The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Innula Zenovka]

Who are the Shadows?

 

[Free]

Did they ever play on Babylon 5?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Who are the Shadows?

Chaotic Neutral. Vorlons are Lawful Neutral. The younger races get together and kick them the hell out of our galaxy.

Spoilers, I guess.

 

[Khamon]

Vorlons are Lawful Neutral according to Vorlons.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

So here's what America's Tascón List might look like as the country morphs into a Latin American kleptocracy. Trump team is questioning civil servants at National Security Council about commitment to his agenda

 

[Essence Lumin]

Carrie Underwood, Village People to perform at Trump's inauguration events

Country music star Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” at Donald Trump’s inauguration next week and the 1970s hitmakers Village People will perform at two inaugural events.

apnews.com

 

[Soen Eber]

That's a great song! All 1:21:25 of it! And I like how they borrow from classic music, by cutting it up into 20'some odd movements.

That is one song ... right?

I really do like it, but ... it's the same d*** ...

 

[Noodles]

Carrie Underwood, Village People to perform at Trump's inauguration events

Country music star Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” at Donald Trump’s inauguration next week and the 1970s hitmakers Village People will perform at two inaugural events.

apnews.com

All this stupid messaging about "We need to come together" that keeps getting thrown around (not JUST here) is so fucking disgusting.

The entire Trump platform is built on hate and descrimination and stripping people of rights.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Stanley Pignal (@spignal.bsky.social)

“I feel liberated,” said a top banker. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.” Business in the age of Trump. Sounds liberating. https://www.ft.com/content/cf876b19-8c69-498b-95f5-d018618d99ec

bsky.app

Evernote Link

Even the way people on Wall Street talk and interact is changing. Bankers and financiers say that Trump’s victory has emboldened those who chafed at “woke doctrine” and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or disabled people.

“I feel liberated,” said a top banker. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”

Some Wall Streeters also feel able to embrace making money openly, without nodding to any broader social goals. “Most of us don’t have to kiss ass because, like Trump, we love America and capitalism,” one said.

 

[Noodles]

Everytime I feel compelled to use "retard" or "retarded" its when I see something some MAGA clown is doing.

And also I don't, because I can accept that its not acceptable as it was back in the 80s and 90s. I have moved on and grown as a person. Not even "ironicly."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Everytime I feel compelled to use "retard" or "retarded" its when I see something some MAGA clown is doing.

And also I don't, because I can accept that its not acceptable as it was back in the 80s and 90s. I have moved on and grown as a person. Not even "ironicly."

I don't recall ever using the term myself, I think because the son of one of my mother's work colleagues (and a neighbour of ours) suffered from brain damage at birth that left him with huge developmental difficulties, so from a very early age I was told there were terms I could never apply to William and, by extension, to anyone else.

But I agree, there's things my friends and I used to think were OK until someone picked me up on them, and when someone tells me something I've said has upset or offended them then, unless I intend to upset or offend them, I apologise, try to understand why they're upset -- which usually isn't particularly difficult -- and try not to do it again, which generally isn't too difficult either.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I don't recall ever using the term myself, I think because the son of one of my mother's work colleagues (and a neighbour of ours) suffered from brain damage at birth that left him with huge developmental difficulties, so from a very early age I was told there were terms I could never apply to William and, by extension, to anyone else.

I've worked hard to purge the "r" word from my vocabulary because I get why a lot of people don't like it. ....but it's frustrating since sometimes "stupid" just doesn't feel strong enough when describing some of the outrages lies I see online.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Michelle Obama to skip Trump’s inauguration

“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former first lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” said a statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama that was shared with The Associated Press.

No explanation was given for why Michelle Obama was skipping Trump’s inauguration. She also did not attend last week’s state funeral in Washington for former President Jimmy Carter. Former presidents Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton and their spouses attended — except for her.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Final Report of the Special Counsel (PDF)

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Michelle Obama to skip Trump’s inauguration

Given the seating order, she would have had to sit beside TFG at the funeral. I can totally relate and respect her choice to avoid that.

The right will capitalize on her absence at the inauguration though. Despite the fact that Melania would probably not attend either... If she was allowed to have a choice on the matter.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Everytime I feel compelled to use "retard" or "retarded" its when I see something some MAGA clown is doing.

And also I don't, because I can accept that its not acceptable as it was back in the 80s and 90s. I have moved on and grown as a person. Not even "ironicly."

Plenty of other useable synonyms... Idiotic, brainless, stupid, dim witted, moronic, ignorant, clueless, infantile, ...

My ongoing frustration with expletives is that I'm really really trying to avoid sexual/gendered and theist based outbursts.... Which leaves nonsense substitution words, and scatological epithets. "Effing", "Shit" and "Asshole" just don't pack as much of a punch, especially when they get over used.

Can't even call people unpatriotic, nazi, sellout, rapist, racist, cheating, criminal, toxic, corrupt, narcissistic, honorless, fraud, liar, puppet, deceiver, deplorable, fake, troll, insane, conspiracy nut, hypocrite, .... Because they take pride in the labels, the worse their opposition calls them, the more validated they feel. It even goes both ways a little, with "nasty women" and "single cat ladies".

They'd rather be called names than be ignored and forgotten for even one day. The rampant factless low hanging fruit they drop on social media is proof enough of that.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Plenty of other useable synonyms... Idiotic, brainless, stupid, dim witted, moronic, ignorant, clueless, infantile, ...

Several sandwiches short of a picnic, cloth-headed, pudding-headed, bonkers, tripe-brained ... and my favourite, from my grandfather (so probably too dated to use), "If his brains were made of gunpowder, it wouldn't life his hat off."

 

[Noodles]

I've worked hard to purge the "r" word from my vocabulary because I get why a lot of people don't like it. ....but it's frustrating since sometimes "stupid" just doesn't feel strong enough when describing some of the outrages lies I see online.

Yeah, I kind of agree. I don't plan to go back to using it regularly. But there feels like an existing case with the word dumb. Which present day just means "stupid" but previously meant the same as mute. I don't know if its the actual origin, but I could definitely see dumb having a similar "origin."

Like, someone who doesn't know something struggling to answer being called dumb.

For "historical usage", it may be some sort of generational thing. I can say growing up, we called things "gay" and "retarded" in a deragatort way a lot. We also use f** and f***** a in an insulting way. By "we" I pretty much just mean, everyone I can think of in school. It was all just, part of the langauge.

Some people seemed to just never grown out of that.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

A few fries short of a happy meal.

"Wisdom has pursued you all your life but you have always been swifter." Confuses the hell out of them.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I've worked hard to purge the "r" word from my vocabulary because I get why a lot of people don't like it. ....but it's frustrating since sometimes "stupid" just doesn't feel strong enough when describing some of the outrages lies I see online.

I'm not real concerned over whether some people are offended over the word "Fuck". I don't use it to offend, that's just an incidental problem. But there ARE some things that I cannot begin to describe quite as accurately without an F-bomb. (example: anything Trump related).

So it's about accuracy for me