Originally published at: The Reflecting Pool as a Reflection of Trump’s Corruption and Tin-Potism - TPM – Talking Points Memo
The Reflecting Pool as a Reflection of Trump’s Corruption and Tin-Potism After President Donald Trump’s boastful, $16 million-plus makeover of the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial was spoiled by rapidly blooming algae and peeling paint, he flew into one of his trademark weekend Truth Social rages against “Radical Left Lunatics.” He baselessly blamed “terrible…
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Frist! Sorry, no cat picture. If I were more tech savvy I would show you a bottle of excellent rose from the Dordogne! I don’t want to gloat, but US news is much easier to take when one is in France, despite the heat wave.
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Well worth a read.
Krugman (cont’d): So who are we? We’re becoming bystanders in world events. America is a rogue power, it does crazy things, it can’t even impose its will on a third-rate military power like Iran, and we don’t seem to actually be necessary for the defense of Europe. So we’re a kind of a shadow of our former selves on the world stage.
Sargent: Is this inexorable decline, do you think? Can it be turned around?
Krugman: Some of it is probably irreversible, and some of it would have happened anyway. The truth is, to a large extent, America as it seemed to be as Trump took office was an outmoded vision. And I think we didn’t fully understand that. But there was still a reflexive tendency on much of the world to think that, well, you have to accommodate, you have to give in, allow yourself to be bullied by an American president no matter what. And the truth is the fundamentals had already shifted against the United States in the global power game.
But then there’s a lot that has obviously been made much worse by Trump screwups. And what the world now has to suspect, even when Trump is gone from the stage, is, well, then who’s the next guy? And how do we know that we won’t have another Trump-like figure? Does an agreement with America mean anything, since we’ve just seen an American president rip up every agreement that we had? Does a threat from America mean anything, because we’ve just seen that same guy cave totally? And after all, this guy was—sorry to say—elected fairly by the American people. So what does that say about America?
And we don’t get that back. It took generations to build the reputation of America. And you don’t get that back unless you give us three generations of good governance from here on in.
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TFG might go on again about Starmer, but one part of his collapse involved him being indirectly caught up in the Epstein scandal. Why not in the US?
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His decline and what comes next seems to be creeping forward into more discussion. Bob Acosta goes further with the screwup concept - and thinks he may go out with a bang. Or a boom. Or a bomb too many.
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Yes, I agree. Several people I follow are now saying he is at his most dangerous and it’s possible that our safety and future may depend on people in the Regime openly disobeying him. I’m not encouraged.
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re Vance not practicing what many call Catholicism: It’s not like evangelicals practice Christianity, either, just something they call “Christianity” without any of the nagging responsibilities, like caring for the poor and stuff like that. In that, the MAGA Catholics like Vance have a lot in common with the evangelicals.
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Hopeful title. This is more like the concept of a plan - and just getting past the insults, apparently
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As a Baptist preacher’s kid, I’ve come to view the majority of evangelical “Christian” identity as just the adopting of another flag to go with the American one. It means whatever they as a tribe want it to mean at the moment.
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It’s not what any would call Catholicism. And I agree 100% on the “Christianity” - there’s no Christ involved. It is pure old testament wrath of God, fire and brimstone destruction.
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as he fancies himself the sole definer of our national history, and importantly, our national aesthetics.
You have go to be fucking kidding me. Trump understands aesthetics at a lower level than my cat.
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“Who is that?”
“Oh, Just another “man of God”
bombed”
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early MM?
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Sarah is stepping in while David is on vacation. She writes Church, Merch and State for TPM, covering the intersection of religion and politics in the United States, so she doesn’t have any other editorial duties David might have. I think we can plan on MM being earlier for a couple of weeks.
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How long did it take her to find out?
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Re Harmeet “The Hater”: Dhillon griped to the New York Post, “It doesn’t really matter how gay San Francisco is — these workers have rights.”
Oh, they have the “right” to be bigots? Please make it stop. As for Der Pumpkinführer, a cornered animal is at its most dangerous. Is he going to try to “drop the big one now”? Our only hope is whoever gets that order having the balls to disobey it. I will also accept the intervention of a massive cardiac infarction. 86 47
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Looks like the GLOAT has found himself in over his head in the 2 1/2 foot deep reflecting pool.
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I had missed TFG’s endorsement in Colombia. Final count and certification still pending. It will not go well if the result changes. Hell, it will not go well for the Colombian people if the result doesn’t change. And the vote count isn’t complete yet. In a race this close, that matters.
That picture is Espriella with his VP candidate riding in a bullet proof booth.
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