Pertinent, I think:

O'Brien: How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?

Winston: By making him suffer.

O'Brien: Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred."

George Orwell, 1984

Have you [BOAZ] upped your donations to Charity, to account for all that Trump has done in 11 months?
#70 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

Charities?
Trump is a court-certified charity looter.
Whose fault is that?
No, MAGAts say, do not that there make charities baaaad?

There is one alpha in that relationship.
Just to be clear: It's Putin, the guy who literally carved his way to the top.
Trump, as a textbook beta, appears to actually be afraid of Putin.
We see it as we stare at our screens.
And Putin, not only does he see it; he can actually smell it.
Small wonder he smiles thinly and his cold eyes sparkle as the supplicant waddles into view.

CHUFFY ...
Eloquently and concisely put. Damn good read. Thank you.

Coriolanus ...
Before the Rez, warriors from some Plains Indian tribes (e.g., Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne) went raiding and part of the affair involved bringing back some new blood to infuse into the tribal pool. That meant women and children. It was not uncommon for, say, veterans of the Plains Indian Wars to note their father was a Lakota and their mother a Crow (enemy tribe) or Cheyenne (allied tribe). I recall a guy some Kiowa raiders out of Oklahoma and Texas picked up in the 1860s or so as a kid way the hell down in Mexico (might have been Durango). He had held his hand up to a Kiowa rider as the group calmly rode through his town, so one of the warriors swung out from his pony, extended his hand, grabbed the kid's, hoisted him up behind, and off they went. He lived the rest of his life with them. They called him Andale (Spanish for "Come on!")

#59
Trump is clearly neither up to nor interested in performing the actual job of president.
He's too lazy, incurious, ignorant, and - increasingly- swaddled in a dementia fog to be good to go for that.
So he either squats at his desk or shlump shuffles from one gilded photo op to the next gilded photo op.
My guess is CHUFFY is right and it's Steven Miller these days.
Schlaf gut!

Thank you for posting that link.

Hi, Coriolanus ...
I'm looking at it in terms of it being a cultural norm or simply culturally acceptable, since, any medical effects aside for the moment, the practice has enormous implications for those societies in which it is practiced.

#34
In addition, all of the Abrahamic religions regard as sacred and directly associated with divine will texts which do not list cousin marriage among the prohibited relationships.

Which may explain a lot.

Boaz sheet posts rubbish, gets called, deeply embarrassed, and then goes AWOL ... yet again.
It's not a tic; it's a feature.
MAGAts are indeed a cowardly crew.

This makes Boaz's head hurt.

"Trump is barely in the files ... "

Oh, keeriest, here we go again with more of Boaz's incessant bozoness.
Okay Boaz, answer me this:
HOW DO YOU KNOW?

That's your cue to run off ... again

#28
If Trump was a Democrat MAGAts would bray to high heaven for the release of files they'd claim they already knew (because "alternative facts," doh) proved Trump joined in---------- and blood sacrifice topped off by sexualized cannibalism (don't ask) sessions with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Pablo Escobar, Josef Mengele, Salvador Dali, Perry Como, and Paul McCartney (yes, of course he's dead). There's a reason the East Wing had to be torn down, y'know. And Boaz would be jerky dancing in that pack.

PS: Your question has been repeatedly answered on the DR. Please stop with the stoopid.

Perhaps Trump's minders calculated they might as well try and divert attention from Old Yeller's Epstein mess by subjecting him to a world distraction tour, similar in cause and effect to Nixon's peregrinations when Watergate really turned sour. But some historical memories are painfully short. The fact is, Nixon's migrations did him no good, and it's hard to see how putting Trump on display can in any way accomplish much beyond setting off alarm bells about the state of the mental and physical health of Mr. Person Woman Man Camera TV.

SCOTUS has given Trump a free pass for in-office criminality. All he has to do for those he involves in crimes is issue blanket pardons and, as they say, Bob's yer uncle.

This is, in effect, introducing the functional equivalent of Nazi Germany's Fuhrerprinzip into our political life.

If the Trumpniks were actually grabbing "the worst of the worst" it's amazing they're keeping the details and documentation under wraps. I mean, it's not like this was the Epstein Files or anything, right?

"America's Deal Maker"

Bwahahahahahahahahaha ... .

... .HA!

Basically, murder.

Too easily falling into flattery's trap, the senescent Trump holding this office and parading his ignorance and stupidity across the world.
This is a yuuge tragedy for this country.
"American Exceptionalism"?
Nah, history is littered with accounts of nutters misplaced in crucial positions of power at critical inflection points.
It's gonna hurt.
A lot.

We have never, ever received a real health report on Trump.
He is not a healthy person.
Jayzus, just look at him.
A sloppy, stooping, sweaty mess.
And that's before the professionals are called in to prep him.
The makeup artists with their hawks and trowels.
Tooth polishers, tie tiers, hair arrangers drawn from the ranks of boardwalk cotton candy creationists ...
And, yet, still ...
Red of face, dripping sweat, beady red eyes ...
Mr. Perfect Health looks like he's just about to quite literally blow up.
What a mess.

It's for grifting, grafting, and money laundering station as well as a sop to the fragile ego of a dementia besotted old felon.

Weirdly, the story brought to mind the title of one of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn novels: Dance Hall of the Dead.