AttackChimp wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:27 pm'Billionaire' and 'wealthy' should no longer be value-neutral terms - they should burn in your belly with disgust.

Amen, as someone here - maybe you - said, fuckers like Zuckerberg and Musk should feel embarrassed and uncomfortable every time they set foot in public. They should expect relentless abuse and heckling. Being a billionaire should be a hollow and meaningless - in the deepest sense- existence, and you should be made to feel that to your marrow.

Gramsci wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:37 pm

AttackChimp wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:27 pm'Billionaire' and 'wealthy' should no longer be value-neutral terms - they should burn in your belly with disgust.

Amen, as someone here - maybe you - said, fuckers like Zuckerberg and Musk should feel embarrassed and uncomfortable every time they set foot in public. They should expect relentless abuse and heckling. Being a billionaire should be a hollow and meaningless - in the deepest sense- existence, and you should be made to feel that to your marrow.

That was me indeed. No rest for these people. No pleasure. No feeling of superiority. Nothing but hiding-in-my-safe-room fear.

AttackChimp wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:27 pm

Frankie99 wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:14 pm If you're defining self defense in the legal terms the US uses, I want to be clear, that's not the definition I'm using. It seems like that's an easy out to a bullshit version of pacifism where the oppressed suffer worse.

We own the Laws. The people. It's time we started acting like it.

Nope. I disagree. We don't. And if we did, these aren't the ones I'd want anyway.

So from that, you're gonna have to accept my position is different from yours.

Anyone else disturbed by the way Trump was talking about Fort Knox? It was like he was salivating to get his hands on the gold.

Frankie99 wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 5:03 pm So from that, you're gonna have to accept my position is different from yours.

We're cool. I don't fault a brother or sister anything.

...and yeah. We need to change the laws. You're 100% right about that.

cakes wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 5:34 pm Anyone else disturbed by the way Trump was talking about Fort Knox? It was like he was salivating to get his hands on the gold.

Gotta gild those toilet bush holders with something

cakes wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 5:34 pm Anyone else disturbed by the way Trump was talking about Fort Knox? It was like he was salivating to get his hands on the gold.

Like he was auditioning to play the title role in Leprechaun 9 or something. Except his Irish accent kinda sucked.

Shananiganz wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 3:06 pm happy goose-stepping to Berlin

"Take My Breath Away" is far too slow and MOR, but you can just about manage this to "The Metro." However, people look at you funny when you try it while playing "Sex (I'm a... )."

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Sat Feb 22, 2025 10:21 am

cakes wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 5:34 pm Anyone else disturbed by the way Trump was talking about Fort Knox? It was like he was salivating to get his hands on the gold.

Like he was auditioning to play the title role in Leprechaun 9 or something. Except his Irish accent kinda sucked.

Shananiganz wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 3:06 pm happy goose-stepping to Berlin

"Take My Breath Away" is far too slow and MOR, but you can just about manage this to "The Metro." However, people look at you funny when you try it while playing "Sex (I'm a... )."

Ever notice how similar the songs The Metro and The Hope That House Built are?

I'm swimming through a pile of cheese.

i served with admiral franchetti 21 years ago and steve graduated with her 40 years ago. maybe they were in the italian student union together.
she did a good job and should have stood up to hegseth, but she's a sailor not a politician. i hope she will speak freely now. the navy needs a stable leader in the wake of the uss harry s truman collision last week. bad timing.

Adm. Lisa Franchetti spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
By John Ismay, washington post

Feb. 21, 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that he was firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female officer to rise to the Navy’s top job of chief of naval operations, and would be looking for her replacement.

The announcement came in a statement emailed to reporters Friday night, shortly after President Trump said he was firing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mr. Hegseth said in his statement that he would also replace Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, as well as the top uniformed lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Both Admiral Franchetti and General Slife “have had distinguished careers,” Mr. Hegseth said, adding “We thank them for their service and dedication to our country.”

“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he added.

According to her official biography, Admiral Franchetti received her commission in 1985 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Northwestern University, just seven years after the Navy ended its prohibition on women serving on ships at sea.

She became a surface warfare officer at a time when women joining the fleet in that role were typically limited to serving on auxiliary ships — noncombat vessels that carry cargo, fuel, ammunition or specialized equipment to repair submarines.

The prohibition against women serving on warships ended in 1993, opening the door for officers like Admiral Franchetti to compete equally with their male counterparts. Women were not allowed on submarines, however, until 2010.

She spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, rising to command the destroyer U.S.S. Ross (DDG 71), and later a destroyer squadron, two aircraft carrier strike groups, all naval forces in Korea and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.

Admiral Franchetti became the 33rd chief of naval operations on Nov. 2, 2023, making her the first woman to have a permanent seat as a member of the Joint Chiefs.

At the time, the White House cited Admiral Franchetti’s “extensive operational and policy experience” as among the reasons President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had picked her.

The firing of a service chief such as Admiral Franchetti is vanishingly rare, though Mr. Trump fired another four-star female admiral less than 24 hours after his second inauguration.

That was Adm. Linda L. Fagan, who as commandant of the Coast Guard shattered a glass ceiling to become the first woman to lead a branch of the armed forces.

The last chief of naval operations to not complete a full four-year term in office was Adm. Mike Mullen, who became the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2007...

During his second administration, Mr. Trump has shown personal animus toward high-ranking military officers, both those on active duty and some who retired years ago.

Mr. Trump has suggested that Gen. Mark A. Milley, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who retired in 2023, should be executed for engaging with his Chinese counterpart during the turmoil surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection.

General Milley’s official portrait as chairman was removed from the Pentagon on Inauguration Day.

A week later, Mr. Hegseth revoked General Milley’s government-funded personal security detail, which was provided to the retired general because of the death threats he has received from Iran following the U.S. strike that killed a powerful Iranian general in early 2020.

Mr. Trump’s supporters have also threatened General Milley over his contacts with his Chinese counterpart during the first Trump administration, assuring them that the United States was not seeking to strike them, or trigger a military crisis.