The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[dirtball]

@Railer13

@Monty

On one bright day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other

When I heard this from my extremely worldly and knowledgeable older brother, there were two more lines:

Two deaf policemen heard the noise
They came and shot the two dead boys

Carry on.

Also:

If you don’t believe my story’s true,
Ask the blind man; he saw it too.

[Czarcasm]

“The sun’ll come up tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun…because I signed an Executive Order making it so!”

[ThelmaLou]

@Dr.Winston_OBoogie

Going back to the original Olympic version where they were nude.

I’ve never been a football fan, but THAT might make me tune in.

[Pardel-Lux]

Women were banned in the original Olympic version.

[ThelmaLou]

I know women were banned from manly pursuits in ancient Greece. I don’t want to play! I just might tune in on TV to watch all the manly parts flying around.

What did you think I was saying?

[Superdude]

This reminds me of “Sports Go Sports” by Garfunkel and Oates

[fachverwirrt]

@ThelmaLou

I’ve never been a football fan, but THAT might make me tune in.

They’re talking about wrestling, where you may see … things you later regret.

[kenobi_65]

@fachverwirrt

where you may see … things you later regret

Young men playing leapfrog?

[Monty]

@dirtball

If you don’t believe my story’s true,
Ask the blind man; he saw it too.

You know how he did that? He picked up his hammer and saw.

[Pardel-Lux]

I did not express myself clearly enough, sorry. Women were banned from participating, of course, but also from watching.
TVs were not mentioned way back then, that much I grant. May be a loophole.

[Sherrerd]

@Spoons

As George Carlin put it,

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.

I can still hear Carlin’s voice saying “in Baseball, you wear a cap!” in a goofy voice. (The point of his bit being the contrast between the militaristic football and the carefree, pastoral baseball.)

Anyway, to me the best point about this DT plan to decree what can be shown on TV, when, is this:

@DavidNRockies

Remember: if Trump throws the occasional incredibly superficial, inconsequential, and gratuitous bone to the military, then it’s okay if – when it comes to the stuff that really does matter – he just treats them like absolute shit.

It’s all a reality TV show and appearances are everything to Trump, the cast, and the crew.

Well said.

(In re the poem being thrown around; I was unfamiliar with it. Apparently someone calling himself “Tyler Rager” is claiming to be its author, but most people say it’s very old and that he’s not the author at all. “Folklore” has a lot of rhyming-couplets creations floating around. (Lewis Carroll used the form himself in some of his verse.)

[Sylvanz]

Yeeahhh, and there is nothing as ummm touchy feely? as wrestling. It would be right up kegsbreath’s alley. All that rolling around with the hairless youngsters. All totally of course, not gay though.

[ThelmaLou]

@Pardel-Lux

I did not express myself clearly enough, sorry. Women were banned from participating, of course, but also from watching.

I didn’t realize that. But I’m not surprised. I’ll bet a few women sneaked in and peeked.

[Dung_Beetle]

@Sherrerd

I can still hear Carlin’s voice saying “in Baseball, you wear a cap!” in a goofy voice.

“Home. Safe at home!”

[penultima_thule]

@ThelmaLou

I didn’t realize that. But I’m not surprised. I’ll bet a few women sneaked in and peeked.

Hmmm, dammed devious people dem women.

[Monty]

And we’re off to a running start!

Rip van Simple tells Norway peace isn’t exactly on his agenda.

PARIS/OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump in a written message to Norway’s prime minister said he no longer feels obligated “to think purely of Peace” because he ​had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and he repeated his demand for control of Greenland.

The ‌note, shared widely with other nations by the U.S. administration, was in response to a brief message to Trump from Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas ‌Gahr Stoere and Finnish President Alexander Stubb opposing his decision to impose tariffs on European allies over their refusal to let the U.S. take control of Greenland, Stoere said in a statement.

In their message, Stoere and Stubb pointed to the need to de-escalate the rhetoric and requested a phone call with Trump, the Norwegian premier’s statement said. Trump’s response came only a ⁠short time after they had sent their ‌message.

So far, so diplomatic. Of course that’s because the diplomacy is coming from someone other than our very own wannabe dictator. And how does said wannabe respond to that?

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer ‍feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his response, which was seen by Reuters.

And why is he harassing the Norwegian government about this anyway?

“I have several times ‌explained clearly to Trump the well-known fact that it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, which awards the prize,” Stoere said.

Stoere, friend, you don’t know what well-known fact means to Rip van Simple.

And yet more on the peace front.

President Donald Trump is expected to hold a formal signing ceremony to constitute his highly anticipated Gaza Board of Peace as early as Thursday while he attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to a copy of the invitation circulating online, as allies openly question if they will even join the board.

& (The bolding is mine.)

Trump announced on Friday the Gaza Board of Peace that would oversee the rebuilding and reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip. But the charter draft circulated online makes no direct mention of the region, leading to a muted, cautious reaction from government officials who believe Trump’s board may have loftier ambitions.

And look who’s coming to dinner the table. (The bolding is mine.)

Several countries have said they received invitations to join the board in recent days, including Argentina, Belarus, Canada, Australia, Egypt, Hungary, Pakistan, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and India – though the countries’ respective leaders largely appear reluctant to make public statements of explicit endorsement.

The Kremlin on Monday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had also received an invitation.

And, apparently, we don’t need no stinking congress, according to a judge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week’s notice before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., concluded that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t violate an earlier court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.

But she has a remedy or she doesn’t or she does or she doesn’t.

Cobb stressed that she wasn’t ruling on whether the new policy passes legal muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs’ attorneys representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong “procedural vehicle” to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the Jan. 8 policy is a new agency action that isn’t subject to her prior order in the plaintiffs’ favor.

Y’all remember that family reunion picnic game where each contestant takes a bat, holds it upright with one end on the ground, puts their head on the other end of the bat, spins around the bat, then tries to run to a pre-determined target and back? I always won that one because, oddly enough, I have only been dizzy a grand total of three times in my life.

This cluster of a mis/maladminstration is making me dizzy now.

Racist-in-chief skips honoring a Black man.

In a break from past presidential traditions, including his own first term, President Donald Trump has not recognized Jan. 19 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr. Day through any official statement, proclamation or activity.

The federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader’s work against end segregation and racism falls on the third Monday of January.

Trump spent the day at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He is scheduled to attend the National College Football Championship in Miami in the evening.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked on Jan. 19 whether Trump planned to acknowledge the day, or King’s legacy.

How did Rip van Simple “celebrate” January 19? The article continues.

Trump’s only social media post the morning of Jan. 19 called for voter ID requirements, a measure opposed by civil rights groups because racial minorities are more likely to lack state-issued identification.

Color me unsurprised.

A real president is in a tough spot.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum quelled concerns on Monday about two recent movements of the U.S. military in the vicinity of Mexico that have the country on edge since the attack on Venezuela.

On Friday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration urged U.S. aircraft operators to “exercise caution” when flying over the eastern Pacific Ocean near Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing “military activities.”

The president said her administration waited a couple hours until the U.S. government provided “written” assurance that there would not be any U.S. military flights over Mexican territory. She said the U.S. government had not given Mexico a heads up about any military operations.

The people of Mexico, seemingly, believe there’s a real likelihood of the USA attacking their country just for Giggles.

Join the Army, see the world, be safe from ICE.

A military recruiter in Minnesota, pointing to fears over the ongoing ICE operations in Minneapolis, promoted joining the National Guard to high school students highlighting a program that can offer the immediate family of service members some protection against deportation.

The email, sent last week with the subject line “I know [it] is scary out there,” directly addressed ICE detentions.

“All of you have heard about how ICE and how they are taking people without any consideration. … If you are born here and you are 17yrs old, and in a position, like many, where your parents may not be documented. They need you to help!” the email said.

The email pointed to the Parole in Place, or PIP, a program that is run through US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program is not necessarily guaranteed; it offers parents, spouses, and children of service members protection from deportation on a case-by-case basis, in one-year increments, the USCIS website says. As of fiscal year 2025 it took an average of 4.5 months to process Parole in Place requests.

And, of course, it’s completely ignoring the fact a number of immediate family members of US service members are actually being arrested, detained, and processed for deportation.

[Princhester]

Imagine if he was a buffoon president-character in a Whitehouse-based sitcom. The writers would be winning awards for their ability to come up with scripts that - week after week - had the president-character do or say something even more mindblowingly stupid than the previous week.

An ignorant self important blowhard national leader saying:

“I’m going to take some territory of a country by force because a private committee based in another country didn’t give me a peace prize”

really sounds like something written by the Marx Brothers, or Woody Allen, or Stanley Kubrick or Joseph Heller.

[kambuckta]

Or Trey Parker/Matt Stone.

Fuck, I feel like I’m living in some sort of alternate reality, where the Onion is real and reality is some sort of unscripted sit-com.

[scudsucker]

@Just_Asking_Questions

I expect that Kegsbreath will make wrestling the new manly man sport in the military.

I, for one, find the American style of wrestling, where the starting positions are reminiscent of doggie-style anal sex to be slightly less manly-man heterosexual man than Kegseth.

I am, however, not from that sporting culture. I asssume it is considered completely normal.

[Buck_Godot]

Monty quoting the AP:

@Monty

The president said her administration waited a couple hours until the U.S. government provided “written” assurance that there would not be any U.S. military flights over Mexican territory.

Does he really think plans to bomb Mexico would prevent them from giving such assurance?