Late last night, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The opening video repurposed some video to show trump saying the following:
“Give me your money.
I will take your money.
I will take your women too.”
Trump said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son.
Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.
Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht’s website, hosted on the hidden “dark web”, sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously. Prosecutors said he also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said no evidence existed that any killings were actually carried out.
“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday. “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
When asked about the pardons, Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Tuesday pointed the finger at Joe Biden, stating that the former president opened the floodgates by pardoning his son Hunter.
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“I don’t know whether there were pardons given to individuals who assaulted police officers,” said Senator Susan Collins, “or whether there were pardons given to people who damaged property, who rummaged through desks, who broke windows in the Capitol. I disagree with those pardons if they were given.”
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One person suggested that Susan Collins is a “lying sack-o-shit!”
Excuse me… I’m being informed that is a direct quote.
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“Murderers don’t go to jail in this country.”
Trump quote explaining that J6 violent offenders have spent too much time in jail, because, like murderers – they should never have gone to jail in the 1st place.
This is, actually, old news.
In nascent fascist circles, news of internal power struggles – otherwise known as my-way-or-the-highway power grabs – are common & occasionally bloody. In a very real way, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Vivek was offered the opportunity to avoid grievous financial & physical harm.
One of the best power-grabbers in western society history is/was – in terms of centuries replete with grandiose & narcissistic psychopaths – a relative newcomer to the big stage of noteworthy grifters…
>>>>>>>>>
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but the people* for whom the distinction between fact and fiction no longer holds”.
Hannah Arendt
(* she is referring to MAGA… yep, if you’re MAGA and you read her writings… you’ll recognize yourself… even if you’re acutely un-self-aware)
“Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers (the range was from zero to 3 out of 100, with an average of 1.2) would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage. “
“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”
“If confirmed, I stand ready to implement President Trump’s mandate from the American people to deliver America First, peace-through-strength national security leadership on the world stage,” she said during her opening statements.
“I believe the Palestinian people deserve so much better than the failures that they’ve had from terrorist leaders,” she said. “Of course, they deserve human rights.”
Elise Stefanik
Several comments, discussing the history, referenced the 6 Day War in 1973.
’nuff said.
A Note From the Present:
“Despite a landslide victory in the fall for Donald Trump, the left is still vowing to resist the president with the same level of drama, hysteria that we’ve all come to expect. This morning, a so-called bishop politicizing an inaugural prayer service. Instead of offering a benediction for our country, for our president, she goes on the far-left, woke tirade in front of Donald Trump and JD Vance, their families, their young children. She made the service about her very own deranged political beliefs with a disgraceful prayer full of fearmongering and division.”
Sean Hannity, January 21, 2025
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A Note From the Past:
“He took the symbols sacred to our tradition and stood in front of a house of prayer in full expectation that would be a celebratory moment.”
“The President just used a Bible and one of the churches of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for.”
Rev. Mariann Budde, June 2, 2020
The general expectation is that, for the foreseeable future, we’ll be seeing hate-filled shit flooding into the various media platforms, accompanied by a parade of shit-shows, both online and in the real world
It seems likely to a few of us the social media platforms will be swarmed by embittered, angry, hate-mongers… and christian nationalists who have some version of “love” in their heart.
The Turner Diaries wormed its way into the conversation; finding a pdf is recommended, rather than purchasing a copy.
Day 2 trudges on with nonsense… as will most days.
A random observation opines that Musk has learned a lesson from Trump; don’t admit to what your enemies/opponents are accusing + don’t provide direct answers to their questions.
One of our Jews says that, “Yes, being a Nazi and a Jew is, for lack of a better way of saying it, heard of.”
and
Apparently, Elon knows how to “send his heart out” to you.
From the right-side of the political dial:
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I’m not yet saying I was wrong that nothing would change.
But I’m preparing for the possibility that I might have to say it.
If Trump 2.0 is different from the initial release, who gets the credit? It could be 10/7 more than Musk.
Earlier, a member opined that, Trump is a chaos agent.
In response, a Trump supporter offered a business styled reply:
Indeed. Anyone trying to understand Trump would do well to keep that in mind. Change-management theory says that chaos can be a tool to facilitate change. Corporations frequently use “chaos agents” to introduce “controlled” chaos to bust up the old order and facilitate changes. After the changes are made, the order is restored, and the (ahem) new corporate order is crystallized. So long as Trump’s opponents focus on his ‘lies,’ or label him a “madman,” he’ll emerge as the winner. (Check out what management literature says about the role of “mad men” in innovation – e.g. Musk might be the ultimate “madman.”)
Responding to the comment above, a member wrote:
It has almost nothing to do with Musk… he’s a latecomer to the party.
What’s different is the Heritage Foundation + Project 2025… and all of the determined-to-be-uninformed voters who never bothered to look at at the Project 2025 website + the dim bulbs who kept believing trump when he said, in classic Sgt. Schulze style…
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025.”
Of course, there’s also all of the dumbass consumers who spiked searches for tariffs the day after the election.
Anyway, if you want to believe it’s Musk… go ahead.
Stephen Miller was the architect of Donald J. Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda in his first term. Now he is back with fewer internal rivals and even more influence with the president.
Mr. Miller told Mr. Zuckerberg that he had an opportunity to help reform America, but it would be on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s terms. He made clear that Mr. Trump would crack down on immigration and go to war against the diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I., culture that had been embraced by Meta and much of corporate America in recent years.
Mr. Zuckerberg blamed his former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook that encouraged employees’ self-expression in the workplace, according to one of the people with knowledge of the meeting. He said new guidelines and a series of layoffs amounted to a reset and that more changes were coming.
Continuing with the businessman POV:
Indeed. Anyone trying to understand Trump would do well to keep that in mind. Change-management theory says that chaos can be a tool to facilitate change. Corporations frequently use “chaos agents” to introduce “controlled” chaos to bust up the old order and facilitate changes.
The reply:
Yes I’m familiar with the idea. IMO Trump is not applying that principle the same way and for the same reasons Silicon Valley is. The SV folks think they’re being disruptive to make the world a better place. Trump is using that technique to break down his perceived enemies and make his world better, often at the expense of the world in general.
Day 0002 is winding down; 2 hours left to go.
One of our members is convinced we’re witnessing a massive financial crime, so this comment was made:
Of course these bright, shiny objects of societal norms – such as non-discrimination in the workplace – are gonna take a beating because Trump and the gang want to divert as much money into their pockets as they can; while no one is paying attention.
Seriously, Trump intends to give 100+billion $$$ to the tech guys for AI because they don’t have the $$$. Seriously, that’s the rationale; they don’t have the money.
“HEY, LIBS… Look here! Don’t look at the money! Look what I’m doing to your stuff!”
“Tomorrow is Another Day”
Scarlett O’Hara