[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Don't be silly... it would be Sly Stallone.

Because Trump likes to post photos of himself as Rambo... and Sylvester Stallone called Trump the second coming of George Washington.

https://www.usatoday...on/76327624007/

[HoosierDaddy]

Lady Bliss, on 01 August 2025 - 03:49 PM, said:

Obviously Nicholas Cage.

Is Nic Cage a conservative Trumper? I certainly hope not.

Sly and Mel are.

[Cause]

Well we can call the game now.

Trump just fired the women responsible for releasing the jobs numbers reports. He claimed the weak numbers are because she manipulated the data. Of course no evidence has been provided.

Oh and the Smithsonian museum is pretending Trump wasn’t impeached twice.

We are in full blown revisionist history, revisionist present and and grandiose future dictatorship territory.

This post has been edited by Cause: 01 August 2025 - 09:33 PM

[HoosierDaddy]

Cause, on 01 August 2025 - 09:30 PM, said:

Well we can call the game now.

Trump just fired the women responsible for releasing the jobs numbers reports. He claimed the weak numbers are because she manipulated the data. Of course no evidence has been provided.

Oh and the Smithsonian museum is pretending Trump wasn't impeached twice.

We are in full blown revisionist history, revisionist present and and grandiose future dictatorship territory.

Actually, it's helpful to know that we can no longer trust anything that department puts out. The markets reacted as they should.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

HoosierDaddy, on 01 August 2025 - 09:40 PM, said:

Cause, on 01 August 2025 - 09:30 PM, said:

Well we can call the game now.

Trump just fired the women responsible for releasing the jobs numbers reports. He claimed the weak numbers are because she manipulated the data. Of course no evidence has been provided.

Oh and the Smithsonian museum is pretending Trump wasn't impeached twice.

We are in full blown revisionist history, revisionist present and and grandiose future dictatorship territory.

Actually, it's helpful to know that we can no longer trust anything that department puts out. The markets reacted as they should.

IDK, the bond market may be giving the US government too much credit.

Though since it did get Him to back down before, He's probably tasked his minions with devising ways to subjugate it to His will (and whimsy)...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 01 August 2025 - 10:52 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

Hegseth Threatens Another Civil War to Defend 'Proud' Confederate History

The defense secretary defended his decision to restore a Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery.

[...] "We're proud of our history."

[...] "Our job is to ensure our enemies know exactly what we will do to them if they threaten us up to and including total war," [...]

The monument in question [...] features an inscription in Latin that describes the Civil War as [...] honorable for its noble principles and resistance to tyranny.

The sculpture also depicts Black people as supporting the Confederate soldiers, implying that they wished to remain enslaved.

https://www.thedaily...derate-history/

But as usual it's very likely intended as an outrageous culture war distraction from more material policy fall-out and "extra-legal" actions... OTOH it's also prepping would-be pro-Trump racist thugs for a potential dog whistle call to arms.

[Cause]

I am again reminded that a Trump presidency is pure chaos. Current IRS head is out after two months with Scott Bessent now acting head. This makes 6 different people in charge this year alone. Which is absolutely crazy.

Also I’m currently doing the work of two prople (colleague on maternity leave). I can’t keep up. How can one realistically head the treasury department and IRS at the same time. Realistically does it mean the number two does most of the work? I mean there is only so much time in the day.

Also the guy who is being removed Billy long has apparently been telling people to leave early on Friday almost every week he has been in charge. “Please enjoy a 70-minute early exit tomorrow. That way you’ll be rested for my 70th birthday on Monday!” Mr. Long wrote to staff on Thursday.

Even if I only had stock in a Fortune 500 company, never mind the IRS, I would find it strange for a ceo to give everyone time off for his birthday. Even if it’s just an excuse. Your not a king, your not that important.

[Tsundoku]

You're assuming Trump won't use his pet FBI, DOJ and Judiciary to solve the problem for him.
I fear within the next 12 months, Trump et al will be using the apparatus of the Fed Govt to directly and blatantly go after and falsely accuse, convict and imprison his political and economic opponents. Or drive them into effecive exile and political irrelevancy.
A la Putin et al, except on a much faster timeline. Will they have show trials and struggle sessions too? Or just skip that part and go straight to non-public extrajudicial executions?
All the while his supposedly "small Govt" and "I fear the Govt, that's why I have muh gurns" retards baying for their blood. Will be interesting to see if the same fate befalls these modern day Robespierres.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 14 August 2025 - 12:40 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 14 August 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

None of this matters when the Media turns on him. Once they realize that the "DJT is a story" is in the past, and "DJT's downfall is delicious and is the new story"....the narrative will shift against him on all quarters. Whether that happens before or after he passes away from Cheeseburger Heart Attack remains to be seen. And once he's gone things accelerate...deceased people cannot defend NDA's...every single piece of information, taper, video tape about this man will come out and the attempt at distancing from it will be swift.

None of this matters when the military sides with him.

Quote

We Used to Think the Military Would Stand Up to Trump. We Were Wrong.

It now seems clear to us that the military will not rescue Americans from Mr. Trump's misuse of the nation's military capabilities. Recent changes to the terms of the military's employment by the Pentagon and its members' incentives to career advancement will ultimately overcome any constitutional and moral qualms about their conduct.

[...] If the highest-ranked officers taking their cue from the White House decide that military operations on American soil are necessary, career officers will get the message. Some may entertain and even express reservations about employing American forces for domestic law enforcement, but few would act on them.

This is what we are seeing now.

https://www.nytimes....tary-power.html

He's already having the military preside over "law enforcement" in Washington DC even though violent crime there is at a 30-year low. His administration has documented plans to prepare to extend military control to blue cities.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 August 2025 - 03:33 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

Trump's new pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics [...] E.J. Antoni, tapped to replace former BLS Commissioner [...] whom the president fired after claiming the agency "rigged" disappointing jobs report figures, has repeatedly appeared in front of [a] massive portrait of Adolf Hitler's favorite battleship during media interviews.

[...] "The Bismarck, yep, in all his glory," Antoni said. [...] The White House defended [this] as he is a "history buff" and has an "appreciation for the significance of maritime history."

[...] Antoni also recommended [...] Buchanan's 2008 book Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, which is highly critical of Britain's involvement in both world wars.

https://www.thedaily...-all-his-glory/

Quote

DHS's Neo-Nazi Memes Show the Agency for What It Is

As it begins building the largest law enforcement agency in the country, the Department of Homeland Security has lately turned to social media to recruit immigration enforcement officers. These posts have been characterized as "mean memes," or as another sign of the Trump regime's penchant for "kitsch," but one particularly egregious example posted Monday shows quite clearly how meanness and kitsch are ideal vehicles for neo-Nazi messaging. "Which way, American man?" the @DHSgov account on X posted, along with an AI-sloppy cartoon of Uncle Sam considering competing road signs: "Cultural Decline," "Homeland," "Invasion," "Opportunity." It's a message meant to help the agency with its "rapid recruitment" of 14,050 new immigration enforcement agents, as decreed by Trump (and with new funding from Congress). The phrase is a nod to the 1978 book Which Way, Western Man?, a foundational text for white nationalists. The book's most accessible edition was published by the neo-Nazi press National Vanguard Books, which was founded by William Luther Pierce III, the author of the racist dystopian novel The Turner Diaries. Elements of The Turner Diaries' fascist climax, "the Day of the Rope," made their way into the far-right imaginary, and into the shape of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.

[...] We are doubling back around the same circular path, where agencies such as DHS downplay white nationalist violence, both potential and actual, while they draw recruits from those same ranks.

https://newrepublic....mes-no-surprise

Trump said he wants "the kind of generals that Hitler had"... and now, through corrupt purges and promotions, military command seems to be dominated by people who are more loyal to Trump than they are to the Constitution.

Perhaps our only hope is civil war in the military, or fear among those generals that too many of their troops will revolt. (As I've mentioned before, this possibility does give Trump more incentive to try to replace as many military humans as possible with robots, and to do it as fast as possible.)

A recent poll gives some reason for optimism:

Quote

Unlawful orders are those that clearly violate the U.S. Constitution, international human rights standards or the Geneva Conventions.

Service members who follow an illegal order can be held liable and court-martialed or subject to prosecution by international tribunals. Following orders from a superior is no defense.

Our poll, fielded between June 13 and June 30, 2025, shows that service members understand these rules. Of the 818 active-duty troops we surveyed, just 9% stated that they would "obey any order." Only 9% "didn't know," and only 2% had "no comment."

[...] Troops are trained to obey and face numerous social, psychological and institutional pressures to do so. By contrast, most troops receive relatively little training in the laws of war or human rights law.

[...] Just over 40% of respondents listed specific examples of orders they would feel compelled to disobey.

The most common unprompted response, cited by 26% of those surveyed, was "harming civilians," while another 15% of respondents gave a variety of other examples of violations of duty and law, such as "torturing prisoners" and "harming U.S. troops."

[...] "Trump will issue illegal orders," wrote one respondent. "The new laws will allow it," wrote another. A third wrote, "We are not required to obey such laws."

[...] between one-third to half of the U.S. troops we surveyed would be willing to disobey if ordered to shoot or starve civilians, torture prisoners or drop a nuclear bomb on a city.

The service members described the methods they would use. Some would confront their superiors directly. Others imagined indirect methods: asking questions, creating diversions, going AWOL, "becoming violently ill."

https://theconversat...l-orders-261929

... but the people who chose to respond to the poll may not actually be representative, since Trump supporters are generally less likely to agree to participate in scientific polling. And if the military resistance just consists of less than half the military doing next to nothing (except pretending to be violently ill, asking questions ("how many questions can I ask before you shoot me, General Nazi?"), or "creating diversions" (like how many traitors to Our Savior Go*-Emperor Trump can dance on the head of a live grenade?)), without trying to stop the other half... we're still fucked.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 August 2025 - 11:05 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

Azath Vitr (D, on 14 August 2025 - 03:32 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 14 August 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

None of this matters when the Media turns on him. Once they realize that the "DJT is a story" is in the past, and "DJT's downfall is delicious and is the new story"....the narrative will shift against him on all quarters. Whether that happens before or after he passes away from Cheeseburger Heart Attack remains to be seen. And once he's gone things accelerate...deceased people cannot defend NDA's...every single piece of information, taper, video tape about this man will come out and the attempt at distancing from it will be swift.

None of this matters when the military sides with him.

Quote

We Used to Think the Military Would Stand Up to Trump. We Were Wrong.

It now seems clear to us that the military will not rescue Americans from Mr. Trump's misuse of the nation's military capabilities. Recent changes to the terms of the military's employment by the Pentagon and its members' incentives to career advancement will ultimately overcome any constitutional and moral qualms about their conduct.

[...] If the highest-ranked officers taking their cue from the White House decide that military operations on American soil are necessary, career officers will get the message. Some may entertain and even express reservations about employing American forces for domestic law enforcement, but few would act on them.

This is what we are seeing now.

https://www.nytimes....tary-power.html

He's already having the military preside over "law enforcement" in Washington DC even though violent crime there is at a 30-year low. His administration has documented plans to prepare to extend military control to blue cities.

So, the thing with DC is that it is in a unique situation due to its nature. Theoretically, this is legal for 30 days. If that is tried in a city where it is NOT legal, at all, that is a far different situation. I think you'd see US military oversight of police departments in NYC or Chicago a far different affair than DC. Those governors and mayors would go absolutely ballistic and so would the populations.

Nominally, for now, this is entirely legal. STUPID. But legal.

Is it further provocation? Is it further evidence of the "state's rights" people being absolutely 100% hypocritical dipshits? Is it another rung down the dictatorship/fascist ladder?

All yes.

All very concerning.

So is educational institution and corporate capitulation in their fear of Trump and their bottom lines.

Once you get education, corporate, and police backing of a fascist takeover.... well the game is kinda over.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 14 August 2025 - 04:05 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 14 August 2025 - 03:32 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 14 August 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

None of this matters when the Media turns on him. Once they realize that the "DJT is a story" is in the past, and "DJT's downfall is delicious and is the new story"....the narrative will shift against him on all quarters. Whether that happens before or after he passes away from Cheeseburger Heart Attack remains to be seen. And once he's gone things accelerate...deceased people cannot defend NDA's...every single piece of information, taper, video tape about this man will come out and the attempt at distancing from it will be swift.

None of this matters when the military sides with him.

Did you INTENTIONALLY misunderstand the point? What the fuck does the US Military have to do with Rupert Murdoch and other billionaires unhitching their wagons from him when the bigger story will be his downfall?

First of all, it should go without saying that even if Murdoch released damning video evidence, most of Trump's MAGA supporters would believe they're deepfakes or otherwise doctored; they are adept at refusing to believe valid evidence while believing in invalid pseudo-evidence and ridiculous conspiracy theories. Most of the people who are shelling out for Trump Bibles and crap like that just won't believe it. His holiness has become an integral part of their faith.

But more importantly: even if a majority of the population believes that Trump was raping enslaved 14-year-old girls, so long as Trump has control of the military and can use that to remain in power, that probably won't matter much. (Might get a few more protestors out in the streets. To be imprisoned and enslaved, or shot. Possibly harvested for organs, if enslavement isn't profitable enough.) And if he really wants to he'll be almost certainly be able to use threats, fines, bans, and/or physical violence to stop Murdoch or any other Western business mogul media figures who might try to oppose him (while still trying to make lots of money doing business in the United States).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 August 2025 - 01:24 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 15 August 2025 - 01:49 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 15 August 2025 - 01:10 PM, said:

First of all, it should go without saying that even if Murdoch released damning video evidence, most of Trump's MAGA supporters would believe they're deepfakes or otherwise doctored; they are adept at refusing to believe valid evidence while believing in invalid pseudo-evidence and ridiculous conspiracy theories. Most of the people who are shelling out for Trump Bibles and crap like that just won't believe it. His holiness has become an integral part of their faith.

He owns the media they consume that MAKES them that way. What part of that aren't you getting?

Fox News, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the rest of Murdoch's empire already tried going against Trump---when it was heavily promoting DeSantis and attacking Trump in the lead-up to the primary.

They failed.

Competitors to Fox News started taking their viewership---until Fox swerved back.

And Trump has used the internet to establish alternate direct means to address (and target) his followers.

If Fox started accusing Trump of child molestation, most of its Trump-worshipping MAGA viewers wouldn't believe it. The cult has gotten out of Murdoch's control.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 15 August 2025 - 02:26 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 15 August 2025 - 02:03 PM, said:

Fox News, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the rest of Murdoch's empire already tried going against Trump---when it was heavily promoting DeSantis and attacking Trump in the lead-up to the primary.

They failed.

Nope. They made a show of it to sell papers. They have not tried anything yet, and again when the biggest story that makes the most money is his downfall, that's when it will happen. He also dropped his lawsuit on them the minute he realized discovery and a depo would be his undoing...because he knows he's guilty.

Azath Vitr (D, on 15 August 2025 - 02:03 PM, said:

Competitors to Fox News started taking their viewership---until Fox swerved back.

And Trump has used the internet to establish alternate direct means to address (and target) his followers.

If Fox started accusing Trump of child molestation, most of its Trump-worshipping MAGA viewers wouldn't believe it. The cult has gotten out of Murdoch's control.

I can't speak about his with you if your whole wall of defence misunderstands the weight the media and someone like Murdoch has with democracy. You think Peter Thiel wants Trump in there? I assure you he does not. The billionaires will win...and Trump is not in that club.

Quote

As the 2024 Republican presidential field began to stir three years ago, Fox News tried to make Ron DeSantis happen. From the week of the 2020 election through February 2021, the network invited DeSantis to appear 113 times, or almost once a day, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In an email uncovered by that newspaper, one Fox producer gushed to a member of DeSantis's staff, "We see him as the future of the party." [...]

Fox has never been able to direct the course of Republican electoral politics. In 2008, Ailes and his network briefly swooned over Mike Huckabee, the genial former governor of Arkansas, an evangelical minister who was perhaps the most conservative candidate in the field. Huckabee won the Iowa caucus in an upset, but his campaign petered out soon after. Republicans instead chose John McCain as their nominee. (Huckabee went on to host a Fox show.) Murdoch went all in on Rick Santorum in 2012 ("Only candidate with genuine big vision for country," he tweeted at one point); Santorum, a longtime Fox contributor, also won Iowa in an upset, but faded like Huckabee thereafter. Republicans went for Mitt Romney instead. In the interim, Fox tried and failed to resurrect Sarah Palin as a national figure, keeping her on the payroll as a talking head for five years. Even during the Trump boom in the 2016 cycle, Fox was arguably more favorable to Ted Cruz until Cruz finally capitulated, late in the primaries. Only at that point did Fox fully embrace Trump. (The most influential Trump media booster, arguably, was CNN, which turned over enormous blocks of airtime to the flaming spectacles that were his rallies.)

https://www.theatlan...esantis/677116/

Murdoch and Thiel didn't want Trump's idiotic tariffs and erratic behavior; their opposition to him during the Republican primary was genuine. It did very little.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 August 2025 - 03:03 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

 QuickTidal, on 15 August 2025 - 03:14 PM, said:

you can believe what you want to believe man.

Instead of believing what you want to believe, you should genuinely seek empirical truth, even if it contradicts what you'd like to believe (and when you notice an irrational bias of that sort on your part, you should be especially careful to try to prevent it from warping your sense of reality---if your goal is the most accurate understanding of reality and the best ways to rationally respond to it).

Then again, there's also a very strong rational case to be made for the argument that most people would be better off living in their own fantasy worlds, and letting AI run everything (once it's ready to do that). (But letting Trump and his MAGA fascists run everything?... not so much. Especially when they decide (again) that they want to run Canada.)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 August 2025 - 03:39 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 16 August 2025 - 01:01 PM, said:

Before abyss comes and tell us to knock it off, because my replies are only going to get more antagonistic, let's stop discussing it. We will never agree.

Well, let me leave at this then: I want to believe you're right, and I hope you're right, but I think the empirical evidence strongly suggests otherwise.

Bit surprised that as a naval history enthusiast you don't seem to have anything to say about Antoni giving interviews with a large painting of the Bismarck as his backdrop. Perhaps it's self-explanatory beyond elaboration (despite being named the Bismarck rather than the Hitler...).

August-2029. Trump is master of America. Only Canada stands before him. The subways of Toronto are now battlefields.

But I think we can agree there's a very good chance he'll drop dead before then... let us pray.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 August 2025 - 01:38 PM

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 14 August 2025 - 01:45 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 14 August 2025 - 12:40 PM, said:

You're assuming Trump won't use his pet FBI, DOJ and Judiciary to solve the problem for him.


I fear within the next 12 months, Trump et al will be using the apparatus of the Fed Govt to directly and blatantly go after and falsely accuse, convict and imprison his political and economic opponents. Or drive them into effecive exile and political irrelevancy.
A la Putin et al, except on a much faster timeline. Will they have show trials and struggle sessions too? Or just skip that part and go straight to non-public extrajudicial executions?
All the while his supposedly "small Govt" and "I fear the Govt, that's why I have muh gurns" retards baying for their blood. Will be interesting to see if the same fate befalls these modern day Robespierres.

None of this matters when the Media turns on him. Once they realize that the "DJT is a story" is in the past, and "DJT's downfall is delicious and is the new story"....the narrative will shift against him on all quarters. Whether that happens before or after he passes away from Cheeseburger Heart Attack remains to be seen. And once he's gone things accelerate...deceased people cannot defend NDA's...every single piece of information, taper, video tape about this man will come out and the attempt at distancing from it will be swift.

If he has the cops and the courts, the media will shut up, or get fined/sued into irrelevance.

Not like we haven't seen this pattern before.

[Macros]

I think there is a bit of blinkers on both sides guys.
QT, you've been burnt before thinking Trump would fall, and Azath has over predicted on the other side before.

You have to agree to acknowledge that yoh both may be wrong

[Macros]

There goes the civil lawsuit fine.

Bye bye last shreds of hope that America won't fully kow tow to the orange shit bag, dictatorship ho!

[Garak]

What happened? Also I thought the USA was already well along that route.