Message Forum - GENERAL

Joan is a better human being than I am. She is understandably reluctant to post Trump's AI fantasy photo of himself as pope, but I'm willing to post it because I then feel justified in posting somebody else's AI fantasy photo.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't stop myself.

05/05/25 06:30 AM

#18178

Boycotting META, so I'll post some of this week's pix here instead. Not sure there will be very many--pouring rain right now, rain for the next several days.

Yesterday. Peering through this super-zoom lens into the little window of leaves makes me feel a bit like some kind of perverse, cross-specific voyeur!

Still no direct evidence of an egg or eaglet, but they're sure dedicated to sitting in that nest. Late April and May is when eaglets have first been visible in previous years, and when mom and dad begin flying fish into the nest.

A brief interlude in their chasing each other around the house, tussling over dog toys, demanding our attention.

05/05/25 06:41 AM

#18179

My sources in Washington tell me that this will be replaced by an exhibit of photos of the perpetrators of mass shootings, honoring them for their dedication to our Second Amendment rights.

05/05/25 03:34 PM

#18180

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Explosive emotions aside, perhaps Snopes is (at least) somewhat factual (?) when it states that "during the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, immigration authorites deported more than 3M people, 75% to 83% of whom did not see a judge or have the opportunity to plead their case."

Where was the outrage then? The public backlash, the protests, the demonstrations, the venom? Apparently, it wasn't only Obama. With Clinton & Bush, millions were deported without due process. Could it be that Trump is being targeted? Could it be that MORE facts are needed to discern that Trump indeed IS being singled-out due to his party affiliation? Ya think? Or is that just stupid thinking?

As for Trump's retaliation: is it really that illogical to think that those who may have literally made-up demeaning lies exhibited through a false dossier on a candidate's opponent in 2016, should not stand to be accountable today for doing so? Accountable so as to see that creating such a hoax doesn't reoccur in a future election? Or is that stupid, too? Marc Elias (lawyering for Clinton in the 2016 election campaign) (allegedly) helped make up the false narrative that Trump colluded with Russia. Do we, as a nation, like the idea of promoting damaging and false narratives in our elections and then permitting them to go unchecked? As president, I know I would not like it. Do you, Joanie, want the winner of an election to ignore it, or explore it? I say explore it. You say it's retaliation and I say it's common sense for the good of the nation to find out and expose the TRUTH of the matter. And yes, it's an important matter.

Besides Trump colluding with Russia, let's examine a few of the false narratives heard over the last 4 years, just to balance the political scale for a minute: too many guns (or too few gun controls) cause crime: protecting biological women in sports is hating trans people; Hunter's laptop computer was fake news; inflation was merely transitory; our borders are secure; & (my personal fave) Biden has never been more fit to occupy the office. Let me repeat myself, I WANT a strong Democratic Party but wonder what the hell happened to it, when people like AOC, Crockett, Waters, Walz, Harris, Warren and Sanders have the loudest voices these days. Find some strong 'moderates' and get back in the game, fergoshsake! JMHO

Victim exhibits are sad...and interesting. Should we exhibit victims of car crashes by getting rid of cars? Victims of knifings by getting rid of knives? Victims of drunk drivers by getting rid of alcohol? Victims of plane crashes by removing planes? Victims of illegal immigration crime by getting rid of illegal immigrants...YES!

05/05/25 06:08 PM

#18181

CONGRATULATIONS, NORI! After years of asking, you're finally giving sources for your claims! Keep it up!

You could have given us the link to check on what you've said (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-deportations-court/), although that makes it clear that there's MUCH more to the data than simply true or false. Hence Snopes only rates the claim as "mostly" true.

The article on the ATF exhibit makes clear its purpose to anyone who actually reads it. Not a call to "get rid of guns," as you suggest, but as the former ATF director put it, "The 'Faces of Gun Violence' exhibit is a permanent reminder of what ATF comes to work to do every day — a reminder of why agents risk their lives and why everyone at ATF dedicates their careers to this mission: to honor the fallen and protect the living."

And "Those faces once served as a call to action — reminding ATF employees why their work matters and inspiring them to protect our children," as the mother of a child killed by an unsecured weapon put it. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5386668/atf-trump-administration-gun-violence-memorial

Perhaps the designers of the exhibit feared that the overwhelming number of shootings in this country (over 100,000 a year: https://www.bradyunited.org/resources/statistics) makes individual victims disappear in the crowd, and they wanted to bring focus to some of those individuals. But nowhere in the article is there any suggestion that the intention was "getting rid" of firearms. I would guess that BATF agents are no more anti-gun than other law enforcement personnel. I expect that they, like me, are firearm owners who believe that firearms are far too easily accessible in this country, and need far more effective controls.

05/05/25 10:10 PM

#18182

Nori, you are right that Obama and others deported some without due process. That doesn't make it ok that Trump is doing this. I wasn't aware of it at the time or I would have spoken up against it. However, I think you are missing the bigger point about Trump and that is that he is behaving as a dictator, not an American President who swore an oath to the Constitution. He is trying to consolidate all the power for himself and forget about the rights of others. People are being deported for their free speech. Nori that is dangerous. Here are some of the things that Trump has done in just 100 days. I don't consider this bold and impressive as you do. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/president-trumps-first-100-days-attacks-on-human-rights/

Its not ok to ignore the judges when you don't like their decisions. Its not ok to take away programs for the poor that they depend up like SNAP and Headstart. Its not ok to try to destroy public radio and stations that have programs you don't like. Its not ok to attack lawyers who have been on cases you don't like. Its not ok to try to destroy Universities and take away their tax exempt status. Its not ok to send out an AI image of yourself dressed as if you are the Pope. How insulting to the late Pope Francis who was a true caring person for the poor. This person you are so devoted to Nori is not a Democratic President. He is a dictator and he has been siding with Vladimir Putin more then Ukraine. Its only because of the rare minerals he wants from Ukraine that he is softening some of his stances. He admires Kim Jung Un and Putin and Erdogan, all dictators so maybe it would be good to look a little deeper into who you are rooting for. Its not ok to fire huge amounts of government workers that help protect us with food safety and against terrorism and so much more...then he has accused some of being fired for cause when they had rave reviews in their record, which means they get no compensation Nori. Its not ok to disband 80% of USAID that helps people all over the world in need iwth AIDS and hunger and diseases that if untreated will also come ot the US and harm us too. We are part of a world order and what happens in the world can affect us too. People will die because of his actions. That is not ok...he is a very cruel man. Love, Joanie

05/06/25 09:12 AM

#18183

Robert Hall

No patriotic, well read, compassionate, open minded, competent American could disagree with you Joanie. Unfortunately roughly 30 percent of American citizens still want to follow a flim flam man where his next lie leads them.

05/06/25 12:03 PM

#18184

Good to see that forum folks as politically diverse as Nori and I find common trust in Snopes.

Snopes confirms the pope pic was posted on Trump's TruthSocial account, even though he himself is now frantically back-pedaling with a denial that he ever posted it. Snopes also notes that the White House X account reposted it scarcely 40 minutes later. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-pope-ai-image/

05/07/25 06:13 PM

#18185

https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/the-courts-must-stop-presuming-donald-trump-is-a-regular-president/

Here is a very good article by Mark Elias about the dangers of Trump. Love, Joanie

05/07/25 09:20 PM

#18186

Trump as Pope

When Joan first posted the outrageous AI generated photo of felon Donald Trump dressed up as the recently deceased Pope, I thought it must have been a juvenile prank posted by some deranged teenager trying to get attention and his/her 5 minutes of fame.

Then I watched the President deny that he had anything to with it, ending the interview with a wicked smile and saying, “You have to have some fun,” kind of like a teenager getting caught pissing in someone’s gas tank. That raised my suspicions.

Then Jack and Joan also pointed out that the AI fantasy photo was posted first on Trump’s social media outlet, Truth Social, and then X and cited the White House as the original author.

In addition, Jack noted that Snopes fact-checked the Trump AI fantasy photo as the Pope and noted that it did indeed originate at the White House with the President’s knowledge. Cased closed.

Now I’m probably the least religious guy on this forum, except perhaps for Jack. But you don’t have to be religious to behave with a certain amount of respect and dignity. We expect that from our President! The Pope posting again displays the terrible judgment and the insane character of the President and the people surrounding him. What the Trump White House is proving is that there is no limit to bad taste.

What’s even more disturbing, our cheating, lying and narcissistic President and his cronies seem to enjoy, even relish, the pain, suffering and agony they are inflicting on millions of Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world.

They don’t care that Trump’s crazy tariffs or just the threat of tariffs threaten to trigger a world-wide recession with runaway inflation, empty shelves, millions thrown out of work and other catastrophic results. Besides that, the tariffs are destroying the trust and good will we developed with nation’s across the globe — trust that could take decades to rebuild.

The Trump team doesn’t care that Elon Musk and his DOGE team — at the President’s direction — have fired without cause tens of thousands government employees with years of talent and institutional knowledge and, at the same time, have shut down food, medical supplies, vaccines and other relief shipments to the world’s poorest nations where the death rates from starvation and disease could skyrocket for children, women and the elderly.

All this to save $160 billion — far below the $2 trillion Elon promised. Elon lies with the best of them, and then leaves town with billions of dollar worth of federal subsidies supporting Tesla and his space program and other federally supported programs. When you subtract the hard costs of rehiring mistakenly fired federal workers and reorganizing agencies that were chain-sawed rather than trimmed with a scalpel, the net savings is about $30 billion — not even close to the $160 billion Elon bragged about before leaving town.

Trump and his advisers and supporters don’t care that masked ICE agents are rounding up hundreds of immigrants — some here illegally, some not — without any “due process” and sending them to death prisons in El Salvador. The next deportation flights will be heading to notorious prisons and concentration camps in Libya, according to the New York Times. Sure, President Obama deported his share of immigrants here illegally, but he didn’t send them to death camps or prisons where, in the words of the El Salvador president, nobody leaves alive. Obama sent them home.

Getting closer to home, Trump and his cronies don’t care that anti-vax RFK, Jr. has made it almost impossible for NIH and CDC to develop and test the next COVID booster and the flu vaccine in time for the Fall flu season. Cutting cords with the World Health Organization didn’t help either.

Let me finish by saying I don’t think FOX News did “Big Balls” any favors last week when they televised a session with Elon and a few of his DOGE team, including exposing the face of a 25-year-old wimpy, pimple-faced little guy they call “Big Balls” who is going around firing thousands of federal workers, gutting federal agencies and infiltrating our Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans programs. They all had a good laugh. Well, as Yogi once said, “it ain’t over till it’s over.”

05/08/25 05:55 AM

#18187

I'm not sure how our scores on the Supernatural Skepticism Assessment would compare, but I appreciate Jay's deference! I can't claim to have the data on atheists in foxholes, but I was certainly one of them! At the very least, if there is an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent being who permits the suffering of the innocent, in wars and/or out, he/she/it/whatever pronoun preferred can go fuck himself/herself/itself/pronoun preferred self.

And if that hypothetical being should take offense, I never posted this (imagine Trumpian wink and snicker).

********

A quote about war from a 96 year old veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam on NPR this morning.

"I hope, I hope people will see the futility of it all, because look at Germany. Look at Japan. Look at Vietnam. Look at Korea," he said. "Everything is beautiful over there now, and it could've stayed that way, but no, we had to have a war." https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5389747/one-wwii-veteran-shares-his-story-on-the-80th-anniversary-of-ve-day

********
BTW: saw first heron of spring flying down the canal. But too quick a glimpse to get a pic. So this is an old favorite heron shot.

05/08/25 08:52 AM

#18188

Glen Hirose

How does the Forum feel about:

How To Make Really Good Pizza At Home ...

Yes anchovies

05/08/25 11:01 AM

#18189

Glen, I don't think I like anchovies but the rest of that food they are in look delicious. You always post such wonderful food pics. Much appreciated. Love, Joanie

05/08/25 11:06 AM

#18190

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c2b9

Hi forum friends again...Just heard this interview with BBC and Joe Biden. It makes me sad that we don't have Joe Biden now to lead us, such a

great President whose only goal was to do good for the American people. He left our economy booming and the world was a better place with his leading NATO and working with NATO to help Ukraine, his infrastructure plans and so much more. He was a protector of Democracy. I'm posting the interview. Its worth listening to. What a contrast with Trump who is busy enriching himself with coins he gets money for and what a shock to have a President who is hurting everyday folks so much. Love. Joanie

05/08/25 03:54 PM

#18191

Nora Skinker (Morton)

I gues I'm a sicko when I laughed at the pope pic of our prez. Equally with the pic of said prez wrapped in poo poo. Maybe it's cuz they're funny. Oh, AND I believe that God, and Jesus and Pope Francis have (has? had?) senses of humor. If not, I too am in poo poo. Ah, well.

What a glorious day of watching new Pope Leo come forth on The Vatican balcony to greet the great throngs of faithful flock! And to think he is the very first American Pope! What a happy surprise! I pray he is long-lived and able to carry the heavy burden he must feel at this time. God bless him.

Am also encouraged as I'm sure many are, that a tariff deal was struck between the USA and the UK recently. When details come forth, I pray they are positive to us as well as to our strong and devoted ally.

As for most all of Joanie's recent criticisms, they are without proof or cited documentation (according to Jack), so i guess they are not worth debating. Sorry, Joanie. However, at some point perhaps you could share with me and the others, exactly what and where you think DOGE SHOULD cut taxpayer funding? Also, I never referred to this administration as "bold and impressive" but I did, in fact, post it as politically "bold and brave". Close, but no cigar.

On a different note, I heard a stimulating conversation on CNN the other night, where the host prefaced that Trump & Hegseth are trying to take jobs from transexual military members to raise morale. If that is true, I am absolutely against doing that and predict we forum voices are all on the same page. I hope that particular decision is rescinded and that anyone who is willing to put their lives on the line for the US should be allowed and indeed, welcomed to do so. As for transexual females vying against biological females in sports, I stand firmly against it. To couple the two issues, is not reasonable, in my mind.

05/08/25 04:35 PM

#18192

https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-criticizes-trumps-immigration-crackdown-letter-us-bishops-2025-02-11/

Hi Nori, I don't agree with you about Trump posing as the POPE was funny....I think that was very insulting to do in any instance but moreover, the late Pope believed in treating immigrants fairly and chastized Trump for his cruel policy and so Trump posing like that was not at all funny to me. Here is a link to support my comment about the Pope and immigration.

As for you criticizing my note because you said I didn't back it up with anything, you must not have read the link I sent that reiterated a lot of the ideas I mentioned after that link. Some of my comments its true where added but these were things that were definitely happening that even Fox news knows are true...The Trump Administration is not doing anything to bring back Kilmar Garcia that they admitted was an error..so he continues to be in prison in

El Salvador without contact with family or lawyers. . Then they trumped up stories about him as an MS 13 gang member. There has not been evidence of that and and did not get due process...whether Obama didn't give it or not, doesn't make it right that Trump is not giving people due process.

So, I will say though I do agree with you that transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military. Its disgraceful that the Trump Administration is trying to ban them. Love, Joanie

05/08/25 05:50 PM

#18193

Help yourselves to some of my distractions from popes and politicians.

It's that season of the year again. Two families of geese appeared today, one with three goslings, one with seven.

And we're still sitting firmly on the nest, though quickly disappearing as buds leaf out. Eaglet will be tough to see until it's very big.

And a pretty cute little bullfrog! Maybe four inches long?

05/08/25 06:11 PM

#18194

Nice Distractions Jack. Thanks..Love, Joanie

05/08/25 10:15 PM

#18195

Nori -- Believe my May 3 quote of your post was "brave and bold." Here it is:

One of my high school classmates watched Trump’s televised cabinet meeting last week to celebrate his first 100 days in office and she was thrilled, noting that at long last we had a President that was “brave and bold” enough to take on the tough issues confronting America.

I had a slightly different take. Besides the normal lying and ass-kissing that Trump always demands, I give the line of the day to our astute Attorney General Pam Bondi who said that the President was being way too modest when claiming that “it was the most successful 100 days in the history of our country.”

Bondi added: “Mr. President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other Presidency in this country ever, ever….” She added that his federal agents had seized so much of the “deadly drug fentanyl that they had already saved an incredible 258 million lives.”

Let’s think about that. The U.S. has a total population of slightly less than 350 million. And President Trump has already saved 258 million of them from dying from an overdose of fentanyl. If my math is right, that’s nearly three fourths of the entire population in the United States.

I think we are all beyond the point of being shocked or surprised by anything Trump or any of his toadies have to say, but giving Trump credit for saving 258 million American lives takes the cake.

05/09/25 11:47 AM

#18196

Joan Ruggles (Young)

I haven't posted much lately because the illegality and corruption of this current administration is at such an extreme level that anyone who doesn't see it must be deluded, stupid or blind.

I said once, not so long ago, that my hatred for the felon and his policies had gotten very personal when he fired my son. Now my hatred knows no bounds. Today my daughter-in-law was illegally laid off from her job as a lawyer at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She's 8 months pregnant. No maternity leave. No accumulated days off. Just fired. The Democratic Commissioner, her boss, was dismissed with no cause - also illegal. According to my son, "Doge came in yesterday. Now they’re locked out of the office and their badges don’t work so they can’t even get in to clear out their desks. This is being done to create maximum humiliation."

To make matters worse Michele, my daughter-in-law has a contract with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) which promises to pay for your law school if you commit to work for the government for ten years. Her ten years expire in July. She has dutifully worked for the government for 10 frickin" years!!! The obscene cruelty and the obscene illegality of these authoritarian actions should take anyone's breath away.

05/09/25 12:26 PM

#18197

Joan, I am so very sorry to hear about your son fired and your daughter in law too. I agree that the Trump administration cares nothing about leaving people jobless and without compensation. I agree too that I can't understand why anyone thinks this is ok. Thinking of you and your family. Love, Joanie❤️

05/09/25 01:58 PM

#18198

Joan, deep sympathies for you and your family. The concept of moral injury is something that so many people who have invested much of their lives, work, and commitment in order to do valuable things are facing, as this administration spits in their faces.

You speak of the "anyones" who don't see and the "anyones" whose breath should be taken away.

Would anyone on the Forum care to comment?

05/09/25 06:58 PM

#18199

“World’s Richest Man Kills

World’s Poorest Children”

By the Washington Post

May 9, 2025

The feud between billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk ramped up this week, with Gates accusing Musk of “killing the world’s poorest children” through massive cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, one of the first targets of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service under the Trump administration.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, Gates harshly criticized Musk — the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest man — for all but dismantling what had been the world’s largest provider of food assistance. Since President Donald Trump took office, Musk has baselessly accused USAID of being a “criminal organization” and declared it was “time for it to die.”

Gates said Musk’s cuts were born of ignorance, citing as one example the cancellation of grants to a hospital in Mozambique’s Gaza province that helped prevent women from transmitting HIV to their babies. Musk previously falsely claimed that the United States was spending $50 million to send condoms to Hamas in Gaza.

“I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” Gates told the Financial Times.

According to the publication, Gates also noted that literal tons of food and medicines were going to waste because of the cuts to U.S. foreign aid, and he warned of the return of preventable diseases.

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.

Gates, 69, is a co-founder of Microsoft and once held the title of world’s richest man. He broadly criticized the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid in interviews with the New York Times Magazine last month, warning that they could lead to 1 million more child deaths per year, and asserted that Musk was the one who put the USAID budget “in the wood chipper.”

Gates’s harsher words for Musk this week came shortly after Gates announced that he planned to wind down his charitable foundation and spend 99 percent of his wealth by the end of 2045.

In a blog post detailing his decision, Gates does not mention Musk or the Trump administration, but says “the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society,” citing an 1889 Andrew Carnegie essay.

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” Gates wrote. “That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.”

Hours after Gates’s interview with the Financial Times published, Musk reposted a clip from “The Joe Rogan Experience” in which the libertarian podcaster suggested that Gates did not want files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be released, insinuating that Gates had something to hide.

Musk, 53, shared that clip early Friday morning with the addition of the bull’s eye emoji on X, the social media platform that he owns.

Representatives for the White House, Tesla, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday morning.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the New York Times on Thursday that Musk was a “patriot” who was working with Trump to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”

“Backbenchers should celebrate the selfless efforts of America’s most innovative entrepreneur, who is dedicating time to support American taxpayers and hold Washington accountable to the people of this great nation,” Harrison said in the statement to the Times.

Gates and Musk have clashed in recent years over their divergent approaches to philanthropy, according to a 2023 biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson. The two billionaires reportedly met in 2022, and Gates tried to persuade Musk to spend some of his wealth on philanthropic initiatives. Musk, however, told Gates that he believed most philanthropy was “bulls---” and was angry with Gates for shorting Tesla stock, according to the Isaacson book.

Meanwhile, three months into Trump’s second term, DOGE’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid have left programs and their beneficiaries reeling. The Trump administration has axed more than 80 percent of programs funded through USAID, removed all but a handful of about 10,000 employees and folded the agency into the State Department. Much of what remains faces an uncertain future.

USAID and the State Department oversaw some 90 percent of the U.S. foreign aid budget as of 2023. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio plan to cut State Department funding nearly in half. The full extent of the cuts has yet to be quantified as Trump’s budget takes shape.

05/09/25 07:30 PM

#18200