It only took a couple of minutes for this conspiracy theory to get out. It would have been more valid if it had come out BEFORE the non-release of the tapes. Also, does the person who had to view the tapes get time off for PTSD counseling?

 

(For those who cannot see the twitter link which Cordy embedded, it's Alex Jones promoting a theory that "Trump is using the Epstein Files to blackmail the deep state to surrender.")


Ooooh, look at the shiny distraction which draws my attention away from the administration continuing to fund foreign wars and massively increase deficit spending!


Ok, I'll bite.

 

Waiting for a local district judge to overturn the appeals court.

 

Best new term I heard lately: "Shroedinger's Epstein Files"

 

Did someone say "conspiracy theory?"

 

300,000 to 400,000 kids, unaccounted for. They found some of them yesterday in a pot field in Ventura....basically slave labor. Tom Homan found about 10,000 of them.

The Deep State is evil personified.

 

Slave labor is OK for some...

 

Remember back when we were all demanding a full release of the Epstein files, and that those who participated in the sex-trafficking and rape of children be held accountable for their crimes?




But that's OK, because Biden (something something), Democrats (something something).

 

Child rapists should be separated from oxygen.

 

No one stopped (well they did during Biden's term), and now even democrats are. It's everywhere.


The problem is when it's a national security issue, it's hard to release the files that will **** off your closet ally.

 

youre going to see even more fires out of LA soon:

 

It's been fascinating to watch the MAGA-right start to engage in some of the reality-averse mental gymnastics which we typically associate with those in the "believe all women but also excuse rapists because being an illegal immigrant is hard" crowd.

 

Trump just keeps going on this one.





I'm guessing that if he repeats this manta enough times, it will become indistinguishable from the truth in the eyes of his devout acolytes.

 

There's obviously something in play that we just wont ever know about -- remember he was the one who ordered the release in the first place.

Meanwhile, Trump's FBI is leading the most extensive and effective crackdown on child sex trafficking in history right now.

But nothing is going to matter, cause he talked a big game -- he's clearly out of the loop and must not have known **** about the 'files' when he ordered their release -- then finds out it'll bring the intelligence agencies and israel down. No amount of Epstien vs. Epstain is going to fool his supporters. This is going to cost the midterms -- his numbers are already tanking. And everyone is forgetting all the great **** he's been doing.

 

my favorite meme format before/after:

 

I agree with everything you've said here. And there are a couple of important lessons which we can take from it.


One is that Trump tends to make a lot of claims and promises about things which he actually knows little about. His message is entirely tailored towards telling the MAGA crowd exactly what they want to hear, with little regard for whether it's actually just bullshit or is actually grounded in reality. He knows that The Faithful will turn a blind eye towards such things, and divert the conversation towards "but just look how many immigrants he's deported!"

And, man, what an about-face he has done on the Epstein thing. A year ago, he was gung-ho about getting to the truth. But now that he has had the opportunity to see what the truth is, he's doing his very best to downplay it and move the conversation forward. Regardless of whether "The Judges" are actually behind this lack of disclosure (and thank you for citing News Nation on that one), Trump is the one doing the actual talking about why we should all forget about it.


The other lesson, and this is one I've been saying since last November, is that there's going to be a mid-term election in 2026. The Republicans walked away from 2024 with a very slight majority in both houses of congress. 22 of the 35 seats up for re-election in the US Senate in 2026 are presently occupied by Republicans.

Between the beating they've taken during the first six months of this term and the fact that the far-left have been feeding the fire of "Look at how Bad Orange Man™ is taking away our liberties and turning us into second-class citizens!" with alarming efficiency, I predict that the Dems are going to re-take the Congress in '26.

It's too early in my opinion to be speculating about 2028 at this point, but if the '28 Presidential election were to be held four months from today, there is no possible way I can imagine the Red Team holding onto the Executive office either.

And all of that assumes completely free and fair elections, which as you yourself have pointed out numerous times, is not necessarily the case in all districts.


The MAGA folks have been displaying an awful lot of hubris recently. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

 

Lots of moving parts in the largest bureaucracy in the world...except for maybe China. The amount of change that's already happened is truly stunning. The most amazing revelation is that USAID was actually a money-laundering operation for Washington elites. Hundreds of billions of dollars.

The stuff that should get attention simply doesn't.

We've got a 24-7 news cycle, and "results" are expected at the same speed.

Trump has been in office for six months, and it's been the most consequential that I can remember.

 

And here's the tough part: that sounds impressive. But it's merely a side-show.



DOGE claims to have targeted a reduction in wasteful spending by appx $180 billion annually. Now, that's a hotly disputed figure, but I'll take it at face value.

USAID is part of the Department of State. The President has said that he wishes to slash the State Dept's budget by 50%, so let's assume that this actually comes to pass. The State Dept's annual budget at the moment is $54.4 billion, half of which is $27.2 billion.

So that's about $207 billion in total annual savings, in a best-case scenario.


It sounds impressive.

It is not.

The "Big Beautiful Bill" which Trump has been ramming through Congress aims to increase deficit spending in the US to $936 billion this year alone, steadily increasing to $1.4 trillion dollars annually by the year 2034.

That's not total debt, that's the amount EACH YEAR by which the government will spend more than it takes in, thus adding that amount to the total debt each year.

It means that, if all goes according to plan, the total US debt will increase from its present level of $37 trillion dollars (which is $323,052 per taxpayer) to $50 trillion after 10 years.


The Trump administration is putting on a puppet show with this business of DOGE and USAID, to make you feel as though they are making incredible strides towards reducing government waste. When they are, in reality, pushing through the largest increases in deficit spending and debt-accumulation in US history.


That's what matters, and that is what is not being talked about.




(Created using Copilot, which is rapidly displacing Grok as my favorite image-generating tool.)

 

I believe the increase from the BBB is based on a tax increase at the end of the year. Do you want to pay more in taxes for the status quo? We need to reduce spending by reducing the size of the government.

We have an issue with china which is a major cost driver if we keep competing. It's a choice, be the leader or be second. The tariffs will help reduce china's economy/military spending. If it is not apparent, we are at war with china through our surrogates. The US supports ukraine and the ccp supports russia. Trump wants to end the war, and china wants to use Regan tactics to break the US.

 

Right now the BBB income and expenses are being scored by the CBO, which is the NPR of macroeconomics.