The direction of society lately

[Walter Sobchak]

Fixed it for you. Snip:

Welcome to the first months of the dictatorship. If you haven't seen this coming, you're totally unaware of human history.

Donnie is out of his element.

It will be nice when our museums are filled only with good, wholesome artwork that celebrates our rich and creative heritage.

[summilux]

On a brighter note, the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, visited the White House today and didn't get Zelensky'd. Trump didn't disavow his desire to annex Canada but at least today wasn't horrible.

[BBB]

Canada and Greenland.

Similar to how Hitler wanted Alsace/Lorraine, unification with Austria, the Sudentland, then all of Czechoslovakia and then parts of Poland (at least to take back Danzig).

Alsace/Lorraine, Austria (to a certain extent), the Sudetenland and Danzig all had ethnic German populations. I'm pretty sure Canadians and Greenlanders do not consider themselves American.

Please resign Donald. You are a clown and a fool.

[Scott G.]

We should look at the Maple Anschluss from the other direction,
would Canada be interested in acquiring New England ?

[72gmc]

Thanks to the History of the Germans podcast, I think I know that German and French claims on the Alsace region go back at least a millennium …

[rwsaunders]

Please resign Donald. You are a clown and a fool.

Der Cheetoh is just the messenger as the individuals that scare me, are the ones that are pulling his puppet strings and whispering into his hollow, orange head.

[BBB]

Yes, but who is pulling the strings and for what end?

Peter Thiel has been mentioned previously. Elon Musk was hitting the Oval Office in hat, t-shirt and coat until he wasn't.

Plastic straws are back on the scene. And mining is being encouraged. Habeas corpus looks to be on the outer. Isolationism? It's not quite pre-WW2, but Europe has been or less told to sod off.

The administration is stacked full of yes men (and woman, seeing the AG is a woman). These are people who are doing Trump's agenda and not the agenda of some shadowy cabal (at least on the surface).

If Trump chokes on his Maccas, and Vance becomes top dog, what, if anything, changes? Does he suit 'their' agenda?

[72gmc]

Thanks to NYT reporter Eric Lipton I am now unsure whether I should write “BRIBE” or merely “in direct exchange for that thing you did” on envelopes of cash intended for members of the current administration.

[Scott G.]

I enter them into the expense report as "prior appreciation fees"

[beeatnik]

How do you bribe the billionaire President of the United States? Or better question, how do you bribe a millionaire former Vice President?

[BBB]

How do you bribe...??? Here's one take:

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-qatar-corrupt

[beeatnik]

How do you bribe...??? Here's one take:

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-qatar-corrupt

Now, if you’d be so kind, would you direct me to the Guardian article on Hunter Biden and The Big Guy?

[BBB]

What's the relevance of that? Hunter Biden isn't the President of the US. He's not even running for office. And presumably won't ever do so.

You do however have a white collar crime in the driver's seat, who seemingly does not seeing anything wrong with being 'gifted' a $400m plane.

[beeatnik]

So you’re saying by definition bribes are explicit, transparent. In the 21st Century Global North. I assumed shit still went down the way it does down there in Mexico. A lot of “Big Guys” in Mexico wetting their pinches beaks.

What's the relevance of that? Hunter Biden isn't the President of the US. He's not even running for office. And presumably won't ever do so.

You do however have a white collar crime in the driver's seat, who seemingly does not seeing anything wrong with being 'gifted' a $400m plane.

[BBB]

The definition of a bribe is not to the point.

A sitting President being offered a $400m gift by a sovereign nation is extremely problematic. Seemingly Trump does not seem to think so, being given his somewhat shady background, that comes as no surprise.

[Mabouya]

Turning the focus back to Biden and his entourage for a minute, this makes for some depressing reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/b...smid=url-share

(NYT gift link)

Nonfiction

"ORIGINAL SIN: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again"
by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson

A Damning Portrait of an Enfeebled Biden Protected by His Inner Circle

“Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, depicts an aging president whose family and aides enabled his quixotic campaign for a second term.

[BBB]

Depressing indeed. Cognitive decline in older people should not be dealt with by being in a high pressure job such as the Presidency, much less thinking you could do it again for a further four years.

[zetroc]

Even the appearance of impropriety used to be sufficient cause for an elected official to decline a gift. That the sitting President wants to accept an airplane, for his own use, to be retained by his foundation after the presidency, from a country with whom his family does business, is at least that.

[beeatnik]

Even the appearance of impropriety used to be sufficient cause for an elected official to decline a gift. That the sitting President wants to accept an airplane, for his own use, to be retained by his foundation after the presidency, from a country with whom his family does business, is at least that.

Well, if he keeps it (and not the DoD)….

But, what’s the end game, what does the House of Saud have to gain? A Tesla takedown? An end to the genocide in Gaza…oh wait!

[rwsaunders]

Turning the focus back to Biden and his entourage for a minute, this makes for some depressing reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/b...smid=url-share

(NYT gift link)

Nonfiction

"ORIGINAL SIN: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again"
by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson

A Damning Portrait of an Enfeebled Biden Protected by His Inner Circle

“Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, depicts an aging president whose family and aides enabled his quixotic campaign for a second term.

His family, his administration and Democratic party leaders get an assist for the proverbial Trump goal.