Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

[Swammerdami]

She says that one of the first things that happen in a totalitarian regime is a "purge of the believers." Hitler didn't want the original socialist ideologues in his "National Socialist regime. Stalin also purged the socialist ideologues.

But I don't know how this would apply to Trump; what ideology do his believers follow anyway? The MAGA masses don't seem to have any coherent vision of the future; they just wallow in hatreds and self-pity. Christians? Many of them just pray for personal wealth. High-placed Republicans now embrace Trumpism as a way to get big donations from the super-rich.

What am I missing? Who are the "believers" Trump would want or need to purge? Hitler and Stalin, whatever their faults, did have ideologies that conflicted with the ideologies of their original followers. AFAICT Trump's family has no ideology beyond grifting.

 

[scombrid]

Rather than as a warning, the GOP seems to take her novels as guidebooks.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No, the EO got it wrong.

I don't disagree the EO was poorly worded. But the "we are all female now" chorus is also wrong.

The pieces have the potential for going either way, but at conception everyone is biologically female.

In what meaningful sense is a zygote that first develops into an undifferentiated embryo with bipotential gonads and both sets of ducts (one for male genitalia, one for female) "biologically female"? It is not. It's pure hokum, good for guffawing but not much else.

During pregnancy hormones cause the males to take a different path. In the absence of this change order you get a female.

You need a lot of signaling for an embryo to develop in the first place. Some more for male development, sure.
However, I think that if some of that male hormone signaling is knocked out, you do not get a healthy female, but for example a person with undescended, testes or streak gonads and a vagina sans uterus (Swyer syndrome and similar). Or a phallus, testes and also a uterus (PMDS).
All this further shows that the "we all start out as female" is very simplistic. We start out undifferentiated, and then hopefully develop into one of the two biological sexes with healthy, functional reproductive organs.

XY genes + failed applying of the "male" template = Swyer syndrome -- someone who is female, although some things that should develop in puberty might not. Thus male is female + template and that template does not exist at conception.

His EO was written based on the biological definition of male and female but without understanding what's actually going on.

What defines the template? Isn't that the genetic code that also exists at conception?

If nothing goes wrong in translating that genetic code into a person. But things sometimes do. And reading the full genetic code is still a non-trivial task. Does the chromosome contain every gene it's supposed to? Does it contain any extras that it's not supposed to? Knock out one gene on the Y and you get the Swyer syndrome I just mentioned. And what happens if that gene wandered onto something else and manifests?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

Useless? You realize those of us who have never had Covid are almost all pretty strict mask wearers? Real ones, not the dick-nosed surgical ones. Yes, I mean you, lady, who was wearing at least three surgicals on top of each other. Dick-nosed.

 

[ZiprHead]

She says that one of the first things that happen in a totalitarian regime is a "purge of the believers." Hitler didn't want the original socialist ideologues in his "National Socialist regime. Stalin also purged the socialist ideologues.

But I don't know how this would apply to Trump; what ideology do his believers follow anyway? The MAGA masses don't seem to have any coherent vision of the future; they just wallow in hatreds and self-pity. Christians? Many of them just pray for personal wealth. High-placed Republicans now embrace Trumpism as a way to get big donations from the super-rich.

What am I missing? Who are the "believers" Trump would want or need to purge? Hitler and Stalin, whatever their faults, did have ideologies that conflicted with the ideologies of their original followers. AFAICT Trump's family has no ideology beyond grifting.

That's a very good question.

 

[Swammerdami]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

Useless? You realize those of us who have never had Covid are almost all pretty strict mask wearers? Real ones, not the dick-nosed surgical ones. Yes, I mean you, lady, who was wearing at least three surgicals on top of each other. Dick-nosed.

I'll bet money that Mr. Shadowy Man DID realize what you imply he didn't.

Perhaps I'm not the only one here who needs to add smiley-faces to clarify for the sarcasm-impaired.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The most noticeable impact is that trouser pockets last longer.

Which means that big trouser will never let the change happen. Not to mention big zinc.
The latter actually has been lobbying against retiring the penny.
Saving the penny makes cents for zinc-backed front group

Tough shit. It's zinc or swim.

Zinc works best as a sun screen

Pretty certain any metal would. Not particularly comfortable though.

Works fine. Mineral sun screens are AFIAK either zinc oxide or titanium oxide. And I've never been burnt in any area where I put it no matter how long I stayed in the sun. (But I have been burnt in spots I missed!)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

Useless? You realize those of us who have never had Covid are almost all pretty strict mask wearers? Real ones, not the dick-nosed surgical ones. Yes, I mean you, lady, who was wearing at least three surgicals on top of each other. Dick-nosed.

I'll bet money that Mr. Shadowy Man DID realize what you imply he didn't.

Perhaps I'm not the only one here who needs to add smiley-faces to clarify for the sarcasm-impaired.

I was speaking in the voice of those who hate Fauci, imagining why they must hate him. That was the question at hand.

I do use a lot of unmarked sarcasm on this board. It’s a shame that it’s becoming less obvious.

 

[crazyfingers]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

Useless? You realize those of us who have never had Covid are almost all pretty strict mask wearers? Real ones, not the dick-nosed surgical ones. Yes, I mean you, lady, who was wearing at least three surgicals on top of each other. Dick-nosed.

Shadowy Man is joking

 

[bilby]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

The network has never acted up such as to prevent my use of at least one of multiple non-cash payment options.

Cash is simply not a part of my life anymore, except as an occasional novelty such as a bill in a birthday card.

 

[Elixir]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

The network has never acted up such as to prevent my use of at least one of multiple non-cash payment options.

Cash is simply not a part of my life anymore, except as an occasional novelty such as a bill in a birthday card.

I go get a few hundred bucks in fives every couple years. I keep a few in my wallet, some in the car with a couple twenties … fives are good for tips (hopefully don’t get reported) and car cash saves me sometimes when I accidentally leave my wallet at home.

 

[bilby]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

The network has never acted up such as to prevent my use of at least one of multiple non-cash payment options.

Cash is simply not a part of my life anymore, except as an occasional novelty such as a bill in a birthday card.

I go get a few hundred bucks in fives every couple years. I keep a few in my wallet, some in the car with a couple twenties … fives are good for tips (hopefully don’t get reported) and car cash saves me sometimes when I accidentally leave my wallet at home.

We don't do tips here. We just pay people wages for their jobs.

If I leave my wallet at home, I am fucked, for sure; But the next time that happens will be the first.

I am as likely to forget to wear clothes when leaving the house as to forget to take my wallet. (To be fair, I would probably realise my mistake as soon as I tried to put the wallet in a pocket).

 

[Elixir]

the next time that happens will be the first.

Wow. You’re what I’d call OCD.
I have ADHDx3 and would forget my head if it wasn’t attached.

 

[bilby]

the next time that happens will be the first.

Wow. You’re what I’d call OCD.
I have ADHDx3 and would forget my head if it wasn’t attached.

Nah, I am CDO.

It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order as they should be.

 

[Swammerdami]

Shadowy Man is joking

Not strictly true. As he explained, he was responding "in the voice of" a MAGA idiot. Very reasonable given that he was answering a query equivalent to "What do MAGA idiots think?" I try to edit my posts for MAXIMUM CLARITY and might have prefaced such a response with "MAGA idiots believe ..." or the equivalent.

 

[Swammerdami]

Dismissing the "thinking" of MAGA fans -- the very concept is almost an oxymoron -- I was more concerned about a stark division in the thinking of rational Americans. For those who still remember 2024, recall that there were many otherwise-rational Americans who argued that Trump-47 would be very similar to Trump-45. Trump-45 wasn't so bad. The stupidity of his Covid response is often cited as his biggest blunder, but given that many of the Covid deaths were of old people, the "excess death" rate wasn't so high -- Trump killed less than 0.1% of the U.S. population due to his Covid stupidities. This is far less than the killings caused by dictators with whom he is frequently compared.

But many of us insisted that Trump-47 was going to be far worse than Trump-45. We were accused of irrational pessimism: U.S.'s famous checks and balances would save democracy. It's been less than a week since the Inauguration; do we know yet which side of this argument was correct?

It may be interesting to see what Trump's favorability is the next time Gallup asks that question, but I don't expect his numbers to fall much. Most Trumpists are too apathetic and lacking in cognitive ability to even process the news; while Trump voters sentient enough to follow the news are probably delighted by what they've seen.

Here are just three of the things Trump has already done which are disappointing even for a pessimist like myself:

(1) ICE officials have detained U.S. citizens simply for resembling an ethnicity that the agent dislikes. Citizens who "look like foreigners" will start carrying their passports whenever leaving home.

(2) Trump has fired seventeen (17) Inspectors-general without even the 30-day advance notice and consultation with Congress mandated by federal law. These inspectors-general are key "independent" elements of the famous "checks and balances." Contrast these dismissals by Trump with Biden who, in order to comply with the law, tolerated for four whole years the criminal Postmaster-General whom Trump appointed.

As a demonstration of how hugely different Trump-47 will be from Trump-45, several of the fired inspectors-general were appointed by Trump himself during his previous reign.

(3) In addition to firing ALL federal employees charged with ensuring "DEI," Trump has prohibited any efforts to "implement DEI under a different name." In a very Orwellian twist ALL federal employees have been ordered to identify managers or other employees who continue to pursue DEI. ANY federal employee who does not report instances of "DEI" to the White House within ten days will suffer "adverse consequences." I might hope that even citizens who "hate DEI" might object to his Orwellian tattle-tale order.

- - - - - - - - - - -

IIDB has at least 3 or 4 members who approve of Trumpism, but at this point hearing their opinions on Trump-47 will be more sad than amusing. I WILL ask @Derec specifically though. He seems to agree with Trump on almost all policy issues despite never voting for him. @Derec -- what do you think of Trump-47 so far?

 

[Swammerdami]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

Many people here in the Kingdom pay for EVERYTHING -- even a pack of chewing gum -- by pointing their phone at a QR-code. I use cash for almost everything; even with the time spent waiting for change it's slightly faster than the QR scan with its clicks and acknowledgements.

I do lose about 0.1% at the ATM cash dispenser, while paying with phone is absolutely free.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

The network has never acted up such as to prevent my use of at least one of multiple non-cash payment options.

Cash is simply not a part of my life anymore, except as an occasional novelty such as a bill in a birthday card.

My son received his diploma recently, handed to him personally by the King's older sister. We spent a few hours afterward walking around the CMU campus taking photos. Most of the graduates had necklaces built from banknotes, mostly 100s and 1000s. (I felt sorry for the graduate who was sporting 20s.) I not only gave my son several 1000's but made sure the fronts all featured the portrait of the Beloved(?) Rama Number 9 rather than the இஇஇஇஇஇஇஇ --[the Kingdom has Lèse-majesté laws] Rama Number 10 featured on all recent printings.

I go get a few hundred bucks in fives every couple years. I keep a few in my wallet, some in the car with a couple twenties … fives are good for tips (hopefully don’t get reported) and car cash saves me sometimes when I accidentally leave my wallet at home.

We don't do tips here. We just pay people wages for their jobs.

Americans -- Don't forget to take lots of $2 bills (I assume they're still rare) when you visit Cambodia, where the U.S. dollar is a default currency. Tipping a $2 picture of Thomas Jefferson is appreciated as much as three $1 George Washington pictures.

If I leave my wallet at home, I am fucked, for sure; But the next time that happens will be the first.

I am as likely to forget to wear clothes when leaving the house as to forget to take my wallet. (To be fair, I would probably realise my mistake as soon as I tried to put the wallet in a pocket).

Despite my increasing mental incompetence, I am also proud that I've NEVER lost or even forgotten my wallet [knock on wood]. It did fall to the ground once, unnoticed by me, just as I entered my car after a 7-Eleven visit here in the Kingdom, but a passing motorcyclist was kind enough to call that to my attention.

I HAVE locked my car-keys in my car TWICE in the U.S., each time summoning a locksmith. But since the two occasions occurred on the SAME DAY , perhaps that pair of incidents should be counted as just one.

 

[lostone]

Cash is certainly in a serious decline around here. I never use it.

It's very useful as a fallback if the network acts up.

The network has never acted up such as to prevent my use of at least one of multiple non-cash payment options.

Cash is simply not a part of my life anymore, except as an occasional novelty such as a bill in a birthday card.

I keep some tens around to tip the house cleaning women

 

[dannyk]

No, the EO got it wrong.

I don't disagree the EO was poorly worded. But the "we are all female now" chorus is also wrong.

The pieces have the potential for going either way, but at conception everyone is biologically female.

In what meaningful sense is a zygote that first develops into an undifferentiated embryo with bipotential gonads and both sets of ducts (one for male genitalia, one for female) "biologically female"? It is not. It's pure hokum, good for guffawing but not much else.

During pregnancy hormones cause the males to take a different path. In the absence of this change order you get a female.

You need a lot of signaling for an embryo to develop in the first place. Some more for male development, sure.
However, I think that if some of that male hormone signaling is knocked out, you do not get a healthy female, but for example a person with undescended, testes or streak gonads and a vagina sans uterus (Swyer syndrome and similar). Or a phallus, testes and also a uterus (PMDS).
All this further shows that the "we all start out as female" is very simplistic. We start out undifferentiated, and then hopefully develop into one of the two biological sexes with healthy, functional reproductive organs.

XY genes + failed applying of the "male" template = Swyer syndrome -- someone who is female, although some things that should develop in puberty might not. Thus male is female + template and that template does not exist at conception.

His EO was written based on the biological definition of male and female but without understanding what's actually going on.

What defines the template? Isn't that the genetic code that also exists at conception?

If nothing goes wrong in translating that genetic code into a person. But things sometimes do. And reading the full genetic code is still a non-trivial task. Does the chromosome contain every gene it's supposed to? Does it contain any extras that it's not supposed to? Knock out one gene on the Y and you get the Swyer syndrome I just mentioned. And what happens if that gene wandered onto something else and manifests?

I feel like you've just eroded your own viewpoint by pulling the rug away from even a basic X or Y basis. eg let me try and demonstrate...

You said "XY genes + failed applying of the "male" template = Swyer syndrome -- someone who is female, although some things that should develop in puberty might not. Thus male is female + template and that template does not exist at conception."

but (me) What defines the template? Isn't that the genetic code that also exists at conception?

You also said "If nothing goes wrong in translating that genetic code into a person. But things sometimes do. And reading the full genetic code is still a non-trivial task. Does the chromosome contain every gene it's supposed to? Does it contain any extras that it's not supposed to? Knock out one gene on the Y and you get the Swyer syndrome I just mentioned. And what happens if that gene wandered onto something else and manifests?"

If things sometimes do go wrong in genetic code translation then then must be able to go wrong with the basic XY genes. I think there's a lack of whole of system thinking creeping in here and there's too much focus on the X and the Y.