“Manipulated” may have been too strong a word, but he’s certainly easily influenced by whoever spoke to him last. That’s been fairly well documented, I gather.
18 Likes
Yeah, maybe so… but maybe it’s not either/or? Like, it could be part that, and part kayfabe?
Yeah, that’s seems fairly true, yes. But it likely depends on the person. If it’s someone he’s decided to smart (Musk, Putin, Miller, Bannon, Thiel, etc - a bunch of white dude pseudo-intellectuals with power and money), then he’s likely to be swayed, but you or I could say something smart to him, and he’d reject it out of hand, because we’re not rich or powerful, or saying things that either flatters him or his worldview. We could be saying something that is obviously smart, but because of who we are and what our worldview is…
19 Likes
Trump definitely has his own beliefs too. Like he is not pretending to hate minorities, and someone who explains why attacking them is bad would get nowhere. But I bet they could easily swing his opinion between deporting them all and enslaving them all. 
21 Likes
Now this is interesting.
Another Christian who wants Christian laws is doing something not so Christian.
Weird.
“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote on social media. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage. I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.”
Angela Paxton is seeking “a disproportionate share” of the estate, claiming Ken Paxton is at fault for the breakup of the marriage, committed adultery, that he may have benefited from her staying with him and that he has a higher earning power than she does.
Kenny had this to say, because of course when he’s involved he wants privacy.
“I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time.”
29 Likes
23 Likes
This is really Occam’s razor here. People commit suicide in prision all the time. I find it more plausible that Epistein knew he was cooked and decided to take the coward’s way out rather than face justice or his victims. Do I think it’s possible he had “help”? Sure, it’s possible – and that “help” could be something as benign as prison staff apathy, incompetence, or simply looking the other way. The biggest proof to me that this wasn’t some sort of carefully orchestrated Hollywood-style hit job on Epstein is the very fact that Ghislaine Maxwell is still breathing.
26 Likes
Which will also be greatly diminished, as with everything else about the US that the administration is absolutely screwing over…
Same with Trump. Any “real” fight between the two is ultimately a fight between two internet trolls accustomed to smack talk but unused to actually making good on their promises/threats (at best they tell someone else to make good on them).
Edit: I think Trump in particular often forgets (or fundamentally doesn’t realize what it means) that he’s president. He acts like some internet rando learning about things for the first time via a Tweet/Fox News, even when they’re speculating about his own administration, and Trump’s instinctive response is the usual angry internet uncle’s “I’m angry about this, and someone should fix it, whoever that is!”
20 Likes
They don’t see it that way, as long as the guy at the top of whatever private corporation it is gets richer in the process. All they care about it is LINE GO UP!!!
21 Likes
That’s how his presidency does everything though. He doesn’t know how anything happens and he doesn’t have to. He signs executive orders saying “no more turbulent priests” and trusts some fascist lackey will handle the details – and all too often they are happy to.
22 Likes
I’m suddenly struck by the relevance:
“He was very squat and pot-bellied, his head was more like a monstrous toad… His sleepy lids were half-lowered over his globular eyes; and the tip of a queer tongue issued from his fat mouth.”
-Clark Ashton Smith, “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros”
Trump is half fascist horror and half Lovecraftian horror…
18 Likes
26 Likes
As angry onlookers attempt to shame ICE officers with obscenities, and activists try to dox them, officers are retreating further behind masks and tactical gear. “It’s miserable,” one career ICE official told me. He called the job ‘mission impossible.’
32 Likes
Read our new insider expose on how the Gestapo, despite having all the money and power, are sad. Maybe if people were nicer to the Gestapo, they wouldn’t feel the need to wear masks while they’re kidnapping innocent people off the street.
35 Likes
28 Likes
Good to here though that morale among the fascist troops/goons is low. 
33 Likes
FTA:
My wife’s father ticks all the boxes for NPD. She’s got a reliable feel for Drumpf’s next move because it’s a survival skill she had to learn as a child. She’s often angry or upset with his moves, but never much surprised.
27 Likes
Good point!
21 Likes
Gauge via the political cartoons. Expect the inevitable depiction of him as a baby gumming on a rattle topped with a globe while Karoline Leavitt, cooing, changes his packed diaper and tells him and us what a sweet boy he is, masking stress with positivity.
17 Likes
When a writer hits a similar snag in a plot or scenario, they shit-can it. Someone needs to be shit-canned. That’s the solution.
12 Likes