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.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Helen
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 08:40 PM

I just read a little blurb about this book in today's newspaper. I haven't seen the book IRL yet.

Orwell's Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century by Laura Beers

"For the 75th anniversary of 1984 , Laura Beers explores George Orwell’s still-radical ideas and why they are critical today.
George Orwell devoted his career to exposing social injustice and political duplicity, urging his readers to face hard truths about Western society and politics. Now, the uncanny parallels between the interwar era and our own—rising inequality, censorship, and challenges to traditional social hierarchies—make his writing even more of the moment. In Orwell’s Ghosts , historian Laura Beers considers Orwell’s full body of work—his six novels, three nonfiction works, as well as his brilliant essays—to examine what “Orwellian” means and to take it out of the hands of political pundits. She explores how Orwell’s writing on free speech addresses the proliferation of 'fake news,' highlights his vivid critiques of capitalism, and, in contrast, analyzes his failure to understand feminism. Timely, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking, Orwell’s Ghosts investigates how the writings of a lionized champion of truth and freedom can help us face the crises of modernity."


BTW the blurb in the paper specifically mentioned tRump. And a reminder, when I mentioned the song called Uprising, sung by the band Muse I also referred to Orwell's 1984 novel and some other futuristic, dystopian TV shows etc so now we have people writing about the Orwellian imaginings compared with the current state of the world.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 26 - 09:00 PM

Friendly fire as the agencies run amok and don't communicate as they play with the toys they've been given. US military used laser to take down Border Protection drone, lawmakers say

The military shot down a Border Patrol drone. Oops. In this environment incompetence is the standard.

Subject: RE:ITS FUCKING WAR AGAIN
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 04:57 AM

The US attacked Iran. Iran is retaliating. IRANIANS ARE DYING. TRUMP WARNS AMERICANS WILL DIE IN THIS ATTACK. Netanyahu is part of the debacle.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 05:00 AM

And so it begins. US and Israel currently attacking Iran, and Iran retaliating with missile strikes on Israel and US bases in the region.

World War lll, anyone?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn5ge95q6y7t

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 05:10 AM

With no Iranian internet it is unclear if operation epic fury will last for months or years.

Diplomacy never had the US and Iran talk face to face.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 08:30 AM

"The only argument that Trump could muster for why Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a threat to the United States is that Tehran has “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

So the threat to America is a nuclear bomb that doesn’t exist, perched on an intercontinental ballistic missile that isn’t close to being built?"

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 08:56 AM

And here is McClintock recorded in 1951 discussing his song:

https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197158/

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 10:46 AM

Herself's first reaction to the Iran kerfuffle: "They must really be getting close to naming Trump in the Epstein files."

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 11:01 AM

Oops. Wrong thread.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 11:08 AM

Meanwhile, here's what I dropped in to mention. Spot the ICE-related clause.

All your bots are belong to US if you don't play ball, DoD tells Anthropic

AI firm drops key safety pledge as Pentagon dispute drags on

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made Anthropic an offer it may not be able to refuse. The Defense Department and the AI firm held a meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday, where the government tried to compel the house of Claude to lift some restrictions on military use of its tech. However, recent changes to the company's safety policy suggest it may be willing to be more flexible than it's letting on.

The Pentagon's unhappiness with Anthropic has been in the news since the end of last month, when Reuters reported that the two were clashing over safeguards that would prevent the DoD from using Anthropic's AI to autonomously target weapons without human intervention and to conduct domestic surveillance within the United States. [...]

Worth reading in full.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 11:33 AM

News flash: Tantrump has just gone and bombed the Iranian presidential palace. Herself's reaction: "They [Iran] have got nothing to lose now." Netenyahoo sticks his oar in with the expected soft words. Vlad is remaining officially silent for now, but methinks there's muffled laughter emanating from his bunker. Oh, and those wishing for Tantrump's comments find he's nowhere to be found, though nobody's thought to check his usual golf courses yet .... or the White House executive bog.

And so it begins. They've just illustrated one of my longstanding observations: "The Yanks are never happier than when they're bombing the crap out of somebody from twenty thousand feet."

In a word: Bugger.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 11:59 AM

Hm: I doubt that bombing the buggery out of Iran will cause Democracy to spontaneously arise, any more than (eg) defoliating large strips of Vietnam did.* Who was it first said "the only thing that we learn from history is that nobody ever learns anything from history"?

* I nearly said "dropping agent orange on them", but that'd have been confusing. Said strips are still visible from the air.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 12:29 PM

My mistake: Turnip had phone discussions with Netanyahoo before the strike; it's *his* last, worst hope, not Turnip's. Comments from persons in the US include "he's not putting America first, he's putting Israel first," curiously from Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 01:08 PM

From ‘The Other 98%’ Facebook Page…

”The "president of peace" just launched his newest war, and within hours, bombs buried more than 50 schoolgirls under rubble. This is heartwrenching.

On Saturday morning, an airstrike flattened the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, a city in Iran's southern Hormozgan province. The girls inside were between seven and twelve years old. Around 170 students were in the building when it was hit.

Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency now reports at least 63 students killed and another 60 injured. Sixty-three children. In a school. On a Saturday morning.

This is what "freedom" looks like, apparently. Trump told the Washington Post his only concern is "freedom for the people" of Iran. In a video on Truth Social, he urged Iranians to "take over your government" once the bombing stops, as if you can liberate a people by massacring their children in math class.

The administration named this operation "Epic Fury." That's not a military codename. That's a Call of Duty expansion pack. And the real-world body count is already staggering.

Foreign policy analysts have warned that unlike the limited strikes the U.S. carried out against Iranian nuclear sites last June, a broader conflict with Tehran could drag on for years. We've heard this story before. Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. The playbook never changes, only the flag on the coffins.

Remember: this is the man who built his entire political brand on being "America First" and opposing foreign wars, who campaigned in 2024 promising to "stop the endless wars."

Now he's bombing elementary schools and calling it a noble mission.”

Here we go again…

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 05:51 PM

This is the first joint Israel-US attack. We have shared intelligence before, both shared and stolen, but never combined military attacks.
The neocon military industrial complex behind the throne has seen its figurehead Trump, decline, and is willing to go as fast as possible.

Bombing is said to continue for weeks. How this will affect the unique sect of Islam and the terrorist actors is unknown. The political endgame has not been divulged in any Trump tweets.

Good luck to all the people of Iran now known as collateral damage.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 05:58 PM

Meanwhile, nobody's talking about the Epstein files. Mission accomplished.

Subject: RE: Convicted felon US Prez 47/Don't Say His Name
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Feb 26 - 06:01 PM

The lifelong Trump strategy is to follow up bad news with worse news.
It does change the subject for a time so the next controversy has to exceed the last.