Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Helen
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 02:10 AM

"Bloviating" - I had to look it up, but my guestimation of its meaning was very close. (Note: Putting it in a sentence about tRump made it easy to guess.)

Funny!

A 108 minute speech - not funny, especially when it was delivered by that thing.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Helen
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 02:20 AM

Sorry (not sorry!). I just saw an article in our local paper about the invasive and poisonous cane toad species which has just been found in our area. Normally they live farther north but they do creep down south a bit now and then until they are tracked down and exterminated.

Every time I see a picture of a cane toad I see how much they look like tRump:

Donald Trump as a poisonous, invasive cane toad

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: r.padgett
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 04:45 AM

State of the Union full of error spin and ill though plans

Ray

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 06:01 AM

It is the Spate of the Union.

It is a silly tradition that Thomas Jefferson ignored.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 06:20 AM

Par for the course, Ray.* Just seen this in RISKS Digest 34:18 ....

DoT's vibe-regulate U.S. transport with Gemini (Pivot to AI)

Gabe Goldberg

The US Department of Transportation wants to “revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings.” This means they’re going to write the regulations with Google’s Gemini chatbot! [ProPublica]

This plan was dropped on DOT staff in December. President Donald Trump is reportedly “very excited about this initiative.”

You might think making rules requires knowledge, even expertise, and checking the facts on the ground. But the heads of the DOT don't have time for that nonsense:

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/02/13/lets-vibe-regulate-us-transport-with-gemini/

* Ahem.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 04:15 PM

What the hell was that state of the nation nonsense all about yesterday?

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 04:43 PM

The usual meaningless word-salad from the Fat, Ugly, Orange Bastard.

Subject: RE: SPATE OF THE UNION
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Feb 26 - 08:21 PM

20,000 words in search of a coherent thought.

Here we go on another WMD hunt in the Middle East.
Please do not join in this time.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 26 - 03:36 PM

A timely song called Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter (sung by Whitney Avalon and Hildegard von Blingin') - not sure how many of the names are real, sounds like it's from an SCA group. Clever. About Richard, but really about Donald. :)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Helen
Date: 26 Feb 26 - 04:46 PM

Thanks for the link, SRS. Funny! I can't decide whether it was created to reference tRump, but it definitely describes him, IMO.

(Note: Hildegard von Blingin' is a play on the name of an amazingly clever woman called Hildegard von Bingen who composed so many beautiful hymns and other pieces of music in the 12th Century. Also, that video is part of the very funny Bardcore collection of music which has many musical artists re-working modern songs into Middle Ages format.)

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 26 - 06:59 PM

That sounds right - my daughter and daughter-in-law participate in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and the spoof names are part of the program.

The next ridiculous ammo that is going to bring up court cases are snowballs. An organized snowball fight in New York City's Washington Square Park was visited by police, some of whom were hit with snowballs. Subway sandwich, snowballs, what next? Eggs and tomatoes come to mind.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 08:02 AM

In totalitarian rule, words become criminal offences, not just sandwiches and snowballs. Trump and Bondi are just warming up.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 09:58 AM

Waste of good eggs, Stilly, though a seriously interesting one would function as a grenade .... I was once given to understand that a music-hall singer doing The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery would have been singing for her life, as the oikerati up in the cheap seats came armed with rotten vegetables.

Oh, and s/Cultural/Creative/ surely :-) ?

---

Fixed the typo. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 10:21 AM

More serious point, in case this hasn't been belaboured before:

How ICE Knows Who Protesters Are (The NY Times)

Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik, The New York Times (01/30/26), via ACM TechNews

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deployed an expansive surveillance arsenal in Minneapolis, using facial recognition, cellphone scanning, social media monitoring and data analytics to track undocumented immigrants as well as protesters. Agents have allegedly identified U.S. citizens without consent using two facial recognition programs in Minnesota. ICE agents also tap Palantir databases that merge government and commercial data for real-time tracking. Following a major budget increase, ICE has also acquired phone-hacking and social media scraping tools.

There's a related article, complete with a link to the NBC original, immediately after the above in RISKS (qv). There's also been coverage on the Beeb of a protestor who got followed home by ICE, and who may or may not now be on the terrorist watch list.

Now we know why DOGE syphoned off all that data during that smash-and-grab raid.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 10:46 AM

--- Ah! there it is:

ICE watchers say agents used software to threaten and follow them home

'This is a warning. We know you live right here'

Two US residents have sued several Homeland Security agencies and officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem, for allegedly using surveillance tools to harass them, branding them as "domestic terrorists," and even showing up at their homes based on license-plate recognition.

On Monday, the nonprofit Protect Democracy filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of two Mainers, Elinor Hilton and Colleen Fagan, and other unnamed plaintiffs over what they describe as unconstitutional surveillance designed to deter them from exercising their First Amendment rights. [...]

Follow the link for full details. Warning: It's rather longer than will fit in a BBC red-button article.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 10:50 AM

Sounds like protesters need elaborate hats and makeup, or to start wearing their COVID masks and take Uber to the marches. Personally, I park blocks away from the downtown events on a campus lot where I have a parking permit.

We post so many photos of ourselves and others at these events that there are millions of people they're going to have to keep track of. On our side we have the tyranny of numbers, one hopes.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Helen
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 11:55 AM

MaJoC, regarding that article my Hubby told me that ICE is also hacking into video doorbell systems. He also said that the people who are using the least IT technology which could be hacked are IT people, and he always worked in IT but is now retired. He said IT people are also more likely to use dumb phones instead of smart phones (although he has a smart one and I have a dumb one but we are in Oz so less of a threat than the US currently).

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 12:40 PM

Stilly has a valid point about using ICE's dirty tricks against them.

The US has killed innocent civilians for a long time but not in broad daylight as a rule, JFK and others aside. J. Edgar Hoover had Coinintelpro and Patel has Operation Trumpscrub or some such mission.

Short of murder, we know many of ICE's dirty tricks like masks, showing up at legal proceedings, looking for a lost child, school pick-ups, etc.

There is such a thing as ICE fishing, where the loyal opposition drives around in a pickup truck with Spanish bumper stickers and in sthnic outfits. Once they attract the attention of ICE these white citizens drive out into east bumfuck. Distraction and delay are innocent enough tactics that have no connection to terrorism, like blocking the sewer pipe from detention camps.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 04:38 PM

President Trump is not directly controlling CNN, CBS, or HBO, but is reportedly influencing the sale of their parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, through regulatory pressure and alliances with media buyers. Skydance/Paramount, led by allies David and super billionaire Larry Ellison, has a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which would bring CNN, HBO, and CBS under one roof, with reports suggesting this could lead to increased pro-Trump editorial oversight, and that is putting it mildly.