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October 9, 2025 6:30 am  #421


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

What happens when you are doing an interview for CNN and then accidentally give away to the world what you really plan on doing for "dear Leader"?. You freeze like a deer in the headlights.  It's hard when you have so many lies to keep track of, that you unwittingly reveal your true intentions (and the word "plenary" is not a word that just rolls off the tongue so you know it's been on his mind).





Watch the video here, since the interviewer seems confused as to why Miller just froze and seems to be unsure of what to do next:

https://x.com/HustleBitch_/status/1975935005378724012




CNN just ends the video feed and then later edits it out. 

The president does NOT have plenary authority.

From wikipedia: A plenary power or plenary authority is a complete and absolute power to take action on a particular issue, with no limitations.

Meanwhile, in Portland Oregon, the residents have thankfully not taken the bait and done any violent protests that would give Trump and Miller exactly what they want: an excuse to use the Insurrection Act to take full military control of a Democrat held state. That doesn't mean there aren't protests however...









And there may be good reason why Trump and his inner circle should be worried?








 

 

October 10, 2025 3:39 am  #422


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

There really is nothing more exciting than watching a pack of ICE goons slowly backing away from a giant frog as it walks towards them (especially when the goons are armed and the frog only has fancy dance moves).


https://x.com/piyushmittal/status/1974477938864070969



However, with the Trump admin getting increasingly desperate to stave off the Epstein Files being released (Mike Johnson can only delay the swearing in of the Democrat victor for so long, once the government is back to work he has no excuses left and the files MUST be released), their latest tactic:

https://x.com/evanhill/status/1976300205147373604

@evanhill

The Trump administration is preparing a crackdown on liberal political groups — including the funding arm of the Democratic Party — that will utilize the FBI, DHS, IRS and Treasury and Justice departments

Reuters article here:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trumps-war-left-inside-plan-investigate-liberal-groups-2025-10-09/

Deprive your political rival of funding means no TV ads and no campaigning for the mid-term elections. All at the same time as a Republican ally purchases the company that provides voting machines to the various US states (and that Trump had accused of rigging the 2020 vote for Biden, a false claim that lost in court and cost FOX News about half a billion dollars in penalties). Dominion has been sold and will be renamed:

Former GOP election official buys Dominion Voting Systems, says he’ll push for paper ballots
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/politics/dominion-voting-systems-bought-election-ballots

and
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/09/dominion-voting-machines-sold-elections

https://x.com/HarrisonBecker7/status/1976398480601133299

you need to pay close attention: Dominion Voting Systems have been bought by a Republican-backed group for an undisclosed amount… The voting systems in which are the most vital to our country are now controlled by one side of the aisle. And for the record I would say the same exact thing if a Democratic group bought Dominion as well. This needs to go viral and it needs to go viral FAST.

https://x.com/kristineshofner/status/1976475742755295524
@kristineshofner

Pair them up with ES&S machines that have been proved to be hackable and we can pretty much call the next election for tRUmp. But we can't let them win. We have to get out in huge numbers and maybe get someone to hack starlink during the election so they can't hack the numbers.

 

October 11, 2025 7:53 am  #423


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead



No it is not too late!

There are many things that may happen with AI in the future: it could turn on humanity and wipe us out, enslave us, or take away all of the well-paying jobs and cause a massive global Depression. But for today, it can generate videos of a protestor frog accepting the Nobel Peace Prize (instead of Donald Trump) and that alone justifies its existence:



Watch the video here (complete with AI-generated audio as well):
https://x.com/FrancisWegner/status/1976777115057242245

Meanwhile, the president seems unable to cope with not getting the Peace Prize and is confusing fantasy with reality again:



From Occupy Democrats:

The Nobel Prize Committee chairman was even asked directly about Trump’s efforts to bully the Committee into giving him the prize. A reporter said “U.S.  President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and he'd like to have it. He even said that it would be an insult to the United States if he doesn't get it. What does your, as the chairman of the  Nobel Peace Prize Committee, think of this and how has this campaign-like activity by the president and his supporters, domestically and internationally, affected the deliberations and the thinking in the committee?”

The chairman replied, “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.” The implication, of course, is that Trump has neither courage nor integrity… which he doesn’t, of course.

The Republicans are willing to force Norway to award it to him though:

Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter proposed passing a law…to force Norway to give Trump the Prize “He deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and that's why I'm introducing a resolution for a sense of Congress today that will honor him with the Nobel Peace Prize. And if need be, we'll call for a discharge petition on that,” said Carter on Fox News.

Don't worry, it turns out that the Nobel Peace Prize is just a left-wing award:

Megyn Kelly took the approach of “well, we actually didn’t want it anyway,” writing on Twitter that “at Fox, Roger Ailes never even allowed anyone to submit for an award bc he understood how meaningless they were - a leftist celebration of leftist behavior. Trump deserves the Peace Prize, but the loser here is the Nobel Committee which has further sullied its once-stellar brand.”

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

 

October 11, 2025 9:27 am  #424


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

It's a nice recapture of Pepe. Makes frogs truly great again!

 

October 11, 2025 9:28 am  #425


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

He is such a man-baby. Pathetic.


"I love the poorly educated."
.......Donald J. tRump
 

October 14, 2025 3:21 pm  #426


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Let's talk about what happened last Friday and how it revolves around one of my predictions from earlier this year in March. Last week there was a major stock and crypto market meltdown that took a HUGE hit on investors, especially those who were heavily leveraged on crypto coins in the hopes that they would keep soaring upwards.

Read about that here:
Dow tumbles nearly 900 points after Trump reignites trade war between the world’s two largest economies
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/investing/us-stock-market

US stocks closed sharply lower Friday after President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs on imports from China, reigniting fears of a trade war that rocked global markets earlier this year.

The Dow fell 879 points, or 1.9%. The broader S&P 500 dropped 2.71% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 3.56%.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each posted their worst day since April as a slide in tech stocks led the market lower. The Dow posted its worst day since May. The S&P 500’s drop of 2.71% saw the index shed roughly $1.56 trillion in market value in one day, according to FactSet data.

Trump said in a social media post he is considering a “massive increase” in tariffs on imports from China, adding “There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive’” over rare earth exports.

His latest threat stems from accusations that China is imposing export controls on rare earths, slow-walking previous agreements to free them up for US businesses.

Here's the tweet that started it all:


The end result of Trump's tweet: Bitcoin & crypto market records largest single-day liquidation in history, $19 billion was liquidated in 12 hours, of which $16 billion were long positions (i.e. people who would've reaped huge gains if the crypto market kept going up).






Some investors, especially the young inexperienced investors who borrowed money to put everything they had into crypto, lost their life savings:





I also saw folks online claiming that hundreds of people had committed suicide due to the financial losses but so far my own investigation has only found one person confirmed:

Ukrainian crypto trader Konstantin Galish — also known as Kostya Kudo — was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his Lamborghini in Kyiv following the market rout that wiped out roughly $19 billion and liquidated over 1.6 million accounts. Police reports and family statements indicate that he was experiencing severe depression and financial difficulties related to client funds lost in the crash, having reportedly lost more than $30 million tied to trading and investments

Let's return to one of my predictions from March 8th: https://gta.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=14083&p=3

- destroy the wealth of the average American e.g. fire them from their jobs, trigger a huge recession while at the same time letting prices skyrocket so that no one can afford anything: a car, a house, food, everyday items, etc.  America already has a long-standing history of creating massive asset bubbles where the average Joe loses most of their money: the tech bubble, the housing bubble, the mortgage-backed securities bubble, and now the crypto currency bubble. Get the suckers to bet their lifesavings on some worthless asset, then collapse it (while shorting that asset so that the insiders make billions off that collapse).

NOTE that at the same time, BlackRock bought $74 billion worth of Bitcoin... (google BlackRock if you don't know who they are, you should learn who they are). But more than super-rich insiders buying while the retail investors lose their shirts, the cypto community quickly noticed something about the hours leading up to the big crash:



Half an hour before Trump made the announcement, someone shorted Bitcoin and Etherium in the billions. For those who are not investment-savvy, to "short" something means you are placing a bet that its value or price will go DOWN, not up. If an asset is overvalued, shorting is a way to profit when that asset eventually falls back to a more normal price.  The key thing is that this mystery person bet BIG on their short and that is no small risk, if the crypto market kept going up, this is a life-destroying bet because the losses would be infinite).





Obviously the community quickly latched onto the idea that there is someone within Trump's inner circle who knew in advance about the announcement and considering that the stock market and crypto market were known to be overvalued, and considering the effect that Trump announcing tariffs had on the markets the last time back in April, it is an easy bet to make and this person went all-in.

Now who could it be... who could...



oh, hi there Barron Trump. That's who the community seems to have settled on as being the culprit. Because he seems to be constantly making millions upon millions on crypto, and has no job...



and obviously Trump is going to help out his family first. Not just with insider info, but arranging for a 19-year old to be on the board of one of the most popular social media platforms:



All of this is only speculation however. I've not seen any proof of who the big whale was, but I doubt it was Trump or Melania. Eric Trump is also involved in crypto, but so far the community seems more fixated on Barron as the culprit. Insider trading is a very very serious crime in the US, but with this administration, it's highly doubtful that anyone will actually do anything about it even if it was a Trump family member.

I'm not involved in crypto myself (because I'm not an idiot and don't believe in putting thousands of dollars into magical fairy dust) but like most of you, I do have a retirement nest egg that relies on steadily rising stock market returns to provide for an eventual comfortable retirement someday. This type of manipulation by a corrupt right-wing politician is what destroys lives, ruins any retirement plan (unless you are very conservative and only invest in GICs and market-linked investment products), and as I noted, can be used to help the rich to get richer while leaving the working poor of America with very few options than to take whatever work is available (ICE agent, service in the military, low-paying farm work, etc).

This latter point is most important because that will be how Trump creates his America, by destroying any wealth and savings that the average person has, and last week's example served all of those purposes.  It isn't THE big crash though, just one of many big crashes that will deprive some people of their life savings... with Trump there will be more manipulated events like this to come, while his family cashes in, and more and more people will fall victim to these bubble bursts.

The smart money, including myself because I remembered what happened in April, knew that within a day or two Trump would "magically" reverse this 100% tariff on China, which would trigger a massive upswing in the markets:





Sure enough Trump's sudden reversal, caused this to happen yesterday:

DOW         46,067.58     +1.29%
S&P 500     6,654.72     +1.56%
NASDAQ         22,694.61     +2.21%
Russell 2000    2,461.42    +2.79%

NOTE: The TSX was closed for Thanksgiving but today is catching up with the gains as well (at least as of the time of this writing).

My word of advice to you all: don't trust a right-wing politician who pushes crap like crypto onto you (hi Pierre Pollievre!) because they aren't doing it to help you out, but to help themselves out. If you believe anything else, then you are a sucker. As this poor guy found out the hard way last week:


NOTE: DCA refers to "dollar cost averaging"

We are living right now in both 1936 Germany but also 1928 America (i.e. right before the 1929 Great Depression and the BIG bubble bursting). This is a time to be cautious about what you invest in, have a lot of money on hand in case of a major recession, and again, don't trust what any right-wing politician tells you, both here and in America. Also, 60 Minutes did an interesting segment the other night with the author of the book "1929" and they talk about the bubbly nature of the asset markets (stocks, gold, silver, crypto...) Watch a clip of it here:

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/lessons-from-1929-wall-street-crash-60-minutes-video-2025-10-12/
 

 

October 14, 2025 9:28 pm  #427


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Crypto. An imaginary currency with no intrinsic value. What could possibly go wrong?


After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
 

October 15, 2025 9:02 pm  #428


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Proving there IS still some integrity left in D.C. Good for them. 

Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

 

October 16, 2025 7:53 am  #429


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

RadioActive wrote:

Proving there IS still some integrity left in D.C. Good for them. 

Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

 
I was so impressed when they handed in their press passes en masse. The thing that gets me is that a former reporter is behind this, what a weasel Hegseth turned out to be, probably always was one, mind you. And the downward spiral continues.

 

October 17, 2025 12:52 am  #430


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Honestly there are days when trying to keep track of all the garbage spewing from the right-wing side both here in Canada and in the US gets exhausting so I have to pick and choose what to focus on. Today the highlight (or lowlight may be more accurate) is the huge uproar over leaked messages from a young Republican online chat that was filled with some really vile commentary about Jews, blacks, rape, etc.

If you thought that once Trump is dead and gone, and Stephen Miller is arrested and the Heritage Foundation is dismantled, that the Republican party would go back to merely being servants of the rich and powerful rather than being a proto-Nazi party trying to emulate Russia, then the content of these chat room messages show that the Republican youth, influenced by the likes of the Charlie Kirks and other right-wing podcasters, are going to be just as bad as Trump.














Here are two postings from The Other 98% that go into the details:

Leaked Telegram chats revealed how leaders of Young Republican chapters across several states joked about gas chambers, slavery, and rape while praising Adolf Hitler. Peter Giunta posted, “I love Hitler,” joked about sending rivals “to the gas chamber,” and mocked the NBA playoffs by saying, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” He and others also openly called Black people “the watermelon people,” a phrase used repeatedly in their conversations. The discussion threads showed an environment steeped in hate, with mockery of Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ people that went unnoticed by their peers until the leak forced national attention.?

The racist messages came to light after a former member of the group leaked the full Telegram chat logs to Politico, which first broke the story on October 14, 2025. Politico verified the authenticity of thousands of messages and published the contents in a damning exposé, with outlets like New York Magazine, The Washington Informer, and Yahoo News quickly following up on the report. Several members identified in the leaks held or recently held government positions, some with ties to the Trump administration. The Kansas chapter has since gone inactive and some members now face resignations, but the culture that encouraged such talk clearly runs much deeper.?

These young Republicans are very much products of the MAGA generation that Charlie Kirk helped shape. Kirk’s Turning Point brand encouraged a style of politics that celebrated provocation over principle—and now his followers trade Nazi jokes and racist banter online as the natural outcome of years spent normalizing bigotry in the name of “free speech.” This is the legacy he leaves behind: a generation that confuses cruelty with courage.

Here’s the full uncensored list of the Young Republicans leaders whose racist, rapey, pro-Hitler group text messages leaked in yesterday’s horrifying bombshell.

Let’s make sure their future potential employers to avoid hiring them like the plague!

These are the deplorables who “joked” with each other in private chats over the course of seven months during the Trump administration, thinking that they were impervious to accountability. Their lives all changed radically yesterday when Politico exposed their disgusting texts for all the world to see.
Of the nine people on the list, four are part of the New York chapter of the Young Republicans, two are from the Kansas chapter, two from the Vermont organization, and one from Arizona.

The New York participants are all senior members of the state’s Young Republican organization and are closely associated with Representatives Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler. They Include:

Peter Giunta — The chair of the New York Young Republicans, Giunta was guilty of making a “joke” about gas chambers in relation to his campaign to become the head of the Young Republican National Federation.

“Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber. And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber,” Giunta texted in the chat, adding that he only wanted “true believers” in his organization. He’s also someone who has proclaimed his allegiance to teenage New York Republicans who “support slavery and all that shit.” This is a man who felt comfortable joking about suicide, saying that he wanted to encourage another Young Republican member to “unalive himself on the convention floor.”

Giunta made a non-apology after his texts were discovered, claiming to accept “complete responsibility,” but going on to speculate that the messages released “may have been deceptively doctored.”

Bobby Walker — Giunta’s vice chair of the New York Young Republicans, Walker had the temerity to call rape “epic” in one of his texts. He also claimed that the texts may have been manipulated before offering a belated apology for his words.

Joe Maligno — The general counsel of the New York organization, Maligno thought that a jocular comment on gas chambers was an appropriate thing to write. "Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic," he contributed to one thread.

Annie Kaykaty — Kaykaty was another New York State Young Republicans national committee member who found gas chambers were a laughing matter. "I’m ready to watch people burn now," she wrote.

The chat participants from Kansas were no less offensive:

Alex Dwyer — The chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, Dwyer thought that it was funny to reply to a question about his hotel room number with “1488,” a number beloved by White supremacists because “14” symbolizes the 14 words in a neo-Nazi slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."  With “H” being the 8th letter of the alphabet, proto-fascists consider it as shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

William Hendrix —  Dwyer’s vice chair in the Kansas organization, Hendrix has no problem dropping the N-word and homophobic slurs throughout his texts. A former communications director for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Hendrix also likes to engage in blatant racist stereotyping, as when he wrote: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and Kool-Aid with that?”  

Samuel and Brianna Douglass — Samuel is a Vermont State Senator. His wife Brianna is a committee member for the Vermont Young Republicans. They both have no problem expressing their antisemitism freely. When Samuel informed the group that a procedural mistake over the number of delegates from Maryland allowed to attend the organization's national convention was possibly made by someone who was Jewish, his wife Brianna replied: “I was about to say that you’re giving nationals to [sic] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”

Luke Mosiman — How much worse can it get than having Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, call for the rape of the chair of the Young Republican National Federation, Hayden Padgett? In all caps, Mosiman texted “RAPE HAYDEN.” He also suggested trying to link white supremacist groups to an opponent before realizing that this plan could actually backfire and give more support to the other candidate.

While other Republicans have been quick to condemn these political operatives as rogue members of their party and have tried to disassociate themselves from them, the fact of the matter is that these were not just ordinary members of the public, but senior officials in the Republican Party’s youth organization.  They are about as representative of the values and behavior of the modern MAGA-fied version of the Republican Party as you can get.

Demonstrating his usual hypocristy, JD Vance rushed to defend the "kids":



NOTE that JD Vance unintentionally admits that he, Trump, and other senior Republican officials make WORSE comments about Jews, blacks, gays, etc. in the Oval Office every single day. Brilliant.





You can bet that it's not just one youth chapter of the Republican party that secretly spews this utter trash. Far-right ideology rots a country from within by poisoning those who seek to lead it politically and it's exactly why right-wingism is the wrong thing for Canada to embrace.

 

October 17, 2025 3:42 pm  #431


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Tomorrow, Saturday Oct 18th marks the second "No Kings" protest that will be happening worldwide to show the strong resistance to Trump and the Heritage Foundation's attempt to turn the US into a dictatorship. There will be protests in several countries, including Canada, with turnout in the US alone expected to be in the millions.





Because of the strong awareness among the organizers that Trump desperately wants to use any excuse to utilize the Insurrection Act to take even more control, all attendees are being briefed to avoid violence and any behavior that might allow the authorities to initiate riot control protocols (which would then likely get out of hand fast).

This was already something that the protestors in Portland, Oregon, have been steadfast in practicing:





While we've all now seen the frog protestors (and various other inflatable costumed participants) did you know that some protestors have opted for no clothing at all?




AND: As RadioActive already reported earlier, Pete Hegseth attempted to force all journalists to adhere to an insane policy of letting the White House dictate what they could report in the news and got a huge backlash, with every news agency handing in their press pass en masse, except one right-wing outlet. When you've lost FOX News and NewsMax, you know your regime is in trouble:









Hegseth is also now dealing with resignations among the military who are vehemently against the way Trump has tried to use the soldiers against the civilians they are supposed to be protecting and also killing potentially innocent people without any evidence of criminal activity and without giving them due process:

Two posts from Jim Heath on Facebook:

“I RESIGNED BECAUSE OF TRUMP” — MARINE COLONEL WALKS AWAY AFTER 24 YEARS

In a blistering Washington Post column, Marine Corps Colonel Doug Krugman revealed he resigned after 24 years of service because he no longer believed President Trump was committed to the Constitution — and feared being ordered to turn weapons on fellow Americans.

“I could not swear without reservation to follow a commander in chief who seemed so willing to disregard the Constitution,” Krugman wrote. “President Trump’s actions became increasingly difficult for me to justify, culminating with the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.”

Krugman said he had already made his decision before Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned generals and admirals to a controversial, partisan meeting in Quantico. Trump reportedly warned the top brass, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. There goes your rank. There goes your future.”

The combat veteran said what pushed him over the edge was the president’s delusional portrayal of American cities as war zones. “President Trump’s description of Portland as a ‘war zone’ is as fantastical as his belief that the June protests in a few blocks of Los Angeles would somehow ‘obliterate’ the massive city of nearly 4 million,” Krugman wrote. “In both cases, his words had little connection to reality.”

He warned that Trump’s inflammatory orders — and the imaginary threats they’re based on — are a direct threat to military cohesion.

“I do not claim to speak for any other person or institution,” Krugman added. “But if they have doubts about their orders, they are not alone. They should be confident in questioning possibly immoral or illegal orders, remembering they are responsible for their own actions.”

He served through two wars. But he’s drawing the line at this president

AND:

Another U.S. Commander Walks Out on Hegseth: “I Took an Oath to the Constitution”

Another top military leader is out — and this time it’s a four-star admiral.

Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of U.S. Southern Command, has abruptly resigned — two full years before his term was set to end. His announcement comes amid a wave of firings, forced retirements, and resignations inside the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Holsey’s departure is a body blow to Hegseth, who has struggled to hold top talent while pushing a sweeping—and some say reckless—reorganization of U.S. military command structures.

Sources say Holsey had grown increasingly alarmed by Hegseth’s aggressive posture toward Venezuela and the Pentagon’s decision to bypass his command entirely in recent strikes. He reportedly questioned the legality of escalating attacks on alleged narcoterrorist boats, which have killed at least 27 people off Venezuela’s coast—some without confirmation of who was on board.

This week’s strike marked the first time survivors were reported. It was also the last straw.

Holsey, a 37-year veteran, is the latest in a purge that has already ousted Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, Rear Adm. Milton Sands, and Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison. Hegseth’s actions have drawn comparisons to loyalty tests—and triggered alarm on Capitol Hill.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, called Holsey’s resignation “deeply troubling,” especially amid rumors that CIA black ops have been greenlit inside Venezuela.

“I took an oath to the Constitution,” Holsey told one colleague, “not to a TV brand in a uniform.”

For more, see: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/16/admiral-alvin-holsey-caribbean-venezuela

Have a great weekend everyone and get your frog outfit ready for Halloween night!


 

Last edited by TomTV (October 17, 2025 3:59 pm)

 

October 19, 2025 10:44 am  #432


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Yesterday's "No Kings" rally seems to have gone off astonishingly well. I've scanned social media and news for reports of any mass arrests or violent outbreaks and it seems that participants heeded the call to keep things serious but light-hearted. New York City police confirmed that they arrested no one at all, which is incredible considering the size of the turnout.

Turnout in America is estimated to be 7 million people, a larger turnout than the first No Kings rally a few months ago.

Since this is being covered by our local news, I won't inundate this thread with too many pictures, just a few to highlight the mood and scope of the rally:









This one from Montreal shows some nice creativity:











The most important lesson to learn about right-wing politicians is this one here:




The White House and Trump, didn't have much to say about the massive rally mocking him and his administration other than to post an AI video that demonstrates he is a mature leader and capable of handling rejection and scorn:







SEE the video here:
https://x.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1979751641067954674
 

 

October 19, 2025 12:42 pm  #433


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

shouldn't this be grounds alone for an Article 25?

 

October 19, 2025 1:20 pm  #434


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

 

October 19, 2025 1:21 pm  #435


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

newsguy1 wrote:

shouldn't this be grounds alone for an Article 25?

It is but that would require JD Vance and tRump's sycophant Cabinet to: a) give a damn about America, and b) have a conscience. Those are the reasons why it won't happen.

Besides, JD Vance would be no improvement as he is as bad or worse  than the Mango Mussolini, for a variety of reasons.


"I love the poorly educated."
.......Donald J. tRump
 

October 19, 2025 1:35 pm  #436


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

What I want to know is, whose names are in positions 2 and 3?


"I love the poorly educated."
.......Donald J. tRump
 

October 19, 2025 1:38 pm  #437


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Huntley & Brinkley?

 

October 19, 2025 7:17 pm  #438


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead


After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
 

October 19, 2025 7:38 pm  #439


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead


"I love the poorly educated."
.......Donald J. tRump
 

October 19, 2025 8:28 pm  #440


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Good old Uncle Walter was quite the rogue in his day. He loved the company of attractive women and frequently stated that he wished he was younger during the Swinging 60s as he would have enjoyed being part of free love era . It was only a few months after his wife’s passing that he began “keeping company” with a younger woman, according to his biographer.

 

October 19, 2025 8:43 pm  #441


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Well, I guess that's just "the way it is..."

Worth pointing out there are no allegations he was involved in anything untoward that took place, only that he was on a plane once. 

 

October 20, 2025 5:05 pm  #442


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

An update from Alt National Park Service on Facebook:

The MAGA crowd seems very triggered that yesterday’s protest was historic, their comments are everywhere. In total, 22 MAGA individuals were arrested for attempting to attack peaceful protesters. Arrests were made in OH, KY, CA, SC, NC, MI, OR, FL, VA, TX, and PA. There were incidents involving guns being drawn, vehicles driven into crowds, and other acts of aggression, but police acted quickly and removed the offenders. Meanwhile, police departments across the country are reporting that No Kings protesters had zero arrests. Incredible job, everyone! It’s becoming impossible for Trump to sell his propaganda.



Here are some numbers from the turnout, courtesy of SEIU:

Hands off march: April 5th had 3 million
No Kings on Jun 14th had 5 million
No Kings in Oct had 7 million.

Meanwhile, this MAGA idiot thought she was somehow "owning the libs" by showing up at the protest, expecting to get booed and assaulted and then congratulating herself when no one did. This is what happens when you build your view of the world based on what you hear on Truth Social and FOX News.



Someone online noted that if one of the peaceful left-wing protestors had shown up at a MAGA protest THAT person would've most certainly been harassed and verbally threatened, which is an accurate description of where each side falls on the violence and hate spectrum.

Shoutout to Pedro Pascal from the Mandalorian and Fantastic Four for participating:



Meanwhile, Trump literally demolishing democracy:



 

 

October 20, 2025 8:49 pm  #443


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Wow, news flash! Trump lied about something.

 

October 24, 2025 1:32 am  #444


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

From the Associated Press:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-canada-trade-tariffs-a0cfd202ef6f22052827b784be708fd6

Trump says he’s ending trade talks with Canada over TV ads

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.

The post on Trump’s social media site came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.

Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.

Well it's time to go into Grandpa Simpson mode and do a rant - a shock to all of those reading this thread, I know!

First of all, the TV ad being referred to is an initiative of "Captain Canada" Doug Ford, premier of Ontario and part of a $75 million ad campaign paid for by our province. It has nothing to do with Mark Carney and the federal government. This tactic of using Reagan to point out to... who? Republicans? Donald Trump? that tariffs are a bad idea that will backfire on the US seemed ill-conceived right from the get-go. Democrats have already been saying this since April, and China already used the same Reagan clip to mock Trump's tariffs. I've even seen a segment on FOX News citing tariffs being harmful to Americans and not foreign countries like Canada, so who is the target audience? WHO is not aware of this by now?

It's just yet another unbelievable waste of taxpayer money at a time when it could instead be used to keep emergency rooms open (many in the rural parts of Ontario have shut down for good, due to Ford's underfunding of public healthcare) or maybe he can fix the mess he's made of the autism portfolio (Tina Yazdani at CityNews just did another story on that today, autism was Ford's very first failure during his first term and the issue has only gotten even worse now according to Yazdani's story) or pay back the City of Toronto for dismantling those speed cameras he suddenly had an about-face over (possibly due to the fact that his daughter got 80+ speeding tickets, according to the rumor mill).

CTV has cited the fact that the first time Ford tried something like this months ago, it got zero results so sure, let's do it again and pour more money down the drain for advertisements that either are ineffectual or actually antagonize the person you're trying to sway. Let's not forget that this is Canadian money being handed over to American media corporations at a time when we should keep that money here at home to prop up our own economy.

It's already been difficult watching our Prime Minister give up on the digital services tax and on Canada's counter-tariffs, then repeatedly pretend to admire the orange cheeto during press conferences at the White House, all to stroke Trump's ego in the faint hope of reaching some kind of mutually-beneficial trade deal... just to watch all those months of goodwill evaporate thanks to one of dummy-Doug's brilliant ideas.

Many many years ago, when his younger brother Rob Ford was alive and the two were just entering the political arena, I remember the talk was that they wanted to build a Ford political dynasty, starting small with city council, working up to mayor, then premier and eventually maybe running to be the Prime Minister (the thought of Canada having its own moron-in-chief with Doug at the helm will continue to keep me up at night).  

Ford has often told others to "stay in their lane" even as he constantly interferes at both the federal and city level (speed cameras and bike lanes being only the latest in his inability to follow what he preaches). If there was ever a time for him to just butt out and let the person who is actually charged with negotiating with America, Carney, do their job, before he dimwittedly causes even more harm, it is now. Ford is like Jar Jar Binks, eagerly following behind the Jedi and wanting to prove himself, but tripping over his own two feet and rolling down a long shaft leading to the reactor and blowing up the entire space station killing both bad guys and good guys alike.

I assume Ford is desperate to show that he's fulfilling the mandate that frightened Ontario workers elected him on and just as importantly, to make himself a prominent figure in the trade wars so he can claim some kind of credit later when he tries to run for the leader of the federal Conservatives and then for prime minister (god, no....) but Ford is not exactly intelligent nor wise, nor insightful (we're talking about a former drug dealer who flunked out of first year college, not even able to finish his first semester, alright? He's not in Carney's league even remotely).

From Carney's point of view, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

NOTE to paterson1: once I wrap up my From Russia with LEXX series, I will get around to discussing why I think Ford and Trump are very much alike, I've not forgotten about that. The thought of having to detail all of Ford and his government's failures and hypocrisies and outright lies is like willingly jumping into a pool of quicksand: once you go in, you just sink deeper and deeper into despair and hopelessness at how much better off Ontario would've been if we elected someone, almost anyone, else.
 

 

October 25, 2025 3:33 pm  #445


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

Small update: Rand Paul appeared on an interview confirming that Republicans may  be opposed to what Trump is doing but are fearful of speaking up lest they also face Trump's wrath:



Anonymous notes that Reagan hated Trump (I knew there was a reason why I liked Reagan, even if his trickle-down economics effectively destroyed the middle class of America and helped the rich hoard their wealth even more)



Speaking of politicians who help the rich and screw over the working poor... Security of tenure is primarily beneficial to the most vulnerable in Ontario: the seniors who live on extremely modest incomes  and rely the most on Old Age Security and GIS. Perhaps Ford is hoping they'll be forced out of their rent-protected homes and into for-profit long term care homes run by his fellow Conservative, Mike Harris?



Headline: Mike Harris is raking in profits from long-term care system he helped create
https://canadians.org/analysis/mike-harris-raking-profits-long-term-care-system-he-helped-create/ 





I noticed on CTV's noon news yesterday, Doug Ford confirmed it was his idea to use Reagan in the ads. What's interesting is that Trump had already seen the ad days earlier and didn't have an issue with them, but something shifted not long after causing him to lash out on social media over misrepresentation of Reagan's words... It could be something as simple as Trump realizing he could take advantage of Doug Ford's total ineptitude to justify delaying a resolution to the trade talks. The longer we don't get a trade deal, the more Canadian steel and other US-dependent industries suffer, the more our economy falters, and perhaps he thinks we'll be more likely to join up as 51st state.

Meanwhile, Steve Bannon hinted a few days ago that "there is a plan in the works" that would get Trump a third term. Some online speculation about what that plan could be:


 

 

October 25, 2025 3:52 pm  #446


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

The only good thing about life, since the Orange Lizard slithered down the escalator in 2015, is this time we get to watch an authoritarian try to take over a country...in real time.

It's one thing to read about the destruction of Germany, circa 1900 - 1945. It's quite another to peek over the fence to watch your neighbours willingly destroy themselves, all while trying to take us down with them.

Absolute madness that money well-spent on education could easily have avoided. As angry and frustrated as I am, my American friends are beside themselves in anger, frustration and disgust at this grifter takeover of their beloved America.


"I love the poorly educated."
.......Donald J. tRump
 

October 25, 2025 4:53 pm  #447


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

It's also watching the destruction of historical buildings like the White House's east wing, just to satisfy Trump's ego for a big ballroom where he and the rich donors contributing to its build can party and laugh away as the guillotines are slowly erected by the working class... the level of income inequality within the US when it comes to the rich and poor has exceeded Marie Antoinette levels.



Before-and-after of the East Wing:


On Facebook, Joe Walsh has offered a great rebuttal to claims that renovations happened under Obama too:

It's important understand how MAGA thinks and reasons. This is indicative of EVERYTHING they say and do. This is such a perfect example:

MAGA are claiming Donald Trump’s construction of a White House ballroom which involved demolishing part of the historic Rose Garden colonnade is “no different” from Barack Obama adding a basketball court. That’s false equivalence.

Let’s set the record straight.

According to the White House Archives, Obama “had the White House tennis court adapted so it could be used for both tennis and basketball,” simply by painting basketball lines and adding removable hoops. That's it.

There was no demolition, no excavation, no alteration of historic structures and no reported cost, likely because it was so minimal it didn’t require public disclosure.

In contrast, Trump demolished part of the Rose Garden colonnade, originally constructed in 1913 under President Wilson, to make way for his tacky ballroom.

The project reportedly cost over $50 million, paid for by private donors, and has raised concerns among preservationists about the irreversible alteration of one of the most iconic spaces on the White House grounds.

As historian Michael Beschloss put it, "The Rose Garden was the scene of major moments in American history... tampering with that legacy has consequences."

Comparing Obama’s basketball paint job to Trump’s architectural demolition isn’t analysis, it’s pathetic misdirection. The scale, cost, and historical impact aren’t even in the same universe.

Regardless of whatever Steve Bannon's plan is to ensure that Trump gets a third term, the GOP are already  cheating in preparation to win 2026's mid-terms. A lesson in gerrymandering with regards to NC:








Once you give the right-wing the power to write the rules of government, they will make sure they never leave.

 

 

October 27, 2025 8:28 pm  #448


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

CNN: Americans love Canada more than Donald Trump. Watch the video here:
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1982808501647815039






I've transcribed some of the video:
"Canada is far more popular than Donald Trump here in the United States.   We're talking about Canada coming out nearly 60 points ahead on the net popularity rating vs Donald Trump here in the United States. When you pick on Canada, you are picking on a country that the American people ADORE. They adore Canada, Canada has always been a friend to the United States at least during our lifetime and when you're going after Canada you are going against someone who is far more popular than Donald Trump. Pretty much every single time, Americans will choose Canada over Donald Trump."

And the change over how Canadians now view the US before Trump took office again, vs now in 2025:


Deluded Trump responds:



 

 

October 30, 2025 10:23 pm  #449


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

From Russia with LEXX continues:



About 22 years ago, I was sitting inside a Chapters bookstore in downtown Toronto, waiting for my girlfriend to get off work and come meet me so we could go out for some dinner. Because she was running late, I decided to pick a random book off a bookshelf and just start reading until she arrived.

As usual I read the blurb on the back cover to get an idea of what the book was all about. It went something like: suicide bombers -- why would someone strap an explosive device onto their body and kill not just themselves but numerous other people?  The book aimed to dispel misconceptions that people in the west had about suicide bombers and their motivations since the general assumption was that these were people who were poor and homeless, or evil, or religious zealots, or suicidal to begin with and had nothing (materially speaking) to live for. That assumption is wrong. Most of the time, the suicide bomber comes from the middle class, has a respectable job, and a good family life. From an outsider's point of view, they have no reason to die.



This intrigued me enough to begin reading the first chapter since I was one of those who had that exact assumption about these people. It seems antithetical to our natural survival instinct to a) kill ourselves even if it's going to be a reasonably quick and painless death and b) harm others while doing it. Committing suicide alone is enough to get you into the fiery hot red place in the afterlife, why would you compound your eternity of torture by also adding murder to it as well?

What the author goes on to explain made sense but many years later it occurred to me that it was applicable to not just suicide bombers but to ALL people and could explain how your everday citizen becomes radicalized here in north America. It's especially relevant to the political manipulation of right-wing voters and especially relevant to Putin's long-term campaign to divide westerners so that they are kept busy fighting one another, ignoring what Putin is doing with Ukraine.

What follows is my recollection of the author's explanation, so bear with me as I am drawing on memory alone after more than two decades since reading it.



The book pointed out that our perception of ourselves, our identity, is something that we often think of as fixed and static (at least for a specific period of time e.g. once we get married, our view of our identity obviously shifts from "single" to "husband" or "wife"). However, this is not true: our identity is an amalgam of many different sub-identities, of which can include:

- ethnicity
- gender
- age
- physical appearance / physical prowess (ugly, beautiful, strong, frail, tall, disabled, etc)
- our job title (secretary, entrepreneur, reporter, life coach, artist, etc)
- level of wealth and prosperity (homeless, working poor, middle class, rich)
- religion (or lack thereof)
- nationality (American, Canadian, etc)
- sexuality  (heterosexual, homosexual, etc)
- marriage status
- dominant personality trait (optimistic, short-tempered, cynical, etc)
- political preference (right wing, far-right, left-wing, far-left, center-right, center-left)
- nerd level (Star Wars nerd, sci-fi nerd, baseball nerd, travel nerd, romance novel nerd... any hobby that you are heavily into)

and so on. The composition of these components make up who we are as a person, it forms our IDENTITY. It's how we perceive ourselves on a day-to-day basis.

But here comes the most intriguing part: these components within us are NOT equal in magnitude! For example, using a very simple case of a guy named Dwayne:

- black
- male
- 33 years old
- very tall and handsome, physically strong and athletic
- Christian
- homosexual
- working poor
- left-wing, strong advocate for social programs to feed school children and finding housing for the homeless

With these 8 components and assuming that 100% equals the full composition of our identity, then we might think that each of these components would rank equally (12.5%) to create our perception of who we see ourselves as. Not according to the author: even in the course of a single day, the magnitude of any given component can rise and fall dramatically:

a) while commuting to work, Dwayne witnesses another black man being taunted by a racist remark. Suddenly Dwayne's sense of being black rises significantly over all the other components. He has been the victim of racism himself in the past so he feels that taunt as if it were hurled at him directly.

b) at the job site, his boss orders him to stay late in order to meet a deadline. He tries to argue that he's worked late for the past two months (without any extra pay) already but is told he can always quit. Suddenly the notion of being one of the working poor is first and foremost in his mind, over all other considerations. He has little savings in his bank account and is very aware now that he has no say in his work life.

c) he finally leaves work and has a late dinner date with his new boyfriend and they flirt with one another over the meal and compliment one another on appearance and choice of stylish clothing. Obviously Dwayne's sense of his attractiveness, youth, and sexual preference take precedence over any of his other qualities during the date.

d) returning home and watching the TV news before bed, he learns that the right-wing mayor is cancelling a number of social programs that help the poorest in the community and feels outraged. He decides to join other protestors down at City Hall on the weekend, because he is a left-winger and it's his duty to take a stand against anyone making those types of cuts.

So it is natural that how we see ourselves can shift from one component to another just depending on the situation. The book's key point lies in the fact that when something THREATENS one of those components that form our identity, that component rises in magnitude very quickly and takes on the majority of our identity in that moment and often times we take action to deal with that threat (we fight, we run away, we protest, whatever). Once that threat is dealt with, we return to a more normal balance again.

However, what if that threat doesn't subside and is constant? Then you guessed it - that part of our identity remains dominant. So long as some key part of us is under attack, we hold on even tighter to that component of who we are and we take action on a regular basis to cope with that threat to reassure ourselves that this part is safe and protected from the preceived threat.

For example, if the president of the United States of America suddenly were to threaten to annex our country and turn it into America's 51st state, that part of us which identifies as Canadian suddenly surges up very high and stays high. We take actions in response to that threat: we stop visiting the USA, we stop buying US products, we sing our national anthem more often and with more pride, etc.



In the recent Ontario election, I am convinced that Doug Ford would have lost had it not been for his team's understanding of this concept of identity preservation. He SHOULD have lost: he's been the worst, most corrupt, least competent and most self-serving premier in our province's history as far as I'm concerned, but luckily for him the election coincided with Trump's 51st state threat and his team changed gears fast because they understood that Ontarians were facing a threat that was going to be constant and overpowering. These worried Ontarians needed to take personal ACTION in some way to reassure themselves and Ford offered it: "Captain Canada" complete with his "Canada is not for sale" baseball cap and his "I'll fight for you, Ontario, against the same orange cheeto president that I previously cheered for (please forget that part, okay?) if you VOTE for me."  That's the action he offered the electorate: vote for me. And sure enough they did...




Crombie and Stiles didn't react to the threat from Trump fast enough nor with the same degree of magnitude as Ford and they lost. Never underestimate what a nervous and anxious population will do to protect a key part of their identity under attack from an indominatable enemy: they'd vote for His Divine Shadow if they thought it would bring some reassurance.

What Ford did wasn't wrong, it was smart political maneuvering, even I would agree with the tactic. But there are far worse groups that understand this need for identity preservation (my term for it, I don't know what the book called it) and weaponize it to create suicide bombers, mass shooters, religious zealots, etc.

Someone living in the middle east may have a great family, a great job, earn respectable money, but their religion undoubtedly makes up a key component of their identity. If someone can convince them that their religion is under threat from something extremely dire and unstoppable, they will shift all of their focus towards protecting that part of their identity.

You convince them through propaganda: compose a lie or half-truth ("America wants to kill all Muslims and turn our country into a Christian state!") and then repeat it over and over again, inundate every source of news and information channel that they consume daily. Once you get a few of his friends to repeat it too (because while we may distrust what we hear on the news or read on social media, we DO trust our friends even if all they are doing is repeating the same half-truths heard from those same sources). Again, this goes to what I cited earlier as social credit - that when many other trusted people are saying the same thing then it clearly must be true!  "The Carbon Tax is making life more expensive for Canadians! Get rid of it and your groceries will be cheaper!"
Truth: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carbon-tax-food-prices-wherry-analysis-1.6989547

Armed with a new awareness of the threat, you now have your suicide bomber, ready to die to protect his culture, his history, his people, his identity. Because being a muslim (or whatever religious group) is part of his identity and thanks to constant fear and hate mongering from the news or social media or their politicial leader or their cult/religious leader, it feels as if it is under attack and endangered, and they are compelled to take ACTION to protect this part of themselves.



NEXT TIME: the similarities between living in an authoritarian regime like Russia and living in the world of LEXX's Divine Order. And why you are just a meat puppet to the people in charge, whether you voted them into power or voted against them.
 

 

November 6, 2025 12:02 am  #450


Re: Is Today's News From Washington A Sign of Darker Times Ahead

I thought I would put this in here bc it is about Iran. I have visited Iran and I can tell you that what you see in the western media does not paint an accurate picture,

Today I came upon this You Tube post from a lady who does travel videos. I have seen a lot of her videos including some she has done about the various people  of Northern Pakistan, I can tell you in all of the videos I have seen from her she does not have an agenda. She is just an adventurous civilian documenting her travels.   The first video is about her impression of Iran and the second about the Kalash people of northern Pakistan and their ancient village, 

Both I believe are important in a political context bc generally people in the west are unaware of the worlds she is describing and the picture in many minds is slanted by negative reporting in the western media.









 


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