Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Calvada]

For those who are anti-MAGA and also football fans: I saw someone posted on social media that Patrick Mahomes is playing in this Super Bowl like he was coached by Tommy Tuberville. 🤣🤣

[bluegirl147]

3 minutes ago, Calvada said:

For those who are anti-MAGA and also football fans: I saw someone posted on social media that Patrick Mahomes is playing in this Super Bowl like he was coached by Tommy Tuberville. 🤣🤣

The last time Philly won the SB they declined to go to the White House to meet Trump.  Hope they do the same this time.

[Spartan Girl]

13 minutes ago, Calvada said:

For those who are anti-MAGA and also football fans: I saw someone posted on social media that Patrick Mahomes is playing in this Super Bowl like he was coached by Tommy Tuberville. 🤣🤣

Taking a little bit of schadenfreude that MAGA Mahomes lost, perhaps because Trump’s presence jinxed the Chiefs. Really, Kelce should’ve known better than to say it was an honor to play for the guy trashing his girlfriend.

Let’s hope this is a sign that things just might turn around!

[kittykat]

I had no personal preference going in but as an Abbott Elementary and IASIP fan I tilted towards the Eagles so I'm good with tonight. Trump wanting the Chiefs to win makes me feel a little good they lost.

[Yeah No]

Now Trump is telling the mint to stop making pennies. This is getting insane and ridiculous. I get it that pennies are expensive to make but couldn't they just scale back on them or find a way to make them cheaper? A lot of people still pay cash for things, especially poor people and rounding up can negatively affect them and disproportionately too. Even I pay cash at the supermarket sometimes. But the bigger question is, is there nothing he doesn't want to control? I mean who decides these things normally? Wouldn't that take an act of Congress and a phase out plan? He wants to bypass everything and act like a king. He is not king. And Republicans apologists sit there and applaud everything he does without question? I don't get it. If any Democratic President tried to get away with all this stuff the MAGA crew would stage another insurrection. What freakin' hypocrisy! It makes me SICK.

[lookeyloo]

11 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Now Trump is telling the mint to stop making pennies. This is getting insane and ridiculous. I get it that pennies are expensive to make but couldn't they just scale back on them or find a way to make them cheaper? A lot of people still pay cash for things, especially poor people and rounding up can negatively affect them and disproportionately too. Even I pay cash at the supermarket sometimes. But the bigger question is, is there nothing he doesn't want to control? I mean who decides these things normally? Wouldn't that take an act of Congress and a phase out plan? He wants to bypass everything and act like a king. He is not king. And Republicans apologists sit there and applaud everything he does without question? I don't get it. If any Democratic President tried to get away with all this stuff the MAGA crew would stage another insurrection. What freakin' hypocrisy! It makes me SICK.

Sadly for some reason I watched a few talk shows this weekend and listened to some satellite radio and the democratic legislators said "basically there is nothing we can do because they outnumber us, so go vote at midterms".  Seriously?  Nothing?

[Dimity]

There is a method to this madness. Overwhelm us with this barrage of constant, incessant news bulletins to the point where we stop paying attention for the sake of our sanity. Then God help us with what he's doing unannounced.

[Yeah No]

4 minutes ago, Dimity said:

There is a method to this madness. Overwhelm us with this barrage of constant, incessant news bulletins to the point where we stop paying attention for the sake of our sanity. Then God help us with what he's doing unannounced.

Exactly. It's smoke and mirrors to hide the real evil going on behind the scenes. And that's intentional. Get us distracted by pennies and other trivial shit and we won't notice the bigger things he hides behind that.

[tres bien]

If he brings brings back pennies whose face will be on them 🤣

[bluegirl147]

33 minutes ago, Dimity said:

There is a method to this madness. Overwhelm us with this barrage of constant, incessant news bulletins to the point where we stop paying attention for the sake of our sanity. Then God help us with what he's doing unannounced.

 

26 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Exactly. It's smoke and mirrors to hide the real evil going on behind the scenes. And that's intentional. Get us distracted by pennies and other trivial shit and we won't notice the bigger things he hides behind that.

It's the money.  Sure he has some idealogues around him who want a theocracy with biblical law guiding us but it is and will always be about money.  Does anyone really believe Musk wanted access to the Treasury payment system to root out fraud?  Does anyone really believe Trump wants to lower the deficit?  They want all the money.  He is no better than Putin.  The narrative was Putin wanted to make Russia the empire the USSR once was.  Did he do that? No he just enriched himself and his buddies and turned Russia into an oligarchy.  That is what is being planned here.

 

9 hours ago, kittykat said:

Trump wanting the Chiefs to win makes me feel a little good they lost.

As they say everything Trump touches dies.

10 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Taking a little bit of schadenfreude that MAGA Mahomes lost, perhaps because Trump’s presence jinxed the Chiefs. Really, Kelce should’ve known better than to say it was an honor to play for the guy trashing his girlfriend.

I have lots of reasons to dislike the Chiefs.  Their right wing owners.  Mahomes wife being a MAGA supporter.  Their fans continuing to do that offensive tomahawk chop at games.  Taylor seems way more polite than me because if my boyfriend did anything less than saying fuck that guy who trash talked my girl he would no longer be my boyfriend.

[tres bien]

According to CBS poll Trump’s overall approval rating is at 53%. That was taken after 11 days in office and when did CBS turn over the 60 Minutes tape

 

Edited Monday at 02:43 PM by tres bien

[Anela]

I just responded to a lie about Biden, and bird flu.  Just pointed out that birds are still being culled because of it.  It turns out the guy was the admin of the local group he posted in, and he blocked me from the group.

 MAGA sure are all about free speech.  🙄

[bluegirl147]

As expected the right is losing their mind over Kendrick Lamar's halftime show.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/maga-super-bowl-kendrick-lamar_n_67a9a880e4b0d2bb0b1f7f21

I will admit I didn't understand what he was saying but that's OK.  I don't expect everything to be targeted to me and my enjoyment. 

[Lugal]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Now Trump is telling the mint to stop making pennies. This is getting insane and ridiculous. I get it that pennies are expensive to make but couldn't they just scale back on them or find a way to make them cheaper? A lot of people still pay cash for things, especially poor people and rounding up can negatively affect them and disproportionately too. Even I pay cash at the supermarket sometimes. But the bigger question is, is there nothing he doesn't want to control? I mean who decides these things normally? Wouldn't that take an act of Congress and a phase out plan? He wants to bypass everything and act like a king. He is not king. And Republicans apologists sit there and applaud everything he does without question? I don't get it. If any Democratic President tried to get away with all this stuff the MAGA crew would stage another insurrection. What freakin' hypocrisy! It makes me SICK.

Ironically, nickels cost almost 11¢ to make so eliminating the penny (and using more nickels) could end up costing more in the long run.

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, Dimity said:

There is a method to this madness. Overwhelm us with this barrage of constant, incessant news bulletins to the point where we stop paying attention for the sake of our sanity. Then God help us with what he's doing unannounced.

It's a real rhetorical device and even has a name- Gish Gallop.

The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper's arguments at the expense of their quality.

The term "Gish gallop" was coined in 1994 by the anthropologist Eugenie Scott who named it after the American creationist Duane Gish, dubbed the technique's "most avid practitioner"

[PRgal]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Now Trump is telling the mint to stop making pennies. This is getting insane and ridiculous. I get it that pennies are expensive to make but couldn't they just scale back on them or find a way to make them cheaper? A lot of people still pay cash for things, especially poor people and rounding up can negatively affect them and disproportionately too. Even I pay cash at the supermarket sometimes. But the bigger question is, is there nothing he doesn't want to control? I mean who decides these things normally? Wouldn't that take an act of Congress and a phase out plan? He wants to bypass everything and act like a king. He is not king. And Republicans apologists sit there and applaud everything he does without question? I don't get it. If any Democratic President tried to get away with all this stuff the MAGA crew would stage another insurrection. What freakin' hypocrisy! It makes me SICK.

Well, Canada hasn't minted pennies for a few years and we're doing fine.  If you pay cash, you're charged to the closest nickel.  If you're on card, then yes, you'll be charged as is (so if something costs $5.74, you'll pay that if you pay by card.  Cash?  $5.75). 

[peacheslatour]

2 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Well, Canada hasn't minted pennies for a few years and we're doing fine.  If you pay cash, you're charged to the closest nickel.  If you're on card, then yes, you'll be charged as is (so if something costs $5.74, you'll pay that if you pay by card.  Cash?  $5.75). 

I haven't used cash in probably 20 years. My husband, however is a fanatic about trying to always use it. I wonder what he'll say. 🤔

[Bookworm 1979]

1 hour ago, tres bien said:

According to CBS poll Trump’s overall approval rating is at 53%. That was taken after 11 days in office and when did CBS turn over the 60 Minutes tape

 

That's way too high.

[peacheslatour]

14 minutes ago, Bookworm 1979 said:

That's way too high.

According to Gallup, as of Jan. 21 to present it's 47%.

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

As expected the right is losing their mind over Kendrick Lamar's halftime show.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/maga-super-bowl-kendrick-lamar_n_67a9a880e4b0d2bb0b1f7f21

I will admit I didn't understand what he was saying but that's OK.  I don't expect everything to be targeted to me and my enjoyment. 

The only thing I understood from Kendrick's performance was from his Drake diss track, "Not Like Us," where the line "a minor" was not about a musical key.

15 minutes ago, Bookworm 1979 said:

That's way too high.

 

Just now, peacheslatour said:

According to Gallup, as of Jan. 21 to present it's 47%.

I don't trust polls because they can easily be manipulated. Polling is statistics, and that reminds me of the line "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."

[bluegirl147]

39 minutes ago, Bookworm 1979 said:

That's way too high.

 

23 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

According to Gallup, as of Jan. 21 to present it's 47%.

Have we learned nothing from polls?  How many times do they have to be wrong before we say no more polls?

24 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I don't trust polls because they can easily be manipulated. Polling is statistics, and that reminds me of the line "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."

For all we know the question asked was do you think Trump is a doing a good job compared to Richard Nixon at this point in his presidency.

[Dimity]

44 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I don't trust polls because they can easily be manipulated. Polling is statistics, and that reminds me of the line "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Recently updated to "there are lies, damned lies, Trump speaking, and statistics."

[fastiller]

@Dimity - why you gotta go and drag down the (real) three Stooges like that?

[peacheslatour]

6 minutes ago, Dimity said:

There was a call in show on CBC radio as I was driving home earlier and people are mad.  Bigly mad.  Lots of talk about buying Canadian, and from any country other than the US, and also people talking about cancelling their vacation plans.  In normal times this would all blow over.  People have short memories and soon they would be saying "oh well we did promise little Billy that trip to Disney" but with a blowhard like Trump in the White House this won't blow over because he won't shut up.  Dear god does he ever shut up?  I don't think it's actually possible.

 

Oh and Trump, we're not all sniveling Republican cowards.  You've gotten too used to people bending over and saying "please sir, may I have another".   As my Newfie relatives would say "you won't get past the porch".

I'm so sorry. I can't tell you, as an American how mortified many of us are by this idiot. Him and his cult are a blot on this country we may never recover from.

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, fastiller said:

@Dimity - why you gotta go and drag down the (real) three Stooges like that?

Blame my sister!  Sorry!

 

2 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm so sorry. I can't tell you, as an American how mortified many of us are by this idiot. Him and his cult are a blot on this country we may never recover from.

I don't blame most Americans, but if you voted for Trump or did not vote for Harris then you are most definitely on my list.

[Kemper]

4 hours ago, lookeyloo said:

Sadly for some reason I watched a few talk shows this weekend and listened to some satellite radio and the democratic legislators said "basically there is nothing we can do because they outnumber us, so go vote at midterms".  Seriously?  Nothing?

And this is why the Dems need fresh leadership. They have given up and ceded what little power they have to the Republicans in Congress. I think this "trope" of waiting until the midterms was initially voiced by Pelosi in an interview a week or two ago. I can't remember who was interviewing her. Why should we support a party that won't ever fight back effectively. It will be too late by the midterms; the Republicans will have only strengthened their authoritarianism. 

[bluegirl147]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

Lots of talk about buying Canadian, and from any country other than the US, and also people talking about cancelling their vacation plans. 

It's funny to me that some people in this country are mad upon hearing this.  Isn't their guy Trump trying to get Americans to buy American?

49 minutes ago, Kemper said:

They have given up and ceded what little power they have to the Republicans in Congress.

It's more they have ceded to their corporate donors.

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

I don't blame most Americans, but if you voted for Trump or did not vote for Harris then you are most definitely on my list.

Most Harris voters feel this way.  But the people who didn't vote for Hillary and Biden were already on my list.

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm so sorry. I can't tell you, as an American how mortified many of us are by this idiot. Him and his cult are a blot on this country we may never recover from.

Germany recovered after the Holocaust.  We will recover but we  have to rid ourselves of the cancer first.

[fastiller]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm so sorry. I can't tell you, as an American how mortified many of us are by this idiot. Him and his cult are a blot on this country we may never recover from.

When Storm Éowyn hit Ireland a fortnight or so ago I sent a bunch of WhatsApp messages to family and friends there to check on them.  The replies of 'thanks for checking, we're ok' were almost all accompanied by 'WTF are you folks about?' or 'so sorry about the elections results'.

4 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

Most Harris voters feel this way.  But the people who didn't vote for Hillary and Biden were already on my list.

Germany recovered after the Holocaust.  We will recover but we  have to rid ourselves of the cancer first.

Same WRT the list.
As to Germany's recovery: they had a good hard look at themselves and did things I suspect the US isn't capable/willing to do.  I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't know how much faith I have.

[Calvada]

Now President Musk and VP Vance are suggesting they won't follow any judge's order that goes contrary to their wishes and schemes, and are talking about removing judges, which can be done only by impeaching them, which requires a majority vote from the House and 2/3's from the Senate.  This is our constitutional system, checks and balances.  If they ignore judges' orders and get away with it, just tear up the Constitution, it is meaningless.  And all the Republicans in Congress are just fine with this.  

They refer to any judge appointed by a Democrat as a Biden/Obama/Clinton judge, but they don't do that to the Republican-appointed judges, many of whom have ruled against them in the past week or so.  But they assume any judge appointed by a Democrat is corrupt.  Sort of like any election they lose: it was fraud! 

[peacheslatour]

5 minutes ago, fastiller said:

When Storm Éowyn hit Ireland a fortnight or so ago I sent a bunch of WhatsApp messages to family and friends there to check on them.  The replies of 'thanks for checking, we're ok' were almost all accompanied by 'WTF are you folks about?' or 'so sorry about the elections results'.

Same WRT the list.
As to Germany's recovery: they had a good hard look at themselves and did things I suspect the US isn't capable/willing to do.  I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't know how much faith I have.

But right now, Germany along with other European countries are facing their own rising Fascist regenerations.  The far right influence is making strides, gaining on the sane voters.

[bluegirl147]

6 minutes ago, Calvada said:

Now President Musk and VP Vance are suggesting they won't follow any judge's order that goes contrary to their wishes and schemes, and are talking about removing judges, which can be done only by impeaching them, which requires a majority vote from the House and 2/3's from the Senate.  This is our constitutional system, checks and balances.  If they ignore judges' orders and get away with it, just tear up the Constitution, it is meaningless.  And all the Republicans in Congress are just fine with this.

Hope SCOTUS is watching.  You know they will come for them eventually.

[Bookish Jen]

15 hours ago, kittykat said:

I had no personal preference going in but as an Abbott Elementary and IASIP fan I tilted towards the Eagles so I'm good with tonight. Trump wanting the Chiefs to win makes me feel a little good they lost.

I have family in Kansas City, so usually I'd be cheering on the Chiefs. But I'm tickled pink that the Eagles won. 

And I love knowing the MAGA crowd is spitting nails over Kendrick Lamar's half-time performance. Suck it, MAGA!

[Eri]

11 minutes ago, Calvada said:

Now President Musk and VP Vance are suggesting they won't follow any judge's order that goes contrary to their wishes and schemes, and are talking about removing judges, which can be done only by impeaching them, which requires a majority vote from the House and 2/3's from the Senate.  This is our constitutional system, checks and balances.  If they ignore judges' orders and get away with it, just tear up the Constitution, it is meaningless.  And all the Republicans in Congress are just fine with this.  

They refer to any judge appointed by a Democrat as a Biden/Obama/Clinton judge, but they don't do that to the Republican-appointed judges, many of whom have ruled against them in the past week or so.  But they assume any judge appointed by a Democrat is corrupt.  Sort of like any election they lose: it was fraud! 

I know right? He filled the courts with inexperienced conservative judges, he shifted the Supreme Court rightward - and he's still dissatisfied 🤷🏾‍♀️The birthright citizenship cases, the voter election fraud claims, the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election - they were mainly Trump appointed judges at the lower circuit courts. They can't say it was a conspiracy lol

[Ohiopirate02]

2 minutes ago, Eri said:

I know right? He filled the courts with inexperienced conservative judges, he shifted the Supreme Court rightward - and he's still dissatisfied 🤷🏾‍♀️The birthright citizenship cases, the voter election fraud claims, the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election - they were mainly Trump appointed judges at the lower circuit courts. They can't say it was a conspiracy lol

These are people who think swearing an oath amounts to the words one must utter in order to get what they want. They cannot comprehend those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution doing exactly that.

[bluegirl147]

10 minutes ago, Eri said:

They can't say it was a conspiracy lol

If they don't get what they want it's a conspiracy.  Snowflakes. All of them.

6 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

These are people who think swearing an oath amounts to the words one must utter in order to get what they want. They cannot comprehend those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution doing exactly that.

Yes they think they are all corrupt like them. Also Trump thinks everyone in the government works for him. Not the American people.

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

It's funny to me that some people in this country are mad upon hearing this.  Isn't their guy Trump trying to get Americans to buy American?

Are they really?  This shouldn't surprise me but somehow it does.  Do people really think the entire world wants to be American?

[fastiller]

55 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

But right now, Germany along with other European countries are facing their own rising Fascist regenerations.  The far right influence is making strides, gaining on the sane voters.

Oh you're so right.  I was referring to before Germany took this most recent hard right turn when I said  they 'had a good hard look at themselves and did things I suspect the US isn't capable/willing to do'.  To your point, even if a country does that hard work of introspection, there's no guarantee the work itself won't be undone.

[lookeyloo]

2 hours ago, Kemper said:

And this is why the Dems need fresh leadership. They have given up and ceded what little power they have to the Republicans in Congress. I think this "trope" of waiting until the midterms was initially voiced by Pelosi in an interview a week or two ago. I can't remember who was interviewing her. Why should we support a party that won't ever fight back effectively. It will be too late by the midterms; the Republicans will have only strengthened their authoritarianism. 

Totally agree

[Dimity]

[Bookworm 1979]

16 minutes ago, Dimity said:

I'm only laughing at this because if I don't laugh, I'll cry.

[nokat]

6 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

It's a real rhetorical device and even has a name- Gish Gallop.

The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper's arguments at the expense of their quality.

The term "Gish gallop" was coined in 1994 by the anthropologist Eugenie Scott who named it after the American creationist Duane Gish, dubbed the technique's "most avid practitioner"

I've seen this so many times over the years. Just constant bullshit.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, nokat said:

I've seen this so many times over the years. Just constant bullshit.

It's like  a firehose, constantly spewing a new outrage every second of the day. He just talks and talks and talks. It's impossible to know from one minute to the next which things he says will happen and which things are just blather. It keeps everyone in a constant state of stress and dread.

[nokat]

1 minute ago, peacheslatour said:

It's like  a firehose, constantly spewing a new outrage every second of the day. He just talks and talks and talks. It's impossible to know from one minute to the next which things he says will happen and which things are just blather. It keeps everyone in a constant state of stress and dread.

I know that is the purpose. It is difficult to not react. Just constant stress.

[nokat]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

The way this takes me back. I'm just a bill on capitol hill.

Edited Monday at 10:33 PM by nokat

[suomi]

WaPo does daily tallies on the status of the lawsuits intended to put him in check. 

We’re tracking fast-moving developments in key cases covering President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration, transgender care and the federal workforce.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/trump-lawsuits-executive-orders-actions-legal-challenges/

 

Edited Monday at 10:29 PM by suomi

[peacheslatour]

17 minutes ago, suomi said:

WaPo does daily tallies on the status of the lawsuits intended to put him in check. 

We’re tracking fast-moving developments in key cases covering President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration, transgender care and the federal workforce.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/trump-lawsuits-executive-orders-actions-legal-challenges/

 

Yeah? Well where the hell were they during the campaign? I do not forgive.

[Dimity]

A total Trump hater relative of mine shared a meme where it was claimed that Trump spent 15mil to travel to the football game, slept through some of it and left at half time.  This person has been known to share some pretty dodgy stuff so I am asking here - any truth to this?

[suomi]

18 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Yeah? Well where the hell were they during the campaign? I do not forgive.

WaPo doesn't pro-rate canceled subscriptions and I still have a few months left so I continue to read what I already paid for. 

[peacheslatour]

3 minutes ago, suomi said:

WaPo doesn't pro-rate canceled subscriptions and I still have a few months left so I continue to read what I already paid for. 

I mean, it's great that they're doing this but it's a little late.

[nokat]

just now

  6 minutes ago, Dimity said:

God not to get political but I've been eating chocolate and drinking coffee since November.  I see no end in sight.

 

Not Dimity. I try to put my brain in this okay place. A lot of you have made me hopeful. Every thoughtful, eloquent post here. I thank you.