Empire of Blunder

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 9:56am

open thread_154.jpg
Stepping out of the forest to see all the trees.
Jeffery Sachs Tik Tok video Sunday (H/T Lookout @ Weekly Watch) was a great summation of U.S. aggression and looking at all the trees. It's hard not to see the foolish missteps and rank incompetence pulling at the levers of power in America.
If fact, I don't believe America even exists anymore. It has become an economic battleground of fiercely competing special interests fighting over taxpayer revenues for personal gain. The pig trough, as it were.
Rewriting history to create a Gulf of America will not restore the former Constitution as the law of the land.
Driving two generations of Tik Tok subscribers to a Chinese replacement and alienating our youth for all time was a blunder of maximum stupidity.
The powers that be will never get them back. Smooth move, Dickheads.
Russia and her people will never trust any agreement with us ever again. The same with the world majority of nations.
And the vassalized Western nations will undoubtedly jump ship at the first opportune moment.
How does that saying go? "At first slowly, then all of a sudden."
When the rest of the 100 Executive Orders are made public we will see a cascade of blundering ineptitude that should drive off the remaining generations, even us baby boomers.
I was actually gone in November 1963. It's been downhill ever since.
And the Great Wall of Trump will be completed, barring our escape to the south, while the north will become the 51st cellblock. Serfdom beckons.
At the farm today, so response may be spotty.
Thread is open. Whach ya doin'?

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Empire of Blunder
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Submitted by QMS on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 10:30am
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Media seems a bit shocked at the new regime's
bold moves with the EO blizzard. How will this stem the
global orientation toward BRICS? Last noted they represent
10 full members plus 10 partners adding up to 50% of the
world population and about 40% of the world economy.
Doubt the western empire can sanction or bomb their way
out of this new reality?

Thanks for the OT and have fun on the farm!

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 10:52am
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@QMS
of BRICS naysayers out there publishing their butthurt. And I read them just to see if there is anything to give credence to, which is not evident.
Nattering nabobs of negativity.
If we start seeing a flood of them, it only means they are starting to panic and the Great Wurlitzer will fire up.
Stay warm back there.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:27am

I had to close the office due to unsafe driving conditions. I just found out the the courthouse and all county offices are closed. Not sure what tomorrow will bring. I had a mediation scheduled via zoom, but have not heard if the mediator can conduct it from her home. I have not received zoom instructions today.
I am beginning to read legal analyses about the constitutionality, or lack thereof, for executive orders. Whatever one president does, the next president can reverse it, so the perversions can be short lived.
There is also quite a lot of controversy about pre-emptive pardons. Biden started this shit, as Democrats started lawfare against opponents in earnest. I imagine a future when a newly elected government official swears an oath of office and gets a pre-emptive pardon at the same ceremony. Pardons are extended to the guilty, not the "not guilty" presumed innocents. Nobody turned down Biden's pardons except a couple of prisoners awaiting execution.
Oh, well, let's see if we can get rid of the terrorist cartels. Cartel activities, including running drugs, mass murders, bribing politicians, is running the neighborhood.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 12:34pm
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@on the cusp
if that pardon of his own son left a bad taste in your mouth, this blanket pardon of party operatives should make you throw up.
The blanket pardon of the J-6 people was rash and not much better. Some there needed jailing.
28° here this morning but sunny and clear.
Stay warm.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:43am
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.

He had help. Comment from naked capitalism:

Earlier today some voiced the opinion that George W was the worst President. I cannot go there, without Biden much of his worst actions as President wouldn’t have happened. Biden was instrumental in both the Patriot Act and the formation of Homeland. He greased the path for many of the worst judges we have including Thomas. His work for banks and the financial industry cleared the way for both the 2008 crash and many of the current atrocities. And he continued his hideous Senate legacy as President. He and or his team put a massive number of children into poverty, gleefully enabled the deaths of thousands not just in Gaza, but in the Ukraine. They put the final nail in the coffin of public health. They willfully ignored devastating conditions in East Palestine, which he ignored for over a year.
He was a hateful, lying and corrupt public official before his cognitive difficulties, he was a bigger and nastier piece of **** after. And his team, close associates and the people he put in place that he trusted most weren’t any better. And the best that could be said of Harris is that they didn’t trust her for the first three years and threw her to the wolves to screw the Democrats in the fourth.

Goodbye, please let the door kick you in the ass repeatedly on the way out.

I echo the sentiment.

Goodbye, please let the door kick you in the ass repeatedly on the way out.

11 degrees this morning. It got down to 9. Temps heading back up, but it seems to have been a cold winter without snow. Snow makes the cold temps worth it.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 12:43pm
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@snoopydawg
none of them were really bad, just good puppets who follow orders.
The pardons committed by all are just personal perks allowed for good behavior. .
IMHO
Thanks for stopping by.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by MrWebster on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:52am

Below is a link from zerohedge summarizing Trump's Executive Orders. The legacy media lists some (most behind paywalls) which they are using to bash Trump and/or his supporters. This list seemed to be most straight forward and covered all the orders.

An Overview Of Trump's Day One Executive Actions

But the one I liked was:

Trump’s executive actions also include an order targeting election interference. It cites the 2020 letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials who dismissed accounts of Hunter Biden’s laptop as “part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”

The executive order also criticizes a 2019 memoir from Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, describing it as “rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government.”

The order revokes the security clearances of Bolton as well as 49 intelligence officials involved in the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop analysis, including former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Finally some of the most toxic voices on Russiagate got some payback. As Glenn Greenwald noted, the Russiagate hoax poisoned American political culture and debate for years to come. It is why there is no diplomacy with Russia. It justified censorship and created an army of little Stasi warriors like those at dailykos and Young Turks accusing people of being traitors.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:57am

@MrWebster Trump took on his Day 1. I barely skimmed them, sorry to see he reinstated the death penalty. I will go through the list this afternoon.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:05pm
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@MrWebster
But going after the intelligence community will stir the "seven ways to Sunday" mechanisms.
He's going to need to watch his back.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see all of them disappeared to Guantanamo or years.
O' the irony!

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:54am
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Joe Biden and democrats never talked about those things either. In fact when talking about healthcare, Biden promised that he would veto a bill for MFA.

Hey, Liz. Remember when Biden canceled the child tax credit and the extra money for food stamps? And gipped us out of $600 on day one when he went back on his promise that if Florida elected the 2 dems to the Senate he’d send us $2,000? Did you make a stink about any of those things?

In fact the only thing I saw Biden doing this last year was to send billions to Ukraine and Israel while ignoring the Americans who were in dire straits.

F.E.W. too.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:07pm
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@snoopydawg
Just another NPC.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Lookout on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 11:59am
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Trump is one of those characters that inspires adoration of loathing. I sit in the middle.

Godspeed, DJT

I was going to write something happy and positive and optimistic, about a future that looks brighter after spending 4 years out in the wilderness. But then I saw that the Democrats have pardoned the worst amongst themselves, and thereby every single one of them, for everything they’ve done over these 4 years, and before it. The entire Democratic party has been placed above the law, along with their Republican friends. The USA is now officially a lawless state.

That is something to think hard about. Because why would you still maintain a judicial system, with courts and judges and prosecutors, if that system doesn’t apply to a large group of people? I can’t think of a good reason. The rule of law in America is now an abstract idea that belongs in the past. What might be good about this is that the Dems have lost any and all future rights to go after any and all Republicans. But it still doesn’t sit well.

You can forgive someone for something they’ve done, but you can’t pardon them for what they might have done, or perhaps even still might do. That is literally a licence to kill. And that has to be illegal. Even if you are the President. It also violates the Constitution, and in too many ways to count. Ergo: the US is no longer a constitutional republic. It’s now all bananas all the way down.

Biden’s pre-emptive pardons have changed the country forever, though of course nobody realizes it at the moment it happens. From now on in, anything goes. Lying to Congress? No problem. Murder? Don’t give it a second thought. Just as long as you get along with whoever is President, or who functions as such, you will be pardoned.

Interesting read that's only a bit longer.

As Jimmy says, "I'm hopeful but I don't have faith".

Enjoy your time on the farm. We're in the deep freeze here for another day or so.
Thanks for the OT!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:13pm
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@Lookout
Trump's vindictive streak gets the better of him and takes the entire Dem Party down, legally or otherwise.
We really are a lawless banana republic now.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:21pm
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@Lookout

Shitlibs have been bitching and moaning about the Supremes giving presidents a license to kill which of course is nonsense. They actually defined presidential immunity.

Biden’s pre-emptive pardons have changed the country forever, though of course nobody realizes it at the moment it happens.

But they are applauding the Biden pre pardons. It’s been fun to watch them getting everything wrong the last 8 years because of their tribalism.

Today there’s a ‘be very afraid’ diary about what Trump is going to do the country that has no touch with reality. The echo chamber agrees and added even more things to be afraid of. Poor little chicken littles.

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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 12:34pm
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I have come to regard America as something very similar to a chicken with its head cut off. It no longer has a brain, but it hasn't bled out to the point where its remaining muscles simply quit working and it topples over into a heap of bloody feathers. So it continues to dash about randomly and headlessly, spurting blood from severed arteries, for just a little while longer.

The right time for a well-armed enemy to do a decapitation first strike was during the inauguration. That was the time when, theoretically at least, our defenses were at their weakest/least coordinated during the power transfer, and the primary human targets were all gathered in one place, to boot.

Our many enemies didn't do this, because they didn't need to: we've already decapitated ourselves very effectively, thank you very much.

Now it is down to merely delaying the toppling process, not avoiding it: that ship sailed with Clinton. Hang a few more units of high-speed-printed chicken blood on the rapid infuser, and hope for the best...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:20pm
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@usefewersyllables
I agree.
It's like the train we are on is heading for a bridge that's collapsed, and there's no rails on the other side anyway.
Epic fail of historic proportion.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:25pm
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@usefewersyllables

read the ending to Executive Order by Clancy. A new veep is going to be sworn in and he’s in the tunnel when a plane crashes into the capital wiping out all of government.

The veep then turns to the country and people elect a new government and none of them have any ties to lobbyists or power. They even get rid of the IRS. Trump hinted at doing that. We’ll see.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:28pm
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@snoopydawg
Was Dirk Pitt the VP?

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 3:30pm
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@earthling1

Pitt is in the Cussler books. I got tired of Clancy who thinks people attack America ‘unprovoked’ and deserve everything illegal we do to them.

Cussler adds some history to his books.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 4:09pm
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@snoopydawg
Ryan it is.
And I did like his non-fiction books best.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Enchantress on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 12:39pm

Everything in my county is closing by 2:00 today. Schools have been cancelled until Thursday and the bridge has been closed the last two nights by 9:00. People here don't know what to do with ice and snow. It is snowing in the next county and headed this way. I think this is the first snow in 20 years or more.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:24pm
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@Enchantress
All those northern retirees still remember how to do it.
Like riding a bicycle.
Stay warm and thanks for stopping by.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 1:49pm
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RIP Garth Hudson
last of The Band @ 87 yo

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Submitted by humphrey on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 4:37pm

that will resonate for a long time.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 5:16pm
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@humphrey
in a bubble, and led to believe they are in a protective cocoon.
Most are comfortably numb and happy there.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 5:50pm
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@earthling1

in some time. Every time their team is in charge they go blind to their betrayals.

Shitlibs think Biden was a great success even though more people suffered economically under him and MAGAs think that Trump will clean the swamp this time and dismantle the deep state.

Or maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome?

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Submitted by humphrey on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 6:12pm

bubble.

@earthling1

He has the equipment to do it.

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Submitted by QMS on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 7:39pm
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@humphrey
.
All of the pomp and circumstance seems a bit
trifle in my mind. But then, it is only an honorarium after all.

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Submitted by humphrey on Tue, 01/21/2025 - 6:13pm

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