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Posted
11 minutes ago, immamac said:

I've thought about this more since my last post. I keep coming to the same conclusion.

These people are deeply unserious morons. They are failing catastrophically and absolutely flailing and lashing. There is no real threat to anyone because America isn't in a position to do much of anything right now except for be along for the ride. These guys are trying to paddle upstream in white water rapids and they just haven't hit that one rock or drop to capsize the raft yet. 

No one is afraid of Trump, they are ignoring him, because he's a moron. The US has no leverage beyond small changes in the global economy, and it can't and won't be able to wage a trade war on everyone. The GDP retraction that is incoming and nearly unstoppable at this point will really start to cause massive panic and there's no help coming. Its why all the competent leaders are leaving their posts without much fight and fanfare. It seems like everyone knows the best way to deal with this is to let this admin completely exhaust itself in the deep water and even if they ask for help to let them just slowly but surely drown. 

I hope you’re right. Serious or not they’re going to fuck up a lot before public opinion/markets put a stop to it. And then I’m afraid of how they respond once their backs are against the wall. I think you’re right on the disaster course but don’t know how it ends. 

Posted

I like James Carville, but I fear he is way off base with his prediction of a Trump administration collapse.  Trump owns all 3 branches, he has unassailable support.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I like James Carville, but I fear he is way off base with his prediction of a Trump administration collapse.  Trump owns all 3 branches, he has unassailable support.

He also was predicting Kamala would win easily….hes been around a long time and is savvy but Trump will maintain a lot of power even when things get shitty. I think Civil War (movie) outcome might be as likely as their going easily/being chastened and politically held accountable.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:


Trump isn’t the issue.

It’s the army of morons across the country who have no moral compass other than “whatever he says, I agree.”

Yeah and they lose power when Trump loses or is required required to face the music.

Right now these guys are taking shots and grabbing all the girls, the bouncers haven't even showed up for the shift because the party starts at 10pm and it's still daylight outside. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

Apply that to the opinion leaders that fed the tree that grew Trump. Angry Kenneth Copeland GIF by Squirrel Monkey

This guy has a net worth in the hundreds of millions. For decades, people with far less have given him their money because they feel he's trustworthy and that he's a champion of the teachings of Jesus. Really, what chance do we have? 

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Posted
14 hours ago, GenXer said:

 

Longcat
 

  Hide contents

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

Now, with its grip on institutions, disordered discourse isn’t just shaping politics - it has overtaken those in power, who now govern as if manufactured narratives were reality, eroding the state and democracy itself from within.

Disordered discourse doesn’t just govern through those who believe its manufactured narratives - it forces even those who don’t to submit. To stay in power, they must either bend the knee to the lies or become the next target of the machine they helped create.

America is not unique. Any democracy can fall to state capture by disordered discourse if there’s no systematic response. This isn’t something we can fact-check our way out of - it’s deeper than misinformation. It’s about power, identity, and the narratives that shape reality itself.

We’re living through a fundamental shift in how discourse is created. Institutions once shaped a shared reality through discourse - imperfectly, but with structure. Now, that reality has splintered. In its place, engagement-driven ecosystems amplify whatever resonates, truth optional.

The result? A fragmented public consciousness where competing realities coexist, each self-reinforcing and resistant to correction. When truth is no longer a shared foundation, power shifts to those who control the most compelling narrative - no matter how detached from reality it is.

Democracies weren’t built around this. They depend on a shared reality, however contested, to function. When governance becomes a battle between competing fictions rather than policy and truth, institutions designed for debate and compromise become tools for enforcing narratives.

The end result is what we’re seeing in the U.S. - a democracy struggling to function because its institutions are trapped in disordered discourse. Governance isn’t about solving problems; it’s about demonstrating loyalty to manufactured narratives.

If you think this can’t happen outside the U.S., consider that we’re all subject to the same forces - social media-driven discourse, collapsing institutional trust, and the rise of narratives untethered from reality. It’s a systemic vulnerability in every democracy.

We need to consider what this means for our democracies at the most fundamental level. If governance is shaped by engagement-driven narratives over reality, how do institutions survive? If truth is irrelevant to power, what stops disordered discourse from capturing the state everywhere?

Disordered discourse thrives on systemic drivers: engagement-driven algorithms, collapsing trust in institutions, news influencers shaping reality through identity, and the erosion of shared discourse. These forces don’t just distort politics - they reshape democracy itself.

 

plaintext = "paste without formatting"

Spoiler

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

Now, with its grip on institutions, disordered discourse isn’t just shaping politics - it has overtaken those in power, who now govern as if manufactured narratives were reality, eroding the state and democracy itself from within.

Disordered discourse doesn’t just govern through those who believe its manufactured narratives - it forces even those who don’t to submit. To stay in power, they must either bend the knee to the lies or become the next target of the machine they helped create.

America is not unique. Any democracy can fall to state capture by disordered discourse if there’s no systematic response. This isn’t something we can fact-check our way out of - it’s deeper than misinformation. It’s about power, identity, and the narratives that shape reality itself.

We’re living through a fundamental shift in how discourse is created. Institutions once shaped a shared reality through discourse - imperfectly, but with structure. Now, that reality has splintered. In its place, engagement-driven ecosystems amplify whatever resonates, truth optional.

The result? A fragmented public consciousness where competing realities coexist, each self-reinforcing and resistant to correction. When truth is no longer a shared foundation, power shifts to those who control the most compelling narrative - no matter how detached from reality it is.

Democracies weren’t built around this. They depend on a shared reality, however contested, to function. When governance becomes a battle between competing fictions rather than policy and truth, institutions designed for debate and compromise become tools for enforcing narratives.

The end result is what we’re seeing in the U.S. - a democracy struggling to function because its institutions are trapped in disordered discourse. Governance isn’t about solving problems; it’s about demonstrating loyalty to manufactured narratives.

If you think this can’t happen outside the U.S., consider that we’re all subject to the same forces - social media-driven discourse, collapsing institutional trust, and the rise of narratives untethered from reality. It’s a systemic vulnerability in every democracy.

We need to consider what this means for our democracies at the most fundamental level. If governance is shaped by engagement-driven narratives over reality, how do institutions survive? If truth is irrelevant to power, what stops disordered discourse from capturing the state everywhere?

Disordered discourse thrives on systemic drivers: engagement-driven algorithms, collapsing trust in institutions, news influencers shaping reality through identity, and the erosion of shared discourse. These forces don’t just distort politics - they reshape democracy itself.

 

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Posted
Yeah and they lose power when Trump loses or is required required to face the music.
Right now these guys are taking shots and grabbing all the girls, the bouncers haven't even showed up for the shift because the party starts at 10pm and it's still daylight outside. 

What about the last ten years has made you think that these guys are ever going to “face the music”? What do you think that means in this context? What does it look like?
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

2bc.jpg

 

 

That's not what I mean. Despite what some of you think there are actual accountability mechanisms that are built into the global system outside of just America.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Bojack said:

This guy has a net worth in the hundreds of millions. For decades, people with far less have given him their money because they feel he's trustworthy and that he's a champion of the teachings of Jesus. Really, what chance do we have? 

 

Just now, Chad Fuck said:


What about the last ten years has made you think that these guys are ever going to “face the music”? What do you think that means in this context? What does it look like?

Graveyard don't lie.

download.jpeg

Posted
5 minutes ago, immamac said:

That's not what I mean. Despite what some of you think there are actual accountability mechanisms that are built into the global system outside of just America.

I honestly think the only end game other than pure autocracy is a collapse of the US economy followed by widespread revolt.  I'm not the kind to actually root for revolt, but there are no mechanisms in place to keep American democracy safe.

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Posted
7 hours ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

Why would China go in opposition to their biggest ally Russia to get more rare earths, of which they are the world leader in today?

to control the market, the pricing, and the distribution

vp: what the fuck are you doing xi?

xi: business is business

Posted
8 hours ago, bolverk said:

I could very well see AU, NZ & CA all tagging along with the Brits to join the good guys club. No clue what JP, TW & KR are going to do. Maybe they'll come along, too, or set aside all their historic grievances and do a joint Manhattan Project.

you're talking about the breakup of ukusa

the boys are going to be really pissed off when they lose assets

THAT would get canada invaded

god knows what anz are thinking

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Posted
5 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I honestly think the only end game other than pure autocracy is a collapse of the US economy followed by widespread revolt.  I'm not the kind to actually root for revolt, but there are no mechanisms in place to keep American democracy safe.

I suppose X number of republicans could be bothered to find their spines, in which case Trump could be impeached and removed from office. 

Also, I could win the lottery a few times this week. 

Posted
7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I honestly think the only end game other than pure autocracy is a collapse of the US economy followed by widespread revolt.  I'm not the kind to actually root for revolt, but there are no mechanisms in place to keep American democracy safe.

Well, yeah exactly. I didn't say anything about democracy - that ship sailed in November. 

Posted
38 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:


Trump isn’t the issue.

It’s the army of morons across the country who have no moral compass other than “whatever he says, I agree.”


For grins, I checked out reddit. There’s a thread for trump supporters to voice their red line.

Hope is a dangerous thing but..,

 

Spoiler

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Posted
12 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

Trump will take his 3rd term chances to the Supreme Court. They likely grant it. 

That will be an interesting case (as if all the others haven't been interesting).  Presidential immunity was a relatively vague concept.  Electing a POTUS who has served two terms is prohibited by 22A.  I don't know what angle SCOTUS would have to take to get around that.  Actual repeal takes a long time and faces long odds.  My guess is that they would argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, and then suspend the 2028 election.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

That will be an interesting case (as if all the others haven't been interesting).  Presidential immunity was a relatively vague concept.  Electing a POTUS who has served two terms is prohibited by 22A.  I don't know what angle SCOTUS would have to take to get around that.  Actual repeal takes a long time and faces long odds.  My guess is that they would argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, and then suspend the 2028 election.

It’ll be hard to run an election in the middle of WWIII.

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Posted
27 minutes ago, GenXer said:


For grins, I checked out reddit. There’s a thread for trump supporters to voice their red line.

Hope is a dangerous thing but..,

 

  Reveal hidden contents

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IMG_2629.thumb.jpeg.8da28cff6b8579ad382ef17b21af87c8.jpeg

 

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They won’t care as soon as Fox News finds a trans kid playing golf.

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Posted
1 hour ago, immamac said:

Yeah and they lose power when Trump loses or is required required to face the music.

Right now these guys are taking shots and grabbing all the girls, the bouncers haven't even showed up for the shift because the party starts at 10pm and it's still daylight outside. 

They were waiting for Trump not created by him. He said out loud what they were already voting for. The hate engine and all of that.

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Posted
32 minutes ago, GenXer said:


For grins, I checked out reddit. There’s a thread for trump supporters to voice their red line.

Hope is a dangerous thing but..,

 

  Reveal hidden contents

IMG_2628.thumb.jpeg.5c1fcc38c1e8cec5f94d7f3b9701cf1d.jpeg

 

IMG_2629.thumb.jpeg.8da28cff6b8579ad382ef17b21af87c8.jpeg

 

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Okay. Those people "get" it now. Shit, they sound like run-of-the-mill CR "liberal cabal" posters. Why did they not "get" it four fucking months ago if it's so gotdam easy to see the big picture now?

The only possible rational answer is they got caught up in the bullshit culture war crap, as @'stache alludes to, that makes them so short-sighted.

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, horncyclist said:

He also was predicting Kamala would win easily…

I think the internal polling numbers told them what was gonna happen, and the only thing you could do is try not to completely eliminate the enthusiasm so the down ballot votes would not be so horrible.  

I took that prediction as more of a survival strategy once they figured out what was going to happen than  being his actual assessment of what would happen

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Posted
17 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

I think the internal polling numbers told them what was gonna happen, and the only thing you could do is try not to completely eliminate the enthusiasm so the down ballot votes would not be so horrible.  

I took that prediction as more of a survival strategy once they figured out what was going to happen than  being his actual assessment of what would happen

My campaign connnection said the same re: internals. They were reasonably confident. Silent moron vote…or it was rigged.

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Posted
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I like James Carville, but I fear he is way off base with his prediction of a Trump administration collapse.  Trump owns all 3 branches, he has unassailable support.

he's so wrong, especially encouraging Dems to sit back and do nothing. The first month of Trump 2.0 is an unending nightmare of horror after horror and a huge chunk of the American public is just sleepwalking through it until the demon catches them. Advising the opposition party to just sit back and watch it all unfold is the dumbest fucking shit ever. 

Jeffries needs to gtfo. The Dems need to be united in one voice and loudly calling out these fascist billionaire cucks in the most profane terms possible to get the attention of the ding dongs who can't be bothered to follow the news and don't see the train coming about to flatten them.

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Posted
14 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

he's so wrong, especially encouraging Dems to sit back and do nothing. The first month of Trump 2.0 is an unending nightmare of horror after horror and a huge chunk of the American public is just sleepwalking through it until the demon catches them. Advising the opposition party to just sit back and watch it all unfold is the dumbest fucking shit ever. 

Jeffries needs to gtfo. The Dems need to be united in one voice and loudly calling out these fascist billionaire cucks in the most profane terms possible to get the attention of the ding dongs who can't be bothered to follow the news and don't see the train coming about to flatten them.

Well, Ds have been painted as hysterical overreactors.  Because there's not a lot they can actually do, they might actually do well to hold their water until shit starts coming home to roost in magaland.

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Posted (edited)
33 minutes ago, GenXer said:

They know it’s bad when this idea is getting floated.

Should do wonders for controlling inflation.

IMG_2639.thumb.jpeg.87c5f6be0a38df9628f76e6ce420e121.jpeg
 

If we are saving all that money every year, shouldn’t us US Americans expect this dividend every year?  

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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Posted
29 minutes ago, GenXer said:

They know it’s bad when this idea is getting floated.

Should do wonders for controlling inflation.

IMG_2639.thumb.jpeg.87c5f6be0a38df9628f76e6ce420e121.jpeg
 

Think I'd rather continue funding cancer research, keep our national parks open, prevent pandemics, keep our nuclear weapons safe, etc. You know, real country stuff. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Red Five said:

Think I'd rather continue funding cancer research, keep our national parks open, prevent pandemics, keep our nuclear weapons safe, etc. You know, real country stuff. 

Dude. Narcissism is how we roll these days. You sound woke or socialist or dei or whatever foxnews’ new trigger word is.

Posted

Color me shocked that the money would not go to everyone:

Quote

In his proposal, Fishback starts from the presumption that DOGE will achieve $2 trillion in cuts to the government. He takes 20% of those savings, or $400 billion, and divides them among 79 million taxpaying households, to receive $5,000 each. Importantly, the rebate would be sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers — people who pay more in taxes than they get back — with lower-income Americans not qualifying for the return. According to the Pew Research Center, most Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 pay effectively no federal income tax.

 

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Posted (edited)

So no help for the poor, no difference to the rich but they get it anyway instead of having an upper level cap, and per household so only half net to families?

the people who were using the gvt programs you are taking away are the ones that you are specifically excluding from this payback?

we are taking away your food stamps and health care and making you pay for them, but not giving you a piece of the savings to help pay for them. Please die soon thanks. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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Posted
49 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

he's so wrong, especially encouraging Dems to sit back and do nothing. The first month of Trump 2.0 is an unending nightmare of horror after horror and a huge chunk of the American public is just sleepwalking through it until the demon catches them. Advising the opposition party to just sit back and watch it all unfold is the dumbest fucking shit ever. 

Jeffries needs to gtfo. The Dems need to be united in one voice and loudly calling out these fascist billionaire cucks in the most profane terms possible to get the attention of the ding dongs who can't be bothered to follow the news and don't see the train coming about to flatten them.

Yea cuz that method has been so effective for the last decade. 

Posted
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

That will be an interesting case (as if all the others haven't been interesting).  Presidential immunity was a relatively vague concept.  Electing a POTUS who has served two terms is prohibited by 22A.  I don't know what angle SCOTUS would have to take to get around that.  Actual repeal takes a long time and faces long odds.  My guess is that they would argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, and then suspend the 2028 election.

Does the 22 say that he can’t run or just can’t be elected? He will run, he will win with the help of Elon and Russia, and they will say the American people have spoken and the 22 can’t override the people.

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Posted

We have an actual bulletin board in my neighborhood.

This was posted there.

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Quote

Fellow neighbors and Texans, Now we have an economic blackout. It may be a small moment or it may be a huge event. It is, for sure, a flare being fired. We are in trouble, and we need help.

Our nation, whether you can recognize it or not, has been commandeered by an organized crime syndicate. In the traditional Western mythology, we are at the scene where the bad guys have ridden into town and they're bustin' up the saloon.

We are way past cop killers getting a pardon. We have widespread disregard for the law, and the town sheriff has been locked up in his own jail. This is not about politics or a disagreement about policy approaches. This is a celebration of lawlessness and criminat self-enrichment.

Anyone who is willing to commit a crime is valued over the average citizen. Here, have a pardon for the crooked Democratic governor who tried to sell a senate seat. He's one of us.Got a dirty big-city mayor accused of crimes? Let's let him off, maybe, as long as he's useful to us.

Now they've even helped free two sex traffickers for who knows what reason. I guess, just because they're bad.

Yep, one criminal after another, getting freed by the new gang in town.

Meanwhile, our world is being turned upside down. All because the evil rich men hired some thugs to run roughshod over us all. Who can step in and save us? The FBI, the CIA, the military? No one?

Having grown up in Texas, I always wondered what it must have felt like to be trapod in the Alamo. Now I know.

There are people out there, usually politicians, who say we're going to have another Civil War. They say it like it's a warning, but it's really just what they want. There isn't going to be a Civil War, because out in the real world we kind of like each other. Now, I'll concede, there might just be another French Revolution closer to home.

We have an old Texan saying, "good fences make good neighbors." I never took that totally literal. It really just meant that we all got along better when we gave each other some space. These old boys don't get that. They're up in your business. They're up in my business. They're up in everybody's business.

While I appreciate a good show, I'm getting tired of this circus and its distractions. All the magic tricks, they just keep us from seeing the real problem: Rich people who can't ever be satisfied and dumb criminals who will do their bidding.

When was a kid, I loved watching The Lone Ranger on TV. After one episode, I was frustrated and said to my mom, "Why doesn't the Lone Ranger just pull out his gun and shoot the bad guy?" I'll never forget my mom's stern look as she said, "Well, son, the Lone Ranger just doesn't do it that way."

hope we can be the Lone Ranger. Up in Colorado, they just arrested a woman with a bag of explosives outside a Tesla dealership. I get it, people are getting edgy. Maybe we all feel Luigi Mangione's frustration.

For now, we're going to send a signal with a day of corporate economic blackout. Years ago, there was a popular poster showing a cartoon mouse standing at the edge of a cliff. He was scrawny and sad looking, but he held out an upthrust middle finger as an eagle with giant wings and razor-sharp talons closed in on him.

Maybe that's all this will be. But it won't be the last. We Americans - our spending as consumers - represent 70% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product. We're not so small after all.

Right now, we are all for certain John Wayne's character Tom Doniphon standing up for what's right in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Let's all stand up together to the gang of thieves. There may not be anybody else coming to save us.

Respectfully,

Your Fellow Neighbor and Texan 

 

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Posted
5 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Does the 22 say that he can’t run or just can’t be elected? He will run, he will win with the help of Elon and Russia, and they will say the American people have spoken and the 22 can’t override the people.

It says nothing about running:

Quote

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

 

Posted
3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

It says nothing about running:

 

Pretty easy for them. He “wins” the election, electors ignore the 22nd, supremes throw out the 22nd as violating the will of the people. 

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Posted
Think I'd rather continue funding cancer research, keep our national parks open, prevent pandemics, keep our nuclear weapons safe, etc. You know, real country stuff. 

Move fast and break things. Disruptor mindset is what we need. Just hop on to the next spacex rocket and hope it doesn’t prematurely disassemble .
Posted
2 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Pretty easy for them. He “wins” the election, electors ignore the 22nd, supremes throw out the 22nd as violating the will of the people. 

Hopefully he’s dead before then. 



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