The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Casey Pelous]

Yeah... a lot of die hard Trump supporters also can't wrap their heads around the fact that the left isn't terrified of seeing Clinton and other leaders go down if they are guilty in the way they will defend Trump to the death. ...

Ask Al Franken, Rod Goblowabitch (sp?), or that putz from New Jersey we just packed off to prison.

It reminds me of how some Westerners just can't quite get what Buddhism is about ...

Them: So, Buddha is like God, right?
Me: No ... he was a person.
Them: Oh, okay, so he's like Jesus. Got it. Then who's their god?
Me: No, not quite like Jesus, and there's no Buddhist god, really. Not like "Hairy Thunderer Created the Whole Schmeer" god, anyway. There some supernatural beings, but they are generally seen as more like analogies, not something to be obeyed, nor even as anything very important.
Them: *gears grinding*

I remember a discussion on SLU about whether one can be an atheist and a Buddhist. Someone was really adamant that it was absolutely impossible. "Have religion + be atheist" was returning an error! (It's totally possible. I've known Zen monks and nuns who were atheists.)

 

[Beebo Brink]

Yeah, they tried to push a "both sides" angle to draw wnplay it for so long that MAGA is sure that theblist means the end of Clinton, Biden, Gates, etc etc, and would "fully exonerate" Trump and they really want thdblist to "own the libs" or whatever , and now even they are a bit angry and confused.

The Clintons and Biden are already pretty much at "the end" due to old age and retirement. Gates isn't that far behind them either. Not sure what kind of satisfaction MAGAs expect at this point, even if there were some way to "bring them down."

I don't know why people find it so difficult to believe Epstein killed himself.

I've reluctantly let go of my skepticism concerning his suicide. Egomaniacs of that kind are hollow and don't have the strength to go through public censure and humiliation. It makes psychological sense that he fled in the only way left to him.

 

[Free]

Trump gets 'ratioed' on Truth Social for first time amid Epstein backlash

Donald Trump's Truth Social post defending Pam Bondi has seen more than 36,000 replies so far, many from people unhappy with the president's remarks.

www.newsweek.com

In his Saturday evening post, Trump lashed out at those criticizing Bondi, calling her performance "FANTASTIC" and dismissing the ongoing interest in Epstein as a waste of time.

"We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening," the president wrote. "Let's not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about."

The post—lengthy, defensive, and directed at his own base—appears to have backfired. According to public engagement data archived from Truth Social, the post has garnered more than 36,000 replies, compared with nearly 11,000 re-truths (the platform's term for shares) and 32,000 likes as of 10:45 a.m. ET Sunday.

The backlash on Truth Social reflects growing internal division among MAGA supporters, many of whom have spent months anticipating revelations from the so-called "Epstein Files."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Ask Al Franken, Rod Goblowabitch (sp?), or that putz from New Jersey we just packed off to prison.

It reminds me of how some Westerners just can't quite get what Buddhism is about ...

Them: So, Buddha is like God, right?
Me: No ... he was a person.
Them: Oh, okay, so he's like Jesus. Got it. Then who's their god?
Me: No, not quite like Jesus, and there's no Buddhist god, really. Not like "Hairy Thunderer Created the Whole Schmeer" god, anyway. There some supernatural beings, but they are generally seen as more like analogies, not something to be obeyed, nor even as anything very important.
Them: *gears grinding*

I remember a discussion on SLU about whether one can be an atheist and a Buddhist. Someone was really adamant that it was absolutely impossible. "Have religion + be atheist" was returning an error! (It's totally possible. I've known Zen monks and nuns who were atheists.)

At risk of going off topic (as if...) I think it's also the case that many Buddhists do, in fact, believe in several different gods.

I've just been reading The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer, a biography of one of the most bizzare, bloody and psychopathic figures of the Russian Civil War (a crowded field)

Freiherr Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg, the last khan of Mongolia, who in one short year rose from being a Russian nobleman to incarnate God of War and returned Khan. In Mongolia he was lauded as a hero, feared as a demon and, briefly, worshipped as a god.

Palmer writes

The emphasis on the philosophical aspects of Buddhism in the West also means that the reality of Buddhist religious practice worldwide tends to be eclipsed. For instance, Buddhists are often portrayed in the West as not believing in a God or gods, and most Western Buddhists don’t. The vast majority of Buddhists worldwide, however, are enthusiastic believers in all manner of gods and spirits, often drawn from local traditions or taken from older religions such as Hinduism or Daoism.

In particular, Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism -- the schools of particular relevance to Baron Ungern's story -- include in their pantheons many angry and hostile gods who apparently run what are essentially supernatural protection rackets, requiring frequent prayers and sacrifices to avert their destructive impulses and wrath.

I came across The Bloody White Baron as a result of reading The Black Hunger, by Nicholas Pullen, which I can recommend as a great tale of gothic horror.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

One of the things that helped Buddhism spread is that you did not have to abandon local/regional gods to become a Buddhist. They got channeled into "protectors" of Buddhism or just left to exist side-by-side.

I remember doing a grad paper on one of the earliest Buddhist texts written in Japan, and breaking it down most of the content was Shinto or folklore with a Buddhist moral tacked on.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Reported

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I also want to point out that Trump in a fox news interview also said he's not release the Epstein files since there was a lot of "phony stuff in there." Now they apparently shifted gears to trying to say it doesn't exist? They can't keep their stories straight and probably don't need to, to most of their supporters. I believe there is likely some evidence that implicates Trump and others. I have a rough time swallowing the VERY convenient news that Epstein himself was the only relevant abuser.

I'm kinda thinking that too. If dunno if it's Trump, but if not then it's someone he likes. The way he's getting so uppity and insisting everyone drop it and "nobody cares about Epstein" despite everyone caring - he only gets like that when he has a stake in whatever it is he wants everyone to shut up about.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I'm just thinking, but maybe it's Maxwell? He did like her. When she was sentenced, he was asked at a press conference and his words were strangely kind to her for someone who liked to posture about being tough on criminals. Maybe he has plans to eventually pardon her, and making the Epstein case go away is part of the lead-up to that. I really hope it backfires if so.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

"We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening," the president wrote. "Let's not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about."

He planted those seeds and gave them plenty of water. Did he not expect for them to take root and grow?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Interesting article (and free to read, I think).

https://www.thenerdreich.com/epstein-thiel-trump-and-the-danger-of-conspiracy-theory/?ref=the-nerd-reich-newsletter

 

[Noodles]

We need a play on "But her emails" that is "But his..... " related ro this. Preferable with the same sort of cadence as "e mails".

Peed mails maybe? Peed Files?

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

This whole debacle with the Epstein list mostly just shows how uncoordinated and incompetent the administration is. The "list" may or may not exist, but if they wanted to bury it, they needed to talk to each other and keep their stories straight. It would have been a lot more believable if they just said as one "Once we went through the documents, we realized it's a bunch of junk and not very useful." Instead, they have been all over the place with trying to simultaneously say the list doesn't exist while also blaming it on Obama and various nonsense. They are kind of just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.

 

[Beebo Brink]

In particular, Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism -- the schools of particular relevance to Baron Ungern's story -- include in their pantheons many angry and hostile gods who apparently run what are essentially supernatural protection rackets, requiring frequent prayers and sacrifices to avert their destructive impulses and wrath.

That collection of "angry and hostile gods" makes more sense out of a world filled with disasters and misery than does the Christian god of love.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

That collection of "angry and hostile gods" makes more sense out of a world filled with disasters and misery than does the Christian god of love.

As my sometime father-in-law once put it, when explaining why people worship the goddess Kali rather than Gayatri (a far more peaceful version of the ultimate divine feminine power, and his family's patron deity), if you live somewhere like the Bay of Bengal, subject to hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, you know that destruction is a very real force, and it makes very good sense to try to placate it.

 

[Noodles]

This whole debacle with the Epstein list mostly just shows how uncoordinated and incompetent the administration is. The "list" may or may not exist, but if they wanted to bury it, they needed to talk to each other and keep their stories straight. It would have been a lot more believable if they just said as one "Once we went through the documents, we realized it's a bunch of junk and not very useful." Instead, they have been all over the place with trying to simultaneously say the list doesn't exist while also blaming it on Obama and various nonsense. They are kind of just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.

What I don't get.

Do people really think Trump would just like, release an unaltered list that says "Trump is a pedo?"

 

[Free]

What I don't get.

Do people really think Trump would just like, release an unaltered list that says "Trump is a pedo?"

I believe what's confusing you is an expectation of critical thinking skills.

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Beebo Brink]

That hand is too big....

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The Enshittification of American Power

First Google and Facebook, then the world. Under Trump 2.0, US statecraft is starting to mimic the worst tendencies of Big Tech.

www.wired.com

Evernote Link

The alarming way that the US can block individuals' access -- worldwide -- to banking and email facilities, as has happened to the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, and can in theory lock sovereign governments out of their own cloud databases.