This guy definitely moved beyond the customary societal norms and expectations of extreme southern Utah. To describe the area as "restrictive" is to make light of the situation. Too bad Norman Mailer isn't around to chronicle this, because it will be a complex tale and deserves to be presented with a. Appreciation for its complexity.

Putin has a free rein while Trump is in office.
Even if Old Senescent kicks the bucket from makeup poisoning, Vance has shown himself to be eager to please.
Vlad is losing no time shifting the Overton window.
With a mountain of Republican help.

"Charlie Kirk was never hateful."
No, not necessary, brought me own Sharpie. Just a sec ...
"Charlie Kirk was ever hateful."
There, fixed, no charge.

"To ravage,to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Calgacus
Quoted in Tacitus, The Agricola

Probably even able to insert the correct quit sign after "Pendulum"!

Interesting Jonathan Cook essay:

#15
Doubtful.
She probably thinks Trump is drawing the short straw on this.
Or perhaps it's a tool she can use to winkle out a new stoplight for Dawgpatch.
One thing is clear:
Trump and his lackies are fighting tooth and claw to maintain their ...
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Well, Coriolanus,we be in the same boat when it comes to Umberto Eco. I got through Rose but Pendulum left me eating dust. I do love the way the man could write. I'll bet he was a hard-hearted self-editor of a writer.

Nothing new.
Why, a couple of weeks ago, Old Senescent claimed 300 million died from drugs last year.
300 million in a nation of 340 million.
So about 9 out of every 10 people you see?
Trump thinks they died.
Last year.
That's dementia for you.

CORIOLANUS
Like a meeting of a shifty-eyed Rotary Club.

His advice for those in MAGA?

If you're a MAGA supporter: Rethink your attachment to a movement to which, for various reasons, you became attracted. Its fascist elements"even its fascist core"are now evident. It's not something of which you should want to be a part. Leave it.

If you're a MAGA fellow traveler: Stop rationalizing, stop justifying, stop enabling it.

If you're trying to stay neutral: Stop acquiescing, stop ducking, stop evading responsibility.

If you're a MAGA opponent: Oppose the movement firmly and resolutely by all peaceful and political means. Defeat it.

Kristol explains:

"The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition," he writes, which implies "the rejection of the modern world."
"Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism."

"For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason."

"Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders."

"Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration."

"At the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia."

"The Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo. . . . Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons"doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise."

"Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning."
Sound familiar?

They're just good fascisti, carrying out Trump's orders.
SCOTUS issued Get Out Of Jail Free cards.

Easily understood, how this deeply stupid person managed to go bankrupt six times, three of those times gong big belly-up in the ... wait for it ... casino business.

Impossible?

Not for a self-proclaimed genius who thinks he can cut costs by 1,000%.

"Hemos venido a verle para saber de este pas, para leer un libro sobre l y para que nos ensee mapas. Queremos que nos diga que estamos locos y que nos ensee libros"."
Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King

1. Blaming a murder victim for his own death.
2. Fomenting ethnic, racial, or religious animosity.
3. Declaring a group of Americans incompatible with civilization.
4. Directing sectarian panic at specific politicians.
5. Comparing your opponents to Nazis.
6. Advocating violence.
7. Invoking a religious mandate to execute people.
8. Proposing to liberate an assailant.
9. Organizing a rally that led to a violent attack.

"In the coming weeks," Saletan observes, "officials who have eulogized Kirk as an exemplar of free speech and constructive debate"Trump, Vance, Bondi, Miller, and others"plan to roll out a program to hobble, intimidate, and silence the administration's critics. In the name of thwarting violence, they'll try to impose a regime of investigations, prosecutions, tax penalties, and other harassment."

He offers some good advice:

"Each time they blur the line between speech and violence, calling somebody's words "incitement" or "terrorism," ask yourself: Did they call it that when Charlie Kirk did it? If not, fight them like ----. Nonviolently, of course."

"Putin let me down."

What a whiney, clueless, fundamentally pathetic fool.

#6
Trump goes to the money, much as a truffle hog roots for truffles.
He will attempt to fleece anyone, irrespective of their religious beliefs (the concept being foreign to him).
As for his flock of gullibles, they hate everything they fear.
And fear probably ranks right up there with envy in the list of their qualities.
Combine that with bottomless ignorance?
Well, it's a winnah if you bet on the right horse.

"[P]ut on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are."
Kash Patel, 2023

ZED
Excellent point. Looks like being a pedo protector and giving the nod to one's fellow travelers trumps normal politics.

Attempting to transform Kirk in death into something he was not in life is a fool's errand.
That said, in MAGAtland, there is a glorious abundance of the foolish and gullible.
Just check the wallets.

So these rough rider MAGATs aren't up for following the money?
Everybody knows you need to follow the money.
You'd almost think there's something hinky going on.
Like, oh, maybe a ...
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Nancy Mace is a desperate for attention, unprincipled fabulist who may actually believe some of what she says.
In which case, she's also an utter nutter.