Exactly! All you need is Child Psychology 101 in college to understand this guys pathology. He is the definition of a spoiled, depraved adolescent! And this is me being diplomatic!..:)
Trumpism has always revolved around a transparently false portrayal of a vile and absurd sociopath. The other day, I saw a highly educated person claim that the Trump administration is earnestly committed to "seeking truth" whereas we can't expect that from other presidents (especially Democrats).
To be a Trump defender requires either a lot of cynicism or some form of insanity.
I don't think he's wrong. Canada and Europe can't afford to assume Trump is bluffing or joshing about Greenland, or tariffs, or cutting off Ukraine, or reneging on our NATO obligations. Although I suspect they are trying their best not to overreact to every insane thing that comes out of his mouth, evidence shows they are taking Trump quite seriously. Just not in the way Rubio's handlers want.
I was struck by the number of commenters and commentators who likened Rubio's standing ovation to a battered woman saying of her abuser, "Oh, he still loves me! He hurts me because he loves me and wants me to be great!". Really struck by that. European leaders as battered women. What a thought.
Behaving as abusers has been the playbook for the GOP, MAGAts, the Trump administration, Rush Limbaugh (but still dead), conservative news, influencers (what else is the term “soy boy”?) for years, if not decades. Think Gingrich, W, maybe even Ronnie. Not for nothing has Jon Ossoff’s use of the term “Epstein class” resonated.
The obvious, but absent, continuation is, "The latter disapates with time, wind and hot air, while the former lingers much longer as a guaranteed, biological requirement."
I still see a difference. Rubio's only returns when he decides to repeat his scented screed. Shit is a permanent need and comes out of whatever orifice the Felon has open at the moment, admittedly, some being more biologically required than others, but the guaranteed repetition is the point.
I don't know about Rubio. I mean, compared to JD Vance, he seems basically normal, not a nasty psycho. And perhaps if a trump wasn't in the picture, he might have been like another Bush as a Repub politician. But his incredible ability to kiss trump's ass on every subject every time pretty much diminishes anything he has to say to the point of insignificance.
The New Yorker profile pretty much said he's yet another more-or-less mainstream Republican who decided to sell his soul for a shot at power. Besides, this way he gets to crap on Cuba.
Rubio made a choice to conform to Maga for power. He knows and realizes how nasty maga has let themselves become, all so drunk with power, and he doesn't like it. You could see embarrassment all over his face during the Trump and Vance bullying of Zelensky. But he's literally sold his soul to where you can see the stress and pain of it. He is not going to be remembered fondly in history now, and that bothers him too.
That said, if he's not strong enough to push off someone else's idea of who he should be, than he's a coward. None of the men and women in the trump administration are "good" people, they are all phonies and have compromised themselves terribly in some way to be "in with" this gang of bullies.
I think it should be blatantly obvious by now that Trump does not wipe his own ass and so has someone else perform this odious, odoriferous, disgusting and repugnant service for him. Li'l Marco seems, if he doesn't actually relish doing so, at least at peace and ease with this part of his role in service to Trump and America.
"Over the weekend, emails purportedly from the Judge Advocate Recruiting Office to this year’s crop of JAG candidates began circulating on X: “The Department of Defense will no longer pay for candidates to attend these moderate or high risk schools,” the email reads. “You will have to apply and be accepted to a law school that is not in the moderate or high risk category, and is not listed below. This needs to be done immediately, particularly as we know that some application deadlines have passed, and that you also have a very short turn to try and submit (or re-submit) applications to other schools.”"
So let me get this straight. The Secretary of Defense has the freedom to be a lecherous, drunken piece of shit who gets aroused by committing war crimes, but the military does not have the right to pursue education at institutions SecDef considers "high risk"? Even though SecDef attended two of those "high risk" institutions himself? What risk does MIT pose? That it will teach students the most efficient way to implement a method of moments or FDTD algorithm? Woke electromagnetics?
Hegseth is functionally a fascist, and fascists insist on conformity and disdain critical thinking because it poses an unacceptable risk to conformity. I swear to God, sometimes I feel that he's the narrator in the Metallica song "Disposable Heroes".
OK Mike, now that you have been outed, are any of those five (heaven forbid) RED? I mean, if you, aren't you worried now about your licensure there if they learn your secret "perversion" of posting in this place? (Sorry, forgot the sarcasm alert.)
At least President’s Day hasn’t been corrupted by Donald Trump signing an executive order to call it Trump Day (yet … check back in a few hours).
But despite the evils that many past presidents have inflicted there was always a sense that even after Nixon the presidency was still about caring for the country’s ideals. That was shattered in 2016 the night the US elected Donald Trump. He brings all the worst attributes together: corrupt, sadistic, dishonest and unserious.
Bill makes the common mistake of failing to account for the ambiguity of common language. "Presidents Day" does not necessarily mean 'all Presidents'. It can just be 'more than one'. Which e.g. is what I always thought, i.e. just meaning that Washington and Lincoln were getting honored together instead of separately. All the newspaper ads I remember for Presidents Day sales had pics of both George and Abe, but no other POTUS. Isn't that why this is a shopping day? They're the guys with their mugs on the money, and those are the pics they use in the ads.
Rubio, as Trump's emissary, no matter how reassuringly he tried to message, might as well given his speech in jeans and a wife beater t-shirt. Seriously!
There are no coincidences - you can spell Barack Obama with the NYT spelling bee letters this morning , on presidents day . But the Bee refuses to accept it . Calling Candace Owen , I am not sure what this means . I am sure , though that its is very serious
It would be nice for MAGA to understand the impact of their votes. I suspect most of them will still wallow in their grievances, simply because the global elites are still out to get them.
High-level Trump apologists think he's doing an awesome job in the culture wars. They want their "Christian nationalist" ethno-state, but without much in the way of Christian virtues, even if means we're alone in the world and most of us are worse off.
I don’t expect any enlightenment, no matter how hot the stove and how many times they get burned. I’m trying to figure out how America ever achieved the heights we are now falling from.
The more we understand Trump and Trumpism the more we realize he's reignited a class war in America. He's on a mission to turn America into an exclusive low tax mecca for the rich, privileged and entitled. All above the law while America's workers toil away to keep our society going; reminiscent of the 18th-19th century's plantation and industrial systems.
But the GOOD news is that America is on to him and the GOP. Trump/MAGA is down 14% in its average approval ratings since Trump's inauguration. That equals 12,000,000 votes out of the 77,000,000 who mistakenly voted for the lying fascist rich boy and are now expressing remorse.
Coincidentally, it's funny how the GOP Budget numbers work. The $110 Billion the Trump/GOP has devoted to their ICE Gestapo secret police and prison camps is the amount of $s Americans need to refund our ACA healthcare subsidies.
The Constitution is coming for MAGA. We the people will win in Nov.
The idea that Trump truly cares about ordinary Americans was always transparently ludicrous, as was the notion that he's a truth-telling warrior against corruption and a stalwart champion of Christian values.
The claim that he is restoring "Americanism" is also a hollow sham, given that he prefers a dictatorship, dressed up with retro-patriotic symbols. He doesn't even "put America first," since he will obviously sell out the national interest to profit himself and his plutocratic allies.
Rubio. Elephant in the room! Hello there is a large animal sitting on your chest! Not a mention? No credibility. No integrity. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a continuing conflict that requires attention and more significant support of Ukraine.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: NATO countries shifting away from the U.S. will only work until more elect their own Trumps. Both the UK and France are on track to do it next time.
The UK is more than halfway there. It's so depressing watching them follow our MAGA timeline. Maybe JK Rowling now outed as being good friends with Epstein will get them to re-examine that the GENDER POLICE HARDER movement is always the tip of the fascist spear.
If Britain has it’s own MAGA turn it will be in part because Keir Starmer has been such a wimpy Prime minister. He came in with a strong mandate after years of Tory mismanagement, and yet he has not shown leadership or a willingness to use the powers of government to promote a Labour agenda. Note to Democrats whoever comes up in 2028 that person needs to have balls and not follow in Keir Starmer’s footsteps.
Remember a month ago when all of right wing media from National Review to Fox News latched on to the shovel attack story as evidence that ICE was under attack by criminal violent illegals? There’s a reason why most of us rational thinkers didn’t believe a word said by Noem or the rest of Trump’s administration.
I’m happy we found out the story was false but most of their lies won’t be admitted. You can tell by their language that it’s just lying. If they were legitimately under attack or threat the language used would be more sober-minded and detailed. Instead everything is sensationalized into obvious lies. Protestors that blow whistles are called domestic terrorists interfering with ICE. Cars that violate minor traffic laws are called weapons intending to kill as many ICE officers by domestic terrorists.
The clownish statements of Noem have helped make most defenders of harsh immigration policy realize that’s not what’s going on. Unfortunately getting them to admit it doesn’t happen very much.
But the damage has already been done. Do you think FOX is going to be running stories about how the case was dropped and the officers placed on administrative leave? FOX will not do the follow up which doesn’t support their narrative — most media do very little follow up on these stories. There are many people who will believe the lie and never have heard it debunked.
The lesson I take is that they've gotten so used to lying that it doesn't bother them.
The cop that got hit with the sandwich testified, under oath, that the sandwich had "exploded" on him. There was a photo of the sandwich laying at his feet, unopened. That guy had no problem lying. Think it was his first time? I don't. And was there any sanction for him? Nope. Sandwich Guy walked, but that's not quite the same thing.
Yeah. Sandwich Guy got lucky that he threw the sandwich at a stupid cop, but Judge Box-o'-Wine indicted him on felony charges. If the cop had been a little more skilled in his lying or the photo hadn't existed, Sandwich Guy would be in prison right now.
This is serious stuff and I don't get the sense that people grasp it fully.
You do have to treat those Subway sandwiches with care, it’s best to get training as a combat engineer before attempting to unwrap one: if not you do so at your own risk and will suffer the consequences.
Kinda lazy of the Bulwark to just use the official lingo of 'contradicted by evidence' without elaborating. Based on witness observations reported in the press, the whole story of the ICE agent shooting the immigrant guy defensively while being attacked with broom and shovel was cock and bull. The witnesses said the guy was inside his apartment with ICE trying to get him and they shot him through the door.
The evidence contradicting the account is apparently the bullet hole in the door.
I interned at an air force base for a couple of summers, and I heard a story from someone there who had worked with a technical person who had worked at Area 51 (it was referred to as "the secret base in Nevada"). Evidently, the base had ruined a lot of marriages.
It was during the Cold War, and the U.S. government was paranoid about Soviet espionage, so evidently the people that worked there all had assumed identities. Also, the shuttle plane from Las Vegas that people would use to get to and from there on a daily basis was often missed if someone was in the middle of work, so having to stay overnight at the base was a not infrequent occurrence. If someone is coming back home the next day in the same clothes and they aren't allowed to tell their spouses why, what do you think the spouse is going to assume?
As near as I can tell -- I did not hear or see it all -- the Rubio speech was simply MAGA light, more of the same bullying of Europe with a new, slightly easier-on-the-eyes label wrapped around the can. We know who we are. They know who we are. There are no new tricks coming from this dog.
Those who want to hear a counterbalance to our current Washingtonspeak should read, listen to, or watch European media and comment forums, preferably in the original language as possible. They paint a very different image of our relations with the continent than what we are subjected to in official forums here, and with more depth and insight. We are unifying others who have trouble getting along ... through their disdain for the United States. That's not exactly what most foreign policy experts strive for.
The one ray of sunshine is that most observers there still differentiate between what our government is saying and doing, and what the typical American citizen represents. They know that MAGA is a minority voice. But with each passing day and each new attack on their values and standing, the behavior of the current regime threatens to stain us all with an ink that cannot be washed away, and with consequences for all of us, whether businesspeople, casual travelers, or otherwise. How long can we remain apart from that? I'd really rather not be forced to find out.
I think most people can make a distinction between a countries people and the policies emanating from its government, but at the end of the day, we get the governments we choose. The bigger loss is our reputation as a force for stability and the rule of law. Our power and much of our prosperity came from stable leadership who could be depended upon. An unstable US economy which swings wildly among policy preferences between presidents is not one they, or anyone, can count on to provide leadership and stability.
You are absolutely correct about reading or watching news from Europe and elsewhere on how these places see us.
Re the Cheap Shot: In these dark times, I find joy where I can, and I especially enjoy watching senior conservative thinkers come face-to-face with the Idiocracy of our era. From Will Sommer torturing Bill Kristol with a discussion of looksmaxxing to Tim Miller torturing David French with raunchy Kid Rock lyrics at the end of his podcast. Maybe I'm a sadist, but I love it!
"President Trump demands seriousness ..."
I don't know if I've heard a less serious comment in my entire life.
Are you sure he didn’t write, “PRESIDENT TRUMP DEMANDS SERIOUSNESS! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!…:)
Just like a five year old spoiled brat
Exactly! All you need is Child Psychology 101 in college to understand this guys pathology. He is the definition of a spoiled, depraved adolescent! And this is me being diplomatic!..:)
And that is giving short shrift to five year old spoiled brats!
But, isn't a "spoiled brat" insufferable no matter what age? In fact, don't they get worse with age, like a cheese one left out too long?
Trumpism has always revolved around a transparently false portrayal of a vile and absurd sociopath. The other day, I saw a highly educated person claim that the Trump administration is earnestly committed to "seeking truth" whereas we can't expect that from other presidents (especially Democrats).
To be a Trump defender requires either a lot of cynicism or some form of insanity.
Highly educated yet willfully ignorant. Sigh.
I vote for "insanity"!
I don't think he's wrong. Canada and Europe can't afford to assume Trump is bluffing or joshing about Greenland, or tariffs, or cutting off Ukraine, or reneging on our NATO obligations. Although I suspect they are trying their best not to overreact to every insane thing that comes out of his mouth, evidence shows they are taking Trump quite seriously. Just not in the way Rubio's handlers want.
The name “Trump” should always be replaced with “Miller” when referencing policy.
Trump Shits on Europe. Rubio Applies Perfume.
All headline writers in the era of Trump should learn from this headline. Well done.
I was struck by the number of commenters and commentators who likened Rubio's standing ovation to a battered woman saying of her abuser, "Oh, he still loves me! He hurts me because he loves me and wants me to be great!". Really struck by that. European leaders as battered women. What a thought.
Behaving as abusers has been the playbook for the GOP, MAGAts, the Trump administration, Rush Limbaugh (but still dead), conservative news, influencers (what else is the term “soy boy”?) for years, if not decades. Think Gingrich, W, maybe even Ronnie. Not for nothing has Jon Ossoff’s use of the term “Epstein class” resonated.
What can we expect from a movement that popularized “negging” as a way to get women to fall in love?
This MAGA movement is attached at the hip to misogyny.
"Really struck by that."
<Ha. Sob.>
I keep thinking of that AI video of him unleashing a load on NYC from a jet-plane. The image seems... apt.
The obvious, but absent, continuation is, "The latter disapates with time, wind and hot air, while the former lingers much longer as a guaranteed, biological requirement."
The continuation could be 'Both leave their mark.'
How do you mean "leave"?
Olfactory.
I still see a difference. Rubio's only returns when he decides to repeat his scented screed. Shit is a permanent need and comes out of whatever orifice the Felon has open at the moment, admittedly, some being more biologically required than others, but the guaranteed repetition is the point.
So to expect a different outcome from the guaranteed repetition = definition of insanity.
I don't know about Rubio. I mean, compared to JD Vance, he seems basically normal, not a nasty psycho. And perhaps if a trump wasn't in the picture, he might have been like another Bush as a Repub politician. But his incredible ability to kiss trump's ass on every subject every time pretty much diminishes anything he has to say to the point of insignificance.
The New Yorker profile pretty much said he's yet another more-or-less mainstream Republican who decided to sell his soul for a shot at power. Besides, this way he gets to crap on Cuba.
I’ve never before seen a soul actually take flight in real time. It’s been unsettling.
Rubio made a choice to conform to Maga for power. He knows and realizes how nasty maga has let themselves become, all so drunk with power, and he doesn't like it. You could see embarrassment all over his face during the Trump and Vance bullying of Zelensky. But he's literally sold his soul to where you can see the stress and pain of it. He is not going to be remembered fondly in history now, and that bothers him too.
That said, if he's not strong enough to push off someone else's idea of who he should be, than he's a coward. None of the men and women in the trump administration are "good" people, they are all phonies and have compromised themselves terribly in some way to be "in with" this gang of bullies.
Rubio as Floridians know him: basically normal ... compared to Trump & Vance.
....and pudding' fingers
Rubio is a guy who publicly said he hated being a Senator and that he found the job boring. And then he chose to run for office again.
I think it should be blatantly obvious by now that Trump does not wipe his own ass and so has someone else perform this odious, odoriferous, disgusting and repugnant service for him. Li'l Marco seems, if he doesn't actually relish doing so, at least at peace and ease with this part of his role in service to Trump and America.
"Over the weekend, emails purportedly from the Judge Advocate Recruiting Office to this year’s crop of JAG candidates began circulating on X: “The Department of Defense will no longer pay for candidates to attend these moderate or high risk schools,” the email reads. “You will have to apply and be accepted to a law school that is not in the moderate or high risk category, and is not listed below. This needs to be done immediately, particularly as we know that some application deadlines have passed, and that you also have a very short turn to try and submit (or re-submit) applications to other schools.”"
So let me get this straight. The Secretary of Defense has the freedom to be a lecherous, drunken piece of shit who gets aroused by committing war crimes, but the military does not have the right to pursue education at institutions SecDef considers "high risk"? Even though SecDef attended two of those "high risk" institutions himself? What risk does MIT pose? That it will teach students the most efficient way to implement a method of moments or FDTD algorithm? Woke electromagnetics?
Hegseth is functionally a fascist, and fascists insist on conformity and disdain critical thinking because it poses an unacceptable risk to conformity. I swear to God, sometimes I feel that he's the narrator in the Metallica song "Disposable Heroes".
Even Pepperdine is too woke!
Which is saying something since it had Ken Starr (spit!) as dean for its school of law.
Well, it is located in Malibu. Woke is probably contagious out here.
Never expected to see MoM cited in anything Bulwark!
LOL! There's a lot of really smart people here. Mike Lew, for example, is a professional engineer in five states.
And snarkastic in all states!
(I think you're making him blush)
Feeling stalked is more like it. 😀
OK Mike, now that you have been outed, are any of those five (heaven forbid) RED? I mean, if you, aren't you worried now about your licensure there if they learn your secret "perversion" of posting in this place? (Sorry, forgot the sarcasm alert.)
Ron DeSantis' name was on the letterhead of one state's correspondence. 😀
The joke is on you if you think a PE license makes you smart. 😀
Damn I hoped something might make ME smart
If you figure it out, let me know. 😀
And you remembered that off the top of your head, why? 😀
Because you said you were the other day and I've got a pretty good memory. :)
Republicans always complain about Democrats apologizing to the world, and then every time Republicans are in power they demonstrate why they have to.
It's like a DUI. Everything is fine till the D part.
At least President’s Day hasn’t been corrupted by Donald Trump signing an executive order to call it Trump Day (yet … check back in a few hours).
But despite the evils that many past presidents have inflicted there was always a sense that even after Nixon the presidency was still about caring for the country’s ideals. That was shattered in 2016 the night the US elected Donald Trump. He brings all the worst attributes together: corrupt, sadistic, dishonest and unserious.
Bill makes the common mistake of failing to account for the ambiguity of common language. "Presidents Day" does not necessarily mean 'all Presidents'. It can just be 'more than one'. Which e.g. is what I always thought, i.e. just meaning that Washington and Lincoln were getting honored together instead of separately. All the newspaper ads I remember for Presidents Day sales had pics of both George and Abe, but no other POTUS. Isn't that why this is a shopping day? They're the guys with their mugs on the money, and those are the pics they use in the ads.
Rubio, as Trump's emissary, no matter how reassuringly he tried to message, might as well given his speech in jeans and a wife beater t-shirt. Seriously!
Shut up! I love you! :)
as reaches for a pack of cigarettes in his t-shirt pocket since they no longer can be rolled up in cut-off sleeves.
Excuse me, President Obama, there are two people holding for you on line 1, their names are Mulder and Scully . . . . . . .
Poor President Obama. Didn't he realize the country went crazy and you can't mention anything without it becoming a conspiracy theory?
And just think, it was a scandal when he wore a brown suit!
The truth is out there!
To assume humans are the height of intelligent life and only exist on this planet shows Trumpian levels of hubris.
Especially given we live in an infinite universe, of which there may be many.
The truth is out there......
I want to believe.
There are no coincidences - you can spell Barack Obama with the NYT spelling bee letters this morning , on presidents day . But the Bee refuses to accept it . Calling Candace Owen , I am not sure what this means . I am sure , though that its is very serious
They can post on X.
Europe knows what time it is, and because of that they are rightly leaving us behind.
Hope this is what MAGA ultimately wanted. The find out phase sure is unpleasant, especially for those of us who opted out of the f*ck around phase.
It would be nice for MAGA to understand the impact of their votes. I suspect most of them will still wallow in their grievances, simply because the global elites are still out to get them.
There will always be a new scapegoat to blame!
How to choose, how to choose. The GOP will be happy to help with that.
High-level Trump apologists think he's doing an awesome job in the culture wars. They want their "Christian nationalist" ethno-state, but without much in the way of Christian virtues, even if means we're alone in the world and most of us are worse off.
I don’t expect any enlightenment, no matter how hot the stove and how many times they get burned. I’m trying to figure out how America ever achieved the heights we are now falling from.
The more we understand Trump and Trumpism the more we realize he's reignited a class war in America. He's on a mission to turn America into an exclusive low tax mecca for the rich, privileged and entitled. All above the law while America's workers toil away to keep our society going; reminiscent of the 18th-19th century's plantation and industrial systems.
But the GOOD news is that America is on to him and the GOP. Trump/MAGA is down 14% in its average approval ratings since Trump's inauguration. That equals 12,000,000 votes out of the 77,000,000 who mistakenly voted for the lying fascist rich boy and are now expressing remorse.
Coincidentally, it's funny how the GOP Budget numbers work. The $110 Billion the Trump/GOP has devoted to their ICE Gestapo secret police and prison camps is the amount of $s Americans need to refund our ACA healthcare subsidies.
The Constitution is coming for MAGA. We the people will win in Nov.
The idea that Trump truly cares about ordinary Americans was always transparently ludicrous, as was the notion that he's a truth-telling warrior against corruption and a stalwart champion of Christian values.
The claim that he is restoring "Americanism" is also a hollow sham, given that he prefers a dictatorship, dressed up with retro-patriotic symbols. He doesn't even "put America first," since he will obviously sell out the national interest to profit himself and his plutocratic allies.
Until Elon convinces the supreme court that his robots are as human as corporations and get to vote.
Convinces or pays off?
Rubio. Elephant in the room! Hello there is a large animal sitting on your chest! Not a mention? No credibility. No integrity. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a continuing conflict that requires attention and more significant support of Ukraine.
more like Dumbo
I've said it before and I'll say it again: NATO countries shifting away from the U.S. will only work until more elect their own Trumps. Both the UK and France are on track to do it next time.
The UK is more than halfway there. It's so depressing watching them follow our MAGA timeline. Maybe JK Rowling now outed as being good friends with Epstein will get them to re-examine that the GENDER POLICE HARDER movement is always the tip of the fascist spear.
If Britain has it’s own MAGA turn it will be in part because Keir Starmer has been such a wimpy Prime minister. He came in with a strong mandate after years of Tory mismanagement, and yet he has not shown leadership or a willingness to use the powers of government to promote a Labour agenda. Note to Democrats whoever comes up in 2028 that person needs to have balls and not follow in Keir Starmer’s footsteps.
Remember a month ago when all of right wing media from National Review to Fox News latched on to the shovel attack story as evidence that ICE was under attack by criminal violent illegals? There’s a reason why most of us rational thinkers didn’t believe a word said by Noem or the rest of Trump’s administration.
I’m happy we found out the story was false but most of their lies won’t be admitted. You can tell by their language that it’s just lying. If they were legitimately under attack or threat the language used would be more sober-minded and detailed. Instead everything is sensationalized into obvious lies. Protestors that blow whistles are called domestic terrorists interfering with ICE. Cars that violate minor traffic laws are called weapons intending to kill as many ICE officers by domestic terrorists.
The clownish statements of Noem have helped make most defenders of harsh immigration policy realize that’s not what’s going on. Unfortunately getting them to admit it doesn’t happen very much.
But the damage has already been done. Do you think FOX is going to be running stories about how the case was dropped and the officers placed on administrative leave? FOX will not do the follow up which doesn’t support their narrative — most media do very little follow up on these stories. There are many people who will believe the lie and never have heard it debunked.
I'm sorry but if you are such a wimp that you are at risk from a broom handle, maybe you should go find another job.
It's amazing how all the way down the line they're all just learning to lie through their teeth. About everything.
The lesson I take is that they've gotten so used to lying that it doesn't bother them.
The cop that got hit with the sandwich testified, under oath, that the sandwich had "exploded" on him. There was a photo of the sandwich laying at his feet, unopened. That guy had no problem lying. Think it was his first time? I don't. And was there any sanction for him? Nope. Sandwich Guy walked, but that's not quite the same thing.
“exploded” was the giveaway that he was making it up. And he was too dumb to realize it.
Yeah. Sandwich Guy got lucky that he threw the sandwich at a stupid cop, but Judge Box-o'-Wine indicted him on felony charges. If the cop had been a little more skilled in his lying or the photo hadn't existed, Sandwich Guy would be in prison right now.
This is serious stuff and I don't get the sense that people grasp it fully.
Yup
You do have to treat those Subway sandwiches with care, it’s best to get training as a combat engineer before attempting to unwrap one: if not you do so at your own risk and will suffer the consequences.
Kinda lazy of the Bulwark to just use the official lingo of 'contradicted by evidence' without elaborating. Based on witness observations reported in the press, the whole story of the ICE agent shooting the immigrant guy defensively while being attacked with broom and shovel was cock and bull. The witnesses said the guy was inside his apartment with ICE trying to get him and they shot him through the door.
The evidence contradicting the account is apparently the bullet hole in the door.
I interned at an air force base for a couple of summers, and I heard a story from someone there who had worked with a technical person who had worked at Area 51 (it was referred to as "the secret base in Nevada"). Evidently, the base had ruined a lot of marriages.
It was during the Cold War, and the U.S. government was paranoid about Soviet espionage, so evidently the people that worked there all had assumed identities. Also, the shuttle plane from Las Vegas that people would use to get to and from there on a daily basis was often missed if someone was in the middle of work, so having to stay overnight at the base was a not infrequent occurrence. If someone is coming back home the next day in the same clothes and they aren't allowed to tell their spouses why, what do you think the spouse is going to assume?
As near as I can tell -- I did not hear or see it all -- the Rubio speech was simply MAGA light, more of the same bullying of Europe with a new, slightly easier-on-the-eyes label wrapped around the can. We know who we are. They know who we are. There are no new tricks coming from this dog.
Those who want to hear a counterbalance to our current Washingtonspeak should read, listen to, or watch European media and comment forums, preferably in the original language as possible. They paint a very different image of our relations with the continent than what we are subjected to in official forums here, and with more depth and insight. We are unifying others who have trouble getting along ... through their disdain for the United States. That's not exactly what most foreign policy experts strive for.
The one ray of sunshine is that most observers there still differentiate between what our government is saying and doing, and what the typical American citizen represents. They know that MAGA is a minority voice. But with each passing day and each new attack on their values and standing, the behavior of the current regime threatens to stain us all with an ink that cannot be washed away, and with consequences for all of us, whether businesspeople, casual travelers, or otherwise. How long can we remain apart from that? I'd really rather not be forced to find out.
I think most people can make a distinction between a countries people and the policies emanating from its government, but at the end of the day, we get the governments we choose. The bigger loss is our reputation as a force for stability and the rule of law. Our power and much of our prosperity came from stable leadership who could be depended upon. An unstable US economy which swings wildly among policy preferences between presidents is not one they, or anyone, can count on to provide leadership and stability.
You are absolutely correct about reading or watching news from Europe and elsewhere on how these places see us.
Re the Cheap Shot: In these dark times, I find joy where I can, and I especially enjoy watching senior conservative thinkers come face-to-face with the Idiocracy of our era. From Will Sommer torturing Bill Kristol with a discussion of looksmaxxing to Tim Miller torturing David French with raunchy Kid Rock lyrics at the end of his podcast. Maybe I'm a sadist, but I love it!