Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3

Subject: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 09:51 AM

I'll see if I can't get a link back to the contents of the other one and close it so it stays in view. Here is thread three (700 posts seems to be the cap on these now.)

The Big Bad Budget bill is back in the House right now, and it is dreadful. We're making a lot of fuss, but for all of the good it will do, the idea of elected officials paying attention to constituents these days seems to be DOA.

Name changed slightly, since now Peter Theil is the one ransacking our data and making it even worse with his Palantir programs the federal goons have decided to deploy against the population.

---

Convicted felon thread 2

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 04:17 PM

Thanks SRS. I wondered what "Theil" referred to so thanks for the explanation.

I was sorry the thread crashed after my crass, rumour-mongering comment about Leavitt, but there it is almost at the end of the previous thread, with clever responses from BWM and Sandra. :-D

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 04:28 PM

All climate reporting and research is cut, including federal NOAA tornado warnings and hurricane data. Trump replaced disaster relief professionals with loyal rookies with no experience and is under a sort of gag order. The silence is the best money won't buy.

A pardoned 1-6 attacker now works for the Justice Department.
Non-professional ICE agents will be hired in the thousands. Cruelty is a requirement like hiring motorcycle gangs for concert security.

With a near 4 trillion dollar addition to the deficit, it is likely there will not be the money to restore USAID and other agencies like NIH because money is needed to pay the debt interest and prop up a soft T-bill bond market.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 04:31 PM

FEMA may go the way of USAID.

America, land of oppo-lunacy.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 06:38 PM

I recently read an article about how cuts to NOAA are affecting Australian research on the antarctic ice sheet - no more NOAA observations will be shared - or maybe they are not being taken cos climate change is false news (etc, etc, etc)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 06:51 AM

They changed the EPA protection so that the habitat is no longer protected, so mining, lumber, and waterway industry are free to do anything they want.

California has loosened building regulations so that housing can proceed without delay which is sensible to me.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 07:46 AM

There are new plans to require tricky paperwork to sustain Social Security and Medicare. Most seniors will have a hard time uploading documents in a format changing PDF to something different. They also cut in half those who are supposed to review these new uploads.

This gamification of America with new rules and no rules is part of the owning the Dems strategy of cruelty. 'If it's not cruel it's not a rule'.

The alligator alcatraz, built on an abandoned runway, is in the middle of a Florida swamp infested with cobra and alligators delayed opening because it rained and flooded the cages meant for immigrants. Trump visited yesterday and loved the humidity and bugs. This concentration camp might be his favorite. btw it rains there regularly, but hurricanes are few.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 08:21 AM

The facility's structure is a fully aluminum frame but the walls are 2 millimeters thick making it less sturdy than a double-wide trailer.
Someone said it will survive a level 2 hurricane. If a devastating storm blocks access for 2 weeks, starvation will succeed.
"It's not criminal, it's minimal discomfort".

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 08:31 AM

video

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 01:54 PM

Not sure what video you were trying to link there, Don. It seems to be something about chef's knives? Anyway, one for Fred Wedlock's "The Folker (Revisited)" was immediately under it so thanks for that :-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jul 25 - 05:31 PM

Well the big beautiful bill has passed. Heaven help you all.

Remember what I said about the mid terms? Do you think it coincidence that the budget cuts don't happen until after them so the big bloated baby can blame the Democrats?

2026 to 2028 will be a nightmare for all but the richest, who have already had their tax cuts. The next presidential campaign will be fought on how bad the Democrats have done and people will forget it was all Turnips fault. You need the strongest and most forceful candidates you can find to expose the smoke and mirrors. Start campaigning for them now!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 03:30 AM

what is the row between Trump and Musk about

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 05:14 AM

From Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-chief of The Economist

I spent last week in America, partly in sweltering New York and partly at the Aspen Ideas Festival. It was hardly a hardship trip. New York, despite the heat, was buzzing. And I had a great time in the mountains, listening to thought-provoking conversations and meeting many Economist subscribers in an idyllic setting. In both places I was struck by how upbeat people were feeling. New York financiers and Aspen attendees are a fairly elite bunch, but the change in mood from my last trip in April was remarkable.

Gone was the fear that President Donald Trump would wreck America’s economy. Instead, with markets back at all-time highs, an insouciance has set in. The general conviction seems to be that tariffs are really just a negotiating tool and that those levies that have been put in place haven’t done much harm. And, yes, Mr Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill increases the debt, but no one seems too alarmed about it.

Call me a European grinch, but I felt I had arrived on planet Pangloss. Yes, America’s economy is remarkably resilient. Yes, it is innovative, entrepreneurial and a place where optimism almost always pays off. Nonetheless, I worry that Trumponomics 2.0 is eroding the foundations of America’s economy in more fundamental ways than many people are willing to admit.

Our cover in most of the world this week looks in detail at one signature element of Mr Trump’s economic policy: the One Big Beautiful Bill act. The bill is so bloated that important measures were poorly scrutinised, and includes a lot of pork to buy the support of congressmen. Its neglect of the economy’s long-term health is a symptom of a wider malaise, as our cover leader explains.

It is wrong to expect, as Republicans claim, that this bill will create an economic boom. Our briefing finds a law that is profligate and yet insubstantial. It extends lavish tax cuts well into the future and boosts spending on defence and immigration enforcement. It offsets some—but nowhere near enough—of the cost by ditching green subsidies and cutting health care and welfare for the poor. The backdrop to all of this is America’s mountain of debt. Unless the budget deficit falls, America’s debt-to-GDP ratio will in about two years exceed the 106% reached after the second world war. The long-term risks to the economy are real, and growing.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 10:13 AM

Trump said twice that he Hates Democrats. On top of his arrests of Democratic judges and politicians and the assassinations, he is highlighting hate on this July 4th.

This is what a narcissist would do, but with the Justice Dept, Congress, and Court on his side, he can effectively call to violence the sickest of the sick.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 11:03 AM

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/video-shows-first-detainees-at-alligator-alcatraz-lawmakers-say-they-were-denied-entry/36517

The first of 6,000 arrived at the swamp camp. Also, dozens of other private prisons are being built for Trump's rich donors to profit from. I wonder if the swamp Everglades environment is protected by a septic tank that can handle 6,000 people or more.

Subject: RE: Terrorist coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 03:08 PM

Trump is behaving like an Islamic Imam preaching terrorism and death to half of America. He is preaching to a very small minority capable of suicide sacrifice to inflict harm and death to Democrats who he nonsensically calls the completely insane Nazi Communists.

His first order of business is to monetize the Presidency to the maximum. The second is too eliminate all those that might try to interfere with job 1 via the Justice Department and a populist terrorist movement against his enemies. There may come a day when he can legally dispose of his enemies, but until then, the dirty wet work is in the hands of his terrorists, willing to kill.

Fifteen years ago I was said to exaggerate and lie about the coming fascism. I expect the same denial of Trump terrorism in the future.
Its not a deterministic universe, so something quite different might occur. With a Trump foot on the neck of economic government numbers and media, the odds are slightly in his favor.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 04:39 PM

Mr. ICE vigilante (the SS Storm troopers of Trump)


You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fearful children kicked
Out of their world
For threatening the babies
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say I should go
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm smarter than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness?
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I'll follow your casket
By the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

mostly Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 25 - 09:44 AM

Apparently since the "budget" was pushed through the way it was there is still some "selling" that Trump needs to do to make all of the parts stick. I'll be researching what those things are that might still be under discussion. We all need to be doing that.

When Trump was #45 McConnell let him get away with his crap because McConnell was left alone to put conservative judges in office. We saw Trump as a criminal and deranged then. Now as #47, it is the Heritage Foundation that is behind him, propping up his diminished brain so they can get their crap in place. This is a great illustration of why puppet leaders are a horrible idea.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Jul 25 - 10:41 AM

Useful idiots have always been in political demand. Most of the idiots regret being a tool but Trump has made it pay out.

I have enabled Trump by not being a joiner and remaining a relative hermit. It was easy as an only child and retiring early with no ambition for wealth.

It seems many Americans are lonely outside of the internet, while camaraderie in clubs like QAnon satisfies the social itch. Young Americans are isolated and depressed. Pubs and churches have changed since the 70s becoming corporate or mega concerns. Cross-cultural activities are becoming rare. Individual echo chambers are common.
This all enables authoritarians.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 07:28 AM

The offending bill should be described as "bootiful". To English ears, that's the pronunciation used by Bernard Matthews in his TV ads to describe his turkeys.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 09:59 AM

And one more thing, from this week's TNW/TNE*, in their running microcolumn "Nic Aubury's 4-Line Poem":

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO (A DC STORY)

Since the orange-faced fool means to model his rule
on how comic book villains behave,
pray that somewhere out there is a billionaire
with a butler, a cape, and a cave.

I'll leave it there awhile.

* The New World | Issue 442, July 3, 2025

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 06:24 PM

very clever, so I went looking for more & found this

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 07:44 PM

Thanks voting

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 07 Jul 25 - 07:27 AM

"Theil coup"?

Assuming the 'h' is silent it sounds like an off-colour bovine. ;)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jul 25 - 03:17 PM

Thank you DODGE for killing people with floods, fires, starvation, and disease.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Theil coup 3
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 07 Jul 25 - 07:07 PM

I hadn't noticed that "Musk" had been changed to "Theil" in version 3 of this thread until Nigel drew attention to it. As this this is obviously a reference to Peter Thiel, perhaps a mod caould change the thread title to give the correct spelling of his name.

DC

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 03:24 AM

Now I’ve heard it all - Netanyahu proposes Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

And, in the same short piece, it’s stated that Israel and the US are working together on an ethnic-cleansing plan for Gaza.

WTAF? You couldn’t make this kind of shit up.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 04:26 AM

BWM, you took the words out of my mouth. I said almost the exact same thing to Hubby when I heard that news.

How does a war-mongering, genocidal head of state have the gall to nominate another child-starving-killer for the Nobel Peace Prize? WTAF?

I saw a silly joke in a book this week.

Why did the scarecrow get nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? She was outstanding in her field.

The only reason those two are outstanding is because they blatantly murder innocent people.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 05:08 AM

The Pakistani head of state, Netenyahoo .... Once Tantrump gets nominations from Vlad, Xi and Kim Young'Un, that's a royal flush, nyet?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 05:31 AM

I've been wondering what Nobel Peace Prize winners think of the idea ... and also what the Nobel committee thinks of the idea.

Maybe someone could nominate him for a Darwin award ... Trump has dropped a big, beautiful bomb on America’s economy China’s leaders must be wondering whether they are hallucinating or the United States’ political class have lost their minds, committing economic and geopolitical self-harm on a breathtaking scale.

Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” marks a wholesale retreat from swaths of advanced manufacturing and energy technology. It abandons a central front of the Sino-American superpower contest without a fight...

... The United States has just dropped a big, beautiful, bunker-busting bomb on its own economy.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 06:23 AM

Sorry, Sandra: Darwin awards only go to those who have eliminated themselves from the gene pool in especially entertaining ways, and His Putrescence (even if he's actually still alive somewhere in there) has cast his seed too wide already. He'd also blow it on the entertainment factor IMHO, unless Vlad or Xi is head judge on the panel.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 10:32 AM

silly me, I forgot!

maybe we need a new award? How about the Bunker-Buster's Award?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 10:37 AM

One of my lads has convinced me that Netanyahu should always be spoken in a Billy Connely accent. Whenever I think the name that now echoes and I cannot help but laugh!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 01:09 PM

One single emperor did not cause the fall of the Roman Empire. The empire's decline and eventual collapse were the result of a complex interplay of numerous factors over a long period. While certain emperors' actions exacerbated the situation, attributing the fall to a single individual is an oversimplification.

Ergo short of nuclear destruction Trump will not be the end of America. Project 2025 is a different matter.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jul 25 - 05:39 PM

Trump has his own Roy Cohn in the Himmler-esque Stephen Miller.
Steve

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jul 25 - 05:34 AM

First, Trump went full Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon and ordered troops/Marines into US cities. Now, his IRS says churches may remain tax-exempt even if they only endorse political candidates.
Trump has not declared himself a God like Julius Caesar, but he has opened the door for Trump to enter the God Business.

Only one more court needs to sign off to make the Holy Church of Trump a reality.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Jul 25 - 10:23 AM

*bzzt* Objection: Julius Caesar never declared himself a god --- that was retrofitted onto him long after he was skewered. The first to be declared a god while he was alive was Augustus (né Octavian), and that was wished on him from afar. The first to deify himself was Caligula, which in the current context is entirely apt.

I can't remember what was decided in an earlier version of this thread: who *did* we nominate as Livia?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jul 25 - 10:48 AM

First, Trump went full Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon and ordered troops/Marines into US cities. Now, his IRS says churches may remain tax-exempt even if they only endorse political candidates.
Trump has not declared himself a God like Caligula, but he has opened the door for Trump to enter the God Business.

Only one more court needs to sign off to make the Holy Church of Trump a reality.



(better?)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 09:45 AM

Elon Musk fixes Groc

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 12:46 PM

Gift article from New York Times Justice Dept. Whistle-Blower Warns of Trump Administration’s Assault on the Law
In an interview with The New York Times, a former Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, said officials pressed subordinates to mislead judges, and dared the courts to stop it.

“The Department of Justice is thumbing its nose at the courts, and putting Justice Department attorneys in an impossible position where they have to choose between loyalty to the agenda of the president and their duty to the court,” Mr. Reuveni added.

Attorney General Pam Bondi denied his account on social media on Thursday. “This disgruntled employee is not a whistle-blower — he’s a leaker asserting false claims seeking five minutes of fame, conveniently timed just before a confirmation hearing and a committee vote,” she wrote.

Ms. Bondi insisted no one at the department was ever asked to defy a court order. “As Mr. Bove testified and as the department has made clear, there was no court order to defy, as we successfully argued” to a federal appeals court, she added.

In his whistle-blower complaint, Mr. Reuveni chronicled the lengths the administration appeared willing to go, describing a particularly shocking moment that crystallized its approach. As the officials prepared to invoke a rarely used wartime law to send immigrants to the Salvadoran prison, the complaint said, Mr. Bove told subordinates at a meeting on March 14 that the Justice Department may end up ignoring court orders, using an expletive to underscore his point.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 04:10 AM

Angry tears here, appalled and way past alarmed- can it be that tomorrow will NOT bring about the downfall of the current administration? Flash bombs, tear gas, TANKS...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 08:18 AM

During the reign of the Barbarians, King Oloaf lived in the provincial castle. He lived an elitist royal life since childhood, so when a series of unlikely events put him on the throne, his childish whims were the foundation of his rule. His court advisors coddled his whims but plotted to concentrate all wealth in the castle treasury, where the advisors would have access. The process of draining all resources of the province and castle began slowly. Still, within 5 years, every life-giving supply and protection of the royal subjects was canceled and monetized for the royal court. The plan for the advisors and King was to get theirs and get out, but the King was deluded into thinking life would go on as usual.

What became usual was starvation, banishment of the discontented peasants, and the crumbling infrastructure from the roof to the dungeons. Disease became the harbinger of deliverance for the remaining loyalists. The last men standing were the military with every conceivable weapon in a kingdom of ghosts and enemies. Trade dwindled as taxation made every transaction a losing proposition. To this day it is uncertain where the Oloaf castle was or if it was just a legend.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 08:29 AM

There’s something very weird about an orange American baboon, who himself can barely string an intelligible sentence together, complimenting the President of Liberia on his ‘beaudiful English’, and asking where he learned to speak it so well.

The official language of Liberia is….English!

And to think that the very same orange American baboon holds the US’s Nuclear Keys. Gawd help us all!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 09:29 AM

Hopefully, His Excrescence was given a Fisher-Price Big Beautiful Button, to go with his own beautiful English and the entirely tasteful redecoration of Air Force One-And-Only. If and when he's gone, the White House will have to be nuked from orbit ("it's the only way to be sure").

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 11:03 AM

In this kingdom of ghosts and enemies the big beautiful bill has made gun silencers available to all without a fee or legal incumberance.
Along with the shrunken FBI, white collar crime and surreptitious
killers are having the time of their lives with impunity.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 11:23 AM

Peter Andreas Thiel is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, investor, and political activist. He co-founded PayPal along with Elon Musk in 1999 and served as its CEO until selling it to eBay in 2002. Thiel was also Facebook's first outside investor, buying 10.2% of the company in 2004 for $500,000. He sold most of his shares in 2012 for over $1 billion. Thiel is also known for co-founding Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company that went public in 2020.

Thiel is said to have groomed JD Vance for political convenience.
He has been espousing views that critics describe as aligned with or bordering on fascism.
Here's a breakdown of the key elements driving this discussion:
Critique of Democracy and Support for Strong Leaders: Thiel has openly stated his skepticism about the compatibility of freedom and democracy, suggesting that democracy hinders progress and that companies, with their hierarchical structures and single decision-makers (effectively "dictators"), are better run than governments.
Association with Neoreactionary Thought: Thiel is linked to the neoreactionary movement (NRx), an ideology that advocates for dismantling the existing democratic structures and replacing them with a privately owned corporate state run by a CEO-dictator. NRx leaders explicitly express contempt for the common people, oppose democracy and egalitarianism, and seek to destroy the American nation-state and the Constitutional order.
Elitist Worldview and Desire for Control: Thiel's biography and political philosophy consistently reveal a deeply elitist worldview and an obsession with power and control, according to some analyses.
Influence on Far-Right Politics: Thiel has significantly funded and supported Republican candidates with agendas aligning with far-right views, including those who have expressed anti-democratic sentiments or supported dismantling democratic norms.
Historical Context and Accusations: Some commentators link Thiel's views to the legacy of his father's alleged adherence to Nazi ideology, suggesting a direct connection between Hitler's Germany and the rise of American authoritarianism through figures like Thiel and Donald Trump. His support for apartheid in his student days and his criticism of welfare programs and women's suffrage as undermining capitalism further fuel the accusations.
However, it's important to note that Thiel himself is known for being contrarian and slippery in his positions, often walking back controversial statements.
In summary: The accusations of fascism against Peter Thiel stem from his expressed disdain for democracy, his links to the anti-democratic neoreactionary movement, his support for authoritarian-leaning politicians, and his broader elitist and control-oriented worldview. While he may not openly embrace the label, many observers argue that his actions and ideologies share significant overlap with the tenets of fascism.

google

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 25 - 05:42 PM

The betrayal of the MAGA fan.
sung by Ella Fitzgerald spinning in the grave



After one whole quart of brandy
Like a daisy, I'm awake
With no Alka-Seltzer handy
I don't even shake
Trump is not a new sensation
I've done pretty well, I think
But this half-pint imitation
Put me on the blink

I'm wild again, beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
baited, bothered and bamboozeled - am I

Couldn't sleep and wouldn't sleep
When Trup came and told me, I shouldn't sleep
baited, bothered and bamboozled - am I


Lost my mind, but what of it
He is cold, I agree
He can laugh, but I love it
Although the laugh's on me

I'll vote for him, and midterms for him
And long for the day when we'll cling to him
baited, bothered and bamboozled - am I


He's a fool and don't I know it
But a fool can have his charms
I'm all in and don't I show it
Like a babe in arms
Trumps's the same old sad sensation
Lately I've not slept a wink
Since this half-pint imitation
Put me on the blink

I've sinned a lot, I mean, a lot
But I'm like Q of QAnon
baited, bothered and bamboozled - am I


I voted him, and did midterms for him
And worship the hair style that clings to him
baited, bothered and bamboozled - am I


When he talks, he is seeking
Words to get off his chest
Off the monitor speaking
He's at his very best

Vexed again, perplexed again
Thank God, I can be ever blessed again
baited, bothered and bamboozled - am I



Wise at last, my eyes at last
Are cutting you down to your size at last
baited, bothered and bamboozled - no more

Burned a lot, but learned a lot
And now you are King, so you earned a lot
baited, bothered and bamboozled - no more

Couldn't eat, was short on cash
Life was so hard to bear
Now my heart's antiseptic
Since you don't seem to care

Bromance, finis; your chance, finis
Those antics that invaded my mind, finis
baited, bothered and bamboozled
- no more

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Hrothgar
Date: 13 Jul 25 - 12:44 AM

I am starting to wish that every visiting head of state/government would say the same as the South Africans - "We are sorry we don't have an airplane to give you"

It might get to him after a while.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 05:39 AM

What sentences are given to immigrants sent to CECOT prisons and South Sudan? Are they serving life in prison without a trial?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 07:57 AM

he should be prosecuted, re Epstein

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 09:53 AM

My portrait of Trump is a plump little man who is a bush league Führer who feeds off his self-delusions. He finds himself perpetually hungry for some kind of greatness and like his goose-stepping predecessors, he blames the world for the conspiracies of the black man and yellow man for the stumbling blocks they put in his way. Although his mind is in the sewer, his lexicon includes strength, faith, and truth, none of which belong to him.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 11:17 AM

Ancient Egypt lasted 3,000 years with 3 periods of intermediate instability.
Will the US last 300 years or are we now in the second period of instability after the 1st Civil War?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 11:45 AM

Schools in Texas are being hit by that huge withholding of already approved Dept of Education funds. Teachers are preparing to greet students in a month and the Fort Worth district alone is down that $10 million that is in limbo.

That and inadequate weather forecasts and it has been a heckuva July so far.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 05:57 PM

The Trump ICE Gestapo is now going after kids at baseball practice.
My fellow Americans are behaving like cowards. The armed masked thugs are winning.

Rounding up criminal little leaguers is un-American except for white Nazi nationalists.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 25 - 07:38 PM

We have gone from
keeping up with the Kardashians
to running from ICE armed ruffians.
Those who sadly trip and fall
disappear without a call.

A Court said Trump may detain people in his camps indefinitely.
That means months or years. There will be no bond hearings anymore.
This is a boon for private prisons. Judges will not be involved.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jul 25 - 03:18 PM

Epstien tapes on Trump

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jul 25 - 05:24 PM

Trump canceled the National Suicide Prevention hotline.
The depth of his unempathetic cruelty is an abyss.
No need to post every single cruelty going forward since it is becoming the new normalcy and replacement for strength.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Jul 25 - 07:36 AM

The hotline was canceled for gays.

"New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face, that it resounds"

William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. It is spoken by Macduff, describing the devastating impact of Macbeth's tyranny on Scotland.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Jul 25 - 09:10 AM

.... can't .... resist ....

Found in the comments section of a Register article (about slowing demand for phones):

In any case globally phone sale were declining or decelerating before Trumpty-Dumpty ascended the throne of Trumpisstan.

Is that the sort of thing you were thinking about (in the Kitchen Table thread), Donuel?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 25 - 10:04 AM

Trolling from the White House a New York Times gift article.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Jul 25 - 11:10 AM

Just today found this, while re-reading the book; it's from a section about Albert Einstein's time at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton), and his friendship with Kurt Gödel (he of the Incompleteness Theorem). Apologies for length, but context is all.

Einstein and Gödel hit it off immediately. As Einstein said, he would go to the office "just for the privilege of walking home with Kurt Gödel." When Gödel fell ill, Einstein came and looked after him. When Gödel applied for American citizenship and was about to be sworn in, he found what he perceived was a logical inconsistency in the American Constitution that would allow the country to descend into tyranny. Einstein stepped in and went with Gödel to prevent him from sabotaging his own citizenship ceremony.
    -- Pedro G Ferreira: The Perfect Theory, p77

Full disclosure: Pedro was a colleague and friend of mine, and gave me the copy I'm re-reading. One of these days, I'll have to ask him where he got all that from, and in particular whether anybody has documented what that "logical inconsistency" may have been. In the light (or darkness) of current events, we may have need of that information.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jul 25 - 07:57 AM

Stilly, in many ways, the Republican postings are more effective than the 3rd Reich's early anti-Jewish propaganda and posters.

'Filk, name-dropping your friend Einstein would have been so much sweeter.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 25 - 11:37 AM

It took until a news article pointed out that Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey, worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York on the Epstein case, for her to be fired by the White House. DOJ fires Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey and a prosecutor in Sean Combs' and Ghislaine Maxwell's cases
Comey prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs this year and played a role in the investigation and subsequent prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired by the Justice Department on Wednesday, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

It was not clear why. One of the sources said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York cited Article II of the Constitution, which establishes the executive power of the president.

Nick Biase, a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.

I'm surprised it took them this long, she would have been low hanging fruit for Trump who is all about persecuting the families of his antagonists.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 25 - 11:40 AM

Today there are "Good Trouble" protests all across the US.

Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble’ protests honoring John Lewis
Rallies at more than 1,500 sites nationwide planned for Thursday to protest against Trump administration

The “Good Trouble Lives On” day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis’s death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in iconic civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Lewis implored people to participate in “good trouble, necessary trouble” to advance their causes, and this call serves as the underpinning for the 17 July actions. Dozens of advocacy and civil rights organizations are signed on as partners for the event.

“The civil rights leaders of the past have shown us the power of collective action,” the protest’s website says. “That’s why on July 17, five years since the passing of congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.”

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jul 25 - 12:41 PM

Why has CBS not featured the good trouble protests?

The defensive and long-winded tone and tenor of Trump's posts about Epstein make him sound guilty as hell. After all, Epstein died on Trump's watch/term. He is calling him the man who will not die.
All of the blame Trump claims is on the good-for-nothing fake news Democrats. One might easily speculate that Trump is central in the Epstein files while Clinton and others are not.

Ghislaine, Epstein's assistant, would gladly accept a Presidential pardon and have Trump lawyers write her testimony since she is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Florida.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Jul 25 - 06:33 AM

WOULD Vance be better or worse than Trump?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Jul 25 - 10:17 AM

From Facebook and I know not everyone likes to go on there so pasted in full.

Nicholas Breeze Wood
14 July at 06:34 ·
As a trained clinical psychotherapist, expert in shamanism, and human being with a basic brain…. I concur.
Brent Molnar: Voice of Reason ~ 'The Man-Child in Chief: Why Donald Trump’s Behavior Isn’t Just Alarming—It’s Clinical…
At this point, calling Donald Trump a sociopath feels like stating water is wet. But throw that term around too loosely and people stop hearing it. So let’s be precise. What if the erratic cruelty, the compulsive lying, the open disdain for rules and empathy—it’s not just some quirky political branding. What if it’s a documented, diagnosable pattern? Because it is.
And understanding it might be the first real step toward protecting what’s left of American democracy.
Sociopathy—officially known as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)—isn’t some cartoonish label you slap on a villain. It’s a well-defined clinical condition. It starts early, often appearing in childhood as conduct disorder—aggression, deceit, a lack of remorse—and fully emerges in adulthood as a complete disregard for others, rules, and basic morality. It’s not about being mean. It’s about being wired to harm without guilt.
Trump’s entire life fits that arc. His father, a distant real estate baron who valued dominance over decency. His mother, emotionally unavailable. A home life that trained him not in compassion, but in conquest. And what we see now—what we’ve always seen—isn’t a break from that past. It’s the fulfillment of it. Trump isn’t unwell because of power. He got power because he was unwell in a way that ruthless systems reward.
Look at the checklist: No remorse for pain caused? Check. Disregard for laws, norms, and human dignity? Check. Chronic lying, even when it gains him nothing? Bullying those beneath him, worshipping those above? All boxes checked. And still, millions confuse his behavior for “strength.” In reality, it’s a toddler in a suit with the nuclear codes and a permanent grudge.
The tragic twist? Authoritarians and autocrats abroad have figured this out. Trump’s second-term travel itinerary is a map of manipulation. NATO leaders learned: flatter him, and he’ll do whatever you want. Putin knew it. So did MBS. So does Musk. His emotional development stopped sometime before junior high, and it shows. If you coddle the ego, you get the policy.
But let’s not sugarcoat this: Trump’s inner circle is now filled with people just like him. Not sober adults with institutional memory or democratic instincts—but fellow man-babies with vendettas, fragile egos, and no ethical guardrails. And when developmentally stunted men hold real power, they don’t just throw tantrums. They break countries.
We’re already seeing it. Arresting political opponents. Threatening judges. Openly demanding revenge. Surrounding himself with yes-men willing to torch institutions to stay in his good graces. This isn’t just a moral collapse—it’s a psychological time bomb.
So what do we do? First, call it what it is. Trump’s behavior isn’t “eccentric.” It’s pathological. Then we build movements—not just to oppose policies, but to inoculate ourselves against this style of politics. Because this isn’t just about Trump. It’s about a system that rewards antisocial traits and mistakes immaturity for strength.
We need voters to stop falling for tough-guy cosplay. We need to educate people about what this kind of psychological profile actually looks like—and why it’s disqualifying, not admirable. We need to rebuild civic life around empathy, truth, and shared responsibility. And we need to do it fast.'

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 Jul 25 - 10:31 AM

It's as well you've copied that article in full, Dave. The seek-and-destroy spitebot spybot will doubtless soon harvest the article .... and possibly its author.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 18 Jul 25 - 04:15 PM

From the Hollywood Reorter, a statement from Maurene Comey about her sacking…

“Yesterday was unexpectedly my last day in the Office. I was summarily fired via memo from Main Justice that did not give a reason for my termination. Every person lucky enough to work in this office constantly hears four words to describe our ethos: Without Fear or Favor. Do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons without fear of retribution and without favor to the powerful.

For the majority of my nearly ten years in SDNY, fear was never really conceivable. We don’t fear bad press; we have the luxury of exceptional security keeping us physically safe; and, so long as we did our work with integrity, we would get to keep serving the public in this office. Our focus was really on acting “without favor.” That is, making sure people with access, money, and power were not treated differently than anyone else; and making sure this office remained separate from politics and focused only on the facts and the law.

But we have entered a new phase where “without fear” may be the challenge. If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain. Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for victims. Of dedication to truth above all else. It has been an honor to fight for those principles by your side.”

Shades of 1930s/40s Germany, methinks…

Subject: RE: Beyond the yellow brick road
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jul 25 - 06:07 PM

Where are you gonna go now?
Where are you going to land?
You could have stayed on Comedy Central
You sure have plenty of fans
You know you can't hold on forever
We all signed up together with you
You're not a present for your friends to open
You are still too young to be singin' the blues

[Refrain]
Ah, ah-ah, ah, ah
Ah-ah-ah, ah

[Chorus]
So goodbye Stephen Colbert
Where the gods of comedy howl
You were kicked out of your place on Late Night
It sure is a kicking the bowels
Back to the howlin' old owl in the woods
Huntin' the horny-back toad
Oh, You need to decide where your future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

[Refrain]
Ah, ah-ah, ah, ah
Ah-ah-ah, ah
See upcoming rock shows
Get tickets for your favorite artists


[Verse 2]
What do you think you'll do, then?
I bet they shoot down the plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again
You say there is no replacement
There's not many like you to be found
Comics who have got plenty
Standing with talent and feet on the ground

[Refrain]
Ah, ah-ah, ah, ah
Ah-ah-ah, ah

[Chorus]
So goodbye Stephen Colbert
Where the gods of comedy howl
You were kicked out of your place on Late Night
It sure is a kicking the bowels
Back to the howlin' old owl in the woods
Huntin' the horny-back toad
Oh, You need to decide where your future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road


[Refrain]
Ah, ah-ah, ah, ah
Ah-ah-ah, ah

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 10:13 AM

It's not new, but the Presidency has passed through the gates of absolute perversion as he insults his QAnon anti-Epstein base instead of flirting with them. Trump will have to have make-up sex with Tucker, Rogan, and Bannon.
Suing FOX News for telling the truth is new for Trump. Donald sues more people and institutions than Big Macs he devours. It's possible he encountered more young ladies in Epstein's stable in his day than Quarter Pounders he has for dinner.

Epstein may have been the only murder that Trump ordered, but as the Donald annoyingly says, "he won't stay dead".

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 10:24 AM

"Epstein may have been the only murder that Trump ordered, but as the Donald annoyingly says, "he won't stay dead"."

Do you have any concrete evidence that Trump ordered Epsteins murder, I hope you do or perchance you will find yourself being sued by him, something I might add that many on here would find highly amusing!!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 01:27 PM

As you can see, it's like Christmas, only merrier.
When I make a supposition, the word 'may' appears before the possibility. Comic relief does not need the word may. I don't seriously expect Joe Rogan to make love with Trump. However, politics makes strange bedfellows.

I believe Trump is overtired and has made an extreme faux pas against his base, which is uncharacteristic of his bond with his conspiratorial partners.

Trump only sues to make money from people who have money and gloat over doubling his retribution, like punishing a jealous cuckold husband.

It is not my style to repost someone else's Facebook post or only repost editorials and investigative journalism. Sometimes reality resembles reasonable flights of fancy. The style of Dave Barry comes to mind, besides we are the same age.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 02:19 PM

Even a half decent Lawyer would tear you to pieces Donuel.

By saying "Epstein may have been the only murder that Trump ordered" you are stating quite clearly that Trump ordered his killing.

What you are trying to suggest now I think is that Trump may have ordered his killing, quiet a different thing.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 03:50 PM

To quote a very old Oz comedy show, "It was a joke, Joyce!"

The number of deaths which are a consequence of Trump's orders are uncountable: COVID mismanagement, stopping USAID, Capitol riot, giving Putin leeway to carry out his attacks on Ukraine, the list goes on. Whether Epstein was murdered or committed suicide will probably never be known for sure. If it was murder there are a lot of rich, powerful men who could have ordered it. Trump could be one of those men, or maybe not. Who will ever know? There are a lot of women who could have wanted revenge on Epstein too, but those women did not have the power or means to do it, IMHO.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 04:30 PM

I do not think Putin murdered Epstein.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 04:38 PM

That might be the only clear assumption we could bet on, Sandman.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 05:26 PM

There are gaps in the video record at the jail. There are lots of theories about Epstein.

What isn't a theory is how Trump is earning his billions these days - filing frivolous "lawsuits" that result in legal payoffs so his government will do what big businesses want. It seems Epstein could be a bridge too far for some of those who would otherwise calmly pay Danegeld to keep Trump off of their backs.

I would suggest that Trump has already ordered many killings, though they are indirect. He has set up circumstances that have resulted in many deaths, and as a sociopath he has no empathy or concern for those lives.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 07:07 PM

Regarding the many, many deaths Trump has engineered, I keep thinking of the final scene of an episode of the TV show Medium where the ghost of a man who was a serial killer (from memory, or some other aggravating crimes resulting in many deaths) appears in a room. One by one his victims' ghosts also appear until he is crushed (figuratively speaking) by the large crowd as they advance purposefully closer and closer towards him.

Similar to Trump's yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize, I suspect he also expects to be welcomed with a large celebratory crowd as he proudly advances through Heaven's gate. Maybe he is in for an alternative welcome from the spirits of people who have died as a consequence of his actions. Maybe he will finally have the huge crowd he has been pretending to have at all of his rallies, but maybe he won't be pleased to be confronted by them. Maybe he won't be happy to see that the gate is not to Heaven but to a far more uncomfortable place.

Sorry! That little piece of fiction gives me some comfort, even though it is only imaginative fiction.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 10:14 PM

Fiction, but fitting, Helen. I may have mentioned it hereabouts before, but the worst possible thing someone marching in front of a zombie army can do is stumble.

.... Sly thought: There's been a telly programme for us East-Pondians, examining whether His Execresence might really be a Russian "asset". The main answer was basically "no, but he doesn't need to be" (it's cheaper to lead him by the nose, all unwitting). Either way, what would a competent controller's way of disposing of an overcooked asset be? throw him to his own baying zombies, perhaps? But it's way past midnight here, and I'm getting to that slightly zonked state of mind so beloved of conspiracists that makes two-plus-two look uncomfortably close to five.

Wanders off stage left, quietly singing "Dead skunk in the middle of the road" ....

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 25 - 10:52 PM

I just listened to Heather Cox Richardson talk about the latest Epstein activity as far as Trump is concerned, and it sounds like . . . well, every time it sounds like the shit is finally going to hit the fan, Teflon Don somehow dodges it. But the deflowering of pubescent girls may be more than even the MAGA crowd can stomach.

July 18, 2025 this is the written text (in a separate mailing is a link and paid subscribers get to hear her read it). Here is part of it:

Now we know why President Donald J. Trump earlier this week began saying nonsensically that Democrats he dislikes wrote the Epstein files. Apparently, Trump was trying to get out in front of the story Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo broke last night in the Wall Street Journal, reporting that Trump contributed what the newspaper called a “bawdy” letter to a leather-bound album compiled by Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003 for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

The journalists say the letter “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”

The lines of text represent an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein:

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything.

“Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

“Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

“Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

“Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.

“Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

“Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

“Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Florida police began investigating Epstein in 2005 after allegations that he had sexually abused a minor. They identified five victims and 17 witnesses, but ultimately the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alex Acosta, negotiated a plea deal with Epstein in 2008, by which Epstein pleaded guilty only to state charges, including soliciting a minor, and avoided federal charges. Trump appointed Acosta to be the secretary of labor in his first administration; Acosta resigned in 2019 after new reporting by the Miami Herald accused Epstein of abusing about 80 girls and women and showed how Acosta had shut down an FBI investigation into Epstein’s actions.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 02:22 AM

SRS, I watched PBS Washington Week with the Atlantic this morning and they discussed much the same issues.

And thanks for your comments, MaJoC. :-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 02:41 AM

the FBI claim he committed suicide, if they killed him them selves, they would say that

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 05:19 AM

Gnomish prediction

Ghislaine Maxwell will receive a presidential pardon because all the charges against her were made up by the Democrats. She will deny that Trump was ever involved

We can only hope that now the ball has started rolling, the flood gates will open (excuse the mixed metaphors) and a coordinated campaign of women willing to stand against him will start. The difference between the turnip and Epstein is that the orange pervert will call on every resource he can abuse to silence the witnesses. They will need protcting from attacks to both discredit them and harm them physically.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 06:38 AM

> We can only hope that [....]

The opposition (including but not limited to the Democrats) have been playing the wishful-thinking card for so long that the card's stuck to their hands. It's a form of learned helplessness.* What worries me is that Vlad has managed to replicate this serf mentality in the Land of the Free™ as well as in the once-and-future USSR.

Side issue: The KGB and/or GRU were alleged in the aforementioned TV programme to have bought or otherwise compromised "hundreds" of US businessmen in the 1970s. It just happened that it was with Agent Orange that they hit the jackpot, and ended up defoliating the US body politic. (Those of a conspiracist cast of mind might wonder if those going after Hunter Biden knew from experience not only where to look, but also what to look for; but I couldn't possibly comment.)

* I include myself here.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 09:29 AM

"Side issue: The KGB and/or GRU were alleged in the aforementioned TV programme to have bought or otherwise compromised "hundreds" of US businessmen in the 1970s"
an unproven allegation, mean while the CIA and Mossad were squeaky clean.Bullshit

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 09:34 AM

The missing minute of video of the wrong two cell doors in Epstein's jail cell turned out to be a missing 3 minutes of the wrong two doors. The correct cell door is in an unseen foreground and could have picked up an entry. Three minutes is enough to paralyze and hang Epstein by 2 perpetrators. Having ONLY ONE killer would be more challenging. So much for the jail's suicide watch since Epstein was out of sight so he could have done himself in.

Trump's own posts this week are more incriminating than the WSJ letter that was not imaged but only described.

Happy anniversary of the bomb that nearly killed Hitler at the Wolf's lair.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 01:11 PM

If I was wrongly accused of being on Epstein’s alleged list, I’d be strongly advocating for it to be published in order to prove my innocence.

I wonder why The Orange Rapist doesn’t want it published?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 03:06 PM

There are many Trump propaganda commercials here in the US.
There is one against defense trial lawyers brought to you by MAAA MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN. If Trump can get rid of enough defense law firms, he can fly free. The commercial lists all the crimes of defense lawyers, like using a fraudulent witness or corrupt doctors, defending criminals like MS13, etc.
Somehow, the average citizen is supposed to prosper once defense lawyers are gone.

Hitler had judges under his control, while defendants could plead guilty or defend themselves. Judges were able to shred defendants quickly. What raggytash said, I suspect, was accidentally true.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 25 - 03:24 PM

People are prosecuted based on circumstantial evidence even though there is reasonable doubt. So far, Trump uses libel laws; however, he is trying to make an assassination death threat case against Comey's 8647. Once my words here that are critical of Trump become criminal, the Constitution will have been destroyed.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 25 - 10:55 PM

A gift article from the New York TimesAn Accuser’s Story Suggests How Trump Might Appear in the Epstein Files
A former Jeffrey Epstein employee said that she told the F.B.I. in 1996 and 2006 about what she considered a troubling encounter with Donald J. Trump.

Ms. Farmer said that when she discussed her concerns with the New York Police Department, then with the F.B.I., she also urged them to take a broader look at the people in Mr. Epstein’s orbit, including Donald J. Trump, then still two decades from being elected president. She repeated that message, she said, when the F.B.I. interviewed her again about Mr. Epstein in 2006.

Her account is among the clearest indications yet of how Mr. Trump might have come to be named in the unreleased investigative files in the Epstein case, a matter that has generated another political uproar in recent weeks.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jul 25 - 06:11 PM

Date: 17 Jul 25 - 12:41 PM

...Ghislaine, Epstein's assistant, would gladly accept a Presidential pardon and have Trump lawyers write her testimony since she is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Florida.

**************
Yep, sure enough Trump's former lawyer will be interviewing Ghislaine.
For distraction, Trump has accused Obama of a capital crime that carries the death penalty.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 04:14 AM

It is a possibilty that Maxwell has only limited information

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 06:00 AM

The Kennedy Center is no more. It will be called the Trump Center as a gift to Melania.

Because The Epstein files will become a drip drip release with no official disclosure, the facts are still leaking that Trump took the Epstein private jet to pedophile island seven times. This is according to the R. Senator from Kentucky, "That don't mean Trump had sex with all them young ladies."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 06:25 AM

Noo-o-o, of course he didn’t… :-/

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 12:58 PM

Meanwhile, via RISKS Digest, a demonstration of an interesting interaction* between Artifical Incompetence and the natural product ....

A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash (NBC News)

A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers say.

But with the MAGA movement split over the administration's handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts' messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts. [...]

The clickable link given for the NBC article is (ironically) broken in the middle by an unfortunate line break, but the URL can be followed with care.

* I'd call it a "battle of halfwits", but I see no wits at all on display, and they're all supposed to be on the same side.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 01:14 PM

Don't throw away the old letterhead or the signage from the building, that will go back to Kennedy on day one of the next Democratic administration.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 02:00 PM

.... assuming, Stilly, that the current shower haven't done a Netenyahoo on said buildings. Nothing raises the middle finger quite like a pile of smoking rubble.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 03:36 PM

I'll chip in to rebuild the White House if such an aggressive method to curtail the current administration should happen. I suppose we'd have to do the same for the Kennedy Center.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 05:51 PM

An MSNBC talking head actually said that Trump is wearing a transparent figleaf for all to see. Trump says Rupert Murdoch's WSJ is a mouthpiece for the Democrats.

tRUMP IS MAKING UP NEW WORDS as the clock ticks... like sedacitios kofefe, which hunt. Perhaps it means a sedated, unknown search.

He is being followed by either a wildfire, smoke, or stink, but of all his sex scandals, his base claims to care about this one. The more he tries to bury the past, the deeper he is digging a hole for himself.
Trump is hoping to Make America Greatly Amnesic.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 06:18 PM

I've watched this week's episodes of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and the gloves are off.

Where previously Colbert had a lot of pointed comments about Trump, he has been letting it rip with his comments since the announcement of his show being cancelled. He even made a reference to Monty Python's The Life of Brian by holding his arms out like he was being crucified, and quoted a famous line, "I can see your house from here". If/when Trump is defeated by more reasonable human beings, I think that Colbert can take a fair amount of credit for speaking his own truth and for his acerbic wit.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 07:03 PM

De Plane De Plane...
OK, OK, so what that he took Epstein's private plane to pedophile island seven times. Perhaps he went for the free shrimp tossed salad.
YUM


Meanwhile, the death threats against Obama are spiking over Trump claims of proof of traitorous acts against Trump that carry the death penalty.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 25 - 07:54 PM

When there's nothing left to lose - the gloves can come off. And they all should have expected it.

Years ago the host of Wall Street Week, Louis Rukeyser, was notified by Maryland Public Broadcasting that his program was going off the air in a few months, or was getting a new host and direction, something along those lines - it was a political decision, and on his next program (they were live) his monologue flayed the decision makers on their choice. That was his last program—they pulled the plug. It will be a test to see if CBS can stand the sharp knives of wit being sharpened and pointed at them and the Trump folks they are trying to appease.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 03:32 AM

They didn't have podcasts back then. I think Colbert will be broadcasting long after the show is pulled. Until he is arrested...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 07:10 AM

…or suicided?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 02:17 PM

Have you watched Colbert's show, BWM? I would be surprised if he caved in to Trump. I'd place my bets on Trump caving first.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 02:41 PM

I suspect, Helen, that BWM meant "suicided" in the sense of "being volunteered". That's how I understood it, and Herself nodded grimly on seeing it too.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 03:02 PM

I think Trump might have unleashed the dragon.

"Suicided" and "volunteered" - sorry, I don't get it. Is that like "disappeared"? I'm thinking involuntary deportation perhaps.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 03:17 PM

Sorry, I just got it: "suicided" aka "Epsteined"?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 03:21 PM

Yup: "suicided" as a past participle, just like "disappeared". I understand the usage "being volunteered" comes from the Army: "I want three volunteers: you, you and you."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 04:10 PM

Helen, I don’t believe Epstein killed himself, I have a very, very strong suspicion that he was killed by others, in a way that made it appear he’d committed suicide - hence he was ‘suicided’.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 04:14 PM

Yep. Do you like my new word "Epsteined"? I'm hoping it will make it into modern day lingo.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 04:45 PM

LOL!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 05:09 PM

The Epstein case is sucking most of the news oxygen right now, and the stuff Trump throws out there as distractions are simply shiny objects. But as Robert Reich points out today in his Substack column, there is a lot being missed while people ponder the pedophiles.

1. Hunger in Gaza has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row, according to the World Food Program.

The number of children dying of malnutrition has risen sharply in recent days. Many are literally starving.

According to Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency:

    “People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses…. One in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day. When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold. Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak & at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need…. Parents are too hungry to care for their children. Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice. Families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened.”

America is directly implicated in this humanitarian crisis.

Netanyahu is a war criminal. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor.

The United States must stop all military assistance to Israel unless Netanyahu and the Israeli government allow relief organizations to bring immediate humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

2. Federal judges accuse the Trump regime of deliberately defying court orders by being slow to respond, misrepresenting facts in filings, and refusing to take action as ordered by the courts.

In an analysis of 165 court orders filed against the Trump regime, the Washington Post found that federal judges accused it of resisting court orders in at least 57 of those cases – approximately 34 percent.

This story needs far more attention. It’s the clearest evidence yet of the regime’s disregard for the U.S. Constitution.

It should form the basis for impeachment of Trump and his lackeys, and for criminal action against them once they’re out of office.

3. 56,816 people are now being detained by ICE, both in the United States and in El Salvador and other countries where there’s little or no control over the conditions in which they’re being detained.

Over 70 percent have not been convicted of any crime.

Many were abducted by ICE agents in plain clothes and wearing masks to prevent identification, from their places of work, court houses, or their homes and apartments. Families have been broken up and family members “disappeared.”

We have no way of ensuring that they are being held in humanitarian conditions. Venezuela’s Attorney General has announced that Venezuelan migrants held in El Salvador recently returned to Venezuela suffered torture and abuse while imprisoned in CECOT.

Because there’s been no due process — no independent verification of who these people are or even that they have been in the United States illegally — it is entirely possible that some detainees are American citizens.

This story continues to worsen. And it, too, hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 25 - 07:44 PM

I agree SRS. The other issues are front and centre, but maybe the Epstein issue hits home more deeply with the cowardly republicans and it might be the issue which sets off the outcomes we are hoping for.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Jul 25 - 05:16 AM

From the FB Page of Tracy Michelle, an NY journalist - apologies for the long C&P which is for the benefit of our non-Facebookers…

“The Story the American System Doesn’t Want You to Hear

By Tracy Michelle

A thirteen-year-old girl accused a man of rape. Not just any man, but a billionaire. A man who would go on to hold the most powerful office in the world. It should have stopped him. It should have mattered, but it didn’t.

In 2016, as Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency, a woman using the name Katie Johnson filed a lawsuit claiming that, at age 13, she had been raped multiple times by Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at one of Epstein’s parties at his New York City apartment. She was a child in a room with two of the most dangerous men in the country. She came forward. She tried. The case was withdrawn—not because she lied or because her story fell apart, but because she was terrified. Lisa Bloom, her attorney, confirmed that Katie received threats. Not warnings or gossip, but threats. She was supposed to hold a press conference and be heard. Instead, she disappeared. She disconnected her phone. Her story didn’t die because it was untrue. It died because she was alone.

How Many Times Have We Seen This Before?

Katie Johnson was not the first. She will not be the last.

Sixteen women have publicly accused Donald Trump of sexual assault or misconduct. One said he raped her in a dressing room. Another said he forced himself on her when she was a child. Others said he groped them, kissed them without consent, grabbed them in pageant dressing rooms. He denied every single one, and he called them liars. He said they were making it up for attention and then ran for president. He won.

E. Jean Carroll came forward decades after Trump raped her in a department store dressing room. The world laughed. He called her a liar. A jury found him guilty of sexual abuse, but it didn’t matter. He still walked free. Bill Cosby’s victims spent years screaming into the void before anyone listened. Harvey Weinstein silenced his accusers with money and threats. The Catholic Church buried thousands of child abuse cases. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ran an international trafficking ring that catered to the most powerful men in the world. They went down, but their clients walked free.

Larry Nassar was trusted with the bodies of young girls—Olympians, gymnasts, children—while he molested them under the guise of medical treatment. They told their coaches, trainers, and officials. Nobody wanted to hear them. The institution and money were more important. By the time Nassar was finally held accountable, hundreds of girls had already been abused.

Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State. He molested young boys for decades. People knew. A man saw him rape a child in the showers and told his superiors. Nothing happened. The program was worth too much. The coach was too valuable. The child was a footnote.

The pattern repeats itself—victims come forward, their voices are questioned, and the powerful walk away unscathed.

The Names, The Stories, The Silence

Kristin Anderson sat in a Manhattan bar in the 1990s when a man next to her reached up her skirt and touched her vagina through her underwear. She turned and recognized the man as Donald Trump.

E. Jean Carroll met Trump in a department store in 1995 or 1996. She described him pushing her into a dressing room, forcing his fingers inside her, then his penis.

Rachel Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist in 2005 when she met Trump in an office building. He grabbed her, pulled her in, and kissed her on the mouth.

Jessica Leeds sat next to Trump on a plane in the early 1980s. He kissed her, groped her chest, and reached up her skirt. She moved to another seat in coach. “He was like an octopus,” she said.

Summer Zervos was an Apprentice contestant in 2007. She met Trump at a Beverly Hills hotel to discuss a job opportunity. Instead, he grabbed her breasts, kissed her, and tried to lead her into a bedroom.

Temple Taggart McDowell was Miss Utah USA in 1997. Trump kissed her without consent on two separate occasions.

Four other women said Trump walked in on them while they were undressing at pageants. Buzzfeed reported three more women confirmed the pageant stories but refused to go public.

The allegations span decades, from the early 1980s to 2013. The stories follow the same pattern—Trump is accused of forcing himself on women—groping them, kissing them without consent—only to deny every allegation, dismiss his accusers as liars, and claim they are politically motivated

This is how the system works. This is how men like Trump win.

Power and Silence: How the System Protects Its Own

Trump didn’t need to prove his innocence. He only needed time. He dragged the case out, making it too difficult to pursue, and let the system work in his favor. This is what he has always done. A man who used lawsuits as weapons, who crushed his enemies in court, who buried his mistakes with money and threats. A child did not stand a chance.

The powerful do not have to answer for their sins. The system was built for them.

Trump bragged about grabbing women. Nothing happened. Dozens of women accused him of assault. Nothing happened. A child accused him of rape, and the case vanished before it could even begin.

Had we listened to Katie Johnson, had we listened to any of them, maybe we would not be here now. Trump didn’t rise in spite of these accusations; he rose in a system that proved power could erase them. His ability to face multiple allegations without consequence only reinforced his authority.

The American Double Standard

The U.S. government condemns foreign dictators for human rights abuses but lets its own elite operate without consequence. It calls out corruption abroad but allows billionaires to buy their way out of justice. It punishes nations for failing to protect their citizens but lets its own children be silenced, erased, and ignored.

How does a country that lets the rich escape accountability claim to stand for democracy? How does a nation that refuses to believe survivors call itself a defender of freedom?

America calls itself a beacon of justice. Justice for whom?

If We Don’t Change, This Will Keep Happening

This is not just about one man. There will always be another Trump. Another Epstein. Another Cosby. Another Weinstein. Another Sandusky. Another Nassar. Another name added to the list of powerful men who used power as a shield while their victims carried the weight alone.

If the justice system cannot hold them accountable, then what hope is there for anyone else?

Please Share! “

Read more:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/assault-allegations-donald-trump-recapped

https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1274&context=mjgl

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-epstein-called-epstein-files-say-relationship-rcna161354

https://www.hachettebooks.com/landing-page/all-the-presidents-women/

https://youtu.be/2UHEsZmN7HA?si=usWg1sFTRRFUYOoT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Johnson

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/25/trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations-timeline

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/katie-johnson-civil-case-for-rape-trump-epsteinpdf/257375882

Katie Joynson tells her story
https://youtu.be/8C4UA9r-o2k?si=6LVWQyHGxVbav2lX

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Jul 25 - 05:37 AM

And meanwhile, the Orange Rapist is here in the UK, soiling and desecrating our country by his very presence, gloating over his Scottish golf courses, and talking to Starmer (God only knows what he’s plotting now).

Will we never be rid of him?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jul 25 - 08:45 AM

Most religions run on a fuel called conspiracy theories.
The same is true for White Christian Nationalists.
Man is flawed, so the conspiracy theory is respected above all like a holy spirit. Trump has spent a lifetime creating his own self-indulgent conspiracy theories. Trump adopted a QAnon deep state conspiracy that he was in fact, involved in.

Big mistake.

He fully expected that owning everyone in the Department of Justice would make him invulnerable. He did not anticipate the power of the quasi-religious conspiracy church. It has split the MAGA base in two.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jul 25 - 11:38 AM

The original "Tracy Michelle" article seems to be behind a FB subscription paywall, but I can't tell for sure, so can't confirm who she is or if she wrote it. That said, a lot of people have copied and republished it, giving her credit. Here is one that should open even for folks who don't use FB.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 02:25 AM

His behavior is sickening.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 03:20 AM

Apparently King Charles has downgraded the turnip's state visit to lunch at KFC with Prince Andrew. It seems that they had a mutual friend and lots in common...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 04:29 AM

Not Pizza Hut in Woking, Dave…?? ;-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 05:16 AM

I thought the turnip would like KFC or McDs better

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 06:06 AM

From Joyce Vance’s ‘Civil Discourse’ on Substack, a piece entitled ‘Rewriting History’ in which she proposes something I’ve thought for some time - that Trump and the MAGA crowd have based their plans and policies on Orwell…

”Even with the Epstein drama still unfolding, MAGA Republicans are making plans to consolidate their hold on the American psyche. They know, because Donald Trump has invested a lot of time and energy in this project, that their marching orders are to rewrite history. They have to reframe the January 6 insurrection, Trump’s role in it, and their role in it, to ensure Trump’s place in history. And they’re ready to do it.


That means that the House will vote on the creation of a new subcommittee (after it returns from the prolonged break designed to let Epstein fever die down). The effort has been underway since January, but it stalled on the question of what the subcommittee’s ambit would be. Politico is reporting that the White House intervened and a deal has been struck to allow the issuance of subpoenas to compel testimony or the production of information. Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk will be at the helm. Previously, in December 2024, a House subcommittee that Loudermilk led released a 128-page report calling for the prosecution of Liz Cheney because of her role on the January 6 Committee.

The goal of Loudermilk’s new endeavor is simple. MAGA has apparently read, or at least been told about, George Orwell’s 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” That’s precisely where we are.

Trump has continuously claimed, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that Democrats launched an attack on him. In preparation for this new erasure of history, he has already pardoned or commuted sentences for January 6 defendants, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy. And Loudermilk told reporters that it was Trump who insisted on getting the subcommittee’s work underway and that he was disappointed that it hadn’t already begun.

Trump is intent on rewriting history so he can whitewash his legacy. He continues to believe that if he tells the lies for long enough, they will morph into truth, at least in the minds of the public. Today, during a scrum, he told reporters: “Everything is fake with the Democrats.” Then, he spoke with reporters before he took off for Scotland, on the taxpayers’ nickel, to promote his Scottish golf courses. If we’re not careful, the fake news is going to be the history that is taught to our children. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, to stay alert, and to share what you’re seeing with the people around you.

We’re in this together,

Joyce”

Here is the link to the original Substack piece.

And a brief piece about the author…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 02:57 PM

The last Stilly post is one of the best consciousness-raising posts.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 03:07 PM

This is a forum for discussion and exchange of views, ideas,band opinions. It’s not a competition.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jul 25 - 06:50 PM

Some views, ideas, and banned opinions are better than others.
Trump sued South Park for $5 billion, sued Jesus for an undisclosed amount, and demanded bonus PSA announcements in which he appears naked with a talking penis. He is also sleeping with Satan.
source: recent South Park episode.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 12:29 AM

My mind goes to a Woody Allen movie from a while back, called "Bananas". There was this coup in a little country, and the new dictator started issuing orders. "Everybody has to change their underwear 3 times a day. And wear them on the outside so we can check." They dragged him off the stage with one of those big hooks.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 08:41 AM

For a decade or more, the intimidation and money of Epstein kept him from a true prosecution. All it took was one honest judge and a massive indictment to put him away for good. The ledger of his life was opened, and he was judged fairly.
The same could be true for Trump. I wonder who would be a real cellmate for the Donald. Santos, currently serving time, comes to mind. They have a lot in common when it comes to speaking the truth, which neither has done for decades.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 10:35 AM

My prediction is that, no matter how much we wish it, Trump will never go to jail. He and his cohort of crooks have rigged the system. He's fireproof.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 01:37 PM

The tools of conquest need not be bombs, bullets, and pestilence.
Shared hates, suspicions, and dehumanizations can be lies seared into the mind like being hypnotized. The domestic takeover requires seeing neighbors as monsters until we attack one to the other, one to the other, until it becomes hordes one to another. The fear of a single dictator becomes a fear of his hordes. The despots' playbook demands that the enemies are the intelligentsia, diverse points of view, or religion and skin color. It is the simplest tribal radicalism that repeats once the survivors of a previous dictator have died out, and the fascist strategy is seen as something new.

If one judge can judge honestly, we may be able to bypass the megatons of inevitable spilled blood.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 03:50 PM

Donuel, I don't understand your intention in that last post. Could you explain it, please. On first reading, it almost seems like you are asking for violence as a remedy. Knowing your intent in other posts, I think that that is unlikely, although I could be wrong I suppose. :-)


In other news, Trump appears intent on having to air his dirty laundry in the hope of gaining successful legal action against Rupert Murdoch and he may be setting a trap for himself, see last two paragraphs:

"Trump asks for swift deposition of Murdoch in Epstein defamation case

"Donald Trump has asked a US court to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the US president's defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over an article about Mr Trump's links to Jeffrey Epstein.

"The case relates to a July 17 article in the Journal asserting Mr Trump's name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for the late financier and sex offender.

"The day after it appeared, the Republican president sued the Journal, its owners, including Mr Murdoch, and the reporters who wrote the story, which said Mr Trump's letter included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.

"Mr Trump's lawsuit called the alleged birthday greeting 'fake' and said the Journal published its article to harm the president's reputation."

...

"Legal experts say Mr Trump faces a high bar in proving the Journal defamed him, let alone collecting the $US10 billion ($15.3 billion) in damages he is seeking.

"The 'actual malice' standard means Mr Trump must prove not only that the article was false, but also that the Journal knew or should have known it was false."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jul 25 - 04:22 PM

Sorry, Donuel. I just re-read your post and I think I understand. It was just on first reading it seemed that you were advocating violence but I think you were trying to explain the strategies of dictators.

I really think that the Epstein situation might be Trump's downfall and a fair and just legal system is crucial for that.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Jul 25 - 08:53 AM

It's a pipe dream to believe one judge could save a nation from civil war or a dictator's control. The French Revolution did not resolve that way. Nor did the American Revolution.

Two of the most prolific liars in the world now have four different explanations for their falling out. Trump and Epstein are paired for life and in death.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 25 - 06:01 PM

G. Maxwell is a horrible predator, but the way this Trump shit show is going, I fear she's going to get leniency from the US "Justice Department" (not so just these days) if she names the right names that Trump wants to hear.

I'm reading E. Jean Carroll's Not My Type and just finished the chapter where in court she describes the rape. It sounds like he done this a lot of times, to have the technique down the way he did. And it's what he described in the Access, Hollywood tapes, the "grab them by the pussy" bit. It is exactly what he does.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Hrothgar
Date: 30 Jul 25 - 09:57 AM

I doubt that Maxwell is going to say anything to endanger her pardon - and I think the people who will be questioning her will make sure they do it before she gets the pardon.

Even when he gets his comeuppance, his lawyers are going to say either (or both) that he is too ill to stand trial, or he is not mentally competent to stand trial - and it will have to be a court trial, because there is no point in impeachment when a two-thirds majority in the Senate is required for conviction.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jul 25 - 07:44 PM

'Jizzlane' has an appeal in the works that demands her silence but a chance for a pardon could outweigh her appeal. A pardon would make Trump look more guilty but having a cleaned and scoured account of the Trump-Epstein relationship might be worth it. It's a crap shoot with many more innings to go.

I was pondering if there are pervert collectors out there who would covet Epstein's massage table, Weinstein's robe, Bill Cosby's Rohypnol, and P Diddy's tube of lube.
No collection would be complete without Trump's birthday wishes for Epstein, which feature two feminine curves with Trump's signature, where pubic hair would typically be located.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 30 Jul 25 - 11:57 PM

Virginia Giuffre was a victim of these creeps. She moved to Australia and was an activist against sexual abuse by rich powerful people and "provided critical information to law enforcement that contributed to the investigation into and later the conviction of Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell".

Where is she now? Dead.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/virginia-giuffre-one-jeffrey-epsteins-%20%2

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 01:31 AM

Another mysterious ‘suicide’. I wonder who orders these ‘suicides’? And I wonder when Ghislaine Maxwell will be ‘suicided’…?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 02:17 AM

Yes, Virginia Giuffre is gone from the physical life but her strong voice will live on. She had a powerful effect in achieving justice. I greatly admire her strength and courage.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 05:17 AM

So do I, Helen.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 12:10 PM

justice? Prince Andrew will not be prosecuted, after all he has to look after teddy bears
Don't mess with Prince Andrew and his teddy bears. The Duke of York reportedly has an obsession with his prized collection of teddy bears, which must be placed in perfect order in his bedroom. The claim was made by royal author Tom Quinn, who has penned a new book, Yes, Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 06:17 PM

"This whole scandal is a hoax".
quote Donald Trump

He also said it is a witch hunt. Is it a hoax witch hunt?

Not all the 1,000+ girls were underage, but many were.
Maxwell managed the girls in Florida on autopilot by paying the girls $200 to promote new victims.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jul 25 - 07:26 PM

Epstein accuser Giuffre's family urges Trump to keep Maxwell in prison

"In short: The family of the late Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre has urged the US Justice Department not to grant clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell following a recent meeting.

"Their statement comes as Donald Trump faced pressure to make public documents from the federal investigations into Epstein, and his long-time girlfriend Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021.
"
What's next? A senior Trump administration official said no leniency for Maxwell was being considered or offered."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 02:16 AM

I’m waiting with bated breath for another ‘suicide’.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 07:21 AM

I live in a country that demands a loyalty oath to believe in lies.
I know the kind of trouble and controversy that speaking the truth can cause.
However, I am not alone; I am merely in the minority. Perhaps blowback will change that.
There is also the purity test against being off color, but the world of man can be a very dirty place.

Posting in a category known as BS is ironic for the few truth tellers.
Most of the things people are taught to believe are hyped bullshit.
Religion, politics, and rewritten history are a few examples.

Trump won because he was politically incorrect.
Now we are paying the lying piper. Literally.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 07:31 AM

Most of the things people are taught to believe are hyped bullshit

What things are people 'taught to believe'? Want sort of a percentage of these things is 'most'?

It is little wonder that people do not take you seriously, Don, when you post 'hyped bullshit' yourself

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 03:33 PM

Ms. Maxwell has just been transferred to a "less-restrictive" prison in Texas.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 03:43 PM

Thanks for your insights, Donuel. I like this line, "Posting in a category known as BS is ironic for the few truth tellers". Literally LOL.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 04:03 PM

The sexual predator got some perks from the Trump folks. From the New York Times:

The move, which was reported earlier by The New York Sun, came about a week after Ms. Maxwell was interviewed over two days about the Epstein case by Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department and one of President Trump’s former lawyers.

Ms. Maxwell’s lawyer, David O. Markus, declined to comment on the reason for the move.

According to Bureau of Prison regulations, inmates designated as sex offenders are generally supposed to be held in low-security prisons, like the facility in Tallahassee, Fla., where Ms. Maxwell had been previously held, not in minimum-security facilities, like her new prison camp in Bryan, Texas. . . .Ms. Maxwell has made it clear that she would like a pardon or for her sentence to be thrown out or reduced. Mr. Trump has not indicated what he intends to do but has told reporters that he is legally allowed to pardon Ms. Maxwell (emphasis mine)

Family members of three of the Epstein victims responded ""President Trump has sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter.""

Considering the ages of the young women Trump was thumping in Epstein's club or island or behind the scenes at the junior miss pageants he ran, this would seem to be true.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 05:42 PM

This month's economic indicators were poor. Therefore the president has fired the Congressionally confirmed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, expressly for manipulating and falsifying the figures.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 25 - 07:07 PM

I just watched Kamala Harris on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She is very inspirational, and she said some very proactive comments about how important it is for the people of America to stand up for what you believe in and not capitulate to threats. She also stressed the built-in strength of the democratic process and public service institutions and a hope that they will withstand the current attacks, if people and politicians don't capitulate.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 08:40 AM

At this transitional time, hope is a slender branch that won't even cushion the fall of the climate into devastating extremes. Hope is the panning for gold in the toxic river of Styx. Hope is pinned beneath denial, and the silencing of science and research.

Kamala claims the system is broken. The pathological narcissist feels clever, blinding people to reality because the victims and suckers are just meddlesome nothings from their perspective. Breaking the system down to the university's curriculum and diversity is underway.

They say you can't cure stupid, nor can you create empathy in social psychopaths. They will cry their lies to their dying day.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 09:22 AM

The pathological narcissist feels clever, blinding people to reality.
HOWEVER, criticism should not be blind either.
If Trump does something successfully, even if it is as accidental as a blind squirrel finding a nut, it should be noted.

This could prove to be quite a challenge.
Being a kinder, gentler Hitler wouldn't qualify, but there has to be a success somewhere in the sewerage.

One was the prediction that tariffs would cripple the economy by July 4th.
That did not happen because tariffs were delayed several times.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 09:25 AM

The pathological narcissist feels clever, blinding people to reality.
How true!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 05:01 PM

Australian perspective - It’s the summer of Trump and the world can’t look away Returning to the US for the first time in four years, I found a country that didn’t want to talk about politics, despite being in the eye of the Trump storm.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 05:21 PM

Thanks Sandra,

I just read that article. It was long but Nick Bryant has an interesting perspective and observations on how America has changed since he first started visiting the country.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 07:08 PM

The government is now investigating former special counsel Jack Smith for "unprecedented interference in the 2024 election."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Aug 25 - 07:57 PM

It's hard to find headroom for the thousands of daily Trump corrupt cliff hangers.

NEVER AGAIN ! is made a mockery by the exception of hundreds of Trump detention camps.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Aug 25 - 02:15 PM

If you found that folks in the US didn’t want to talk about politics, despite being in the eye of the Trump storm, it is the result of the fear the average person or business person feels from the administration. This is similar to East Germany and Soviet methods of control.

I have seen the same from folks around here. Folks either strongly condemn the dictator or they feign an agnostic opinion.
If I go further and ask if they feel fear as part of their outlook is when they outright lie and claim they feel no fear whatsoever. Even fear itself is part of the Trump loyalty cult to be afraid of.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Raggytash
Date: 05 Aug 25 - 06:19 AM

" NEVER AGAIN ! is made a mockery by the exception of hundreds of Trump detention camps."

A cursory glance at the internet shows me that the USA has had hundreds of detention camps for decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_immigrant_detention_sites_in_the_United_States

Nothing to do with Trump

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Aug 25 - 08:02 AM

In 1986-87 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation granting amnesty to millions of law-abiding non-citizens who had entered the country illegally before 1982. Reagan and the Congress recognized just how vital these tax-paying workers are to the U.S. economy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986

The important issue isn't the number of detention centers. It's who's being taken there, how, why, with what due process, and where they're being deported to afterward. The administration has opened all these issues t question.

As for the "worst of the worst," suspected felons have been arrested, convicted, and deported all along as a matter of routine law enforcement.

What's changed since 1987?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 25 - 05:49 AM

Fascism and super capitalism have changed along with the internet.

Trump is in full distraction mode, along with wandering on the White House roof, threatening to federalize Washington DC, Treason charges, and more bizarre Epstein moves.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 25 - 06:04 AM

A coding error was blamed for the government website copy of the Constitution, which somehow had deleted habeas corpus and emoluments clauses.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 25 - 01:20 PM

ICE is now hiring teenagers on their 18th birthday to be armed, masked agents.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 25 - 03:51 PM

More powerful than LSD 25 is the Trump medicine LSS 25.
Lazy, Sloppy, Stupid 2025.

Tulsi Gabbard declassified the Russian election interference CIA files for Trump and accidentally revealed sources and methods.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Aug 25 - 10:27 AM

Trouble is, Don, we never know if your posts are genuine information, your opinion or just made up. It would help considerably if you were to quote sources.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 25 - 11:56 AM

She did it. I heard the story yesterday, probably on NPR.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Aug 25 - 06:22 PM

There are made up statistics on every political spectrum like an unexpected $1,000 setback would strap half of all Americans.
Trump wants to make a new Census that he wants to control so he can gerrymander America to forever be MAGA.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 25 - 06:24 PM

He wants to do a lot of stuff that he can't do, but he seems to be doing a lot of stuff that he shouldn't do because the Congress isn't doing their job and managing those things (tariffs, immigration, funding agencies, closing agencies, destroying international accords, etc.)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 25 - 10:54 AM

As long as Congress passes no law, Trump's executive orders can all be reversed with a new President's executive order. You can't reverse the damage done as easily.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 25 - 11:40 AM

RFK keeps saying the CDC is a cesspool of fraud and lies.
Now that a Trump antivaxer has shot up the CDC in Atlanta with assault weapons, RFK has yet to condemn the shooter. The Surgeon General has condemned RFK.

Political violence is on the rise. Death threats are as common as dirt. Shootings and assaults are commonplace among Judges and Democratic politicians. With the wealth concentrated in the 1 percent and MAGA feeling incapable of punishment by the President, it will become worse.

Trump uses the bloody ear photo inscribed with FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT to indicate to shoot back.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Aug 25 - 07:16 PM

Donuel. I feel my earlier response to one of your comments may have been too subtle.

The pathological narcissist feels clever, blinding people to reality.
How true!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 06:16 AM

a few extracts

New chatbot on Trump’s Truth Social platform keeps contradicting him wasn’t stolen, tariffs aren’t boosting the stock market and Barack Obama is seen favorably.

President Donald Trump and the new AI search tool on his social media network, Truth Social, don’t exactly see eye to eye.

Truth Search AI contradicts the president by saying that tariffs are a tax on Americans, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and his family’s cryptocurrency investments pose a potential conflict of interest. Asked about Jan. 6, 2021, it said the “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol was violent and linked to Trump’s “baseless claims of widespread election fraud.” ...

... Artificial intelligence tools don’t always give the answers their owners might want or expect. ...

... The White House declined to comment. Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine said: “With transparently asinine stories like this, Washington Post reporters indict themselves as irrelevant partisan hacks who will probably soon join the growing exodus of left-wing shills from the paper.” ...

... But the size of their disagreements suggests that, if the tool were a person, it may not last long as a Trump employee. Asked to name the best president, Truth Search AI said “recent public opinion polls show that Barack Obama holds the highest favorability among living U.S. presidents,” listing as its source a Fox News article from shortly after Trump’s second inauguration.

The tool did note, however, that “conservative commentators” had often named Trump as the best. “Different groups and surveys prioritize different qualities,” it said.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 07:05 AM

So the good news, I suppose, is that Trump’s Chatbot agrees with those of us who have more than half a brain.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 08:34 AM

right on!

another good article I read today - America will be the chief victim of Trump’s tariffs rampage The US economy will bear the brunt of the president’s destructive trade war

Donald Trump has succeeded in forcing America’s democratic allies to their knees. His country must henceforth live with the invidious consequences of what he has done.

“It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal,” to borrow a line from Henry Kissinger.

Vladimir Putin has strung Trump along for six months without paying a price. China has turned the tables, forcing the White House to hand over Nvidia H20 chips in exchange for rare earth magnets that Trump should have thought about before launching his trade war. Didn’t the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, say China was playing with a “pair of twos”?

Trump’s full viciousness is reserved for Canada, a Five-Eye and core NATO loyalist, so dependable that America can leave its entire northern border undefended. It is punished with 35pc tariffs, hit harder because it dares to differ on the Middle East, though the effects will ricochet straight back into the US economy. (read on)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 08:41 AM

Nigel, you are as sharp as ever. Methinks a prior diagnosis was BS.
As for RFK who is not a doctor, scientist, has never done a clinical trial but has canceled funding for research in cancer, dementia, childhood disease, vaccines and the NIH budget.

The RNA covid vaccine during the Trump term saved 4 million lives in the US alone.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 09:14 AM

Was Trump wandering on the roof of the White House a promo for the Trump Center musical 'Swindler on the Roof'?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Aug 25 - 11:41 AM

Loyal MAGAtes have to believe a staggering number of lies.
Trump won the 2020 election
mRNA vaccines sicken the inoculated
Biden protected the Epstein child sex trafficking
Trump enacted emergency powers because of an invading army of MS-13
DOGE has saved the taxpayer billions
The President should profit from his side hustles like everyone else.
Immigrants must be punished for voting and using Medicare
The FBI was the deep state enforcer for Democrats
Tariffs are paid by countries that commit trade imbalance
Trump appointees are the best in their field
Zelensky started the Ukraine war
etc.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Aug 25 - 02:50 PM

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/trumps-defense-secretary-seems-to-admire-men-who-want-to-stop-women-from-voting/

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Aug 25 - 04:21 PM

Washington DC is affectionately called Chocolate City, not out of racism but out of a recognition of a black majority. If Trump can cause enough black people to demonstrate against the military presence in DC he may put his troops to use by having a mass shooting.
In his first term, he wanted to shoot demonstrators in the legs.

He has plans to federalize other cities with black mayors.
Trump does not have the legal authority to deploy National Guard troops in our cities beyond 30 days without congressional approval.
So far, that hasn't stopped his performance in LA with his toy soldiers.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 13 Aug 25 - 03:21 AM

Donald Trump's National Guard troop deployment tests limits of 150yo law

"US President Donald Trump is pushing the bounds of military activity on American soil, but a 150-year-old law could spell trouble for his plans.

"On Monday, Mr Trump said he was deploying the National Guard and taking over Washington, DC's police department to reduce crime in the nation's capital.

"As hundreds of National Guard troops filed into Washington, DC on Tuesday, a judge thousands of miles away in California was hearing arguments about whether such an act violated federal law.

"The three-day, no-jury trial is considering whether the Trump administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act when it mobilised the National Guard during protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles in June.

"Experts say in both the California and Washington cases, there are clear limitations to the law's enforcement."

...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Aug 25 - 06:32 AM

Trump orders museums to reflect his view of American history.
That includes removing Frederick Douglass' memoirs, MLK'd bible and 32 other race related items. Confederate statues are returning as well as Army base names being named after Confederates.

Will General Custer win the battle of Little Big Horn?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Aug 25 - 12:22 PM

The only arrest by the occupying force in DC is a resident throwing a wrapped submarine sandwich at an FBI agent. The sub owner was charged with assault. I don't think the sandwich penetrated the bulletproof vest.

When offering a sub to law enforcement, one should extend the sandwich on bended knee.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Aug 25 - 01:04 PM

Tomorrow, Friday, the Ides of August 2025, is the day for Russia to make peace with Ukraine and get the current resident short selected for the Noleb Przie.

TRMP and Putain are expected to be a couple miles away, but on military property, tomorrow for the bilateral summit from which nothing is to be expected. Saw a van labeled Youtube driving away from Starbucks and vaguely wondered it there would be a live podcast.

We have a Republican Governor and our single Rep and one sycophant Senator and one Senator with a brain. Given the current miasma of extreme partisanship, I don't expect that last one to be invited.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 11:47 AM

Trump says he gets Putin, but Putin has got Trump.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 04:48 PM

I also posted this in the music of the Trump era thread, but it's a good one for here also:

Came across this on YouTube, a link posted on FB by Janis Ian.

When That Man is Dead And Gone was written by Irving Berlin in 1941 about Hitler, but it of course fits perfectly today.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 08:10 PM

The upshot of the meeting was held on the grounds of the military base on the north side of downtown Anchorage. It was locally telecast and as of this moment 3:42 PM locally both country's airplanes are still on the field.
Putin made the first remarks, goinng into the well worn historical linkages between the United States and Russia mentioning the material support rendered by Russian and American aviators during WW. To me he sounded like the kid in class giving a book report over a book he hasn't read but mentioning all the publishing details that don't matter.
Following Putin, TRMP gave the kind of remarks a teacher makes after a student who hasn't done the work but whose father owns the venue of the PTA. As his remarks seemed to close the joint remarks, Putin made a sally that a next meeting should take place in Russia. TRMP appeared to be surprised at the remark.
Neither of the standees took questions.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski had already been videoed with the opinion that no hard decisions would be announceed. She seems to have called the shots realistically.

There was a pro-Ukraine rally being held at the Park Strip downtown. A little further away the locl Republicans had a TRMP rally. It was a lot less impressive.
Putin just went up the steps to the 4 engine Russian jet. He appears to have spent his first four hours on Alaska soil.

Alaska's other Senator, Dan Sullivan, is live on TV now reporting on Alaska's newest icebreker, which is hopefully fitted out.

There will be an entirely new Ukraine support rally at 5:30 local time.

Now TRMP is getting back on AirForceOne.
Hasta La Vista and Dos Vidaniya

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 08:34 PM

Washington Post coverage

## Trump, Putin break off summit with no Ukraine deal as talks end early

## LIVE - Putin asserts interest in Ukraine settlement is long-term, Trump calls talks ‘very productive’

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 08:37 PM

Trump says Xi told him China will not invade Taiwan while he is in office US president says Chinese counterpart told him ‘I am very patient and China is very patient’

Trump says ‘no deal until there’s a deal’ on Ukraine war after talks with Putin – live

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Aug 25 - 09:42 PM

Today is two years to the day from the fall of Kabul and the collapse of U.S. support of Afghanistan. The seeds of this failure were planted during the first TRMP administration. This appears to be a similar time waster while Russia pummels Ukraine, which is what went on today.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Aug 25 - 06:08 AM

From the FB Page of Jack Dart, founder of ‘Reform Watch’ in the UK…

“Where are we? Trump met Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Despite the hype, reports indicate that “no deal” has been reached.

Frankly, why is anyone surprised? Putin is not a man of peace. He is a tyrant with blood on his hands, intent on crushing Ukraine and clawing back influence through raw, unchecked aggression. Trump, meanwhile, postures as a master deal-maker, yet time and again proves incapable of managing figures of consolidated power.

Putin does not enter negotiations in good faith. He plays for time. He manipulates. Above all, he pursues only what strengthens his own hand. Expecting him to strike a meaningful peace deal with Trump, particularly one that halts his imperialist campaign in Ukraine, is wilfully naive.

The real question is not why no agreement was reached, it is why anyone believed that there was ever a serious chance of one.”

Seems to me to be a very accurate assessment.

For those who aren’t FarceBook-averse, here’s the link to the FB piece.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Aug 25 - 11:41 AM

It's a small thing, but never before has a visiting dignitary preceded the US President's remarks.

The sticking points that remain are probably:

How much of Eastern Ukraine will become Russia?

Will the 24,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped to Russia be returned?

Putin wants Zelensky to never run Ukraine again.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: robomatic
Date: 16 Aug 25 - 03:08 PM

Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin su

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Aug 25 - 09:36 AM

Trump selected the National Guard from South Carolina, Ohio , and West Virginia to patrol DC. Make no mistake, they are now armed.
They do not go east of the river where the drive bys happen.
Anti Trump demonstrations are building.

This power display can quickly accelerate and normalize a presence in case another election needs to be overturned by the King.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Aug 25 - 03:29 AM

The first elections to be overturned will be the mid terms when I expect that there will be a massive swing to Democrat. Unless of course he gerrymanders the election first.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Aug 25 - 08:33 AM

There seems to be an impending gerrymander war that is called a race to the bottom, although the Democrat plan is temporary.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 25 - 04:13 PM

He's going for the simple right to vote. Remember, if he tells you what he's going to do, believe him. He indicated after the 2024 election that "this would be the last time."

Trump pledges effort to eliminate mail-in voting
The president has for years railed against the system, arguing it led to election fraud in 2020.

There are states that do all of their voting by mail. Texas has made it harder for many people unless they are over 65, disabled, or have a damned good excuse. They used to let people register when they renewed their driver's license, etc. Now even to vote by mail you have to request to vote by mail every year.

Voting by mail is more beneficial for the Democratic party because many of the people who would vote Democratic can't get away from work to go to a polling place.

Right now in Fort Worth they're trying to cut in half the number of polling places, and you guessed it, the ones they're wanting to remove are in brown and black districts.

All of this is the last hurrah for the old white male in America. They can't stand that they're out of power so they're forcibly removing everyone else's ability to vote or legislate at all.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 25 - 04:33 PM

And, in Texas, where the governor bowed to Trump's request to gerrymander the districts, my district representative refused the GOP order that all Democrats have a state trooper with them at all times until the session opens on Wednesday. She refused, so they literally locked her inside the chamber and everyone left. Really? That's kidnapping. False imprisonment. She'll have grounds for a juicy lawsuit from this.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Hrothgar
Date: 20 Aug 25 - 03:41 AM

"there will be a massive swing to Democrat. Unless of course he gerrymanders the election first."

I think there will be a massive swing of voters to the Democrats.

The questions will be (a) How many people will just not vote; (b) how many people will be denied the chance to vote; and (c) how effective will the gerrmander(s) be?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 25 - 10:36 AM

In the news last night I saw that there was a rally on the courthouse steps for Nicole Collier, the representative from this district. If I'd seen something about it I'd have attended (begs the question, why didn't I look to see if there was a rally? Many of these things happen in Austen, about 3 hours south of here, and I couldn't have made it to that one.)

A local county commissioner gave a rousing speech at the commissioners court yesterday, about the right to vote. Will it touch the hearts of the GOP? I doubt it, but it was a worthy speech and hopefully will be shared widely. (I'm looking for the link, I'll share it later.)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 25 - 10:43 AM

Tarrant County Commissioner Roderick Miles speaks against the move to reduce polling places by half (in all of the black and brown sections of town, and from university campuses).

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Aug 25 - 04:18 PM

I honestly wonder how many of these shirts somebody is selling:


https://www.amazon.com/They-Hated-Telling-Truth-Too/dp/B0D95QSYV2?customId=B0752XJYNL&customizationToken=MC_Assembly_1%23B0752XJ

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Aug 25 - 05:00 PM

To celebrate America in federalized DC, Trump will present a cage fight match on the White House Lawn.

I would pay to see mud wrestling on the White House lawn with Hegseth, Bondi, Noem, and Vance.
For a heavyweight finale' Trump vs. Fetterman would be featured.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 09:13 AM

Seen today in the Comments on an article in The Register about language guidelines banning problematic tech terms:

Sad authoritarian times.

Hopefullly the NRA will urgently form "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State” to push back against Federal Overreach - esp the current militarisation of DC. …. literally what they have been bleating about since changing from a gun club to activism nuts.

In the words of Douglas Adams: "This is, of course, impossible." *Sigh*, but we can dream.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 09:21 AM

Donuel: If it's mud wrestling, they'd have to be naked. I'd pay good money to *not* see that, esp the finalé.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 01:36 PM

my recent Trump song fragments...


He was an old thin skinned man
They said he had a smile.
So I went online and followed him awhile
I don't know what they're thinking
He even cheats at golf and con man deals
He's taxing us making profits when he steals
He's killing me harshly with his wrongs
Killing me harshly, with his wrongs.
Killing me harshly
with his wrongs





Good morning our Capitol how are ya?
now that troops direct your every move.
All the checkpoints and arrests are fairly heavy.
Many will be gone when the day is done.

School kids and workers try to hide
the fear and worry goes far and wide
the police take over is on the news
and is watched in case relatives disappear.

The fear and loathing makes citizens sad and blue.




Ain't Trump cute
He's enough to make you puke
I tell you very confidentially
Trump's a fluke

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 06:40 PM

Tomorrow (Friday), Bondi will slowly roll out some Epstein files.
How slow it goes, I don't know, but probably slow enough to never reach the end for 3 years.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 07:13 PM

Trump's name will be redacted, but I imagine people will figure out where it goes. (If he's the only one redacted, for example, it'll be very easy. Do you suppose they'd be so obvious?)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 21 Aug 25 - 07:20 PM

Yeah, nah! There will be a lot of other filthy-rich white guys who will pay good money to get their names redacted too. IMHO

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 02:24 AM

Prince Andrew.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 04:14 AM

There are many demonstrations against the ICE raids in DC but no armed confrontations. Restaurant Reservations have plunged during the takeover, but Trump says the opposite.
It's still cold outside here.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 06:38 AM

The US Constitution has a Second Amendment, does it not, which guarantees the ‘Right to bear arms’? And the frequently-offered reason by the gun-nuts and the NRA for such a Right is to provide for an armed Militia to challenge and prevent the government from taking up arms against the people, is it not?

So I wonder why, in the face of government action against the people (including force by armed agents) the NRA isn’t currently organising its much-vaunted ‘well-regulated Militia’ and taking these agents on?

Don’t tell me that this ‘well-regulated Militia’ and ‘holding the government to account’ is all NRA gun-nut nonsense? Surely not…?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 08:40 AM

BWM.
Fully correct. According to the Congress.gov
"Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 11:20 AM

Nigel, I wasn’t casting doubt on the content of the 2nd Amendment, I know full well what it says.

My point was, and still is, that the NRA and sundry assorted other gun-nuts frequently quote that part of the 2nd as their reason for objecting to stronger gun-control laws yet, at a time when the security of their ‘free state’ is seemingly being attacked by armed government agencies (at least, this is how it appears to many outside the US, and I’m one of those), there seems to be no effort being made by the NRA to enact that provision by organising a ‘well regulated Militia’ from amongst its members and others.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Aug 25 - 01:40 PM

The view of the NRA Trump supporters all around me appears to be:

1. Thank God, we've finally got a President who doesn't just talk.

2. He gets things done, even if they're wrong.

3. Maybe DC crime is down, maybe not. (The President says the figures are fake.) But down or not, there's still way too much. If the cops can't handle it, why shouldn't he call in the National Guard?

3. He's getting rid of the worst of the worst.

4. What's more, *anybody* who enters the country illegally is a criminal by definition and should be deported. They "didn't come in with due process, so why should they leave with it?" Besides, the Constitution is for American citizens.

5. The National Guard is to protect us. Why should anyone be worried if they haven't done anything wrong?

6. Trump says he's going to send troops to other high-crime cities too. Good for him!

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Aug 25 - 08:26 AM

Gerrymandering undermines the fair representation of Congress, failing to accurately reflect the people's interests.

The Judiciary beats the criminal and the unconstitutional abuse of power.

The declaration of emergency powers by the President overrides the normal enforcement of law.

Martial law beats all. LA and DC are examples where martial law will appear normalized to many Americans.

The Trump takeover is focused on race and gender and not terrorism.
Trump's own terrorism will face a day when international terrorism strikes again, but all those amti terrorist agents have been fired.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Aug 25 - 09:35 AM

In martial law. the military issues orders against civilians, makes arrests, holds trials, and imposes sentence.

That is not now happening in Washington. Should it begin, there would be a tremendous reaction.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 23 Aug 25 - 02:51 PM

There have been a lot of news articles here on ABC (Oz) about Trump this week. This is just a list of the first page of a search - sorry no links for all - there are too many Search results for Trump - first page:

Trump threatens to renew sanctions on Russia
Donald Trump is renewing threats to impose sanctions on Russia if there's no progress on peace talks with Ukraine over the new two weeks.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from jail to await trial on home detention with family in Maryland
Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be on home detention in Maryland with his brother.

Ghislaine Maxwell says she has never seen Trump 'in any inappropriate setting
The US Justice Department has released interviews with Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

[My note: she said she met him way back when he knew her father in relation to business dealings. Yeah, right!]

FBI raids office of Trump critic John Bolton
The FBI has searched the home and office of John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser as part of an investigation into the handling of classified documents.

Trump says he has limited knowledge of FBI raids of John Bolton's home
US President Donald Trump says he has limited knowledge of the FBI raiding his former adviser John Bolton's home.

FBI raids home of ex-Trump adviser John Bolton
FBI agents have raided the home of Trump's ex national security adviser John Bolton.

Ghislaine Maxwell says in released DOJ interviews she did not see Trump act in 'inappropriate way'
The transcripts with Ghislaine Maxwell are released as the Trump administration suffers a sustained backlash from its base over failing to deliver on expectations created through conspiracy theories and bold promises.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell bites back at President Trump
President Trump has called Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell a "numbskull" and a "stubborn mule," as he bunkers down on pressure to reduce interest rates. Last night Powell gave a much anticipated speech, responding to a challenging economic situation, insurgency within his own institution, and ...

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 06:54 AM

We are in the age of retribution and a purge of anti-Trump figures.
This purge is an extension of Trump's age-old financial bullying with his bullying lawsuits, but now he has the full force of the judicial system AND the FBI to BRING FELONY CHARGES

A project 2025 best-selling book might be 'The Art of Bullying', which could be essential reading for school kids' leadership skills.
If it works for Presidents, it should work for kids to subjugate minorities. After all, Trump is still a psychologically spiteful teenager.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 07:38 AM

Kash Patel is sticking his neck out to investigate Bolton for classified document crimes and Obama for treason.

IT turns out that Kash Patel has no neck, and his chin is attached directly to his clavicle.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 08:58 AM

Kash Patel

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 12:22 PM

Much live-TV coverage here of the FBI raids on John Bolton's house. Mention was made of cardboard evidence boxes being carried in. They may or may not have been told to look in the bathroom for top-secret bog paper.

I call it a SWATting attack.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 02:41 PM

I got FBI swatted by a renowned mudcat member once.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 08:06 PM

I've got the power
I've got the power
Hey, yeah-hey
… Like the crack of my whip, I "Snap!" attack
Front to back with my lawsuits of crap
Enemies will grovel, for cash on a lawyerly level
Bang some heads, turn up the trouble
Radical mind, day and night all the time

Maniac brainiac, winnin' the game
I'm the godfather, Jesse James
… Genius I possess, some say I'm fresh
When my threat goes through the masses
With the microphone that I am holding
With so many lawsuits, I am emboldened
If you complain, "Snap!", I don't need the law
When you sign my NDA, your voice will cease
So please, stay off my back
Or I will attack, and you don't want that
… I've got the power
I've got the bigots
I've got the Nazis
I've got the Christians
…
… I've got the power
I've got the power
I've got the power
I've got the power
… It's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda hectic
It's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda hectic
It's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda hectic
It's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda eclectic
…
… I've got the Military
I've got the Congress
I've got the Supreme Court
I've got the FBI
… I've got the CIA
I've got the Cash stream
I've got the power

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 12:48 PM

If the US can thwart a future Trump military coup, it is my hope that the blowback could spark an additional global ontological reassessment, replacing the old monopolies with new energy sources, energy storage, transportation, agriculture, and climate awareness.

npr had a program on how retaliation, revenge, and retribution are a dopamine addictive cycle for those addicted to such behavior and their feelings of pleasure. Trump gets high on revenge in a way that may seem bizarre to you. If you do, you are probably a sensible, rational person who believes in goodness.

Trump actually derives pleasure from other people's suffering.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 04:12 PM

So Donuel, given that "Trump actually derives pleasure from other people's suffering" how the heck does he see himself winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Obviously he has an extreme disconnect in his view of his own reality. That's not news, I know, but it would probably be a revelation to him - if he ever bothered to look at himself clearly. :-D

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 04:54 PM

He loves trophies. He gave himself a golf trophy under false pretenses.
So far, he claims he has ended 6 wars. If he succeeds in ending the Ukraine war or the Gaza war, he should get credit. Other than appointing himself the head negotiating statesman, there has not been much success.

I have several editorial cartoons I made of Trump receiving trophies taller than himself. The irony was that the trophy tipped, putting Trump in imminent danger.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 06:19 PM

revenge addiction

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 26 Aug 25 - 02:39 AM

In the latest WTF news moment, here is one of many articles:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn't vote

I heard about this on a news-related TV show here in Oz. I have never seen one of the hosts, Julia Baird, express an opinion or emotion when she is reporting the news so I was surprised that she said she was angry about this in her introduction to the news item. Not surprised at all when I heard what she had to say.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reposted and praised a video interview of a self-described Christian nationalist pastor whose church doesn't believe women should be allowed to vote.

"Doug Wilson, senior pastor of Christ Church in Idaho, said during the interview with CNN that, 'Women are the kind of people that people come out of'."

Julia Baird also quoted Doug Wilson about men who invade and conquer with their penises and create new life - or something like that. Women therefore are viewed as the conquered.

I don't know if I'll be able to watch this without screaming obscenities but here goes:

Doug Wilson video

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Aug 25 - 08:37 AM

What people don't see is that America is in a temporary state of grace right now. What I would compare it to is Hurricane Katrina 8 hours after the storm passed New Orleans. There was damage, but everything looked fairly intact on Bourbon Street and in the wealthy downtown.
THEN the levees broke! The pumps broke, and 20 feet of water poured into much of the city.

Be it natural disasters, disease, pestilence, super inflation of 80%, or police state civil war, all hell will break loose without the expertise of competent people to respond. Recovery will be further complicated if a combination of disasters strikes in unison.

Long-term disintegration will hit education and agriculture, among many other systems. Rebuilding will lack equality and take a very long time. The Trump narrative will be that his revolution is going better than ever, while the underprivileged will suffer desperately unto death.

Enjoy this state of grace before the full impact of pathological dictatorship has the final word. In time, this too will pass. With enough time, history may try to portray this misadventure like a minor hiccup. The good people will tell the truth.

I expect to hear 'Brownie is doin' a heck of a job' all over again but on a national scale. While I could be wrong, there is no denying that the White Christian Nationalists are getting everything they wanted and more already. I pray that the experienced and educated people who have been fired may return in numbers thst would make a great difference.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 03:05 AM

> I pray that the experienced and educated people who
> have been fired may return in numbers thst would make
> a great difference.

If they do (which I doubt), the lesson won't be learnt thoroughly enough: it's the *burnt* hand, not the merely smacked one, that learns fastest. Catastrophe needs to be a harsh schoolmistress.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 03:39 AM

The grownups are preparing to leave the building:

Eggheads hold science fair on Capitol Hill to decry funding cuts

'The Things We’ll Never Know' show highlights what we'll be missing

President Trump's budget slashes funding for science and led to the cancellation or reduction of thousands of research programs, so scientists have staged a series of presentations to show legislators innovations that America will miss out on in the future.

The event, dubbed "The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants" was held on Capitol Hill and featured 21 science exhibitions that are now canceled due to lack of funding. They include examining coastal erosion, helping disabled children learn, and researching preparation for another pandemic. [...]

"The really smart people who have opportunities, you know, will go to where the science is being done, whether it's Europe or China or other places," Adam Riess, who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011, told NPR. "I'm definitely hearing from a lot of colleagues who are saying, 'I need to look at, what's plan B.'"

As that old Athena poster used to say: If you think education's expensive, try ignorance.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 05:22 AM

Apparently the unprotected Cloud server where the DOGE kids first loaded the millions of Social Security records has been compromised (duh!) and the pundit I heard late last night speculates that we'll all be getting new Social Security numbers. Won't that be fun. Since records will be tying the old number to the new one, how long will those be secure? And the old ones as artifacts with viable data will still be out there doing the damage.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 05:30 AM

Lorne Michaels opens up on the future of SNL in Trump’s America: ‘Denouncing him doesn’t work’
‘Whatever crimes Trump is committing, he’s doing it in broad daylight,’ said the veteran producer as he downplayed the idea that the Trump administration poses a threat to TV comedy

Everyone knows what he's doing that is illegal, we can see it with our own eyes. Trump isn't hiding his crimes or trying to be subtle.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 08:13 AM

Historically, the Persians went from the most advanced scientific culture to take a backseat to other cultures when religion interfered with knowledge. It looks like it is America's turn to sit in the back.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Aug 25 - 03:23 PM

The Ivermectin panacea king was put in charge of vaccines by RFK.

RFK must respect the dewormer king since Kennedy's brainworm parasitic attack.

We are in limbo between comedic absurdity and intense fear tactics.

Perhaps the real underlying issue is a silent way to depopulate?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Aug 25 - 05:03 PM

The four most vadalised stars on the Holywood Walk of Fame

Short YouTube video and no prizes for guessing the most vandalised.

Subject: RE:oops ther goes another rubber tree
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Aug 25 - 07:45 AM

The USDA is closed in MD.
Oops there goes another agency. plop.

The Appellate Court ruled most Trump tariffs illegal.

RFK warns the country to not trust experts.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Aug 25 - 10:20 AM

Here's a video from a very cogent YouTuber who sees something weird going on in the White House, this last week. From grammatically consistent tweets (!!!!) to lack of schedule (inc golf?) and a meeting with the vice who also has some weird interviews of his own. His take is something akin to a medical procedure with a few days recovery and "no reportage".


Combat Veteran News

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 25 - 12:37 PM

Where 8s he? Lots of speculation as he has been missing since Tuesday apparently.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Aug 25 - 01:22 PM

He turned up again, darnit.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Aug 25 - 06:22 PM

The strategy behind this chaotic proliferation at breakneck speed is to make the masses feel powerless.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Aug 25 - 06:58 AM

The sense of humor of Donald Trump is magnificent compared to Stephen Miller.
Donald no longer attends the National Press Club Dinner, where they usually have Schmucky the clown do a comedy routine. But he does have Cabinet meetings which are as funny as hell when each member tries to outdo each other explaining why Trump is so magnificent.

Like most comedians, Trump uses adult words like shit and fuck, but he doesn't use adult language in the strict sense. He calls it something like 'flow' or some crap.

Trump can be so absurd that his defenders can claim he is joking while his critics call it catastrophic.

It's true his jokes can kill in the long run.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Aug 25 - 08:41 AM

Those who found him funny did not see his destructive side, and those who saw him as destructive did not find him amusing. Instead, some found him pathological. Trump is so changeable that he ends up seeming like he is politically incorrect for racists. He may even legalize pot. Any issue unrelated to misogyny and race is open for him to exploit. Maybe the Epstein issue and tariffs will erode some of his MAGA loyalty. Since Obama got a peace prize, he wants one now.

While he wants to rule the world he is still Putin's bitch.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Aug 25 - 06:21 PM

Donald Trump is taking over the US Federal Reserve and financial markets have missed the point Financial markets are missing the point about Donald Trump's takeover of the Federal Reserve.

It's not really about getting interest rates down or even just about the Fed. America is in the midst of an authoritarian revolution with global implications, especially for dependent allies like Australia.

Last week, Trump announced that he was removing Lisa Cook, who is one of the seven governors of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. The reason: "for cause", based on an unproven allegation of fraud in mortgage applications while she was a professor.
Markets did not freak out, surprising analysts everywhere, even after Trump followed up by telling a televised cabinet meeting that: "We'll have a majority [on the FOMC — the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee] very shortly. Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing, and it's going to be great. People are paying too high an interest rate. (read on)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 25 - 05:21 PM

The National Guard pay is 11 dollars a day but they are deployed for 29 days at a time since 30 days would entitle them to housing assistance for their families. They can't be happy about that.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 08:13 AM

America does not have a hot civil war, but it is full of domestic terrorism. There is no doubt that Trump is winning the cyber civil war with the most extreme voices on X and Truth Social.

This is a forum for folk music, but there are only three Americans who consistently contribute to this thread and the anti fascist cause.

The cyber civil war is lost and belongs to the rebels.
C'est l'geurre.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 01:07 PM

The Orange, Lying Rapist has gone very quiet this past week or two. Rumours here are that he’s suffering health problems. Nothing trivial and insignificant, I hope…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 01:24 PM

The worse his ailment, the better. And here's hoping it is painful also. He deserves every bit of any pain disease can visit on him. Do I sound bitter? He's making so many other people ill, and killing many, it's the least that can happen in return.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 01:45 PM

SRS & BWM, I echo your sentiments.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Raggytash
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 02:11 PM

"The National Guard pay is 11 dollars a day but they are deployed for 29 days at a time since 30 days would entitle them to housing assistance for their families. They can't be happy about that."

The facts:- https://usmilitary.com/national-guard-pay-chart/

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 05:59 PM

My source is a former General on MSNBC.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 06:05 PM

The National Guard is not happy, doing trash pick up.
Title 10 makes Guard members responsible for interfering with civilians' civil rights and is punishable by 2 years in prison. They are not allowed to do police work on civilians by law, even if the President orders them.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 06:18 PM

I wonder if Melania has sued Donald for a loss of consortium, which refers to the loss of rights and privileges due to the inability to participate in marital relations, often due to injury or wrongdoing.
I expect the opposite might have happened as well.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 09:16 PM

$11 is low even for anything, whatever their per diem pay might be, but regardless of that amount, the important thing is that Trump is indeed making the details for 29 days to stiff them from other benefits.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Sep 25 - 11:58 PM

Stand Up for Science: Quack-o-grams Against RFK Jr.

"We are hand-delivering rubber ducks to House Representatives with a message to “Impeach the Quack.”
Bobby “The Quack” Jr is a threat to our health and he has to go. So, we are getting creative with a campaign"

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 25 - 12:10 AM

And a handful of states are in a bind about the next version of the COVID vaccine. Trump and Kennedy are practicing medicine without a license.

C.D.C. Uncertainty Upends Covid Vaccine Access at CVS and Walgreens
State laws and regulatory chaos are driving the country’s largest pharmacy chains to require prescriptions or hold back altogether unless a C.D.C. panel acts.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 25 - 12:19 AM

The once-daily newsletter Wall Street on Parade has almost disappeared completely, but this one appeared this morning:

It’s Time to Name the “Wall Street Financiers” in the Epstein Files

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Sep 25 - 07:54 AM

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/weekly-covid-deaths


Other data puts the current weekly US Covid deaths at 250
or .5% per 100,000.
Death rates spike in January.

Depending on your State some heathy 40 year olds may be turned away from getting a covid vaccine at drug stores.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Sep 25 - 10:07 AM

Robert Kennedy jnior is a threat to the drug industry

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 25 - 11:15 AM

He's a threat to the health of all Americans.

That's a good database, Donuel, thanks. The US record-keeping for much of that has faded away in the last couple of years.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 03:44 AM

A greater threat to the health of all Americans is lack of exercise, plus eating too much fast food.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 07:28 AM

There are people in the US with real moral courage who do keep their head down at times, but will blossom and prevail when the time is right. Things have been worse, although this last gasp of the Confederacy is as desperate and challenging as the battle of the bulge.

Remember, the actual majority owns the streets. The wealthy own the real estate.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 09:01 AM

Anyway…back to The Orange Rapist. Any news in the US about his health issues? Over here in the UK, it’s reported he’s suffering from ‘chronic venous insufficiency’ (or something along those lines - I’m not a doctor). Chronic venal over-sufficiency would probably be more appropriate.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 11:02 AM

You have that one right. There's a meme making the rounds today (when isn't there?) by former Federal Prosecutor Joyce Vance: "You don't need to have my 25 years of experience as a prosecutor to understand that people who fight this hard to hide something have something to hide. It's time to release the files."

Meanwhile, Mother Jones

So far, their work has not gone exactly as planned. Last week, the soldiers deployed to fight a “crime emergency” instead found themselves completing “beautification” duties on Capitol Hill and patrolling Krispy Kremes. Users on the r/NationalGuard subreddit were quick to give their colleagues a new nickname: National Guardeners.

The joke shows an undercurrent of dissent within the Guard after Trump unleashed members on major American cities. Alex, a National Guard recruiter from one of the states that sent troops to DC who requested anonymity to speak freely, told Mother Jones that the DC mission has deterred potential recruits and pushed already-disillusioned soldiers to their breaking points.

“I think people have hit their limit. This is an encroachment on everything we signed up for, and it feels like a violation,” said Alex. “They just see us as little toy soldiers to put on the street to show some muscle. There’s no clear mission or understanding of that mission.”

And akin to the 29-day deployments (not mentioned here) is this:

In order to receive retirement benefits, National Guardsmen generally need to acquire at least 20 “good years” of service. This means committing some time to the National Guard each month. Often, this takes the form of practice drills. But, shortly after the DC deployment, Alex said, they received instructions not to drill for the rest of the fiscal year (which ends September 30).

“It generally gets like this at the end of the fiscal year, money’s always tight, but not to the point where I’m not able to drill,” Alex said. Without additional drills, some will not be able to log a “good year” toward retirement. Alex put it succinctly: “I’m missing work for the army because the state ran out of money because they decided to send military police to DC.”

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 11:05 AM

The little valves inside veins that ensure one-way blood flow can get old and break down, allowing blood to flow with gravity, leaking into extremities like the feet and ankles. Combined with neuropathy, one is prone to misteps on stairs. I heard Trump may no longer board Air Force One by the tallest stairs but by the lower cargo stairs. I have noticed he has a death grip on the handrails.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 11:27 AM

The Guard has good reasons to be pissed off. The lowest pay of 11 bucks/hr is below McDonald's 15. Besides, they are often on duty for 10 hour days but paid for less. The food is nothing to brag about.

Only ICE is making most of the arrests.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 02:45 PM

Anyway, is the old bastard dead yet?

TBH, I’m not persuaded there’s anything wrong with him (apart from his self-inflicted obesity) - I’m pretty certain it’s all another distraction tactic, to draw attention away from his inclusion in the Epstein Files/List and his unsavoury, if not downright illegal,activities at Pædo Island and elsewhere in the Epstein empire.

I guess time will tell…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 04:43 PM

The orange one has looked a bit pale and pasty-faced in the last few photos and videos I have seen. My bet is on a heart condition. Is there a medically recognised cognition called McDonalds-itis or junkfooditis?

I read about this earlier this week:

Eating chips three times a week linked to higher risk of type 2 diabetes, study finds

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 05:28 PM

I’ve had T2 since gall-bladder problems buggered my pancreas back in 2006, so I guess I can eat chips as often as I like now? ;-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 04 Sep 25 - 05:39 PM

Er, no!! :-D

I think Trump doesn't like to admit that he is sick so I doubt that he would use that as a smokescreen to deflect attention away from the Epstein business.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 25 - 12:43 AM

The man is vile. Judge, Jury, Executioner
When one man is all three, democracy is on the brink

The article describes Trump's very busy weekend, in which he tried to, during dead of night, send 600 minors in foster care back to Guatemala (a judge stopped it from happening) and then he decided to blow a boat to smithereens in the Caribbean - suggesting it was bad guys smuggling drugs. But that isn't how they are stopped, the Coast Guard usually apprehends them. The boat was 2000 miles distant from the US.

To be clear, one small boat with 11 people and no apparent weapons on board, located more than 2000 miles from the United States, was considered a threat by the president — a threat so imminent he chose to use immediate lethal force. And that lethal force has obliterated any and all evidence.

Trump was so pleased with the mission he posted on social media a video of the boat being hit by a U.S. strike.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Sep 25 - 07:56 AM

”Er, no!! :-D”

Spoilsport! ;-) :-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 05 Sep 25 - 02:00 PM

BWM, eat the rainbow, man! :-)

I am very sure that the orange one doesn't.

(As an aside and totally off-topic, I can highly recommend making fries from the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes called kumera. Marinate the cut pieces with olive oil and some spices e.g. paprika, ras el hanout etc, put some cornflour on just before frying to give them a bit of crunch. Yummo! and good for your health.)

Sorry, back to the topic:

Republicans and Democrats grill RFK Jr on vaccine policies in fiery Senate hearing

"In short: Democrats and Republicans have grilled US Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr on his recent vaccine policies in a fiery Senate hearing.

"Senators contrasted Mr Kennedy's policies with Donald Trump's successful first-term pandemic initiative to speed up vaccine development.

"Mr Trump has expressed support for Mr Kennedy, saying he has a 'different take' on vaccines."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 25 - 06:18 PM

His take is to dismantle science as we know it. Time to get rid of him, and the horse he rode in on.

There are competing hearings this week, equally important - the Epstein survivors are threatening to name names. Kennedy needs to stop firing people and making medical decisions for millions of people. He got an earful yesterday.

All of this chaos because of Donald Trump.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Sep 25 - 12:34 PM

Robert Kennedy Jr. is the grim RFKer.
He was a very sickly child.
He is brain-damaged now.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 06 Sep 25 - 03:58 PM

And unfortunately Donuel, those characteristics of RFK Jr are combined with being born and raised into a family with a tradition of using their skills, knowledge and beliefs to work for the good of the nation. RFK Jr doesn't understand that his own specific skills, knowledge and beliefs are undermining the good of the nation.

This old song is becoming relevant again:

AU Sign in Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Sep 25 - 04:21 PM

His mom, Ethel, was a piece of work. Can you blame her? A couple of other Kennedy kids had misadventures in their cars after taking Ambien. Kerry crashed into the guard station obliviously at the Capitol building while sleep driving. RFK Jr. wins the whacky prize among his cousins.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 04:39 AM

Heather Cox Richardson on FB yesterday (posted here in full for the benefit of non-FB-ers)…

”September 6, 2025 (Saturday)

Today the social media account of President Donald J. Trump posted an AI-generated image of Trump as if he were Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now in front of the Chicago skyline with military helicopters and flames and the caption “Chipocalypse Now.” Kilgore loved the war in Vietnam in which he was engaged; his most famous line was “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Over the image, Trump’s social media post read: “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The words were followed by three helicopter emojis, symbols the right wing uses to represent former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s goons’ disappearing political opponents by pushing them out of helicopters.

Although it has become trite to speculate about what Republicans would say if a Democratic president engaged in the behavior Trump exhibits daily, this open attack of the president on an American city is a new level of unhinged. Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo wrote: “The president of the United States just declared war, actual military war, not a metaphorical one, on a major American city, and one governed by his political opponents.” He added, accurately: “In any other period, this would be impeachment-worthy.”

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker called attention to the gravity of Trump’s post: “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.” Under the words “Know your rights, Illinois,” and “Stay safe and stay informed,” the governor’s social media account posted information about Americans’ rights in both English and Spanish.

Trump’s threats against American citizens are outrageous, but they also feel desperate. Trump’s popularity is tanking, the economy is faltering, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing a chorus of calls to resign or be fired, and the American people are taking to the streets. Thousands of people turned out today in Washington, D.C., for the “We Are All D.C.” march to protest the presence of troops in the city, and in Chicago for the “Chicago Says No Trump No Troops” protest. The protests are notable for the seas of signs the peaceful protesters carry.

And then, with Congress back in session, there is the resurgence of the issue of Trump’s appearance in the Epstein files. Last week, the White House warned Republicans that voting to release the Epstein files “would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.” Yesterday, Trump reiterated his claim that the agitation for the release of the files is a “Democrat HOAX…in order to deflect and distract from the great success of a Republican President.”

Also yesterday, lawyers for the Justice Department asked a federal judge to keep the names of two associates who received large payments from Epstein in 2018 secret. Days before the payments, the Miami Herald had started to examine the sweetheart deal Epstein got in 2008. One associate received a payment of $100,000, and the second received $250,000. As part of his plea deal, Tom Winter of NBC News reports, Epstein got a guarantee that the associates would not be prosecuted.

Last night, Trump hosted the inaugural dinner of what the White House is calling the “Rose Garden Club” in the newly-paved White House Rose Garden, telling those assembled that they were there because they are loyal to the president. “You’re the ones that I never had to call at 4:00 in the morning,” Trump told them. “You are the ones that have been my friends, and you know what I’m talking about."

Yesterday, talking to reporters about the Epstein files, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that Trump was “an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.” The idea that Trump was secretly working to bring Epstein down is common fare among conspiracy theorists, but as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggests, Johnson’s embrace of it might well be an attempt to spin material in the files before it becomes public.

Marshall notes that journalist Michael Wolff, who interviewed Epstein at length during Trump’s first presidency, says that Epstein suspected it was Trump who told the authorities about his systemic sexual assault of girls. But if so, Marshall explains, this is damning rather than exonerating.

It’s pretty well known that Trump and Epstein had a falling out in 2004 after Trump went behind Epstein’s back to buy an estate in South Florida that Epstein wanted. But at the time, Trump was headed toward bankruptcy, and it was not clear where he was getting the money to buy the estate.

Marshall calls attention to a recent interview in which Wolff said that Epstein suspected Trump was laundering money for a Russian oligarch—and indeed, Trump did flip the property to a Russian oligarch for a profit of more than $50 million a few years after buying it—and threatened to sue Trump, bringing the money laundering to light. At that point, the Epstein investigation began.

According to Wolff, Epstein believed Trump had notified the police about what was going on at Epstein’s house, which he knew because he was a frequent visitor. Marshall speculates that Johnson mentioned that Trump was an informant because that information could well be in the files the Department of Justice has, and they’re trying to spin it ahead of time to make it sound like Trump was a hero.

But both Wolff and Marshall note that if indeed Trump turned the FBI onto Epstein, it shows he knew what was taking place at Epstein’s properties.

Johnson’s claim that Trump was an FBI informant suggests Trump’s team is worried that as more and more people get access to the files, it will be increasingly difficult to hide what’s in them. Trump's demand for Republicans’ loyalty suggests that at least some of them are starting to recalculate it. And that, in turn, might have something to do with why he is putting troops in the streets.”

Trump and his cohort show, once more, what pond-life scum they really are.

Original HCR FB post here…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 10:49 AM

One reason I post here is that it is not Facebook.

There are many examples of Trump's cons and corruption that are ignored by the Justice Department, while the con men involved are ousted from their political appointments inside various agencies. Ergo you won't always find a link to their million-dollar crimes.
Some are as amateur as steering millions to a spouse by way of fake employment. I have yet to include these specific examples in my posts.
Just know they exist.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 11:41 AM

”One reason I post here is that it is not Facebook.”

Your choice. And why I post the text in full, as well as provide a link to the FB piece.

I believe it’s very important to post links to sources, otherwise readers are perfectly justified in assuming it’s just ‘more made-up shit’. Wouldn’t you agree?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 11:54 AM

Heather Cox Richardson posts in several venues and can be read without subscribing to FB. I pulled up her Substack account, but for some reason it is all displaying in Spanish at the moment. Time for some trouble-shooting.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 12:58 PM

I would agree with your "made up shit" scenario as often as I might agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Whatever you do to educate yourself is better than nothing, so I agree with that, as long as you have the means to avoid becoming cult-like.

Will the Supreme Court agree with Trump tariffs or find them illegal like the lower courts? Its not like sports betting where there are reasoned odds. It may be a matter of extortion or actual constitutional interpretation.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 02:08 PM

To make SRS happy - Heather Cox Richardson. Substack, 6/9/25

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 02:44 PM

There you go! Posting the Spanish version wouldn't have been helpful. :)

RFK, Jr. isn't the only one trashing US science. A Resounding Rejection of the US DOE’s Sham “Climate Science” Report

From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The comment period for a sham “climate science” report commissioned by the US Department of Energy closed earlier this week and the verdict is in: the scientific community has overwhelmingly and resoundingly rejected the report. In addition to its deeply flawed content, which is rife with inaccuracies and disinformation aimed at downplaying the risks of climate change, many have also called out the shoddy, secretive, and potentially unlawful process used to draft it.

Read the rest at the link.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 03:29 PM

”There you go! Posting the Spanish version wouldn't have been helpful. :) “

No Spanish version when I Googled it, SRS, just the English version. Mind you, you’re in Tejas and a lot closer to México than me - maybe that has something to do with it? ;-)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 25 - 03:43 PM

There was some kind of glitch going on in my browser with the Substack window. I've seen this happen occasionally, it could be that a referring link defaulted to a Spanish version.

This week is the anniversary of when Donald Trump suddenly owned the tallest building in Manhattan. That's what he was thinking about while everyone else watched in horror. Boatlift - An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 08:15 AM

The dread pirate Trump blew up a boat in international waters.
It probably was carrying drugs but due process is such a bother compared to summary executions.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 08:23 AM

Democrats say the crime rates are down in some big cities, but they do not admit that murders are up. Half-truths are as bad as bald-faced lies. The left is handing this issue to Trump on a platter.

US children are still dying from gunfire, as their leading cause of death.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 11:05 AM

Since when have the Democrats been of the left?Biden Clinton Obama are establishment politicians.The Democrats have done nothing to control or alter gun laws.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 11:59 AM

Because they haven't doesn't mean they didn't try. Clinton banned assault weapons successfully for years, but that expired and was never renewed.

Meanwhile, Trump's ICE folks are totally off the rails (still): South Koreans feel betrayed by workforce detentions at Georgia Hyundai plant

Since battery-operated cars are clean energy and the oil and gas folks hold sway in D.C., it's no surprise that someone decided to put a crimp in that operation.

The Trump administration has made a series of workplace raids to fulfill its mass deportation agenda, but this was the Homeland Security agency’s largest yet at a single site, and targeted Georgia, a symbol of bilateral cooperation where many large South Korean businesses operate and plan future investments.

Particularly stunning is that this raid came only weeks after South Korea promised to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. investments as part of a tariff deal, and days after Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held their first summit meeting in Washington on Aug. 25.

“The way that Trump is pressuring the Korean government and inflicting damages on its people is very rough and unilateral,” said Kim Taewoo, former head of Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification. “Can this be forgotten easily in South Korea? In a long-term perspective, it won’t be good for U.S. national interests as well.”

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 12:04 PM

There is a looming government shutdown - the last time, Schumer blinked, and I've heard an essay from Ezra Klein that says he can see why it happened then. But now there is nothing to lose except have a story ready to tell the public about the GOP failures and let it shut down.

Distrust clouds Democratic strategy amid shutdown battle with GOP

House Democrats are hanging their hopes on party leaders in the Senate to block any government spending bill crafted solely by the GOP, but there’s plenty of distrust between the chambers hovering over the debate.

Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), House Democrats were virtually united against a Republican spending bill in March, only to watch angrily as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a small group of upper chamber Democrats backed the bill, sending it to President Trump’s desk.

With another shutdown deadline looming at month’s end, House Democrats are delicately predicting a different outcome this time, arguing that the political environment has changed so drastically over the past six months that Schumer has almost no choice but to oppose a GOP spending bill negotiated without Democratic input.

“The world has literally changed since that occurred,” Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) said. “He made a calculated risk and it did not turn out well. I don’t think he’ll make that mistake twice.”

“I think they hold the line,” echoed Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). “The American people have expressed themselves clearly and loudly that they want us to fight back at all levels. And if, in fact, we engage in a shutdown, it would be a Republican shutdown, because they’re the ones that are making it difficult for anybody to reach an agreement with these egregious cuts.”

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Rain Dog
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 01:10 PM

"Since when have the Democrats been of the left?Biden Clinton Obama are establishment politicians.The Democrats have done nothing to control or alter gun laws."

Sandman,most of us this side of the water, including myself, have little knowledge of the US system of government. I have to say that i was surprised recently when meeting with my American cousin & her husband & friend, that they said i had more understanding of the political system in the US than a lot of the citizens.

I should add of course, that quite a few people here in the UK don't understand our own system.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Helen
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 02:55 PM

Rain Dog, I was friends with an American couple who lived here in Oz for two years, about 30 years ago. I was surprised to hear the man say that he had learned more about US politics and social issues while living here than he had ever known at home because our media coverage was more comprehensive.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 04:55 PM

Sandman,most of us this side of the water, including myself, have little knowledge of the US system of government". quote
Raindog it is not rocket science
I understand it well enough to realise that the gun lobby has considerable influence, with the result that gun laws do not get changed,

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 05:13 PM

No surprise here, from a Substack blog called The Big Picture: The MAGA Lifestyle Influencer Bait And Switch
Alt-right women posing as lifestyle content creators are virtual sleeper cells for MAGA sexist politics

Women like Clark—who hosts the Culture Apothecary podcast under the umbrella of Charlie Kirk’s conservative youth organization Turning Point USA—are part of a growing movement of far-right or alt-right women who use seemingly innocuous lifestyle and wellness content to draw unwitting women into their fandoms. What happens next is a bait and switch.

Once they’re on the MAGA creator’s feed, the unsuspecting audience is fed a much more serious and indoctrinating type of content alongside the casual lifestyle fare. Take for example, as in Clark’s case, the idea that women who prioritize their babies’ sleep might really just hate their husbands, or that it’s funny to insult people worried about getting the measles, no need to get vaccines for your children(!), or that you really might want to consider just prioritizing serving and obeying your husband as a lifestyle tip. One troubling recent video, billed as a “wife school” episode, is titled “How to Nag Less and Let Him Lead.”

Pardon me while I go out and pick okra in my front-yard garden and try later, when I have extra to give away, to convince my GOP neighbors to dump Trump. Hopefully it can work both ways.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 05:27 PM

Some live in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Thiel coup 3
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 25 - 07:59 PM

Trump has promised a Blitz on Chicago. "THE MIDWAY BLITZ" Is the name of the ICE operation.

The way ICE is rounding up groups of Latino residents is identical to the laws that the Ku Klux Klan used to round up black people.

Hyundai employees and advisors were frog-marched to deportation on the premise that foreign companies may not keep the technical know-how away from American citizens. Stilly had some other plausible reasons. Note that there was no raid on the Mercedes factories.
Trump has not inspired other foreign companies to establish factories in the US as he had hoped.

Tariff problems have caused suicides in the farming community already.