O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!— Robert Burns, national poet of Scotland
The bad news: Trump is burning through tens of millions of our dollars to go play golf in another country with one of the failsons, probably hoping to put some distance between himself and the Epstein scandal.
The good news: He’s is Scotland, and there is perhaps no population as equipped to mercilessly skewer the mottled orange haggis as the Scots.
From America’s shittiest/most influential newspaper:
On Saturday, the Scots, who opinion polls show have low regard for Mr. Trump, let their opposition to his policies be known.
A group called Stop Trump Scotland organized a rally as a “festival of resistance” against Mr. Trump that drew hundreds in Aberdeen, in Scotland’s north, and Edinburgh.
Protesters carried signs objecting to Mr. Trump’s policies, from the environment and immigration to trade and the war in Gaza. Several held signs invoking the current controversy circling around Mr. Trump: his administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files, the records that pertain to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein…
Many signs at the rally contained similar insults about Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Epstein. The two men, both wealthy New Yorkers, were friends for some 15 years, before they had a falling out in 2004. Mr. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019.
Mel Young, 58, of Alloa, held a sign that said “Release The Epstein Files.” She said her opposition to Mr. Trump is far more wide-ranging than concerns about the president’s association with Mr. Epstein, but, she argued, it was the latest example of outrageous behavior.
“I’m just so horrified by the normalization of cruelty, corruption and mass disinformation,” she said. “This is just one tiny plot of the whole thing.”
What Ms. Young said.
PS: Janey Godley is the late Scottish comedian who famously held up a sign that said “Trump is a c**t” outside his golf course during a 2016 visit. (For reasons I don’t really understand, the c-word isn’t considered wildly offensive in the UK.)
Rose Judson
Some friends who live near Edinburgh were there to protest, God love them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The Scotland trip, their protests and the questions to Hair Furor about Epstein following him there even made Totebagger Radio this morning according to my normie spouse.
I always use that media outlet as a gauge of how much traction any story surrounding the Orange Fart Cloud has.
trollhattan
To the Brits that word takes as many meanings as merde does for the French. Also verb, adverb and noun forms. Probably gerund too.
chemiclord
There are simply words that have different connotations and severity based on culture.
For example, to call someone “spastic” over here might be considered a little inconsiderate and mean, but not too many people are going to start screaming at you about your language. In the UK, on the other hand, it’s considered pretty damn offensive.
Cultures can be odd at times.
Betty Cracker
Y’all, I just saw the cutest little otter! I wanted to chase it down, lovingly capture it and make it my cherished pet forever and ever, carry it around on a pillow and feed it whatever otters enjoy the most. I know that’s not right — wild things deserve to be free. But still, I really, really want to…
Rose Judson
@trollhattan: It is absolutely 100% a gerund. Heard it used as such this very afternoon by a neighbour who was trying to fix his car.
greenergood
No, the bad c-word is used as a) bad word, and then also, strangely, as b) an affectionate word, in various parts of Scotland (the film Trainspotting might be an indicator) – but as an American living here for 41 years, I’m still trying to sort out my reactions to the word: But there is definitely a not very happy vibe to Mr Trump visiting here. Turnberry employees are grateful for employment, but people here are pretty much ‘how dare this m-effer even arrive here’ and meetings with the British Prime Minister and the Scottish First Minister (because we’re still not an independent country), are frowned upon. especially because there still doesn’t seem to be UK objections to starving people in Gaza. Trump has announced in the past few days that ‘London hates him, but Scotland loves him’ only to be denounced by David Tennant (he of Dr Who, and lots of other roles): ‘No we don’t – we effing hate him.’ so get a grip Mr Donald – or don’t bother – we know you have no grip on reality – can’t wait till reality catches up with you … and shows you the door …
BillD
Roddy Doyle sometimes uses the C-word in his novels, but only directed at men.
Suzanne
I deeply appreciate our Scottish friends for taking the piss out of FFOTUS.
Speaking of taking the piss out of the FFOTUS, I just watched the South Park episode that’s been getting so much attention. I am ashamed of myself for laughing so hard.
The Red Pen
The c-word issue reminds me of something someone said about Australia (where the c-word is used as a common sentence emphasizer).
Jay
bsky.app/profile/charles.littlegreenfootballs.com/post/3luubx2ewuc2
bsky.app/profile/normative.bsky.social/post/3lut3xjkdfc2c
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: a river otter?? I’m guessing sea otters are not a thing in Florida.
Betty Cracker
@Miss Bianca: Yes, a river otter, just frolicking behind our boat, which is on dry land at the moment because the river is so low. We see them from time to time, but this one was particularly adorable!
MaryRC
I just watched a series on Netflix called Dept. Q set in Edinburgh where the C-word was tossed around, although nowhere near as much as the F-word which apparently functioned as a kind of punctuation. The thing was that “cunt” was applied to men and women (usually men) and didn’t appear to be a specifically misogynist slur. At one point a detective tells her boss that he can’t use “cunt” in the office even though it’s OK in the pub.
My favorite putdown, though, was when one detective called another a “chesty prick”.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/igd.bsky.social/post/3lurf7pmvt22r
Jay
@Betty Cracker:
Sea Otters are a North Pacific thing,
River Otters are kinda misnamed, as they also inhabit seacoasts and lakes. Unlike Sea Otters, which live an almost completely aquatic life, River Otters spend about half their time on shore and den in above water tunnels in banks.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: baby otter! The Squee-o-Meter musta gone into the red and blowed straight up!
Betty Cracker
@Rose Judson: LMAO!
Other MJS
I share your resentment, but in general I feel that the more Trump plays golf, the better.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/larrytenney.bsky.social/post/3lutj7gcwn22h
Jay
nitter.poast.org/ChrisO_wiki/status/1948951790612820336#m
bbleh
@Other MJS: Hmmm, I think I disagree. His judgment is atrocious, especially recently, and he’s degenerating so quickly that maybe the more active he is, the more and faster he’ll screw things up for himself. Plus, I’m sure golfing relaxes him, and I’d really prefer he had a serious stroke, preferably while he’s on camera somewhere., as soon as possible.
Jay
MAGA now stands for Molesters Are Given Amnesty.
kalakal
@MaryRC:
In the UK we do a lot of mocking of each other, usually very swearily.
The offensiveness of the C word* depends on who it’s directed at and how it’s said. Say it to a total stranger and you’re in for fun.
That said the C word is pretty offensive to a lot of people regardless, play it safe and just call your friends bastards
VFX Lurker
Over there, the no-no equivalent is “f*nny.”
Always fun when clueless American tourists mention their “f*nny packs.”
Jay
@Other MJS:
@bbleh:
“When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”
When DJTdiot’s on the golf course, Steven Miller, the Project 2025 boys, Musk’s Minions and the Billionaires Blowjob Club are setting and enacting policy.
kindness
I suspect the UK treats the c word similarly as if we were to call someone a dick. I do that all the time.
kalakal
@VFX Lurker: In the UK ‘fanny-packs’ is a source of merriment.
One common in the US and not so much in the UK is a**hole or equivalents
zhena gogolia
@Jay: Left out RFK Jr.
JoyceH
@kalakal:
I read a lot of British mysteries and one thing I can’t get used to isn’t a swear word, but the prevalence of calling a woman a cow. I don’t know why, but that always gets my hackles up.
kalakal
@kindness: Pretty much, but in a triumph for sexual equality we call people dicks as well
Jay
bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3luto3ow4vc2g
The US becomes more North Korean every day.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3lutftksc6s2l
trollhattan
@Jay: Also now be changing network name from Columbia Broadcasting System to Pravda.
Betty Cracker
@VFX Lurker: Fascinating! I had no idea.
The Thin Black Duke
I think using “asshole” is an acceptable substitute for the “c-word”. It’s gender fluid.
Baud
@VFX Lurker:
Should we call them c*nt packs while in UK?
trollhattan
Goody, AI arrives just in time.
“Analyze”= Identify and destroy. Except the gun stuff. We like those.
kalakal
@JoyceH: I agree, always hated that, that and bitch.
There’s a lot of insults/swears used in the UK that have completely lost their bite from the original meaning – sod, bastard, bugger, get or git – most people don’t even know the original meanings.
My favourite is naff which just means lacking in style, poor quality, mediocre etc these days. It was a acronym in Polari slang which was a way gay men would describe their straight friends Not Available For Fu**ing
trollhattan
Jay
@Baud:
In British and the former Colonies slang, “fanny” has been a dismissive word for vagina since the 1870’s.
In the US however, “fanny” has been a reference to the buttocks since 1918.
So a non-offensive substitute for “fanny pack” when overseas in certain places would be “ass satchel”, or “asshole pack”.
eclare
@Jay:
A friend of a friend wore his fanny pack a) all the time and b) with the pack part in front, on his stomach.
We referred to it as his kangaroo pouch, which I regret because that’s insulting to kangaroos.
trollhattan
@Jay:
And of course.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Brice
Suzanne
@JoyceH: So in healthcare environments, nurses often use computers on various types of wheeled carts. These used to be known in the industry as COWs (computer on wheels). But there were times when it was unclear if the speaker was referring to the technology or the person, and it was causing a lot of inadvertent offense. “Can you grab me that COW over there?”. So they renamed them WOWs (workstations on wheels).
JoyceH
Right now I’m reading a book about the Plantagenets. I’m at the part about Richard II, who was a bad dude. The last few years of his reign he descended into tyranny and paranoia. One of the examples of his vicious irrationality was that he started sending “warrants” to various noblemen and localities, just basically demanding that they send the king a large sum of money. Of course I thought, I wonder if he sent any of those warrants to law firms? Richard II was deposed and came to a bad end, which is satisfying…
HopefullyNotcassandra
You had me at “mottled orange haggis”. Brilliant!
Some believe otters were put on this earth to delight us as they have picnics from their bellies while they do the otter back float.
kalakal
One that shocked me was finding the original source of ‘Sweet F A’ ,( sweet f**k all) very common in Britland, it’s short for Sweet Fanny Adams and comes from a horrible 19th Century murder
I’m not going to put up a link, the crime was vile
Jay
@eclare:
I might still own a “fanny pack”. If I do, it’s in the camping gear boxes. It was made of ballistic nylon, had a heavy duty webbing belt with a clip buckle, and it held about half a cubic foot of stuff.
It was useful for short day hikes and short bike rides, as it could hold a first aid kit, water filter, windbreaker, change of socks, snacks and a spare water bottle.
It was not one of those clutch purse sized, bright parachute nylon things so beloved globally, by pickpockets.
Kayla Rudbek
@trollhattan: and they are trying to use AI to examine patent applications thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/johns-hopkins-press-artificial-intelligence-ai-llm… and may take away the tools that’ actually allow the chemical examiners to do their work (ChemDraw and SciFinder and STN) reddit.com/r/patentexaminer/comments/1m98qi1/chemdraw/.
I tell you all, if you have any chemical patents to file, file outside the USA so you can actually get a proper examination done.
columbusqueen
@Betty Cracker: i love otters. Need to go to the Columbus Zoo & see the new otter exhibit, & the new baby elephant too!
ruckus
@chemiclord:
This country is more used to making fun of large groups of humans.
I’m an old and remember when women didn’t have much clout in anything.
Never forget that in WWII much of the war equipment was built by women. I’ve seen pictures of some of the factories and while there were male supervisors, most of the pictures I’ve seen the workers were women.
That being black meant that you had to often make decisions if something rather normal to anyone not would get you killed.
Humans can be some of the worst animals on the planet. We can never forget that your skin color at one time meant that you could be owned by people with almost none.
And we should never forget that there are people alive today that have not changed their crappy concepts of skin color in 2 – 3 or more generations.
Tony Jay
Our magnificently verbal Scottish cousins will absolutely let The Pustule know in how abyssal a regard he is held by all thinking mammals, which is why priorities 1 through 100 of this unwelcome visit will be to keep the sloppy-arsed crapcano away from anyone whose job, livelihood or continued liberty does not rely on keeping their mouth shut except when forced to say “Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir.”
And yes. Sir Keir the Drear is one of those people. Allied to his near supernatural capability to find the worst possible way to implement the worst possible policy every single time, I wouldn’t put it past him to invite Trump on a promenade down the Royal Mile wearing Kiss Me Quick hats and Clan McRapey kilts after ordering the Police use anti-terror laws to arrest anyone displaying ‘anti-Special Relationship’ signage.
It’s just a shitshow. Welcome to the UK.
hueyplong
@Jay: Obama and Biden would have been impeached if they had forced fox to report directly to them and the other networks would have cheered on the impeachment.
Not a peep from any network about cbs. Pure cowardice.
MaryRC
@kalakal: Good to know, thanks!
ruckus
@greenergood:
He has a grip on reality. It’s not the reality that most humans know, understand or believe in, to him the only reality that counts is his reality – that of course isn’t real. A major point in this concept – he’s the world’s greatest human – just ask him.
Jay
@Tony Jay:
Is it true that King Charles has downgraded DJTdiot from a State Dinner to a private lunch with Prince Andrew instead, so the two can reminisce about their times “frolicking” around on Epstein’s Island?
Miki
@trollhattan: I love Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache books – merde takes up lots of print space, in the best way.
Tony Jay
@Jay:
I wish it were true, but unfortunately Sir Keir the Plastic Peer has insisted that his good friend Donald simply must have an unprecedented 2nd State Dinner at Windsor Castle. I’m sure Chuck 3 is wiggling his ears with joy at the prospect, but if there’s one thing Sit Keir is gold-standard at it’s sucking up to right-wing thugs and making the UK a laughing stock.
We ain’t no Canada.
cmorenc
@trollhattan: CBS was once the home of the most universally trusted news program host, Walter Cronkite. Walter must be spinning and spitting in his grave at what a repulsive bunch of cowardly toadies his network has become.
Uncle Cosmo
Oh fuck the hell off,
Some years back going through screening at Heathrow en route to Dublin the belt attendant pointed at my waist. “Oh that’s right,” I said, “you need my fanny pack.”
He flinched.
“Oh that’s right,” I said, “over here you call this a ‘bum-bag’,” and tossed it on the belt. He smiled uncertainly.
I leaned over and in the loudest stage whisper I could manage hissed, “Well in the States we call it a fanny-pack!” Just to watch him flinch again.
He obliged.
columbusqueen
@Uncle Cosmo: Well played, mon ami.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: Prior to Saturday Night Fever (IIRC) the BeeGees put out a single titled “Fanny Be Tender With My Love”. At least in the States. Christ Hisownself only knows how they rebranded that one for UK release. Or in the Antipodes.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: I look at pictures of Keir Starmer and can’t help thinkiing “Welp, John Bull is now John Ox.”
mrmoshpotato
@The Red Pen: LOL! That’s so good! Fuck all the gun-humpers.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Did anyone yell “Go fuck yourself, you couch-fucking Nazi shitstain! Stop! Raping! Couches!”?
peter
@cmorenc: Edward R. Murrow might also have had a few opinions about this.
mrmoshpotato
What? Otters?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: LOL!
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Oh great! Now we have ED-209 destroying our government!
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
That would explain his permanently pained expression, like a village librarian who has just found coffee stains and the remains of a pork pie on the inside pages of a Jilly Cooper novel.
Well, he willingly handed them over for the illusion of power, so a little discomfort is all part of the deal.
Betty
@hueyplong: It’s the President of the company, not the President of the United States. That is a common error based on the way it was reported.
Paul in KY
@JoyceH: He may have been medically ‘nuts’. Certainly vouched for alot of stuff that was completely agin the Magna Charter and common sense.
The Lodger
@Tony Jay: Yeesh! Sir Keir is doing the worst job of PM sucking-up since the age of Tory Blur.