The Second Term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America

[sear]

"Haven't seen the "kill switch" claim. Just rumors that the versions sold to non-Americans will have substandard software and it won't be upgraded" S2 #1,420

My brand new car is now 9 years old. I'd be delighted to buy a new one to replace it, BUT !
the limited dribble of information I've gotten indicates any new car with a shark-fin antenna is hackable.
Meaning, malefactors outside the automobile can take control, the risks limited to / extended by the sociopathy of the engineers of that particular model car.

So my next new car may be a '68 Mustang.

And that S2, is illustrative metaphor for what these deranged control freaks have accomplished.
By attempting to gain inappropriate control, they forfeit connection.

Therefore, sadly, premised on my unreserved commitment to the survival of Western democracy, I'm with Europe on this.
For the foreseeable future the U.S. simply cannot be accurately regarded as a reliable military alliance partner. NOT when it, Trump's U.S., threatens ostensible allies with punishing tariffs, & precisely the same savagery Putin / Russia currently inflicts on Ukraine. "Russia First"

 

[Shiftless2]

Good morning! The American Dream is starting to look like one of those boarded-up strip malls where the only thing still open is the payday lender. New data show long-term unemployment at its highest level since the pandemic: nearly two million people out of work for six months or more, their savings gone, their benefits exhausted, their résumés going stale in real time. One in four unemployed workers has now slipped into that limbo, a place economists describe as “low-hire, low-fire.” Translation: nobody’s expanding, nobody’s moving, and if you’re the unlucky one who lost your job, you may as well be throwing your résumé into the ocean.

The human cost is brutal. IT veterans with hundreds of unanswered applications, paralegals six months behind on rent, college grads sending out résumés like confetti only to hear the same polite “not at this time.” And all the while, Trump insists the economy is “very strong,” that groceries are down, energy is down, everything is down except, of course, housing, which is somehow Jerome Powell’s fault. He says this while millions of Americans are watching their prospects evaporate like a mirage in the desert. It’s the kind of gaslighting that would make even a realtor blush.

Meanwhile, on the international stage ...

CONTINUED

 

[Shiftless2]

This makes sense if you realize it was the worm speaking

Hear it for yourself

https://imgur.com/DRPcl9k

The first official podcast was an interview between Christopher Lydon and Dave Winer in July 2003, released on Lydon's blog, which is now considered the oldest continuously running podcast, Radio Open Source. The term "podcast" wasn't coined until February 2004 by journalist Ben Hammersley, combining "iPod" and "broadcast" to describe the emerging audio blogging trend.