The Imperial Presidency, Part 2

[robkelk]

His Orangeness falls asleep during the first "Board of Peace" meeting

Considering he dozed during a meeting he wanted to attend, one wonders how well he'll handle the State of the Onion speech on Monday.

[Labster]

His Orangeness falls asleep during the first "Board of Peace" meeting

Considering he dozed during a meeting he wanted to attend, one wonders how well he'll handle the State of the Onion speech on Monday.

Speaking of the Board of Peace, and surprisingly not The Onion, this actual graphic:



So all of the memes about giving Palestine to Albania actually came true?  ALBANIA STRONK!!! SKANDERBEG RIDES AGAIN!!!!

Oh, wait, wait.... US ambassador causes uproar by claiming Israel has a divine right to most of the Middle East

Imagine being Jordan, allying with the U.S. for decades and being more or less the nice guy of the ME... and realizing your security guarantees are worthless and Israel is staring hungrily in your direction.

Still, Kosovo sending military for the Board of Peace when they're still not in the United Nations is top kek.

@RK: Actually the State of the Onion was the annual speech given by Larry Wall at Perl conventions -- or it was until he gave up primary maintainership to other community members.

[robkelk]

@RK: Actually the State of the Onion was the annual speech given by Larry Wall at Perl conventions -- or it was until he gave up primary maintainership to other community members.

Doesn't matter. If His Orangeness is going to insist on calling our Prime Minister (our head of government) "Governor" (our head of state, a different person), then I get to call your institutions by other institutions' names.

[robkelk]

US hockey was bathed in a golden Olympic glow. Then Donald Trump and Kash Patel stepped in

[robkelk]

Five fact checks from Trump’s state of the union address

All five were found to be incorrect.


Any trade deal with Canada will include tariffs, says Trump's trade rep

Which means that our best tactic is to run out the clock. It took years to negotiate NAFTA, after all, so this is not unreasonable.

[Labster]

Bingo card update, 2026 edition:

Cuba vows to fight ‘terrorist aggression’ after attack from US-registered speedboat.  If that's not Bay of Pigs II: Electric Boogaloo, I don't know what on Earth is.  It was in a speedboat, so the attack was fast and furious.

US trade deficit swells in December as imports surge --- oh, are the trade deficits getting larger?  That's so weird.  It's almost like if people don't want to buy from you, it's worse than making their products less competitive.  And in a K-shaped economy, price doesn't affect the demand for foreign luxuries.

On the Epstein files remaining locked down: US justice department accused of withholding Trump-related Epstein files, after "everything" was released.  Hmmm.  Does it seem possible from the same department that hung a mega banner of Trump on the building?  Mega likely.

On the State of the Union address, which was hockey, gold medals, and 98% Trump re-runs: he did make it through his 2-hour mega speech.  Is he not as demented as we thought?  Or... was it Adderall?  He was definitely doing the robotic reading thing by the end.  I'm reminded of Umberto Eco reminiscing on how the fascists used to make such long speeches, that the first time he heard a one-paragraph speech from victorious partisans, it opened his eyes to the world.

[robkelk]

RIP Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran.

No cause of death announced, but the announcement came after the USA and Israel launched launched a major attack on his country.

PROTIP: Killing another country's leader and then calling for "regime change" reduces one's chances of getting a peace prize.

[Labster]

Hey, we gave Iran plenty of warning. First we increased tariffs on them, and they didn't back down. Then we tried negotiating with them, and they wouldn't accept our terms. Their leader gave defiant speeches saying to stand up the the United States, and the next round of negotiations were going nowhere.

With a warning like that... You know, I hope Mark Carney has been going to church lately, saying his prayers often. He may not be long for this world.

[classicdrogn]

And here we all thou8ght it was Trump going senile when he told native-born (but brown) Americans to "go back to their third world shithole." Turns out it was actually his genius planning and vision for where he wanted to lead the nation!