"The need for authoritarian regimes to promote the least able is easy to understand in theory, but has seldom been studied scientifically since existing or aspirant autocracies do not disclose their recruitment and promotion policies," writes Cockburn. "But some years back Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel wrote a fascinating article entitled Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organisations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina', published in the American Journal of Political Science."

They looked at the careers of 4,000 officers in the core institution of state repression in Argentina during the 1975-83 military dictatorship, asking: "Why would anyone do dirty work for the regime? Are these people sadistic psychopaths, sectarian fanatics, or forced by the regime to terrorise the population?"

They concluded that, while all these factors may play a role, the typical profile of secret police agents is shaped rather by the mundane need to keep a job and win promotion.

"In competition with better qualified peers, officials with weak early performances have little chances of climbing up to the most lucrative positions at the top," they wrote. "For such underachievers the arduous nature of secret police work offers the opportunity to signal their value to the regime and get ahead of competitors for higher positions."

It is shocking to realise that what was true of Argentinian security services half a century ago is likely to apply to ICE today.

The response from the regime? A lie.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, told the Guardian that the coat was standard issue and responded to a query by saying it was a "manufactured outrage". Previously she said to the New York Times that the coat was part of a "standard-issue border patrol winter dress uniform", although the newspaper also cited a 2025 document detailing the Border Patrol's Uniform and Grooming Standards in which the coat in question was not listed as part of any official uniform.

Check out WW1 and WW2 casualties and timelines if you want them as a measure to identify a country that came very late to the conflict.

For perspective's sake, Google "Trump family military service."

"That boy is a P-I-G pig."

idiocy personified.
#11 | POSTED BY SHRIMPTACODAN

Your posts? Indeed. Frankly, I'm just three klicks away from sending you a gift basket of Trump kitsch in recognition of this unexpected display of a degree of self-awareness you've never shown before. Congrats, kiddo, congrats.

POSTED BY BELLRINGER
No one has to give a crap about stuff like this until after the full Epstein Files are released.
#9 | POSTED BY ZED

I formerly tended to the belief Trump wasn't actually involved in Epstein's pedo network.
Then came the ongoing, transparent Trump Epstein Coverup.
Now I think Trump may well be in those files in ways that will shock even many MAGAts.
Before those files are "cleansed" through consignment to the memory hole.
But, seriously MAGAts (e.g. Jeffy), why the clumsily obvious coverup?
Unless pedophilia should be added to the long list of Trump's felonies?

Yup, a regular 5-dimensional chess player is your Old Yeller.

Lil' Marco wants a parade along Havana's Malecon. More likely, he and his Miami buddies will be seen for what they are: carpetbaggers.

From the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" ...

"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said a little child.

"Listen to the voice of innocence!" exclaimed his father; and what the child had said was whispered from one to another.

"But he has nothing at all on!" at last cried out all the people. The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold.

The weakness Trump displays with his unending yips and yaps about how he is such a monumental figure (he and the nation are one: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer"), great but tragically and nefariously under-appreciated are reflective of a person so needy they can never attain anything approaching fulfillment. Behold POTUS, a truly miserable human being.

Boaz just goes through the motions now.
Trump's gotten about everything he can wring out of him and his other MAGAt marks.
About for Old Yeller to move on to bigger, more lucrative grifts.
Buh bye, Buh-buh-buh-bozo.

Meanwhile ...

TRUMP'S EPSTEIN COVERUP CONTINUES

Thanks, Republicans, masters of the bent knee.

Just a peek into the world these grifters and thieves inhabit:

If you want to get a sense of why Trump says he "loves the poorly educated" consider this: MAGAts are so dumb they voted for the "law and order" candidate by pulling the lever for a twice impeached, 34 times convicted felon, serial bankrupt, thief, sexual abuser, and pathological liar.

And they wonder why they're perpetual marks? Well, here's your sign.

What's a wannabe Fuhrer without a Fuhrerbunker?

Esposito: From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now... 16 years old!
Fielding Mellish: What's the Spanish word for straitjacket?
Woody Allen, Bananas (1971)