US politics - The ICE epidemic (part 10)

[barry_day]

[barry_day]

[theDJR]

@barry_day

NOT THAT THERE’S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT…

[theDJR]

To be actually fair, individual states could legally have just ignored this?

Probably get targeted with totally-unrelated withdrawal of funding, though.

[PHBomber]

Is that really shirtless MALE cheerleaders or do my eyes deceive me??

[chillyb]

Any camper and it’d be…

[wimmera1]

I shouldn’t let it bother me…
But he created that. He put in the AI prompt, probably had a few goes at it until he got it just the way he wanted.
And then posted it.

A person actually made that image about themselves. Not as a joke.

[theDJR]

@PHBomber

Is that really shirtless MALE cheerleaders or do my eyes deceive me??

Nah. They’re trans and/or non-binary.

He’s a big fan of our VFLW captain.

[StabbytheRabbit]

Uh Oh and what do they have to show for all this money?

Absolutely nothing.

• “…..the United States is on track to spend $2 trillion more than it takes in during the current fiscal year.”

• “…after Republicans acted last summer to raise the limit by $5 trillion through their One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” [so have they wasted +/- $3 trillion in just one year?]

• The U.S. government is on track to reach its $41.1 trillion debt limit next year — likely between late winter and mid-summer, a trusted independent forecaster predicted Thursday.

source:

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/06/04/congress/new-debt-limit-range-00950452

[theDJR]

Trump’s 12% cut of world slavery will solve that, dummy!

[davethedon]

Do you ever hang around the gymnasium?

[machina]

@Albert_Thurgood

Let’s try to elevate the discussion, shall we?

Here is an excellent post by someone who (I infer) is not only smarter than most people quoted in recent posts, but certainly better educated than 99.9% of Americans:

The US no longer has allies. 60 years of consensual relationship with some of the world (Canada, Europe, some Gulf states) has been shredded in full view of the entire planet. All that remains is Israel. Trump has ensured MAGA means Make America the Worst version of itself. The ‘special relationship’ with the UK is now a gimp suit (it always has been, since the Truman era, but not as brutal).

Review what has happened and it’s clear that Trump is reinventing America as a mafia state, with only a performative theatre of democracy unable to exert any meaningful power. Trump is inspired by, if not an actual agent of Putin. The tacit agreement is that Trump can be capo di capi of the US and those parts of the wider Americas and Pacific it can dominate, while Putin is capo di capi of the Russian Federation and any parts of Europe it can dominate. Both agree not to interfere in the others sphere of influence, while somehow containing the mutual threat of China.,

This isn’t my ‘theory’. It is simply a matter of observable fact, yet most Americans are so embedded in the self belief of the USA, its constitution, its separation of powers, that they haven’t noticed the salami slicing, and frog boiling that now make this irreversible. Besides, they mostly lack the direct historic experience of how empires rise and fall: a natural lifespan. I am British, Europe is a graveyard of past world powers. It seems America is now, like Russia, in the final stages of decay, hubris, corruption, authoritarian leadership, and denial. This was first described in the mid 1700’s as the Tytler Cycle of civilisations, by many others since - including C20th historian Sir John Glubb. It’s not a rigidly prescriptive framework, but a sketch of lifespan progression - just as individual human lives vary yet have much in common

Trump, like Putin, is now overextended and committed to the final stage of failure and chaos. It is very hard to imagine any get out of gaol scenario. It’s darkly hilarious that both have convinced themselves that making their respective empires great again has caused them to make desperate fatal errors. Hubris, ignorance, malice is as fatal a disease as terminal cancer.

Trump has handed Iran the Weapons of Mass Economic Destruction of US empire: the Strait of Hormuz (and the Houthi controlled Straits of Bab Al-Mandab). Iran and BRICS now have the weapon to destroy the Petrodollar at will. $38Tn of US debt is going to become even more expensive than the current $1Tn/year bond yields. Countries which have previously bought US debt are going to unload it. The Fed will be obliged to buy it back, with dollars from taxation, or debasing the currency with inflationary QE, or both. Future debt auctions will fail as confidence erodes. The US will enter a cyclone of stagflation.

Trump and the billionaire tech mafia seem to intend to ‘solve’ this by replacing USD with crypto, converting TBills to an impenetrable Ponzi scheme that has no accountability nor oversight by any part of government, media or Americans. At that point democracy is dead, and money i tself a wholly-owned mafia project. How do you revolt against the blockchain?

Of course this will not work out at all as they hope. I suspect the apocalypse will be global economic and social chaos, rather than nuclear, but mutually assured destruction has many options. I’m old and don’t expect to survive to see what comes next. Anyone younger should probably learn Mandarin.

Source: https://qr.ae/pF2DxQ

Nah, it’s dumb.

Anyone who says their opinion isn’t a theory, but is instead a fact, is dumb. Backing that up with a theory is dumber. The disputed origin of the Tytler Cycle makes it dumberer. There is no evidence Alexander Tytler ever wrote it, and given he was born in 1747, it’s unlikely he would have written it in the mid-1700s anyway.

[Yossarian]

What new sport is this that requires a helmet, shoulder pads, basketballs, soccer goals and a truckload of homoeroticism?

[No.10]

It’s the male version of lingerie football. Equality.

[Nexta]

@davethedon

Do you ever hang around the gymnasium?

[The_Craw]

[tassiehammer]

Opening ceremony of the World cup is next week.

[tassiehammer]

Probably the safest place to do it.

[tassiehammer]

Sounds fantastic. Where can I get tickets?

[StealthBomber]

Happy Pride Month, Donald…. didn’t know you had it in you to be so woke!