"The first blow against autocracy is the refusal of cynical complacency. Right after Trump's first election, the Russian emigre M Gessen proposed some rules' for surviving autocracy. Among them: Be outraged ... [I]n the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one's capacity for shock.'"

Republicans on the whole will remain Pavlovian and stick with Paxton.
For them ripping the place apart is attention seeking behavior.
These mugs are proud of the cheapening and destruction they've wrought.
It's what they voted for and it's why they tried to overthrow the government.
Now they have the regime they want and they're making the most of it.
Paxton brings the pungent perfume of the Republican sty with him.
He's the icing on their cow pie cake.

You can tell MarkWayne really thought this one through. That's our MarkWayne, a thinker kinda guy.

Whatever happens at this third-rate bread and circuses show for the incel baboonery, nobody present will be near as big a loser as Trump - who just got his voluminous butt handed to him by a third-tier military power.

Healthy as a ... as a ... as ... zzzzzzzzzz.

It was my good fortune to know some of those WW2 veterans. Never heard the ones who had been in actual combat ever speak of it as anything other than the most goddamn awful horror they wouldn't wish on anyone they could readily name. And they certainly didn't speak of it in the cartoonish terms used by cowards like Trump and Hegseth. Those Navajo Code Talkers from the Pacific fighting? When they returned to the Rez they went through powerful ceremonies specifically designed to rid them of the disharmony of war and reincorporate them into society..

Person woman man camera TV!

Didn't you get the memo? You're not "government employees" anymore. What you are is "help" in a subsidiary of Trump, Inc. And you will obey.

Tough business, playing catch-up with the slathering rubes. One day you're hot, next day you're ... not.

It's exactly what folks like Boaz voted for.

Deal making by a convicted felon and multiple bankrupt whose only way of succeeding lies in ripping off others. Whataguy.

Thoughts and prayers to the sclerotic vampire's victims, including those poor Iranians sufficiently desperate/naive to have actually fallen for his assurances of assistance.

Oh, well, nice day for a round of golf.

Get your wardrobe at Bass Pro or Cabella's, wear a mask, behave like one of Hitler's Brownshirts and you've nailed the role. Hell, you might even get a government signing bonus if you go the distance.

Question: What's the difference between a masked ICE thug and a run-of-the-mill thug?
Answer: ICE thugs regularly get away with murder.

Memoryholed

Every time I think this isn't rooted in scientific fact, there's Stephen Miller.

"The dog barks, and the caravan moves on"
Arab Proverb

People who think in terms of "alternate facts" live in an alternate reality. Short, of a personal catastrophe - and even that of dubious effect - reaching them is a tough one, considering it wasn't smarts that got them there in the first place.

Smells like heaven to Republicans.

#12
Couldn't agree with you more, DONNERBOY, especially about that "so alive" feeling after - and during - a dive. As a career, it can be physically wearing and aspiring divemasters should probably consider having some other skill they can rely on down the road. The best of them are keenly aware not only of the environment but also of their own limitations. That may have been an issue in the Maldives cave dive. I always stayed away from big talk divers and resisted buddying up with them because I thought they were potentially very dangerous to be around. And all that said, I miss scuba diving ... a lot. Just pay attention to your training, watch your gauges ... and don't hold your breath.

Jack Larson and George Reeves - Look, up in the sky ...

Thx for posting, Corky. The phrases victims use are formulae for warding off thoughtcrime: repeatedly murmuring "fake mews," garlic in a pocket to scare off the malocchio, spilled salt tossed over the shoulder, etc.

Trump is not a "deal maker."
He's a six-timer bankrupt who busted out multiple times running ... gambling dens.
The Music Man with steaks, watches, booze, steaks, etc., etc., etc.
He's the guy who outbids himself at an auction with someone else's dough.
Specifically, yours.

Old Yeller is hardly in a position to tell anyone, other than his goobers and employees, what to do about anything, ever. He is, simply put, the biggest loser in American history - aided and abetted by more losers than one might think even a large nation could possibly contain.