Tootfinder

Trump Orders States Not to Protect Children From Predatory AI: "States have been the only effective line of defense against AI harms."
On the topic of states rights, Donald Trump doesn’t exactly follow the party line. During his first term, he couched himself in populist, small-government rhetoric — even as he attacked individual states that dared to defend migrants and legalize marijuana.

Trump Orders States Not to Protect Children From Predatory AI
Donald Trump recently signed an executive order allowing his administration to attack states that try to regulate artificial intelligence.

ORBAN'S anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is intensifying! India and the West are finishing off the RF economy: https://benborges.xyz/2026/02/10/orbans-antiukrainian-rhetoric-is-intensifying.html

I always know @… wil have a clear view.
https://www.readtpa.com/p/the-rules-of-grief?publ…

Tom Homan pleads with Minnesota leaders to tamp down ICE rhetoric (Jacob Wendler/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/11/tom-homan-plead-minnesota-leaders-ice-rhetoric-00721389
http://www.memeorandum.com/260111/p38#a260111p38

Among all the (entirely justified) rhetoric about “affordability” I find a striking lack of discussion of half the problem. It’s not just that the rent is too damn high (it is) it’s that the pay is too damn low.

"Strip away the rhetoric and what remains is simple: there is no military option that delivers what Trump has promised. The symbolic strike is too weak to matter. Decapitation risks installing a junta. The sustained campaign courts state collapse and regional conflagration"
https://time.com/7345293/…

Trump Has No Good Options On Iran
"As brave Iranians challenge the repressive regime in Tehran, the U.S leader faces three paths, each worse than the last," writes Bobby Ghosh

The Trump administration recently dropped its
National Security Strategy
and, like all things Trump,
it’s equal parts nonsense and vitriol.
It signals a self-defeating retreat from any sort of global leadership
and the regime’s open promotion of white nationalism at home and abroad.
The document is extremely light on the “strategy” part,
but is chock full of naked racism and Great Replacement rhetoric.
If you fed a low-rent knockoff version o…

We're the baddies now. Our new Security Strategy shows it.
It's a gift to the Kremlin and a middle finger to our erstwhile allies.

GENOCIDE RHETORIC! 👿 Solovyov and Skabeyeva call for nuclear strikes on Europe!: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/07/genocide-rhetoric-solovyov-and-skabeyeva.html

Speaking to convince is a skill once called Rhetoric; at my International School in '63 I was the first generation to be spared that subject. I learned it anyway 😅
https://www.tumblr.com/teledyn/808016155277148160/colberts-too-christopher-luscombe-brush-up?source=share

CFP Rhetoric and Communication. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/02/02/cfp-rhetoric-and-communication-interdisciplinary-studies-in-the-humanities

"..in the UK. Populist rhetoric has moved away from talking about immigrants in general and towards the demonisation of particular ethnic or religious groups, and away from a concern about current immigration numbers towards demands for deportation of legal migrants. Associating immigrants and asylum seekers with crime is part of that pattern."

mainly macro: Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse…

Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse in the UK
  I never cease to be amazed at how bad Labour politicians are at politics. It may seem arrogant for an economist to say that, but it’s not ...

Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric
Donald Trump — who campaigned against America’s worsening drug crisis and promised to crack down on the illegal flow of deadly drugs coming across the border
— has pardoned or granted clemency to at least 10 people for drug-related crimes since the beginning of his second term, according to a Washington Post analysis.
He also granted pardons or commutations to almost 90 others for drug-related crimes duri…

Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric
The president has granted clemency to about 100 people accused of drug-related crimes during his two terms in office, a Post analysis shows.

This is the kind of shit the “Democratic Leadership" keeps pulling. Shapiro, Newsom, Fedderman, Clintons, Summers, Obama. They are all neo-liberals who also work for the billionaires too. We need to elect folks like Krasner, AOC, Sanders, etc who actually work for citizens.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/larry-krasner-josh-shapiro-philadelphia-ice-agents-rhetoric-20260202.html

I wish more people understood the difference between rhetoric meant to persuade and rhetoric meant to find already like-minded people in the group ... and rhetoric that sounds like that but meant to alienate.

Obvious inflammatory rhetoric.
Also, "because X11 did it that way" is the single stupidest reason possible for deleting a feature that has been standard on *nix platforms since the 1980s.

A look at The Border Chronicle, a subscriber- and grant-supported publication that tells stories from the perspective of people living near the US-Mexico border (Lucy Schiller/Columbia Journalism Review)
https://www.cjr.org/feature/the-border-chr

With the Border Chronicle, a group of veteran journalists cover “the backdrop for national politics and rhetoric.”
A group of veteran journalists cover “the backdrop for national politics and rhetoric.” 

AGI is Our Generation's Alchemy, And We're Too Arrogant to Admit It
The AI industry has a dirty secret: we're building toward Artificial General Intelligence without the faintest consensus on what intelligence actually is.
https://ocrampal.com/from-sophi…

From Sophists to Alchemists to AI Coders: The Technique Without Understanding
We believe we are at the cutting edge of history, but we may just be repeating its oldest mistakes. From the Sophists’ empty rhetoric to the Alchemists’ blind experimentation, humanity has a long history of mastering technique without possessing understanding. This dialogue explores how today’s AI-driven world is creating

CFP Rhetoric and Communication. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/02/02/cfp-rhetoric-and-communication-interdisciplinary-studies-in-the-humanities

Rep. Ilhan Omar points finger at Trump's 'hateful rhetoric' after town hall attack (Kyla Guilfoil/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ilhan-omar-donald-trump-rhetoric-town-hall-attack-minneapolis-rcna256422
http://www.memeorandum.com/260129/p60#a260129p60

@… Yeah, and it would be good to think about that possibility NOW. Greenland is on Trump’s list, and as we’ve seen today, his threats aren’t just empty rhetoric.

@… Yeah, and it would be good to think about that possibility NOW. Greenland is on Trump’s list, and as we’ve seen today, his threats aren’t just empty rhetoric.

In 2025 people posted TikToks where they try out an addictive kratom-based drink.
It's so weird that, for all of the rhetoric of the last few years, there are no real moves in the US to control it.
https://youtu.be/AjSTaKgByZg?si=prVZxXQo3k5AeMJM&t=745

Hell yes. We need more of Otto Lee and less of the quisling sheriff.
https://sanjosespotlight.com/will-santa-clara-county-arrest-ice-agents-at-super-bowl/

Will Santa Clara County arrest ICE agents at Super Bowl? - San José Spotlight
As the clock ticks toward the Super Bowl, one Santa Clara County leader’s vow to arrest ICE agents may force officials across the valley to confront their own rhetoric — pitting local cops against federal ones.

Holy shit

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/12/21/documents-reveal-harvard-salient-complaint/

Racial Slurs and Nazi Symbols: Inside the Complaint That Shut Down The Harvard Salient | News | The Harvard Crimson
Screenshots and message logs obtained by The Crimson appear to show Salient leaders casually using racial slurs, defending extremist rhetoric, and dismissing internal concerns — conversations that later became central to the board’s decision to suspend the magazine.

Massie on Trump's rhetoric: 'He's gone too far' (David Cohen/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/08/massie-trump-gone-too-far-00770502
http://www.memeorandum.com/260208/p16#a260208p16

CFP Rhetoric and Communication. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/02/02/cfp-rhetoric-and-communication-interdisciplinary-studies-in-the-humanities

Unhinged doesn't even cut it anymore... This speech & rhetoric needs a superlative to describe it... sheer brain rot! And yet, instead of a group walk out, a standing ovation at the end... unbelievable!

An awful lot of Mastodon rhetoric sounds at first glance like persuasive rhetoric, but if you think about it, you realize there's no argument being presented, only affiliation. "I'm one of the good ones, believing the right things.”
... and it's real hard to tell a genuinely radical version of that from someone dealing propaganda to fragment a group. "Real members of [group] believe [extreme version of thing]" is actually a tactic to _break_ that group.

It seems sensible to have an enquiry into Russian interference in UK politics, given the attitude of Russia toward the UK, the poisonings to say nothing of the rhetoric:
"If today Britain is hitting our territory with its missiles from Ukraine... I consider this a good reason for Britain to cease to exist" - Andrei Gurulyov, a pro-Putin lawmaker and former military commander, said on state TV in January 2025.

While there is no sign the aggressive tactics used by immigration enforcement are coming to an end,
#Jacob #Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis said the administration will begin to ✅ scale back the number of federal agents in Minneapolis starting on Tuesday,
as Trump and his team soften their harsh rhetoric about the …

New National Security Strategy Is Heavy on Rhetoric, Light on Detail (Mark Hertling/The Bulwark)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-national-security-strategy-ways-means-ends-trump-foreign-policy-china-iran-russia-north-korea
http://www.memeorandum.com/251208/p139#a251208p139

Plan S – Quo Vadis?
#openaccess
https://blog.scielo.org/en/2025/11/19/plan-s-quo-vadis/
(Versions in Portuguese and Spanish also available)

Plan S – quo vadis? | SciELO in Perspective
By late 2025, Open Access has become mainstream in rhetoric but fragmented in practice. The path forward likely lies not just in enforcing compliance but in diversifying infrastructures—combining global principles with networked regional, scholar-driven implementation.

Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/07/trump-drugs-pardons-hernandez-venezuela/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251208/p8#a251208p8

You have got to be kidding me!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/dec/17/donald-trump-venezuela-…

Donald Trump says Venezuela ‘illegally took’ US oil and ‘we want it back’ – live
President tells reporters that Venezuela ‘took all of our energy rights’ in latest ramping up of rhetoric

One positive thing about the rise of LLMs is that I can look at the social media profiles of people defending the reputations of their favourite billionaires and tell myself they're probably AI.
(Which is a twist on the "NPC" rhetoric some use to apply to real people.)

Philly DA Larry Krasner says 'don't be a wimp' after Gov. Josh Shapiro decried his comparison of ICE agents to Nazis (Anna Orso/The Philadelphia Inquirer)
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/larry-krasner-josh-shapiro-philadelphia-ice-agents-rhetoric-20260202.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260202/p110#a260202p110

Poll: Majorities across parties say 'extreme political rhetoric' was a contributor to Charlie Kirk's killing (Scott Bland/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-majorities-parties-extreme-rhetoric-charlie-kirk-killing-rcna243560
http://www.memeorandum.com/251117/p143#a251117p143

Trump’s recent claims that the US should keep Venezuelan oil from seized tankers
are part of a broader belief in rightwing “resource imperialism”, experts say.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has escalated pressure on Venezuela, invoking drug-trafficking claims.
This month, the US intercepted two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil and began pursuing a third,
while intensifying its campaign against the country’s president, Nicolšs Maduro.
Critics have comp…

Some Trump administration social media posts mirror extremist rhetoric (Jason Abbruzzese/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/trump-administration-social-media-posts-extremist-rhetoric-rcna254372
http://www.memeorandum.com/260117/p2#a260117p2

What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti -- and what the evidence actually shows (Daniel Dale/CNN)
https://cnn.com/2026/01/25/politics/trump-officials-shifting-rhetoric-alex-pretti
http://www.memeorandum.com/260126/p7#a260126p7

CFP Rhetoric and Communication. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities
https://ift.tt/tk9J5rp
updated: Monday, February 2, 2026 - 3:30pmfull name / name of organization: University of…
via Input 4 RELCFP

Some of the current political rhetoric coming from the US seems odd given, in a few states, the marriageable age is below the age of consent. Might not just be the political cabals that need looking at?

CFP Rhetoric and Communication. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities
https://ift.tt/tk9J5rp
updated: Monday, February 2, 2026 - 3:30pmfull name / name of organization: University of…
via Input 4 RELCFP

One year after the return of Trumpism to the White House
— and with it a surge in supremacist ideology
— signals and references to fascism, Nazism, and white supremacy are present in numerous communications from the administration.
Trade union leaders were one of the latest to sound the alarm over the government’s supremacist rhetoric.
The trigger came last weekend from the Department of Labor,
when it shared on its social media an animation featuring a statue o…

I’ve been researching #Italian #immigration to the #US for my #novel and every other primary source I open from 1890-1915 gives me major DéjŠ vu to how the #Republicans talk about immigration today.
“They aren’t white enough”, “they are a drain on our resources”, “deported because they would be a public charge”, “uneducated”, “barbaric”, “increasing crime”.
All the arguments are the same. Some of the laws are the same. And yet people in 1890 were arguing about the lack of race purity and “dirty blood” of people from Europe who the current conservatives would wholeheartedly consider white Christians and part of the great West or whatever.
Really makes you see as clear as day how BS and arbitrary all of this racist and anti-immigration rhetoric is. It’s nonsense. Always was. Always will be.
People deserve dignity and respect. Immigrants deserve to be welcomed in and accommodated.

Critics have compared the offensive to the Iraq war, citing a familiar mix of regime-change rhetoric, security pretexts and oil interests. This month, the Trump administration labeled fentanyl – which it says flows from Venezuela – a “weapon of mass destruction”.
On Monday, Trump suggested oil seized from Venezuela could be treated as a US asset. “Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it... Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping the ships also.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/24/trump-venezuela-oil-resource-imperialism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Brigitte Bardot's Legacy of Racist Rhetoric (Adam Nossiter/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/world/europe/brigitte-bardot-racism-far-right.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251231/p74#a251231p74

Trump Frees
MAGA Rep’s
Meth Dealer Son
in Pardon Spree
https://www.newsbreak.com/share/4447337915477-trump-frees-maga-rep-s-meth-dealer-son-in-pardon-spree

Trump Frees MAGA Rep’s Meth Dealer Son in Pardon Spree - NewsBreak
President Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime rhetoric appears to come with a caveat for people in his political orbit. Trump quietly commuted the sentence of Ja

Omar criticizes Trump's 'hateful rhetoric' after attack; suspect had made pro-Trump posts online (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/ilhan-omar-attack-sprayed-town-hall-attack-c785b49b2c770b7aed1cdbb75df0a35f
http://www.memeorandum.com/260128/p135#a260128p135

Congresswoman Ilhan Omarhas warned that Donald Trump’s repeated personal attacks and dehumanising rhetoric
are fuelling a climate of political violence that could have dangerous consequences.
Speaking days after the president called for her to be thrown out of the country,
Omar said Trump’s incendiary language reaches “the worst humans possible” and encourages them to act.
“We’ve had people incarcerated for threatening to kill me,”
“We have people that are being…

Not a good look RCMP. But it sounds like in the main, they handled the situation ok even if they ran cover for a horrendous elected racist in Dallas Brodie.
Bravo to the people at UBC for making it clear that the agent-provocateur and hate-speech politician has no place, has no voice for her hateful rhetoric.
Residential school denialism *should* be a hate crime. The RCMP should be arresting Brodie, not protecting her hate propaganda tour.
Our Universities must be places of truth. Truths can be debated in context, but Brodie, like Charlie Kirk, isn't actually debating. No minds are going to be changed. No resolution found.
Dallas Brodie is only there to grab a headline and advance an extremist, regressive, and openly white supremacist agenda by advancing denialist views that dismiss truth and facts and calling it “anti-woke”.
#Canada #BC #CharlieKirk #OneBC #BCPoli #DallasBrodie #ResidentialSchools #Denialism #Rightwing #CultureWar
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/onebc-ubc-event-truth-reconciliation-9.7057376

Waar gaat het naartoe met "Plan S"?
#openaccess #PlanS #PlanU #SciELO

Plan S – quo vadis? | SciELO in Perspective
By late 2025, Open Access has become mainstream in rhetoric but fragmented in practice. The path forward likely lies not just in enforcing compliance but in diversifying infrastructures—combining global principles with networked regional, scholar-driven implementation.