout the whole of the document, with key elements appearing in the chapters on reworking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In the section on the DHS, for instance, there’s a plan to eliminate the ability of the agency that monitors election security to prevent the spread of disinformation about voting and vote counting.

How serious a threat to democracy would that pose? Think back to November 2020, when Trump was developing his Big Lie about the election he’d just lost. Trump’s false assertion that the election had been characterized by “massive improprieties and fraud” was tripped up by Chris Krebs, who served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the DHS. The Republican appointee and his team had established a 24/7 “war room” to work with officials across the country to monitor threats to the security and integrity of the election. The operation was so meticulous that Krebs could boldly announce after the voting was finished: “America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too.” At the same time, his coordinating team declared, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” This infuriated Trump, who immediately fired the nation’s top election security official.

In Mandate’s chapter on the DHS, Ken Cuccinelli writes, “Of the utmost urgency is immediately ending CISA’s counter-mis/disinformation efforts. The federal government cannot be the arbiter of truth.” Cuccinelli previously complained that CISA “is a DHS component that the Left has weaponized to censor speech and affect elections.” As for the team that worked so successfully with Krebs to secure the 2020 election, the Project 2025 document declares that “the entirety of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee should be dismissed on Day One.” The potential impact? “It’s a way of emasculating the agency—that is, it prevents it from doing its job,” says Herb Lin, a cyber-policy and security scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

This is just one way that Project 2025’s cabal of “experts” is scheming to thwart honest discourse about elections and democracy. A chapter on public broadcasting proposes to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of a larger plan to upend NPR, PBS, and “other public broadcasters that benefit from CPB funding, including the even-further-to-the Left Pacifica Radio and American Public Media.” More destabilizing than the total funding cut that Project 2025 entertains is a parallel plan to end the status of NPR and Pacifica radio stations as “noncommercial education stations.” That could deny them their current channel numbers at the low end of the radio spectrum (88 to 92 FM)—a move that would open prime territory on the dial for the sort of religious programming that already claims roughly 42 percent of the airwaves that the FCC reserves for noncommercial broadcasting. And don’t imagine that the FCC would be in a position to write new rules that guard against the surrender of those airwaves to the Trump-aligned religious right.

[...]

While project 2025 seeks to rewire the FCC to favor Trump’s allies, it also wants to lock in dysfunction at the Federal Election Commission, the agency that is supposed to govern campaign spending and fundraising. Established 50 years ago, the FEC has six members—three Republicans and three Democrats—who are charged with overseeing the integrity of federal election campaigns. In recent years, however, this even partisan divide has robbed the FEC of its ability to act because, as a group of former FEC employees working with the Campaign Legal Center explained, “three Commissioners of the same party, acting in concert, can leave the agency in a state of deadlock.” As the spending by outside groups on elections “has exponentially increased, foreign nationals and governments have willfully manipulated our elections, and coordination between super PACs and candidates has become commonplace,” the former employees noted. Yet “the FEC [has] deadlocked on enforcement matters more often than not, frequently refusing to even investigate alleged violations despite overwhelming publicly available information supporting them.”

John Nichols wrote in The Nation about how Project 2025’s radical right-wing wishlist of items contains plans to wreck and subvert what is left of America’s democracy.

See Also:

The Nation: June 2024 Issue

[daughters-of-liberty]

And it's like, I'm not voting for Trump cause he has a penis; I'm voting for Trump because I remember the economy under Trump and I like owning guns.

I, a woman, am not voting for Kamala because she's been useless as the border czar, she doesn't know what she's talking about, she actually literally did sleep her way to the top, and she wants you to forget all of that. She wants you to vote her into an office she's already very close to! She could make changes for the border crisis, gun laws, taxes, and climate change TODAY. Why did Joe Biden not do anything while in office? Why, if it matters so much to her, did she not suggest or outright strongarm Joe into making those changes?? WHAT is actually going to change if she moves her office supplies down the hall?

And don't get me wrong, I have criticisms about Trump. He said he would build a wall, he didn't. He was indirectly responsible for all those men and women being detained after January 6th, he didn't pay their bail or even send them a fruit basket while in custody. A little disappointing. But he kept us out of any new wars. He kept Putin and Kim Jong Un at bay. He fostered American business. We became an oil exporter under Trump. Groceries and gas were affordable. I and my coworkers got bonuses...working at a non-union GROCERY STORE. Housing was affordable. If I was smart and saved my money for not even three years, I could've bought a piece of property...on $11 an hour at the time.

And people wonder why I'm flabbergasted when I see signs that say "we can't go back to Trump". Why? Are you afraid of living in a strong economy or something? Everyone was doing just fine until Covid happened...rather conveniently, I must say.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

President Biden condemns Trump's comments encouraging Putin to attack NATO countries.

In a second very positive development on Tuesday, President Biden gave brief remarks at the White House condemning Trump's statement “encouraging” Russia to invade NATO allies who do not “pay” their “dues.” (Fact check: NATO allies do not “pay dues.”) The fact that Biden has gone on the offensive is morally and strategically important. (The eight-minute video is here: CNN, Dumb, shameful, dangerous, un-American: Biden blasts Trump's comments on NATO.

Biden’s defense of the NATO alliance honors America’s commitment to global peace and security. Trump's statement has rattled our NATO allies and given aid and comfort to Russia’s expansionist plans. It was the honorable and right thing to do to speak out from the White House. Good for Joe Biden!

At least as importantly, President Biden’s forward-leaning stance on foreign policy is a smart strategic move. Foreign policy is an area where maturity, judgment, stability, and lateral thinking matter—a lot. Biden has those qualities in abundance, while Trump exhibits the antithesis of those attributes.

In his remarks (full text here) President Biden said, in part:

Can you imagine, a former president of the U.S. saying that? The whole world heard it. The worst thing is he means it. No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. For God's sake, it's dumb, it's shameful, it’s dangerous, it’s un-American.” When America gives it word, it means something. When we make a commitment, we keep it. And NATO is a sacred commitment. Donald Trump looks at this as if it’s a burden. When he looks at NATO, he doesn’t see the alliance that protects America and the world. He sees a protection racket. [¶¶] [O]ur adversaries have long sought to create cracks in the Alliance. The greatest hope of all those who wish America harm is for NATO to fall apart. And you can be sure that they all cheered when they heard Donald Trump — when they heard what he said. I know this: I will not walk away. I can’t imagine any other president walking away. For as long as I’m president, if Putin attacks a NATO Ally, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory. Let me close with this. You’ve heard me say this before. Our nation stands at an inflection point — an inflection point in history — where the decisions we make now are going to determine the course of our future for decades to come. This is one of those moments.

President Biden must continue to call out Trump's outrageous statements with similar force every time he threatens to turn the FBI into a private police force, round up millions of immigrants, or withdraw (again) from the Paris Climate Agreement.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[opedguy]

Biden Wrecks Relations with Saudi Arabia

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Oct. 26, 2022.--Continuing the destruction of U.S. foreign policy, 79-year-old President Joe Biden claims he had a secret deal with Saudi Arabia July 15, when he met with 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  Biden once said during the 2020 campaign he would never meet with Bin Salman or recognize him as Saudi leader.  Well as the U.S. and Europe began running out of oil because of the reckless Ukraine War, Biden thought he could roll the dice and get a deal with Bin Salman to increase oil production.  Biden’s advisers were warning him that high oil prices could sabotage Democrats heading into the November Midterm elections. So, Biden trotted off to meet Bin Salman in Jeddah July 15 to rescue his own failed energy policy.  Had Biden followed Trump’s policy of energy independence, the U.S. would not beg Saudi Arabia or Venezuela for more oil.  Biden’s failures keep mounting.

Biden’s energy policies to single-out fossil fuels for extinction despite industry dependence on conventional energy has been a disaster.  Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline Jan. 21, 2021, only nine days after taking his oath of office.  Can you imagine without thinking about the consequences of harming the U.S. oil fracking industry, Biden cancels Keystone XL to placate his Party’s radical left like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex?  Instead of sitting down with energy experts and reasoning out a response, Biden acted impulsively canceling Keystone XL, throwing a roadblock into the fracking industry.  When Biden fist-bumped Bin-Salman July 15, he thought he could out smart Saudi Arabia. Bin Salman remembers Biden blaming him for the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.  Biden called Bin Salman a murderer for Khashoggi’s Oct. 2, 2018 death in the Saudi Istanbul embassy.

Instead of Biden dealing with his mistakes, he said that there will be consequences to Saudi Arabia cutting back on oil production.  Do other foreign countries sanction the U.S. if they get less computer chips or any other commodity?  When does a world leader threaten to sanction a sovereign power when they can’t get what they want?  Biden said Bin Salman was showing his loyalty to his OPEC colleague, 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin.  So now, the failure to produce more Saudi oil is seen as Bin Salman’s loyality to Putin.  “The decisions of OPEC + are reached by the consensus of all members and determined solely by market fundamentals, not politics,” said Saudi’s energy ministry.  Whatever the former ally or cooperation partner, Biden has an obsession with destroying past relations.  Biden has wrecked for the foreseeable future U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese relations.

Bin Salman follows closely U.S. political developments, saying recently that former President Donald Trump was much easier to deal with.  With the U.S. press out to sabotage Trump at everything foreign and domestic, they accused Trump of having close ties with dictators and tyrants around the globe.  So, now that Biden has wrecked U.S.-Russia, U.S.-Chinese and now U.S.-Saudi relations, why aren’t the media blaming Biden?  As Bin Salman said recently, he had a good working relationship with Trump, something that can’t be said with Biden.  To the fake news, every positive relationship with U.S. adversaries meant that Trump was cutting nefarious deals.  Trump had excellent relations with Russia, China and eventually North Korea, something unprecedented in U.S. foreign policy. No U.S. president was able to make headway with the reclusive North Korean regime.

Biden has lashed out at U.S. adversaries like Russia and China from Day One.  Now he harms U.S.-Saudi relations because the Kingdom won’t bail out Democrats with lower oil prices before the Midterm elections.  How much more political does it get for the White House conducting U.S. foreign policy?  Instead of working feverishly to end the Ukraine War, Biden keeps supplying Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymer Zelensky with unlimited cash-and-lethal-weapons.  Putin not longer battles Ukraine, he fights the U.S. who pays Ukraine to fight a bloody proxy war against the Kremlin.  Biden’s highest priority should be ending the Ukraine War before it morphs into WW III or nuclear war.  No one in the EU or NATO is prepared to fight Biden’s battle with Putin in Ukraine.  Yet the White House and Kiev want no part of peace, only war making with the Russian Federation.

Biden’s latest kerfuffle with Saudi Arbia shows that he’s not capable of protecting U.S. national security.  Whether Riyadh has a relationship with Putin should be of no concern to Biden. But Biden wants everyone to defend his proxy war against the Russian Federation.  Many countries don’t like the war in Ukraine but they’re not willing to denounce Putin because they’ve built strong ties to Moscow over the years.  “We have a disagreement with Saudi Arabia over the most recent production cut, but our energy policy has always focused on prices, not number of barrels—and that policy is succeeding with crude oil prices down over 30% this years allow,” said Adrienne Watson, National Security Council spokeswoman.  If the U.S. wants low price and abundant supplies of oil, they need to remove roadblocks to the fracking industry and encourage more drilling in mineral rich areas.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[erebusvincent]

I’m grateful to Andrew for listening to Donald Trump and Elon Musk last night and sparing me that unpleasantness.

But I did listen to some of the clips this morning.

Here’s my take: Trump’s awful.

This is, I acknowledge, not breaking news. Trump’s awfulness has been so obvious for so long, and we now take it so much for granted, that it seems silly or gauche to point it out.

Still at the risk of seeming overly earnest or moralistic, I am once again going to point it out: Trump. Is. Bad. Uncommonly bad, even by the standards of today’s politics. And he’s someone whose depravity makes today’s politics far worse than they would otherwise be.

The aspect of his degeneracy that most struck me once again in his appearance last night is this: Trump admires dictators.

As he said to Musk, “Elon, I know every one of them and I know them well. I know Putin, I know Xi, and Kim Jung Un. . . . They are at the top of their game. They’re tough, they’re smart, they’re vicious.”

And he went on to explain how well he got along with those vicious dictators. Vladimir Putin, who is right now conducting a brutal war of aggression that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives? “I got along with Putin very well, and he respected me.”

North Korea’s Kim Jung Un, who presides over the world’s most totalitarian hellscape: “You know, I got along with Kim Jung Un. We had dinner. We had . . . everything. He really liked me. And I got along with him really well. We had a good relationship.”

This isn’t realpolitik. It’s the public and unapologetic admiration of viciousness.

If one loves the United States of America and the principles on which it stands, one cannot but hate this.

In the 1850s, Stephen Douglas took a “don’t care” stance on the question of whether new territories or states would allow slavery. Douglas was a far superior man to Trump, and he thought an openly amoral position on slavery necessary to preserve the Union.

But Lincoln denounced Duglas’s stance unreservedly. The Founders, according to Lincoln, were willing to tolerate slavery where it existed. But they prohibited the spread of slavery into new territories, where it had not existed, and held out the prospect of slavery’s ultimate extinction. This resistance to slavery’s expansion and the prospect of its extinction were key to the moral grounding of the nation.

And so on October 7, 1858, in their debate at Galesburg, Illinois, Lincoln said of Douglas: 

He is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.

A week later, on October 15, at Alton, Illinois, Lincoln developed his argument further:

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, ‘You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

Today it is Trump who is blowing out the moral lights around us.

This doesn’t mean that everyone who seeks to deny Trump another term as president needs to talk only about this aspect of Trumpism. Lincoln’s Republican party didn’t campaign exclusively on slavery, and it appealed to different constituencies with various policy proposals.

Kamala Harris should do the same. She and her fellow Democrats don’t have to spend every minute denouncing Trump or explaining how dangerous he is. In fact, as a tactical matter, they should probably spend much more time building up Harris and explaining her program than focusing on Trump; it’s not clear that there’s much more information to be imparted about Trump, whereas voters still have to get comfortable with the rather sudden prospect of a Harris presidency.

But still, beneath all the political maneuvering—which is important!—one can’t lose sight of the real issue: The fight for “the common right of humanity” against the old and awful doctrine that it is might that makes right.

[sa7abnews]

‘Stupid’ Biden threats caused Ukraine conflict – Trump

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/stupid-biden-threats-caused-ukraine-conflict-trump/

‘Stupid’ Biden threats caused Ukraine conflict – Trump

The former president told Elon Musk there had been “zero chance” of hostilities until the current American leader opened his mouth

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused US President Joe Biden of bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war by making “stupid threats” against Russia, blaming the Ukraine conflict on Biden’s “low IQ.” Trump has often claimed that the conflict never would have happened had he still been in the White House in early 2022. In a livestreamed conversation with X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk on Monday, the former US president said he had viewed Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukrainian border as a negotiating tactic. “I thought [Russian President Vladimir Putin] was doing that – because Putin’s a good negotiator – I thought he was doing that to negotiate,” Trump stated. “But then Biden started saying such stupid things. For instance, he said that ‘[Ukraine] can be a NATO country.’ Now, Russia, for as long as there’s been NATO, said ‘we’re never going to agree to that,’ and we go right up front and say that.”

Read more

Trump’s ‘interview of the century’ with Elon Musk: As it happened

For decades, Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO has been recognized in Washington as “the brightest of all red lines” for Moscow, current CIA director and former US ambassador to Russia William Burns wrote in 2008. Nevertheless, the White House rejected a draft treaty put forward by Putin in late 2021 that would have prevented the conflict in return for a halt to NATO’s eastward expansion. “I could have stopped that, and a smart president could have stopped that. It was so bad, the words that [Biden] was using, the stupid threats coming out of his stupid face… that could lead to World War III,” Trump continued. Trump claimed that he had a good relationship with Putin, but that he had personally threatened the Russian leader with consequences if he sent troops into Ukraine: “I said ‘don’t do it. You can’t do it Vladimir. You do it, it’s gonna be a bad day.’ I told him things, what I’d do, and he said ‘no way’. And I said ‘way.’”  “And you know it’s the last time we ever had that conversation,” Trump added. “I got along well with him. I hope to get along well with him again.”

Read more

Vance explains Trump’s plans for Europe

The Kremlin has never confirmed or denied that such a conversation took place during Trump’s time in office. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he would stop the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if elected president this November. He has never fully elaborated on how he would do this, but recent media reports suggest that he would leverage the massive US military assistance to Kiev to pressure Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky into accepting some territorial losses in exchange for peace. However, Trump did not lobby his congressional allies to block a $61 billion aid package to Kiev in April, and said at the time that he would support lending, rather than gifting, money to Kiev in future. Trump did not discuss future US aid to Ukraine with Musk, instead calling on EU nations to increase their own contributions.

[dwestfieldblog]

SHRAPNEL FOR DEMOCRACY

‘Time passes by, a snowflake in the summer’s sky’…the election happened, the bad guys lost apart from the despicable Nigel Farago, more of whom soon. Biden stepped down; all credit to him for having done so. I watched three hours of Kamala Harris in her previous jobs and found her to be tough, smart, good humoured and moral…she also made the right choice for VP in Walz. So, one night I actually went to bed with hope (arf) for November. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, Ingerland on the feral march, morons and scum on the streets fed false information by populist politicians and racist criminals, not questioning, not thinking for themselves. Farage asking why a black teenage boy who murdered three young girls and attacked others, wasn’t on the MI5 watch list. (‘What are they not telling us?’) Because he was 17 and had done nothing wrong previously, you frog faced Oswald Mosley wannabe. The riot mob were told lies that the boy was a Muslim migrant, and so paraded with the Union Jack and St George Cross flags, gym worked muscles and tattoos…which made them easy to trace. Burning cars, looting shops and punching cops in the name of British national pride. Then the opposites came out; ‘Smash Fascism and Racism by any means necessary’. Any? Finally, balanced folk came with children to sweep the streets clean and help those whose shops were destroyed.

In response to the riots, Sir Kier Starmer ordered the creation of a ‘standing army’ of specialist police officers to out thug the thugs. Idiot genius Elon Musk chirruped/Xed that ‘civil war is inevitable’ in the UK. Yeah maybe, if you fund it pal. A white south African with an unhappy childhood who wants to spread racism around and allow convicted criminals and blatant crap stirrers to have their say loud and clear to propagate chaos. More support for Putin and China’s Western divide and conquer strategies. Too much money and a dearth of heart.

Musk reinstated the chubby bum fluffed Ron Watkins to Twitter in 2023 (along with the criminal racist Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins etc) The Q Onan L Ron Hubbard of conspiracy theory horse manure. (Or else he could be a dadaist comedian using black comedy psychology to expose the very worst elements in humanity. Tak yer pick.) It is noticeable just how many far-right writers and mentally ill tub thumpers he has reinstated since taking over Twitter who were previously banned for hate speech, incitement to violence and spreading misinformation. So, the free flow of ‘knowledge’ clags up in the U bend of X again. And he donates to the Trump campaign. Propaganda interview. Nuff said.

Putting the ass into assassination…just one inch more and the world would be safer today. But no. And then all the ‘saved by the miracle hand of God he cheated death’ plaudits for his ‘I took a bullet for democracy’. Donald, you didn’t TAKE the bullet, you took some shrapnel. All those who had run against him to be the Republican candidate, standing and saying what a great hero he was, what a fine leader he will be again, while Trump sat, smiling like Caligula as his rivals virtually begged for their jobs and political lives while he imagined how he was going to screw them for previous comments. Ah yes, pudgy weirdie beardie JD Vance and his hillbilly pants…apparently thanks to Labour, the UK could be the first ‘truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon’. Blue eyed boy, we already have them and we are still a long way from Sharia law here pal. And Pakistan has the bomb, you dolt, you think they’re Jewish? Oy.

And Lo, the law court ruling spake that the childman was not accountable for breaking the law while a president. So democratic (perhaps that’s why he wants to change the politics of the USA, he doesn’t like that his country is described this way) America, land of freedom moved closer to being ruled by a megalomaniac psychopathic tyrant king. Cult of befouled personality Trump visited North Korea and must have loved what he saw, cleanliness and order, absolute power and control…and a family dynasty ruling for decades by fear and murder. Hmm, he (probably, possibly) thought.

Trump funded by far-right billionaires and greedy fundamentalist Christians who want to tear up the first amendment, (about the separation between church and state) as a righteous government should obviously not remain neutral when the word of GOD-AH and his boy Jesus Christ are the only moral standard with which to measure true law. Pshaw pfff. Most American presidents in the USA’s very short history, were Freemasons, which might explain why Trump acts as if he is jealous at being left out and rants about the ‘deep state’. He wants to join the big boys and be privy to the secrets of the universe. Neither is he in the Bilderberg group…and it is highly unlikely he will ever be asked to join either. So, he stamps his feet, goes a little more orange with rage and declares war on all the gangs which won’t have him. Smearing with libellous paedophilia accusations and satanic porn ring pizza house slave trade blaaarg. You couldn’t make it up? But they do and are believed by hundreds of thousands.

Let’s have some good old fashioned ‘religious values’ now…

The ‘holy’ land …Illegal settlements (according to international law) in the West bank and their continuing expansion fuel Palestinian hatred, the fury bubbling over should not have taken anyone by surprise, least of all the deliberate provocateurs. 5, 295 new homes approved last month. (July) Not exactly trying for peace and a two-state solution. Arab anger will never cease over this. And now the foul Hezbollah seem revving up in response to the mass starving and sick women and children of Gaza and the (has to be said) very well executed (arf) assassinations of bad guys by Israel. However, ‘fair’ or not, genocide does seem to be an accurate description for the endless slaughterings.

(How did three thousand members of Hamas mobilise without Mossad knowing? The latter are one of the best and most ruthless secret services in the world and no Palestinian in their ‘care’ or known to them spilled the beans?). Hilarious to hear Xi Jinping talk about ‘tremendous sufferings’ and that ‘justice should not be absent forever’. Tell that to the innocents in your country who died for a little more freedom on May 35th 1989.

Benny went to the US Congress to give a speech begging for weapons. 43 standing ovations for a war criminal. ‘There is no room for political violence in democracies’ he said, condemning the failed attempt on DT. Don’t remember him saying much about the riots encouraged by the orange one. And off the scale political violence by a democracy against its enemies also seems to be acceptable. Israel has ‘always been our home’. Only for four thousand years. As written last time, many other tribes were there first. Risible House Speaker Mike Johnson beamed with ‘Christian’ pride, as one who believes that Armageddon time in the holy land signifies the return of Christ, whereby all true believers will be lifted in the Rapture of the Lord, hallelujah, amen.

With regard to the arrest warrant for Benny and the Hamas leader, the appalling senator Lindsey Graham said ‘If the ICC (International Criminal Court) does this to Israel, they will come for us next’. So, some US lawmakers want to dismantle the international justice system. Of course they do, same way Boris Johnson, Erdogan et al ad infinitum want to control the justice system in their countries, people it with their crony puppets and avoid arrest.

Speaking of twilight of the idols and the antichrist…saw a video on YouTube… ‘The Devil is Gay’. They must have been watching South Park, eh? Belief in the Devil is essential for the financial business of the churches…to conversely paraphrase Baudelaire (the opium addicted poet) ‘The greatest trick the church ever pulled was convincing so many that the devil existed’ The (nobody expects the Spanish) Inquisition cost a lot of money and thus, approved by the pope, Indulgences cameth unto being. Rich folk could do whatever they wanted, just pay off the Church and be absolved of sin. Nice work if you can get it. And let’s skip a light fandango over the high amounts of infanticide in nunneries, the embarrassing babies caused by pure visiting priests. (Unless they claimed that God did it.) And the mass burnings and torture of innocents, and the hundreds of cases of shifting pederasts from diocese to diocese rather than handing them to the law. And the laundering of Mafia money and the Magdelana Laundries and etc. AND the huge numbers of evangelists preaching shite, hellfire and salvation through the poor giving them lots of money for lying into their faces. All of that would seem to sum up EVIL.

As Zappa said ‘If there is a Hell, its fires wait for them not us’. ‘It was good to hunt down our comedians and minstrels, considering that most of them are wizards and magicians.’  1602 French witchfinder. What a sod. ‘We have enough religion to hate each other but not enough to love each other’. J.Swift  ‘Holy’ folk,do something decent to prove you are worthyof respect, don’t just expect to be respected for your religion just because you are ‘religious’.

‘My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence’. R.A.W.

‘If a people permit exploitation and regimentation in any name, they deserve their slavery. A tyrant does not make his tyranny possible. It is made possible by the people and not otherwise’. Jack Parsons. Neurotic masses crave tyrants, a strong daddy and are encouraged to be neurotic. The masses are allowed to live, in order to act as slaves and maintain the charade. East and West in a rival illusory pantomime, both pretending nationalistic pride is important, only to encourage treadmill production ethics. One might argue that most people don’t want to ‘permit exploitation’, however, it takes a lot to rise against those who are fully armed and brutal. They’ve got the guns and drones but we got the numbers…but how many in the West would be as brave as those in Tiananmen Square in 89 or in Russia over the last two decades?

Politicians in democracies quickly and conveniently forget that their job is to both serve and be accountable to those who gave them a temporary license for their work. Not to spend their time getting richer at the expense of the already poor. ‘Politicians have the same responsibility to know, and act upon, scientific fact as do doctors, engineers, or other professional people.’  

The new generation of politicians who realised half a generation ago that their type are despised anyway, so the best thing to do in these modern times of Tik Tok influencers is to treble down and ONLY say what the worried masses want to hear or need to be threatened with. And blaming other countries and races etc etc, is always a solid vote catcher. Yeah, well the Nazis and Communists found out that stuff only works for a while as a functioning belief system (BS). We are seemingly at a crossroads where humanity’s Ego takes complete control or else gets a hard slap and a rude awakening. May there be Peace… Awaken the neophiliac within with childlike wonder and fascination.  We will see soon…

[dallasareaopinion]

All conspiracy theories are true, well maybe some more than others

Are aliens demons, are demons aliens, are they separate beings from separate dimensions, do either exist? Well first of all they do somehow someway in some dimension. Second I need to find out which one can cloak itself and run around my dwelling. I swear I saw something run across the room twice. At first I thought it was the dog, then I realized the dog was in another room. The second time just kind of flipped me out.

Anyway I think it is demons because I cannot find my favorite bell to ring. Nothing like a nice chime in the air to soothe the soul. Second our shoe rack is collapsing and of course it cannot be because corporations use shoddy material and all the cracks are because this is a second rate product. Just cannot be a cheap piece of garbage made in wherever. So it must be demons. Who else would make you pull something completely apart to see if it can be repaired?

And all conspiracy theories are true. Just ask the people that believe in them. Some though are more true and I feel one is developing that is scaring the fecal matter out of me. I am talking about Project 2025 brought to you by the same people that say the deep state is out to get us.

And what is worse there are very smart people who don’t seem to realize the depth of the problem. Some people think Donald Trump is the problem. At this point Trump is the puppet and I am not talking the Putin puppet of 2016 which to be honest has some conspiracy theory truth to it. Still though the 2024 problem is some people including some very rich people are using Trump to instigate a complete takeover of our country. He has no clue that he is being used. They are whispering all sorts of things in his ears to rally his troops to elect him. He is desperate to win because he is actually fearful one of these prosecutions might work and put him in jail. He is ready to believe anyone that tells him they can save him. And once he is elected they will be able to control the reigns of government no matter who follows him. Sounds conspiratorial, correct? Well go read the document outlining Project 2025. They ain’t lying.

And yet all the Washingtonians intellectuals on both sides of the aisle aren’t even giving this a second glance. People will disseminate all sorts of madness about Trump and now Biden’s age. They will dive deep into the ramifications of either winning the Presidency, yet they are not addressing the monster behind door number 1. As a democracy we are about to be screwed if Trump wins, but not because of Trump. Yet no one has seen the light. Well John Oliver did, but he spends thirty minutes trying to tell us jokes while putting a flashlight in the cave to see the monster. No elitist intellectual wants to admit he is on to something. Yet you do not have to believe him, but do as he says:  READ THE DOCUMENT!.

Yep they published their plan, at least they did us the favor of proving how stupid we are since it is right under our nose and we aren’t doing anything about it. I still admire and respect these same intellectuals that just cannot hear the rumblings from the dragon in the cave. I wish I was as well read and well published to point out to them what they are missing. Sometimes it helps if you can speak someone’s language to get them to listen to you. Yet for all their education and experience in the world of DC politics they just continue to pontificate on what they expect or what they deem are the problems. They cannot be bothered to look outside the wall surrounding the mindset of DC machinations to realize how dangerous the threat laying at the bottom of the swamp ready to rise and eat them and then spit them out.

And for the rest of the country they are too busy worrying about the things that matter and for the last forty years have wrought on us. Our savings destroyed in 2009, our sanity destroyed in 2020 by a real pandemic that no one to this day knows what to do if another one came along, and the post pandemic financial disaster known as inflation that has eaten up our wallets, savings, paychecks, and is headed for our children’s future. And in total you have the ever increasing wealth gap, the deterioration of education, the constant decline of healthcare along with the constant rise of healthcare costs, the slow withering of social security and medicare, the increase costs of any insurance you might purchase, and the list goes on.

And for some reason unknown to any sane person the Democrats and Republicans think that either Biden or Trump is the person that can steer this country to a better future. Oh yeah baby, conspiracy theories are all too real and we are staring at one large monumental disaster that cannot be explained in any rational way. The swamp monster known as Project 2025 and the ignorance of DC is real and it is coming to eat democracy alive.

And if you think that I am a chicken little running around screaming the sky is falling, well then don’t complain to me when a huge chunk of it hits your life because it will. And what I am fearful of is that it has for many people they just don’t realize it yet since we have had it too easy for too long. And that histrically is when things do start to fall apart.

I hope that we can keep this great country going, but it is going to take some work and some people needing to wake up that we need new candidates and new parties like yesterday.

You can blame many things on demons or aliens, but you cannot blame our self destruction on them. We are staring it in the face. Or is all this just a mirage to keep these same demons and aliens entertained. Either way I still want a better future for me even though I am old, yet more importantly for my children and grandchildren and on.

[gettingridofhope]

When I was twelve years old I saw Halley’s Comet with my family up in the high desert. I remember my mother telling me that when it returns I will be 88 years old. The other day I heard on the news that Halley’s Comet is now on the return half of its orbit.

Here I am 49 years old. About to turn 50 at the end of the year and I had absolutely no fucking idea in my head that the current state of the country is where we would be now. This country is now at a crossroads. The problem with coming to a crossroads is you gotta make a choice which road to take and only time will tell if you made the right choice or not.

Our government is failing us the American people. Our politicians perpetuate a system that is benefitting a select few who have the money to help everyone in America and the world at large. For the first time in history a convicted felon is trying to win the general election in order to pardon himself. He doesn’t care about you, me, his followers, his fellow Americans. No one else but himself. The last time this piece of shit was in office the cabal released a pandemic on us. A fucking respiratory virus that hey had adapted from the flu and tried to blame it on China. Forcing forcing many of us into house arrest and thereby instituting a new kind of segregation for the vaccinated and those smart enough to not be poisoned by an untested vaccine that said felon deliberately fast tracked through testing and unleashing it on a trusting scared population. Making us wear masks that couldn’t stop a virus on any day. Isolating us in our homes. Lying to us everyday about the death toll and never mentioning how many survived the virus. They took our jobs, our wealth and our freedom. While their pockets got fat and with the money they had fleeced from us. I wouldn’t piss on Fauci if he were on fire, The felon either.

They all reported record profits after the scaredemic.

The last two sessions of Congress have been the most unproductive of any previous session in the history of the United States. What the fuck do they do all day?!

Billions of dollars being sent to Ukraine and Israel but we can’t help our fucking homeless. That piece of shit Bezos could solve the homeless epidemic almost overnight, Will he? Fuck no. That bald alien looking narcissist piece just keeps on making more and more money. Motherfrucker, you don’t have enough already?

Fuck Jeff Bezos. I hope his asshole falls out.

Fuck Vladimir Putin. Fuck Benjamin Netanyahu. Fuck Anthony Fauci. Fuck Mitch McConnell. Fuck Sharon Bass. Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Marjorie Taylor-Greene. Fuck Xi Jinping Fuck Anakin Skywalker. Fuck Brainy Smurf. Fuck Sean Combs. Fuck Homelander. Fuck Steve Bannon. Fuck John Roberts. Fuck Me and Fuck You…

Just kidding about that last one.

[longwindedbore]

Today’s question: Does Trump

EITHER, (#1) not understand how the Defense in a criminal trial operates?

OR, (#2) is driven by paranoia to always see himself as a victim?

I don’t suggest a #3 in which I would suggest that he thinks the statement below is a clever political move.

If #1 then he ignored or didn’t understand the options he had the options of

Working with his attorneys to develop a defense of alternative explanations for the prosecution’s 200 documents entered into evidence as well as a better job of disputing the testimony of the 19 witnesses who weren’t Michael Cohen.

He could have elected to represent himself which would allow him to make the opening and closing arguments, as well as cross-examine witnesses.

Work out a plea deal before trial that would have avoided the ‘capture and bury’ testimony we’d not heard before as well as the charges of falsification of documents, the illegal use of campaign funds and the tax fraud in attempted writeoffs.

I don’t suggest that he should have taken the witness stand.

If he did as a defense witness, the defense still will only be allowed to ask questions pertinent to the case. Being on the witness stand would not allow him to make statements, even if he stayed within the limitations imposed by the gag order.

Of course, if he had taken the stand, he’s been open to cross examination, again limited to what was asked by the defense attorneys, BUT, given his megalomania, he is the perfect foil for an opposition attorney. Particularly in front of the jury.

If #2 he had the options of

Formulating political statements in conjunction with his attorneys, which cast him in a good light.

He could’ve formulated, the help with his attorneys if he was smart, political statements, dealing with actual political matters that my Garner him some independent votes, as well as win back RHINOS

There’s no good light to be had and he hasn’t any policies that anyone is excited about.

I would argue against #3 based on how he was cowed while the POTUS of the most powerful country in the world by dictators of weaker & smaller countries like Putin, Kim Jong Un, and (bonesaw) Mohammed Bin Salman.

Consider: if you aren’t a member of Cult 45 and you look at Trump you think, ‘clown’, ‘incompetent’, ‘grifter’.

But whether you are part of Cult 45 and admire Putin, Kim, or Bin Salaman, or whether you aren’t and find them disgusting - they display a quality of personal authority. A confidence and self control that comes from a cold dark place deep inside them.

No one sees them as clowns or incompetents

They are among Trump’s idols. Idols he’s met in real life and - despite his megalomania - he understands that he is in comparison weak, puny, inadequate, unfocused. In. 2024 losing ground.

Trump has no power of political leadership. His only option is that of the bigotted loudmouth in a bar trying to stir up a lynch mob to storm the Capitol. Or bringing Congressional trash to the courtroom to intimidate the jury with implied ‘consequences’.

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

April 16, 2024

MUSIC HEARD AT TRUMP RALLIES

1 – God Bless the USA — Lee Greenwood

2 – Don't Worry Be Happy — Bobby McFerrin

3 – Rumors of Glory — Bruce Cockburn

4 – The Pretender — Jackson Browne

5 – Too Much to Hide — Joseph Arthur

6 – America Has a Problem — Beyoncé

7 – Friend Of The Devil — Grateful Dead

8 – I'm a Loser — The Beatles

9 – Guilty Filthy Soul — Awolnation

10 – Phone Call From Leavenworth — Chris Whitley

HOPELESS UTAH JAZZ SHOULD DRAFT CAITLIN CLARK

Hold on to your Air Jordans. The Utah Jazz losing ways could be over. Imagine buying seasons tickets not realizing that the front office would trade away all its good players so the Jazz would lose games. What? True story. At one point this season the Jazz were 26 and 26 — a .500 percentage that could get them into the playoffs. So they traded some players and ended the season with 31 wins and 51 loses. Gone are Simone Fontecchio, Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk. Last season, they traded Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. And before that Bojan Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles were shown the door. It's all part of a strategy to get good draft picks. Really? Let's trade away our good players so we can get some good players. OK, listen to this: A first round draft pick in the NBA will get millions but Caitlin Clark, if she goes first in the WNBA draft, will make less than $76,000. For real. It's not fair. So the braintrust at the Jazz should do this, offer Clark $5 million to come to Salt Lake City. She'd be worth every cent, maybe more. You're right Wilson, it probably won't' happen. But wouldn't it be nice to have a team you could really root for instead of The Replacements. There's always next year.

SUPPORT THE WINTER OLYMPICS — OR ELSE

If you're not excited about Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Games, better keep your mouth shut. It's kinda like being a Republican in Congress who thinks Donald Trump is a blow-hard fraud and rapist with a a crush on Putin. You better keep it to yourself if you know what's good for you. Utah's leaders love the Olympics. Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Games put us on the map. Finally, after all those years of insecurity we got noticed! Props for us! Now people know we're closer to Vegas than to Chicago, although they still can't pick us out on a map. The 2002 Winter Games were televised but viewers couldn't tell Mormons from heathens. People around the globe were watching and asking, where are all the Mormons. Funny how they blend in so well. The folks from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were here again sizing up the place to see if they should award the 2034 Games to Salt Lake City. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney saved the 2002 Games after Tom Welch was caught wrestling his naked wife in the garage when the cops showed up. It had something to do with his mistress. Not exactly the kind of news coverage Olympic boosters like. This time around, our leaders have been instructed — no naked wrestling.

Post script — That's a wrap for another beautiful spring week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of O.J. Simpson, so you don't have to. The Juice is dead. It's been three decades since the so-called “trial of the century,” where the football and Hollywood star was on trial for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. O.J. was acquitted of homicide — a victory for all of black America — but later was found responsible for their deaths in a civil suit. Can't get more American than that. Moving on: Headlines this week included this from The Salt Lake Tribune: “In hunt for ‘white elephants’ in Utah, Olympic commission comes up empty-handed.” No Wilson, we have no idea why they were looking for elephants here. Weird. This headline is from The Washington Post: “Here’s why California is drought-free for a second straight year.” Even the band got that one — rain. Duh. From the Deseret News: “Climate change is forcing ants in Colorado to migrate.” News you can use? Daily Beast: “There’s Never Been Anyone More Relatable Than Bigfoot.” Huh? It'a actually a review of the new movie, “Sasquatch Sunset,” about a family of Bigfoot — or is it Bigfeet. And yes, Wilson, it's one of those flicks that probably would be better if you're stoned.

Well Wilson, history is being made as we speak. The Donald is on trial in New York City on charges he falsified documents to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star right before an election. It's the first criminal trial of an American former president. The poor guy is on a real bummer. So maybe you and the band can give him a sendoff with a little something to brighten his day — or not:

Brother runnin' powder money Daddy's somewhere on a drunk In the hours, after washing I do my dreaming with a gun Well I come down from the country Find a lesson in the draw There ain't no secrets in the city It's hard living with the law They got machines, mama I can't figure They got a romance made for doing time Send me out child, running outside Out along a world of crime Gonna swing my scythe, got a hand upon the handle Gonna shade my children ways I understand Milk the trigger, kill the hunger Staring down this broken land So fetch on up your greasy apron Spread your lover in the straw Hear me baby, I'm nearly crazy It's hard living with the law

(Living With the Law — Chris Whitley)

[poppinsposts]

Happiest of beautiful days! This weather has been fantastic! Although it’s a reminder that global warming is real. I watch all the Alaskan survival shows and older people all talk about how the weather has changed so much since they were young. The ice doesn’t freeze like it used to so they can’t do ice fishing like they used to.

I must find time to see the Bob Marley movie! I absolutely love him and his philosophy on life!

What happened in Chiefs celebration day was a nightmare! Thank God me, nor anybody I know was hurt. Feel so sad for those who were hurt, physically, but also mentally. It shocks you to the core when it happens to you. When I found out it was a fight that started over “why are you looking at me”, I just couldn’t believe the lack of respect for human life. Senseless, in a crowd of kids. 2 of the shooters were kids. We have caring men starting programs for these kids to actually see a way out of the ghetto. Kudos to them! I’m going to volunteer. #KCstrong

We watched the January 6th insurrection documentary last night. So scary and overwhelming for those officers! How can anyone say that it didn’t happen? Or that Trump wasn’t the instigator? They just must not care that our government was almost overthrown because everyone is just acting like it didn’t happen! I’m totally trying not to freak out over him making a comeback. What is wrong with people? How can they not see the narcissistic, egotistical, psychotic liar that he is? What president constantly makes fun of and calls people names that don’t agree with him? A big bully that will do and say anything to get his way. And don’t get me started over his alignment with Putin.

Still holding out hope that the American people wake up and see what’s at stake if they vote him back in office. 🤞🤞🤞

Since it’s gonna be in the 70s today, I’m having a bbq with a few of my favorite people!!

I swear my little Jazzy girl is the most intuitive, smartest dog ever! She knows what I’m saying to her! If I sigh or even look sad, she’s right there to comfort me.

In this pick, she’s been smelling the yard for the best poop spot, can’t be too careful where you poop!

Do believe my new part time gig is gonna be finding Bigfoot. That’s right, jumping on the bandwagon. I’ve been convinced that something big and hairy and smart is out there! We think we know everything, but maybe the hairy beast lives!

[artcalledtattoo]

I’ve seen Gamer Phalanges

The calloused thumb

Was a Driver 2 game

Clandestine Clancy on PC

My game playing is so cordial and awesome

I have no rough hands no callousness on skin

But some people get on their toes

Corns fungus callous has a need to burned of

Do those people count and do things with their toes other than used for walking

Some persons must count from toes calculate and solve other kind of problems

And all the while

The foot is in sock and shoes

They have but have also detrimentafied their toes

Can Joe

Walk

Well

Trump needs Golden Shoes

I’ve seen Gamer phalanges

Her’s too

I don’t carry those things on my feet

Bamboozled my ankle once

Never carried the

The Jam

What color is foot jam?

Are you doing more with feet than needed?

Simple questions?

I’ve seen Gamer phalanges

Dear Trump

Are ur Dogs

I mean trumpets

Not sounding off as you like

For you and I

Save from the bottom

Can own the very same GoldenRod shoe

You’ll fly

We gotta save for three months

No poor man Version

He was Strict tive with NATO

OTAN the hide was belted by Trump

The blue beret

In Tan

No lesser cost version for Shoe or You!

Zero

Captives

No reprieve

Zelch the lower cost

I’ve seen Gamer phalanges

Gotta pay for shoes

Some people have funked up feet!

What all they do?!

Need golden dumbers in Gold!

Thats why said that guy!

Who said Fred

That old fuct in leathered elbows

Cow bunked cowboy

Yep and a noodle eating

Yea that one and that one also and do forget that one too

Point out that meat eater, red carnivores, pink in pig devouring, poultry eat from bones succulents, roll two stones in mouth to keep you hydrated, hook line and de scale or eat whole boil for crustaceans seems the most for taste, I don’t no, I don’t care for Sea see the food presented, who’s looking at all the different serving suggestions and choices for you me them and everything and all everyone everybody where ever you progression on the Planet of Earth…are we all here. I think some are not

Well, I think most are smart just scared

I believe we can make grand changes

Probably where were

Old ma so old da

Aren’t oh are not

Parent teaching

Takes people for change

For

All

Let’s have a change

Better than some politician election

That has never helped

In all through history

Or never held on too

The above is flicked out thumb bird

Look flying in your view

Thumbbirdfuckyou

Why not Emoticon!?

Thumb Bird Fuck You / image, emoticon

It’s different from fisted middle finger fuck you. Like r n r I love you or r n r on, you don’t know the difference we’ll get tha, outta here

Im talking to old school Gamers

Kids

Not you’s

Youse

Youths

Most be older than 35

Hold the damn onions

Sorry, younger Dad, Ur excused

If I skipped ahead in front of you in line, I apologize, if walked in to look me up and down

We’ll, I hope you both enjoyed ur selves afterwards, together, or should I say not

Look up

My eyes are near Six feet tall

Probably 5’ “8

The female in circumstance was crawling

You made it Dad

Send little feelers

I’ve seen undercover trucker shows

You make your Daughter

You make your Son

Should’ve stayed home and played video games

I’ve seen Gamer phalanges

Hey you Dad

Hey you two

Hey your daughter is a guy

Hey you guys

You treat your daughter like a lady

Well, I see a holding strong in mind young man

We may see differently

How you sitting Ma & Pa

You robbing today youths!

Did you make it this far

Well, I’m impressed

I should be hugging ya

Well, knot nots know it

O Kay

“Smile for the Camera”

I said

I then stated, tomorrow while celebrating President’s Day, Trump Putin Bush Nixon Hussein Laden

They WILL not be included

Don’t drone attack

Don’t arm up attack

Don’t lock me up kill later

Don’t even show up to my party

In today’s age you must add address to the ones you don’t want attending, not welcomed even if welcombed, demented Prunts making waves at

The Party

Old Game just readdressed

Sounds Sexy

Well, it’s not

Humped over and calloused

Do you even know?

Do you count with toes?

[nicklloydnow]

“On Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania put on a pathetic display on Capitol Hill when they were asked if calling for genocide against Jews counted as harassment.

It depends, they all said. Penn’s Elizabeth Magill offered a chilling bit of legalese. “It is a context-dependent decision,” she told Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from upstate New York.

(…)

It’s hard to be on Stefanik’s side, given that she epitomizes the grotesque transformation of the Republican Party to an insane Trump cult, but she was right to pin down the prevaricating presidents.

Citing a Washington Free Beacon report, Stefanik noted in The Wall Street Journal that Harvard has cautioned undergraduates that “cisheterosexism” and “fatphobia” helped perpetuate violence and that “using the wrong pronouns” qualified as abuse.

When Stefanik asked Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, whether calling for the genocide of Jews constituted bullying, Gay said it could, “depending on the context.”

(…)

“I think the inability of these individuals to articulate a simple, straightforward answer to what should have been the easiest question in the world was mind-boggling,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, told me. “It’s like a hurricane of hate in the last few months. You ask yourself, how is this happening? Now we know.” He added, “The truth is that these presidents are not committed to free speech. They’re committed to favored speech. They selectively enforce the codes of conduct when it works for them or their friends in the faculty lounge.”

Leon Wieseltier, the editor of Liberties, a humanistic journal, has an essay on antisemitism in the next issue, echoing Greenblatt with a complaint about the “selective empathy” that made kaffiyehs “cool.”

(…)

“The culture on campuses is a culture of oppressors and oppressed. Israel is now Goliath and no longer David — though God knows it has mortal enemies capable of the most astonishing savagery. The Jews were long ago stricken from the rolls of the oppressed because they are seen as white and privileged. We are a culture which loves victims and worships victimization and gives great moral authority to victims, but we don’t treat all victims equally.”

(…)

I think this is still America. But I don’t understand why I have to keep making the case on matters that should be self-evident.

Why should I have to make the case that a man who tried to overthrow the government should not be president again?

Why should I have to make the case that we can’t abandon Ukraine to the evil Vladimir Putin?

Why should I have to make the case that a young woman — whose life and future ability to bear children are at risk — should not be getting persecuted about an abortion by a shady Texas attorney general?

Why should I have to make the case that antisemitism is abhorrent?”

[queen-mihai]

I want to say out loud that I also don't support the actions of the CCP or ANY freaking dictator.

Make no mistake that Putin and the CCP absolutely cum every single time the US shits the bed and the internet collectively facepalms.

They'll happily send their bots and low-paid workers to come in and agree with us that the US is acting fucking shitty and very helpfully point out how capitalism is the root cause of so many of these problems we're seeing

And living in capitalist countries, especially in 2023 when it's easy to find yourself surrounded by hate and nonsense. Being enveloped in loving voices, calmly telling you that you're right and you're smart for saying what you think, in these times, is like... there's a huge draw in it.

I'm not saying I've seen shills for the CCP or Putin in here with my own eyes. I can't say I'd know what they look like if I saw them.

But there's a careful balance to strike lest we go from "The US is doing stupid shit" straight into "Let's emulate some damn dictator"

I think the US needs WORK.

There are people DOING that work.

Those people are being HAMPERED from doing that work.

The people hampering that work are usually white supremacist nazis.

But, and this is important, those people hurting the process of letting America heal are a minority and if they weren't allowed to sit in the seats of power, we wouldn't be complaining nearly as much as we are.

The US is probably the only country poised to actually make it harder to become or remain a billionaire.

trump is NOT fucking "president for life" like so many clown ass dictators who find their way into power. And not only is he no longer in power, he's staring down the consequences of his crimes while another man runs the country.

Biden acts in some ways like a fucking hero and in others he acts like a piece of shit. Perhaps the next president can be someone who was born AFTER the Vietnam War.

Might be worth a try.

8 billion people. No one person has all the answers. I know I fucking don't.