Magical Mister Trumpstoffelees
Added 2025-03-19 10:41:17 +0000 UTCOA1139 and T3BE63 - Lydia's back this week to walk us through Trump's very fashy takeover of The Kennedy Center. She watched it unfold in real-time and while it is obviously disturbing, listening to some leaked audio from the first board meeting provides a lot of laughs. It's somehow real, folks.
And we've got Professor Heather Varanini as always to walk us through the answer to T3BE62, and to set up the question for T3BE63!
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Comments
It's at 12:23 and again at 13:12, Your Supreme Laziness. The statement I made, since you are engaging in strawmanning yourself, was that the utter lack of artistry in Trumpism is not due to them being Fascists, it's a feature of TRUMP.
Maytree
2025-03-22 04:11:25 +0000 UTCCan't remember if Thomas or Lydia said those exact words or if you just made a little straw man there. Cbf checking because it's not important. If your argument is just "some fascists can too paint", cool, why are we wasting time on this self-evident statement? Don't be obtuse, you started a (now pointless, since you just defined your terms into triviality) thread about why "fascist art" is a thing, and it isn't. Ughh, what a fuckin waste of time. I got myself into this with all the people who were suddenly super concerned with the rights of fascist faces to remain unpunched and I should've remembered how pointless that was too.
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-03-22 03:39:45 +0000 UTCI'll stray from the herd and say C. The judge would need to restore order and get the defendant to conduct herself appropriately, so let's assume they do that. The judge has the bailiffs lead her back to her stall, asks her for the 653rd time if she is sure she doesn't want a real lawyer, and reminds her that she has waived her right to whinney about ineffective assistance of counsel and won't be able to appeal on that, etc. I'm thinking, if she's got this far then in the eyes of the court she's competent to stand trial (which -- I hope -- would be a prerequisite for letting her defend herself). She had a lawyer, the defense wasn't raising competence before, and she clearly knows what's going on because she is making strategic choices about her defense by firing her lawyers and representing herself, etc. I'm thinking her prancing around like a twat will probably be seen as such and it'll be handled with warnings about contempt of court and reminders that she can have a lawyer if she wants one. Stay tuned for more CourtTV shenanigans as she demands her right as a sovereign clydesdale to travel on the land, something something Black's Uniform Commercial Dictionary and that warrant had her barn name not her registered show name.
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-03-22 01:17:51 +0000 UTCThe statement wasn't "There are more and better artists who are non-Fascist than Fascist." It wasn't "Fascists destroy more good art than they produce." The statement was "Fascists can't make good art." That's wrong. "Communists can't make good art." "Capitalists can't make good art." "Anarcho-Syndicalists can't make good art." "Parliamentary Republicans can't make good art." "Tribal Chieftainships can't make good art." "Monarchies can't make good art." General statements like these are just dumb.
Maytree
2025-03-22 00:29:58 +0000 UTCsure, go on. you've probably got a handful more and they make fine enough work. but I don't have enough room to paste all the non-fascist internationally renowned german painters in this chat, let alone other art forms. and that feels indicative to me. but hey, who I am I take 'thus spake zarathustra' from you.
ahoy
2025-03-21 16:50:56 +0000 UTCI've got to go with A. C and D can't be right. If the judge has no responsibility here, that's like saying a parent has no responsibility for their child while at a zoo. If the defendant had an attorney, the attorney would file a motion. In the absence of an attorney, it's on the judge.
MaasNeotekPrototype
2025-03-21 16:08:48 +0000 UTCahoy. Fucking exactly, think of all the art and artists we lost because of fascism. Fascism elevates the banal, obedient, and stupid over the talented, daring, and innovative, I think that's pretty fucking obvious given current events
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-03-21 12:22:07 +0000 UTCThose people were good artists despite being fash trash not because of it. Their fashyness made their art shittier. As in they would've been even better at art if they weren't such gigantic fashy assholes. Do we really need a reminder that fascism is incorrect and bullshit, and that doing art with incorrect bullshit messages is lower quality art than when people provide genuine fucking accurate insights about the world? This why you can count these dinguses on one hand and when John Williams rips off Wagner he's not inspired by the fascist impulses in Wagner but by orchestral epicness and badassery. Whereas there's plenty of art movements motivated by various progressive instincts. Even mediocre art that has an actually insightful message is pretty good. Yes, fascism is inherently shit and makes art worse. Duh. Read Ayn Rand. She could've maybe written a readable novel if she wasn't such a colossal fashy asshole.
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-03-21 12:06:56 +0000 UTCRichard Strauss ("Thus Spake Zarathustra") Carl Orff ("Carmina Burana") W. Richard Wagner (The Ring Cycle) Should I go on? It's important not to lose sight of the fact that the Fascists were human beings. It's a mistake to think "That person is a great artist, they can't be Fascist". And it's a mistake to think "If that person is a Fascist, they can't possibly be a gifted artist."
Maytree
2025-03-21 00:42:58 +0000 UTCHopefully he'll take over Fords Theater next.
Murcury Vapor
2025-03-20 16:10:51 +0000 UTCtwo german fascist designers in the face of ALL the artists (that hitler expelled and/or called 'degenerates') in germany at the time? confirms the rule imo.
ahoy
2025-03-20 12:59:08 +0000 UTCThank you Lydia
Not that millionaire
2025-03-20 01:57:29 +0000 UTCIt's a reference to Schmigadoon. One of the songs from it, haha.
Lydia Smith
2025-03-20 01:27:17 +0000 UTCI’m confused by the outtake “corn pudding.” What was the context for that in the episode, I must have missed it.
Not that millionaire
2025-03-20 00:16:27 +0000 UTCI think it's A, as a total layman from another country my logic is that the judge is likely in charge of making sure every person/horse in the courtroom is in place and conducting themselves suitably. As her own lawyer, judge can judge her conduct in that context.
oh good what luck
2025-03-19 22:19:34 +0000 UTCAnswer: A My contribution to this gallop poll is to say while the pros say don't go pro se, the judge has a suey 'sponsibility to act sua sponte because it's up to the judge to decide yea or neigh to competency. The judge needs to make sure the trial is fair to the mare not just sit and stare. It could be B but puns for that didn't come to mind.
Steno Pun'd it
2025-03-19 21:37:46 +0000 UTC"Fascists can't make good art." Leni Riefenstahl and Hugo Boss: "Are we jokes to you?" More seriously, I think it's not that Fascists can't make good art, it's that Trump wouldn't know good art if it munched on his copious feces-smeared butt and no one in his inner circle would dare to tell him his taste is complete porcine excrement. Hitler wasn't a GOOD artist, but he wasn't totally hopeless at it (he made a living, albeit a meager one, selling hand-painted postcards in Vienna before he lamentably went into politics) and he both recognized and appreciated good art, and stole a crazy amount of it from the countries and people he savaged, for his personal use. The problem with Trump and the arts is that he is and always has been a short-fingered vulgarian with no taste, and his entire movement follows his lead, not that he's a Fascist.
Maytree
2025-03-19 21:36:00 +0000 UTCThomas had really good instincts this week, and especially really good reasoning on C and D, but unfortunately I think he got the answer wrong. It’s B - the judge has a constitutional obligation to ensure the defendant is competent. It’s a 5th amendment due process issue - if a defendant is not competent to stand trial and/or to represent themselves at trial, the court has an obligation to intervene, or they may argue on appeal that they were denied due process of law. Of course, if they had a lawyer it would be on them to raise the issue, but it doesn’t absolve the judge of their independent duty to ensure that the defendant is given due process.
Alvin Bragg should indict Eric Adams
2025-03-19 21:15:22 +0000 UTCThis one is hard because I’m only used to hearing about pro se stuff in a sovereign citizen context. Morally, I think there is a significant question of competency that should be asked, but I think it’s C because I don’t think the judge is generally allowed to offer up a defense like that for her. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, so to speak. If I’m right, chalk it up to my normal level of pessimism about criminal trials
cephander
2025-03-19 18:51:23 +0000 UTCalso: best tesla bumper sticker so far: 'bought this before he was first lady'
ahoy
2025-03-19 18:02:00 +0000 UTCInteresting how he can have time to golf and be chair of the Kennedy Center, but not defend himself in civil and criminal court.
Jason Valasek
2025-03-19 17:56:49 +0000 UTCsomebody call john mulaney! the bar exam is stealing his bit! 🐎🫏🐴
ahoy
2025-03-19 17:52:36 +0000 UTCI think this falls into the 14th amendment's due process clause. I'm going B.
Despairing Radical
2025-03-19 17:08:52 +0000 UTCI like that your brain went to "horse lawyer" and mine went to "horse defendant." ... I imagine there probably are quite a few rules about trying a horse. Your scenario is way more realistic 😂
Katie Herrmann
2025-03-19 17:00:57 +0000 UTCDef understood the question to mean a horse had been arrested for arson for like, kicking over a lantern in a barn. Laughed at "if no one else raised thr issue" like the cops had arrested a horse and put it in lockup without noticing.
Katie Herrmann
2025-03-19 16:56:57 +0000 UTCThis question is fucking bonkers and I love it. Not playing this week because I accidentally saw someone else's answer and I'm pretty sure they nailed it.
Kait from Seattle
2025-03-19 16:22:21 +0000 UTCIs this just because Trump comes from New York and gets off on the idea of controlling Broadway?
General Contact Unit Problem Child
2025-03-19 15:54:59 +0000 UTCI think it is A. Not B because if she had an attorney, the judge would not have a responsibility to raise the issue. Not C because the competency may be why she fired her attorney. Not D because I believe the judge will decide if she is competent after a hearing on the issue.
Mike M
2025-03-19 15:15:09 +0000 UTCGive us a riff on the Marine Corps Band, Lydia?
Rae
2025-03-19 15:06:12 +0000 UTCMassive round of applause for the episode title. Full marks, no notes.
LittlestLass
2025-03-19 14:58:34 +0000 UTCMrs. O'Leary's cow was FRAMED and so was Allison. BARN. ANIMALS. CAN'T. START. FIRES. Case closed! ...I'm going with A, it seems like in the absence of defense attorneys, it should fall to the judge to determine whether the defendant should be evaluated for competency.
Off-by-one error
2025-03-19 14:25:22 +0000 UTCI'm going out on a limb here and will say the answer is B. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee due process for defendents, so if she is not fit to stand trial she may also not be fit to decide to defend herself pro se. The judge is responsible for making sure the trial is as fair as possible which would probably include appointing an advocate for her to provide competent defense if she is unable to function to this degree.
Melody
2025-03-19 14:15:46 +0000 UTCSecret answer E: THEY’RE OPENING STATEMENTS YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE ARGUMENTS THAT’S WHY THIS SHOW IS NAMED OA.
Return of the Jedi requires a Receipt of the Jedi
2025-03-19 13:02:54 +0000 UTCUm, wasn't the ORIGINAL Grisabella Elaine Paige? *In London*? If original is to mean first ever.
AliceMerray
2025-03-19 12:04:42 +0000 UTCThe seizure of the Kennedy Centre sounds laughable but is actually some real dictator shit. I hope people will boycott the place hard going forward. I feel very sorry for any performers who will struggle due to the loss of income as a result.
AliceMerray
2025-03-19 11:52:17 +0000 UTCF. Ain't no rule says a horse can't be a laeyer
Bryan Gillis
2025-03-19 11:49:32 +0000 UTCE. The judge should hire a qualified horse-to-English translator to enable Allison to represent herself in the language she's most fluent in
Bryan Gillis
2025-03-19 11:49:11 +0000 UTC
