"In April, [Joe] Rogan inspired discourse when he said... 'the word retarded is back' and celebrated its return as 'one of the great culture victories' won by podcasts...."

"... such as his own. Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura shared similar thoughts on their podcast.... 'Everyone says retarded again. It’s in shows; it’s in stand-up,' Segura said. 'The people kind of were like, "No, we want it back. We’re going to say it again."' In the 2024 pilot episode of the FX sitcom English Teacher, a pair of dismayed high-school teachers bond over their shared observation that the kids are 'saying the R-word again' and no longer 'into being woke.' Meanwhile, the new Naked Gun movie features a villain named Richard Cane, who owns a private club where one of the perks of membership is freedom to say the word retarded without backlash.... It’s a nostalgic throwback for generations who remember a time when it was ubiquitous, conveys a hint of danger to generations who have only known it as a slur, and slots satisfyingly into punch lines because of its jagged consonants...."

Writes Hershal Pandya, in "Comedy’s Safest Slur/Left, right, center — everyone is using it. How stand-up has all but killed a controversial term’s taboo" NY Magazine).

"The speech of the American middle class is largely the attempt to impress, obfuscate, or placate. That of the streets is..."

"... in my experience, to express. For example: Middle class: 'What a nice dress.' Street: 'Hey, baby, any more at home like you?'... Iambic pentameter, five feet to the line. I was filming Heist with Gene Hackman; my wife, Rebecca Pidgeon; and Danny DeVito. Danny’s line to Gene, his rival, is, 'Are you fucking with me, are you fucking with me, or are you done fucking with me?'... I was concerned that [Danny] would (incorrectly) accentuate the word done at the end of the phrase, which would have branded him, sadly, with a merely academic understanding of actual American idiom. But I need not have worried, as he accentuated the final fucking and all was well. Per contra, Becca was raised in Edinburgh, and educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In the early days of our association she flatteringly strove to adopt my Chicagoan vocabulary. Our great friend, Shel Silverstein, corrected her: 'Becca, when you say motherfucker, it’s like someone is trying to fuck your mother.'"

Writes David Mamet in "Back When We Gave a Fuck" (Free Press).

I love the sudden appearance of Shel Silverstein and the use of the phrase "per contra." And I considered taking out the clarifying "[Danny]" and putting back the "he" — wasn't it obvious that Mamet meant Danny and not Gene" — because I wanted to preserve the number of syllables. I didn't want to intrude on  Mamet's rhythm. I even asked Grok to analyze the text and tell me to what extent it approached iambic pentameter. Was "per contra" chosen for the meter or because boring people begin sentences with "By contrast"/"Conversely"/"On the other hand"?  Is Shel Silverstein "Our great friend, Shel Silverstein" for the meter or because Mamet is the sort of person who wants you to know he was especially close to that celebrity he's name-dropping. 

I can't believe I read "Prince Andrew and Donald Trump’s Sick ‘P***y’ Conversations Revealed"...

 ... a Daily Beast "Royalist" column by Tom Sykes.

But I read it and now you don't have to. I read it because I wanted to find an actual "pussy" quote from Trump. Short answer: There isn't one!

There's a new book, by Andrew Lownie, "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York," and "pussy" is Lownie's word. If 2 men are having a conversation about sex with women, in Lownie's style, it's a conversation about pussy. Maybe the men used that word too, but I'm not seeing any quotes, and also, what difference does it make?!

"They basically are 2 countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing."

JUST IN 🇺🇸🇮🇷🇮🇱: US PRESIDENT TRUMP DOES REALLY HARD AT ISRAEL. 🥶 #Iran #Israel #Trump pic.twitter.com/P77w3PqNLM

— RAJAT (@IRajatJain) June 24, 2025

RFK Jr. evokes Lenny Bruce.

Getting some play on X right now is RFK Jr. saying "Thank you very much" in response to someone yelling "Fuck you!"

You can’t make this up.

While RFK Jr. was speaking about overcoming addiction and controlling anger, a protestor screamed “F*** you”—and RFK responded, “Thank you.”

RFK: “I think to myself, what should I do with this interaction? Should I pray for that person, or should I pull… pic.twitter.com/O2j07NRz3s

— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) April 24, 2025

I'm remembering the movie "Lenny." The screenplay has Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) saying: "What's the worst thing you can say to anybody?"/"Fuck you, mister!''/"That's really weird, because if I wanted to hurt you, l should say, 'Unfuck you, mister' — because 'fuck you' is really nice, man."

"I mean, when you talk to these Republican lawmakers privately, they all understand a vote against something that Donald Trump really cares about is a vote to end your career."

"I mean, there's not that many people who are willing to end their career. So even though I know for a fact there are a whole bunch of Republicans who if it was a private secret vote, would vote against — en masse — many of these nominees that he's put up, they won't dare do it in a public setting under the gaze of Donald Trump. And there's actually something deeper that's happened in American politics that Trump has changed. A generation ago, if you were a member of Congress, you could kind of protect yourself and defend yourself by raising money and having coalitions and whatever. All of that has been obliterated by Donald Trump's monopoly on the attention landscape. And If you get in their cross hairs, it doesn't matter what kind of a war chest you have that will be squirted away in two days, you are finished, your career's done."

Said Jonathan Swan, on yesterday's episode of the NYT's "Daily" podcast, "Trump 2.0 Arrives in Force."

ADDED: I figure he said "squirted away" because it's the NYT and "pissed away" is considered dirty, but "squirted away" sounds dirtier. I had to laugh.

"Ben Wikler's rise to Democratic stardom has a very Madison backstory."

A nice article in the local paper, The Cap Times.

I especially liked the part about The Yellow Press, which was sometimes edited right here in the house we now call Meadhouse:

[In high school,] Wikler and his friends had founded a satirical publication called The Yellow Press.... The newspaper... dovetailed with the rise of another Madison-area satirical publication, The Onion, where he later worked part-time as a headline writer. But while The Yellow Press included [silly topics] and occasionally rankled an administrator or two — an article titled “Prom Night Is Such a Romantic Night to Get F-----” landed the kids in hot water — the paper included serious subject matters. ...

"Democratic campaign strategists condescended to women, which is what both parties have been doing for a century now."

"But the parties are now also divided by class and on abortion, and a great deal of Democratic messaging has involved college-educated women telling women who never went to college how to think about their own bodies, or their own very real American dreams. Trump liked to say that he will, as President, protect women, whether they want him to or not. The Harris campaign said the same thing, only with more celebrity endorsements. None of this is good for women or for children or for men...."

Writes Jill Lepore, in "Democrats Tried to Counter Donald Trump’s Viciousness Toward Women with Condescension/The Harris campaign felt the need to remind women voters that they can vote for whomever they want. Women understood this. The campaign failed to" (The New Yorker).

It's hard for Democrats to criticize Democrats. They approach the topic but get distracted by how much worse the other side is. But the Democrats lost, and they need to figure out why and change something.*

I don't even know what "Donald Trump's Viciousness Toward Women" is supposed to refer to. I go back to the article and search for the word "vicious." Yes, I remember reading this the first time:

"The DJ at Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent rally in Philadelphia turned up the volume on Ludacris’s 'Move B----!'..."

"... as the emcee encouraged the crowd to direct the song’s aggressive yet catchy lyrics toward Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. 'Move, b----!' the exuberant rallygoers chanted Tuesday. 'Get out the way!' A few minutes later, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro riled up the crowd by summarizing his governing philosophy: 'Get s--- done!' That motto was echoed verbatim the following day by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during a Harris rally that included audience chants of 'Hell yeah,' a reference to Harris as a 'bada-- woman' and at least one f-bomb from the stage.... Known to swear liberally behind closed doors, a practice she has said ramped up after she became vice president, Harris has used profanity both to express outrage and to create a sense of intimacy with her private audiences, according to aides and allies...."

From "Harris rallies get edgy with four-letter words/The vice president, known to curse liberally behind closed doors, is one of the few not swearing onstage at rallies that are growing in size — and spiciness" (WaPo).

I know that Ludacris recording with its "aggressive yet catchy lyrics" like "I been thankin' of bustin' you/Upside your motherfuckin' forehead." Years ago, I heard it playing over loudspeakers in Library Mall here at the University of Wisconsin, and I felt like suing the school for sexual harassment. It troubles me to think of it playing to a general audience full of women at a presidential campaign rally (even one that's trying to make a male candidate seem like the "bitch" the song is referring to).

"So if your wife flies a flag you don't like and you can't work it out, your choices are to let her continue flying the flag and stay married or get divorced..."

"... or move out in some other capacity. And if your wife's language is flags and she's angry, and so she's decides to fly this distress flag that had been used by the George Floyd protestors by the stop the steal protestors, basically by protestors across the ideological spectrum. And you're like, Hey, but sweetheart, they're going to think that you are associating yourself with Stop the Steal. And then she goes into some sort of rant about how dare you accuse her of that. And that flag's staying up because you know what? They called me, they followed me in front of my home and their car and called me the C word. And then she like goes to bed and refuses to take down the flag.... What are you supposed to do?... This is like a feminist rant for me.... [T]his is private conduct by a private individual who is married to a Supreme Court justice. Why isn't she entitled to that?.... Think he should recuse because we can't prove that he wasn't involved?"

Says Sarah Isgur in the new episode of the "Advisory Opinions" podcast.

David French insists that he wouldn't allow a flag he didn't agree with to fly in front of his house, and the two go back and forth about how a man would physically accomplish the removal of the flag his wife insisted on flying.

For reference, here's what Alito wrote:

Kamala Harris says sometimes "You need to kick that fucking door down."

Here's the whole context, "Vice President Harris Remarks at APAICS Summit Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for a conversation with comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang during the National Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies leadership summit in Washington, DC. She spoke about breaking down barriers and the importance of democracy. The vice president also spoke on women’s reproductive rights and gun control."

It's a bland occasion and the topics are routine, so the occurrence of "fucking" comes as a surprise. It gets attention. But it made me think of 3 things, in this order:

"We're all fat," said Trump, last night, in his big — really big — big fat rally in Wildwood, New Jersey.

New Jersey! He came to New Jersey. They capture him in the courtroom 4 days out of the week, and they seem to be hoping he'll barely be able to campaign, but there he was, expanding his scope beyond the battleground states and into one of Biden's supposedly safe states, New Jersey.

I see how the mainstream media has been covering the rally. WaPo has "Trump insults prosecutor at Jersey Shore rally filled with vulgar jabs/The presumptive Republican nominee spoke at a large rally where there were plenty of personal attacks and vulgar expressions from Trump and his supporters." Large? How large? WaPo says "thousands," but Trump was saying 80,000. 

Anyway, I watched the whole thing, and I heard the "vulgar jabs." I just wanted to quote this:

You look at the Afghanistan disaster. You look at the border. You look at the real economy, not the fake economy. Everything they touch turns to what?

The thousands cry out "Shit!" He teasingly chides:

You shouldn't use that kind of language. Look, you can't use the word "shit," okay? 

"It happens all the time" — "in a rural town, in the west" — The signs say "F Biden" and little kids give him the finger.

Enjoy this video of Biden talking about how many ‘F*ck Joe Biden’ signs he sees and how many little kids flip him off 🤣

pic.twitter.com/n6LRFQshuC

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 19, 2024

"I, thank God, had no idea what that meant, so I said to him, 'What are you talking about? I’m coming back on Wednesday.' Literally, it was an honest answer. I had no idea what he’s talking about."

Said E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, reflecting on Trump's saying "See you next Tuesday."

Quoted in "E Jean Carroll lawyer says Trump used coded version of C-word against her/Roberta Kaplan says ex-president directed ‘See you next Tuesday’ remark at her after deposition in unrelated case at Mar-a-Lago" (The Guardian).

According to Wikipedia:

See you next Tuesday (C U next Tuesday) is a common euphemistic backronym for the word "cunt".....

I've always associated it with Stanley Kubrick. It's surprisingly hard to find references to that on the web, but there's this from Roger Ebert: "John Landis... includes the dialog 'See you next Tuesday' in every one of his films, after first hearing it in Kubrick's '2001.'"

Is Trump really going that far out of his way to get women to talk dirty to him? How much speaking in code is going on out there? You risk seeming nutty if you make assertions that you've been spoken to in code. When is it worth speaking in code? When you're luring someone into seeming nutty by accusing you of speaking in code? When you know the code will be understood and you want to get your message out? But here's Kaplan asserting that she "had no idea what that meant" — flaunting her innocence of Trump's scurrilous rhetoric. Did Trump deliberately elicit that performance? So complex. So inane. What would Elvis do?

I suspect that Trump, on his own, is pleased that he inspires Biden to splutter dirty words.

I thought nothing of it when I saw — in Politico — that Biden, speaking in private, has called Trump a "sick fuck" and said "What a fucking asshole the guy is.” There is nothing the slightest bit surprising about this. I remember half a century ago, when people were surprised and censorious about Nixon's dirty words on the Watergate Tapes. But is there anyone sentient who didn't already know Biden says "fuck" in the White House?

But this morning I'm reading "Trump tells supporters 'Biden just called me a sick F-word!' in fundraising email" (NY Post). So Trump is making something out of it:

"Biden furiously denounced... Trump’s habit of joking about the... intruder who attacked Paul Pelosi... with a hammer, saying: 'And he thinks that’s funny. He laughed about it. What a sick – .'"

"He halted. At the last moment, the president of the United States had saved himself from uttering a profanity. The urge coursed through his body and found relief in his hands, which clenched into fists, as the crowd filled in with laughter and whooping. 'My God,' Biden said. 'I think it’s despicable, seriously, not just for a president but for any person to say that.'... He mused: 'Sometimes I’m really happy the Irish in me can’t be seen.'... Democrats are often criticised for pulling their punches and refusing to fight dirty as Republicans do. For as long as Trump has been on the political scene, they have wrestled with the question of whether to rise above him or roll in the dirt with him. In 2018, the former attorney general Eric Holder declared: 'When they go low, we kick ’em. That’s what this new Democratic party is about.'... Voters will surely demand not only vivid Trump-bashing but a positive vision for a second term.... But for now, one thing is clear. The gloves are off...."

Writes David Smith, in "Fired-up Biden shows gloves are off in January 6 anniversary speech" (The Guardian).

What sort of "joking" about Paul Pelosi is Trump guilty of? Example from last September:

"It seems to me like the more time goes on, the more Trump is a shoo-in."

"It seems like if this shit keeps getting crazier and crazier, there are going to be a lot of liberals voting for him. He was the one in the beginning saying we've got to stop people from dying. Like, do you want Ukraine to win this war? Remember that conversation? He's like, 'I want people to stop dying.' Like, which is the best answer any politician has ever given. And the way he said it. See if you can find the one where he's talking about Milley leaving stuff over in Afghanistan. I might have saved it. It was so funny, the way he was saying it. Did you see the thing he was saying about electric tanks? That's hilarious too. ... 'They're gonna make electric tanks, it's gonna be great for the environment, they're not gonna work well. They're not gonna run long. They're gonna blow the shit out of everything, but it's gonna be good for the environment.' And the way he said it was like a guy doing standup.... The way he says it, it's like he sets it up like he's setting up a punch line. Like, he sets up the story, 'Sir, it would be cheaper to leave them over.' He's like... 'That guy's a fucking idiot.'  To see a guy like him talk like that...."

Said Joe Rogan — recorded October 11, 2023.

The sound of no one calling for civility.

 

Seen this morning because I went to Twitter and clicked on "Kavanaugh" in the "What's happening" sidebar.

If you're wondering whether writing "Really fuck you" on someone's photograph and posting it on Twitter is a protected speech under the First Amendment, read the Supreme Court's new "true threats" case, Counterman v. Colorado.

"'The Crabfish' (known also as 'The Sea Crabb'), an English folk song dating back to the mid-1800s about a man who places a crab into a chamber pot..."

"... unbeknownst to his wife, who later uses the pot without looking, and is attacked by the crab. Over the years, sanitized versions of the song were released in which a lobster or crab grabs the wife by the nose instead of by the genitals or that imply the location of the wounds by censoring the rhyming word in the second couplet. For instance, 'Children, children, bring the looking glass / Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's a-face' (arse)."

From the Wikipedia article "Expurgation," which I'm reading this morning because I'm listening to the new Chris Rock special (on Netflix) and, in an effort to blog it, relying on a sanitized WaPo article and using the word "expurgations/expurgation/expurgate" for the first time in the 19-year history of this blog.

Elsewhere in Wikipedia, there's a whole article on "The Crabfish," complete with full lyrics, which, first, I'm very happy to see after suffering through numerous YouTube renderings of the expurgated song:

Vulgarity.

This post embedded what is now a deleted tweet. James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) responded to someone who was unfollowing him because of his language.

Woods wrote:

I’m sure you’re not expecting a response, but I am willing to address your concerns. And you may be further surprised that I hear your point. Vulgarity is beneath all of us, if we truly wish to “hear” the “other side.”

Unfortunately for you, I don’t.

So blow me.